Rustang

Lovely image 👍 When you say '"taken with a ZWO294MM and a Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED" are you actually using the 50ED Evoguide as the imaging scope? or am I just miss reading it!?

Ive just come across your reply as I'm looking into my filters etc/ I have a Baader modified 600D, I also have an Optolong L enhance filter that Ive been using, and from what I under stand from what you said is that the Baader mod is doing the same thing as placing an L enhance filter over a non Baader modified camera so technically I don't really need my L enhance filter then? I'm pretty sure its making some difference though, but never done any comparisons with and without.

Also Ive found that getting the right flats even for a DSLR can be an art form in its self (I'm still not 100% there) I appreciate I don't use the same equipment as you so all I can say is just keeping trying different ways and settings and see what ends up working for you. I would have thought someone with more experience would have been able to help though.

Its definitely worth having around, and its not that expensive. Ive used it when i needed to clean the front of the lens on my SW ED80 and 72 after a few nights use👍

These are the wipes (drying cloths) I use with the fluid and to remove excess residue . https://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-the-dust-patrol-delta-optical-cleaning-wipes-100-pack-.htm

I know alot of people swear by the 'Baader Optical Wonder Fluid', Ive got some and its pretty good. Your also best getting some lint free drying cloths aswell to get rid of any excess residue that both your wipes and the wonder fluid may leave behind. Go gentle!

Stunning

Thanks, I plugged my mount (HEQ5 Pro) into the laptop and yes the the guide rate was 0.1 for both RA and DEC in EQMOD so will keep an eye out to change that each session to what you have mentioned, i will probably start with 0.5x and I'm guessing that needs to be the same setting in the advanced guide settings in PHD2!?. For now, with what you have mentioned and what Ive read I think Ive got enough to go on to try and get a better calibration, if i cant then I will post the logs of my next attempt. Thanks again for you help, I had a massive struggle at the beginning to begin my guiding journey and I was bound to miss some settings etc and its hard to decipher what I need out of the internet sometimes because i still find it over whelming, this forum has made the journey possible though, I owe my recent images to everyone on here!.

I appreciate your help, thanks. I didn't provide a log because its just the initial calibration that I'm looking to sort then I can continue with improving guiding later. I thought the photo would be enough to do so, so apologies. I will look into what you have mentioned.

I've been getting by seemingly ok with a calibration I did a while back but its time to improve. I've been looking into where I can make improvements today which lead me to read that you can bring up your last calibration details, I've done that and can now see that it wasn't great even though it seems to have got me by - see picture below. I've been watching a good video by 'The Astro Imaging Channel' which has explained some good things about PHD2 and showed what the calibration details should look like for a decent calibration. So along side doing my own reading up which can easily confuse me still, I would like to get an understanding of my next steps to improving the calibration when next out. I'm still to this day a little confused about the settings I need, and i need to get a simpler understanding of the exact settings in PHD2 to allow me to get the best calibration for my setup. I know I need to calibrate at the celestial equator and towards the south, it also appears I could have some dec back lash which I've been reading how to clear before proceeding with the calibration so it's mainly getting the settings in PHD2 right. My main confusion is getting the calibration steps to the right amount, from reading the very good 'understanding PHD2 and getting it to work properly' document on here, for my guide pixel scale of 3.44 (225mm fl 3.75 um) I need a calibration step setting of around 2500 and above, but my computed values seem to calculate 1000 It obviously calculates from what I put in above so what should I set for 'calibration steps' and 'calibration distance' to get it to calculate a higher calibration steps setting in the computed values section!? . I'm still also confused over the sidereal setting and guide speed and what they should be set to in both the mount and PHD2, should the guide rate siderale setting in the advanced section of PHD2 guiding, match the sidereal rate of the mount!? Anything you can see and can help with from the above info and image provided would be greatly appreciated. I have been doing alot of my own reading but I still get very confused, and still to this day I haven't grasp what the settings should be.

Yeah really pleased, I've not been able to get out much for a while so capturing this till about 3am was worth it, and thankfully not a wasted night!. The SW 80 ED is working well still! 😊👍 Hope alls well with you.

I'm back out after a loooong wait! My first attempt on this target and I'm really pleased with the result. Modified Canon 600D with L- enhance filter, SW 80ED, 3hrs of 5min guided subs.

Hi guys, I was finally out again last night but not for very long because those lovely clouds rolled in! Anyway something has gone funny with the exposure times! I run my camera through APT and use a plan I have been using for a while with out issue, well last night it occasionally over run, my exposure time is set to 320 and ive got some at 328, some at 338, some at 325 etc so I'm thinking its either software or cable? I even watched it happen on one occasion, the APT timer had reached 320, stopped but it wasn't until a few seconds later it said 'exposure finished!' It now means what every data i had is wasted due to different exposure times, never mind. ......so just to add, i thought i might as well just shove the data into DSS just to see and strangely it didn't pick up on the different exposure times and has stacked the data which is very weird! 🤔

Mental! 👍

I am but it wasn't going so well that night due to not so great guiding, it kept timing out which I keep meaning to ask the question that if it times out then I'm guessing that single dither hasn't worked!? I'm also still getting to grips with the dither settings but getting there, it appeared to work well on a recent M45 session. 👍

I might be sticking with DSLR's for the near future but a better one! If that doesnt end up producing better results then I might look to go OSC. I'm pretty happy with my current results, if I can lose the banding and some noise then even better. The thing is, with the little clear nights we have in this country I think i might be to much for my brain to take on yet another challenge if i come away from DSLR's. It was hard enough setting up guiding and going computer controlled to enable dithering etc, but then to be fair, I manged it and now Ive started to get it all working well, it has definitely made a big improvement. For me, baby steps in better so sticking with my current way of doing things but with a better DSLR is the next step then maybe after a year of seeing how that goes then maybe take a bigger step with an OSC. It might be that any DSLR will still produce noise, I will be reading up before the change anyway so if that appears to be the case then I will think again.

Thanks 👍 The noise and banding is something I can live with for now, I will be looking to upgrade my camera next year hopefully anyway.

There is now, my computer was playing up! 😊

I've recently had a couple of nights where Ive ended up with no data, just complications but good learning so never a waste. It was nice to finally have another session where everything came together and I managed another image I'm happy with. It wasn't the best of seeing with the moon light but I'm pleased with the result considering this. Still some way to go, I've still got what I believe to be a tilt issue but I'm not concerned about that for now and i think I'm always going to be battling noise and banding with my DSLR but it's the gear I have for now! 😊 Gear: SW HEQ5 Pro, SW 72ED DS PRO, Canon 600D modified. 3hrs worth of 5min guided subs, Bias and Flats, no darks.

Yup, very useful feature, I took way to long before setting everything up to plate solve, now I would never look back!

We both got confused !! 😊

My bad, miss read it!

Does the orientation of the imaging camera make a difference then? Why is this? I calibrated with the imaging camera vertical yesterday for the Soul Nebula, so I'm guessing I will have to re do it next session if the camera is horizontal.

Cheers, I definitely need to start running the guiding assistant, I keep forgetting!

Thanks again guys, took on board your advice and things are going well so far for tonights session. Another thing learnt and understood! 👍