Rustang

26 minutes ago, symmetal said:

What does the image itself look like. AS will only save files in an uncompressed format.

Did you select 'Surface' and not 'Planet' on the Image Stabilization option. 

Did you change the 'Image Size' sliders at the top left of the preview window from what they were when the file was loaded and is the 'remember' box unticked.

When you placed the AP grid was the whole sun surface covered by the alignment squares.

Alan

It looks ok for my first go,  set to surface, no sliders changed and I believe the remember box was un ticket. The whole sun was covered with the alighment squares. 

What should the average solar file be in size then? 

32 minutes ago, Elp said:

Don't think you can compress in AS3. What percent of images or how many images have you specified to stack? It's defined in the top right set of values in the settings window (they're displayed four in a row on two sets of rows, the left cell is the one you normally alter and leave the rest in the row at zero, the top row defines what percent you want to stack, the bottom row defines how many images, you can only do one or the other).

I'm still very new to it, I left it on 50% Does the ROI you chose affect the file size? 

16 minutes ago, UKDiver said:

Is the Tiff compressed too? The format does allow for lossless compression.

I dont think I compressed it, is that a setting in Autostakkert? Is it best to then?

I'm now looking to process my first Solar Ha data and Ive done the stack in AutoStakkert and I'm surprised to see that the Tiff has come out small as in 573kb, have I missed a setting somewhere!?

Some ha Solar gear! Very exciting! 😊 Just waiting on a Bresser 102, 460fl to turn up so using my Z73 for now. Today was my first ever Ha Solar session, hopefully I've captured something half decent but it went fairly well once focused. I was going to go Lunt 50 and the 178m but a last minute decision change was made when I saw a Quark, 174m and the Bresser scope for sale so went for it, no regrets. 

55 minutes ago, symmetal said:

The fan coming on isn't an issue. It may turn off by itself later when no cooling is requested.

Camera gain and offset settings should be available in Firecapture itself. There may be options like camera dew heater on/off in the ascom driver which you could turn off but no problem if left on.

Firecapture will detect it's a mono camera so options like R and B colour gain and debayer options will not be available anyway.

Frame rate is set automatically to be as high as possible. Frame rate will be limited by the processing power of the computer running Firecapture and the camera itself, but is initially  determined by the exposure duration. How many exposures will fit in 1 second. It's the reciprocal of the exposure. An exposure of say 10mS or 0.01 seconds gives a maximum frame rate of 1/0.01 fps which is 100 fps. A 5mS exposure gives a maximum of 200fps.

You won't achieve these maximum framerates if the full sensor is used as the camera can't process the full frame data fast enough. A smaller ROI will enable higher framerates to be achieved, up to the exposure determined maximum, though the camera may max out at 250fps or similar where an even smaller ROI doesn't help.

It's only the height of the ROI that determines the frame rate available, so the ROI width can be left at maximum if you wish, for no loss in fps.

Don't enable gamma when capturing the video, leave it unticked or at 50 which is off anyway. Gamma processing each frame takes considerable processing time so your frame rate will suffer. You can easily gamma adjust the final image later in PS or whatever you use. I've found it useful to set the gamma to 0 in Firecapture when previewing the image as it enables focus to be determined more easily as the image has more contrast but turn off the gamma before starting a capture.

Aim for an exposure around 5mS if possible, and adjust the camera gain to get the histogram maximum around 70% of full. Having a very high camera gain is not a problem and will benefit from lower read noise. Although the preview may look very noisy, once several thousand frames are stacked in post processing this noise will disappear.

Check that the histogram peak corresponding to the 'black' sky background is not butted up against the left edge of the histogram and that the left side of the peak is just visible. Set the camera gain first, and then the camera offset to set the 'black' background peak position on the histogram.

Alan

Thanks, much appreciated 👍

I'm starting to get used to using Firecapture but wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything. I'm going to be using firecapture to do Solar Ha imaging with my Altair 174mono. I have the Ascom driver and Firecapture recognises the camera so thats all good. So firstly the fan goes on automatically when firecapture opens, i cant find any settings to control this so is it ok just running at what ever speed/settings it's currently on?. Next -is there any settings i need to set behind the scenes, as in, in Ascom or is everything simply controlled in firecapture as for solar it looks you only really need to adjust the gain, exposure and gamma which is all done in the software. being mono is that a setting somewhere? and how is the frame rate controlled? I think i understand what ROI does but I'm unsure what to have it on, I know the more of my sensor i use the slower the frame rate is.

Anything I may have missed!?

7 minutes ago, Varavall said:

Well the tilt tuned version sells in the US for $1500, but seem unavailable in Europe/UK at the moment. The ones at FLO are pressure tuned and are multipurpose (i.e. night and solar) and are clearly much more expensive.

I see, I'm still learning a little about these, it's sold now anyway so someone possibly got a bargain. 

59 minutes ago, Varavall said:

£850 seems about half price of new. It's not a pressure tuned version, but a tilt tuned version.

Are the tilt tuned versions not as expensive as the £3,315 examples currently for sale via FLO then!? 

I've questioned the price so waiting to hear. 

2 minutes ago, callisto said:

Was gonna say you could meet up but your quite far apart 🤔

I know, makes its even harder! 

1 minute ago, ED Splitter said:

Yes I saw that too. Is that the one with no image attached? There have been a few items lately at a good price with no image. You never know, could be legit but always cautious of an ad with no image attached. 

There's images attached to this add. 

I'm after a Lunt 50 but I've seen this Lunt 60 today, I'm in contact with the guy selling it but it's pretty obvious it's way to cheap so rings alarm bells already! What do you think? 

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=189910

27 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

Thank you, appreciated.

Ah no, that sounds like a complete ball ache to sort out. That's one thing that does worry me about using my 12 year old laptop to run my imaging sessions. Hope you get it sorted with minimal fuss 👍

A massive ball ache but Il get there, the plus side is once all set up again everything should run smoother. 

Love it, a really nice deep feel to it. I haven't been bothered myself for a while for a number of reasons, just when I started to get the taste for it again last week my laptop packs up and now I've got to sort every bit of software out again on a new laptop which was such a nightmare first time round, the enthusiasm is back to zero but il get out again soon hopefully. 

I'm not sure how long your looing to run everything for or what your going to capture but for Milkyway imaging I just use decent rechargeable batteries in the SW-SA and they last for hours, I hardly change them to be honest.

Camera wise, some batteries are better than others but mine normally last for over an hour, I've also on many occasions just swopped camera batteries out mid session with out problems.

For my Dew heater I use a decent power bank that lasts for a couple of hours or so.

If your looking to shoot for 3, 4 hours or more then I guess look at a combined power source.

I havent bothered using the app to control anything either, just a decent intervaometer has worked perfectly for me. less to go wrong the better, I can just lie back, look up and enjoy spotting awesome meteor's while everythings works away  

This is the ball head I brought and its been fine to use Neewer Professional Metal 360 Degree Rotating Panoramic Ball Head with 1/4 inch Quick Shoe Plate and Bubble Level,up to 17.6pounds/8kilograms,for Tripod,Monopod,Slider,DSLR Camera,Camcorder: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Thanks everyone, il pass on the info

-mods if you can, please move to the appropriate bino forum section 😊

9 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

probably best asked in the equipment - binoculars section.

Most these days would opt for a roof bino, perhaps 8x42 as a good balance between weight and usability but can she manage to hold a 10x pair steady to get a stable view as those would have a little more reach when out and about. Specific brands is a personal preference tho and costs can be a surprise. They'll all be MC these days tho some ranges also have oil/water resistance coatings too.

RSPB range IIRC Viking are reputedly good then there's the high end Zeiss, Swarovski and Leica if you want to go that far. Defo worth looking thru before deciding on the best pick for your use case tho as the ergonomics and image need to suit the main user.

Thanks and apologies, I didnt realise there was a section for bino's!

Asking for a friend who is looking to buy a pair for his partners birthday. All I know is that they will mainly be used for bird watching in the garden and some out and about use. So I wanted to ask on his behalf what criteria to look out for or would be best and or certain pairs people who recommend. Not sure on budget I'm afraid but would imagine he would like a pair of good quality.

I'm guessing multi coated/low dispersion glass to stop chromatic aberration? Is there a decent set magnification that would be suited for the intended (bird watching) purpose?

I imagine this kind of question could be a mind field, having been a wedding photographer and occasionally being asked "what camera would be best to buy my partner" is not a straight forward question to answer but any info would be apricated. 

32 minutes ago, morimarty said:

They are beautiful images. Excellently processed.

Thanks Martyn 👍

19 minutes ago, Zummerzet_Leveller said:

Lovely images and compositions.  The foreground quality looks great, were these with the 6D?  What settings did you use and how dark was it, asking for a friend...  ?

Thanks  

Foreground images for the Cape Cornwall two were captured around 10:20pm so a little left over sun light was enough light for a 5 second exposure at iso 800 from memory.  The moon was still out to the Southwest/West so also adding light again.

Pordenack Point was an hour or so before sun rise in the lighter blue hour so again enough light for a 5 second exposure. These were with my Fuji XT-2 as I have no decent lens for the 6D.

8 hours ago, Adam1234 said:

Excellent images! Well done, very pleasing to look at

Thanks Adam 👍

28 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

Beautiful images of a lovely part of the world!

We’re off there ourselves in August - can’t wait. So many compositions I have in mind around that whole West Penwith area. Unfortunately our April trip was cloudy throughout.

Thanks Paul 👍

Yeah you are spoilt for choice location wise down there. Hope you have a nice trip in August and I will keep my fingers crossed for clear skies for you.

These are the last of the Milkway photos I managed to grab while on Holiday in Cornwall. Two are different view points from Kenidjack Cliff Castle looking South towards Cape Cornwall. The other image is facing South from Pordenack Point.

I thought I would post an entry to my first SGL challenge. This image was taken on Thursday 7th July while on holiday in Cornwall.

The foreground was captured at 11:45pm in a single 30 sec exposure, f2.8 iso 1600, the 60% setting moon lit the rocks beautifully. The sky was captured shortly after and comprises of  x49 60 second subs at f2.8 iso 1600.

Captured using my Fuji XT-2 and the Fuji x mount 16-55mm f2.8 lens at 16mm. The sky was tracked using my SW Star Adventurer.