Jump to content

Narrowband

AnonymousAnimosity

Members
  • Posts

    38
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by AnonymousAnimosity

  1. Thank you, since there is only one parameter to be set for ungided dithering in EKOS I will get back to this and try the settings you suggest when I find the time to sort out guiding. My bad, I mean to write 0.5s! Although I must have read somewhere that a few pixels were enough I will definitely increase the pulse duration and aim for 12 for the next attempt. Thank you for pointing out the mistake.
  2. A few nights ago I tried doing unguided dithering of the skywatcher star adventurer through EKOS. The tracker is connected via the ST4 port to a guide camera (which I've yet to use) that is controlled by EKOS. I left the pulse duration at the default value (0.5s), which should be enough to dither for enough pixels at 6.55"/pixel (samyang 135 and canon 100D). Stacking was done in SiriL. I shot about 120x120" lights, calibrated with 15 flats and biases and this is what the background looks like: there are still visible patterns but it's a bit better compared to what I usually get. The following night I took about 100x180" lights, calibrated with flats and biases: Yesterday I further increased the dither pulse duration in EKOS (0.8s if I'm not mistaken), this time double the amount of subs: I am not sure what I should do differently to solve this problem. Any ideas?
  3. That is indeed very helpful, thank you! I don't have much time to dedicate to astrophotography so for the time being dithering and polar alignment are the only uses I'm looking ot get out of astroberry, I will look into guiding in the future.
  4. Yes that's what I'm hoping for! In normal conditions polar alignment is pretty quick, but if this method worked it would be useful when polaris is not visible.
  5. It's not a GOTO mount, just a tracker with a motorized RA axis, so targets are aimed at manually. There is an ST4 port for autoguding and a usb port but I've read that it's not for connection to a PC. I noticed there is a driver in EKOS but I couldn't connect to it so that's confusing.
  6. According to information found on the INDI forums it seems that the only way to get it working is to select "telescope simulator" as a mount, that does in fact "unlock" the align module. I will read up some more and test this on the first clear night. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!
  7. Both cameras seem to work properly, at least I can capture preview images. My tracker can't be connected directly to the raspberry so I figured I had to use the ST4 port of the guide camera. Here are the screenshots: edit: I have just now noticed that I'm supposed to have a mount in the EKOS profile, however it doesn't look like the star adventurer is recognized through either ST4 or usb (I guess it's just for power).
  8. Yesterday I finally had the time for a quick imaging session after a few months of non-stop studying, just 30 minutes around Deneb at f2.4 I believe. No colour because I like the contrast better this way.
  9. Hello, a few months ago I bought a cheap guidescope, a T7M guide camera and a raspberry pi 4 to perform polar alignment, dithering and eventually guiding on the skywatcher star adventurer. I have read the documentation for the "align" module, however I can't seem to get it working, all the buttons in the "align" tab of EKOS are greyed out. Has this happened to anybody else? If you use a similar setup with astroberry and a tracker I would be thankful if you shared your experience.
  10. My first two pictures with this lens, Star adventurer and modded canon 100D. Stacked in Siril and quickly processed with StarTools. 72x120" lights at f2, calibrated with flats and biases 91x120" lights at f2.8 with l-enhance filter, calibrated with flats, biases and darks. Dark optimization in siril does seem to reduce pattern noise a bit.
  11. I would like to mount on this 30mm guidescope, it looks like it should fit even if I file the rear of the base.
  12. Today I finally picked up the WO redcat ring, sadly it clashes with my camera so rotation is impossible. I am not sure whether I should try to file it or just return it and buy something else.
  13. I've been using a star adventurer with camera lenses for some time and I was contemplating the same decision recently, I can offer a few comments on the scopes you have linked based on my limited knowledge. You will need a field flattener (more or less specific for each scope) unless you buy one that already comes with it, such as the TS Optics EDPH 61/274, so budget that in as well I have seen some good results from people shooting at focal lenghts over 300mm on a star adventurer, but keep in mind that your polar alignment will have to be spot on every time, the lengths of your subexposure will be limited without autoguiding and you will probably have to discard a significant portion of your frames due to wind and periodic error. I think that using an 80mm refractor could get very frustrating. A good knowledge of the night sky (aided by software like Stellarium) is necessary to frame targets manually, you may want to look into platesolving solutions to make life easier I ended up buying the Samyang 135mm f2 lens rather than a telescope because pretty much every refractor I considered in the €800 range didn't strike me as of particularly great value for the money (if you are patient and wait for good second hand deals that's a different story). The cheapest option for a telescope might be the Skywatcher Evostar 72ED, you can buy it new with a flattener for about €500 but (based on what I read) I'm not sure I would recommend it without autoguiding (€200 or so for a cheap guidescope and camera).
  14. Thank you, since the Redcat ring is out of stock for a while I am looking for some alternatives. Mounting the guidescope to the support ring of the lens seems like the easiest way, but I'm struggling to find telescope rings of the right size, I can only find smooth ones (no holes to screw in a finder shoe). Perhaps drilling a couple of holes in these? I'm not sold on 3D printed PLA ones like astrokraken or astrojolo/ Do you know of any alternatives?
  15. I have just purchased this lens, I intend to use it with a Canon 100D on a Star adventurer (might swap it for an Az-GTI for mosaic automation). To mount the lens I will buy the William Optics Redcat ring and a short dovetail. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/william-optics/william-optics-redcat-spacecat-single-mounting-ring-black.html What is the best option for a guidescope? If I'm not mistaken this 32mm guide scope from FLO should be appropriate for my image scale. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/astro-essentials-32mm-f4-mini-guide-scope.html Is it necessary to also buy the Redcat handle bar (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/william-optics-cat-series-saddle-handle-bar.html) or can this be attached directly to the top of the mounting ring? As for the guide camera an ASI120MM should be enough right?
  16. For now a raspberry pi running astroberry seems like a cheap solution to many problems, it should help with consistent focusing, faster framing and dithering to get rid of walking noise. I thought that stacking lights from multiple nights with slightly different framing would be akin to dithering but it doesn't seem to solve the problem. Undersampling seems unavoidable with a DSLR and the focal lengths I'm imaging at. But I will keep it in mind if I decide to upgrade the camera.
  17. I would like to take pictures of better quality where the background is smooth and fine detail is well defined when zooming in, something that would look good as a wallpaper or maybe even printed. I am aware that processing is absolutely key, but I don't think I can acquire data that is sufficiently clean and sharp to get the sort of results I have in mind. Another concern is maximising the opportunities to shoot, the amount of data I can gather (faster optics basically?) and the number of targets that I can frame up nicely (longer focal length?).
  18. I apologise in advance for the long post! Hello, I would appreciate some advice and perspective on finding the most cost-efficient way of optimizing my current astrophotography setup. I am in no hurry to upgrade as I have yet to push my current equipment to its limits, but I feel like I need a sort of long-term plan and sense of direction to keep myself from getting the "shiny new object syndrome" and compulsively browsing FLO whenever I see nice pictures. My first year of astrophotography was with an unmodified pentax K-S1, a tripod, a 50mm lens and very cold hands since the camera did not support a wired intervalometer. With that equipment I was able to capture the M81 and M82, the orion region and andromeda. Buying a skywatcher star adventurer was a massive upgrade, together with a 200mm lens it opened the way for galaxies like M101 and closer views of the pleiades, orion and andromeda. A few months ago I bought a modified Canon 100D, an intervalometer (finally), a vintage 135mm lens (which suffers from less aberrations than the aforementioned 200mm) and an optolong l-enhance. This has allowed me to shoot targets such as the California, Heart and Soul nebulae even from urban skies (bortle 6) with a full moon. I am sitting on a few nights' worth of unprocessed data because processing is time consuming and studying takes up most of my time. I purchased a Startools license so I think I'm covered from that point of view, even though I plan on checking out the free trials of Pixinsight and APP once I acquire more (and better) data. I find myself unsatisfied with the results I can produce and lately I've done a lot of research into the manifold possible paths of improvement. I am set on sticking with the star adventurer as it allows me to set up very quickly and it fits nicely in my backpack when visiting darker skies. I have no plans to purchase a full-on equatorial mount as I wouldn't be able to carry it back and forth. Here are some key points I have noted down: A faster and sharper lens such as the Samyang 135 f/2 would allow me to acquire better data much faster, but I feel it would be a temporary band-aid as there are many targets which are rather small at this focal length therefore A long telephoto or a short telescope would enable me to get more details out of big targets and allow me to image smaller nebulae, however guiding would very likely be required (about 500-800€ for the telescope and €250 for guiding) Selling my current equipment and buying a used mono camera + some filters would be expensive (I believe no less than €800 more than what I could make reselling some items and possibly a kidney), but I am very fascinated with the aesthetics of SHO pictures and it seems suited to a 135mm lens. Is a star adventurer even precise enough for narrowband imaging (considering the need for longer subs)? I suppose guiding would be a mandatory requirement. This one is probably a bit gimmicky: selling my current camera and buying an ASI533MC + Evoguide 50 with a flattener, the difference would be similar to the price of a Redcat but I would get the added bonus of cooling I guess? Not convinced about this one. I own another DSLR for daytime photography so in theory I could go frankenstein on the canon to try and cool it or debayer it, but I am not sure I'm willing to accept the risk of messing up and rendering it useless. I thank you in advance if you've had the patience to read through the whole post, I would be grateful for any input and opinions concerning the points I have brought up or your own experience with this hobby.
  19. That is what I meant yes. I do believe we have the same lens judging by your picture. In the previous post the images of the three channels were in the wrong order, the out of focus one is red, so green and blue are very close. The filter definitely alters the focus across the 3 channels a bit, these are excerpts (R, G, B.) from a picture that was taken without.
  20. I have been using this lens for a couple of months and I've never managed to focus properly with liveview, maybe it would be easier with the camera connected to a PC. Yesterday I tried making a quick Y mask and realized that as you pointed out when the spike is centered the red channel is actually way out of focus leading to red halos around the stars. Maybe it would be helpful to still use the mask balancing the spike's position in the 3 separate channels? This is a comparison of the 3 channels of a quick picture from last night taken with a modified canon 100D and a clip in l-enhance filter. I set the aperture ring to around f/5.6 but I did not notice the camera was on A mode, so the lens was wide open.
  21. Here's a picture of the Sadr region at 135mm (Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 at f4) with a modded canon 100D and the Optolong L-Enhance clip-in filter. 74x180" lights at ISO 800 plus flats and biases. Stacked in DSS and processed in startools, perhaps too aggressively. It was taken from a bortle 6 town a few days ago when the moon was almost full.
  22. What kind of power supply would you suggest for powering a DSLR in low temperatures (0 Celsius and below)?
  23. Thank you, it's easy to lose perspective of the quality of the images I capture when compared to more expensive setups. That said, I'm sure I can optimize both acquisition and processing far better.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.