Swillis

Don't think it's a BST thing, as the blip is in October. Must be the latter...🤣

I think using what you have to start with is a great way to get into the hobby. Whatever level we are at there is always more investment we would like to make in upgrades. This is however not a cheap hobby, but you can be budget conscious along the way. Certainly while you work out if it is for you or not As suggested above a barn door can be a cheap alternative and is a good project to keep you busy on those cloudy nights. There is always second hand gear to consider. Once you get to enough posts you get access to the classifieds section. And mostly the stuff sold on here is well looked after.

Hi, @Chuleton08 it might help others answer your question if you could give more info on which software you used for stacking and post processing? Also what steps you took with post processing would be helpful to know. Also if you could share the output file from you stacking software that would also be great. Others will then be more able to identify where any issues are. Thanks Simon

Thanks @WolfieGlos I just thought that was due to my DSLR (and not having enough data) and reaching the limit of where I can stretch before bringing out the noise I'll have to give it another go and try your method. Thanks again

I have just tested Sirilic and you can use a constant bias value. Just click edit and type in =2048. @TiffsAndAstro thanks for the recommendation, I'll probably stick with manual in Siril for most cases just so I know more about what is going on, but I can see this being useful with more than a couple of sessions to stack.

@alacant I'm already using Siril manually and use 2048 as bias (also 600D). It wasn't clear from the suggested video if you could do that in Sirilic.

Didn't expect GFP to pop up on here Thanks for the recommendation I gave this a watch and it looks fairly straightforward now. Will give it a try the next time I have multiple sessions to stack. The only thing I was unsure of was of you can use a constant bias value rather feeding it a set of bias frames. I'll have to look at the docs

I did look at Sirilic a while back but it looked a little complicated, and I just ended up figuring out to use Sirilic manually. Maybe I'll take another look again You've certainly made some very quick progress. Keep posting, I have enjoyed following your threads.

If you were to stack each session individually, then as elp says you can check the quality of each session and identify and issues specific to that night. You could then load in all the preprocessed (pp_) calibrated files as a new sequence then register and stack as one batch. I originally used the scripts for Siril, but I started using it manually and found it to be quicker. I took me a little time to figure it out and I made a few mistakes so had to go back and forth a bit, but I would go back to the scripts now. Overall it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I like that you can view the graphs showing how good the data is, which can help in deciding what cutoffs to choose for which frames to stack.

Have you got mirror lockup set? I had issues when trying to use this with an intervalometer. Also, you might want to check if exposure bracketing on? Simon

Is there a custom white balance set? If you are looking at the preview on the back of the camera, it will use the white balance which may reduce the pink/red hint. When saving as raw, the white balance is not used (only for preview and jpeg)

A few years ago I put together a barn door tracker as my initial venture into astrophotography. Unfortunately the time it took to reassemble and small children meant it didn't get much use. But @SwiMatt you sound like the kind of person who would enjoy the challenge and possibly get a lot of enjoyment out of the process (I certainly enjoyed putting it together but just lacked the time at that point to get the most out of it)

Sounds like you're having fun and that's the point. I was slightly cautious about scrolling down to see what was in the picture after reading this.

Have just tested this and it doesn't connect. Synscan app or similar appears to be required when using NINA. I guess the ASIair is setup differently. There is no option to set the baud rate in the synscan app. I had a quick Google when setting up GSS and used the suggested baud rate of 9600. GSS looks to be working...

I've had my AZ-GTI a few months now (from a fellow SGLer), with very little opportunity to use it. When I have got out I had lots of trouble with dithering. Initially there were issues with settling after a dither, but then I noticed that PHD2 was coming up with lots of errors about ASCOM connection and not supporting pulse guiding... The dither appeared be happening, and guiding was working ok so I carried on as the subs looked reasonable (just some with issues after a dither when it didn't settle. It has only been PHD2 which has complained about the connection. I'm using NINA, PHD2, synscan pro app on a mini PC, connect to the mount via an eqmod cable. I noticed that when I tried to run the guiding assistant it would, after a short while complain that the 'mount cannot report it's pointing position'. So I have been using this as a way to troubleshoot the issue while it's been cloudy. I have uninstalled ASCOM, synscan driver and app and reinstalled all fresh after a restart, but still had the issue. To check it was not a dodgy eqmod cable, I tried connecting to the mount over WiFi which didn't solve it. I spent most of yesterday evening trying to be methodical over how I started all the software and connected to the mount, and thought I had it sorted. When connecting NINA and PHD2 to synscan I get a choice of 2 IP addressed to choose from, and thought the issue was around this, but sometime I get to choose the IP address and others I don't. So I gave up on the synscan app and installed the eqmod software, but swiftly ran away and tried Green Swamp Server. It looks like this has solved the problem 🤞 Tomorrow night looks like it might be good for some real world testing, before clear outside promises some good clear skies at the end of the week. Now I have said this the connection will drop, and the cloud will be here for another month 🤐 Has anyone else had similar issues with the synscan app?

Probably a lot of variables involved here. More info on camera, scope, target and mount would probably help others answer the question. I would probably go for taking a set of test exposures and see what they look like. I guess depending on the mount/focal length you might hit a limit...

Might be worth a look at YouTube. 'Nebula photos' has done several videos of untracked imaging including this one of the pliedes. Which should give you a good idea of what to expect.

You can edit the script files so it doesn't need the biases. I did a similar thing for processing DSLR data without darks. From what I remember you need to remove the section where it reads in the files your not using and then you also need to remove any reference to using the bias value.

It can be quite bewildering when first starting. I'm not familiar with those scopes but you may find that some are actually the same scope just branded differently. Others will be along shortly to offer advise. It depends on how big your bag is to what you might consider portable! What one person thinks is portable may be very different to others. Probably the best way to asses portability would be to visit a shop if you have one nearby or find a local astro society where you can physically some. Whatever scope you choose, it might be worth factoring in same of your budget for upgrading the eyepieces. The ones which come with them are usually not great. Good luck on your journey Simon

I would turn it off. As you point out it will double exposure time, and you are losing control of the process. It may do something to the images which is not ideal, and you would not be able to retrieve the 'original' non-NR image (if that makes sense?) Try @LandyJon's suggestion of stacking with and without darks and see how much difference it makes.

Hi @Simone_DB, I think the number of questions only goes up I'm afraid! I have something like 6.02214076×10²³ (there is an Italian reference in there for you!) But seriously, I think the encyclopedia you talk about is this forum. So many people are prepared to help. I'm new to this too, but hopefully I can pass on a few of the things I have learnt along the way. 1) yes, these are the images of the object you are interested in. I checked this page https://astrophotography.app/nikon.php and it recommends an ISO of 200. So that's probably a good place to start. Those with experience of your camera may be able to offer advice also. 2) darks are difficult with a DSLR. As you mention the temperature should be matches to the lights. This is almost impossible to achieve without a cooled astro cam. I use a canon and for that it is recommended NOT to use darks as the canons do something in the background to account for dark signal. I don't know about Nikon's but you could try with and without darks and see what the results are like. Or maybe just forget about this but for not and keep it simpler. (one less thing to get the mandolin out for) 3) take flats every session, as dust can move about. I use an LED drawing pad turned down as for it can go and with a few pieces of paper on top. The method you describe is essentially doing the same thing but using a t-shirt instead of the paper, and a different light source. Some people use a cloudy sky, it doesn't matter as long as it is evenly illuminated on you camera sensor. You might need to play with the exposure length a little to get the histogram where you want it. 4) yes, put the cap on, and set the exposure to as short as it can go. Bias frames can be reused. As for software, that's another learning curve. SIRIL is great but it can take a bit of figuring out. Try deep sky stacker to start with. But don't be tempted to play with the curves in it. Just take the autosave file out the end into Photoshop etc... Good luck and keep going. You will get there soon and once you start getting some images it will be worth it. (plus there will be a heap more questions!) Simon

Hi @Simone_DB, Looks like a good start. The blur/trails looks like it is probably due to the camera/scope/tripod being knocked or a gust of wind. Are these single images? You will want to take many many images and stack them in software (eg SIRIL, DSS, or many others, everyone has their own preference). Something else you will want to do in that software is to use calibration frames. Flat frames (short exposures with an evenly illuminated field) will correct for the vignetting and also help to remove the dark patches you observed. These are dust motes on the optics. They are usually not worth cleaning off and are easily dealt with using flats, but the flats need to be taken each session as the dust can move. In addition to the channels suggested above I would add 'nebula photos'. Which has some useful tutorials. But there are so many others there. But this forum is incredibly helpful. Don't be worried to ask a silly question, you won't be the only one who has the same question. Another great source of information is the book 'making every photon count', which is a great introduction to astrophotography. Well worth a read, or two. Welcome to the rabbit hole. Good luck Simon

Depends what Canon you have. This link should help. https://astrophotography.app/EOS.php Simon

@AstroDab3k glad you have made some improvement. It looks like you have also had some very good suggestions above. It sounds like you are doing what I suggested already. Not sure what effect cropping before stacking would have, but could be worth a try if you're still observing issues. When I started I thought they were all important, as everything I read or watched was telling me this, but as several people on this forum have pointed out darks from a Canon DSLR introduces more noise rather than removes it. Apparently they do some magic behind the scenes... I have not tried APP so cannot comment on this but SIRIL has the option to input a value. @alacant has pointed you in the right direction. There is a bit of a learning curve with SIRIL, but well worth it once you get going. There are plenty on here willing to help, and lost of tutorials online. Good luck finding the one which works for you. Please do post your progress. Thanks Simon

Hi, Hi, looks like there is a good amount of data in your image, hopefully something can be rescued. Did you crop the image as a first action before starting to process the image? This removes stacking artefacts which can effect the image processing. Canon DSLRs can suffer from banding, which might be part of the issue with the noise. I'm not familiar with APP but Siril can do banding reduction which may help, but can sometimes introduce other artefacts. What calibration frames did you use? It's recommended with Canon's not to use darks or bias. Subtract 2048 instead of the bias frames. If your in a bottle 4, do you need the filter? Maybe try without and see. I suspect it may not be possible to attach an OAG to a DSLR since most of the back focus distance is taken up by the camera itself. Was there a reason you wanted to go for an OAG rather than regular guide scope. Hope you can figure out the issue Simon