AstroMuni

How did you manage to get focus please? I tried with my ASI224mc with no joy.

Welcome to the forum 🙂 There are 2 challenges - finding the object in the first place & tracking and keeping the object in the centre of your view. The finder scope/telrad along with software such as Stellarium can help with the first challenge. The second one needs a sturdy mount &/or a tracker. If you spend money on a Go-To mount it will help tackle both.

Thats a great image. Several of the issues you mention above should get sorted if you run a background extraction in Siril or use GraXpert.

Stars look quite nice & round across the whole image so I would have been very happy with this setting. Lovely image with lots of detail.👍

The polemaster uses its own camera to allow you to polar align, rather than peering through the polar scope. NINA & Ekos work slightly differently using your primary camera. They effectively take 3 pictures (red boxes) while rotating the mount and thus figure out where the mount axis is pointing (Blue dashed line). Green circle is where it should be to rotating once aligned. The images should ideally be close to the pole, but if that section of sky is not visible you can still get it to figure out the mount axis rotation point by sweeping a much larger arc at a higher altitude.

I have tried that in the past and it works beautifully. But as far as I know, it doesnt work too well if the area around polaris is not visible. Is that correct?

Louise, if you want the luxury of sitting in your room and imaging on a low budget then the RPi is the way to go. You can purchase an RPi for less than £100 and get either a free build such as Astroarch (astroberry has stopped providing updates hence didnt recommend) or Stellarmate ($59) which comes with an app to run on your phone or tablet. If you dont have a computer I would suggest getting a tablet and connecting to the RPi with browser. Its possible to do this with a phone but I find the screen is too small. I use the HEQ5 pro with the RPI and have been using this combo for a few years now.

You have answered your question 🙂

And so does Ekos. In fact it can work with its own Platesolver or use external ones like ASTAP

My understanding based on how it works in Ekos is that the software maintains a mount model which takes into account the accuracy of PA etc. This is updated every time you platesolve and allows it to calculate the slew needed to accurately reach an object. The software has options to save the model on your computer so its reused the next time (this would work only if you havent moved the scope & mount, eg.in an observatory). I dont know if the model is saved onto the mount itself as different mounts may or may not have that capability to retain this info. Here is the explanation from Stellarmate page: Each time an image is plate-solved successfully, a Sync point is appended to the Mount Model. With more points added, the mount GOTO accuracy would improve especially if there are sync points close to the GOTO target.

In that case I was way behind you as I had started the astronomy journey in earnest around 6 months prior and then got straight into AP.

I know exactly how you feel as I was in same boat during covid when I started my journey into AP 🙂

If you are plate solving you dont need to do the 2/3 star alignment. With every platesolve, the mount model will be updated to make it more accurate.

The ZWO graphs are here https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi-2600mc-pro-usb-30-cooled-colour-camera.html?_gl=1*1550dz8*_up*MQ..*_ga*NTI0ODU4NTE5LjE3MTE0NjU4NTQ.*_ga_F6VGWQ0MW9*MTcxMTQ2NTg1My4xLjAuMTcxMTQ2NTg1My4wLjAuMA.. As the 2600 also uses the Sony IMX571 its characteristics will be same as Altair's version. The main differences in camera would be primarily in the cooling circuitry and any USB controllers. Here is a discussion on the various brands that use the same chip (albeit its talking about the mono version) https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/866522-what-is-the-real-difference-between-all-the-imx571-cameras/

If you are getting crisp views of features on the moon and stars are pinpoint then I wouldnt worry about collimation. I had a Celestron 130 and yours looks similar, so dont expect crisp views of planets. The edges will be fuzzy - partly because of the the atmospheric effects and the partly due to steadiness of your scope. The focuser is also not the best so its hard to get exact focus.

One way is to look at the graphs provided by the vendor. As the ZWO ASI2600mc is using same IMX571 chip the graphs for this would be similar to the Altair version. These show a significant drop in read noise at Gain 100 when HCG kicks in.

I live in North Hampshire, so a member of the Basingstoke society. We have a few members who also attend the HAG meetings, but I dont think I know anyone from Solent group.

Remind me, whats your equipment at the moment? Looking at your images they are certainly out of focus but at first glance this seems quite similar across the frame.

Check out GraXpert AI too. Sometimes it does a better job at extracting the background as compared to RBF in Siril (btw, RBF is from GraXpert and incorporated into Siril)

Its not just the PA accuracy that influences the image quality. There are other factors like mount stability, guiding, backlash etc.that affect your image. At the end of the day, its what level of quality is good enough (acceptable) for you.

Have you set & saved your coords under the Geographic... option? Once thats done it should grab the right time from your wifi.

Its a good distro and is slowly but surely becoming more main stream. I tried it when it was in its first few releases and faced issues where the updates would break the OS and it had to be reinstalled from scratch. So as compared to Astroberry or Stellarmate its still in its infant stages but fast getting there all thanks to its maintainer...Hats off for his efforts.

You might just get away without one. I need a CC for the ASI533 with 130/650 scope.

As a Mac user you could also try Kstars/Ekos which runs natively on Mac & Linux based devices. This software also provides the tool for PA.

Anyone who can use a phone to respond in forums is still young... ha ha After doing a 2/3 star alignment the synscan app is trying to tell you how far off you are from a perfect polar alignment. If you find you are way off then start the process again (without using the hand controller). I wouldnt worry too much about it if you have visually checked the location of polaris in the clockface. I never get perfect PA and can still manage to get decent images without star trails. So dont worry.