AstroMuni

46 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

What I'm really after is a way to see all the available targets of a particular type in my area for that night on a single screen while indoors planning my session.

I use Kstars and it has the feature to show all the objects of interest for that night on a single screen. Here is a screenshot. I am assuming that similar feature should be available in Stellarium.

Even though the ASIAir runs the INDI server that Kstars can use, ZWO have made it a closed system so you cant access it from external devices 😞

12 hours ago, cadoran said:

When in use, after a while pressing buttons just does nothing although after a several minutes it comes back to life, sometimes slewing for a while and once I had to switch it off as the OTA was going to hit the tripod!

I did lots of internet research and as I had been using a battery pack I changed to power the mount from the mains, but it still happened.

Have you tried this in daytime inside your house? Does it still misbehave? That will help rule out if its because of dew or cold.

3 hours ago, old_eyes said:

Narrowband image of California Nebula (IC1499)

This is looking like a JWST image. Nice

On 21/11/2022 at 11:27, tants said:

Which hardware/software is easier to use for polar alignment?

The star adventurer seems to come with a polarscope  ( https://www.firstlightoptics.com/star-tracker-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-star-adventurer.html) and that should get you in a very good position. The additional software would let you reduce that error to reduce tracking errors.

As an example I use the PA scope on my HEQ5 all the time and without using any software can still get very decent images.

EDIT: I know I am not comparing apples to apples as HEQ5 has motors for both axes.

On 21/11/2022 at 07:36, timfoster said:

I've added the scope, a moon filter and a planisphere to the basket. I can't see a phone adapter though.

In my experience, you dont really need the moon filter or the planisphere. To reduce the brightness of the moon, just reduce the aperture. Most good scopes come with the option to expose only a part of the aperture. Free Planetarium software on your phone/ pc do the job of planisphere very well. Phone adapters can be found on Amazon.

And remember, the views through the eyepiece using our own eyes can be the best! Its quite tricky (esp for a 10yr old) to get those beautiful pin sharp images with a camera/phone.

Good luck

2 hours ago, Trippelforge said:

Anyhow so getting a guidescope for long exposure imaging is going to be a huge plus due to improving my scopes tracking capabilities?

Most good mounts can hold their tracking quite well between 30-60s. For long exposures (over 60s), a guidescope is essential. Think of it this way - when the shutter of the main camera is open it cant see the small movements that are causing the object to move away from the centre. But the guidescope would be taking much shorter exposures and can notice these and send correction signals to the mount.

There is a workaround of working without a guidescope for exposures that cause a small drift but you can live with.... You could get the mount to realign every couple of exposures using platesolving so the drift will be corrected once every so often.

20 hours ago, tomato said:

The first image is my 2018 processing effort and the second a quick run through using my current workflow using StarXterminator and NoiseXterminator. The noise and star reduction are not surprisingly the big differences.

In this case I prefer the image with lots of stars. 🙂 Puts things in perspective about what else is out there

14 hours ago, AstroKeith said:

There was a suspicion that the black used on the filter edges is alcohol soluble.

The coatings themselves are very unlikely to be affected and many people have reported cleaning with IPA is OK.

I am a bit confused reading this....As IPA is alcohol, are you saying that folk have cleaned the filter itself but making sure it doesnt touch the edges?

16 hours ago, Dark Adaptation said:

Speaking of the Andromeda galaxy, I hope you don't mind if I ask about one of my pictures here. I am reasonably sure that it is the Andromeda galaxy, because when I zoom in I think I can almost see the clouds around the edges.  But I would appreciate some conformation, and if not, some suggestions about what else it might be. I'm using a Maksutov-Cassegrain 750x60mm telescope and an Android phone (4 years old) with the standard camera app.

As Allworlds has said, with the stars missing its hard to figure out where exactly you are pointing in the sky

17 hours ago, WilliamAstro said:

The toolbar at the bottom is obscured even when I make the program window smaller.

Which operating system are you using? Windows/Linux etc.

13 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

They call it aluminum ring (or maybe they don't and it was just my expectation for it to be aluminum) - but it more looked like slag that was removed from melting aluminum then metal itself. It certainly looked like some industrial process byproduct rather than pure metal (and pure metal would not crack like that).

I was recently speaking to a friend who works in the metal casting industry and he was saying that most of the products these days are from recycled metal. In the case of the OTA tube rings they certainly look as if made from cast or wrought iron (not Aluminium). Need to check with a magnet 🙂

2 minutes ago, tanwir said:

I have TS Optics 10" F4 Newtonian.

As its a faster scope, its best tested using an actual star. If like me, you are in the UK then our weather conditions are not exactly great to get perfect airy disks, so our imaging is more in the hands of atmosphere than in precise collimation. Good luck.

21 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I remember times when regular 2d laser printer was more money.

True. I think at this rate we are now getting into the realms of 3d printer vs laser cutter, so needs a new thread 🙂

11 hours ago, wesdon1 said:

I finally managed my first astro image. I took of 1GB of video data with DSLR camera, light pollution filter, SW 200P Newt. Reflector and SW HEQ5 Mount, unguided. Used PIPP, then Autostakert, then Registax. I had a nightmare for weeks struggling to figure out how to use aforementioned astro apps, but eventually my perseverance paid off

Thats a great first image... Please add details of exposure, ISO setting etc, so other newbies can learn from your experience.

On 15/11/2022 at 11:40, vlaiv said:

must have for any serious DIY astro amateur

One to add to the list when folk ask what are essential items to get into this hobby, then 🙂

5 hours ago, tanwir said:

Looks like it's getting better but secondary is still off a little.

Do a star test and get the airy disk to tell you how good or bad your collimation is. Small alignment differences wont make much of an impact to your images anyway. BTW what scope do you have?

8 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

A little diagram to show what it is and why it's needed:

The picture explains it beautifully 👍🏾

15 minutes ago, tanwir said:

How can I keep everything around the concentric circles?

Could just mean that your scope has an offset. Several faster scopes exhibit such behavior.

On 13/11/2022 at 20:56, Kenny2605 said:

A Skywatcher Skyhawk 114/100 eq1

or a Celestron PowerSeeker 114eq

I agree with @fozzybear. Over and above what fozzybear has said, the Skywatcher 114/1000 is a catadioptric (hence shorter tube) whereas the Celestron 114/900 is a regular Newt with a smaller focal length. Suspect that both these scopes have a spherical mirror (not a bad thing, I have Celestron 130EQ) but Parabolic are considered superior. The SW skyhawk 1145PS has a parabolic mirror and has better reviews.

2 hours ago, Darrel999 said:

I've just got my hands on a Star Adventurer GTi and I'm looking forward to some clear skies so I can put it thru its paces.  I see from the handbook that it should not be transported fully assembled. I'm wondering why this is so - I'd have thought that if the clutches were tight no harm could come to the mechanism? With my old Eq3/2 mount I'd keep it in the kitchen ready to go before carrying the whole thing outdoors - no harm seems to have come to it. 

I think the reference to transport is intended for long journeys, not a short trip from indoors to outdoors.

1 hour ago, MG01 said:

But it's not as pretty.... 😛

Its like the series Location, location 😉 there are tradeoffs. If you were a Mac / RPi user I would have said use Kstars which can be configured to be pretty or plain.

Thats a lovely shot. There is a lot more data in there which I can see just by using the Preview tool on my Mac. So you should be able to get more detail out with your original. Good luck!

15 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Reflectrion nebulae in Monoceros.

I love this shot. 😍 And its amazing how there is some much dust in the left and a clear patch on top right as if someone has carved out a space.

15 hours ago, DaveS said:

I think I will do another stretch from linear. I problem I've found is the background is not the same colour balance in the two panes. I'm not sure why, but it may be due to not having a balance in the number of subs, I was short of 4 blue subs in Chi Persei.

I like the image. I tried doing a quick background extraction in Siril and that helps get the balance between the 2 panes. So you might wish to try something similar

On 12/11/2022 at 17:26, MG01 said:

the one piece of software I was a little nervous about was stellarium...its pretty intensive compared to other astro software. 

You could use Cartes du Ciel instead. Thats less processor intensive.