AstroMuni

12 hours ago, alacant said:

This is the detail I found. 

Could you post the steps you followed in Siril please.

On 03/07/2020 at 18:54, Jamgood said:

I don't have the scope at hand to try any bolts as the Scope I received today is boxed up ready to go back. (Damaged item) I just want to get the bolts ready for when the replacement arrives so I can attach the second dovetail.

Did you manage to get to the bottom of this? What was the spec?

13 hours ago, Stu Wilson said:

Heres the .TIFF for you, see what you can pull out 🙂

Now that the master has done the work, I wont even try 🙂

15 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Both 6" RC and 6" CC are less than £500 - and don't need corrector over 4/3 sensor. They are light and compact and will ride well on HEQ5

Thats a good suggestion and one to keep in mind for next buy. 🙂 

Since I have the ASI224 & ASI533 I can get both zoomed in and wider field views on a 130 or 150mm scope. Both cameras have similar pixel size too.

8 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

If we take 130mm as being fixed then f6, f8 etc etc won't make it faster, it'll only change the fov because the focal length has changed of course.

Didnt understand that bit 😞 If you compare a 130/f5 and a 130/f4 then the latter would need less exposure time to get same level of detail, is my understanding. Have I misunderstood what you are saying?

25 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Agreed it's much more cost effective than a refractor no doubt but it's not a galaxy scope unlike the 10" RC at 2000mm, yes it's f8 but it's still 254mm so still plenty of aperture so it's not "fast" in those f ratio terms. This takes us back to my original question (I think) though actually as I got sidetracked with the speed question 🙂 🙂

When you add many variables then it makes it harder, but my assumption is that your mount and camera are fixed. So in my case with a pixel size of 3.76 on ASI533 and using the 150/600 quattro I would get 1.29"/px without the CC (@f4) and 1.5"/px with the CC (@f2.5). To get to < 1"/px I would have to go for larger FL scopes.

EDIT: with the CC its f3.45

1 minute ago, scotty38 said:

Yes, if you're saying what I think you're saying then there are cheaper ways to achieve speed........

The way I see it is - for a given FOV the best bang for buck is a Newt with the largest aperture that your mount can handle AND if you can get a faster F-ratio then you will need to spend less time imaging! As an example for my HEQ5 Pro you can get a SW Quattro 150 f/4 with a coma corrector that makes it even faster at f2.5 for around £499. If I wanted to get something like this in a refractor with a 150mm aperture, I would need to spend a lot-lot more and the HEQ5 would probably not be capable of taking its weight 🙂

2 hours ago, scotty38 said:

so cost aside if I can operate it correctly if nothing else I have the speed to take advantage of.

+1 .... for folk like me who can only image during weekends and NOT having an obsy and dont wish to break the bank, thats an important consideration (esp when you live in UK and are at the mercy of the clouds). So the choices for me are large aperture, fast Newts. 🙂

1 hour ago, Stu Wilson said:

Yes I realised and removed it to in photoshop but didn't repost. You got a nice result tho.

I am sure you can get much better results using the original data. There is a lot more data in there which I can see even in your jpg image.

If you dont already, you should try Siril. Lots of great features aimed at Astro imaging and as its an Open source project, more additions being done every couple of months. A lot of folk I know use Siril for the first part and then final touches are added in PS.

1 hour ago, bb453 said:

Autoguiding/Plate solving is something I will look at setting up in the future for sure. I'm just taking it one step at a time

Wise decision. Its good to know how the basics work before you take the leap. ....I have the HEQ5 pro as well and started down a similar route to you around 2 years ago. I prefer the warmth of my house 🙂 so embarked on controlling the mount and everything else via an RPi after a while. Good luck.

Thats a great image for just an hours worth. You may wish to remove the green noise to get an image like this. I used your uploaded image and removed green noise using Siril.

@bb453 may I suggest that you do the 3 star alignment with an eyepiece and then attach the camera. That should make life a lot easier.

Great image of M31 btw! Is there a reason you dont use a computer to control the mount, camera?

12 hours ago, Kenny2605 said:

Are all the lens there compatible? 

Hi and welcome.

If you can let us know what your interests are and what you intend to use the telescope for, then we can provide better guidance.

eg. For astronomical observations we are not fussed about whether the object is upright, but for terrestrial viewing you would like to use an erecting eyepiece.

Also an equatorial mount such as what you have is more suited for astro viewing as its motion follows the rotation of the stars in the heavens.

As to your question on eyepieces most telescopes (such as yours) use 1.25inch eyepieces, so look out for those.

HTH. 🙂

9 hours ago, bb453 said:

I perform the normal polar alignment and then do a two start alignment, using the hand controller to center the star in the camera frame. I then select M31 from the catelog and the mount slews to M31 as you would expect. The issue is that it hasn't centered M31 in frame like I would expect it too and I'm a little puzzled as to why?

Reading this might help understand how the 2/3 star alignment creates a mount model. https://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/testimages/eqmod_3star.html

15 hours ago, appyaardvark said:

The only visual difference was the Ekos GUI, so perhaps when I applied the update, Ekos was updated to a version that wasn't quite right? I don't know.

So now all working I take it? 🙂 Alls well that ends well

21 minutes ago, appyaardvark said:

lsusb shows that devices are detected, but the codes for the cameras are not recognised by Ekos, but they are for the EAF and EFW

Can you post a lsusb -v for the camera part only? Does the listing look something like this? Also try using Firecapture or OACapture to see if they recognise the camera

OACapture should show something like this

1 hour ago, appyaardvark said:

 

Try changing the driver to ZWO camera 1 & ZWO Camera 2. I am assuming that you have tried to connect just a single camera (say the 290) and no other devices?

EDIT: I just noticed that lsusb doesnt detect the cameras! So something is wrong. Are you using the blue ports for the cameras? Assuming they are having the faster USB3 connection.

Reboot the RPi, connect just one camera to USB port and run lsusb. See if it shows up. If it does you can add the 2nd one and check again. So do it in stages

13 minutes ago, appyaardvark said:

He suggests it needs to be remote because it's connecting to a remote INDI server that is already running....

The INDI server is running on the RPi and you are running Kstars on RPi so connection is local. If you were running Kstars on a laptop and connecting to RPi then it would be remote connection.

Try removing the tick on Auto Connect and see if it recognises the cameras. The INDI popup should show a tab for each camera

On 09/02/2019 at 22:24, Newbs2215 said:

Hi All,

Just a quick question. The wife has a Skywatcher Explorer 130P. I tried to do a bit of simple Imaging with it using the ZWO Camera. I knew that you could not mount a DSLR onto it as there is not enough back focus. I was wondering if its the same with the ZWO, as all I could get were blurred images of the Secondary. I think I already know the answer, but maybe I am making a simple error.

Any help would be appreciated.

Graham

I have an Astromaster 130 which is similar to the 130P. I can get focus with both the ASI224  (12.5mm backfocus) & the ASI533 (6.5mm BF), so it should work for you. I attach using the provided nosepiece.

On 05/11/2022 at 00:03, imakebeer said:

Also eye wateringly expensive to a noob like me!

Just spend on a better mount. Rest will take care of itself. You have managed to get great planetary images, and a 70mm refractor can capture good images of DSOs too (will need more images as compared to using a 130mm). Good luck!

On 04/11/2022 at 21:45, nightghost7 said:

Thanks all will re think the camera and telescope.  This is not as east to pick as I thought it would be.

At the end its what you are willing to spend now. The Newts will get you best bang for buck. Based on my experience (see link in my signature), a 130mm scope, good mount (preferably a go-to), a DSLR/planetary camera like ASI224mc, and a computer you can get great images. Most of the software is free!

On 03/11/2022 at 19:18, powerlord said:

I'm afraid asiair is the only thing I can PA with. I tried phd2s drift thing and gave up as it was all over the place. Maybe sharpcap is easier ? but I don't have the paid version of that. So I admit this could be asiair funkyness.

If you have an RPi/Mac/Linux you could try PA with Ekos. Works for me

6 hours ago, Louis D said:

If you can see the rings of Jupiter from Earth with any telescope, you'll be miles ahead of pretty much any ground based scopes.  They weren't even discovered until 1979 when the Voyager 1 spacecraft passed by Jupiter.

Its all in the semantics 😉 Bands, rings

@MG01 There is a Starquest 130p scope on ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255815751638?hash=item3b8fce97d6:g:TX0AAOSwGtJjaUeH&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoLIgO0USoth4AT5vwXYMr8eGweQlJ901ybDQPRjr0xpDxBgjL36HG559sqnaKgbxcDpVSxhPEwy0t9KDLYSb4fh%2Ba5HTI39CaTtIvMOaZOCeWH7TYQvYOsytC5YKXRfNWSpesiBdplKiBOlzse7nMsh0Rd3A1Kidpn3amjV3CJa9MXVxCf62sTBm7z9Cmbx40WnfA6X8vtNePMKzzQIGosY%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6jivbmLYQ

And the SW 130p too https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334618851482?epid=2255631135&hash=item4de8d6789a:g:JBUAAOSweO5jaAI1&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoEFvchG4ZFtAlZBXgHIKaL62CP2h7Q8m9YmBxkoyDWFeYLugYspBzVso2RJ%2BlgRJz7uN8WKJaO6a%2FpjhH%2Fnk0MOI0Pk03E9zkStJ5pb3RtuwTxRv2T9WCTwZbobUNV%2F0FrwQjFXv9oGMTDie%2Fy6VgGlBDPClWHuwI4L13IP5omk64grNpjNjNNUG3CGxNXzWTNBfkciFO91e6KN3MEETebQ%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6jivbmLYQ

On 04/11/2022 at 23:27, MG01 said:

I seem to recall celestron make some okay kit, and this is about £100 more expensive elsewhere...so is it worth the risk?

If he insists on buying something of his choice, its not a bad scope even for AP (see my signature). The option provided by Peter is probably your best bet for the budget.