AstroMuni

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.

2 hours ago, nightghost7 said:

my 14 year old son has got into astrophotography about 2 years ago doing photos in plantary and solar system. He is very intrested in  deep space objects, iam looking to buy a new setup for him.

It would be good to know details of the equipment you already have. Some of it maybe perfectly reusable for DSOs. I am guessing he still wants to continue capturing planetary images. If so the refractors may not be suitable. I started small with equipment I had bought for my daughter when she was around 14ish. You can see details in my signature.

My suggestion is to do the purchases in stages as - its easier to learn in steps AND it will soon be time for your son to go to Uni etc. and you will end up using the equipment like I am doing (and enjoying!) 🙂

Get the best mount - like an HEQ5 or HEQ6 !

PS: I know some of us dads are eager to research & supply all the materials to ease our children's journey, but it can sometimes dampen that thirst for knowledge in them. I find that when they discover something else they need to improve their journey and they receive it after they have looked at options, it gives them more joy.

13 hours ago, Ags said:

I had a go at getting an astroberry setup working, but the few times I tried it, it was horribly unstable and I had very little success connecting the Pi to my AZ-GTI or getting a sequence of images captured without crashing.

Thats a shame 😞 I started down the Astroberry route a little over a year ago using an RPi4 and I find that it works quite reliably for my needs, managing the mount, camera, platesolving and guiding. Ekos does have its quirks but its quite suitable for me.

16 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Not sure where this item can be found in UK.

This is when I wish we had not left EU 😞

47 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Well, if we are going to go rather small - then there is this interesting model:

https://www.tecnosky.eu/index.php/quadrupletto-tecnosky-62-520mm.html

It comes with a lot of accessories and is quite decent optically.

Wow. But as OP is in UK, unsure if it will incur customs charges?

On 30/10/2022 at 11:24, david maitland said:

hoping to use the zwo capture software

The ZWO capture software is OK, but there are several other much better packages out there. For planetary you have Sharpcap, Firecapture and for all round management of mount, camera, guiding there is Nina (windows), Kstars (Mac/Linux) etc. I have listed the free ones only.

ASTAP is a much faster software for platesolving btw.

On 02/11/2022 at 13:25, bottletopburly said:

though don’t think it will be beefy enough for high frame rates but I will have a tinker now j

The RPi cant provide high frame rates for planetary imaging capturing videos. I tried with Firecapture and its pathetic in low 40s. The laptop goes much higher. But for regular DSO imaging RPi works a treat. I use Kstars/Ekos for that.

11 hours ago, quigley said:

I have two new ZWO cameras, one is a 120mc-s basic solar imager/autoguider. I haven't a clue how to turn it on. I have it plugged into the laptop with the supplied cable. ASI software in the laptop but where's the 'switch'? How do I see an image through the camera on the laptop? I'm lost and the youtube stuff doesn't deal with this at all....thanks anyone!

If you are running Windows then you need the software drivers (link has been provided by @StevieDvd. Detailed info is here https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/manuals/ASICameras-software-Manual-Windows-EN.pdf. If you are a Mac or Linux user then it should work straightaway.

What is the other ZWO camera that you have? Some of them come with a wideangle lens and that should help you 'see' images. Otherwise you will need to attach it to a scope to get clear images. Without either of these you will be able to only see hazy patches of light and dark when you move your camera around. As you have ASI Studio click on the ASI capture software, it will tell you which camera is connected. You just need to click the connect button and set exposure and gain to Auto to see the camera in action.

Good luck.

On 02/11/2022 at 08:52, starhiker said:

What are you guys use the high-power piece for?

As others have said - mainly for lunar, planetary, splitting doubles and collimation (to get the airy disk, if you have a newt)

15 hours ago, C_H said:

Budget is anything from £150 to £300. What would you recommend please? 

Take a look at this site too https://astrobiscuit.com/best-budget-telescope/

14 hours ago, OK Apricot said:

40x180s with the Skywatcher 80ED and ASI533MC-Pro,

Great shot. And this is without a flatner?

18 hours ago, astro mick said:

It comprises of 3hrs of Ha and the same for the O111.I could,nt get the whole heart,as the sensor is too small,to fit it all in,so i settled for the central region.

Thats a beautiful image. I would love to see your image in hubble palette too.

14 hours ago, paul mc c said:

Just over 5 hours of 120 sec subs ,flats,darks and bias.

Great image and as Olly said, it does look bluish on my screen too. I notice you have taken darks too even though you used the 533. Do you find that makes a difference to your final image?

9 hours ago, scotty38 said:

Thanks I thought it was a bit of a noisy mess really 🙂  It's roughly a couple of hours per filter but done as HOO so not sure if that counts as round about 4 or 6 in total 🙂 

It does have noise in it but doesnt detract from bringing out the squid. And as you said, it would need many more hours to swamp out the noise

On 01/11/2022 at 12:25, scotty38 said:

Another target that's in the "will add more data" pile when I get round to it

Thats a lovely image. How many hours is that?

On 31/10/2022 at 20:02, Eruliaf said:

Also, my first ever mosaic (7 panel moon) - slightly clipped (lower right) where I did not overlap them, processed AS3 and stitched (with much room for improvement) in Gimp.

Nice shot. How did you stitch using Gimp. I have always struggled.

1 hour ago, Gumminess8083 said:

I usually take my flat frames using NINA's flat wizard, but, since I frequently run autofocus sessions during my imaging sessions, I don't exactly know what my focus was during each specific image.

The way I understand it, flats are mainly taken to help correct issues as a result of artifacts in the optical train (eg. dust etc.). I find that the focus doesnt alter too much, if you havent altered the optical train, hence I literally take flats once every few months. If I do find residual artifacts after an imaging session then I know I should get a new set done. Perhaps its just me not being too particular and pixel peeping,  but I dont find any great advantage by taking flats after every session as I cant visibly see any appreciable improvements.

2 minutes ago, Trippelforge said:

So do the fans spin up and down to try and keep a constant temperature? I was trying to figure out how that works, and if there is a point when the fan isn't going to do anything. Hypothetically lets say it was -10'F, can the camera keep being cooled below that?

Its a combination of fans and peltier cooling. So as the sensor heats up during imaging, the cooling kicks in to maintain the temperature.

Having a lower outside temperature means that the cooling doesnt have to work so hard. Over and above the reasons mentioned above by others, one other reason folk prefer the cooled cameras is that its easier to take darks & flats. Hope this helps

13 hours ago, Alan64 said:

Did you choose, purchase your kit , and if so, what was it about the kit that had drawn you to it?

I had purchased for my daughter who was interested in Astro. I didnt do much research at that time and chose the Celestron as I had heard the brand name. It was in my budget, came with an RA tracker, 10 year guarantee and had a few decent reviews on the site I purchased it from. We struggled for a bit with the stock red dot finderscope and thats when I bought the telrad. After that it was a joy to use and as a family we have enjoyed great views of the stars and planets. I even managed to get pictures with my phone attached to eyepiece (attached below). So all in all a decent beginner scope for the price. It does have its shortcomings but hey it has brought joy to my family and continues to amaze me even today when I manage to take images of DSOs with it (its on a much better mount now)

1 minute ago, DaveL59 said:

lol I'd guess that's true, depends how much you like diffraction spikes tho huh 😉 

JWST is bringing them back in fashion 😉

3 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

it's rare that anything other than a dob is suggested unless for imaging.

And that can be said for questions on Imaging scope as well. You will see a definite leaning towards fracs even though the Newt is better value for money. 🙂

On 27/10/2022 at 16:51, capability darwin said:

I have a Altair GPCAM3 290c camera which I believe has 12.5mm back focus. Am I correct in thinking I just need 42.5mm worth of spacers to reach focus?

Does the camera come with spacers? Some of the ASI cooled cameras tend to come with spacers, hence my question.

On 13/08/2022 at 14:11, DaveL59 said:

I'm just asking the question "Why" as we aren't really giving a balanced response in many cases and sometimes it doesn't seem as if we've taken all the background info into account.

If you see responses to most such posts, they start with users asking the OP - viewing or imaging, access to garden/area for setting up scope, weight, who is target audience & budget, etc. So I do believe folk ask for as much info as possible before recommending anything.

And you are right that a few share the journey they went through and what they ended up buying. But thats what I like about this forum - you get the length & breadth of knowledge.

23 minutes ago, starhiker said:

I thought they are the same as both are zero magnification.

The telrad projects an additional ring of 4deg (besides the 0.5 & 2deg which the Rigel also has). HTH.

22 hours ago, tomato said:

Here is another rendition. I have bumped up the stars a bit and tried to fix the purples. I might have clipped the data in trying to sort out the uneven background though.

I prefer the first one. Great shot