AstroMuni

5 hours ago, SzabiB said:

What I want to improve:

- I try to find solution for the tripod - mount situation

- upgrade the finder scope..... the current has an equal quality of a pirate costume accessory from the fancy dress shop

Welcome!

- Buy a second hand mount+tripod OR weigh down your existing tripod with sandbags/ milk bottles filled with water to dampen the vibration. You can hang these from centre of tripod by strong string/rope. The other option of building a Dob base (as mentioned by others) is another good option.

- Get a Rigel or Telrad.

I have the Astromaster 130EQ and I purchased a 2nd hand mount and Telrad. I purchased a HEQ5 as I was trying to get into AP, but for taking images with phone an EQ3 should be fine. Also purchase a decent Barlow for planetary work. I have the Baader 2.25x.

Good luck.

EDIT: You can get decent images using the milk bottle route btw. Here is a picture of the moon taken on iphone 8 attached to holder using that technique 🙂 Just remember to put a long delay for system to stop vibrating after you have pressed the button to grab the picture. I had set this for 2-5sec.

17 hours ago, YogSothoth said:

I was thinking of the iPad more for the processing side rather than taking the photos. I have a DSLA and was thinking of buying a tracker to use it on. It was more a case of using the iPad for stacking, rather than having to buy a laptop as well but, it appears that none of the Apple apps have a stacking facility 

Stacking needs lots of RAM & Disk space. Compute power is also good to have, but if the other 2 requirements are adequate then a slower processor with less cores will just take longer.

5 hours ago, Astro_Nic said:

Now you've got me worried I'll spend all of this and not be able to focus and it will all be a waste!  Is there a way to find out prior to I spend a small fortune?

Check how much travel is left on the scope (at the moment) when you reach focus. Then you can approximately work out how much extra distance you need to add/minus depending on equipment added. Thats the approach I took before I purchased my ASI224 for a scope that wasnt meant for AP (the Astromaster 130eq)

@FLO a wishlist to add a calculator for focuser travel distance please 🙂

54 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

I failed to achieve focus (on the secondary/primary mirror view) without it at all.

I think I understand, you are using the ASI224 with fisheye just to show us how it looks right? And not for actual AP! I was thinking why is he using fisheye to image? Duh 🙂 I have the ASI224 too and so very familiar with it.

18 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I am currently using an ASI462MC, which is an improvement on the ASI224MC

And the 662 is the next gen, I guess. No amp glow.

On 11/09/2022 at 21:37, OK Apricot said:

so for now I'm going to rule out a mini PC and long cables running inside the house.

I appreciate that you have concerns on security....You dont need to have cables running into your house, btw. If you have an external powerpoint then thats a good start. You have options of ethernet over powerline or a wifi extender. Laptop and you can stay inside. I use the extender option and sit in a position where I can see the scope through windows.

On 11/09/2022 at 21:37, OK Apricot said:

A side thought - is dew the reason people put their laptops inside a blue bin type box when imaging? 

Yes. Keeps the heat in. Any old cardboard box will do too

56 minutes ago, Astro_Nic said:

Was looking at the ASI662MC (2.9 um 1,920x1,080 5.6mm x 3.1mm) or the ASI678MC (2um 3,840 x 2,160 7.7mm x 4.3mm)- they give good close up views, but is the sensor too small?  Then there is the ASI585MC (2.9 um 3,840 x 2,160 11mm x 6.3mm)- nice large sensor and resolution but a smaller view......what do I need?

Have you considered the ASI224MC? Small sensor but great specs for planetary AP. Of the 3 you have listed the 662 would be better as it has faster frame rate which is good for planetary

On 30/08/2022 at 20:55, RolandKol said:

I suspect, the ZWO fisheye lense creates a slight offset.

Out of interest how & why are you using the fish-eye lens for this?

13 hours ago, shedifice said:

I have a few of them

Ah for the next JWST then using them in an array 😉

14 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

It definitely looks like they forgot to take the bahtinov mask off before launch. We're all guilty!

🙂 I think they left the Y mask in as backup too

9 hours ago, gorann said:

This image is from the second night that I aimed at the Wolf-Rayet object WR 134 (first night in the link below). This time with a different framing to include the Crescent nebula, the elusive Soap Bubble (although apparently not elusive for a RASA), and the strong Ha emitting nebula Sh2-104 (near the upper edge of the image). I actually forgot about this Sharpless object so it was cheer luck that it just about ended up within the frame.

Great shot as usual. A bit too red for my liking but thats personal choice 🙂

2 hours ago, shedifice said:

Hi, 

I am looking into guiding my 130 PDS (synscan EQ5 mount). would an old Imaging Source DMK 21AU618 be suitable as a guide camera? its mono 640 x 480.

If it is then I guess I just marry it up with a suitable  9 x 50 scope and start playing with software.

Have you tried putting the details into the Astronomy.tools website to check out? https://astronomy.tools/calculators/guidescope_suitability

Good to know that you also have the Ford Fiesta 1.0 🙂

looks great. The histogram looks clipped at both ends. So there maybe more data in there that you could leverage

Final image using GHT in Siril

1 hour ago, YogSothoth said:

Thanks for the reply and that’s about what I thought. I use Affinity for general photography, which works well on iPad but it doesn’t have stacking. Looks like a laptop is probably the only way to go

You could try using an RPi4. That has plenty of grunt for imaging and controlling the mount etc. I use that powered by Astroberry which is a pre-built image that includes relevant software for Astro. But I agree to do the processing of large images you would be better off getting a laptop. I too have Affinity on my ipad but use Siril on an old laptop that cant run windows but can run linux 🙂

18 hours ago, AstroOnBudget said:

The first target i captured is the Great Andromeda Galaxy (M31), mostly due to its brightness. After 3 nights of shooting with an untracked mount, so 5 sec. exposures, collecting 1.800 light frames, of which 800 weren't good, this is the result!

Welcome! Great perseverance and good first attempt. As others have said adding a tracker will definitely help. I would also recommend you learn a processing software like Siril or Affinity Photo. GIMP is a great tool but these have specific functions to help in AP.

Whats the budget that you have?

Good luck

9 hours ago, Xiga said:

i think i'm going to experiment with slightly longer Lum subs (120s) at Gain 0 next time i'm shooting broadband. I'm curious to see how they come out, given the much higher well depth. 

At gain 0 your read noise would be quite high compared to at 100.

Lovely detail in M63.

14 hours ago, WilliamAstro said:

my mount is equatorial so there wont be too much difference, plus i could get the dummy battery so i wont worry about losing battery life

As I dont have a dome, I dismantle and reattach for every imaging session and notice that my camera orientation sometimes alters a bit (even though I leave the camera attached to scope). 😞

Good luck and look forward to seeing more DSO images from you now.

10 minutes ago, iantaylor2uk said:

Affinity for image processing.

And Affinity now supports stacking too. I havent tried the stacking aspect of it though. Is there a reason you prefer DSS?

Once you have read up about the basic workflow of processing, pick a software (try out a few until you are comfortable) and then learn the features and how best to use them. You might decide to use multiple software - eg. one to stack and another to post process. Thats perfectly normal. Here are a few to consider:

- Siril - FREE

- DSS (DeepSky Stacker) - FREE

- APP (Astro pixel processor)

- StarTools

- Affinity Photo

- PixInsight (the big brother of all)

20 hours ago, WilliamAstro said:

It will get better, I will have an opportunity to take more exposures like 4 hours (depends if the camera battery is capable of that).

You could collect 2hrs (or whatever is the battery capacity) at a time and stack the stacks to get the same result. You just need to be mindful to retain as close as possible to the original orientation to minimise rotational stacking issues.

15 hours ago, Daf1983 said:

My first effort doing a false Hubble Palette, so any CC would be welcome.

Wow, that looks amazing. Love it. The histogram looks clipped but that maybe just the image thats been uploaded.

6 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Oh boy! this night seeing was something special, truly! from the moment I dropped an eyepiece in and turned my refractor to Arcturus I knew tonight was special.

Looks like you really enjoyed this great experience and your writeup made it feel like reading a thriller and I felt I was there sharing your moments!