AstroMuni

13 hours ago, OK Apricot said:

I'll plug the guide cam (120MM) into the laptop via USB (2? 3?). The feed from this camera will be used by PHD2 so guiding can be carried out. The EQ6-R will be plugged into the laptop via (cable?) so that PHD2 can issue corrections to the tracking. With EQMOD installed, PHD2 and APT can communicate with each other. I'll plug the imaging cam (533MC pro or 294MC Pro) into the laptop (USB3?) so that APT can carry out the imaging tasks. I'll power up the mount and turn everything on.

Spot on 🙂

Install the relevant software on your laptop (ASCOM, EQMOD, PHD2) prior to doing these. Get the right EQDIR cable for the mount as that will allow you to connect the mount directly to laptop (without synscan controller in the middle). If you find that your laptop doesnt have enough USB ports you will have to invest in a USB hub.

The advantage with ASIAir / Raspberry Pi/ NUC is that you can have the luxury of sitting with your laptop inside your home while these smaller devices are sitting out in the cold with the mount. Some folk leave a laptop outside on a small table beside the mount and establish a remote connection to laptop via ipad/phone. That is also do-able.

Here is a suggestion - get the laptop to mount connectivity working first and learn to control the mount using EQMOD, Stellarium etc. Then you can add the cameras, guiding etc. To be fair you DONT need guiding to start with as a mount like EQ6-R can give you very good tracking without noticeable star tails upto a minute and possibly more. I can get between 30 to 60s with my HEQ5 Pro.

Good luck.

On 02/07/2022 at 09:53, markse68 said:

PS your image is flipped compared to mine- didn’t you do photometric cali? Mine gets flipped when i do

Siril complained that it couldnt do photometric calibration on mine, perhaps due to the small FOV.

On 02/07/2022 at 09:53, markse68 said:

What are the details for your M13? (scope, camera, exposures, bortle etc) How did you choose the symmetry point- middle of the histogram spike?

Astromaster 130 on HEQ5 Pro, ASI224MC, 30s x 60 subs. Bortle 6.

I didnt muck about with the symmetry point, just left it at default.

Something new to learn about Barnard-29. I wasnt aware of this  🙂

Gave it a try using one of my images of M13. On the left is using asinh, histogram stretch and on the right is using GHT. Certainly makes a big difference without blowing out core or star bloat.

On 29/06/2022 at 16:11, Hellblader said:

My current setup is pretty basic (Bresser Venus 76/700) & the results are sometimes disappointing.
From time to tome I also engage in astrophotography. Don't imagine something complex - a basic cropped frame Canon DSLR, but it yields some cool stuff.

Are your images taken by attaching DSLR to the scope?

Dont be put off by the fact that your scope is considered basic. I have got very decent results with my basic Astromaster 🙂

On 28/06/2022 at 17:42, alacant said:

I'm trying to get a home wifi (not designed for heavy traffic) so that a disabled guy can vnc into his computer at the mount. It's working fine, but it's slow. I've traced to weak point to the interim wifi extender; vnc with the two computers in the same room -without the extender- is instantaneous.

Not sure if this solution would help. But this is what I use - A Netgear AC1200 that is plugged in outside my house. This has an ethernet port and I have connected a ethernet cable between this and my RPi which then connects to mount. And when I remote in, I connect to wifi extender rather than home router.

40 minutes ago, Adam J said:

I would think some bright planetary nebula might work well too.

It absolutely does a fantastic job with those. I havent managed to put in as many hours as Padrepeace but even with the few hours that I got the images have come out quite beautifully. A few of them are in my signature link.

Good start. How do you suggest this be used?

57 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi and welcome

By far the best way to get started is to go along to an astronomy club meeting and see your proposed equipment setup and working. Between them, the members will be able to put together anything you had in mind, and more. Only when you've seen it can you really decide. 

Cheers and HTH

You are beginning to sound like me 😉

6 hours ago, madbob28 said:

Just starting to look at astrophotography and i could do wth some advice.

I am thinking of a Skywatcher explorer 13 ps az gti, skywatcher wedge, Altair GPCAM2 290C Colour cam. Would that make a good portable starter setup?

I am mainly looking into DSO, but would like to take the odd planet as well.

Do i need a guide camera as well? how long exposures could i take without one? What approx time are people using for orion nebula (just for example)

Now onto filters, i'm based in Scotland and I have been informed that due to the lighter than normal nights (being so far north the sky never gets completely dark summer time) I should use a Ha filter amoung others - to help block unwanted light, would a Altair tri band filter be a good choice?
On a simular note would that filter be good at stopping light pollution?

Sorry for so many questions, it just seems confusing and ii dont want to make expensive mistakes.

As already mentioned above, this setup may not be very portable but would be a good place to start. I have a similar setup and you can see my experience in the link in my signature. BTW, I dont have a permanent setup hence I carry and assemble & disassemble the kit every night. (when its cloudless and thats not easy in this country)

No you dont need a guidescope, camera if you are taking short exposures. You should be able to get 30 seconds quite easily with that setup and the images you get are quite good.

Regarding filters to block unwanted light - the Ha filter just allows Ha in and thats a very narrow part of the spectrum. So its only suitable for certain objects like nebulae. You could look at other light pollution filters but those are targeted for street lights etc.and not sunlight. In a nutshell, these dont help much in summer 🙂

Good luck.

On 26/06/2022 at 12:14, lankywolf said:

Camera:  Used stock Canon 70d - £350 (plus potential astro mod £100).

If the budget is to spend £450 on a DSLR then there should be quite a few astro cameras eg. ZWO that will fit the bill. These days the read noise is quite low hence the difference between regular and cooled cameras is fast diminishing as we generally end up doing image capture in winter months in the UK.

The other bit that you will need to consider is hardware & software to process your images. eg. PixInsight, Affinity Photo, Siril etc.

My approach to getting into AP was begin on a small budget hence started off imaging with an AstroMaster 130 mounted on a 2nd hand HEQ5 pro. The camera is the ASI224MC. Total spend less than £1000. See my link for details on what you can expect to image using this kit.

6 minutes ago, jacko61 said:

Hah!. I'm in central Scotland. We barely get enough clear sky for an hour or two of OSC imaging per month never mind trying to get multiple angles of the same object.

Have you considered using 2 scopes mounted side by side ? 😉

9 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Oops, we did it again?

Well, my contribution would be - largest sensor, cooled affordable model ...

I am partially responsible by asking the question of 533 vs 294 🙂

40 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

I know you said you don't want to "spend more while you get into it" but that suggests, well we all know what it suggests so my 2p is that if it's remotely possible I'd save your money until you have enough for a 533MC. For all intents and purposes it could be all the camera anyone ever needs 🙂

Would you rate the 533MC better than the 294MC ? I know it has no amp glow.

On 20/06/2022 at 20:24, TAFiller said:

I'm hoping to get to maybe this clear of an image someday (not necessarily with this telescope).

Remember that some of these images you are seeing have been stacked using software like Autostakkert and are not necessarily what can be seen with a single image.

Welcome to SGL. What is your budget and where do you live - ie. city, rural etc. Light pollution makes a lot of difference when viewing.

One of the simplest and economical ways to get started is to buy a dobsonian telescope - the larger the aperature the better obviously. But remember they get heavier and bulkier as they get larger. Set aside budget for getting better eyepieces once you have learnt the basics.

There are plenty of discussions on this forum on choosing a telescope so have a read through them. Some of your queries and doubts will be answered by these.

And this is what I tell everyone who is new to the hobby...join a local astro club. That way you can learn quickly, even get to borrow scopes to try out etc. before taking the plunge.

Great image @George Sinanis and considering the level of darkness here and the size of your aperature, its amazing !

Do the darks help - as I thought ASI533 had no amp glow?

On 29/05/2022 at 23:50, pipnina said:

I used my laptop (Ubuntu 20.04, i7-6700HQ / 16GB ram, high enough end to have a USB C port back in 2016 when I bought it) in place of the raspberry pi, and had it only hosting the indi server and running PHD, while my desktop used Kstars to remote control the PHD2 app and indi drivers.

I started off using my laptop to run Kstars and the RPi running just the INDI server and drivers. This arrangement works great as all the images come back to my laptop directly and I didnt have any problems with this arrangement. For the past few months I have switched to using everything on the RPI and using laptop to simply remote into RPi using VNC. And that works fine too. In both cases I have tried with just the Ekos internal guider and also using PHD2. I have other friends who use this same configuration in their domes and swear by it.

My connectivity between laptop & RPi is ....laptop --wifi--> wifi extender -- ethernet cable --> RPi. This gives me ability to stay indoors with laptop while wifi extender, RPi are outside.

13 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

I have not heard about this, do you have a link to some reading? I have some old version installed and that has still the old extraction tool, but this would be great news if its the case for a new version.

Check this out...Its in release 1.0.2 https://siril.org/download/2022-05-16-siril-1.0.2/

And the updated gradient removal tutorial https://siril.org/tutorials/gradient/

22 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

then gradient removal in Graxpert,

I was of the understanding that the background extraction capabilities of Graxpert are now integrated into Siril. So am I missing something here?

Great widefield shot 👍

7 hours ago, Ozone said:

I'm not even sure if I have the ASI in or out far enough and it doesn't seem to be sending commands to the mount (Atlas).

How is your camera connected to the mount - Are you using ST4 connection? Have you checked if the ASI224 is receiving any image at all?

On 12/06/2022 at 12:35, WilliamAstro said:

So I have taken many shots of these noctilucent clouds in the early morning and I was wondering if there is a way for a program/software to detect the best image out of the rest of the images from continuous shooting. I find it actually tedious to find the best one manually..

You could try using PIPP software. It has a feature which detects quality of image and scores them. I have used it for planetary images but not sure if it will work with NCs but worth a try.

On 13/06/2022 at 22:08, J123 said:

any help with what lens I should buy, I was thinking of buying a 6mm? I’m trying to see the craters of the moon in more detail and then make a start on the planets.

My suggestion is DONT buy any more eyepieces until you have mastered how to get best focus with your current setup. Slowly go up from 10mm to higher magnifications. This way you will realise if scope needs collimation etc. As others have mentioned its not just the eyepiece that gives you a clear picture, there are other factors like stability of mount, alt of planet/moon etc.

23 minutes ago, deanchapman2705 said:

I'm guessing this will reduce the focal length and perhaps make it faster though?

Thats not true. The focal length and F-ratio will be the same. Its just that the point at which it reaches focus will be pushed outwards (i.e further away from OTA) in the focuser. You may need a larger secondary mirror as well to make better use of the available FOV.

14 hours ago, Ratlet said:

a 4mm with a bit of glass you look at that looks 4mm in size however you can also get a 4mm which has a bit of glass that looks massive.

In my experience, the bigger glass makes viewing easier on the eye. The detailed explanation has been provided by vlaiv 🙂