AstroMuni

Hi Sien,

Collimation with a Cheshire is usually done for a Reflector. The 72ED sounds like a refractor. Have I misunderstood something?

On 07/05/2022 at 19:49, Olli said:

I have been doing some reading on imaging planets and was wondering if it’s possible to do it with a DSLR?

As others have already said video is best for planets. Looking at your kit of 130ps & the WOZ73 have you considered if you will get enough of a zoom to capture details on the planets?

2 hours ago, Radu Marinescu said:

Another topic that I'm not sure about is the GoTo function, which seems to have no effect on actual tracking or guider compatibility, it's just a little help in finding those dsos in an instant. Can anyone confirm this, because if the GoTo is not mandatory for tracking and guiding,

The GoTo is NOT needed for guiding or tracking. But, you need a mount that has an RA motor so it can help with tracking. You would also need a DEC motor to correct for errors in DEC axis. So when you add all these into the mix, it might make it worth your while to purchase a GOTO I would suggest looking for a second hand one if budget is the constraint. 

Here is one of the benefits of a GoTo which I have found useful. I started off without a guidescope and found that my HEQ5 Pro mount could hold its position quite well upto around 5minutes as long as my exposures were less than 60secs. So I used to take a series of 30-60s subs and force the mount to realign to the object (using platesolve) at the end of 5mins ensuring that drift was minimal.

The other obvious area to help keep to your budget is to go for a reflector (like a Newtonian) instead of a refractor.

Good luck.

On 11/03/2022 at 20:39, Rallemikken said:

Anyway, don't think you can run Kstars under Windows,

There is a windows version of Kstars. Its just the INDI server that wont run on Windows.

I also ditched Windows on my old laptop due to inability to upgrade and run Linux Mint. Works a treat.

On 11/03/2022 at 19:15, Ian McCallum said:

I don't know how, but I've got it working now.🤔

One of the versions of Kstars had a memory leak issue which is fixed in recent update is my understanding. Stellar solver has also been updated.

On 02/05/2022 at 14:18, Ian McCallum said:

I don't have a household connection (router), as I use my smartphone for the internet and broadband hotspot.  I tried the NOOB version of RPi OS on a spare micro SD and can get the laptop and RPi talking, through the LAN cable - therefore it must be something configured differently in the RPi.  I do have SSH and VNC enable in Astroberry, so goodness knows..🙄

When you update your RPi, do you use the hotspot for that too?

On 03/05/2022 at 22:50, Porcini said:

I have been using binoculars and would like to purchase a portable telescope something like a Sky Watcher set-up.

So any recommendations/advice on such equipment would be most helpful.

Welcome to SGL. I would recommend that you join a local Astro group and get a feel for the kinds of equipment available.

Welcome to SGL Simone. The other active club nearby is Basingstoke https://www.basingstokeas.org.uk/

On 30/04/2022 at 02:00, Dhanan said:

I recently got an astromaster 130eq and wanted to picture jupiter and saturn with it. With jupiter i could see two of its moons with my eyes but wasnt able to capture it and saturn just appears as a regular star. Im new to this so need some help.

Welcome to SGL. I have the same scope and you should be able to see the ring around Saturn on a clear night with your eyes. I purchased a Svbony 23mm eyepiece and found that gave better views than the erecting eyepiece supplied with scope. Good luck.

I have since started using this scope for imaging with a dedicated camera (see link in signature) so dont be put off if you hear comments that its a poor scope

3 hours ago, alacant said:

I think the OP should be able to find something in that area.

As mentioned by the OP, the challenge here is finding the cloudless night

37 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi

Recalibrate south, near the equator around say, an hour of the meridian. e.g. ~midnight tonight; anywhere in the 'V' on the top bit of Virgo would be good.

Check 're-use calibration' in case you restart during the session.

Now slew to your target.

That's it. 

HTH

May be a bit difficult in Virgo area tonight as Moon is quite close to it

1 minute ago, doublevodka said:

An 8 inch for example has nearly twice the light gathering capacity of a 6 inch, although there's a nice looking 10 inch truss dob on astro buy and sell....

Bear in mind the weight of these as well 🙂 Lugging them outside can get tricky esp if you have a dodgy back.

1 minute ago, Nrmh02 said:

Thank you so much for your reply. 

I'm definitely aiming at the goto mount for sure. Do you have your setup connected to wifi if controlling from inside the house? if so, does it require another add on? 

 

Thanks again, your reply has most definitely been helpful

 

Nicola 

You have 2 options - 1) is to run cables from your laptop out to the mount and thats how I used to work in the past. The 2nd option is what I use now....I use an RPi to control everything. The RPi connects to my Wifi via a Wifi extender in my case as my router signal is not good enough to reach the RPi. I can manage the RPi via ipad or phone or laptop. All the images get downloaded onto RPi and then I download them onto laptop when I do the processing. I delete the images from RPi at that stage.

There are pros and cons of using RPi - your software choices are less wider as compared to whats available on Windows at the moment (choices on Linux are improving every day though). But if you are a Mac user then RPi is THE way to go as they are both based on Linux. If you are Windows person you could get a mini PC to do what the RPi does.

In addition to what Ratlet has said these tutorials from SIRIL authors and users  https://siril.org/tutorials/   will also help
The 2nd tutorial provides data to practice with.

14 hours ago, Nrmh02 said:

now just debating with myself if I get the basic model or go for the goto model

I was using a basic mount for several years before I decided to opt for a Go-To when I decided to get into AP.

Here are the features I find useful:

- Ability to control mount sitting inside the house (out of the the cold). I still have to go out at beginning to set it up, focus etc. and late in the night to pack it up again.

- Plate solving and recentering image after every couple of images helps keep the image centred (guide scope not necessary). This corrects for any drift that may have occured after several images. I started without a guidescope and was getting ekos to realign after every 10 or so images (around 5mins) and that works with my HEQ5 pro when you are capturing just 30-60s images.

- Dithering can be automated

- Meridian flip is automatic

- You can schedule the nights tasks and let the computer manage the process.

Hope this helps you decide.

On 07/04/2022 at 17:53, THEGREAT said:

Sorry I did not specify the equipment that i am using. I have a Celestron AVX mount and an 8”SCT with wifi module and the StarSense camera. I am trying to perform this alignment because when I GoTo an xxx star it is not centered on the eyepiece

As you are using Starsense, I would expect it to do a platesolve and align quite well, if not at the first go then atleast after a few star alignments. Polar alignment would help with tracking but it should not impact Go-to capability much.

3 hours ago, Ricochet said:

You already have a 130ps? Does that get use and if it does what are you looking for in the new scope that the 130ps doesn't give you? 

Exactly what came to my mind too 🙂

1 hour ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Not the easiest mount to use compared with an alt-azimuth Nexstar, but it works.

Dont scare him But I agree that moving EQ around the sky is not as intuitive as an AZ.

On 06/12/2020 at 11:33, stevenson166 said:

Here is my second pic of the MW ...Need to learn some processing skills

Looks good. Try using some free tools to start with. I use SIRIL, Gimp. Plenty of good tutorials are out there for both tools. In your image you will notice its got a bluish tinge that can be corrected in Gimp easily by moving the histogram for the blue channel to the left to get it more in line with R & G.

Good luck.

On 07/04/2022 at 11:26, Pitch Black Skies said:

I've noticed that my histogram is way over to the left. Does that mean I'm clipping my frames? The image is 24 hrs of 300s @ unity gain under Bortle 4. I'm using 130P-DS and 533MC-PRO.

Check the default offset that is applied by the driver for your camera at that gain. When you open histogram transformation tool if you notice there is a lot of data at the lower range, then you can increase the offset in the camera so there is less risk of clipping. You can increase the zoom level by increasing the level in the box on top left.

As an example I apply an offset of around 100 for 180 gain but 120 for 240 gain on my asi224mc.

10 hours ago, tompato said:

I'm not really that experienced yet and on more recent imaging sessions I grabbed flat frames so that might help alleviate the issue.

The images are awesome and I love them. I recall reading on this forum that the rings can be caused by field flattner. But as I said before I am no expert and I dont use a flattner hence defer to the experts 🙏

On 25/03/2022 at 10:21, PatrickO said:

How do I decide where on the inner circle? Is the 0, 3, 6, 9 for the time of day?

The legend on top right explains which of the 3 circles you need to use based on year. So at present we should be close to the middle circle. And Yes its a Clock face but its not the time of our day but the location of Polaris will be in Hours, Minutes and seconds. On many mounts the reticle is not perfectly aligned. Therefore when the weight arm in in down position the 0 is not at top. You will read posts that ask you to open the polarscope and adjust the reticle to get it perfectly aligned. That is absolutely NOT necessary. You just need to rotate the mount about RA until 0 is visually at the top and lock it in this position before adjusting AZ & Alt screws to get Polaris in right position.

Once thing is critical though and that is to check if reticle is aligned to axis. Several videos are out there explaining how to do this. Here is one that I used when I first went through this exercise https://www.myastroscience.com/polarscopecalibration.

Good luck.

I use an App called Polar Clock on Android. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.astrotools.polarclock&hl=en_GB&gl=US

If you use Kstars on your PC that comes with a Polar scope clock layout as well.

@tompato when I do a histogram on your image you can see this ring around it. Perhaps someone with more experience on the causes can explain the fix for this. Hope this helps.

BTW, I used Siril to view this.

+1 for Polar clock App. Mine is set to show the clock view thats in my Skywatcher reticle

On 18/03/2022 at 08:02, ollypenrice said:

While you're thinking about your setup you might also be wanting to be thinking about your image pre-processing and post-processing software.

Good point. And same goes for understanding the capabilities of your equipment & the related mount, camera management software. What is not clear to most beginners is that capture, guide, platesolve etc. is a small part of AP The difficult and not so cut and dried bit is in the processing and we learn it the hard way.