vineyard

Thanks Pete, that's v kind.  Lots of rookie errors but those have to be made if one is going to learn anything   I was still quite amazed at what popped up on the screen.  Am keen to try again but with a smaller pixel mono camera, but having FW problems.  Ah well.  I can see how getting good planetary footage could be quite addictive - luckily for me there's only about an 1hr window of when Jupiter is visible so throw Bortle 8 on top of that w clouds, and I'm not sure I'll get that many chances to become an addict: many times I'm just quite happy to look at it visually!

Thanks Charl, that's v kind - was hoping to get out this morning but no joy & now wall to wall clouds.  Ah well.

17 hours ago, powerlord said:

...as a geek who published his first spectrum game aged 12, and as I very old geek who has spent the intermediate time writing, designing and architecting software, what zwo have achieved is very very good imho...

...competition breeds innovation and we could do with some of that in astronomy ...If nothing else. asiair might shake up the utter stagnation in the application of technology to astrophotography ?

 

 

I remember ZXSpectrum - fun times playing games on that - which game was it?

Agreed re competition & innovation.  For me, I have non-ZWO auto-focusers so that's a walled garden I've avoided entering so far.  Am hopeful that the new Stellarmate Pro which is meant to launch later this year will be similarly disruptive for the walled garden approach too🤞🏾

Cheers!

@Laurieast I'm a Mac person I'm afraid  Windows confuses me

Thanks @Nik271 that is really helpful - ah ok, I have a smaller pixel mono camera that I normally use for lunar & solar - will try that tonight!  Let's hope the conditions are as good 🤞🏾(the Mak Cass is an old Russian STF Mirage 7 that another SGLer was selling - am v-e-r-y happy with it for lunar & double-stars so far, & visual planetary.  Its a 64mm obstruction so more or less the same % as a Mewlon 180 but since I've never used another MakCass I can't really compare on a first-hand basis 😂)

Cheers!

Thanks - that's a good report.  I think the dark spot he refers to is within the planet itself?

I then found this helpful site: https://skyandtelescope.org/wp-content/plugins/observing-tools/jupiter_moons/jupiter.html & put in the observation time & indeed it shows as Europa coming out just at that spot on the disk at exactly that time 

Serendipitous!

Cheers

Yes it was really quite nice - even made me try my first imaging of Jupiter!

The moon was pretty good too - especially around the terminator (spent most of my lunar time visually on Hecataeus & Humboldt).

Saturn unfortunately had already gone by the time I was setup & cooled.

Silly me, a little bit of googling answered some of the Qs.  For future reference for any other newbies like me: AS3 still generates a colour TIF, but ImPPG handles it as monochrome.  So what I did was open the AS3 output TIF in GIMP, decompose it into RGB channels, and then run each channel through ImPPG.  Then reopen each channel and recompose in GIMP.

Still not sure about the binning but on further googling, astronomy.tools shows that that combination is over-sampled, and becomes better at 2x2.

Hello,

Having jumped up to a 180mm f10 MakCass from a fellow SGLer, I thought I would try Jupiter imaging for the first time last night.  ASI294MCPro (uncooled - yes its my DSO camera but I wanted a large FOV in case I had trouble finding the planet on the laptop 😂)

Its embarrassingly poor compared to the other images here, but hey ho got to start somewhere.

Some newbie Qs please (apologies mods if this is better in a separate section):

1.  I could only see it on the laptop when binning 2x2.  The screen would garble when Bin 1x1 - is that just my laptop (v old)?  I'd have thought the larger pixel sizes of the 294MCP were well suited for f10 but maybe that's just DSO?  Or is binning better on planets?

2.  I used FireCapture to capture, and then AS!3 to stack & then ImPPG & GIMP.  On AS!3 the image shows up in colour, but the .tif file that ImPPG opens is monochrome?  (I've tried auto-detect and force RGGB on the AS!3 options)

3.  Is that a moon on the edge of the disk (between 9 & 10 o'clock on the planet as you look at it on the screen)?

Cheers,

Vin

Stellarmate has an app functionality too.  I don't know how good the UX is on the app b/c I use it via a remote laptop.  But have to say I am a big fan of Stellarmate (I believe ASIAir uses INDI underneath just as EKOS on Stellarmate does).

The restrictiveness to ZWO products is a big deterrent.  If the OP ever wants to start using auto-focusers, he will also be stuck with a ZWO EAF & so will not be able to use other v good products like DeepSkyDad, Pegasus, SestoSenso etc.  I'd imagine it will be similar for filter wheels?

Cheers

You may already have seen this but just in case: https://indilib.org/focusers/pegasus-falcon-rotator.html

That is lovely & Sennen Cove & that whole area around Zennor is gorgeous.  My DSLR attempts are abject failures 🤷🏾‍♂️

Hello,

Here's 4h19 of NGC7000 from last week.  Evo50 as imaging scope (w Evoff flattener), ASI294MCPro w UHC filter, 60s lights, guided, calibrated.  APP & then PI (incl a touch of star reduction).  Uncropped.

I think I need to tweak the spacing a bit as there are some tails if you pixel peep the left hand edge and the bottom right hand corner.  The 'starbursts' from the brighter stars on the left hand edge are a bit weird - haven't seen anything like that before & its the first time w this flattener, so am hoping its just spacing rather than a defect?

Cheers,

Vin

Hello,

Managed to get some time under the sun yesterday morning.

I'm much preferring the new FC & AS!3 workflows I'm using now.

Did try & take a time-lapse as well but the fluffy stuff didn't like that and rolled in.

Cheers,

Vin

Hello,

I was testing out a Starizona EvoFF v2 flattener last night on NGC7000.

Here is a JPG (for file size) - only ABE & HT done in PI (calibration & integration in APP before that).

If you look carefully at the brighter stars towards the left hand edge, there are bright starbursts that trail towards the middle of the edge, and top left hand corner & bottom left hand corner also show a bit of shape deformation - also a little bit on the right hand bottom corner.

Is this just a sign of spacing not being quite right (w perhaps a bit of tilt), or is there something else happening (like pinching) or some other problem w the flattener?  

I'm hoping its not pinching or any other defect (& its not in any of the other stars in the middle of the image) - but I've never seen a starburst like that on just one point of a stellar disc before, hence hoping some more experienced imagers can shed light (if you'll pardon the pun) pls?

Thank you!

Vin

A related Q to this pls: do people (occasionally) zap their EPs with UVC?  I've heard of folks doings that with OTAs (either w lamps or natural UV light), but if you should do that with the objectives, should you also do that with EPs?

Yes the Solarscope etalons are amazing. Stuck on work things today so just basing this on the GONG site rather than direct obs, but it looks like Sol is actually relatively quiet today when compared to what its been like the last few weeks.  Wait & see when the active regions come back...!

That last image has almost a 3D "alive" feel to it 👍🏾 (almost as if its inviting you to hold it in your hands & feel the texture...)

Hello,

Having experimented with the Evo50 on this target, I thought I would point the 4" apo at it once I'd got the autofocuser working again.

This too is v much a w-i-p.  I definitely want to get more data on it b/c I can start to see some of the more finer features coming through, so can understand now why people sink hours on this target (look at this amazing shot for example😲!).

All criticisms & suggestions for improvement v welcome.

It's 286 lights of 60s each (4h46 data).  Astronomik uhc & clsccd filters double-stacked.  ASI294MCPro.  Guided.  HEQ5 Pro mount.  Calibrated w darks, flats & dark flats (as well as a bad pixel map if I remember correctly) - APP.  And then PI.

Cheers,

Vin

[EDIT: added close crop]

That is really helpful.  I use MMT but I've never really understood the logic behind it, which I think is important to use it more effectively!  The negative bias is a neat trick, and I never understood what applying to the Chrominance did vs the Luminance.  Thank you! 

Thanks both, that's v kind.  I was pretty pleased with the way the prom just popped out (the scale of it!), but not so happy with the overexposure in the third image towards the top half of the disc (around those 3 sunspots).  I think I should have been more patient w tilt, but was trying lots of different things & it was baking & I was running out of time!

Have also tried different capture settings for these images & I think its giving better quality data than the old approach I used to take.  Let's see: the aim is continuous improvement as the Japanese say!

Cheers

Hello,

Haven't done solar for too long, and has been hectic/mad last week or so.  But finally got the chance to do a short stint today.  The images could be a LOT better - v rusty - but crikey that's a big'un.

Cheers,

Vin

I think 365astronomy have some in stock?

Yes that is what is meant to happen until it gets to within a preset "close enough" distance (which I think you can vary).

Hello,

Here is a quick w-i-p.  Only 34 mins of data.  If I pixel peep in all 4 corners, the stars have oblique tails all pointing in from each corner towards the centre.  Does that mean that the sensor is a shade too close?  (I set it at 56mm which is what the reducer-flattener spec says, but on further thought, there are a couple of filters in the train, so I should increase that by 2mm right?)

Also how much tilt is too much tilt?😂  Actually a genuine Q (analysis image from ASTAP also attached).

Thank you!

Vin

Those are just stunning - the proverbial "as if in orbit".  If I had to pick just one, the third one (second image of Clavius) 👌🏾