DKNicholson

Bit too late for that now I feel (a) the weather is cr*p (b) it's getting a bit low in the sky. Besides I've just received my new DSO imaging camera - Starlight Xpress Trius Pro-694 🤩🤩 - so my efforts will now be going into using that with my 115 in the observatory!

Well here it is installed - all dressed up and waiting for clear skies! Exciting stuff!

Thank you kindly - an honour indeed!

Impressive and imaginative!

Not normally too keen on star trails, but in this one you seem to have created an altogether excellent picture. Very nice.

To me Saturn is one of the most remarkable objects in the night sky. It's not just an imaging challenge but it is fascinating to observe. This was my latest image taken early August and may well be my last of this beautiful planet as I doubt that I'll be able to do better any time soon. Taken through a Meade LX90-8" with a ZWO ASI120MC camera. For those interested in the process, the capture software was Sharpcap taking 2,000 frames at 24fps. The image comprises 20% of those frames selected by AutoStakkert-3 and then processed first in Registax6 then in Photoshop CS3 including use of the plugin Astra Image.

Many thanks for that DaveS. The 314L+ is very 'tolerant' and so I've not been using dark frames. SX maintain that the 694 doesn't need them either so that's something. Most of my NB exposures have been around 600" and LRGB about half that depending on the filter. As that's what you seem to have been doing for NB I guess it's probably best to continue with those settings and see how it goes.

CrashED - thank you for that insight. It's obviously a little difficult to get enthusiastic about setting up new software, but SGPro is a bit slow. Over 5 hours imaging I add 45 minutes for SGPro to focus and think about what it's going to do next!

Many thanks for that - I may well give it a go.

Is it not supposed to guide when Auto-focusing? Surely that keeps the stars optically static for focus accuracy.

jjosefsen - many thanks for your response. I'm about to get a new camera so that may well be the time to try NINA. I'm getting the SX Trius-SX694, don't suppose you would know if that is supported? I also have an SX Filterwheel, and Lodestar x2 which should be OK. My focuser is the RIGEL Stepper Motor, USB nStep Focus Control which is quite old now, so that's a consideration. Do hope you don't mind me putting all this to you. Yours aye - DKNicholson

I've been using SGPro for over a year now and it work well for me, BUT I'm always willing to try something else if there are some benefits. In your opinion are there any benefits of NINA over SGPro (apart from price obviously!)? For me the main bug bear is that SGPro is not exactly intuitive, but once you've worked out what needs to be done it certainly works. I don't really want to try it just for the sake of trying it because there is always quite a learning curve, but if NINA is genuinely 'better' it would be worth it.

I have experienced a very similar problem and have gone through pretty much the same process as yourself. My camera is also the ZWO ASI120MC but my telescope is a Meade LX90-8" SCT. Eventually I found that there were two issues (1) initially the planet was always outside the FOV no matter how sure I was that it shouldn't have been. (2) Focusing was very critical and the exposure had to be long enough to ensure the planet would be bright enough to see. The problem arises when the planet is out of the FOV and the focus and exposure are not quite right. It becomes necessary to perform a crude circular scan until the planet suddenly appears on the edge of the screen, BUT if the focus and exposure isn't right you won't see the planet even when it does appear on the edge of the screen. Catch 22 - you can only really set the exposure and focus when the planet is in the FOV! I would have the problems when I had been imaging Jupiter and it would go behind a neighbour's tree. So I thought that Saturn would be easy - focus and exposure both right and Saturn clear as the nose on your face, but could I get Saturn?! Eventually I have done a few times, but I have also abandoned a few times out of complete frustration! Not really sure if that helps, but it's sometimes useful to know that you're not alone! Attached is an eventual Saturn! Yours aye DKNicholson

OK - so I've decided to fly in the face of the latest trend for CMOS cameras. I'm in the process of buying the Starlight Xpress Trius-SX694 CCD camera to replace my very trusty Atik 314L+ that I've had for 8 years or so. I have an Altair Wave Series 115 telescope, SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mount, and Starlight Xpress filter wheel and Lodestar V2 guide camera. This is all controlled by Sequence Generator Pro. Here's the question. Is there anything that I should know that I should find substantially different going to the SX694 from the 314L+? Obviously I have to put the SX694 data into SGPro and the FOV will be different. But will the exposure times be greatly different? Is the camera particularly sensitive to Red, Green or Blue, or Ha, SII or OIII and is it necessary to compensate for this by having different exposure times for each filter? Anything I might find useful would be greatly appreciated. Yours aye - DKNicholson

Thank you kindly. Meade LX90-8" with a ZWO ASI120MC camera - 20% of 2,000 frames.

Thank you Peter.

A while ago I replaced my HEQ5 Pro Synscan with the new (then) EQ6-R Pro and have to say that it is altogether quite an improvement. BUT - and isn't there always - when using Sequence Generator Pro with Platesolve2 it would rarely find the destination. This was extremely troubling as I had never had an issue with the HEQ5 in that respect. After some investigation I found that even though I had accurately polar aligned the mount using QHY Polarmaster, the telescope was pointing some way below the pole position! This either meant that the 'hole' in the mount where Polarmaster was sitting was incorrectly aligned or the dovetail saddle was not correctly aligned. As my set-up is in an observatory I had plenty of time to try and resolve the issue. The most successful arrangement I found was to raise the front telescope mounting ring away from the Lozmandy dovetail using two pairs of nautical quality stainless steel penny washers. This aligned the telescope near to Polaris and when I tried a destination in SGPro it was so accurate that sometimes it did not require to search again to get closer. Initially this was only intended to be a temporary solution, but as the washers are very stainless and the process works I decided to leave them in place. So if anyone else has encountered a similar situation with the EQ6-R Pro, it may be worth looking to see if everything is properly aligned. Because when it is the mount does appear to be very accurate when slewing to a destination. Yours aye - DKNicholson

It's been a while. For some reason I lost touch with SGL and more-or-less only used Facebook. Following a notification of the most welcome startup of www.ikarusimaging.com, I noticed that FLO also support SGL. It was then that I realised what was missing from my astrophotography toolbox - Stargazers Lounge! So I'm pleased to be back and hope to continue to learn/contribute. DKNicholson