CaptainShiznit

Steve Awesome response, thank you. You sound just like me when I get a clear night just wanting to get some data and not sacrifice precious time tweaking. I'm going to get APT today and use your post as a guide to get me going so thanks again. John

My trial is just coming to an end on BYEOS and I've been considering trying APT as will probably upgrade from DSLR to an astro camera at some point and should probably future proof my experience. Could you by any chance give some more info on this part of your setup for me? While I understand what platesolving is, I've never put it into practice yet. Feel free to explain like I'm 5. Cheers.

Indeed, it's confused me. I know there are some hot pixels on my QHY5 because I can see them, but the other night when it was windy, a gust of wind would knock the scope and I'd see the guide star wobble while it tried to calibrate but it still failed. Must have lost about an hour of imaging time trying to fiddle. I've a spare Travelscope 70 I might try using instead of my 9x50 for guiding and see if I can at least eliminate the scope as the problem and maybe look at a new guide cam.

Hey, So as I'm becoming more comfortable with my setup, I was wondering what others' setup routine looks like? Obviously I'm still new to imaging and I'm still having problems with guiding and other things so I'm looking for pointers on my own routine as well as being able to compare it to yours. I'm particularly interested in your software setup and what you use and how. Mine looks like this: - Roughly point mount North - Mount scope and camera - Balance scope - Connect everything up to laptop - Switch everything on - Get Polaris within circle of polar scope - Start SharpCap and polar align - Open BYEOS, Stellarium and EQMOD software - Do a 1 star align in EQMOD/Stellarium near my target - Centre the alignment star and adjust focus in BYEOS with a Bahtinov mask - Slew to target in Stellarium - Check framing in BYEOS (30s/ISO400) - Adjust exposure and ISO with BYEOS till I'm happy - Start PHD2 and *attempt* auto guiding (I'm still having issues with this step with PHD saying star did not move enough and have tried adjusting step amount and creating bad pixel map/darks) - Set plan in BYEOS and start session

Cheers guys. Is there a preferred guide to taking it down/servicing these particular parts?

Ah cheers. Nothing to worry about then unless it happens often? Considering a belt mod upgrade soon regardless.

I had a strange issue with my HEQ5 last night so I was wondering if anyone could shed light on it. I was attempting to image the horsehead nebula and then towards the end of the session as Orion set behind a house, I decided to give Bode's galaxy a quick try. I was controlling my mount using Stellarium on my laptop and all seemed fine for most of the night until I slewed to Bode's which was near the zenith. It slewed to around the right spot (I think) but then when it stopped, the tracking sound of the gears was a bit different, like a different rhythm. I took a quick 60s snap and there were big star trails. I tried to manually slew and it wouldn't move. I then tried to slew back to Orion in Stellarium and it worked but the first few seconds of the slew were like in slow motion before it seemed to 'get loose' and slew properly. It then seemed fine and was tracking correctly. Any ideas what was going on here?

Asking here for 130PDS owners rather than start a new thread. What coma correctors are people using and would recommend?

Cheers Dave. I had a look for that after googling the problem. Where do I find that setting?

Just managed to have a little play with my guide scope now that I've got the tube extenders. Managed polar alignment in SharpCap which was a breeze, but I'm struggling with guiding in phd. My scope seems to pickup 'fake' stars. There's a bunch of white specks that show up in the same place no matter where I point it and they look exactly like stars. I've cleaned the lens and the sensor as I noticed them showing up before when I was struggling with focus. I've taken darks in phd and it picked up a few hot pixels (I think it said 6) but it's still seeming to pick these not-stars up. Does anyone have any idea what these are and how to deal with them? I'm also getting an error when trying to start guiding that says the star did not move enough, and I've tried a good few. I have a feeling these problems are related. I've given up guiding for tonight as I wanted to get imaging before the clouds rolled in but would appreciate any thoughts for next time. Cheers. Edit: just to mention I bought this guide scope and QHY5 mono from astrobuysell used.

Finally managed to achieve focus with this. The amount of reading I did, I would say the answers seemed to be 50/50 between either the camera needing to be closer or further from the lens depending on the situation. I couldn't really do anything about making the scope any shorter so I took a punt on these extension tubes: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/163922212910 With the 30+10mm tubes I was able to achieve perfect focus on the neighbour's TV aerial around 200m away, with the locking ring still attached. Just posting this on the off chance someone will find it useful. Cheers.

Hi all, I purchased a QHY5 guide camera from astrobuysell that came with a seemingly unbranded 9x50 scope. This is my first attempt at setting up auto guiding using sharpcap pro. The first thing I wanted to do was use the polar align feature however I'm struggling to capture anything at all with the camera. If I point it at something bright, the preview turns white so it is working. When I tried the moon to focus, all I could get was a white blur with circular edges. Dialing down the exposure just turned it grey. I was focusing the whole time but it didn't seem to change anything. I tried pointing it at some stars such as Sirius and at first I thought it was picking up stars as I could see small white points of light on the preview, however, I then noticed that I could see those same 'stars' no matter where I pointed it (see attached video for an example of this). I've also attached a picture of the scope. Am I right that to adjust focus I just 'unscrew' the lens? As that's all I seem to be able to do. The collar can then be screwed up to meet the lens to lock it into place. Any thoughts? VID_20200204_214128~2.mp4

I have a 9x50 that the guide camera came with (bought from astrobuysell) and as I say it also came with the same bracket as my stock finderscope on my 130PDS. Is the second bar you used just the same bar as attaches your scope to your mount?

Hey, So I'm trying to work out the best way to fit my guidescope to my 130PDS. This is my first rig so I'm just trying to work out the best method. It has the same bracket as my finder scope so could be simply swapped out but then I wouldn't have a finder scope, obviously. I'm aware you can attach a dovetail to the 130PDS tube rings and fit it that way but I'm not sure what kind of dovetail I would need. I have a spare dovetail already but it's the same size and type as the primary one that comes with the OTA. Would this work or should I buy something smaller? As always, any guidance is appreciated. Cheers.

Outstanding. Thank you 😁

Hey, Please forgive my ignorance as I am still very new to the hobby. I am planning on buying an IDAS LPS D2 2" filter pretty soon. It will be my first filter. I am just a bit confused about where it is placed in the train. I have this T adapter: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/flo_2-inch_T_adapter.html for my Canon 600D. The description states the above, so sounds correct. But when I look at pictures of the filter and the T adapter, it appears that they both have female threads, so I'm confused as to how one threads to another. Appreciate any guidance. Cheers!

Excellent info, thank you. I just found some neutral density film on the old auction site as Yawning Angel suggested as that seems like a good idea. Grabbed a 0.3 and 0.6 density sheet (50% and 25% transmission) for a couple of quid for a bit of trial and error.

The brightness isn't adjustable on this one unfortunately. So you just stack sheets of A4 directly onto the scope with the light pad on top of that?

Hey, So my first attempt at flats didn't work out (muslin cloth over scope pointed at white laptop screen) as my image still had vignetting. I bought an LED tracing pad off Amazon: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078JN5B86/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_aDCnEb0BG0BWD What would be the best method to use this for flats? Balanced on top of the scope by itself? Diffused with a T shirt? Build a box? Cheers.

No I don't yet but it's on the list 😅 I was prioritising an LP filter first. I'll try a t shirt next time as I generally see recommended. I just went with the cloth as it was to hand 😊 These are some beautiful images you guys are producing. I really hope I can get close to this level of wizardry before long!

SW 130 PDS. The laptop is a 19" screen and was maybe 2' away. Thanks for the replies, fantastic advice as always 😊

Nice work guys thank you. I found the flats a bit tricky as it was my first attempt at calibration frames. I put a baby's muslin cloth folded once over the scope and secured with an elastic band then pointed at my laptop screen with a white browser page open. Camera was in Av mode. Do you have any suggestions for a better method? Again being my first attempt I just saved from DSS the default 16bit. What would be the better format between 32bit TIF/FITS and -interger/-rational?

Mostly just levels, curves and masks. This tutorial probably did the most for me.

Hey all, So after finally getting a couple of hours of clear skies last night, I got to grips with BackyardEOS, set a plan and off I went. I live under terrible Bortle 8 skies so ended up going with 25 second exposures and I managed 97 before the clouds rolled in. I stacked in DSS using 50 Darks and Biases and 25 Flats and was left with the attached stacked image below. This was my first experience of real image editing (Photoshop) so I've tried to follow along some different tutorials and videos, the problem being the stacked images in the tutorials usually start out different than mine and so I find it tricky to follow exactly. Regardless, I have a final image that I'm reasonably happy with for my first go but I'd welcome critical feedback. The reason I've included the original stack is in case anyone more seasoned in processing fancies a go. It would be interesting to see what else could be brought out of it. Clear skies. m42 stacked.TIF

Thanks all for the great responses. IDAS D2 2" it is. Pay day on Friday 😅