JonCarleton

SkyWatcher Synscan has a lunar tracking option in the utilities menu. I've had reasonable luck with it for lunar shots.

I use a RPi4b and it works well with AstroDMx_Capture. You are pretty much stuck with that, as the SVBONY 305 does not support V4L yet. I know that both SVBONY and AstroDMx_Capture are working to improve compatibility with eyes toward INDI and V4L, each of which would be a help. Meanwhile, the current version of AstroDMx_Capture does a pretty good job once you get used to the settings.

If it is a matter of holes closer together on the Moonlite, it should be a simple matter to get a CnC machine shop to cut and bend a plate of 1/8" aluminum, drill countersunk holes from the bottom side for screws to hold the focuser to the plate and then holes that match the holes in your scope. We do similar things for experimental aircraft components here all the time. There's a CnC shop that will make such "adapter plates" for mismatched components locally here for about $20. Certainly there are similar enterprises in your area.

CloudMagnet is quite correct. I used GIMP for my offering and stopped at the point the background noise was objectionable. PixInsight does a good job of handling such matters with relative ease...after you get your arms around it. You -can- do the same job in GIMP or PhotoShop, but it takes hours of creating masks and gradients. Alas, I am a Linux user and while I am gimpy, I have no pix insight.

I will never forget the first time I saw Orion Nebula through the camera. At first all I got was an eyepiece-like smudge, then I just barely touched the gain and nearly fell out of my chair.

Seems to be a bit of light pollution coming from the lower right corner. I can't get past it. As you start to stretch, it overpowers the target.

I'm just a newbie, but I learned how to cheat early on. Moon first, then wake up early (May 2020) and get Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. All easy targets for single image photography. Then you can play with stacking and see the value of additional depth and clarity. Then globular clusters. They are all over the place and very easy (very bright). Once again, single image will give you something to hold in your hand for starters, then you can work with stacking once you have focus, pointing and tracking working. Only trouble is (and my newbie is showing here) all globular clusters look pretty much alike. You have a 200P and mine is basically a 250P, so very similar scopes. You should be able to get good results. Are you using a Dobsonian or Equatorial mount?

M3 is a good target this time of year. Very bright. And in GIMP, you do most of your heavy lifting with Colors->Levels using the sliders as mentioned. I use the "Move-center-slider-left, then move-left-slider right." approach. The press OK and repeat as needed. Don't slide past/into the histogram curve area, or you will be removing data. The curve is recalculated based on your slider settings each time after you hit OK, so taking multiple "small bites" is better than trying to do everything in one shot. I also spend a lot of time in Colors->Hue-Saturation after I get image density that I can live with. I prefer it to Colors>-Curves, though it accomplishes the same thing in the end. After that, you can do things with color selection masks and things, but if you did a good job stacking with darks, flats and bios integration, you reallly don't need to do so much of that. It is easy to get caught up in over-processing.

Good luck! If you need a screenshot of my settings in AstroDMx_Capture, let me know. I'll post one if ever we get another night without clouds. There is a new version of AstroDMx_Capture coming out in about a week (Mid-May 2020).

I use a SVBONY 305 and get reasonable results. I have found using as little GAIN as possible and controlling the light collection with exposure works best. I typically shoot 100 subs RGB24 @ 1080p (1900 x 1080) as .tif and stack with Siril and finish with GIMP. Given my Dobsonian GOTO mount, I try to keem my exposures under 12 seconds and gain at 1-2% maximum for deep sky objects. Bright objects, much less than that. Here are a couple from this past weekend: Note: I didn't integrate darks or bias shots in either of these. The moon was up and really bright, so I really didn't think I could get anything but noise on the deep sky stuff. Getting used to the fairly delicate balance of Black Level, Contrast and Gain in AstroDMx_Capture takes a bit of practice. For simplicity sake, I connect the camera, change USB speed to 2 in the Camera Setup menu, then CLOSE that menu, go down to the Control Display Controls menu and use the slider to set display speed to maximum, then CLOSE that menu too. Messing with those controls doesn't impact the image, but does impact your judgement...best without them in the beginning. You can also CLOSE Controls MISC. It makes the controls you actually use available without scrolling.

That was the single reason I got into gyros. They LOVE the wind. Gusts don't matter, once you have a bit of time under your belt. You don't get slammed. I still have a Beech Bonanza and sometimes go to the airport to fly it....end up flying the gyro if it is gusty so I don't get beat up.

Thanks, Jim. I have a couple of dedicated cameras I have been using and was wondering if it was worth dusting off the Olympus for FOV reasons.

Yep...that's him. And yes, I flew fixed-wings for 40 years, but almost exclusively gyros now. They really aren't Ultralights...by US standards, anyway, and the most popular machines are usually 2 place these days. They are as safe as any aircraft and safer than some. A lot of people died in the 1970s-1990s trying to self-train and modifying designs making them unstable. That gave them a bad reputation. Most of that has gone away over the past 20 years.

Ships & Stars:: Off topic...to your avatar. I am a gyroplane CFI and a good friend of mine flew the gyroplane in that Mad Max movie. Funny story..he sold gyroplanes in Australia and was approached by the film company to purchase one. They arrived a few days later with a stuntman and asked him to "tell the stuntman how to fly it." He replied, "OK...it'll take about 6 weeks to explain properly." They hired on the spot to fly the shots, because they planned to start shooting that afternoon. My apology for misdirecting the thread...but then, it is my thread start

Hmmm. Stiching might be a solution. Interesting results you got there!

I've had pretty good luck with my camera (SVBony 305) and the 10" Dob with respect to getting enough lights to stack and get reasonable images. The big problem is FOV. I also have an Olympus DSLR that I haven't tried yet, but I expect that the difference in FOV would be minimal without something else going on. I do understand the differences with Alt/Az versus EQ mounts, and have found that I can get by reasonably well by using short exposures. This, presumably, because I collect more light pressure per second with the large aperture. The problem I am trying to solve is really FOV, although, I asked the question in a way that I hoped would bring to light some other surrounding issues. It seems to have done so. Thank you all for your input!!!!!

I have a 10" Dobsonain that I am very happy with, especially observing, where I can use a 2" 34mm lens and get a good look a a large chunk of the sky. Being a newbie, this is very helpful. When I start imaging, I'm back down to a camera that has a very tight FOV, similar or slightly less than my 1.25" 9mm Plossl. So, to increase the FOV, I'm thinking .5X reducer seems reasonable. Then I got that nagging, "am I missing something" thing going on in my head. Maybe a different camera? Maybe a DSLR? That brings me to the question of DSLR vs. dedicated astronomy camera. What are the advantages and disadvantages really? This, then, is a multi-part question. Is a DSLR better/worse and why? Will one camera or camera style give me significantly more FOV than another? But finally, what is the "best practices" way to increase FOV with a camera? (and let's avoid the obvious option of a different scope for that use, my wife hasn't threatened to kill me yet and it is probably best to stay on this side of the line for the present).

Nice job! I subscribed.

Well then...not just me. I'm actually somewhat relieved to find it these kinds of unexplained events aren't specifically limited to my platform. Tell me about your saxophone!

I have recently had some really good results with my SynScan GOTO on my Dob finding deeps space objects. So, I though I could begin to work on developing some imaging skills, now that I could reliably find the object to image. Last evening, however, I ran into something odd I haven't had happen before and am at a loss on where to start troubleshooting. My setup is a Pi running indi with the indi_synscan_telescope driver and indi_whm_focuser. The GOTO is running on my private class D WiFi network in Station Mode, along with the Pi, my laptop and a SynScanPro app on a tablet. For telescope control, I align with the tablet, then use KStars Indi Control Panel for focus. Positioning and tweeks for centering target objects are done with SynScanPro on the tablet. I have not needed to sync with KStars with regard to positioning, as it seems to display correctly. Anyway...last evening, after pointing at the Pinwheel Galaxy, centering it up and getting ready to mash the capture button, suddenly the scope started a slow, but steady, nose drop. The laptop imaging screen showed star trails and KStars showed the SynScan reticle climbing gradually with a slight bias to the right. I tried repeating the GOTO with the tablet, and it went back where it should have been. A minute or three later, it repeated the "nose dive." Nothing was found to be wrong or misconfigured. Tracking was on and set to sidereal. The GOTO process was repeated a third time, and it went where it should have gone, but again, after a minute or so...nose dive. I finally shut everything down and did the "fool's repair"...a complete reboot of everything. This time, it went well, but now I'm gun-shy. I don't care for mystery issues. Anyone else see a problem like this before? Granted, my setup is a bit off-normal, but it is still basically a SynScanPro app running on a tablet controlling the GOTO via WiFi. KStars -could- move the scope via the indiserver talking to the SynScanPro app, but there was nothing in the logs to suggest that happened and KStars runs on the laptop, which was not being touched yet.

My stacked FITS image of M51 from Siril "looked" grayscale until I loaded it in GIMP and stretched it. That's when the colors presented themselves.

I analyzed the images that came off the camera by looking at one and saying, "Dang! That really looks green." Post the post-processing, of course. The camera is a SVBony 305 (2M CMOS in 24 bit RGB mode). I can write many formats, but typically use TIFs or direct to FITs. In this instance, TIFs. The histograms that were created by the capture program were deleted by the operator It is pretty certain that IF I had taken the time to look at the image before mashing the "capture 100 images" button, I might have noticed how abnormally green it was. As it seems certain you can appreciate, I was so overjoyed at looking at the correct object, my other alleged skills took a backseat.

The green hue is apparently in the original image capture. Very strong green. I must have had the color balance way off. AstroDMx_Capture has a "One Button White Balance" that I may have pushed, even though I haven't really ever been pleased with the result after I pushed it. Or, the red lights may have altered my ability to judge color properly. Or, I was so glad I actually had M51 in the FOV that I didn't take time to properly adjust things. Or, I'm just a putz!

Yes, I had trouble with that. The stacked image was heavy green/yellow. I almost thought it was only the green channel when I first saw it. I did a LOT of work in GIMP to try to reduce the "shamrock effect." Not sure why yet. It may be that I had the levels a bit out of whack on the imaging software (AstroDMx_Capture) when the subs were imaged. Looking at a fuzzy blob and deciding that the color balance is OK is difficult. I need to take another look at the subs and see if it was imaging or processing.