Padraic M

Looks like you bought the Ferrari and now you're trying to figure out how to tow a trailer. Buying a towing hitch might seem like the obvious solution but it's not really the way to go!!! We all did it. 2000mm FL sounds fantastic but it is sooo hard to work with. What you do have is a very nice planetary imaging system. (long focal length; alt/az mount; non-cooled camera; no guiding kit; Sharpcap software). All designed for planets. It's not impossible to image DSOs with it but it will be difficult, and nobody on here would recommend that you start with this setup. But given that's what you have, and if you really want to do DSOs.... there's good advice above. Mainly, figure out which targets will fit in your field of view (they need to be small and bright) and work from there. I'd recommend Stellarium planetarium software to figure out what targets will suit. It will be practically impossible to image Andromeda with it. I have a 400mm refractor, and I'm planning a two-frame mosaic when Andromeda is next in a good position for me.

May well be true John, but I only connected the hand controller to diagnose the issues experienced with EQDIR through the laptop!

I run mine at 13.8V from a Nevada Radio power supply. Previous 12V power blocks always caused problems, even a 10A rated block. Based on what's showing on the handset, if the supply drops below ~11.5V you can expect issues especially when you're slewing both axes.

I had USB issues earlier this year, using an ASI1600MM. APT would 'freeze' for ~10 seconds every ~30 seconds and other technological wonders would happen, just to confound me in the early hours. NINA would disconnect from the camera, or disconnect the mount, or guiding would stop working. My working solution now entails: - powered USB 3.0 hub on the mount (Startech 7-port model) - replaced *ALL* usb cables with good quality Startech cables of suitable lengths. All the stock ZWO cables and many ebay/amazon cables are dodgy. - ZWO EFW and ASI290MM Mini guidecam connect through the usb hub on the ASI1600 - this works just fine. - Electronic focuser (either SestoSenso or Celestron SCT depending on which scope) connected straight to the Startech hub. Focusers don't like the ASI1600 hub. - ASI1600 connected to the Startech hub - Lynx Astro EQDIR USB cable connected directly to the laptop; won't work through the hub. - Startech hub connected to the laptop - so two USB cables from the mount to the laptop. I've just added a Pocket Powerbox Advance so reworking the solution above, but at present it's a straight swap PPBA in, Startech hub out. I'd like to be able to have just one USB cable from the mount to the laptop so may experiment further.

@rainbow demon I fit new SKG bearings to my HEQ5 mount. The new bearings aren't pre-greased (or not much anyway) so you can apply a light coat of lithium grease to them before fitting. They're probably sealed so won't need much. No need to de-grease. To be honest, I didn't notice much difference in RA after the refit, so I haven't bothered doing the Dec axis. In fact, I noticed a significant dis-improvement after fitting them, and had to do quite a bit of fine-tuning to get back to where I was beforehand. If you haven't started yet, I'd say hold off, see what difference the belt mod makes, and if you're still not happy go ahead with the bearings. Making one change at a time is a good approach so you have a better idea where you screwed up. 🙂

You may be able to get a simple converter like this: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/164839455151?hash=item26613279af:g:5f8AAOSw3Otga3sX You might even be able to get one with a connector on the PSU end that matches the PSU output. As @jambouk says, be very careful with polarity as many of us have blown SW mount mother boards in the past.... 😞 Unless you now that your PSU is high quality, you should seriously consider something like this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/nevada-psw-30-25-30a-switch-mode-power-supply.html There's also a 10A version if I recall... problem is that many power supplies at ~5A or so can't sustain the 13.8V needed for a mount like that. If the voltage drops to 12V or lower, you will have infuriating, intermittent failures. The mount handset will tell you what the input voltage is, and also if you have any other gear like dew heaters, cameras etc. connected the voltage can drop quite quickly.

NINA Sky Atlas is different to ASTAP. You need to install the star databases separately after you've installed ASTAP. The databases are available on the ASTAP download page. I think H17 is that basic one; I've checked my install and I'm using G17 which looks like an older version.... not 100% on that so read the installation instructions. If you look in the ASTAP install directory (\Programme Files\ASTAP for me) you should see all of the database files as well as the astap executables.

Definitely simplify to get started; open the ASTAP programme locally, and make sure it's working there before trying it from NINA. Do you have a sample file to test? FITS files will already have object coordinates, focal length etc. in the header. For other file formats, you'll need to enter the rough RA and Dec coordinates manually in ASTAP. You might also need to enter the field of view in the Stack dialog - Alignment tab. There are good instructions here from the author: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/670806-astap-settings/ If it doesn't work locally, it won't work in NINA. If it works locally but not in NINA, then issues could be - is the path correct? - are the start coordinates and the radius size close enough? - is the image too big or too small? (adjust the downsample factor). When it fails from NINA, there is often some detail in the failure message that can be easy to miss. Bear in mind that ASTAP can blind solve if you don't give it coordinates, and give a 180 degree radius, it will just take longer.

Agreed. Read the Best Practices guide - one of the best practices is not to tinker with the settings!!!

As the software says, "is €18 too much to pay for APT?"

Great result! That's the basis for a great setup there. Your guiding at 0.9" is excellent - even 1.3" is very good. You didn't say what camera you're using but you should check your pixel ratio. It may well be that 1.3" is perfectly good for your seeing and pixel scale. With my HEQ5 (belt-modded) I can get down to 0.6" after lots of tinkering but with a 80mm scope and ASI1600mm camera my pixel ratio is 1.9" so I'm well within range. Definitely dither, as it will help reduce noise. I dither every 3 frames.

Same as what @dark knight says. I've used APT before and it's great too but that's not what you asked.... NINA and APT are very equivalent. You will need to set up your equipment profile under Options-Equipment and especially camera pixel size and telescope focal length (including any focal reducer if using). Plate solving won't work if these are not correct. Also check that Auto Meridian Flip is disabled before you start but I think that's the default. You'll have enough to worry about without the mount going walk-about mid sequence. My routine is: - connect the camera and start it cooling. - connect all other equipment and unpark the mount. - select a target. This can be done in Sky Atlas, Framing Assistant, or Sequence tab; or you can import the coordinates of the currently selected object from your planetarium software (I use Stellarium) - add a sequence which can be as simple as a single image. You can 'Replace as Sequence' from the Framing Assistant. - I select Start Guiding, Slew to Target, Centre Target (which is plate solving), and Autofocus On Start and On Filter Change - Hit Go. I also like to switch to the Imaging tab and watch things progressing. The sequence will start by slewing, plate solving and centering (and focus if you're autofocusing) before starting to image. You can, as @tomato says above, forget about all of this ; go to the Imaging tool on the Imaging tab, set your parameters and hit Go. For platesolving, you choose two from a number of tools, one as Plan A and one as Plan B if Plan A fails. (Options-Plate Solving, Plate Solver and Blind Solver). I generally use Platesolve2 and ASTAP, but have also used ASTAP and astrometry.net. astrometry.net will solve a picture of a thorny bush but it can take a few minutes as it's a web service. PS2 and ASTAP are usually very reliable. You will need to install platesolve2 and ASTAP separately beforehand, including their star databases. It will probably take you a few sessions to get comfortable with all of this and make it second nature.

I would recommend NINA or APT as your main capture tool - both excellent, and very little to separate them. NINA had the better autofocus until recently but APT now has an updated routine too. SharpCap is useful for polar alignment. Gimp/Photoshop is the hard way to process to be honest, but it is good to start there because you learn what's involved (and appreciate all the better what the other tools can do for you). You will move on to something more sophisticated when you know what you're doing. I've moved on to AstroPixelProcessor (APP - which replaces DSS and relegates Gimp to final tweaking) and will probably also add PixInsight shortly, but I'm not ready for it yet! Whatever you choose, you will need to practice practice practice. AP takes lots of money but also takes lots of time!

Hi @blameTECHIE not a bad shot at all for your first 'real' astrophoto! AP is a crazy hobby with so many parallel learning curves, and you really need to get some proficiency in them all to produce a result you might be happy to share! For me, the best lesson was to keep it simple. You really have an excellent rig there with that mount, camera and scope. Keep the 9.25" and the OAG in the shed for the next few years! The filter drawer might be of use if you get a light pollution filter, and if you really want to add something to your current setup, the autofocuser would be really worthwhile. Manual focus is a real pain. Pop your Barlow in the bin - it's for visual, and it has no place in AP. I'm wondering why you're using Sharpcap for capturing when you're using NINA for darks and flats? NINA is an exceptional piece of software for capture control and can do everything that you need. You can select your target, set up your framing, goto target with plate-solving, an excellent autofocus routine, a new sequence controller that is better than anything on the market, and fully integrated with PHD2 for guiding. It's well worth getting to know how to use it, it's not that difficult, and the support on their Discord channel is really fast. Offset is different to the black point. With Offset to >0, your camera will add the offset level to every pixel. It reduces your overall dynamic range very very slightly, but it helps prevent you clipping your black point at later stages in processing. Many people will run with offset >0. Your camera manual may give recommended levels for offset and gain. (gain 400 sounds a bit high but I'm not familiar with your camera). With Gimp, you need to learn how to apply levels and curves. I'm sure there are many YouTube videos explaining this - there are definitely many showing the same technique in Photoshop and the technique is similar. You're trying to draw out the dynamic levels that correspond only to your DSO (which are normally close to but not at 0), without also raising your background level or blowing out your highlights. You will start with an image and histogram that looks like this: ...and you want to end with a histogram and image like this: Do this by iteratively pulling the midpoint (the middle, gray triangle) to the left to brighten the mid-tones, and pull the black point (black triangle) to the right, just so it almost meets the left-most tail of the histogram. If you move it too far to the right, you will clip your black pixels. Geeklee explains it well above. Hit OK, then go back in and do it again. Keep doing it until you feel that you either have a good, balanced image or you have bigger problems - as you adjust your levels, you will also bring out vignetting, contours, colour imbalances, bloated stars, bad noise etc. and you might need to divert to other techniques to sort those out. You want your final image to have a gray background, not black. It looks better and more natural, and also you don't lose information along the way. You can get finer control using curves, but I'll leave that for the advanced lesson.

@newbie alert thanks for that. Bob's knobs are on the way 🙂 this will be a new skill for me! Focal length is reported from ASTAP and from astrometry as 1363, not quite what I would expect with 2032mm @ 0.63 reduction. I think my working distance may be a bit long. There are some suitable spacers in the same package as Bob's knobs. Good luck with your own attempts. Very impressed with your mount - the CEM60 has a very loyal following!

Thanks @AstroAndy. I did a touch of unsharp mask on the final result in Gimp that made a big difference. I considered noise removal (I use Noise Ninja) but it tends to soften the stars so I decided to leave it as is. I might experiment with masking the cluster and denoising around it. Good luck with the C11. It's such a fuss moving these big beasts!

Update: I captured a new set of flats for all filters, and reprocessed as RGB only, which I think is a big improvement.

Last night was my first night out with a new rig, using a C8 SCT and an OAG. Also my first attempt at a globular cluster although I've admired them through binocs many times. Where better to start, especially at this time of year, than M13 in Hercules? 10x 150s each of B,G,R. 1hr 15min total, Bortle 2. Luminance created from all channels. Celestron C8 with 0.63x FF/FR on a HEQ5 Pro - 1350mm FL. Celestron SCT focus motor with NINA autofocus for each filter. Imaging: ASI160MM Pro @ 20c. Baader RGB filters. Guiding: OVL OAG, ASI290MM Mini. Software: NINA, PHD2, SharpCap PA. AstroPixelProcessor, Gimp. 30x darks, flats, dark flats. CC greatly appreciated. There's definitely something kinky in my green flats, as they're not calibrating out that great big donut. Also, stars are a bit clunky, and the shapes in the corners are a bit beany. Is this what can be expected from a C8 with FF? Or do I need to collimate?

I know that software can remove the trails, but I find starlinks objectionable on principle. It's like as if one day you lived in a leafy valley overlooking a country lane, and the next day someone had turned it into a motorway without asking you. So ok triple glazing can keep the noise out but it's still pollution/littering/whatever. Starlink is SpaceX, not Tesla so I didn't think it had anything to do with tracking cars. Its stated purpose is cheap internet and I really don't think it's worth trashing the heavens for more cheap internet.

I'd agree - send it back. I think you can reasonably argue that all you did was fit the new board (which was an essential task with a replacement board!) and the socket didn't stand up to the job. Before you put a soldering iron anywhere near it I'd look for a replacement. Fixing or replacing surface mount components is very fiddly work!

To the best of my knowledge, you can't calibrate using the simulator. If you can manually slew using EQMOD, and if you've connected the mount in PHD2, then I think you'll need to wait for a clear night to continue!

@PeterStudz fully agree. I've gone down the AP rabbit hole recently, and sometimes I realise that I haven't actually looked through a telescope in ages. Different strokes. I'm now thinking about getting a cheap and practical scope for visual only - maybe even an ST80 or ST100, so I can observe sometimes, especially if I have guests or while the imaging scope is doing its thing. Guests don't realise how big a job it is for me if they want to look through my imaging scope!

Windows will remember port numbers that have been assigned to certain devices, and reserve them in case one of those devices is connected in future. You can reset the reservation using regedit - articles like this explain how: https://e-radionica.com/en/blog/how-to-clear-or-reset-com-ports/ I don't use Eagle so I can't give you the specific steps but as it's Win10 it should be similar to this. What type of cable are you using? The SkyWatcher serial-to-USB connector uses a Proliant chip, which doesn't have a set serial number. The problem here is that Windows always sees it as a new device every time and allocate a new COM port, and will eventually use up all of the available COM ports. You need to use a cable with a FTDI chip, as these are recognised by Windows every time you connect, and will always get the same COM port. This also means you don't have to check Device Manager every time to see what COM port you got today, so one less step in your set-up! Lynx Astro cables use FTDI chips, but there are others too. If you're already using an FTDI then I don't know what the issue might be.

+1 for EQMOD, it's the only way to go. Make sure you get a cable that has FTDI chipset, not the Proliant one that Skywatcher sells. The Lynx Astro ones are excellent. I agree it's nice to have a physical hand controller for slewing. It is possible to use a generic XBox or PS2 controller through the AscomPad interface if you really want buttons and knobs.

There's lots of good advice above already. It might be useful to separate the problem out into two parts - the light around you, and the light above you. The light around you (the ring of lights on your patio and any lights from surrounding buildings) that stops your eyes acclimatising to the dark is a real distraction, and can stop you being able to see those fainter night sky objects. The best advice here is to wear a hood, and protect your eyes from the light as much as possible. It helps to do that even in dark skies, but definitely in a built-up area it's essential (I live in Bortle 8 city centre/suburbs). You can even buy a 'Hooded Observing Jacket' which sounds like a joke but I've been tempted! I've reused an old sports hoodie that I use both for the cold and the light protection and I grandly tell my wife that it's my hooded observing jacket. Sounds so posh. https://astronomy.com/observing/product-reviews/2010/11/dark-skies-apparel-vest For the light above you, there's less that you can do. This is the light of the city reflected off any cloud or moisture in the air. On bad nights this will reduce your visibility to where it may not be worth the bother setting up at all. I'm not convinced by filters - as mentioned above, they may not be effective for LED light, but they also make dim objects even dimmer, with the benefit of enhanced contrast. If you're struggling to see the objects in the first place, this might not work for you. Google for "Top 10 astronomy targets" etc. and you'll find many good lists of what you can see, from almost any location. The moon and the major planets are usually top of the list. After that, I would recommend star clusters. Globular clusters are joys to behold, and can be seen well even in LP areas. M13 and M3 are both easily seen at the moment. Open clusters take a little getting used to as they look just like over-populated star fields, but you can get to know the star patterns in them and learn to recognise them. The beehive cluster in Cancer can be seen at the moment, and depending on your orientation, you might be able to scan Auriga which contains at least three great open clusters. The Orion nebula is very bright and worth looking at when it's around - it's a winter sight though. You'll do well to be able to see any other nebulas in city light. Similarly with galaxies - you will probably make out Andromeda very faintly, but a lot of people don't realise just how big Andromeda is. You're better to use a good pair of binoculars for it, as with most telescopes you're just looking at the core, and there isn't enough contrast to make it stand out. I don't think you'll see any other galaxies. Bright planetary nebulas are a possibility but I don't know. They're quite small so you might need more power to see them. I think the best value would be from a 80-100mm refractor or a 130-150mm Newtonian with a sturdy Alt-Az mount. I know you said you don't want to do astrophotography and we all said that at the start! (laughing nervously and waiting for the bank manager to call). AP can work well from city centres - but narrowband, rather than broadband is best. There are some superb examples on these pages of deep sky photos taken from large cities.