Padraic M

Over the last few clear nights I've concentrated on NGC 6823 & NGC 6820. NGC 6820 (the dark pillar left of centre) is a small reflection nebula in Vulpecula, and NGC 6823 is an associated star cluster. They are both embedded in a faint emission nebula Sharpless 2-86. Over three nights I managed to get: 109x60s lum 44x60s red 38x60s green 45x60s blue Total exposure just under 4 hours. The numbers are odd because I have guiding issues. The mount makes lurches in declination from time to time which ruin the current sub. This is after sorting out the following problems: - focus was poor (now using electronic focusing, autofocus through APT) - realising that I don't need to rotate the camera after a meridian flip - DSS can deal with it - realising that flats are required for each filter used. The APT CCD Flats Tool is useful for capturing flats and dark flats. Not 100% sure that it's correct just yet. DSS does a good job once you figure out the process. I stacked luminance first, and identified the best frame. Stacked each of RGB using the best luminance frame as the reference. Stacking mode of Standard used to make sure that all stacked frames are aligned with the lum reference. Any tips on stretching and setting the colour balance in Gimp would be appreciated. I'd like to have more red in the final output above, and slightly less green in the background, but can't seem to get it right without adding magenta. Overall I think the colours should be more saturated, and I would have thought that with 4 hours exposure I would be able to bring out more detail in the nebulosity. Stars are a bit fat, and prone to coloured halos. Lots of learning happened with this image as it's by far my most ambitious shot so far. I'm starting to understand the importance of setting up a rig correctly, getting all necessary calibration frames, and leaving the rig alone until the target has been captured completely. Equipment: Mount: HEQ5 Pro. Needs a strip-down and lubrication (ala Astrobaby) and a belt mod. Scope: Celestron C8 SCT w/0.6x focal reducer. Longer focal length than I'd like, but all available given lock-down. Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro cooled to -10c. Considering moving to -20c for the next project. Guiding: Starwave 50mm & ZWO ASI290MM Mini Software: Sharpcap polar alignment. APT, PHD2, Stellarium. Deep Sky Stacker. Gimp.

Got it Terry, I saw those grub screws but it didn't look like the clamp was a separate piece. I'll add this to my (long) investment list. I hate hearing that crunchy noise when I'm setting up as the clamp bites into the vixen bar!

Hi Terry, how does the puck fit on the HEQ5? Does it just slot into the existing vixen clamp or is there a way to remove the existing vixen and replace it with the PLL one?

I dare hope that the Esprit 80 I have on order may be on its way... Good luck with this one Carole.

Because the eyes aren't up to it... I got a focusing assistant robot 🤖🔧 ! I'm surprised at how heavy it is (410g). I'm hoping to get away with this set-up on my HEQ5 but it's over 50% of the HEQ5 max payload value so I'm pushing it already. Also took three attempts to install correctly. Two issues: a) the grub screw/set-screw that binds the motor to the focus shaft needs to be really tight, or else the focus shaft slips. They say not to over-tighten, but with this particular screw, you need to make sure it has a proper grip on the shaft. b) the motor won't turn if it hasn't been calibrated, and the instructions don't tell you that. After I had fixed a) above, I really thought I'd broken it already because it gave one initial lurch and then silence. Calibrating in the Celestron stand-alone software did the trick.

So, another great night imaging last night - CO said cloudy, but it was a night of superb Bortle 2 skies. Unfortunately I had to close up shop at 1:30 as it was a work night. Trying to build on earlier attempts above - took onboard some great advice. Changes made: - Great attention to focus, although still manual. The night was still and seeing was good which helped. - All channels un-binned (1x1 on ASI1600MM) - 4x300 subs on each channel giving 1hr 20 of data. Took one 300-sec dark, and reused flats and bias from earlier. First attempts to stack (DSS) and process (Gimp) were disappointing. Images needed manual aligning, and the green channel was way too strong. Lessons learned which produced the image below include: - For some reason applying both bias and dark frames blew out the green channel. Not the others. Applying either dark or bias on its own was fine. Flats worked fine in all cases. - Stacking with 'Standard Mode' alignment means that the dimensions of the reference frame are used for all outputs (LRG and B autosave.tifs). I had used 'Intersect Mode' previously, which meant that each output file had slightly different dimensions. Hence the manual alignment. - All loaded into Gimp perfectly, with the same dimensions, and fully aligned. I masked off the DSO itself, and applied auto-levels to the background. Colours are slightly funky but I think much better than I could do manually at the mo. Overall, I think this is a much better attempt than the ones above. I think the optical setup is mis-matched (C8 & 1600mm / Starwave 50mm & 290mm), so the next night out I will bin the frames 2x2 or even 3x3 to give a better pixel ratio for guiding. My phd2 guiding was at ~1.7"/px, and the main imaging pixel scale is ~0.5"/px so hence big fat stars. Comments?

Thanks @wimvb for the support. I see what you mean about binning - I'll leave that out on my next session. Will definitely make processing easier. Bahtinov mask also on order.

Hi, for planetary viewing/imaging, I don't have the Orion Starshoot, but I think it is a usb webcam, and I found webcams (logitech, MS Lifecam etc.) to be very frustrating. They're fine for capturing rough images of what you're viewing so from that point of view are good for the money. They won't do the more interesting deep-sky objects. I went for a ZWO 290mm Mini (mono) as a step on the way to a more sophisticated DSO imaging camera, and the 290 mini is now my guide camera. You could look at https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32811962129.html the T7C, as a cheap colour alternative, a lot of folks on here use it and like it. Otherwise the ZWO ASI120MC is a cheap intro to the ZWO world.

New equipment acquired over the last week has finally allowed me to image with phd2 autoguiding and a cooled mono camera (asi1600mm Pro). Not yet an ideal setup, but long past the part where I get to blame my kit for poor outcomes! Samples included below are LRGB for M51 and M27. For both, I shot 5x180sec subs in each of lrgb, and attempted to stack in DSS. M51 was a disaster. I think poor focus has ruined the data, as DSS refuses to stack ANY of the channels. So, the jpg below is just 3 minutes each of lrgb, with darks, flats and biases applied. fyi, L is binned 1x1 and RGB each binned 2x2; I'm all over the place when it comes to stacking workflow and processing, given that L resolution is twice RGB, so how to align in DSS, and how to overlay layers in Gimp? M27 fared better; focus still not great, but not as bad as above. DSS is happy to stack everything except the Green channel; it can't find more than 4 stars in the fits image. I've just manually aligned one green sub - possibly needs to be scaled slightly too. Interestingly, the DSS-aligned layers didn't line up perfectly in Gimp. Why do DSS autosave.tifs have different resolutions? Flats aren't working for either image, there's lots of vignetting which I've cropped. I think the material I'm using to cover the scope is too opaque. Will need more experimentation. Setup for now is Celestron C8 with FR (FL 1300mm) on HEQ5 Pro; ASI1600MM Pro imaging; AA Starwave 50mm guidescope with ASI290MM Mini. phd2 was showing ~1.6" total error which is a lot for 1x1 imaging with that setup. Areas for immediate improvement: - Focus (auto focuser on order) - More binning or Longer subs required, to get more usable stars esp. in green channel? - Bin L the same as RGB until I understand the alignment process more - Sort out flats capture process All other suggestions welcome, as long as it's not "quit while you're ahead, you're not cut out for this"!

Now I feel like a REAL astrophotographer! Got the kit. Now just need to get the skills. btw, I definitely got the version that contains clouds.

Isn't it amazing how simple solutions sometimes don't occur to you at 3am?

Thanks all for the comments. Scope for more experimenting on the next clear night. @david_taurus83 I may take a look at CdC as I know a lot of experts on here use it, but I'd like to see if I can get Stellarium working as I'm more familiar with it for now. @geordie85 I did not know that! Another read of the manual required I think.

Hi all, I had an interesting/frustrating problem with imaging last night, which looks like an issue in alignment between APT and Stellarium. Here's a summary: I plate solve in APT, Sync to the mount, and send the coordinates to Stellarium. Check Stellarium to see how I'm aligned. Worked perfectly as expected with M57 and M13 - as below. However, when I tried M75, plate solve succeeds, but Stellarium is out of alignment. This is not a big problem as I have the DSO in my camera fov, but the problem is when I try to use Stellarium to slew to other objects, they don't appear in my fov. For example, M92 couldn't be found, even though M13 and M57 are perfectly aligned. The reason I want to select an object in Stellarium and slew rather than using APT and its object catalog, is that I wanted to find Saturn and Jupiter which aren't in APT. When I selected either planet in Stellarium, the scope slew was quite a good distance out, and I had to manually adjust (not easy when you're fully camera-d up). Any ideas as to how APT and Stellarium keep their coordinate systems in sync, and anything that I need to set in common between them? I'm using Stellarium 0.19.3 and APT 3.84, and ASCOM HEQ5 driver. M57 successfully synced: M13 successfully synced: M75 out of alignment:

Absolutely fantastic result Tom and Olly. Congratulations. Skill, talent, expertise and perseverance all in equal measure. A real work of art.

Well done to you all - I've been admiring your perseverance as well as your skill! There has been some great knowledge building and sharing on this thread and it deserves to be captured for future reference. I'm afraid I took the lazy route and received my replacement HEQ5 board last week. All installed and back working, in time for a weekend of clear skies. I'm not impressed at how easy it is to blow control boards on these mounts - they may be 'entry level' but they are by no means cheap. Input voltage protection seems to me like an essential design feature at this level - you'd expect some opto-isolators at a minimum; it just seems shoddy that Skywatcher/Synta decided not to include them in the design.

I much prefer the Chinese view of the Moon Rabbit than the western Man in the Moon The Sea of Tranquility is the round dark bit at the base of the rabbit's ears - or the man's left eye. The Apollo 11 Eagle module landed at Tranquility Base, just in the mountains at the bottom of the left ear.

Nice picture of the Sea of Tranquility there - you even managed to get the Apollo 11 landing site in the picture!

What I find very useful is to load both front and back images into Gimp (my tool of choice) or PS as separate layers. Mirror the bottom side horizontally, then using the Perspective tool, get both layers aligned perfectly. Then all you need to do is toggle the top layer visibility to see how top and bottom components, vias and holes line up. Makes analysis a lot easier.

Have you checked with telescop-express? They claim to have one in stock. Can't tell which revision it is. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php?products_id=10989#cs I've been following this thread with interest - a replacement mother board for my HEQ5-Pro is due to arrive next week. I haven't been able to trace the error on my own board, but it also blew while connecting an EQMOD cable. It's a shame that this happens so easily. I suspect that the PIC serial in/out pins either shorted to 12V or got a voltage spike as everything except the communications with the controllers seems to work. Just like yours. Once I'm sure that the new board actually fixes the problem, I'm happy to do some reverse engineering on the old board to see if I can shed any more light on the issue. Maybe we need to start a wiki on SW mount problems??? btw, I know that a lot of people including malc-c have been able to fix this issue by replacing the two large electrolytic capacitors, but this puzzles me as it looks like they are just smoothing capacitors on one of the power regulators.

Sometimes I think it's a Dark Sky Reserve because it rains so much! I stay on the more southerly peninsula. It's stunning when it's clear though, and it looks like it will be late July/August before the next trip is possible.

Very impressive Carole, what can be done under Bortle 8. Like you I'm locked down in B8 rather than my other site which is Bortle 2 🙄 and to make matters worse, I blew my HEQ5 Pro motherboard at the start of April, trying to connect it to my laptop. Surprisingly easily done... Have been making do with a shaky old CG-3, but glad to see that the replacement board has finally been shipped to me today. You've inspired me to persevere after a very frustrating two months!

Same for me - still using the polar scope on the HEQ5 and it does for my level of imaging.

That's very well done for your second night and a smartphone! I still find focusing is my number 1 challenge. There are multi-speed focusers and focus masks etc. etc. for lots of money but in the meantime we just have to be very careful with focusing, and the entry-level scopes don't make it easy. Here's my effort on Venus from a few weeks back - not as much of a crescent as it is now. I used a webcam and the 'lucky imaging' technique that is more controllable than the smartphone approach. Keep up the good work, and with practice the pennies will start to drop.

Remember what John said earlier. For your current requirements, set your latitude and point the mount North. That's perfectly good for now. First thing first - if you don't know where Polaris is, look it up! You need to find the Plough, and follow a line from the two stars in the 'pot'. See here for pictures: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/polaris-the-present-day-north-star You will still need to use both Dec and RA mount controls to find an object. Think of Polaris as the center of rotation in the night sky (it's not quite but it's close enough). When you decide what target you want to find, the Declination figure is how 'far away' from Polaris the target is, or how far 'down the sky' it is. Declination is zero degrees at the celestial equator, up to 90 degrees for Polaris itself. RA is how far rotated around Polaris the target is. Think of those circular star trails in the photographs at the link above. They are the stars moving in RA as time passes, and they all rotate around Polaris. Once you find your target (using the finder scope, and then you'll see it in the main scope), Dec won't change, but as the Earth rotates, the RA of your target will change constantly. This is where you just need to adjust RA to keep track of your target. You'd be surprised just how quickly it moves in RA, especially in high-power eyepieces. You'll need to get used to this. It's not always up, down, left, right - most of the time, RA and Dec move in a kind of an 'X' pattern. You will eventually get to know what effect increasing or decreasing RA and Dec will have. I still have to turn the knob a bit and see what happens. Always more to learn!

One step at a time!!!! Get used to what you know now for a little while. The key to 'pointing north' is that it's your mount that points north. Your scope can point in any direction you want. This is the next lesson to learn and it's called Polar Alignment. If your mount is properly polar-aligned, then you only have to manually adjust the RA control to follow an object (or you can use the motor drive if you want). If it's not polar aligned, you will need to use both RA and Dec controls to follow an object, and it's a bit more tricky. It's not a real problem for you immediately, but you will want to learn that trick soon.