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Stuart1971

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Everything posted by Stuart1971

  1. Stuart1971
    Thanks , Yes me too now, after seeing what just 45 mins gets me, I’m thinking what will 6-8 hours bring.. I am very impressed with these 3nm Optolong SHO filters too, no gradient at all to speak of, and I am in bortle 7ish zone.. Onwards and upwards…
  2. Stuart1971
    I had 45 mins at the end of my session last night, and after seeing @Richard_ Rosette above, and being very impressed, I thought I would turn the scope to the same Target, so this is 15x3 min subs, with my new 3nm Optolong SHO filters, this is just the Ha. I wasn’t expecting much for 45 mins, but was totally surprised… Esprit 100 on CEM70, QHY238m guided with Whitecat 51 with ASI178m
  3. Stuart1971
    The QHY as soon as you add the power it auto cools to zero, or there abouts..that’s normal..
  4. Stuart1971
    Oh dear, I hope it’s not a serious issue…I noticed with mine that the longer I set the time to cool, the longer it takes to actually start cooling at all….i set it on 10 mins to get to -10, and the sensor temp was 0, it took 3 mins before the cooler even came on, which I thought was odd… I have managed to get the humidity on mine down to 47% at -10, am out imaging tonight
  5. Stuart1971
    Well with the new BlurX AI4 now available, this is all moot anyway, as that corrects just about any aberration, especially where mis-shapen stars are concerned, it just adds another $100 onto the price of the scope…which at this price point is not bad.. Oh, but you do need pixinsight, so maybe more like $300 if you don’t have it already….👍🏻
  6. Stuart1971
    I have just watched the video, and I was left a bit unsure, as he was very careful how much of the aberration inspector images he actually showed from certain scopes, he showed more of the ones that were much better, and showed, and said less. about the ones, that I assume were not so good, like the Askar.. 🤔🤔
  7. Stuart1971
    You are correct with EQMOD you don’t need an ST4 cable, you just need the USB cable from camera to PC and EQMOD cable from mount to the PC, also EQMOD needs to be set to “pulse guide” mode and NOT “ST4 mode”. It sounds like the mount is not getting any commands at all, so a setting must be wrong somewhere, probably in EQMOD
  8. Stuart1971
    It will be just down to the calibration step size, in the brain settings, as it will change when you re installed PHD2, it will need making bigger, so it moved more on each step…
  9. Stuart1971
    Did you speak too soon, ?? as was the same here, and now just poured down….☹️
  10. Stuart1971
    Well, I have had the desiccant tube in for 4 days now, and it’s running at 48% humidity ambient and 60% at -10, so we will see how long that lasts, and no more dewing up ATM, Although I am cooling the sensor now over a 10 min period instead of 5 min as I was before.
  11. Stuart1971
    Thanks, really good info, I am waiting for images with at least and APS-C size sensor with the flattener, as I would like to see the corner stars from this set up, although in saying that it does not really matter what the corner stars look like as the new BlurX AI4 would make them perfect again anyway….🤔
  12. Stuart1971
    We were discussing the ideal gain and more importantly the offset settings of the QHY268 cameras…it seems that we have some people here that use 255 as the offset and others including QHY themselves, just use 30 for the same mode 0 setting, and wondered what effect this might have, and if you have an opinion…
  13. Stuart1971
    @vlaiv
  14. Stuart1971
    Well, if you read through this thread especially the early part we do talk about all this and also QHY recommendations.. I have to say you are the first I have ever seen using this setting, and when I got my camera I read hundreds of forum posts and watched a ton of videos to get the best out of my camera….but each to there own I guess, but I dont use APP or Sharpcap I use PI and NINA, not sure why that would make a difference though… Also I do think the 0-255 setting works like that. I think 0-255 if a relative scale of the whole 16 bit range but I may be wrong…
  15. Stuart1971
    Oh, and if using NINA to check the offset by taking a bias frame, you need the graph full screen to see the gap on the left of the histogram, dont use it in a small window as the scale is far too small, you are looking for a very low reading on the MIN setting.. To simplify you should have no pixels with a value of zero on the min side, but try to keep down below 1000 and as few as possible above zero on the max side… you will find with your setting of 255 that you have a hight number of pixels clipped on the min side of the graph, which is not good.. you also will need to adjust your gain too, as on the mode you use a gain of 26 is about right.. this is from QHY
  16. Stuart1971
    Yes it is to Create a null space to the left, but you need that gap as small as possible, or you really reducing the dynamic range, 25-30 gives a nice small gap, this is the figure you should use all the time, 255 is way way too high, and also use the mode 1 with gain 56 it gives the best all round performance… if you read back in this thread you will see what I mean, about offset, trust me, yours is way too high…
  17. Stuart1971
    Wouldnt the cotton wool get saturated before the desiccant, which would then get back in the chamber….??
  18. Stuart1971
    The issue with that molecular desiccant is that you get dust with it that can get in the chamber, which is not good…I will stick with the stuff I have as it seems to work..
  19. Stuart1971
    Mine that came with the camera is orange and came in a sealed bottle. Was supplied by Bern at modern astronomy when I bought the camera.. I am also at 65% when at -10, and have figured out it’s the air in the filter wheel condensing on the cover glass when cooled quickly to -10, when I cool over a longer period, say 10 mins, it’s all fine…
  20. Stuart1971
    Well just tried mine again, and got the dark patch in the middle again, this time I cooled to -10mover a 5 min period, and when at -10 the humidity was 64% which does not seem that high TBH, and it’s been that beofre and never had this issue…this is a flat frame below, as soon as I warmed up and it was at 2 degrees the flat frame was perfect again..
  21. Stuart1971
    Can I ask why you use an offset of 255, which is the max, this is way way too high, you only need 25 or 30, also the high gain mode 1 is the best mode with an offset of 30, and gain of 56, seems to give the best results
  22. Stuart1971
    Hmm, I did bring my camera into the house to fit the desiccant tube as I was swapping my filters out for some new 3nm ones too, and humidity was much lower inside, I also took the screw out of the camera and immediately put the tube in, to avoid much air entering, so hopefully it won’t get worse beofre it gets better, will have a look later and see as it’s been 2 days…
  23. Stuart1971
    This is what I suffered with out of the blue, dark patch in the middle, but since then I have cooled the camera to -10 more slowly (over 10 min period) and it’s not been an issue, but I too fitted the desiccant tube yesterday, to my QHY268m for the first time since it was purchased new…😮😮
  24. Stuart1971
    My post has been deleted….
  25. Stuart1971
    Another question, my QHY268 no longer cools to zero degrees on connection and power on like it used to, but I have never updated the firmware or the driver in nearly 2 years, I still use an all in one driver from 2022, and USB and firmware from 2021, as shown below, so how has this change happened…? As I see it was changed in newer 2023 driver versions…🤔🤔
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