Danield06

I have no idea where this is coming from and I thought I took care of all my light leaks. 

The one thing that is weird is that I always have that dark spot, and its always in the same location no matter what. To me it seems like it could be an internal reflection possibly? I am not sure. would love to see if anyone has any ideas. 

SoI just received my 2600MM a few weeks ago and I have been trying to get everything looking round. I seem to be running into minor issues but possibly dialing it in. Would like someone experienced to take a look at what I have. 

Camera: 2600MM 

Scope: GT81

Reducer/flattener: WO Flat 6aIII

Image 1:

 Here is a second image below. I wish I had downloaded the first image you see above. I did not but will upload it tomorrow night for.

Image 2: 

Essentially the first image has a smaller fwhm on the left side and is a bit more better adjusted for tilt compared to the second set of images. Issue Is I am still getting some weird shape stars on the right side, seems to be coma to me and I am not sure if its backspacing(too much or too little?) or tilt causing the issue. 

Again, please note that image 1 and image 2 are both dIfferent light frames. The first image in here I only have the curvature from CCD Inspector and I will get it uploaded tomorrow. 

Thanks!

If anyone is still in need of help let me know. Ekos AF works great. I use a ZWO EAF and once dialed in, it will work wonderfully. I haven't had an issue in months. just FYI that you need to be close to focus for the routine to work. Thats how it is with most AF programs.

Hello! Here is my HaRGB Horsehead nebula! Details are on my astrobin!!

Thank you! Let me know if you have any questions!

[URL=https://astrob.in/urhqx8/0/][IMG]https://astrob.in/urhqx8/0/rawthumb/gallery/get.jpg?insecure[/IMG][/URL]

Hello!

Below is my image of the pacman nebula. I am less than thrilled with the result. I am not sure why I do not like it, but something about it makes it my least favorite image to date. I will still take it as a win though. I can always visit it again or add more data. Its just that I had gotten a lot already. 

This is almost a total of 24 hours.

147 x 300" Ha

140 x 300" OIII

Equipment listed in my astrobin image. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I am going to nudge in Astronomik Deep Sky RGB filters. I am not exactly sure how they will perform planetary, but I imagine they should work well. They are top notch filters. 

On 06/11/2020 at 18:19, Steenamaroo said:

Bit of progress this evening...!

For some reason binning 1x1 works much better 2x2 and always has so I stuck with that.
Decreasing calibration pulse duration seemed to make things worse so, to experiment, I increased it.
That seemed to really help the shape of the guiding plot, so I kept increasing/testing/increasing testing.

Under advice from @Danield06 I went with 2.5 exposure, multistar algorithm, and auto-star.
Seems like a solid combination.

Once it was running well I thought I'd subtly tweak some values to see if I could improve it further and found that increasing proportional gain to 166 did just that.

 

In the end I had under 0.5 total RMS for about 5 minutes so I'm very happy with that.

 

Many thanks to everyone who has offered advice, or encouragement!

Looking good! You seem to be getting there. Has this been consistent? IS your guiding working better? That calibration plot looks much better

Just a quick question. What is your gain and offset for your guide camera? I am not seeing many stars in your image. I use a 120mm mini and guide with an OAG and I get significantly more stars. I am guiding at about a 400mm focal length and near the edge of the field as well.

4 hours ago, michael8554 said:

If the display shown bottom right in your last image is analogous to a PHD2 display, then the cluster of blue Dec dots instead of a straight line suggests you have forgotten to move the mount north until the star moves before Calibrating, to take up Dec Backlash.

Instead the Dec Calibration starts with clearing the backlash instead of moving the mount, which compromises the Calibration.

Also PHD2 likes a 12 step Calibration, yours are only 5 steps or so, which may be normal for Ekos, I wouldn't know, so maybe try a lower Pulse Length ?

Even so, with good PA, Dec should only need infrequent corrections, so your 2 to 3 arcsec guiding is probably down to the guide settings and balance.

I understand you can use PHD2 with Ekos ?

Michael

Yes you can use PHD2 but they shouldn't have to. The internal guider works very well. As you are suggesting, it is most likely an issue with settings. I had sent a PM to OP. They need to increase their iterations, and change a few settings. I use the Ekos internal guider and I can see a few things that should be change before moving onto a new issue. 

This messages seems like it is attacking you, but I promise in no way am I doing so lol. I am just suggesting that if there is an issue with guiding using the internal guider then it is a user issues, not a result of the software.

On 01/11/2020 at 02:32, alan potts said:

As good as any I have seen, excellent capture.

Alan

Thanks so much Allen! Appreciate it!

On 01/11/2020 at 03:35, AstroNtinos said:

One of the best pictures i've ener seen, thanks for sharing.

Thank you!

On 02/11/2020 at 16:40, Adam1234 said:

Lovely image! Good detail and colour. 

Here's my image of the heart ❤️ 

😂😂

😂 Thanks! Yours looks REALLY good! lol

On 02/11/2020 at 16:40, John Nodding said:

Absolute cracker! 👍

Noddy

Thank you!!

I had made a post earlier stating I had some issues with OIII.

I was able to sort it out. 

Imaging details are on my astrobin.

80 x 300" Ha

104 x 300 OIII

Hello,

I have been having terrible trouble getting HOO data of the heart nebula. This is an almost 9 hour integration of OII and yet the data looks awful and the final product is horrendous.

I cant seem to figure out what I am doing wrong The background is totally washed with blue, and the signal is totally weak/noisy. For almost 9 hours I was expecting MUCH better. Its totally washing out my Ha data as well, perosnally I think this image is atrocious and its certainly annoying me for almost a total of 20hrs integration. In fact, I had had much smaller integrations turn out much better. SO I am really at a loss and want to shut the door on this data and scrap it all. 

Here is the process

- Decon
- MLT Noise Reduction
- Stretch
- Starnet+ star removal
- Combine RGB
- Color saturation/hue adjustment
- Sharpening & Unsharp
- Create synthetic luminance with stars & blend together
- PS for further and final adjustments

Yes, I would definitely change the exposure to 2.5". I wouldn't change from SEP Multistar yet. Reason being is that it is the recommended default and works extremely well when you get everything going correctly(which you will). I just helped another user out over on cloudy nights forums and we got it all sorted out. Went from a 2" + RMS to now regularly below 1" RMS, we will figure it out! Additionally go to indilib.org . Jasem(Username Knro), the creator of Indi and Ekos/Kstars is regularly replying to peoples issues as well as his team of contributors and moderators. Specifically, Hy(thats the username) is very active and he is responsible for the guiding tab, implementing new algorithms and settings etc. Just want to clarify, Jasem and Hy are two different people)

Somehow we will figure this out so do not worry. Plenty of people successfully guide and almost all issues I or others have had are somehow user/equipment related, not pertaining to the software. 

Edit: Have you done any type of mods to your mount? Rowan Belt mod? I had to tidy up my belt mod and my calibration plot when from a scatter plot to nearly orthogonal. Just wanted to put that out there incase you have done so.

Guarantee once we get your calibration to be orthogonal that your guiding will be perfect. 

On 26/10/2020 at 21:21, Steenamaroo said:

I'm starting to wonder about that. Has anyone here successfully guided with this kit?

I guide with my HEQ5 pro from .7" to .85" RMS regularly. good nights I can get down to .55" to .70" RMS. It guides extremely well for me. 

What are ALL of your settings for guiding? What algorithm? Backlash measurement on? Etc...let me know everything or post a screenshot of the guide tab and all of the guide menu options form the "options" button on the bottom right.

Your calibration plot needs to be orthogonal or at least close to it. I am assuming it is not. Can you post what it looks like? I would also set exposures to something like 2.5". IMO 1" is too fast and you'll be 'chasing the seeing" essentially.

2 hours ago, Pryce said:

Are the elongation always in the same direction for every session? 

Has it always been a problem with that telescope/setup or has it slowly become worse over time?  

Try to rotate each piece in the image train individually.  Start in the back and move your way forward. 

If it happens with one device specifically it might help with the troubleshooting. 

 

I recently saw a video by Dylan O'Donell from Starstuff where he has a similar issue.  The problem was that he has more error in the RA axis than in DEC. 

Maybe this will help!

 

That's a good observation, I did have an RA issue that I did work out. It's definitely not a tracking issue. I did have both, but tracking error is now gone. I can confirm that too. It was east to west and there is no longer east to west elongation, it was mitigated eventually, but took me a month. I am thinking more along the lines of astigmatism from backspacing plus stiff tilt somewhere. The "elongation" your seeing I believe is astigmatism/tilt and I have been able to slightly change its direction when rotating my imaging train. It's in short 1" exposures and longer 300" exposures and always the same size.These are guided as well. I still have to okay around with everything though. Looking for some more idea. IF there still is elongation from tracking then I need to figure out this issue first because it is probably being masked by the diffraction/astigmatism or whatever the heck it could be! Lol

6 hours ago, MeyGray3833 said:

Hi. Can we have a bit more of a close up?

Hmm..Im not sure I can get much closer, feel free to download the drop box link and take a look though. I can get you more subframes as well. I'll see what I can do about being more cropped to get a closer look. 

Hello everyone,

I have had this issue for awhile and I can't seem to pinpoint what it is. Others cannot understand it much either. I'm not sure if it's my telescope or If it's just tilt/spacing issue.

One thing I noticed is that I always have elongation from the bottom left to the top right. My next issue is that I have these "wing" shaped stars. Maybe astigmatism from tilt? 

Any help would be appreciated. Images are below and I will post a drop box of a fits file.

The two image below are the center of the images. Pretty much all stars look like this throughout. The third image is a full view of my image, with some cropping. 

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1o8q33165n8qg06/Sadr_Light_Ha_300_secs_2020-09-07T03-33-55_017.fits?dl=0

Edit: r

- Meade 6000 80mm APO

- hotech FF

- ZWO EFW, ZWO ASI183MM

All help is appreciated, thanks!

On 16/08/2020 at 04:42, 1parsec said:

Does the 'humm' noise change when you change the slewing speeds on the hand controller ?
If the noise is that quiet it's likely it's not to be a problem.

How tight are the belts?  Too tight is bad!   You should have 1-2 mm deflection of the belt with light finger pressure.   @SiriusB comment is spot on.

To evaluate tracking performance you need to record a guide log with the actual guide corrections turned off.  
i.e the camera is then recording the change in position of the guide star caused by the tracking errors of the mount - the PE.

Then load that file in to EQ mod's  PecPrec or PHD2 viewer.  The graphs will tell you exactly what the errors are and where they're coming from.

 

Thanks! Next time I am out I will try and see what I can do. I use ekos and I have never guided without corrections. I will see what I can do with it 

5 hours ago, TerryMcK said:

If you can get a decent audio recording of what you are hearing and post it then that will be good

Honestly, it is masked by the slewing noise of the motors. Couldn't hear it on video. 

On 14/08/2020 at 10:48, Stu Wilson said:

I've just fitted mine a couple of weeks ago and had to take apart and back together. Sounds like a similar problem.

Think back to when you put the new gear drive on each motor. Did you put them on so the gear sits flush with the end of the shaft? I hadn't and got that awful grind noise as it WAS grinding.

I loosened the Allen bolts and tapped the gear flush.

Back together all great.

Also if you preload the bearings too much youll get horrible noises too.

I hope this helps.

 

Stu

Hi Stu,

Are you referring to the small gear that we had removed form the shaft or the big worm gear? I believe the small gear that we removed is sitting flsuh, but I will have to check that out. Maybe its causing some weird issue that is affecting the worm gear. I may also be preloading the bearings too much. I have played around with it so that the noise is super quiet and unnoticeable unless you really get close and listen for it. I can continue to make adjustments after I go out next time. 

9 hours ago, spillage said:

Possible worm gear binding too tight/loose?

I am thinking that this is a possibility! Ill have to do some adjusting. The whole reason I had done the belt mod is because my RA tracking was bad. I was getting very noticable elongation, and I have already noticed a considerable improvement with the belt mod. However, I believe I can dial it in more, hopefully removing this noise in the process

8 hours ago, sloz1664 said:

After completing a successful job of completing the Rowan mod, all you should hear is the whine of the servo motors and any additional noises are a fault somewhere. Undo the clutches and see if the RA & Dec axis are free and moving smoothly. If not, look at this strip down & rebuild from Astrobaby. If your Ra & Dec are OK, remove the motor board and have a look to see that the belts are aligned & the timing pulley are not rubbing on the housing. I had to remove a rough segment of my housing  to allow the timing pulley to rotate freely.

Steve

Thanks!

It is a very quiet noise I am hearing. Like a hum that goes in and out. I may be over thinking it as I really have to listen closely when I am slewing. However, I do know that the more I tighten the belt, the more pronounced the noise is. I can make it very noticeable or I can make it very very quiet based on belt tensioning. I went back and changed the tension ever so slightly. We will see how it is next time out. Ill also look at astrobabys guide, I am thinking it is a worm gear adjustment, I can hear it best when my ear is next to the worm gear. I know that pretty much all of my gears are aligned. However, what do you mean removing a rough segment of your housing? The motor housing or the motor board cover? 

Thanks for the reply!