AstroRookie

Hello, I have my EQ6R-pro mount adapted to a concrete pier using this universal adapter. For me one of the purposes of mounting it on a pier was to avoid having to polar align before each session. But alas, when I check the polar alignment at the start of the session using the attached Polemaster, the polestar is always below the little circle where it is supposed to be in. So basically the mount is lowered in altitude, and I have to polar align each time. The pier has a foundation of a concrete block of 60cmx60cmx60cm and the pier is 70cm above ground level. Anyone any idea why the mount does not hold it's polar alignment? Thanks for your help! AstroRookie

Hello, I live in a bortle 5 (that's according to clear outside) area; personally, judging from the light pollution map here attached, i would say 6. To the south as one can see on the map I'm facing a "white zone". Now in our village on weekdays, the street lights are dimmed between midnight and 04:00h in the morning. My question is, under these conditions is it any use taking images before midnight and pre-process them along with images taken between 00:00h and 04:00h or should I just limit my imaging between 00:00 and 04:00 ? Of course that is imaging without a narrow band filter, as this will not make much difference when the image is taken, or do I get this wrong, which would be possible, as I'm AstroRookie

I'm sorry, all my fault, I bought some new equipment, hence 6 weeks of clouds and rain AstroRookie

Astro Noodles, I picked up this hobby, cause I had all of a sudden "plenty" of time no longer having to commute to work, "thanks" to covid-19. Since I started astrophotography I banged my head against whatever I could bang it against every time I tried a new piece of equipment. But apart from the headaches, I've been enjoying me like mad. And yes my results "suck", but they're my results, and an APOD is not and will never be my ambition, but that's because I am and always will be, AstroRookie PS: remember the words from a famous astrophotographer" "Every thing is meaningless and ... D.O."

Hello, after weeks of rain, finally able to use the ZWO EAF I got for my birthday from my kids. I looked around a bit and these are the settings I'm using - "as we speak" - with Ekos and my Orion8 newtonian: Settings tab: Full field: checked Box: 64px Annulus: 25% - 80% Settle: 0 Process: Detection: SEP Kernel size: 5 Sigma: 1.5 SEP Profile: focus default Algorithm: Linear Tolerance: 5% Average over 2 frames When I start the automatic focus process, it starts far out (or in), with donnut-shaped stars, at some point it reaches (imho) nice focus but continues and stops with donnut shaped stars. I've read somewhere that with a Newtonian it's not easy to use an automatic focus process, due to the secondary mirror shadow when out of focus. Can anybody please advise what settings I can use for my setup? Thanks and kind regards, AstroRookie

Hello, I came across this camera Imageview Store 26MP USB 3.0 on Aliexpress. Description looks a bit so and so (it mentions amp glow as being a feature but I guess this is either the result of "lost in translation" or a typo, with "no" missing. It uses the same Sony IMX571 processor as the QHY268C but comes at more or less half the price as the QHY268C. Description also seems to be made by somebody that would use this for planetary imaging, where imho this is typically a deepsky imaging camera? Price is very interesting, but 1000+ Euros is still a lot of money (for me that is). Can somebody with more experience and knowledge shed a light on this? Thanks! AstroRookie

Hi Glenn, I watched this video while looking for some ideas and it's very well done; unfortunately, I had the restriction that I can not make a concrete floor. AstroRookie

Hi Dougie, you're correct about the sky view, but on the picture you don't see the light pollution 😉 Bortle scale 5 ... AstroRookie

Hello Swoop1, you're absolutely right about Mount Palomar, but it was never my intention trying to make a Mount Palomar replica AstroRookie

Hello, AstroRookies Sterrenkot is AstroRookies Starshed in English, so we understand each other. I'm new to the hobby and I'm basically lazy, so I quickly realized that spending 2 hours setting up my gear for each session, I would very soon call it quits. So after seeing one of Cuiv's, the lazy geek video, I understood that it's better to have the gear permanently outside and being used but wear out faster, than to have it inside not being used and last longer. So for a couple of months (september till february), I kept my gear (mount = EQ6R-pro, telescope= Orion 8 Astrograph) under a car cover outside in the grass. I soon realized that this was not very ideal, as the grass soon turned into mud, the cover also started to collect mud and I had to polar align for each session, so I needed something else. That's when I started brainstorming with a friend who's not an astrophotography amateur, but who's very handy, has the necessary tool and knows that AstroRookie is on a budget. So that's how we came up with a tent-shed on rails, covering a platform. After a couple of sessions, I experienced that the platform was not a very good idea because when one has to walk on the platform for polar alignment the whole setup is vibrating. But I considered this my version 0.1. The tent is with a metal frame, and the whole construction has been tested with storm winds of around 100km/h and more. I used the car cover as an inner layer against dew on the inside After some more brainstorming, I finally decided to build a pier together with my pal. And this weekend the "observatory" is finalized. (Thanks a million once more, Filip!) I estimate the whole thing has costed around 800 €, still a considerable amount of money for AstroRookie, but I think it's difficult to do it for less. See attached picture. It's not high-tech nor very scientific, not automated and maybe many of you would not even think about putting their gear in it, but it's more then enough for, AstroRookie

It turns out it's just me ... A friend suggested to shine with a flashlight into the holes, to see if there are threads present, and what do I see, there are already locking screws in the holes. So this stupid here tried to screw locking screws into locking screws ... I feel so stupid, but I have the "advantage", I can always fallback to my username AstroRookie

Orion 8 Astrograph. The problem is the little locking screws that do not fit in the holes of the couplers. I tried the locking screw of my focuser knob, and even this one does not go into it. I suspect there's no threads in the little holes of the couplers. AstroRookie

As a (eternal?) beginner and on a tight budget I always try to inform myself as much as possible for my next purchase in this hobby; but despite my roaming forums, youtube and what not, I seem to be very unlucky when it comes to ZWO accessories (I cannot speak for there cameras, as a dedicated astrocamera is only planned somewhere next year). My first ZWO purchase was the ZWO ASI 120MM guide camera ; to reach focus with the guidescope, I needed to screw the extender on, but alas no way to get that extender tight. Very likely problem with the threads. For 185€ I did not wanted to start an email chain back and forth with the supplier, as after all he's just the reseller. So after being fed up with not being able to fix the guide camera in the guide scope, I used super glue to glue the extender to the camera. Problem fixed, but I admit not a very "scientific" solution. After having ruined a 50+ subs session due to focus problems because of a temperature change - I plead guilty, I shouldn't have taking that nap - I decided to buy a motorfocuser. As usual weeks of searching and reading before deciding what to buy. Being an Astroberry Ekos user, I found that the ZWO EAF was guaranteed to work with Ekos, so I purchased it despite this user's experience: ZWO EAF (fast forward to 14:33). When it arrived, the first thing I tried was to see if the screws to attache the bracket to the motor unit were fitting. Ok, I did not have the problem as the guy in the video. As this weekend, I'm starting the works for the telescope pier, I dismantled the tripod, mount and scope and took on the occasion to install the focuser. Removed the focus knob, to replace it with the flexible focus coupler, wanted to screw in the locking screw, but no, no way to screw in the locking screws, none of the 8 locking screws can be fitted in any of the couplers ... 😒 rendering the whole thing useless. I emailed and called the supplier but apart from "we'll have our technician have a look into it" and also "you should not complain, this is made in China, with labour costs half of what they are in Europe, so what can you expect" (which honestly I think is close to racism, but that's then maybe me being too sensitive) no reaction. A sad and frustrated, AstroRookie

Hello Kens, thanks for the advice; I was just slewing manually to get some object in the field of view in order to align the guide scope. I haven't had the problem since then. I have since then, 3 times used my setup and each time I slew with the ekos mount control during polar alignment with the PoleMaster, and no problem. I think a lose usb cable could have been the problem, as the usb-b cable is not very fixed in that "socket", I switched already cables but I think it's the "hole" where that usb-b connector plugs in, that is a bit to big. Thanks for your help! AstroRookie

Hello Kens, I was using the ekos mount control arrow buttons

I checked it and no nothing changed; I was doing some test shots and while polar aligning with the PoleMaster, it did it again. I shutdown the mount, put it manual in home position and then I noticed that the RA setting circle was no longer well positioned. Re-positioned that and every went ok from there. Fixed, but I can't explain why

That's a good idea - I'll check it over the weekend, thanks!

Hello, I recently have reinstalled all my gear and wanted to align the guider scope with the main scope using the attached cameras. Here's my problem, and how I reproduced it (twice only, as I don't want to wreck my equipment) Running kstars (Version 3.5.0 Stable)/ekos (INDI Library: 1.8.7) on astroberry (Linux astroberry 5.10.11-v7l+ #1399) Mount connected to astroberry via USB port Start ekos from within kstars Connect EQ6-R mount, main camera and guide camera Start ekos mount control Slew declination so that scope is +- horizontal roughly pointed at an object near the horizon Start slewing right ascension to find object on the horizon Result: Slewing in right ascension cannot be stopped; mount continues to slew till pointed at the ground and motors making a horrible noise (I'm sure it didn't do much good to the worm gears and/or motors) I did the same thing using the synscan hand control, and there I had no problems; I'm not sure if this is an ekos problem or if's a problem on the EQ6R-controller ??? FYI: I have used this setup (EQ6R, astroberry, kstars/ekos) for imaging without any problem so far. Every time I start the astroberry, I do a system update (sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade) I have posted this on indilib.org/ Ekos forum, but have not received any reaction so far. Any help/comment appreciated! AstroRookie

Hello Vlaiv, what you're explaining here, isn't that what Siril does with it's "Photometric calibration" functionality? AstroRookie

Hello Michael, I wish I could not care about the weather, but since I dropped my C8, I leave the new scope permanently outside under a cover. So even during the day I depend on the weather to thinker with it. I'm working on a solution for this, but will not be before mid 2021. An other thing is that I have already removed the camera from the focuser to check the coma corrector, so would not be the same camera orientation. But what puzzles me now is that some sources say flats must be the same iso as the subs, others say you must have an exposure between 0.5s and 2s and one can change the iso to obtain that (see this). Many thanks for the advice! AstroRookie

Hello, having read this I presume my diy flatbox is a bit too bright, and maybe I should lower the iso for my flats; I used the same iso as my subs, so maybe next time I lower the iso and calibrate then with flat darks at the same iso as my flats. And this more or less confirms it; exposure should be around 0.5s to 2.5s, and one should first try to adjust the brightness rather then the exposure. But unfortunately according to yr.no the next imaging session will not be for this year. One must be insane to try astrophotography as a hobby living in a windy shithole by the Northsea 😉 AstroRookie

Hello Michael, when taking my flats, the camera was in manual mode. I took some "test" flats to have the histogram +- in the left half. I took two sets one at 1/500s - histogram in the middle, an other set at 1/250s - histogram more to the left. You mention an exposure time of 1s, tried that as well, but my test flat was overexposed. Do you want me to post a link to one of my subs or to one of my flats? AstroRookie

Hello, when applying the flats taken in my last session (to find out what is causing the strange diffraction spikes) with Siril, the final stacked result still shows the vignetting and the dust spots. I also did the whole preprocessing with Nebulosity, same result. I took the flats as follows: same iso as my subs camera and focus not touched I use a homemade flatbox combined with the a white t-shirt with Ekos took test shots till the histogram was half-way to the left checked all my flats, they all show vignetting and the same dust spots as in my subs I tried using them with and without using a bias frame, same result, the final result looks as if no flats were used. Anybody any idea what is going on? An other question I have, will the vignetting and dust spots also show in the master flat (flats stacked)? Thanks for your help, AstroRookie

Hello malc-c, thank you for the elaborated answer, but I don't think I have the courage to go that way, being afraid that I will introduce more problems. I will however follow the advice you gave earlier, that is removing the corrector and see what that gives, if that is ok then we know it's the corrector. I didn't think of that last Tuesday because I suspected that having centered the central boss would have solved the issue. Let's wait for the next clear skies, and thanks again. AstroRookie

Hello, did the same exercise, 60s subs of M52 last Tuesday, with these differences: new moon no cooling device attached to the camera But same result, still the same weird diffraction spikes and as it was a new moon it was even more prominent. Due to the fact that there's a spectral separation visible, I suspect it's an optical element (mirror?, coma corrector?) that is having an issue, But how to find out? On the other hand why are the spikes not orthogonal, the spider vanes are. I have this scope only since April this year, and it was ok, I'm getting rather desperate with this hobby AstroRookie