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

11 hours ago, Glennbloke said:

Well done for thinking outside the box. I have actually made a Budget roll of roof observatory you may be interested in seeing. I have a video on the initial build that I did about 8 months ago and just done an updated video as there were a lot of questions on specific bits so covered them. I am not suggesting you should scrape that and make this by the way but you may want to upgrade to or change what you have. My obsey is excellent and works really well. Anyway best of luck with the hobby and clear skies

Glenn

 

 

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

14 hours ago, Dougie said:

As Swoop1 said, if it works for you it is perfect particularly with the sky view you have.
Now you  can make the most of it.

Hi Dougie,

you're correct about the sky view, but on the picture you don't see the light pollution 😉

Bortle scale 5 ...

AstroRookie

7 hours ago, Swoop1 said:

Mount Palomar it ain't @AstroRookie but, if it works for you it is perfect👍

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

5 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

What telescope are you fitting the eaf too ,are you saying there is no way of fixing the bracket to the focuser ? as for the locking screw you do not use a locking screw once removed as the motor keeps focuser locked .

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

On 04/03/2021 at 21:45, kens said:

Ok. That means it is nothing to do with having time or location set. When you use the arrows Ekos issues a command through the driver to "Start slewing East" (or West). When you release the button it issues a "Stop slewing" command. If you hit the Stop button it also issues a "Stop slewing" command. Did you try that at the time?

So it looks like the "Stop slewing" command has gone astray. I'd start by looking at the USB connection. Could be that as the mount slewed the cable came loose? Another possibility is a driver issue. I'm assuming you are using the EQMOD driver and connecting directly to the mount and not via the Synscan. Its a heavily used driver so I would have thought any issue like this would have been picked up by now. A third possibility is that Ekos did not respond to your mouse clicks. Even more people would use that function but it could point to an unresponsive system.

If you have a Kstars or INDI log that could provide more information. If not, I suggest you enable logging for the Ekos Mount module and the INDI mount driver to capture the details in future.

To avoid the problem while you sort things out, you could instead use goto instead of a manual slew. That should be safer. 

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

On 03/03/2021 at 04:21, kens said:

Were you slewing in RA with a Goto or were you pressing down the East (or West) button on the Ekos mount control?

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

On 24/02/2021 at 20:13, AstroRookie said:

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

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

1 hour ago, acommonsoul said:

Did you by chance remember to set your geographic location in astroberry (sudo raspi-config i believe) before hand? I had the same problem. I figured the GPS would provide the correct location, which it did, but the UTC offset was wrong and wouldn't correct itself. When I would try to go to a target that was visible, the mount would think its below the horizon and start slewing almost upside down before I stopped it. Once I changed the geographic settings all was good.

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

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

99.9% all astrophotos are made by method of stacking.

I you were to read how it is done in terms of mathematics involved - you would certainly think it is overkill to know all that - and you are right. As far as making a photo, you don't need how to do any of that - as long as there is software that will do that for you.

It is exactly the same with method that I've written above - it can be literally reduced to single button with caption - "calibrate color".

There is plate solving - that will help software identify each star. There are catalogs (like Gaia DR2) that contain temperature information for bunch of stars. Software can recognize stars - that is how alignment part of stacking works.

Once approach is implemented in software - then it is just push of a button really - and you would not be thinking about it except to the level - "select color correction type: 1. earth bound, 2. solar system bound, 3. orbit of object"

 

Hello Vlaiv,

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

AstroRookie

7 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Never mind the weather, use it as a chance to investigate.

Make some new Flats with settings and T-shirts as sugested, and apply to your previous Lights, to get an approximate idea if you're on the right track.

Michael

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

On 21/12/2020 at 11:34, michael8554 said:

Hi Rookie

Although I agree with the complete application of corrections that vlaiv and alacant have posted, just Lights and Flats should give a pretty good correction.

Since you have tried various stacking softwares, I suggest your Flats are wrong.

Sounds like you are using a DSLR, so shoot on the AV setting to get the correct exposure, and adjust the flatbox and T-shirt to make that about 1 second.

Post a link to your subs ?

Michael

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

23 hours ago, malc-c said:

Hey, chin up, we have all had times like these.

When I was trying to resolve the issue with my 200P a lot of folk thought it was collimation issues that was the cause.  So I stripped the OTA completely, and then refitted everything back as follows.

• The focuser was removed and refitted.  A sheet of paper was placed inside the tube and the distance from the centre of the focuser to the edge of the OTA was transcribed to the paper so a parallel line to the edge of the OTA was made
• Using the Hotech laser, the focuser was tightened down so that the dot of the laser hit the line on the paper.  My focuser had small thin wavy washers along with a normal washer that was placed between the OTA and the focuser. Once these were compressed all the way down it was just a matter of backing them off slightly until the laser was on the line, but still meant the focuser was firmly fitted
• The secondary mirror was removed from the spider, and the spider was refitted, ensuring the central boss is equidistant on all veins.  You can use a digital caliper to do this, or simply use a strip of card and mark off the distance of each side and then if the boss needs moving, move it half the distance between the two lines.
• With the boss centred, a length of threaded rod was placed through it and held firm by two nuts either side.  
• With the Hoteck back in the focuser, the three collimation screws are adjusted until the rod intersects the laser beam.  This has effectively performed a basic collimation and squared up the focuser to the centre of the OTA
• Carefully remove the rod and refit the secondary, ensuring that the mirror is fitted squarely so the major axis is in the same line that the rod was in when fitted.  Looking through the focuser with a cheshire collimator in place, the secondary should look circular.  Once your happy, tighten up the central screw to secure the mirror to the boss.
• On the mirror cell, unscrew the collimation screws and then refit the primary mirror and the cell back into the tube
• Refit the Hotech (or use your collimation aid of choice) and perform the final collimation.  You should find that the collimation is close already.
• On the next clear night perform your start test to fine tune the collimation

Now if you are still getting the strange spikes you can rule out collimation as being the issue.

Hope the above helps.

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