AstroRookie
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Posts posted by AstroRookie
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I thought about that, but there are small pieces of glass in the OTA, so I'm afraid that pointing it to the sky might spread these pieces of glass over the primary mirror. A guy from a telescope shop, where I did an inquiry for a new scope, told me "it can only be used as an umbrella stand". I'll maybe put it on a second hand site for astro-equipment, and ask a "symbolic" 20€ for it, one never knows if somebody could use it for the spare parts.
The initial idea was that I'd replace it within 2 years from now, after I gotten some experience with imaging. So now I was "forced" to buy a new one earlier and on a tighter budget (and the dedicated astro-camera will have to wait ...). So I ordered the Orion 8" f/3.9 Newtonian Astrograph Reflector. Of course I also needed to buy the coma corrector and laser collimator. But for under 1000€ I think that was the best I could get. I now I stop mourning about, it is what it is.
Kind regards,
AstroRookie
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8 minutes ago, Pixies said:
That's what I was about to say! Worth checking.
Hello Pixies,
don't think so, insurance only covers glas damage of the building. If somebody else, well that is apart from my spouse, say a friend who was visiting us broke it, then her/his insurrance might cover it. But it's me who broke, and i have to bare the consequences. And I almost made up my mind, I'll replace it with a new newtonian.
But thanks for the advice.
AstroRookie
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Hello,
as I'm starting astrophotography on a budget I recently successfully astro-modded a second hand Canon 500D (did not have the chance to test it under the night sky tough, bad weather for several weeks now). Referring to my username, I considered this a major achievement. But I pushed my luck, and while trying to check out the backfocus with the DSLR-coolbox I'm making, by attaching it to the C8 OTA, I pushed the C8 from my desk. It fell straight on the front, it was even standing upright. Then I lifted it up ... the horror ... see attached picture.
I looked how much it would cost to replace it, found this site: schmidt cassegrain corrector plate - 380€+transport
Taking into account:
- a F/10 sct is not ideal for astrophotography (I bought a focal reducer tough, but still)
- This scope is 23 years old (optics were still ok ... till today) and spending 380€+transport, to fiddle for several nights to get things adjusted correctly, would be waste I think
- Focusing is not ideal either with this thing
- I was planning to buy a new scope in a year or two (considered, if I can make something out of this setup - SCT C8 with old DSLR - then I could upgrade to something "decent")
Now my questions:
- Can I sell this OTA with the damaged corrector plate?
- I'm considering to buy a 8" F/4 Newtonian to replace it (a decent refractor is way too expensive for a "transition" scope), any advice?
Kind regards,
AstroRookie
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Hello bayarealondoner,
I'm using a second hand Celestron C8 (built in 1997, bought it around 2000), which was - together with the second hand Meade LXD75 mount - for years neglected under a cover in the garden shed. With this corona going around which forced me to work from home, came also a lot more free time, so I removed the dust and wanted to start astro-imaging with this setup in combination with a Canon 500D dslr (aka T1 Rebel in other parts of the world). Soon I realised (and also read in different posts on different forums) that this a not the ideal gear for astrophotography. As replacing the scope, mount and camera was (financially) not an option, I found out that the first most important thing for DSO photography is the mount, and I replaced the LXD75 - after having wrecked it by taking it apart to clean it (but I donated it to the youth department of a local astro-club) - by a skywatcher EQ6R-Pro mount. Next will be the scope - maybe in one year from now, and then the following year the camera. To me this seems the most logically path to replace old astro gear (unless money is not an issue 😉 ).
Kind regards,
AstroRookie
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14 hours ago, TerryMcK said:
Unfortunately not. I actually gave up on using the Polemaster with the PI as it only appeared to work until the point where it says, move Polaris into the highlighted area. The highlighted area, a circle, rarely appeared. I have seen this on the AppleMac version of the software too. So I actually use a Windows laptop just to polar align now using the Windows Polemaster software.
I use the Pi for everything else.
Hello TerryMcK,
thanks for the info; I'll give it up as well. Concerning the behaviour on OS X, I have experienced the same, but not on a regular basis. So, guess I'll have to continue aligning with my Macbook. Windows is not an option.
Kind regards,
AstroRookie
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On 18/02/2020 at 13:30, TerryMcK said:
I just had a brainwave and did a google. I found a compiled version for Raspbian of libopencv_2.4.11.deb.zip from this website https://github.com/Nolaan/libopencv_24
I installed it into /usr/local/lib and bingo PoleMaster now works on Astroberry - problem solved
Hello TerrYMcK,
I just started with astroberry on a Raspberry Pi 4, and installed Polemaster. I ran into the same problem as you did, and your post was very helpful. Unfortunately I run into an other problem; it complained about the libz.so.1 library version (it wants libz.so.1.2.9; after havinfg installed it in /usr/local/lib and then changed the symbolic link in /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libz.so.1 to it, I now get a "Segmentation fault"
Back tracing with gdb gives this:
Core was generated by `./PoleMaster'. Program terminated with signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. #0 0x00000000 in ?? () (gdb) bt #0 0x00000000 in ?? () #1 0xb2d8ebde in dlsym () from libdl.so.2 #2 0xb261ced0 in ?? () from /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libGLdispatch.so.0 Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)
Any idea what my options are?
Thanks for your help,
AstroRookie
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Hello,
On my old C8 SCT (1997) I use a 63% reducer attached to the OTA and my Canon 500D attached to the reducer. For my DSLR I need +- 105mm backfocus. This setup works ok. My question, if I would attach a Skywatcher Crayford sct focuser to the OTA, then attach the reducer to the focuser and then the DSLR, will that change the backfocus and will it no longer be possible to image with this setup?
AstroRookie
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On 10/08/2020 at 12:16, stash_old said:
P.S. Unless Indigo developers have corrected the problem it will not do exposures with DSLR above 55secs https://github.com/indigo-astronomy/indigo/issues/220
Hello stash_old,
thanks for the info; I only use indigo-server to connect skychart with to control the mount. The github issue even indicates that dslr's are not support. I have to say Peter Polakovic is very helpfull.
Kind regards,
AstroRookie
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On 08/08/2020 at 17:49, endlessky said:
If you have cameras, you can take advantage of plate-solving. To me, after I discovered it, there's nothing better and I have never done star alignment ever since.
Also, does the KStars/EKOS suite work on OS X? If you want to abandon Windows - which I don't blame you for - consider using KStars and EKOS. It's a spectacular package. KStars is a planetarium and works pretty much the same as Cartes du Ciel. EKOS is a controller for every and any piece of gear astrophotography related that you can think of or own.
Hello endlessky,
I have KStars/EKOS installed on my macbook and it is really very impressive and for a rookie a bit overwhelming, it has everything: planning, capturing, guiding and even plat solving. Cloudmakers Indogo-server is simple and fairly straightforward, but I'll try some "dry-runs" with KStars/EKOS. As for plate solving, I wonder if that is possible with a Canon 500D dslr, as it is not possible to have Live-view in combination with my slow F/10 sct (I have to be honest reduced to F/6.3 with a 63% ocal reducer). I admit, AstroRookie's first step in astrophotography is on a tight budget.
Kind regards,
AstroRookie
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1 hour ago, stash_old said:
Post the question on Indigi Forum site as it depends on the mount driver / alignment subsystem and has nothing to do with CDC (other than it send the sync command). Dont think many here will be using Indigo server and its not that close to Indi in a lot of aspects. https://github.com/indigo-astronomy/indigo/issues
Hello stash_old,
thanks for the advice; I'm using Indigo-server because I'm to stubborn to use windows (I only use operating systems based on unix), and I'm fully aware that there is more and better software available for astrophotography on windows.
But I will have a look in a coming session to the alignment functionality in Indigo-server, if I experience the same, I'll post my question on the forum you kindly pointed out for me.
AstroRookie
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3 hours ago, endlessky said:
I guess that the more points you take - and the more spread apart they are - the better your mount modelling of the sky would be. From some videos I saw about the subject, it seems that if you align with 3 stars, every slew inside the "triangle" made by putting those stars at the vertices should be pretty much spot on. Outside the "triangle", things start to be more off the further you go.
Another pointer I could give you is to try with the hand-controller alone, just to see if the behavior is similar: this would rule out any software related problems.
Hello endlesssky,
thanks for the advice; concerning the hand controller, I have the impression that it's always quite far off; but as up to now I always used the hand-controller with eyepieces, it was for a rookie like me easier to get the star in the field of view; with a dslr attached to the main scope and a guide camera to the guide scope it's a completely different ball game, at least for
AstroRookie
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Hello,
Mount: EQ6-R Pro, QHYCCD PoleMaster, software Couldmakers Indigo-server, skychart (on OS X). Applied procedure:
- Leveled the tripod
- Polar aligned with PoleMaster, so I suppose I can assume that it's decently polar aligned
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Star alignment using skychart, direct connection to EQ6-R (no Synscan handcontroller, AstroRookie's hubris 😉 )
- First star synced: Arcturus
- Second star synced: Dubhe
- Slew back to Arcturus: nicely centered
- Third star Vega, which was close to the zenith: completely off
- Slew back to Dubhe and Arcuturus, every thing still hunky dory
Question: what can cause this "error"; is it because I took 2 stars west of the meridian? Is it better to take stars in "opposite positions" of the meridian?
Thanks for clarifying!
AstroRookie
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Hello,
has anybody successfully used a "Baader Planetarium laser colli" to collimate a SCT (mine is a Celestron C8 SCT). I really would prefer to be able to collimate during the daytime rather then having to do a star-collimation during (precious) observation or photographing time.
Thanks,
AstroRookie
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36 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:
I don’t think it’s that surprising when you first start aligning after setting up from scratch on an evening. It helps if you set up consistently each time. Marking on the ground where to put the tripod legs for example and making sure your initial parked position is the same each time.
Collimation is easier during the day - and doesn’t waste observing time.
That's indeed what happened; I normally put the tripod on a marked position in our garden, but as I couldn't see Neowise from that spot, I moved to a stretch of land next to our garden. Thanks for clarifying that. All the rest however was the same, park position, polar alignment.
As for colIimation, I tried this Kitchen table collimation, which has worked fine on previous occasions, but just would not work out today, fatigue ???
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On 18/07/2020 at 15:26, Starwatcher2001 said:
Make sure your location, date/time and Daylight Saving Time are entered correctly. Sorry if it's obvious. I got caught out last week as my new Celestron expects the date in US format MM/DD/YY.
Been there, done that ... the first night I used the EQ6-R I entered 2020-07-04 , and it was the 7th of april 2020. I don't think there isn't any stupidity in this hobby I have not done, hence my user name 😉
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On 18/07/2020 at 16:08, Ouroboros said:
I concur with everything above. I’ve used EQMOD running in windows and KStars on Mac. Both allow you to slew to a star and sync to it after lining it up centrally in the eyepiece.
Quite often the first star is way out initially. Sometimes not even in the eyepiece of the finder scope. I have to eye along the tube to get the scope pointing in something like the right direction prior to aligning in the eyepiece.
On occasions the scope starts out pointing in a completely wacky direction. A complete reset of computer and scope to the home position usually sorts it out.
That is exactly what I have been experiencing; the first star is way out. Last night, I messed up completely and I don't know how; when I could not find and center Arcturus, I parked the scope and even that was way out. Such a lovely night, where I could even see the Milky way in my Bortle class 5 location. So I started all over, and centered Arcturus only to find out that my collimation was ruined. Not being able to collimate in time before the dew set in (as I had taken off the dewshield to reach Bob's knobs). If I would have not been able to enjoy Neowise with binoculars, I think I would have dumped every thing in the ditch at the back of our garden!
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Hello,
Since a couple of months I'm a EQ6-R Pro user. So far I've been using the synscan handcontroller to do the star alignment. I would like the use software like stellarium, kstars or cartes du ciel thru the direct connection with mount, so no longer using the synscan handcontroller. I've tried but when I search an object and make the software slew to it, it's way off. I'm quite confident with my polar alignment as I'm using the QHYCCD PolarScope (and furthermore I've read on this forum that polar alignment and star alignment are not the same).
Can somebody please explain how to do star alignment with software like stellarium, kstars or cartes du ciel - I suppose there's is some general procedure that applies to software like the three I mention?
Many thanks,
AstroRookie
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Hello Ouroboros,
I tried with KStars as well but at that point I was confused if still needed Indigo server as indi server, for what I think to understand now is that KStars comes with it's own indi server. Maybe one day I'll give it another try.
AstroRookie
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Hello,
I don't want to use MS Windows at home (I do have to use it at work and that's more then enough); so we only run OS X and Linux at home. I recently became the happy owner of a Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro and wanted to start astrophotography with my Canon 500D.
- For the capturing I evaluated AstroDSLR and Nebulosity4 and decided to stick with Nebulosity4 as one can handle the capturing and processing all in one package.
- Then I decided to control the mount directly (not via the handcontroller) with the MacBook; as ascom and eqmod are not available on OS X, I installed Indigo Server
- I was going to use Stellarium to control the mount, as it's support INDI
The whole idea was such a pain, and I could not make this setup work, to such a point that I gave in and actually installed Windows 10 on my laptop (with BootCamp). I installed ASCOM platform, EQMOD and stellarium and I could configure it so that I could find an object in stellarium and make the mount slew to it with a direct connection.
But I had such remorse over the idea that I was running windows on my MacBook that I decided to go over the initial plan once more and I finally made it work; here is how I made it work:
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- Connect the Mac(Book) directly to EQ6R (not via the handcontroler)
- Look for the correct port that indigo has to use: in a terminal window execute: ls -l /dev/cu.usbserial* - copy the name that looks like: /dev/cu.usbserial-141120 (the number may differ as I'm using a usb hub - do not take /dev/cu.usbserial)
- Start Indigo server and in "Preferences" > "Indigo Drivers", check "Synscan Mount (2.0.0.15)"
- Set the correct baud rate: 115200 (I sticked to the default 9600 and that does not work - I had found this via the youtube AstroForum channel where the guy explains how to do this setup on windows using ascom and eqmod)
- At that point, Indigo server connected to the mount, Stellarium connected to the mount (though Stellarium says it connects to a telescope ...) but no way I could make Stellarium slew to any object I gave it. The mount did not move!
- That's where my 2 hours experience with ASCOM, EQMOD and Stellarium on windows helped me: the mount needed to be unparked: in the Indigo server gui, collapse the entry "Mount", select "Park" and on the left click "Mount Unparked"
- Now go to Stellarium, configure the telescope, connect it, search an object and slew to it
- Still todo: incorporate PHD2 and my ZWO guide camera in this setup
I hope this might be helpful to anyone!
(And now I'm going to recover 90GB by removing windows 😉 )
AstroRookie
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This adapter did it!
AstroRookie
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Hello,
I recently purchased a sky-watcher focuser for my Celestron C8 (1997) sct together with a focal reducer. The focuser threads on the sct and so does the focal reducer. But how do I use both of them together. What I've found so far is, that one must first attach the focuser to the OTA and then the focal reducer to the focuser . But I can't see how I can attach the focal reducer to the focuser. What kind of adapter would I need?
Thanks,
AstroRookie
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2 hours ago, Whytey said:
Great thread and as a new owner of the SV305 the images here give me great hope.
I've managed to get some very good shots with my Skymax MAK127 with the SV305 but I yesterday received a Evostar Ed72 and as hinted above couldn't reach focus on the moon with the camera so I have today ordered a 2" extension hoping to resolve this.
Like the OP I'm new to it all and playing with the settings during the day on a distant object gave me a better idea of what to do come dark skies.
I have also ordered a Raspberry PI4 which I hope I may be able to use the SV305 time will tell, I see various options available Stellarmate, EKOS, Indigo Sky etc
Keep at it and I'll update with any feedback which may help
Clear skies
Hello Whytey,
fyi, I installed AstroDMX on a raspberry pi3, but I needed first to upgrade to raspbian "buster" and then it detects the SV305, but didn't do any capturing with it.
AstroRookie
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16 hours ago, JonCarleton said:
I use a SVBONY 305 and get reasonable results. I have found using as little GAIN as possible and controlling the light collection with exposure works best. I typically shoot 100 subs RGB24 @ 1080p (1900 x 1080) as .tif and stack with Siril and finish with GIMP. Given my Dobsonian GOTO mount, I try to keem my exposures under 12 seconds and gain at 1-2% maximum for deep sky objects. Bright objects, much less than that. Here are a couple from this past weekend:
Note: I didn't integrate darks or bias shots in either of these. The moon was up and really bright, so I really didn't think I could get anything but noise on the deep sky stuff. Getting used to the fairly delicate balance of Black Level, Contrast and Gain in AstroDMx_Capture takes a bit of practice. For simplicity sake, I connect the camera, change USB speed to 2 in the Camera Setup menu, then CLOSE that menu, go down to the Control Display Controls menu and use the slider to set display speed to maximum, then CLOSE that menu too. Messing with those controls doesn't impact the image, but does impact your judgement...best without them in the beginning. You can also CLOSE Controls MISC. It makes the controls you actually use available without scrolling.
16 hours ago, JonCarleton said:I use a SVBONY 305 and get reasonable results. I have found using as little GAIN as possible and controlling the light collection with exposure works best. I typically shoot 100 subs RGB24 @ 1080p (1900 x 1080) as .tif and stack with Siril and finish with GIMP. Given my Dobsonian GOTO mount, I try to keem my exposures under 12 seconds and gain at 1-2% maximum for deep sky objects. Bright objects, much less than that. Here are a couple from this past weekend:
Note: I didn't integrate darks or bias shots in either of these. The moon was up and really bright, so I really didn't think I could get anything but noise on the deep sky stuff. Getting used to the fairly delicate balance of Black Level, Contrast and Gain in AstroDMx_Capture takes a bit of practice. For simplicity sake, I connect the camera, change USB speed to 2 in the Camera Setup menu, then CLOSE that menu, go down to the Control Display Controls menu and use the slider to set display speed to maximum, then CLOSE that menu too. Messing with those controls doesn't impact the image, but does impact your judgement...best without them in the beginning. You can also CLOSE Controls MISC. It makes the controls you actually use available without scrolling.
Thanks, I'll give it a try next time; will probably not be this week tough
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19 hours ago, Tailspin45 said:
The SV305 works remarkably well. I suspect you have a focus issue.
I could barely focus in far enough for the camera to work on my Meade 114mm ƒ/4 newt; it was right up against the focuser stop. And I had to buy a shorty C-mount tube to use it with a filter.
As others have suggested, try focusing on something during the day.
Here are the settings I used for the attached image of M42. Video below the nebula (click arrow to star, opening fames are black) was the same but using .AVI output.
[SVBONY SV305]
Output Format=FITS files (*.fits)
Colour Space=RGB24
Capture Area=1920x1080
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Black Level=251
USB Speed=1
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=20.4
Exposure=1
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=400
White Bal (G)=400
White Bal ®=400
Sharpness=100
Saturation=51
Gamma=1.08
Contrast=93
Banding Threshold=35
Banding Suppression=0
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
#Black Point
Display Black Point=0.19140625
#MidTone Point
Display MidTone Point=0.515625
#White Point
Display White Point=0.83984375
TimeStamp=2020-03-22T05:12:11.2721327Z
SharpCapVersion=3.2.6248.0
TotalExposure(s)=790
StackedFrames=790
Thanks, for the info. I'll try to "translate" these Sharpcap settings to AstroDmx next time.
Coma or "lost in collimation"
in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice
Posted
Hello,
after I wrecked my Celestron C8 (see Goodbye Celestron C8 ...), I bought a Orion 8 F/3.9. Because at the moment it is financially the only option, and it looks to me that this is for the time being the best value for money I can get. I also bought the Fairpoint collimeter set and the Baader 2" Coma Corrector MPCC Mark III. Delivery was a bit problematic, as according to the delivery company's tracking data, it was sent to the wrong address. When the box arrived, it looked like it suffered already a bit. First thing I did was reading all sorts of info on collimation, and I "collimated" for the first time a Newtonian (to be honest, I thought collimating a C8 was a pain, but this is nothing compared to what I'm experiencing now). Attached you'll find a test picture I took from M81 and M82. At first I thought the "comet" trails were due to poor collimation, and the following day I started the whole collimation procedure again. I suspect I have now made thing worse by going too far, and also, that these "comet" trails are not collimation errors but coma aberration. This is the setup:
My questions:
Kind regards,
AstroRookie