stevepsheehan

Thanks all - a few options for me to experiment with.

Thank you - just the pointer I needed 🙂

Morning all. I have around 450 subs of the Milky Way, taken to produce a timelapse. What I'd like to know is, can I process one sub the way I want it, then somehow apply that same process to all the other subs, prior to creating the timelapse? I have access to Pixinsight, or an early (CS2) version of PS. Any advice welcome. TIA Steve

A quick follow up re Craig's excellent advice; I ran my data through AS!3 again last night, whilst I was asleep, and awoke this morning to a set of eight stacked images, ranging from 10 to 400 subs per image. Absolutely perfect way to do this, and just what I'd hoped for. Thanks again Craig 🙂 Steve Edit: surprisingly, the best stack of the eight, was the best 25 frames of 5000...

Craig, you're a star! Thank you. I'd often wondered why there were four boxes for one figure, but that had never occured to me. I am enlightened 🙂 Steve

I'm experimenting with some lunar data I gathered, 5000 images in a SER file. As you can imagine, it's quite a slow business, despite my PC being reasonably fast. What I'm finding rather frustrating, is that having done the analysis of all 5000 frames, and stacked the best say 10%, if I now want to stack 5% to see which is better, AS goes right back to the beginning, and I have to go through tha whole analysis stage all over again. Having done it once, and ordered the frames by quality, is there any way to simply just stack a different percentage or number of frames, without going right back to the start? TIA Steve

Thank you both - all sorted now 🙂

I have the latest version of Stellarium installed on three different machines, a NUC, a laptop, and a desktop. On the NUC, when I zoom in on a target, I get an image of it; on the other two, all I get is the red circle. I've poured over the settings but as far as I can see, they are all set up identically, yet they can't be. Can someone tell me what setting I need to alter to get the images to show please? TIA, Steve

Thanks Michael. I had read that info in PHD2, but in truth, didn't quite understand it. Your info re the setting and dither amount is interesting though, and is something for me to check, and have a play with. 🙂 Steve

Thanks 🙂

As per the title, which should I choose? What makes one preferable to the other? Imaging at 1.05 arc-sec/pixel, guiding with a 240mm F4 scope and QHY5-II. TIA, Steve

With the recent arrival of Starlink, and future similar projects, it's only going to get worse 😞

I'm looking for a new mount, as my current CGEM is not performing to the standard I want. I'm considering the "basic" Ioptron CEM70, without the autoguider, but I've had several responses saying it's overpriced. Are there any alternatives in about the same price bracket (ie under £3k) that I should consider? I generally use a 115mm refractor, which weighs in at 23lbs with all its extras. I also have an 11" SCT that I'm hoping to use once it's been serviced which is heavier, at around 32lbs in total. This will be on a concrete pier, so I'm looking at a head unit only. TIA, Steve

Just heard back from Altair, and whilst the CEM70 isn't mentione in the list of compatible mounts for the AA Pier Adapter, they tell me that the CEM70 is the same footprint as the CEM60, so should fit OK. I'll report back if it doesn't 😉

Morning all. I'm about to pull the trigger on an Ioptron CEM70, and want to establish how to fit it to my "Todmorden" style concrete pier. I currently have an Altair Astro Pier Adapter fitted, for my Celestron mount; AA say it fits various Ioptron mounts, but does not mention the CEM70. Various other sites say I'll need an Ioptron Pier Adapter, which I'm sure would be fine, but may not be nescessary? Is there any reason why I can't simply sink a couple of anchors into the top of the concrete, and bolt the mount direct to it? TIA Steve

I don't think it's the USB leads. I have high quality leads, and have tried 2 or 3 different ones, to no avail. Also, if it was the lead(s), why would it then be OK with PHD2? (btw, I used to live in Addlestone 🙂

Morning all; hoping for some ideas/guidance please. I'm using Sharpcap Pro to get my PA nailed. Sometimes it's OK, but sometimes, it seems to "lose" my QHY5-IIM guide cam. It starts off fine, typically doing 8 second exposures, then at some random point, the exposure measurement just keeps on going, instead of restarting at 8 seconds. When I look in the camera list, my QHY5-IIM has disappeared from the list. Rescanning cameras does not find it. It suggest to me that it mght be a problem with the camera, but if I close Sharpcap, and start up PHD2, that sees the camera fine. I'm at a bit of a loss to know how to resolve this; any ideas? TIA Steve.

Yes Artem, it does. Lets say you've done a goto, and are tracking a target east of the meridian; once it has crossed the meridian, a CGEM will continue to track for a further 15 degrees, then stop. However, a simple push on the Enter button on the handset, at any point during those 15 degrees, and it will do a flip, and then continue tracking the target to the west. I don't know what happens if you press Enter after it has stopped though - might be worth an experiment? My solution has been to switch to computer control, using NINA. Hope this helps, Steve

No losses at all, other than due to cloud. This is a very quick stack and stretch, and zoomed right in; like I said, I was shooting through hazy cloud, so focus is a bit iffy, but I'm happy wih the star shapes:

I think it's this one: PHD2_GuideLog_2021-01-25_150221.txt

Thanks for the comments all. Re the PA, it's all mounted on a pier, and was accurate to 6" (according to Sharpcap), when I set it up in December, but I will check it again. Re the aggressivness, the mount has been hypertuned by Darkframe, and their recommendation was to lower it, rather than increase it, but again, I'll give that a try. As has been said though, the goal is round stars, and I have those, so no big deal really. I'll let you know how it goes. Steve

Morning all. I tried the new MSG option in the Dev3 version of PHD2 last night, and was VERY impressed indeed! About 50% cloud, and 5 minute subs would have sunk an earlier version I suspect, but the MSG option seemed to take it in its stride, with nice round stars in nearly all my subs. Graph was weird though, with the red, Dec plot being displaced by a large amount. With reported RMS Tot figure of 0.28px, 1.24", I'm guessing this can't be genuine, and is possibly a glitch in the Dev3 version? Any thoughts? Cheers, Steve

Hi all. I recently purchased a really big Telegizmo 365 scope cover. The bottom edge was about 3.2m, and had an elasticated drawstring sewn in all around to secure it. Problem was, that no matter how much effeort I put into pulling that drawstring, it simply would not tighten up. Thinking it was me, I got some assistance, but even with two of us, one pulling whilst the other tried to work the drawcord around, it still refused to tighten. Now, I liked everything else about it, so a solution had to be found. After a lot of thinking, I decided to put a row of 10mm brass eyelets around the edge, approx 150mm apart. I bought a Draper Grommet tool set, plus a box of extra grommets, (£17.20 in total) and set to work. A few hours later, I'd fitted the eyelets, removed the original cord, and repositioned it throught the eyelets. What a difference! The 3m bottom now tightens up nicely, with almost no effort at all. I can see this wouldn't be a problem on the smaller covers, but if you have one of the big ones, and are struggling to close it, I really think you should give this mod a go. Steve

Thanks all - some interesting food for thought here. I hadn't considered the effect this would have on taking flats for each different target and rotation. My intention was to "simplify" framing over a full night's imaging, but the potential drawbacks re flats is making me rethink this now. Maybe back to basics, set the camera rotation up manually once, and just choose targets for that night that fit that rotation adequately. It's never simple, is it?

Thanks Malcolm, yes that's the sort of thing I was imagining. A stepper motor from something already ASCOM supported would be the easiest option I suppose, though no idea what that might be at the moment. Time for some thinking. Cheers, Steve