Seelive

Composite from 142 images taken on 12th /13th Aug 21 with the background created from the 56 cloud free images.  55 sec exposure every 60 sec using a Canon 10 - 18 mm lens at 10 mm F4.5.

23 minutes ago, chemistorge said:

Ah, does that get rid of them?

Yes, you need at least a dozen or more lights for it to work its magic but if you stack sufficient lights they totally dissappear. I live underneath the flight path to an airport so planes are also a problem for me (and they are much brighter than satelites, but still are removed)

I always a use kappa-sigma stacking method so I don't waste any subs with satellite or aircraft trails.

+1 for the Canon 10 - 18 mm.  At f4.5 it's fairly slow but even at wide open the optics are excellent and it can be purchased new for £206. It's only for Canon APS-C cameras but that's what you have?

Have you over-tightened it? Backlash in the RA isn't so much of a problem especially if the balance is set slightly east heavy.

Too late for flats now so just try your M16 images without them and attempt to remove any vignetting or other artifacts during processing.

5 hours ago, Shimonu said:

... But what about this makes a difference to guiding? What is changing by going to bin 2x2 to have the guiding improve so noticeably?

I assume you're binning the guide camera 2 x 2 so if the guiding software doesn't know that you've effectively doubled the size of the guide camera pixels then I guess that the reported errors would be halved.

12 minutes ago, woldsweather said:

I have seen other thread that say change the star detection but I still get it with the setting at 2%. Basically all there is in the frames is a tiny image of Jupiter and I had to lower the exposure to be able to get the bands in so that is the only object in the frames. How can I stack them?

You need to use a planetary stacking software such as Registax or Autostakkert.  DSS requires a minimum number of stars to allow stacking so if you've only got Jupiter in the image then DSS will reject them, not only because it will only find 1 'star' but, if it's large enough, it will also consider it to be an out of focus star and also reject it.

DSS copes OK with meridian flips.

Try here https://baixarapk.gratis/en/app/970161373/polar-scope-align-pro

But their are plenty of free apps, I use Polaris View - basic but does the job and no adds.

10 hours ago, DDH said:

... I seem to recall that everything worked ok before I upgraded the hand control to the latest software version ...

Perhaps a daft question, but I assume you upgraded to the latest version of software applicable to the version of hand controller that you have (V3 or V4/5)?

I guess you should set the Time Zone to +2 and (at the moment) select Daylight Saving.

My first guess would be to look at the (linear) histogram, if you've got a spike at 0 ADU then then the offset needs to be increased?

I'm not sure how 'non-reflective' you are trying to achieve but would a black 'permanent' marker pen do the job (such as https://www.edding.com/en-uk/products/edding-2200-c-permanent-marker/ ?)

If you're not using an OAG also consider differential movement between the imaging and guide scopes?

8 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I'd have to look at the settings in Pixinsight but I'm sure average is the default setting ...

I tend use median stacking rather than average for calibration frames (the default in DSS?) to provide some rejection of outlier pixels.

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

I don't think so. Although visually there is plenty of hot pixels - they are actually rather "sparse" - like less than 1 in 1000. For say 20Mp sensor - that would give roughly less than 20,000 hot pixels - visually that would clutter the image but it would only minimally impact standard deviation.

OK, so I thought I would try an experiment; I created a 5496 x 3670 pixel (the same image size as the Canon 6D) 'Bias image' using IRIS with a mean level of 2048 ADU and Gaussian noise of 8.3 ADU (RMS).  Using the STAT command the image standard deviation ('Sigma' in IRIS terms) is (obviously) 8.3.  Adding just 6 individual pixels with an amplitude of 14000 ADU results in a new image standard deviation value of 10.6 ADU (which is the equivalent of adding 6.6 ADU (RMS) of Gaussian noise).

Or am I missing something?

11 hours ago, vlaiv said:

That is rather interesting. Stddev (avgdev) value shows significant distinction.

Stddev is mix of bias (read noise + read signal) and dark current noise. It shows 8.6ADU in first case and 10.7ADU in second case.

That would make dark current expressed in ADU around 6.366.

Is the large deviation in the Stdev of the 2 images primarily a result of the 'hot pixels' (which are evident in dark image)?  There is a significant positive bias about the mean in both the bias (-124.6, +390.4) and dark (-138.5, +11995.5) images.  Presumably if the Stdev was measured in the same area of both images avoiding the hot pixels, the difference in the Stdev would be much less?

53 minutes ago, Tomatobro said:

The folks at SW. Not having the current drop to near zero (which is what I expected) just made my life a bit harder. Now I have to map the current draw by the controller to determine when the scope is parked...

I assume that when the motor is not moving (parked), the stepper motor controller continues to output the (DC) phase currents that would be be normally be applied with the stepper motor at the 'parked' position as if it was still moving but at the 'parked' postion. So perhaps no AC current content (DC only) could indicate that the mount is parked?

1 hour ago, Rusted said:

To whom was your message addressed? Tomatobro or myself?

It was intended for Tomatobro.

Out of interest, what did you use to measure the current?

32 minutes ago, oymd said:

P.S. I wish you can simplify the image scale analysis you mentioned above. I do not understand it, and I’ve tried to read about it, but can’t get my head around it?

In many posts, I see imagers mentioning that they are imaging at x pixel/arcsecond, or something like that. 
 

How do you reach that?

For example, I have an 294MC Pro, and an Esprit 100ED AND EdgeHD1100. 
 

How do I calculate and UNDERSTAND those measurements of image scale and under or over sampling?

thanks

Ossi

 

Without going into the maths, the (close) approximate formula for determinating the arcsec per pixel is:

206 x camera pixel size / telescope focal length

The formula requires the camera pixel size to be in micrometres (um) and the telescope focal length in millimeters (mm). So for your 294MC and Esprit 100 it would be:

206 x 4.63 / 550 = 1.73 arcsec / pixel

Are you connecting the handset to the USB hub before powering on the handset? If so, try powering on the handset (mount) before connecting it to the USB hub.

The fitted grub screws are M3x3 cone point (at least they are on my EQM35).  I found it difficult to precisely align the polar scope with those (they tend to 'dig' into the graticule housing) so I swapped them for M3x3 cup point A2 stainless steel grub screws.  They worked a treat and I've not had to adjust the polarscope since.

5 hours ago, StuartT said:

... once I had got past the dire warning from Canon ...

Strange, FLO claim that the dummy battery has a "fully decoded chip" so I wouldn't have expected that to happen. Still, glad you got it working.