Clarkey

7 hours ago, gcooksley said:

tonight

In my experience it is always worth getting the focus point with new kit during the day.

Overall it is not a bad result at all. Certainly better than my first few attempts. Every astrophotographer makes these sort of mistakes sometimes - just live and learn... I took a whole night of luminance frames once.......in blue😭

Having looked at the stunning images in on this challenge, I have come to the conclusion I MUST HAVE a RASA😃. 

There have already been a number of versions of this, but I'll add my take on the Cygnus loop. I have really struggled for clear skies recently, so opportunities have been limited.

FMA180 with RisingCam IMX571 with L-Extreme. Taken over two nights in early September - total of approximately 11 hours integration. Bucking the trend a little bit - with stars.

On 11/09/2023 at 18:04, tomato said:

I have a RisingCam 571 OSC camera (Touptek clone) running with NINA, the settings I use are:

Gain 100

Offset 768

USB limit 2

I run the camera at -10 deg C and use 2 min exposures for Broadband imaging and 3 min exposure for NB (dual band filter).

This is the same settings I normally use. I could go shorter on the subs, but the processing just takes soooooo long.

1 hour ago, carastro said:

I like the second rendition the best, I think star removal is becoming a bit of a fad, they are part of the image.

Completely agree.

I definitely prefer the second version - very nice. The first just looks like it has been 'cleaned up'.

The inside measurement at the thread is 42mm on an M48 connector. The internal lens is actually slightly larger at approximately 44mm. I have not used it on a FF sensor, only APS-C and it does vignette slightly in the corners.

If you remove the M48 adaptor you could screw directly to the flattener and add 2 or 3mm extra backfocus. I'm not sure of the thread size though, possibly M54.

In the comments for the flattener, someone states they are using it with a FF mirrorless camera with a 62ED.

Just for info, here is a single uncalibrated sub (just stretched a bit). Not perfect in the corners, but not too bad. Probably needs an extra mm backfocus.

I use the StellaMira1x flattener on a 115mm f7 scope and it is fine. I would certainly give it a go.

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Big second hand desktops with lots of USB ports are quite cheap. Put it on a trolley with damp protection, ditch hubs and mini-computers and live happily ever after

I'm just wondering the difference between this and a mini PC? It's just a small computer. No hub, direct usb connections. I use a homemade power box and a mini PC on the rig and so far it has been bomb proof. Now I've jinxed it....😀

I would agree with ventilation. I have a small shower vent fan running 24/7 in my observatory. After very frosty or damp sessions I put a dehumidifier on for a few hours just to dry everything out. (If you do get a dehumidifier, it needs to be a dessicant one. Compressor types do not work in the cold).

3 hours ago, bosun21 said:

It’s basically plug and play

As long as you use ZWO only😃

I agree it is easier than PC / laptop / mini PC, but you are tied to ZWO. For the £1000 I saved on the RisingCam IMX571 I could buy a new scope. I also have Sesto Senso focusers..

Ok, no problem. I was a bit late to see the original post. Let's hope the cable sorts out your comms issues.

@WolfieGlos I have a couple of active USB 3 cables in the cupboard which are not used. For the price of postage you are welcome to have one. If it does not work you have only lost a few quid. If you want to try PM me.

I used to use them pre- observatory. This with a 12v powered hub rarely if ever gave me trouble.

I would suggest an SSD. It is a doddle to do on the Mele PCs. Once your session is complete transfer the images. I use remote desktop, but there are other options.

The 290 is a relatively small sensor so the exact back-focus distance is unlikely to be critical. The stars do look round which suggests it's about right.

If it was my first image I would be delighted. Well done!

Oh well, worth a try.

6 hours ago, adyj1 said:

I guess my camera doesn't have a built-in heater 😔 

I think the built-in heaters are fairly poor. I have a built-in heater on my IMX571 (RisingCam) and this always had dew even when it was on. I did the same as you and added the extra ZWO heater. No issues since.

It was exceptionally humid last night.

16 minutes ago, Dan_Paris said:

Don't trust everything that you read and try for yourself 😉

Believe me, you will not find a bigger cynic. However, I have tried processing binned and unbinned data and I have seen a benefit of getting something nearer an optimal sampling rate. Admittedly the seeing here is far from good normally, so I probably have a fair bit of room for maneuver.

35 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Rescaling is not the same as binning and in principle - it is worse.

It does not produce same SNR improvement and it introduces pixel to pixel correlation.

Ok. I will accept your much better understanding of the subject.

At least I can still see a benefit in binning😄

6 hours ago, Dan_Paris said:

If you want to adapt to seeing conditions rescaling the final processed image gives always better results

Is this not binning? It might not be every frame or sub, but the same effect.

It should be added that you can always adjust your pixel scale by binning. With my RC8 I image at the native FL but bin2 or bin3 to give about 1 or 1.5" per pixel. So oversampling can be rectified with the current small pixel CMOS cameras.

Hi, and welcome.

I don't have an iphone so I am not certain, but my two thoughts are:

1. The sensor on the phone is too small to cover the entire moon

2. The phone sensor is not perfectly centred over the eyepiece

Have you tried taking photo's during the day to see if you can get better results?

The other thing to consider is the full moon. It will make faint targets difficult. Also, if you live somewhere with lots of light pollution it will have the same effect. I live in Bortle 5 - 6 and really need to go to a dark site for visual astronomy.

I tried the Starsense app with the A32 tonight and it worked flawlessly. However, during the alignment it would not focus on infinity. I had to go into the normal camera app and focus to infinity there, then when reopening Starsense it would focus for alignment. Seems a bit odd it does not automatically focus to infinity - but at least I know. I try the original Moto 50 and try the same trick to see if it works.

On 23/08/2023 at 21:46, vlaiv said:

Anyone fancies the trouble of getting one and then reselling / posting it to me

@vlaiv - I would be happy to buy and forward on at cost. I think you can be trusted😆 I assume this one:

SVBONY SV191 Telescope Eyepiece 9-27mm Zoom lens 1.25inch Super-Wide Angle FMC 714559019061 | eBay

I am guessing it would be about £10 to send from here to Serbia.