Realtimedoctor

It's automatically sorting ngc6946 to the bottom today, even though its the first job in the list!

I'm bit confused and bit sure why ekos is throwing me this error. I've always scheduled my sessions like this, including the same session yesterday. However ekos keep giving me error and not scheduling the first job. Job schedule is 1. Fireworks from 19/09 20:25 till 20/09 00:15 2. M74 from 20/09 00:25 till 20/09 04:15 3. M42 20/09 04:25 till 20/09 05:15 I've used this same schedule for the last 2 weeks, however today ekos is making fireworks as invalid, strange as it maybe it marks any target as error which should start before M74, I've attached a screenshot below. The date and time are in order. I'm going insane trying to fix this, someone help me 😕

I'm assuming your budget or something around a £1000 it might be very difficult to achieve a automated setup for that. I'd suggest getting a reflector with a long focal length, and a good quality Barlow. Planetary imaging automation is a myth, getting the focus right on planets is critical and most auto focus methods wouldn't get you anywhere close to required.

You have a alt-az mount, I'm assuming as that's what the celestron SE comes with. Likely issue, the mount wasn't tracking. Eitherways, you'll be limited to max exposure of ~30 sec, before field rotation becomes an issue!

For planetary photography, the higher frame rate will get you more usable frames, than longer videos. If you consider, the planets are really small, and you don't need a big sensor area to capture all the details. Higher frame rates allow you capture frequent frames minimising the effects of atmospheric distortion. I don't know much sky either if the camera's, but I'd imagine they both should work fine.

Hi, The auto focus points makes no difference in astrophotography, as you'll be shooting at prime focus, and an the auto function of a camera is absolutely useless in this case. The only benefit with more focus points would be in daytime photography with a camera lens. 4k 1080p all the numbers are fancy, but you need a high frame rate camera for planetary photography. So higher fps is always better for planetary photography. I'd suggest going to with a second hand, 600D that's a great camera for getting into astrophotography, anything over that in a DSLR is essentially a gimmick in astrophotography world. Hope that helps. Good Luck Nishant

Where is the 0.6mm coming from?

Hi, I sometimes have exactly the same error as yours when using the hand controller to connect to the rpi. Try this, turn everything off. Turn the mount on first, before turning the rpi on. You should mane sure that the lights on your hand controller are on, before you turn on the rpi4. I've you've turned on the mount, turn on your rpi and try and connect. Hopefully that will solve the issue. Let me know if that works. Good Luck

You'd need to give a little bit of information on what all is there in the imaging train. I can see you have a QHY8L, which has a 20mm back focus. So you need 35mm spacer between the Camera and what I'm assuming is a coma corrector.

Hi, To answer your question, I think the main reason is very few people have a permanent setup. Both the 10 & 12 are in a category where its cumbersome to move them around. Anyone who sets up and tears down the whole setup this will quickly become very frustrating. 8" is the sweet spot for people who set up and tear down every session, the reduced size/wt of 8" newt outweighs the benefits in imaging you may get with a 10 or 12. I'd highly suggest that if you don't have a permanent setup to consider an 8". On the other hand, if you have something permanent/semi permanent then go for 10-12". Good luck Nishant

Polar alignment accuracy and what is a good number is very debatable. Some people deliberately keep it around 5 arc and guide Dec in one direction as @alacant described. Some like me, like to get it as low as possible. My usual PA error is ~2arc min, if I'm very fussy, and have time then try to get it as close as physically possible. You can't get a zero error (due to multiple factors beyond your control). In practice as long as your PA is less than 5arc min, you should be able to guide that out. Though, with an off axis guider you should have good balance, especially as you are guiding at 1000mm FL. You can also try and guide the Dec only in one direction irrespective of the PA error, depending on which direction your mount guides smoothly. I've an EQ5, way smaller mount that yours and also guide a 200p with a Finder guider. I can easily manage to guide at ~1 - 1.2 arc sec RMS (some would say its not good enough, for me works perfectly fine) Don't pay much attention to the numbers, see what your subs look like. That should be your benchmark, rather than an arbitrary number to aim for. Good luck.

I'd suggest getting an EQ5 Pro, it should be able to handle your telescope well, and a dslr. It's unlikely you'd find a dedicated astro camera within that budget. However a second hand dslr( modded/unmodded) will give you good results. You should keep in mind though, that if you ever upgrade your scope you'll need a new mount as well. PS - I'm selling a modded and TEC Cooled cannon 600D if you need one Good luck

This seems exactly what a drift will do, since you've error in both Dec and RA, a polar alignment error is the culprit. Tracking errors are usually very small and mainly dominate RA. Whereas in your case, DEC is more off. You can also set phd2 to abort guiding after a number of failed attempts to search for guidestar. Or not sure if APT has such settings, where you enforce align/platesolve after guiding failure.

How far off was your image after the clouds, compared to your original target?

Well, yesterday I was trying to focus it on something maybe a mile or so away, a house roof. Because I tried it the night before, and all I was getting was a black image, no stars nothing. So I tried to see if the camera works during the day, which it seems it is, however the focus position is way out. Could be that I was getting black images because I was too close to focus any light whatsoever?

Hi guys, I've a skywatcher 200p, with the standard focuser. I've been using it with my Canon 600D at prime focus without any issues. Usually I get to the focus point with the focuser half way out. Now, I recently got hands on a old QHY8L, I understand it's sensor distance to flange is 20mm. Whereas on my canon it would be around 55mm with the T ring attached. So math dictates that I'll need to move the focuser out by 35mm, to get the QHY8L to focus. Seems straightforward right? However, it turns out that even after moving the focuser out to maximum which is just about 30mm, I can't get focus, moreover I had to add another 2" extension ~30mm to the focuser, plus a T Adaptor to the qhy which again is out by ~10mm to get to focus. This is confusing, as I'm now about 70mm out from my initial position of focus and my camera is sticking out like Burj Khalifa on the telescope. I wonder if there is anyway, I could reduce this?

Also sorry, I should answer your initial question as well. Phd2 doesn't slew the mount, it only guides - these pulses are to short to make any meaningful movements in the mount that you can notice with naked eyes. So you don't need to do anything with your phd2 setting. Hopefully your next night will be clearer. Cheers

When you say your mount "slew", do you mean that the mount was pointing in a completely different direction than when you went off to sleep? What were you shooting, and what time did it cross the meridian? I don't remember much about APT, as I mainly use INDI now - but from my initial days APT and phd2 play well, as @teoria_del_big_bang@teoria_del_big_bang pointed out, your mount should be able to track the object even without any guiding corrections, albeit your notice a drift in the image over longer exposures depending on your polar alignment, and how well your mount tracks. My current hypothesis of what happened is as follows You leave the setup - clouds come -> phd2 loses guiding, still APT continues capturing (as it should) -> your target slowly drifts out of FOV due to polar alignment/tracking errors -> clouds clear, PhD still runny and looking for a star -> locks to a new star, and resume guiding - > now your scope is pointing to a slightly different area of the sky, and not your target A wild thought is sometime during the night/imaging session is APT does a meridian flip -> you wake up to the mount pointing in a different direction, assuming it has "slew" to a new target.

Hi, I moded my camera, and made a peltier cooler like Martin. I actually went a step ahead, and put two copper shims, and the temp probe next to the sensor (see picture below) for better cooling, and better temp reading. The peltier concept is about the same, as Martin. I'm using 12706 TEC and a large heatsink and fan which sits in the LCD well. The goal of this mod is to prevent your sensor from going too hot. I manage to keep the sensor either at ambient or below by few degrees on very hot days. On cold days, I can easily keep the temp controlled at dew point, and it works well. I've attached a picture for you to see that it kept the temp around 15 deg, even after 2+ hours of shooting. No water or condensation issues so far inside the camera.

Hi, You'll need to give a little bit more information. What mount, and eh hat software are you using for acquisition. Phd2 doesn't slew the mount on losing a star, so something else has gone wrong somewhere.

With all due respect, but a lot of information in this is not correct. 1. A Standard 200P will do just fine with prime focus imaging. You don't need to move the mirror up or down anywhere in the scope. (the 200P comes standard with a T2 thread for direct attachment to a T2 adaptor) 2. You don't need to add any extensions tube for visual if switching between camera and eye pieces. 3. I've DSLR, guidecam, auto focuser and a tec cooling device all attached to the 200P and mounted on a EQ5. Last session over 3 hours of 5 mins subs, I discarded 3 subs in total. Not sure where you are getting the 40% number from. 4. I agree EQ5 and 200P are more suitable for visual astronomy, but payload of a mount isnt everything. You need to factor in your pixel scale of your setup, and if that is under your guided RMS there is no reason why you can't get the same image with this setup instead of a ££££ setup.

I ordered an arduino uno from ebay - £3.59 And motor controller shield from Ali express - £2.20 RJ-10 cable - 4.50 Had a spare 12v 2A adapter from an old BT box. The build is very simple, though might require you to tinker with the code a little bit. Depending on how the pins are arranged in your motor shield. Took me a total of 1 hour to get everything connected and running. Though, if you are doing this I'd suggest getting a cheap NEMA stepper motor off ebay/Ali express as that will massively improve the autofocus routine, plus a consistently repeatable performance, unlike a DC motor. My PA is usually under 2-3 arc minutes. I guide in both directions, with good PA I've had very smooth Dec graph, but my RA often jumps a bit now and again. About tuning the mount, I didn't no anything more than adjusting the worm gears, as my mount is still under warranty so don't want to open it up just yet. You can probably get a better performance out of it, if you tune it up more extensively with better grease and bearings. One reason I automated my setup, is because I work mad number of hours, and have a mad work rota. The RPi helps me fully automate the whole process, if I know the weather is going to be fine overnight. I just turn everything on, sequence the setup on EKOS and, forget about it,until next morning when I just shut down everything and cover the mount up. Ready for next session whenever the weather is good. I hope that helps.

In increasing order! Bodes 45sec subs - unguided Pinwheel - 60 & 75sec subs - Unguided Crescent - 3 min subs - Guided avg RMS 0.82" Veil Nebula - 5 min subs - Guided avg RMS 1.22" When I started guiding, had a few issues with Dec and calibration - "large Dec backlash error on Phd2" - frustrating night to say the least. Tuned the worm gears next day as much as I could on both axis, balanced the scope, and haven't had much issues with guiding. I only lost 3 frames over the course of 3 hours shooting 5 min subs . All of which were due to the fact mount failed to settle down after dithering and was still jumping around a bit when the exposure started.

I've been a ghost member of this forum for some months now. I'd just like to show the newcomers into this hobby like me, that you don't need to spend a fortune to get acceptable results. My setup is what most would classify as inappropriate. (scope and mount combo) I'll list my setup and price for each, and share a sample picture. Just because I believe a cheap setup is the perfect way to start in this hobby, as there is so much to learn, and it's not easy! I'd not want to spend 1000s and not able to fully utilise it. Whereas if you get into this on the cheaper(relatively speaking) , and then you can upgrade to a better set up which will enable you to maximise your chances of using that ££££ mount/scope/camera to its full potential. Few things on this setup is according to me, just luxury items, and absolutely don't need to have them. If you are just starting out. Setup Scope 200P skywatcher £269 Mount - EQ5 - self upgraded with Synscan Goto = £580 Guidecam - ZWO 120MM-S on the 9x50 finderscope £180 Main camera - Canon 600D (did the astromod myself) £159 Skywatcher auto focuser - £45 (luxury item) Raspberry Pi - £60 (luxury item) DIY arduino focuser controller - £10 (in parts and wires) -(luxury item) USB Hub - £15 Utility box - £6 (All my automation and wires run to this box, I've four wires that go out of this box to the mount. Saves a lot of time when setting up) DIY telescope cover - £30 in material (luxury item) Miscellaneous cables £50 Total Expense - £1404 Now this a an almost automated setup! The only thing I do manually, is remove the covers and pulg in the electric socket. Results below. These are compressed images(plus I still don't have a coma corrector so some are cropped) Both galaxies are Unguided shots Both nebulae are guided shots Thanks for reading through, welcome any criticism and comments