si717

so had a problem with collimation on my skywatcher 130pds ive got it roughly collimated i believe and im taking an image in apt to plate solve and its suddenly not plate solving would bad collimation cause this ? ive tried going to cappella and centering the star taking a picture and plate solving it and apt isnt working so iam at a loss at weather its my collimation way of or apt playing up any advice would be helpfull firt clear night in weeks any quick tips at a loss cheers 

2 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

This is probably due to the small field of view, if the planet isn't in the field of view of the sensor you won't see it, it might be just off the sensor.

its early days a new scope so trying to get to grips with it and  planetary imagings new to me also ,i will keep trying weather depending

many thanks

1 hour ago, Cornelius Varley said:

What telescope do you have and what are the problems you are experiencing with a barlow ?

im findng with a barlow the screen goes black ,i havent had chance to get out and test the barlow with an eye piece yet
but i did try out eye piece projectionwith dslr with a 20mm eye piece lastnight with better results i could find the target

the telescopes im findng with a barlow the screen goes completly black and ive tried all different settings ,i have the TS-Optics 6" f/12 Classic Cassegrain

many thanks

iam thinking of getting a colour planatary imaging camera moving from dslr
and i was wondering about eyepiece projection as ive had problems with barlow

i have the eyepiece extentions and i have a mono guide cam ive tried to see if it will connect to one

and im at a loss and wondering if anyone would know of any adapter i can ue to connect the  ccd cam to eyepiece projecton adapter which normally has the dslr mount on that unscrews and i cant seem to find an adapter to connect the 2 so m42 to ccd any ideas

many thanks

i use the 130pds on an eq5 pro and tracks really well and id say just about right for dso imaging a good starting point and relitevly cheap to get going im sure the 200pds will also work but limited field of view 

trying to bag mars ,cant seem to get the barlow to work with the classic cass scope nor 5x zoom in eos movie record

so not as sharp as id like but first attempt with the scope and dslr camera

i found with modding my 650d i hadnt leveled the sensor chip on the camera when i did the mod i used a bahtinov mask and focused everytime for months and imaged away thinking i was doing ok until someone pointed out my stars were not sharp accross the image ,i re leveled the sensor on the camera and now stars are pin sharp just a thought

the extra level of red will be from the mod and can be aligned in software after imaging 

bubble neula image when sensor was off odd looking stars

and ngc 869 after leveling the sensor

many thanks i will have a look into that cheers

1 minute ago, Jm1973 said:

Do you plate solve? If so you can just put in your barlow, attempt to slew to your target, take a picture with your main imaging camera (DSLR) and platesolve on that.

i use apt to plate solve ,and it dont plate solve planets i dont think unless i make a custom object havent tried

this is just a new scope im trying to do planets with and apt isnt the best fr those i dont believe

16 hours ago, Jm1973 said:

What sort of mount is it? Goto or manual? Equatorial or Alt-Az?

Once you take the DSLR out and put a barlow on, you could easily have knocked the telescope off target.

You will also be zooming in further so you will be looking at a smaller FOV.

Plus the planets are moving too.

It can be tricky to find them, they are small and you are probably looking through a small live view screen.

thanks for that reply im using an EQ5 pro eq goto mount  and im hooked up to laptop so veiw on screen

my thinking is i need better alignment of my finder scope with barlow in hopefully i can sort that next time out

weather depending cheers

32 minutes ago, dweller25 said:

Great Lunar shots 👍

im liking it just need some more time with it and processing skills working on but yes great scope thanks again 👍

On 01/12/2020 at 20:43, Pryce said:

Man, I've been gathering my gear for about 4-5 months now and the only phito I've taken so far is a one-shot of the moon..

I've found that the hardest part is waiting.. And waiting..  and waiting....  And now that I finally have all my EQ6-R and got all the other new flashy gear properly set up, what happens? 

Well I will tell you,  clouds come rolling in again and theres no clear skies in sight.

 

Maan, I'm so tired of waiting. I just want to test my gear😭

i know that feeling ,it happenend to me when i first got all my gear together and the boxes came with stickers saying clouds inside 😂
But on that note the day comes when your able to get out with your new gear ,and well then the fun begins ,if all new cannt beat dry runs indoors to get it all tweaked up and working as you would like certainly helps when the day come and its clear best of luck and clear skys 😀

few shots of the moon 1st december with the TSOPTICS Cas6m

so ive just begun planetry imaging or trying to say the least
i was wondering if anyone had any experience with where i maybe going wrong

i can image the moon no  problems but when it comes to jupiter mars saturn etc
iam basically getting just a washed out image ,i have tried focusing on the moon,before going over to a planet to image for focus
but that dont seem to help with my final images ,im trying with a Dslr and eos movie record that i can acheive the 5x magnification fine
put a barlow in an i just cant seem to locate the target again
sorry to go on but if anyone could give me a few pointers as to where i maybe going wrong that woulld be great

ive seen it done with a dslr on youtube with great results im finding it a little frustrating ,just learn about DSO imaging and planetary is a whole new feild

so any dslr imagers with camera settings i maybe doing wrong getting the image n the chip with a barlow am i out of focus the list goes on haha 😂👍 many thanks

image attacthed of my results what am i missing

hi ive been looking at celestron and meade F6.3 focal reducers
and was wondering if anyone hadd any success with a classical cassegrain
would like your input before buying if anyone has any advice thanks

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

Clearly the M45 needs colour balancing since it's green-dominated at the moment but you seem to have red stars in the right places. (There aren't many in M45 because it's a young cluster) So it looks fine to me.

Olly

many thanks for the confirmation 👍

So i went about more testing of my equipment lastnight

and i was wondering if one would know is this camera noise or red stars

iam using a full spetrum dslr filtered but in the test shots of NGC 869 there are alot more red than in the test shots of M45

both tests gots the same exposure time so id assume if noise both pictures should show the same

so is it stars or is it camera noise many thanks

think my stars are looking more in focus now anyways   👍

On 24/11/2020 at 10:13, bobro said:

A stretched version of the flat shows reasonably good collimation, but not quite spot-on.

@tooth_dr suggests taking a photo of the setup (camera and CC attached to focus tube). This will help with a check of spacing (someone else will need to check this as I don't use the Baader CC).

You could continue with a step-by-step check, with the camera next. When a 650D is astromodified the sensor is removed and needs to be refitted in the same alignment position. There are 3 screws holding the sensor - if they are not adjusted to the original position the sensor can be tilted, resulting in focus issues. To check this you could take a photo during daytime with a lens fitted to the camera. If sharpness of the image is good across the image the camera should be ok. Hopefully the camera will come to focus with a lens after being modified (may depend on the lens). Manual focus is probably best to use.

If the camera tests out ok, it could then be refitted to the scope without the CC and a star image made. The image should show coma on stars (like little comets) towards the 4 corners, but otherwise focus should be good across the image. 

Hope this helps.

 

Actually i went about re aligning my camera sensor yesterday ,funny as i hadnt read your post ,and i took some darks and there seems to be no glow and less than there were before. so i am hoping ive got the sensor in a better position ,im hopefully going to be able to try it out tonight on some star clusters maybe all being well with the weather ive got the scope in a better collimation ,and if all else fails ive a canon 450d to try to see if it is actually   the camera sensor on the 650d, but for now im hoping ive fixed it ,many thanks for your advice and help cheers clear skys

14 minutes ago, syberand said:

I haven't tried with the hand control software. To connect to the mount, I assume you are going through the handcontroller or do you have a special cable?

yes the cable is like a printer cable if you look at the bottom of your hand control there should be like a socket for USB Printer Cable High Speed 2.0 A to B Lead search ebay very cheap and ive found setting up that route ideal once all connected and drivers are in place

7 hours ago, syberand said:

Ah, I knew I was missing something. I'm using a SW EQ5 Pro synscan. Does the mount also need to be connected to the computer?

i have the same mount i use a  4 port usb hub ,i connect my hand controller into it from the usb port on the hand controller if yours has this you need to download the hand control software from skywatcher,i also connect my guidecam direct into the usb hub and dslr into usb hub then from the usb hub i have one wire extention cable  from the usb hub  direct to one port on the laptop ,you do not need to connect st4 cable at all you just need the skywatcher hand control software and ascom platform drivers  hope that gives a general idea in apt then all you have to do is connect dslr connect mount then open up phd2 when connecting to guide hope this helps fairly simple once its setup good luck

17 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

You image reminded me very much of the one that won the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition recently.

As bobro has indicated there is something wrong with the alignment or spacing or tilting to create stars that are in focus in one area and out of focus in another.  Post a few photos of your setup to see what could be wrong if you dont mind.

 

Thanks but no prize winning yet still learning and what would you mean ,take images of setup ,its basially the camera to coma corrector directlt into the focus draw tube

many thanks

50 minutes ago, bobro said:

If polar alignment is well off it can result in stars showing as streaks, not as round out of focus stars. 

Holes in the centre of stars with a reflector are due to the secondary mirror becoming apparent with the image out of focus.

With the CC removed, try taking a flat before imaging again. The resultant flat will show if the scope is collimated. The illumination source doesn't have to be too complicated e.g.  an evenly illuminated ceiling without bright light directly entering the scope (what I use) or an evenly lit sky with a piece of paper or similar across the scope to diffuse the light. An exposure of something in the region of 0.5 sec will do fine as the camera shutter won't have an effect at this exposure time (too short an exposure can mean the shutter travel will affect the flat).

 

ive taken an image of the wall as a flat looks pretty even to me but unsure what iam looking for ,and the flat was very pink before changing to jpg its a naked sensor camera

many thanks

35 minutes ago, bobro said:

You mention having cropped a lot of the image in the first post above. Even with cropping there is obviously something wrong with alignment as stars towards the bottom right are much less than sharp. With a coma corrector stars should be very much smaller.

I suggest going back to basics. That means removing the CC and ensuring the scope is collimated. A flat and also an image of stars will help to show this - post here if it helps. If all is well the CC can then be added and flats etc redone to check the setup. It then should be possible to find out what is causing the glow if it still appears e.g. by taking a dark/obscuring the viewfinder/turning off the screen.

the first image wasnt too heavily cropped but yes i have noticed most imaging some stars look great and some out of focus

i was thinking was my polar alignment a little of or not quite getting sharp focus but i use a mask everytime i image

so what would you suggest try an imaging session without the coma corrector its the Baddar coma corrector

somtimes when i zoom in on a picture some stars look fine and others seem to have holes in the centre ive always found odd

Thanks alot

1 hour ago, alacant said:

It looks like light is getting into the camera. Is the glow always top right?

Have a look at:

1. Block/cover the camera viewfinder.

2. Cover the mirror end of the tube with a black shower cap.

3. Fit a dew shield to the front of the telescope.

4. Examine the tube for places where light could enter, especially around the finder holder bracket. 

5. Use ISO 800.

I do not recommend taking dark frames with a 650d.

HTH

Thankyou very good points i will do that cheers