si717

23 minutes ago, rickwayne said:

Actually it's dark frames that should be used to calibrate out amp glow. I mean, I'm glad flats worked for you! But if this really was amp glow, then it should show up during an exposure of equivalent length with no light hitting the sensor, primarily from thermal effects. A flat should have much less glow, since they're almost always much shorter exposure time than your lights. If there's some light leak or other optical problem, then the flats might calibrate that out.

Turning the camera on the scope should differentiate the issues. If you turn the camera 90 degrees and the glow shows up in the same part of the frame, it's in the camera and should come out with darks. If you turn the camera and the glow is in the same part of the sky, it's light pollution, or something bizarre going on with your OTA.

Of course, if there was some systemic problem with your flat frames in the first place, rejiggering those would fix it.

Thanks for that i havent been using darks upto now as i read that they cause more noise ,i will have a try at some dark frames on the next outing as ive tried pretty much all else ive also another camera i could try but that ones noisy images seems i cant win ,but i will try the dark frames and re align the camera see what happens thanks for the advice

just adding a few from my images still getting used to it all but 130pds and Dslr

im trying haha great images guys

ive a long way to go and learn

3 hours ago, andrew s said:

Looks like amp glow from the camera. Applying flats frames should be able to remove it.

Regards Andrew 

Thanks ive taken some new flats and tried them on this picture seems to have helped

and this image was taken under a moonlit sky ,so yes maybe iam doing my flats wrong

thanks si

Hi i was wondering if anyone could help me as regards picture glow

iam getting it alot around seems always the right hand side of my pictures and i just cant seem to figure out the problem

im using skywather pds130 and a canon 650d baddar coma corrector i believe iam well aligned with the collimation on the scope

but whatever i try i just cant seem to get rid of the picture glow any ideas or if anyone has experienced it any help would be great thanks

ive inserted a piture its norms a lot worse or an be and i have to crop most the image to acheive an even field thank

if your hand controller has a dsub usb you could just connect from that to your usb on the pc ,and download the usb hand control software from skywatcher and ascom drivers thats the route i took

12 hours ago, Jamgood said:

I know what you mean about sinking money it to it, this game is a never ending spending spree! I'm very new to this myself. The 130PDS is my first scope and I've only had it a couple of months. I jumped in a little near the deep end though and went for computer connected mount/camera. I'm not a fan of standing out in the cold.

One thing I would definitely suggest is get as sharply focused as you can. Makes everything all the easier. Have you got a Bahtinov Mask? They're quite cheap to buy or you can make one. Makes focusing a doddle. 2 second job, lock it up and start imaging. My wife made me one out of cardboard and it works really well.

Also, you never said whether you took Darks, Flats, Bias? I found that good Flats make the world of difference. 

Like yourself, I was a bit blaise when it came to processing, thinking it would be easy and then learning very quickly that it most certainly isn't. But, every day is a school day, as they say. It's great to learn new things.

yes ive gone the laptop to mount route and run from indoors once setup over chrome remote desktop ,i have a bahtinov Mask and use it not quite sure as to why my stars maybe a little out of focus ,i do have a wire running up one of the veins to a homemade dew heater ive put behind the secondary mirror not used it yet but sure it will be of use when the wether gets colder ,i may take that of as dont know if affecting focus .

And ive been using Bias and Flat frames and dithering every shot so not been doing darks maybe those would help with the noise i get in the images ,ive read on the thread alot of people dont use darks when dithering so may give those ago in future

And maybe i need to focus more imaging time on given target ,and yes its all learning curve seems alot to all take it at first ,but things are coming together slowly and dropping into place just little things i need to tweak now i think 👍

1 minute ago, Jamgood said:

It took a lot of editing to get them like that. I was using a Canon EOS200D and the noise was horrific, even with lots of darks, flats, etc.

The Canon EOS60Da I recently aquired is an absolute dream in comparison. It took me 2 minutes stretching the data to get the new images to look like that. With the 200D it would of took a lot of trial, error and frustration. 

Great hobby to be learning though. Your inages look really good so far. They'll get better as you go. Have you searched YouTube for tutorials using Gimp?

I use photoshop so can't help there. I'm sure the majority of the process is the same, just differently name actions/tools.

thanks yes your images look great ,and i do like your new one with the new camera yes you can see the difference ,im not in the position to throw money into a dedicated camera as of yet allready put a fair chunk into the hobby allready ,and yes i think i will start learning more toward the processing side now and try make the best of the equipment i have ,ive left the processing to the last but uam sure i will learn and something to do on cloudy nights

Thanks for the reply and good luck in your future imaging 👍

my third attempt at imaging with the 130pds ,canon 650d modified astronomik cls ccd fiter an baddar mpcc

im batteling noisey images really and learning processing its all learning if anyone can point me in the right direction,that would be great im using gimp and i find that ok just not wanting to pay monthly for photoshop will it make my images any better i dont know ?

one thing great weather this week

On 17/09/2020 at 17:07, Jamgood said:

Here's my latest attempts with my set up. Iris and M33 were 60sec subs at ISO 1600. Crescent Nebula and Pleiades were 40sec at 1600.

130PDS - EQ3Pro - Canon EOS200D - CLS Filter and Baader MPCC.

Slowly getting better. These were my first attampts while dithering with APT. Just need more clear nights and more practice with post processing. I'm amazed that I'm getting images like this already. It's great fun.

Just purchased a used Canon 60Da with a better filter and hopefully that will help me to improve things. 👍

Great images i myself am just getting going with the whole imaging and trying to learn processing yours dont look as noisey as my attempts well done

2 minutes ago, Erling G-P said:

Thanks for the kind words

I don't plate solve; I use Synscan in the mount to locate targets, and then manually adjust the framing with a number of test shots.  Often difficult with nebulae, as they tend to be very faint in single shots.  The cooled camera helps with noise, but as a help, I can't recommend Topaz DeNoise AI enough.  Very good at removing noise and at the same time making the image sharper.  Took the liberty of quickly running your own M31 image through it and have attached it here.  You can download a free trial and play with it for a month before deciding to buy or not:

https://topazlabs.com/denoise-ai-2/

thanks for the information ,iam using the synscan so hopefully i can locate some targets in the future

and thanks for that on Topaz Denoise i will give it a try many thanks

second attempt at imaging with the 130 pds ,i seem to be getting alot of noise in my images ,i used a modified 450d ,30 3min subs dithered every 3rd shot any advice on making my images better would be great i know i need to work on processing its all new and im learning when its clear very rare in the uk i must say 😂 but iam enjoying it and like the scope

On 09/09/2020 at 02:54, Erling G-P said:

Finally have an image to post here. Tend to go for my 200PDS, if I can fit the target within its field of view, but tonight's subject, the Pelican Nebula seemed perfect for the 130PDS.

Framing should probably have been different, as I got a fair bit of the North American Nebula too, but was difficult to judge on a single sub, and this being my first attempt with this nebula.

Driving clouds & rising moon interfering, and session terminated when the OTA collided with the tripod legs.  Quite windy too, but with the 130PDS it wasn't the problem it would have been with the 200PDS - haven't discarded a single sub due to tracking errors.

46 x 3 minutes = 138 minutes total.

HEQ5 Pro/Rowan belt mod, Canon 700Da cooled, Staraid Revolution autoguider, darks, flats & bias.

Stacked with DSS. Processed with Astroart 6 & Topaz DeNoise AI.

hi thats a really nice image and something im hopefully looking to have a go at in the future,iam pretty new to it and starting out wuth objects i can see through the eye peice first ,can i ask do you plate solve ? to frame the targets ,and how do you deal with camera noise is that eliminated with the cooled camera ,i have a full spectrum 650d and 450d but seem to be getting lots of noise

anyway great pic something for me to aim for thanks for sharing

6 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

EQMOD is  a driver for certain mounts. Other drivers are available under ASCOM for other mounts. Stellarium does offer a direct connection to the mount, the main difference is the way in which the cable from the PC connects to the mount. If using directly thro Stellarium, the cable needs to connect to the handset, which then connects to the mount (i.e PC -> handset -> mount). But if you use an EQdirect cable then you would connect directly to the mount and control using ASCOM drivers.

yes i got it all up and running ,i went with the direct pc usb to handset ,i only want stellarium as easier to find a targets and slew

rather than always looking at my phone and using the hand control ,so dont think ive any need for ascom and eqmod as of yet 

im not plate solving or anything so think im good to go ,many thanks for the helpfull advice .

Clear skys

10 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Go to the windows start menu > stellarium > stellarium (angle mode).

 

From the plugins > telescope control, press the load at startup button and the restart stellarium.

thanks thats got the new version running i will look into telescope now thankyou

7 minutes ago, Jamgood said:

Have you installed the ASCOM drivers and set up EQMOD with the relevant settings?

hi no i havent got that far i didnt know i would need eqmod on youtube it shows a straight connect to stallerium but i will look into that thanks

hi

im having a few problems with stellarium ,first open gl problems with any version i try install

the only version i have got to run is version 14 but when going to connect telescope it wont configure the button seems disabled

so im a little confused ,iam running a windows 7 64 bit operating system

but the laptops quite old a lenova thinkpad 

any help with a work around would be great or do i need a newer laptop many thanks

hi all could anyone help me out with my badder MPCC Mark 111 i have a modified canon 450d with only one main lens removed

and iam to thinking i may need filters ,and iam wondering will the coma corrector accept 2" filters before i purchase any

just looking at the mpcc it looks a funny fitment many thanks

clear skys

first clear night and first ever shots with the 130pds only 20 40s lights darks an bios of M13

im pleased could of done more

but happy with my first attempt at photography next to move onto guiding and more subjects 😀

yes thanks allfor your replys and help i sorted it with the synscaninit 2 ,i was or i believe its because i had my Elevation was way off 😂

if not for synscaninit 2 id of been lost so great help i had a rough go aligning to stars and its now slewing in the right area

turned it of for a few hours and had another try and all seems good ,so yes hopefully i can move onto the next step and enjoy it some

but yes thanks for the help it was rather a confusing one 👍 but simple cheers

Thanks all i think i have done it or should i say you have all helped do it ,i was trying to connect synscaninit1 that wouldnt work

and then tried synscaninit2 like above pictures and inputted the details and it seems now to be slewing to the appropriate areas

alot of frustration and a night of clear skys missed but i think its now in working order

or i am hoping im more confident its heading in the right direction so many thanks to all hopefully now to test on clear skys many thanks again

been a great help 👍

16 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

That would suggest that the location/time/date info are incorrect.

ive just had another go same problem its pointing toward oposite side ,yet when i check location on handset and star location they align ,its as if the motors are running the opposite way around running in the wrong direction anyway but still giving the correct coordinates ive also tried another battery pack no luck there something in the build just doesnt tally up its not that im inputting wrong ive checked that a 100 times 😒

4 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Very strange it does sound like the motors are going the wrong way I wonder if polarity is the wrong way round not sure whether that would blow the board, it's definitely tip positive but sounds like yours is not very strange. 

Yes try a different power source see how that goes. 

thats the conclusion i got to lastnight is its going in the wrong direction the motors are turning the oposite way

but then it telling me the moon wasnt in the sky either was another confusing thing to me the item is not right

but i will try another power source an see how it turns out thanks

1 minute ago, AstroMuni said:

One thing I did notice when I first started using my EQ5. In the Home position, the bolts holding the scope need to be on the left hand side! Otherwise it slews off in opposite direction. HTH 🙂

yes thats how its setup i even spun it around and tried the wrong direction that kind of put me in a better position but still wrong iam lost with it 😂 i have to laugh now cause its beyond me im hoping the retailers come up with a sollution

4 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

My routine is tripod out levelled mount on polar aligned I do not put Polaris in the cross I use the circle around it like a clock. Synscaninit shows you position e.g 9 o'clock I will then position Polaris on the ring at the 9pm position.

Put weights and scope on  scope up weights down (park position) check Polaris position again sometimes needs a tweak.

switch on have Synscaninit app running on phone check my coordinates, next time zone 00:00 date month day and year,time set it exactly, daylight saving yes for this time of year press enter   check p.scope maybe just out and hour angle again maybe just out. Chose a star about halfway up the sky if you can see Ursa major use Dubhe if your doing 2 star use Deneb its in a good position. 

See how that goes, people on here can tell you ive had loads of trouble with my EQ5 now I do the same routine and I use a 10 amp cctv power pack as mine was losing power causing problems.

good luck stay patient check and double check everything especially daylight savings and month day year easy done I have done it several times.

thanks but i do believe i went through those steps countless times and tried aligning with dubhe an deneb etc to only find whatever i was trying to align on it would slew to the oposite side align in the west id end up slewing east ,align east end up slewing west

its acting as tho the motors are running in the oposite direction i will try another power source but ive little hope of that solving the issue thankyou

5 minutes ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

Not surprised you're frustrated, and sorry if you feel treated like a newbie. I've been a software developer for 40 years, into astronomy for over 20, and I still got caught out by the MM/DD/YY format with my new scope. I just didn't see the wood for the trees, and my  scope exhibited the same sort of behaviour as yours is doing, including trying to find an object by pointing at the lawn!

However, you seem to have eliminated the date confusion from the possibilities. I bet it's something equally obvious that we're all missing. Maybe you could post a photo or two of how you've got it set up? Someone might spot the problem.

Don't give up mate, you'll get there!

Cheers,

Mark

thanks for the reply and well the scopes setup as it should now brought indoors sat in my living room until i can face it again

it is frustrating and i dont believe im overlooking anything obvious and ive even tried things in the wrong direction just to see if that would help

but to no joy ,the only thing that jumps to mind is if i turned the scope and pointed it to the ground it may go in the right direction

or closer to the chosen star thats the confusing part and the worst part it being new

so other than keep changing dates and location around theres little i think i can do

i was kind of hoping someone maybe experienced the situation before and possibly yes im over looking the obvious 😂 i new getting back into astronamy would have me scratching my head again but well this ones got me haha thanks i will try not to give up cheers