Jm1973

On 03/12/2020 at 19:47, Quatermass said:

Wow! I came back to this post started in 2012 to have a look and realized just how much effort I put into getting that guiding system working on a budget. Its now Dec 2020 but It taught me a great deal and having sold all my gear in 2015 I have now got back into it again having moved house and got some lovely dark skies. Another eq5 mount and 200p has been purchased second hand followed by a 450d Canon camera after getting a 350d first which I will mybe mod later on. An enhanced dual axis kit second hand also to get me started again. Will I do another modded cheap guiding system? Nope just going to save my pennys for a good guide camera and later on upgrade to the synscan kit but hey its all fun to do and this forum is the best. Biggest lesson was learning how to do the processing which I love doing so come on clouds get lost I want to get out there again.

Clear skies QM

I was just looking at this thread as I've got a 200p/EQ5, and realised who you were. Just saw you on the FB group you joined the other day too.

Not stalking you honest. 🤣

Although, you now have pretty much the same setup as me 200p/eq5/450d, so I will be keeping an eye on your posts for tips.

I can see several 40D bodies that have sold for around £60 to £70 on ebay. Some even cheaper.

Did you follow a guide or anything when you built this? Or did you just wing it?

8 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

From memory the weight of everything was about a bit over a kilo.... but when I get a chance, I'll weigh it and amend this message. I do not have any issues with balancing.

I searched on eBay for old 40D bodies and found them between $100-$140... the peltier cooler kits were $15 ea, the copper plate was $20 and the controller was about $9. A can of expanding foam and a 12V 50A PSU to power the cooling was also needed. After about $250 and quite a few hours of work I ended up with this "Cool 40D".

Definitely cheaper than the 294MC, and I'd love to compare the cooled DSLR to a dedicated astro cam using the same equipment to see just how much difference there is in reality... like I said, my 40D delivered virtually noise free (upto 1800s) subs.

 

Very tempted to try this. Not quite sure I've got the skillset to do it. I can solder a bit. And I've got a glue gun! 🤣

13 hours ago, raf2020 said:

I have started using SharpCap just recently and it's absolutely amazing tool for PA! If you are able to put your mount exactly on north position, then you even don't have to look into your polar scope = no more kneeling on grass 😃 

I generally have a quick glance, just to make sure it's roughly there, then I don't look again.

On 01/12/2020 at 00:39, MarsG76 said:

I modded it myself...

I cooled the sensor by cutting to shape and adding a copper plate to the back of the sensor that comes out of the side of the camera. The plate sticking out of the DSLR body has two peltier coolers (with heatsyncs) attached to freeze the copper plate, effectively "sucking" out the heat from the sensor... 

 

My last version cooled the sensor by 18°C below ambience, so I was falling below freezing on nights that were 15°C and initially I did have a problem with dew destroying my main PCB. On subsequent versions I protected the main PCB with hot glue, used some absorption strips inside the DSLR body to fill out the gaps to soak up any moisture from cooling and used expanding foam to fill in around active cooling openings to stop moisture from entering the camera.
 

I added a thin temperature sensor in between the copper plate and the sensor as well as another sensor embedded inside the expanding foam right next to the peltier on the active cooling side to get a accurate reading of the sensor and cooler temperatures. The cooler side dropped to -15°C during the 15°C night. 

At one point the front of the DSLR sensor frosted over so now I wrap a heat strip around the T-Ring/front of the DSLR which stops that... since these condensation protection additions, I did not have a single issue with the DSLR on many nights during the year where the sensor was at 1-2°C (controlled with a temperature controller), usually around 5°C below the dew point... but my subs are virtually noise free and have a much cleaner and crisper look to them.... even the 1800 second subs have almost no noise.

 

 

That is bloody amazing!

How much does it weigh with all the additional cooling stuff?

Do you mind if I ask how much it all cost as well please?

I'm trying to work out whether this would be cheaper than buying something like an ASI294MC-Pro.

I just noticed that in your eqmod settings you have mount options set to auto detect. Try setting that to eq5/eq6 or whatever the setting is...

Have you tried installing any software before that might have used an earlier version of EQMOD or ASCOM? If so this can cause problems.

39 minutes ago, Space_Plane said:

Thanks again for all your input, certainly some things to think about.  That IDAS D2 looks interesting, and worth a try, likely much more effective than the l-pro I use.  A lot of my recent images have otherwise been taken with an l-enhance, and I've only done one proper session with it and my new led friends.  I'll post a rough process of that up later if interested, but what started me thinking down this line was the large section of white glare toward the bottom of the image...right above where the led lights are 🙄

Judging by your comments, if I postponed mono, for now, do you think a replacement duo filter with narrower bandpass might be more effective?

The l-extreme has two 6nm bandpasses and does a great job with LP.

Mono, with individual emission line filters would likely do a better job, but would be much more expensive and take longer to gather data.

Using a tight narrowband filter will help with LEDs as you are limiting the LED to the portion of it that is within the band you are filtering, which may be minimal.

Not sure if this is what you mean exactly, but in PS you can do Select>Colour Range then choose Highlights to select the brightest points only, which is usually the stars (unless you have already blown out the white point).

Demonstrated in this video (start at 15:18) 

15 hours ago, rnobleeddy said:

I don't think it's necessary to expose for longer, although that's how many people in areas with heavy light pollution will use them. Even keeping exposure constant, you're getting a better signal to noise ratio. 

For me, it's not so much that I would make longer subs with a filter... it's that I have to make shorter subs without one.

Semantics I know, but it's an important distinction I think. I would be making longer subs anyway if it wasn't for the LP, and the filter facilitates this.

Not that I've actually got one yet (I've one on order), but that is the hope.

On 02/12/2020 at 13:33, Kenboy said:

 I'll only be using it for astrophotography. 

Filter-wise... you could get one of the dual-narrowband offerings. These allow through Oiii and Ha, and maybe Hb also, while blocking a lot of LP. Cheaper than buying separates, and also quicker to gather data.

That's pretty unprecedented.

3 minutes ago, BrendanC said:

Totally endorse the light vortex guide. I'd even recommend installing stellarium scope, as it suggests, because I find it useful when aligning. I was getting nowhere with my NEQ6 and I still remember, after going through that guide, taking a deep breath, connecting... and finally hearing the sweet sound of the mount responding. 

Same here. I'd built up controlling my mount via EQMOD as this big thing, but the LVA guide made it pretty straightforward.

Make sure you switch to solar tracking rate too.

2 minutes ago, si717 said:

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

I use Astro-tortilla to platesolve, which is free and simple to use. I used it to slew to Mars a few weeks back with no issues.

I'm pretty sure anyway... perhaps someone can confirm.

1 minute ago, JemC said:

Looking on the light pollution map, it says i'm in a Bortle 5 area - not sure how accurate the map is though,

It might be ok for that. Depending on your target you may find a an un-modded DSLR doesn't work that well on it.

There are a lot of targets that do work well with an un-modded DSLR though.

2 minutes ago, si717 said:

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

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.

9 hours ago, rickwayne said:

That's what I usually resorted to. You can also use timed exposures rather than live view, it's a pain but if you're patient it can work. The spikes get fat and insensitive if you get too bright a star, but that sounds like a problem you wish you had at this point!

For timed exposures, bump the ISO up to something ridiculous (you can do this with LV too if you haven't already tried it. Don't worry, no one EVER forgets to dial the ISO back down. Or to remove the Bahtinov mask...

Like no-one ever forgets to switch back to RAW after plate-solving with JPEG. 🤣

8 minutes ago, JemC said:

Just out of curiosity 🙂 would there be a noticeable difference using this filter with un-modded dslr as opposed to a modded dslr ?

The l-enhance won't increase your signal, but it will decrease the noise.

It's designed for moderately light-polluted areas. How is your LP?

2 hours ago, Zermelo said:

 

 

This gets trotted out at least twice a week. 🤣

Should make it a sticky!

EDIT: Oh wait, it already is a sticky!

48 minutes ago, Ade Turner said:

Definitely going to go through it today, thanks. I get to the point where I think I understand something but then hit a brick wall; it gets so frustrating.

Yeah, it is quite a steep learning curve. And there are a lot of different strands that all have to be working at the same time. Try not to get too frustrated though, as other people have already hit the same problems you have, and solutions are normally either on the internet already, or there are people who are able to give help.

If you hit any specific problems, pop them up here. The more specific you can be with the issue, the easier it is for someone to give you the right advice.

I was given a lot of help and advice when I first started, so if I can help with anything I am glad to.

41 minutes ago, Ade Turner said:

Hi Merlin66

Thanks, I will try that tomorrow. I did wonder whether it’s related to the hub and long cable, but I’ve seen others during similar set ups without issue.

I’m powering the mount with a regulated 13.8V bench top supply, I’m confident it’s getting enough power.

I use a 5m usb repeater cable attached to a 5m eqmod cable and I have no problems with that.

3 minutes ago, Ade Turner said:

I’ve just had a skim - looks very useful. I’ll check it out properly tomorrow, thanks. Up to now I’ve been following YouTube videos, but some are more comprehensive than others.

I was a complete beginner a few months ago, and that tutorial made it relatively straightforward to start controlling my mount with my laptop.

I think an evening was all it took to get the basics down.

Congrats! Stick around for another 15!