Shimonu

When I compare the Skywatcher PDS newtons to other brands versions, like the TS-Optics Photon series I don't see what's really motivating the higher price for the Skywatcher. They include some eye pieces but is that it? Are they significantly better quality in some way?

18 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

😲 Sacrilege!

I kid! In all seriousness though, with narrowband ideally you want the narrowest you can afford (or are willing to spend) to increase the contrast. Star halos and reflections can be issue, particularly with cheaper OIII filters. 

There is a thread on here showing the performance of Baader's new ultra narrowband filters which may be of interest.

FLO's IKI observatory uses Optolong I believe, so you could check out the images produced by that to get a feel for them. 

Personally, I've had mediocre experiences with ZWO's offerings (broadband though, not NB), so I would probably take a pass on them. No experience with Atik filters, so no comment on those.

Again, personal opinion here, but I found for price point vs performance, Astronomik's hit the spot for me. Chroma and Astrodon still the clear favourites for the 'serious' imager, but no way am I spending £400-ish on a single filter!!

I'd love to go to FLO, it's where I got my telescope but as I'm in Sweden it got pretty expensive to buy from FLO after brexit.

I've seen the thread on Baader and the new ultra narrowband seem promising even though they didn't seem perfect. I was wondering if halos and/or reflections are just a given or is it a bit of luck with your combination of equipment? And is it tricky to fix in post processing?

Opps, double post

I'm having trouble choosing narrowband filters. How do I navigate this jungle? What should I look for?

I'll likely be shopping at astroshop which offer Atik, Baader, Optolong or ZWO as far as I can tell. The prices can be pretty different and I don't want to end up buying something I'll regret. So I'd prefer to wait and save up a little if it's worth it. Right now I guess I'd be looking at something in the €4-500 range.

Eqiupment is in my signature.

On 24/08/2021 at 14:22, powerlord said:

So, I use the ZWO job. I do have a hand controller I got cheap from a SGL member. I wouldn't buy one new - it's basically 3 buttons and you can make one yourself.

However don't - I don't use mine at all now. I should say I find no use for the zero position thing - so if you do, this won't apply.

get yourself some knurled m4s. and use those to hold the focuser on the shaft (I also use 2 knulred m4s to secure the focuser to the bracket which allows me to swap the EAF between 4 different telescopes in a few minutes with no tools).

ebay 'knurled bolts' and you'll find em. about 10mm long for most shafts, 12mm for my C8.

With the knurled bolts, you can easily in darkness, loosen them, adjust by hand to get initial focus, then tighten up. then let it do it's AF thing. It's also great if you are swapping image train during session. e.g. adding a barlow, changing camera, using an eyepiece, etc.

works a treat. I use the asiair and have mine set usually to then just refocus on filter change (which tends to be about every hour).

 

Since I'm always going away to shoot I'll have prepared the equipment beforehand. So hopefully I won't be swapping anything during a session. But I'm interested in getting a something like 200/800 newtonian in the future and I want to make sure it won't give me any surprises.

1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

Unless your using or planning to use an ASIAir, there are other options for autofocusers. Have you considered the DeepSkyDad unit? 

I had never heard about it but it seems like a well used and good focuser. Certainly cheaper than the ZWO. Great tip, thanks!

1 hour ago, scotty38 said:

With the ZWO you cannot focus manually without the hand control so it’s also an option provided if it’s used visually too. Also worth noting, I use Nina, but the ZWO gives a temperature reading even without the probe attached but obviously just the ambient rather than anywhere specific. 

You mean there's no driver support for manual focus, so if you don't get the hand controller you have to rely on the automatic focus and already being somewhat focused? It won't be possible to do any manual in/out focus in any software? But surely it has to since you figure out the backlash by manually focusing in and out, right?

I saw that Ekos can perform refocusing based on the HFR and the amount it has changed, so temperature shouldn't be an issue.

I'll most likely be ordering an electronic auto focuser in the upcoming weeks and I wanted to check if there's anything I should check or keep in mind. I'll be using it with my WO Z73 and possibly a newtonian in the future.

I was recommended to get one with a hand controller but I'm not sure I understand why, would that be to get the focus roughly right? I would like to make sure I know how it's used, I photograph in the field so I might have to do some setting up each night. But I'm hoping I can pretty much leave it alone as I carry my scope as a package. Before using it I understand you have to set up how much backlash it has. I was considering getting one without a temperature probe as I already have one on my pocket powerbox but I'm not sure if it will be able to use it in Ekos. Could I just refocus every 10-15 minutes or would that add a lot of time to my session?

Thanks!

55 minutes ago, Jim Beaumont said:

Yes i think it was slightly out of focus too.  Sonething else i need to work on lol. I think also the cropping was done during the stacking, as i didn't do any personally. Big learning curve.

If you didn't do any cropping then there likely isn't any.

There is certainly a learning curve but for me it's been a lovely one. I feel like I spent all last year just browsing forums, watching youtube and reddit trying to learn as much as I could in excitement. Now I'm trying to get some serious equipment. I have to embarrassingly admit I've got a serious mono rig but still haven't gotten anything for doing flats. That's my next goal.

1 hour ago, Jim Beaumont said:

Sure.

Is this cropped anything? It looks like you're a little out of focus. With such a wide lens it should be possible to get pretty small stars.

I started out the same way myself. I put my Nikon D60 on a tripod and used an IR remote. I'll share my picture of Ursa Major/Big dipper. I don't remember if this was with my kit lens or the 50 f/1.8 I got later.

On 07/08/2021 at 14:18, michael8554 said:

Hi Shimonu

Here's from YOUR GuideLog:

You never got a decent Calibration, so guiding was bound to be poor:

 

Calibration guide speeds:       RA = 1.6 a-s/s, Dec = 1.7 a-s/s

Guide speeds need to be at least 7.5 a-s/s.

So RA completed in 4 steps W1 to W4.   PHD2 aims for 12 steps, your Guide software may be different.

North took 3 steps N1 to N3, but the Return South path S1 to S7 should have ended back at the intersection of the axis at W1, and ideally taken 3 steps, not 7.

This is an indication of rather large Dec Backlash,.

So I'd concentrate on that rather than RA !

I'm afraid the Logs generated by your Guide Software are sparse on detail compared to PHD2.

But it showed that you Calibrated at Dec = 40, it's best to Calibrate at Dec = 0.

So concentrate on Dec Backlash and larger Guide Rates.

Maybe get some good guiding by tweaking in PHD2, then reverse engineer it to work with your guide software  😆  ??

Michael 

 

Was finally able to try out the mount after going over it and the guiding has certainly improved. I was able to get 1.1"-1.5" stable and depending on the exposure length. I haven't had a chance to open the logs on the computer yet but the calibration looked pretty bad still. So I'll have to look at that and perhaps the guiding can be improved even more. I'm guessing that ideally it should be a perfect cross?

24 minutes ago, Cyril said:

Musk's latest is that he wants to launch a satellite Billboard for advertising!!! If he gets away with it there is no stopping at how low he can get when he considers anyone else's view.

Our planet is surround by a cloak of satellites, so many that it must have an effect on the planet and atmosphere, who knows but would they tell us.

Well it's hardly his personal idea, is it? Someone wants to use SpaceX as a launch provider for a satellite billboard. Hardly a nice thing for anyone but why not attack the company wanting to put up the billboard? Sure, you can also say it's something SpaceX shouldn't be doing but don't start lying claiming it's his personal idea

Yes the goal of SpaceX is to make humanity multi-planetary and Musk has said he wants to die on Mars, just not during landing

What may appear as a lot of failures from SpaceX is a very deliberate methodology. They like to find faults by testing, sometimes deliberately to know the exact breaking points and weaknesses. It's to avoid over-engineering, saving time and resources, I believe. They're also at the forefront of rocketry, they're developing things that nobody has done before. They are the first to land a first stage booster, they're the first to fly a full flow staged combustion cycle engine. The Starship will be the first fully reusable rocket system and the largest rocket every built. They have accomplished a lot of first and will continue to do so. Frankly, there is no other rocket developer close to what SpaceX is doing.

What's also exciting about them is that they are so open about their development. Elon likes to answer questions and share details about plans and development progress as well as allowing people to put up permanent cameras outside their development facilities.

5 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Sounds like it could be the culprit.. Hope it's the solution 

Just waiting for a clear night to test it out. Forecast shows no opportunity any time soon.. 😕 Hopefully it's wrong.

41 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Apologies Shimonu,

That was someone else's Guidelog I selected in Log Viewer.

Michael

No worries, I appreciate you taking the time.

31 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Some strange entries in your PHD2 GuideLog:

You carried out Calibrations with different Calibration Step sizes, 50 pixels, 30 pixels, before setting it at the correct 25 pixels.

I don't see that the guidecam was Binned.

Earlier Calibrations were carried out with the EQMOD HEQ5/6 (ASCOM) mount driver.

But later ones were carried out with the ZWO ASI290MM Mini (ASCOM) camera driver as the mount driver ???

Which maybe has reverted the guiding from ASCOM to ST-4 ?

Given the wrong settings and random adjustments of the PHD2 settings while guiding, I don't think any of your guiding is worth analysing.

I suggest you go intro the PHD2 Help menu and have a good read of the Help and How To guides before doing any more guiding, the PHD2 Guide Assistant will suggest settings for you.

Start here:

https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

Michael

 

I'm not sure what you're looking at, a lot of this sounds strange to me. I'm working with indi drivers and an NEQ-6, I don't have any 290MM mini, just a 294MM Pro or a 120MM-S. Also I'm using the internal guider of Ekos.

Anyway, I've gotten the RA axis apart and noticed the worm shaft wasn't turning smoothly. Hopefully this is the issue. I just needed to loosen the locking ring for the shaft. There are some pretty nasty tool marks on the end caps from the previous owner and I suspect he's been in there trying to do god knows what.

8 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Did you slightly slacken the bolts on the worm housing?

I found a tutorial and loosened them and retightened just until there was resistance.

14 minutes ago, Seelive said:

Have you over-tightened it? Backlash in the RA isn't so much of a problem especially if the balance is set slightly east heavy.

I don't think so, I was really making sure I was only tightening enough to make the slop disappear. I went back a few times so I could feel it again and just tightened a very small amount to see when it went away.

22 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Depends on what  you did to fix the issue you had.. has it got better or worst?

I haven't done much. Previously I've just noticed the RA had some play when trying to move it with my hands and I've adjusted the grub screws to tighten the worm drive until I couldn't feel any play at least. Otherwise I've only done stuff with the software and try to interpret logs. I haven't seen any change at all really.

9 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Take it if you're talking about a belt mod that it's a skywatcher?

Belt modding won't stop stiction, sounds like it could be gear mesh/ binding, or clutch too tight causing the ring gear pushed to one side, or taper bearing locking nut done up too tight...

Could be lots of things

But essentially I should take it apart, inspect and feel that everything is in good condition and moving smoothly?

1 minute ago, powerlord said:

It looks bad enough it might be worth just using controller to move RA slowly, and look closely.

Sorry, I'm not sure I'm following. Look at what exactly?

48 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi

Do your images confirm this improvement?

Cheers

Unfortunately, no. I have pretty elongated stars so it would appear the values being reported were not true. Thinking about it they were pretty much half of what I would normally see.

45 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

A little more info would help.

What exposure ?

Which is RA, which is Dec ?

I think from the Dither figures that RA is Blue ?

There are excursions of up to 7.5arcsecs that are taking about 5 exposures to correct.

Causing RA to fly over the other side of the axis up to 7.5arcsecs, and about 5 more exposures pass before RA is corrected.

So I'd say RA is loose and has Stiction.

If you have any sort of GuideLog it would be far more instructive than screenshots.

Michael

Sorry for the lack of info. I've been trying to get some help but got the feeling guidelogs were not appreciated as I didn't get any response. I'll add the log from the picture. So I was using mostly 2s exposure and trying 1.5s to see if it made any difference. You're very much correct that blue is RA.

I appreciate the input. If I'm understanding you the RA axis is loose in some places but getting stuck in other places? I guess it might be worth going for the belt mod as I'll likely need to take it apart and inspect it anyway.

guide_log-2021-08-05T00-15-32.txt

2 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

Keep it simple? Perhaps best to lose phd2 and use the EKOS internal guider instead. The latest SEP multistar is excellent.

Cheers

Sorry, I was a bit unclear. I was only trying to use PHD2 for the guiding assistant or other tools for diagnosing issues. I normally use the internal guider with multistar guiding.

I've tried adjusting my RA axis so I don't feel and play. I thought I solved it by binning my guiding camera but that seems to have just changed the numbers without improving the actual guiding. The calibration in Ekos seems to go through successfully but I'm not sure how I read the plot.

I've included a picture of what the guiding looks like from Ekos. I'm getting really desperate, I'd really like to understand the issue before I start replacing things on random.

3 hours ago, Seelive said:

I assume you're binning the guide camera 2 x 2 so if the guiding software doesn't know that you've effectively doubled the size of the guide camera pixels then I guess that the reported errors would be halved.

Well that would be a bummer... I'll post in the indi forums to see what they say.