Shimonu

I'm really considering the 533 now instead to be honest. The pixel size fits my scope very well and even something like a 600+ FL that I would probably upgrade to in the future. I was worried about the square sensor but putting it into Stellarium it really fits a lot of targets very well and frames them perfectly. My only concern would be not being able to really crop too much.

8 hours ago, drivera said:

 

 

Thanks so much for the feedback on this.
I don't have a PC but have a Raspberry PI with Astroberry. I couldn't get the polar alignment in Ekos to work - but I might try to use a Win emulator to run Sharpcap?

I have the standard mount for the SGP and I find it so bloody hard to use the alt/alz etc knobs to move it, plus bending down at 6'4' is tough hah.

Aaah so much to learn and test ha.

When I tried Ekos the first time I realized that it didn't have the platesolving files installed by default. You have to download them yourself depending on what telescope and camera you're using. Or what kind of trouble were you having?

I'm waiting for the season to start here in Sweden and I'm looking at getting a dedicated colour camera. I feel pretty interested in the ZWO 294 MC Pro, the only downside I see currently is the pixel size being on the high end for my telescope. I've got the WO Zenithstar 73. So the 4.63 µm of the 294 gets me to around 2.22 arcsec/px.

Now I guess my question is how bad is this really going to be? I'm currently shooting with a Canon 700D which gives me 2.06 arcsec/px, is it even going to be a noticeable difference? I'm also seeing this as opportunity for me to grow into a bigger scope as I'll probably want to get something like a 600 mm Newton.

I've looked at other cameras like the 533, 071 and even as far as the 2600 but the 294 really seems like a sweet spot in terms of performance for it's price.

8 hours ago, J0E said:

Thanks guys I’ve managed to sort the cooling problem. Your help is much appreciated 

So what was the issue?

It looks like you're in a quite light polluted area and like the sun hasn't set quite yet, so it's still not completely dark. You also have some vignetting and dust

Those look really amazing!

I think this has been asked before but I'm not about to look through all the pages. But what is the 130 PDS like out of the box, is there any modification you feel is mandatory or can you just put it on the mount and shoot? Disregarding regular collimation of course.

I'm quite tempted by it as my next scope, it would be a good fit when I'm going for a dedicated camera. But coming from a refractor which is very plug and play I'm a bit hesitant.

23 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

The settings are:

EKOS: always reset guide calibration.

PHD2: reuse calibration

Check/uncheck as you wish.

I'd recommend EKOS' internal guider however who's recent SEP-multistar implementation is both predictable and accurate; one fewer app to have to juggle.

Cheers

 

Got the latest kstars update and I'll be trying SEP multistar in my next session. I also found the option to reuse calibration. Thank you very much!

I know it's important to recalibrate if you're setting up the mount each session but if it hasn't moved I've understood it as the calibration being good. But my last sessions I've been taking test images of targets with guiding and as soon as I want to slew to a new target and start guiding again then it wants to run calibration. This takes quite a bit of time from the session and can be frustrating.

I'm running PHD2 with Ekos if that matters. Any ideas how I can avoid this?

I would say to generally go for shorter focal length which then means longer exposures are possible. When I started with just a tripod it took a me quite a few tries before I learned what worked. Use the 500 rule together with the crop factor of your camera. So divide 300 with your focal length and you'll get a reasonable idea of what length exposure you can take. Experiment to find what works, that includes the ISO which can safely be kept at 800 or 1600 I would guess. Then start collecting lights, keep making sure your target is in the frame and focus is good and just get as many lights as you can.

Also remember to select targets appropriate for your camera if it's unmodified. Keep reasonable expectations.

2 minutes ago, Coriorda said:

Everything i read online seems to say Sharpcap doesn't support DSLR, maybe I've missed something - but will check out EKOS _ thank you for that., I don't use guiding at present, so has to be via the dslr or a stick on solution like polemaster i think. 

Ah, I haven't looked at it so what you've found is probably true

3 minutes ago, Coriorda said:

Hi Guys, 

My knees always complain when trying to polar align and my eyesight isn't so great that trying to move the little white dot around the red screen is easy. So i am looking for an electronic solution. to polar alignment. 

I've heard Sharpcap works well, but as I use DSLR I think that is out.?

So what does that leave? Ipolar ? - wrong mount with my HEQ5 Pro and Polemaster seems so expensive i might just as well get an ASIAIR for the functionality at similar (ish) cost.

What do you guys use ? - is there anything I am missing which I should consider ? 

Thanks in advance. 

 

A DSLR shouldn't stop you in any way I don't think. I've used my DSLR for polar alignment in Ekos and I think Sharpcap has a similar method. The camera will be clicking a bit to show the update but it's perfectly doable. If you've got a guiding solution you can use that camera too.

I realized the cold is a bigger problem than I thought. When it starts to dip below -10 things aren't surviving very long. It's quite frustrating as we're having quite a few nights now with clear weather but the temperatures are also approaching -15 and below without wind chill. I can dress pretty warm but it's quite difficult keeping the rig running. My powertank(really a starter battery) shows half charge pretty quick and the laptop won't survive past polar alignment.

2 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

If you have a PC planetarium you can usually plug in your focal length and chip size to get an idea of how a target will fit your frame. I use SkyMap Pro but there are free ones like Carte du Ciel and Stellarium which, I think, also let you do this.

If you use Photoshop for post-processing, a trick for extracting more Ha signal from emission nebulae is to go to Image-Adjustments-Selective Colour and lower the cyans in red by moving to top Reds slider to the left. This can be quite spectacular.

Olly

Yeah I'm pretty frequently in Stellarium so I know what fits. The issue is rather what's going to be detected by the sensor as I've been surprised a few times.

I don't have PS but I do fiddle a bit with GIMP and maybe I can do something similar there. Otherwise I use AstroPixel Processor.

16 minutes ago, City9Town0 said:

Heart and Soul?

I once made an attempt at the Soul I believe with a 2 or 3 minute exposure to see what I could get but it barely registered so I'm wondering how good signal I could actually get. As this target is also pretty much straight up it's somewhat affected by the light pollution from the city, at least in the location I normally go to. So I would probably prefer something like the Rosette which is semi-high in the sky and to the south.

3 minutes ago, edarter said:

North America? 

Unfortunately I have some light pollution in that direction so it's not ideal. I've tried 5 minutes on the elephant trunk and I didn't see any nebulosity at a quick glance. Although this was during a full moon so might be worth another try.

The California nebula and Flaming star seem interesting  I think I'll give them a try.

I've got my EOS 700D and WO Z73 and I always get very hesitant about which targets I should go for. A few times I've gone out deciding for a target but once I try an exposure for maybe 3-5 minutes nothing really shows up. Maybe it's the light pollution or perhaps it was the moon last time. But I've got a few clear nights without any moon coming up so I'd like to know what a good target could be. I've been thinking about the Rosette nebula perhaps, I've got the best sky to the south and I'm at about Lat 58. I've done the obvious targets like M42 and M45 recently as well as the horsehead although I might get more data on that. I've also done a bit of M31. So I'd like some interesting nebula really.

I recently learned the QE on a DSLR is pretty horrible so I guess I've got that working against me as well. But I'm feeling a bit confused about how I should find a suitable target for my gear.

42 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I'm not sure that difference is that significant. Could you walk us thru the reasoning behind 50% figure?

Would also like to know the reasoning. This 50% figure really made me question my plan to get a cooled OSC.

Do you use any dew heaters and do you remember what it was like during the session? I'm no expert but dew seems pretty possible.

It doesn't quite fit the budget yet to jump to a cooled OSC but I wanted to get some input on what to think about. Right now I've got a Canon 700D modified with a WO Z73 including flattener. I know I should make sure the pixel size and focal length are a good combination.

Would the back focus be wrong after just swapping? The WO Z73 has an adjustable flattener, could this be used to adapt to any change?

I've had my eye on the IMX533 sensor which seems to have pretty good specs at a good price, just not sure which brand yet. What things should I check or will I need to keep in mind when changing cameras?

Thanks

20 minutes ago, kens said:

It looks like PHD2 is receiving commands intended for INDI server.

PHD2 should be on port 4400. Ekos profile should look something like this

 

Yep, that was it! I had messed it up and changed the port to the indi server. Thanks a bunch!

I hear a lot of great things about PHD2 so I've been trying to get it working but it doesn't seem to want to connect properly. Perhaps I'm missing something.

So I've at least determined that Ekos is using the right port. I tried changing and got errors about connecting. What I'm seeing from in the Ekos logs though are some PHD2 JSON errors about illegal values. But they're regarding the Dome Simulator or GPS Simulator which I'm not using. So I'm not sure where that is coming from. I don't see anything about that in the PHD2 debug logs.

Example of error in Ekos
 

Quote

PHD2: JSON Error: illegal value

PHD2 Invalid response received: <getProperties version="1.7" device="Dome Simulator" name="DOME SHUTTER" />

If I try going to the guiding tab and pressing connect then there's just no response at all.

Generally electronics do well down to -40 without issue. The problem I think is with the battery where its chemistry changes and can't give the correct voltage at lower temperature. So being plugged to a power source should be okay assuming you otherwise protect it from humidity and water/melting frost.

36 minutes ago, Newforestgimp said:

I've ordered a box from Amazon, hopefully will be ok to fit electrics in with Laptop for a bit of extra warmth.

Just so I'm clear are you putting lid on box and letting it chug through the plan once set up or leaving open ?

Andy 

I left the box open and just had a blanket around the laptop while it was closed. But this was just an initial test, I know some make holes in it so you can more easily place the laptop in the box and run the cables through the hole.

I've had trouble with the battery dying after about an hour in freezing temperatures and once it starts again it will say it has plenty(80%+). So yesterday I brought a bin and a blanket that I put the laptop in once everything was ready and capturing. I also turned off any power saving options and changed the settings so I could close the lid without turning anything off. It kept going just fine this time and instead the camera ran out of battery. I have an Asus Ultrabook so it's a complete metal body which certainly helps it get cold.

I'm wondering if anyone has used the Pegasus PowerBox with a Linux computer or even just standalone.

I'm looking at buying one but I just want to make sure it would work with my setup as I'm using my Linux laptop and kstars/Ekos. I've seen that the Ultimate version has support by Indi but what about the simpler versions?

Thanks!