Priesters

On 02/10/2022 at 02:47, assouptro said:

Meade Lx200 OTA

What aperture and is it ACF optics.  Curious as I’m a fellow Lx200 owner.

Wonderful images btw

7 minutes ago, alacant said:

Amazing amount of detail for such a short exposure. Love it.

Thank you.

Really appreciating everyone’s efforts with my data.  Actually, I might just keep posting stuff and leave it to you guys to process as that will save me loads of time 😂.

Cheers Olly, very useful tips.  My neck of the woods is closer to Burnley than your old haunts.

Btw, the image I shared was taken whilst stopping in a cottage near Hexham - quite jealous of the beautiful dark skies they have up there, could see the Milky Way very clearly.  I guess your skies are pretty dark too?

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

What you have is decent stuff and could give a very good image.

Thank you.  I’m kind of hovering between AP and EEVA at the moment so have only captured images in one session and up here in not so sunny Lancashire my capture time is usually limited.  I guess I really do need to grasp the nettle and get in to capturing more subs over multiple sessions and let go of SharpCap for stacking my final images.  Out of interest, I’m assuming if I do capture over multiple sessions I’ll need to keep the camera angle the same or does stacking software sort that out?  I’m asking because I usually take the rig down after each session.

Thanks, that's much appreciated. 

After some considerable playing around I've managed to get SharpCap satellite trail removal working - I was being too hasty when adjusting the sensitivity/trail width settings so my laptop wasn't catching up with my fiddling 🙄.  Now I've got that working I think I'll stick to my basic processing and learn the more complex stuff when I've a bit more time on my hands.

Hi all,

Just for background, my current processing experience is limited to what I can do when live stacking in SharpCap with an occasional tweak in GIMP.  Last night I was quite pleased with how the image was building with some basic stretches, colour balancing and a gradient removal but then just before I was about to pack up, my efforts were destroyed by 3 weighty satellite trails.  SharpCap has a new feature to remove them but for the life of me I cannot get it to work and having sigma clipping operating didn't work either.  It was at that point I realised I hadn't been saving the Raw frames so what I am left with is a stacked and semi-processed image with satellite trails.  Can anyone get rid of these awful satellite trails for me and maybe provide some instructions on how you did it?  For the record, lesson has been learnt about making sure the Raw frames are saved!

Thanks.

Andrew

Stack_16bits_9frames_5400s.fits

I have a couple of Mounts and need to change the Comport for each one.  I do it by opening EQASCOM Toolbox. Select Driver Set Up and there’s a Com Port selection box with binocular symbol.  Try clicking that.

5 minutes ago, nutter241 said:

nearest village

I hope that doesn’t mean my lovely home town of Colne 🤔.  

Welcome aboard SGL.  There are many experts on here who will be more than happy to share their knowledge.  I’ve certainly benefitted so please just ask away.

3 minutes ago, beamer3.6m said:

Does this include the polar scope also?

No, just what’s shown in the pic.  I’ll DM you though as my pricing was based on the link to Teleskop Express.

52 minutes ago, Ags said:

Not sure about UK suppliers.

@beamer3.6m I’ll happily sell you mine for £20 plus postage.   Main bolt slot is a tiny bit knarled but fully functioning.  I have never really used it as I only intended to use the dovetail part but then ended up using a longer set up so I could balance the mount more centrally over the tripod.  If you are interested in using the polar scope bit then it may make more sense for your rig.

Thanks Neil, appreciate the reply and advice.  It’s a shame we don’t get enough clear nights to consistently practice this stuff, particularly up here in Lancashire.   I also need to get to retirement so I’m not depending on those clear nights landing on a weekend.  I’ll keep plugging away though and in the meantime just admire your work.  

That’s a great image.  I had a tentative go at Jupiter on Sunday night with a much different outcome to yours 😂.  I’m using an 8” SCT and took 20,000 frames at similar gain to you so similar approach but I think my problem may have been poor focus.  Would you mind letting me know how you make sure you are in good focus?  I used SharpCap Contrast Edge Detection but like I say I’m not convinced I got a good result.

Barnard’s E (142)?

17 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Hope others are getting some scope time in.

On holiday in the Lake District, quite dark - no telescope 😡

31 minutes ago, Stu said:

You can all come out from under your observing tables now

Surely that should be ‘y’all can come out…’

Managed to have another go at capturing the Veil last night whilst up in the Lake District.  I know the processing leaves a lot to be desired but getting these images with such a portable set up and then just spending half an hour 'tweaking' is about where I am right now.  That said I would also like to send my thanks to Mr Musk for yet again bisecting my photo with a white line🙄.

1 hour ago, Adamar98 said:

It’s fascinating to look at.

Thanks. Certainly interests me a lot but reckon I'll hang fire for a bit as it looks like it could be another money pit and I've plenty of other stuff to learn first 😉

On 08/07/2022 at 18:55, Adamar98 said:

I’ve started observing!

I’m considering starting solar but probably just visual given I’ve yet to properly learn ‘normal’ astrophotography image processing so starting another steep learning curve right now doesn’t seem sensible.  My question is how does visual solar compare to imaging solar?   Is the gap as big as it is between DSO visual and DSO imaging I.e. grey fuzzy blob v full colour spectrum and fine detail.

What a shame, hope you get it sorted soon.  I reckon an FTDI cable wouldn’t be a bad investment but I’m biased as I am one of the few on here who just use a wired connection.  Reason was I didn’t want to invest in an ASI Air and have to learn new software.  I’m set up now so it all works with Sharcap, PHD, CDC etc.  

Anyhow, maybe someone with a bit more experience than me might be able to offer a different solution but I reckon the FTDI is the way forward.

In terms of summarising the last 55 pages the original poster  @AstroNebulee has said he might do links to the key points but I guess he might also have a life outside of this thread so it may be some time before that happens 😂.  Anyway I’m presuming you have the same amount of cloud up there in Edinburgh as we do here in Lancashire so what else are you going to do of an evening other than read 55 pages?

welcome to the thread 🙂

Last nights effort - processed in err, whatever it is when you open an image on your laptop 😁

The FF fits inside the focusser which is why you can’t see it.  It’s a threaded connection too so very secure.

1 hour ago, bomberbaz said:

Are you using a reducer, I can only just fit the veil into my view field, just. 

It’s actually the Starizona Evo FF2 which is meant to be just a field flattener but as you’ve noticed there is definitely a reduction factor involved.  I measured it a while back at approx 0.9.  It has 55mm back focus too which has meant I can add a filter drawer and rotator in the train.  Your Crescent is very nice btw - you may still be learning but your processing is still several steps ahead of mine 😀

At the caravan in the Lake District at the mo.  Having another go at the veil and going ok so far by my standards 🤞

It drops within the focusser so it’s barely visible in the train and actually threads on so it’s pretty secure.  

Yes it’s the Starizona evo FF v2 - 55mm back spacing.