Mr Thingy

Bumpety bump 😉 Does anyone have a clue what might cause this? TIA

After a short session last week I noticed that about 10% of my images had a line across them (see close up pic below from one of my darks). Checking back from another session I found the same. Any ideas what may cause this? Is my camera faulty? The same occurred in my bias, darks and light (I have no flats yet). The line is alwas vertical but varies in its location on the vertical axis. The camera is a ZWO ASI 183 MM GT. The USB cable is new and decent quality. I am using as a hub for my guide cam and EAF. Let me know if any more info is needed, or if it would be more useful to upload a fits file. TIA Close up of the line:

It's going to be a stunning picture once you add 10 hours each of R & G, plus 20 hours of luminance 😂

Your image looks great. Real nice. I'm quite pleased with my camera (ZWO ASI 183MM) - it seems really sensitve and give crips shots. The above image was shot in Ha, which helps sharpen the image I think. Though I noticed about 5% of my subs had a line across them (also in the darks and bias), which I need to investigate.

I tried stacking data from 2 sessions separately, then stacking the subsequent images but DSS didn't like that, so I stacked the lot together. That seemed to work OK but then the conditions were similar. Only about 55 min of data so far, and still have colour to add, but already looks crisper.

That's really interesting and helps put the magnitude in perspective. So over the 2.5mil years the light has travelled, even at massive speeds of 110 km/s it has 'only' closed the distance by 0.004%. Incredible.

TYVM Not sure if Deep Sky Stacker has provision for multi-session stacking. I may need to try APP instead.

How do you stack images from multiple sessions? Do you stack all in together (assuming similar temps) or stack by session then stack these together?

The local council for my area switched ours to LED a few years back. It made a massive improvement. They also get turned off at 11pm.

This was the source of my issue. I got to try out PHD2 last night and it worked perfectly (even with my hasty, corner-cutting polar alignment, trying to beat the incoming cloud).

Feels good just conquering the equipment, doesn't it? I finally managed to get PHD2 working tonight, so now I have everything up and running, so I have the same feeling.

I couldn't remember which plate solver I am using in NINA, so I just checked. I use Platesolve2, which works fine for me. Not sure on the differences in performance between ASTAP and Platesolve2 though, but the latter is doing a nice job in my limited experience.

I'm not sure how the system operates but it seems to work through the database in a systematic way, sweeping around the sky, so it makes much quicker/easier for the software if it's got a starting point close to where the object should be. I've tried "blind" solving, giving it no starting coordinates, and had very mixed results. Keep at it though. I recently got it working and it's a really powerful tool.

Wow! That's far above my technical capability. Good work. Lucky for us that Rowan now manufacture these kits off-the-shelf.

So did you instigate the belt drive movement? I never had any grinding noises with mine (maybe as it is new), so it sounds about the same, but hopefully it will perform even better now. It's a really nice kit and super easy to install - glad I took the plunge.

Managed to successfully fit mine today. Took just over an hour and the only challenges were a) shoddy SkyWatcher grub screws b). Different arrangement of wires on my motherboard versus the instructions. Both relatively easy to resolve. Testament to how easy this is if I manged it, at least with the newr HEQ5.

I think I have solved the issue - a classic case of user error! It looks like my PHD profile was assigned to my imaging cam and not the guide cam, which explains why one disconnected the other 🙈 Fingers crossed it work at my next outing. Thanks for the help.

I use the SW 50ED + 120MM mini on my SW 72ED + ZWO 183 GT (with 0.8 focal reducer). I've read before that the guide scope/cam should have a sample rate no more than 3 to 4 times that of the imaging scope/cam. In my case the guide has a sample rate of 3.2"/pixel, the imager 1.3"/pixel, so within the limit. Here's a tool to calculate: The blurb is interesting but scroll to the bottom to find the calculator. https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability Based on the above, so long as the pixel size on your DSLR is not less than 3 or 4 micron, then this guidescope/cam should be OK on a 150pds. A focal reducer would work to favour the situation and give a little more leeway. HTH

I see the courier seemed to assume that the "handle with care" sticker only referred to the corner it was stuck on. The other corner was fair game for normal courier handling/drop-kicking 😂

Thanks for the tip. I gave it a go and it definitely improves things a little. The core is less saturated now. I also cropped the image.

Stunning drawing - so life-like. Out of interest, do you illuminate your drawing pad so that you don't need to wait for your eyes to adjust to see what your are drawing?

Thanks for the feedback. In the unstretched image the core looks quite good - the stars of/around the trapezium can be made out and there is detail in the surrounding nebula. I wonder if it's possible to stitch the core from the unstretched image into this? I need to research how to stitch images in GIMP.

Having waited 1 month for a cloudless night I managed to run a second test of my AP rig on Monday night (tl;dr: see image below). It was only about 25min of lights (for reasons I will explain below) but my goal was to familiarise myself with use of the gear, including the new EAF I fitted. Last time out I had problems with the platesolving software, I wasn't aware of the routines in NINA to refine polar alignment and I couldn't get PHD2 to work. Like last time I still have PHD2 issues but platesolving worked a treat, the EAF too, and the PA routines in NINA were fantastic and I feel confident about using those now. Since the moon was very prominent I decided to try shooting in Ha. Without guiding I needed to limit to 90 sec subs, which I hoped would be sufficient with a 7nm filter. After spending about 1.5 hours setting up and aligning, I then realised my rookie mistake, which was setting up in the wrong position, meaning my target was rapidly moving towards my house, hence only 25 min of lights 🙈 Nevertheless, I'm happy with all I learned, which should help me set up much quicker next time and feel less overwhelmed. I desperately need to learn processing skils, including ways to avoid losing detail in the core when I stretch the image. Nevertheless, I can't stop looking at this. User Competence test 2, just about passed. -Thingy- Equipment: SW Evostar 72ED; ZWO ASI 183 GT; SW Evoguide 50ED; ZWO ASI 120 MM mini; ZWO EAF; SW HEQ5 Pro; ZWO 7nm Ha filter.

Thanks. I wasn't sure where to start but wondered if it was a known issue. I think it's a good start to rule out the hub. I also have a better USB cable en route, in case that element is causing a complication.

I haven't but I originally moved from APT to NINA as I was getting other issues 🙈 I feel like it must be something obvious but can't figure it out at all.