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Mr Thingy

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Posts posted by Mr Thingy

  1. 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:

    Screenshot_20210215-134547~3.png

  2. 1 hour ago, Pryce said:

    I tried stacking in intersection mode, and that cropped it this far in.   Just a quick and dirty edit to see what I had to work with.

    Well,  I guess I'll just store the data from my first location for later.   I have 3 more clear nights(hopefully) at the location I'm currently at, so it's not the end of the world! 
    I'll see what I have in 2-3 days! 😁
    Autosave001-DeNoiseAI-denoise111111111111111.thumb.png.f6448dc0b2e249fedb9dff4cbc942d7d.png
     

    Two sessions and only 55 minutes of data? : o
    But it looks good though! Especially for less than an hour of data!

    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.

  3. 3 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

    I personally stack each session, and then stack the resulting stacks, and by using weight maps produced during the stacking of each session odd edges are minimised if you have slightly different orientations. Astro Pixel Processor also allows you to do multi-session stacking, in which case you have to indicate which flats, darks etc to use on which lights. The advantage of doing it my way is I do not necessarily have to keep all subs on my hard disk, just the resulting stacks and corresponding weight maps. Stacking the results from different sessions is very quick too.

    TYVM

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

  4. On 30/01/2021 at 11:49, Mr Thingy said:

    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.

    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).

    • Like 1
  5. 2 minutes ago, Newforestgimp said:

    I won’t give up with NINA but I’m using APT tonight to get used to the overall process, remember I’ve not plate solved or guided before used together for target acquisition and framing, and so far so good.

    plate-solving and target cantering worked no issues, guiding failed a couple of times but changed the exposure time a bit and it then successfully completed calibration and started guiding consistently after a bit of tweaking the settings. It must be a night of firsts as it then went into a meridian flip ! It navigated it ok until it went to recentre the target then failed, so just got it going again using plate solving to navigate and centre, guiding restarted and it’s currently running. I’m not all that concerned with the image as such I’m just pleased to have used the whole process.5A59B607-DCBB-42A1-A376-730CFFA4143F.thumb.jpeg.f3f077b664f04df3a662b2046f063038.jpeg 

    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.

    • Like 1
  6. 1 hour ago, Newforestgimp said:

    No I didnt, bare in mind I've never done any form of platesolving, i assumed it can work things out as id never seen people manually putting coords in ?

     

    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.

    • Like 1
  7. 27 minutes ago, malc-c said:

    On the HEQ5... yeah, more or less.  Guys had already managed to convert the EQ6 to belt drive, and the HEQ5 is a lot simpler as the gear train is exposed once the cover is off and unlike the EQ6 doesn't require the dismantling of the mount.

    I started messing about with boring out pulleys etc in December 2011.  I documented the process and making up the firs kits (before Rowan Engineering overcame the stock ratio issue) In this thread

    Most of the noise is due to resonance through the mount and gear train due to the motors being driven by a PWM driver chip (hence why they sing when parked)... Mine was second hand so had some wear and tear, and the belt mod made a lot of difference.  The mic on the camcorder makes the mount still sound loud, but to the human ear it made a big difference  

    Wow! That's far above my technical capability. 

    Good work.

    Lucky for us that Rowan now manufacture these kits off-the-shelf.

  8. 46 minutes ago, malc-c said:

    Can't believe it was 8 years ago when my experiments with converting my HEQ5 to belt drive resulted in Dave over at Rowan Engineering bring out the commercial kit.

    https://youtu.be/dh3F1xkdj98

    Guys, enjoy your belt driven mounts... it makes a lot of difference in the performance and noise levels

    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.

  9. 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.

     

    IMG_20210130_103420367.jpg

    • Like 2
  10. On 26/01/2021 at 11:25, PeterCPC said:

    I can only suggest ruling things out such as I suggest. Does it all work if you don't use the camera hub but connect direct to the laptop. That would indicate if the hub was at fault.

    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.

    • Like 1
  11. 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

  12. 20 hours ago, alacant said:

    Hi

    Yeah. Have the unstretched image in the bottom layer and the stretched image in a new layer above. Mask the top image. Carefully paint the mask away using a fuzzy brush.

    Cheers

    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.

    28.01.2021_M42_Ha~3.jpg

    • Like 2
  13. 4 hours ago, geeklee said:

    That's looking great @Mr Thingy  I think you can safely say that test is passed :) 

    The core is tough - there's some tricks in post processing to help, but generally adding a set of much shorter exposures to the mix seems to be the way it's usually tackled.

    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.

     

    • Like 1
  14. 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.

     

    26.01.2021_Raw_Stacked_Basic processing_M42_ha~2.jpg

    • Like 9
  15. 1 hour ago, PeterCPC said:

    I can only suggest ruling things out such as I suggest. Does it all work if you don't use the camera hub but connect direct to the laptop. That would indicate if the hub was at fault.

    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.

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