Enceladus Dan
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Posts posted by Enceladus Dan
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3 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:
farm track just beyond Cheesefoot Head
I'm not to far from winchester and often wondered about going to cheesefoot head. Security has always made me change my mind with being close to the road and never know who may come along. do you need to ask anyone's permission for the farm track?
Clear skies
Danny
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I did manage to get out on the 19th, but I too had a tablet issue. I stopped using my gaming laptop and now have a mini pc and remote desktop from my tablet. As my west view is blocked I only every image to the east, on the 19th I decided to try and get M101 after the meridian at 1am when the street lights go out. Issue was I had no idea how to force calibration on phd2 to corect the guding after the meridian without a keyboard to shift click. (Lesson learned and screenshot on my phone from the manual now)
So after getting frustrated I gave up and just admired the long missed veiw of the stars. After a sleep, I thought to myself why didn't I close phd2 down and open again.
The evil light that stops me imaging before 1am. Wish they would turn them out at 2200.
With my lessons learned on phd2, hopefully next clear night I'll grab some uncooled images.
Clear skies
Danny.
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Depending on how tomorrow's skies pan out for me I might have an example image for you.
I'm hoping that block of clouds either come early or late, its not great but the best opertunity I've had in a long time.
Clear skies
Danny
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I recently (december) bought the asi533mc uncooled, so far I've only managed to test it quick on a ser file of a full moon. Between the clouds, work and full moon I can't seem to get a break.
My situation was like yours, uncooled now or wait longer, my choice was down to a video on the uncooled 585mc having great results and on Paper the 533mc should be similar. I compared the dark current between 533mc and 294mc, I saw that the 533 will have similar dark current at 10c to the 294mc at -15c.
My decision was put down to it being my first dedicated astro cam coming from a 600D so cooled or uncooled will both be a step up, I could get used to the 533mc and when confident look to my next one being bigger than a 1" sensor and possibly mono too. The £300 saving now can make a start towards a goto mount. As well as my trusty eq5 has been, I'm liking the idea of remote goto making things easier.
Hopefully soon I can have some images to share from my uncooled 533mc.
Clear skies
Danny
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Would sirill be able to convert tiff to fits? I tried sirill for my comet ztf image and all my cr2 were converted to fits before I could do any of the other processes.
I found sirill a bit complex and ended up using a trial of PI to do my image, but it it's first step creates you some fits maybe from there DSS will accept them and apply the debayer?
I'm following this as I have bought a 533mc and not managed to use it yet due to clouds.
Clear skies
Danny
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his was the video i used as reference to fitting mine, the scope is different but has the same focuser as mine.
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I think backlash is for rack and pinion focuser, ours are friction between a pin and the flat side of focuser tube. There is constant connection if the tension is too low the tube slips.
I used 4x bolts as these were the original mounting holes for the focouser plate, the other holes are for focus lock, tension adjust, and Bush leveling.
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Definitely do the trial, it's a full version for 45 days. Get as much practice as you can, try some videos with data to follow the steps. Then try some of your own to see how it works for you.
I was trying DSS and gimp and siril in January for my comet ZTF image and couldn't get anything to work. PI did it perfectly, with some youtube help.
Good luck
Danny
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6 hours ago, tim r said:
Would you buy pixinsight over app I’ve got the trial version at the moment thanks for all your
I just bought PI and find it worth every penny. I did try it twice on a trial which is 45 days long each go. Being new to any sort of image processing it was a learning curve, but any choice of program would have been for me.
As mentioned by Wim there are some good tutorials on YouTube, I liked ones by Lukomatico who is very clear and easy to follow. He also provides data to use and follow with him. I spent my trials following his guides and using the workflows on some of my old data with much better results. This convinced me to go ahead with the purchase, even if I have only used it once since due to the terrible UK weather so far this year.
Clear skies
Danny
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If you take the whole plate off, be careful as there is 4x small rubber o rings. 1 on each screw.
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Here is a pic of the bottom,
The 4 corners hold the plate to the focuser, the 3 down the center are focus stop thumb screw, tension adjuster (take slip out) bottom ( counter screw) has no mentioned function but i think it levels the plate as it presses againt the focuser housing.the 2 either side of the tension screw level the Teflon Bush against the pin.
The 4 corner ones hold the EAF bracket in place, will probably need new longer one. I bought m3 x 25mm long and took few mm off the end. To turn whole plate round I swapped the thumb screw and counter screw over and spun the whole plate 180 degrees. That way the fine knob was facing to the open end of the OTA.
Danny
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Also note once the EAF is fitted the knobs can't be used while the motor is fitted, if you plan to always use the EAF and the fine knob slipping on the pin isn't effecting anything else, it could be left alone.
Clear skies
Danny
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I recently put an EAF on my 150PDS, I swapped the fine and course over as I wanted the EAF pointing away from the front. I just spun the whole plate with the knobs and the pin. I took out the focus lock thumb screw and the hex screw that doesn't adjust anything and swapped them over.
The whole plate then fits the other way round.
Clear skies
Danny
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The Cheshire piece is all you need, keeps you eye at the centre and helps alignment. I've only done it once and found this page a good source of info.
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/how-to-align-your-newtonian-reflector-telescope/
I found drawing the focuser out to reduce the space around the secondary made it easier to gauge it was central to the focuser tube. This pic has the 3 steps summed up in 1 image.
Danny
Looks like you cracked it while I was typing. Well done.
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I had a quick search and the D7100 can use WiFi app (nikon wmu) but requires a WiFi adaptor. D7200 can be used direct.
Maybe ask if anyone has used this app and what level of control it gives you. The canon one was pretty good. If it does what you need, but can't set up intervals in bulb mode. This is the app I used.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilephoton.intervalometer
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I can't say about the S23, but I have the S21 ultra. The 10x lens is quite impressive for a phone. When I got it during covid lockdown, I zoomed in on an building 150m away and could clearly see a bottle of alcohol gel on the table inside the door. I find the 10x is great, at 30x (10x optical stretched 3x) is good, at 100x (10x optical 10x stretched) is OK you can see what is there but a lot of detail is lost. We had hot air balloons going over our house and in the image we could make out the people in the basket but not with much detail.
This is an image of the moon at 30x. It is good for a phone and puts a smile on your face that you can do it without a dslr or tripods. As for AI adding detail, I have no idea. It doesn't seem like it and you see it going in and out of focus and adjusting the iso/shutter speed trying to get it right. But smart phones are pretty smart, they can delete objets and replace them with textures that look believable and looks like the deleted object was never there.
This was taken just now at 30x, the building is at the end of my road, about 70-80m away.
Danny.
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Hello Earl,
I don't know the D7100, when I had a canon EOS M3 which would not use usb to APT ect. I used the wifi connection to the canon connect app. This allowed me to control the camera, but I couldn't set intervals over 30s. So I then used an android intervelometer app which has an overlay function and presses the shutter button of my canon app for me.
If the D7100 has wifi and a Nikon app to control it, maybe the intervalometer app will work for you too. Base app was free, pro mode to unlock longer than 30s was something like £2-3. I no longer use it as I changed to a 600D which works in USB to APT.
Clear skies
Danny
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Thanks, clear skies are rarer than 4 leaf clovers at the moment.
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Still waiting on clear skies to test out the flocking, however the DIY hand controller is no longer a prototype as i have now finished it.
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Your welcome, little off topic for your question, how did you find the 72ED DS-Pro? I find my 150PDS has too little FOV for larger targets even with my 600D, so was looking at the 72ED as an option for these targets, rather than getting a full frame DSLR and modify it.
2 scopes with my 600D and asi533 would give me more FOV options.
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If like me you don't have any clear skies forecasted, you could try and focus on a distant object in the daytime. I did it on some on some trees about 2 miles from my house, when I was figuring out the best fit for my Barlow and dslr when i wanted to image jupiter. Got me in the right area, without all the palaver at night.
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My PDS came with a 2 inch nose piece with an M42 thread on it. If you don't have one they can be picked up cheap. This would screw to your camera via any filter system if used.
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-2-inch-t-mount-camera-nosepiece-adapter.html (skywatcher one looks shorter)
Or another option is to change the compression thumbscrew fit for a direct screw fit ( if the compression fit can be removed, that is. Your focuser looks a lot different to my PDS)
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Hiya Craig,
I use a 150PDS for me it's a case of MPCC fully inserted, then 55mm backfocus from the flattener. As the 190MN has a built in flattener I guess you keep the optical path as short as possible as there is no need for the 55mm backfocus, unless you decide to use a focal reducer at some point.
Clear skies
Danny
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First Outing to the Downs with Tak FC100DC - A Moonless Galaxy Hunt
in Observing - Reports
Posted
That's what put me off trying it out, I must look into the farm tracks now then. I Was thinking it could be a good place for a milkyway shot with my nifty fifty lens.
Also it would be nice to get away from the city Street lights.
Clear skies
Danny