Enceladus Dan

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

Additionally I saw a post today where someone was trying to ballance a 72ED Pro with guidescope, and AsiAir. In the end they used perspex between the ring tops to mount the AsiAir further forward. Making balancing easier. 

I think 2 pieces of perspex in layers would be study and light for a guide scope to sit on. 

I made a bar from leftover aluminium I had, I drilled it to fit the top of the rings and mounted 2 finder shoes at the front. My Dew Heater controller fits behind using velcro and sits under the back of my guide scope. 

Clear skies

Danny. 

16 hours ago, Phil said:

My problem is not increasing the distance, it would already be too long. The problem is finding an M42x0.75(T2) to M42x1.0 adapter that adds less than 7mm to the optical path. I already have a set delrin spacer rings but to use them I need a shorter adapter.

I thought you were trying to find 6.96mm between the adaptor and camera, I didn't realise that's what you have left to find the adapter. 

As Ratlet says, give it a try first. You may be lucky to get enough to reach infinity, if not his idea of sanding the adaptor down slightly sounds much better than the drama of opening up the lens to move the hard stop. The idea of performing lens surgery was what made me check and double check before I got my lenses, if I was able to use them on my DSLR. 

Clear skies 

Danny

Hello Phil,

I have 200mm and 400mm m42 lens which I've used with eos adaptor on my 600D. I've just got my first astro cam and only tried it so far with baader variable spacer and focused on distant object in the day. 

For your case 6.96mm, from memory when i was looking up uses of m42 lenses, I think it's better to be slightly under than over. Being over can stop you reaching infinity focus. (Anyone - If I remembered wrong please correct me). You can get small spacers to put over m42 threads ro add fine tuning. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-t2-delrin-spacer-ring-set.html which can get you close with a 5mm M42 extension. 

Clear skies

Danny

Large circle in my images with a 200PDS which won't calibrate out. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/406778-large-circle-in-my-images-with-a-200pds-which-wont-calibrate-out/

Hiya labtech. I don't have experience with this issue, but I have seen it in a post before. The idea seemed to point towards checking the rotation of the flats. 

Clear skies

Danny 

Hello mat, 

I'm still pretty new to all this, my guess is its from stacking. Like the edge of a DSO image but wider spread as the moon moves slightly different to sidereal. 

Clear skies

Danny

Hello all, 

I bought an EAF for my SW150 PDS, while trying to install it I found out I needed additional M3 bolts, as the kit didn't have any to replace the ones on the focuser. I ordered some stainless M3 capped Allen heads on ebay for a few quid. 

While I had my focuser apart and awaiting the bolts I tried out a few other things, before I knew it I had flattened the flat edge of the draw tube, flocked the OTA, made my own apature mask for the primary mirror, moved the primary mirror up by 5mm and finally flocked the inside of the front end ring. If you were thinking king of doing any of these but like me were put off by the fear of flocking things up ( parden the pun), don't be. It was far easier than I expected. 

The draw tube, I had seen posts where people flattened the flat spot as out of the factory its concave. Mine had a thin wear line about 1mm wide on each edge. Showing the contact to the rod was only at the outermost edges. Below is mine flattened with a sharpening stone and some 3 in 1 oil. However I think I need to master the technique of getting then tension right, a slight tweak moves it from too loose to too tight. 

My OTA before flocking, I never thought the inside would reflect as much as this. 

First sheet installed, I measured the width by wrapping it round the outside with a 20mm overlap. Rolled it backwards and peeled and folded back about 20mm of the backing. Placing it against the OTA seam and smoothi g it out, i then took it slow only pulling down about 15mm of the backing at a time and slowly smoothing the flocking out. It pays to go slow as I had zero bubbles. 

The final sheet installed in the same way with about 20mm overlapping the front piece. A remarkable difference I think. 

this is my apature mask for the primary mirror, i did look at ones to buy costing £50-60 posted. In the end i got a custon cut matt black perspex ring on ebay for £7. OD was 170mm ID was 142mm. Although it was matt i covered the front facing edge in flocking as the inside cut was shiney. I left about 15mm inside the ID of the ring and slit it into segments to fold underneath covering the shiny inner edge. 

The mask was attached with silicone sealant, a small blob on each screw of the mirror clips. I had thought of trying to drill a hole for each screw in the perspex but it would leave a shiney screw head visible and require a lot of accuracy. Silicone can be cleaned off the screws and reapplied if needed to remove the mask. Excuse the dust, I puffed most of it away after. 

After refitting the mirror, I also flocked the plate on the inside that supports the finder shoe, the plastic front ring of the OTA (don't know its name) as the inside where the end cap goes is shiney. And I made a front apature mask ( rough attempt with cardboard and spare flocking) as I saw a post where the difraction around Bright stars was cleaner with both the mirror and spider clips masked. 

Ohh, and eventually I fitted the EAF. The m3x 25mm bolts came and I had shorten them slightly. I did however find out the slots in the mounting EAF bracket are not wide enough to fit all 4 bolts so I slowly ran a 6mm drill bit though each slot where my bolts lined up to slightly widen them. All done and fitted. 

I did notice when colimating mtmy scope I fitted the focuser upside down, not sure if it will make a difference other than standing the other side. When I have clear skies I will know I guess. My last bit of DIY was a prototype EAF hand controller. I had switches so just needed a 4.7k resistor £2 for 30 on amazon and a TRRS cable from ebay. Happy its working and fits in my corrugated plastic packing box I made. I can buy the project box for £5 knowing it will fit inside. 

Sods law it was clear while I had the scope apart, and now done the last few nights have been cloudy. Hoping tonight will clear so I can post some stars here to show if it all made a difference to the diffraction round the stars. 

Clear skies

Danny. 

Hiya, 

Your image and summary of how processing this comet made you feel, perfectly matches how I felt. Being my first also, I was full of joy watching the subs APT was bringing in. In my head I could see the image I was expecting,  Then came the processing and a whole new world of tools and techniques. 

Like you, i found my way in the end. I had produced an image which I originally thought wasn't good enough, but have now realised I did a pretty good job, by comparison yours is far better. Its well framed, nice coma colour, sharp stars with no trails and a nice long ion tail. A superb job I would say, well done. 

As frustrating as processing this comet was, im eagerly awaiting the next. 

Clear skies

Danny

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Hi Danny 

Nice image 👌

I tried the siril process and didn't get a good as image as I would of liked. The comet had a double nucleus and didn't look any better for more work. So I'm just going to use the stars stack and separate comet stack from dss and use those. 

Hiya Lee, it was a bit confusing to read, and I agree the result i got wasn't as good as i had hoped, but better than my first DSS attempt. I finally got a good result with PI. But your new image with DSS and Sirill combo looks fantastic. 

Danny

Hiya Lee, 

Have a go with the Sirill guide "working with comets" already mentioned, for me it worked well. I made two images as it stated but found over the 80 minutes (40x120s) my star aligned image had comet artifacts that were longer than the comet stack. So I ended up using only 1 frame for the stars when I combined them in gimp. 

The star trails are still just visible but better, looking forward to seeing your final image, as I can see a nice long ion tail in your image, which I never managed to capture in mine. 

Danny

1 hour ago, Altair8389 said:

2) Another issue, is there a light leak problem with this reflector ? I noticed when getting a dark frame, the dark frame was NOT DARK. In fact doing a dark in the daylight led to a white out in the frame. I notice maybe you need to cover the primary mirror cell, maybe the focuser tube or front of the scope. Is there a common thing you have to do ?

If you have a DSLR, Something I didn't realise for a while, is DSLR's leak light in from the viewfinder. I took off the cover and slid in some folded over black duct tape, before putting the cover back on. 

Danny

Hello all, This was my first Comet, plus my first night out with my Telescope in a long while. consisting of 40x 120s unfiltered lights, darks, flats and bias frames. all Calibrated, aligned, stacked and processed in Pixinsight. the whole comet processing was an eye opener, in my head (stacked stars + Stacked Comet = great image), yet in reality (what is this that came out of the stacking process). i had elongated gaps from rejection algorithms, which it turned out is normal. in the end i removed all stars from the 40 subs, stacked carried out noise reduction on the Background. then only stacked 10 x 120s frames for just the stars, so that the broken stretched green  comet remines don't get in the way when merging the images together. all in all im happy with it, until the next visitor comes. 

Danny

This is my set up, the photo was taken in May 2021 to show the dreaded LED Lights i was battling with while imaging the ring nebula. However it shows my typical set up, 150PDS mounted on an EQ5 Deluxe with tracking motors. Guided with an ASI120mm mini  on an astro essentials 50mm guide scope. i cant remember is this night i was using my 600D or trying out my ASI462 planetary cam (which was disastrous lol). also set up was my DIY Dew heaters and controller plus my DIY power box with a 80AH car battery that runs my rig.

Danny

My M42 data was taken with a canon M3 mirrorless camera( impulse buy, thinking less backfocus would be a good thing, turned out after buying a coma corrector I still need 55mm backfocus anyway) only filter I used was an L-Pro light pollution filter as I live in a city with bortle 5 going 6 sky. Good thing is at 1am most street lights go out. 

I have now got a L-Extreme which I have only dabbled with so far, struggling with exposure length to get red channel off the left of the histogram. I've gone to 5 mins+ and higher ISO but the noise in the darks is out of control. APT reports camera temp of 37or more. This made me look into making a camera cooler for my 600D (the mk2 version is coming) and also getting an astro cam. Soo much I want to buy, just need to prioritise. 

My EQ5 does me well, although I want I HEQ5 or EQ6-R I can wait for now as I'm getting 5 mins plus with guiding. 

I have thought of trying HaRGB using my DSLR in RGB and using the L-Extreme to take out Ha data. You make a good point about extra flats needed i never even thought of that. I think darks and bias will be OK to use the same. 

Your definitely right with the buy, try, learn and buy again. So many things I thought would be enough or all I would need. Then changed my plans after having learned more. 

I wish I could claim them as mine, but the data is downloaded with the tutorial. 

I have since gone back to 2 of my old images data and pixinsight has made a big improvement. 

this was M42 taken last october and processed with DSS and Gimp. 

this is the same data but stacked and processed in pixinsight. Now im debating on buying PI this month or delay a month and try to get second trial, as i also want a ASI533MC. Getting PI now will slow down getting the cam. Ahhhhhh need a winning lotto ticket. 

cracking pic of M31, was one of my first DSO images too. You have done far better than my first attempt, my colour was off, blown out core and a terrible gradient. You have got some nice detail with the dust in the arms, well done. This is one target I want to go back to and get a lot more data on.

This year seems to be a wash out with heatwave (my 600D didn't like the hot nights) now the constant clouds when I'm off work. 

Regards

Danny

Hello Will, 

I'm still new to this, 16 months into my journey. For me my only experience in Astronomy was using my eyes, when my job took me to remote places around the world. On top of learning how to use my gear I bought, I had to learn image processing, as I had no experience what so ever. 

I have recently been getting my fix of AP during this bad spell of weather were having, by following some youtube tutorials on Pixinsight by Lukomatico. They are very good and easy to follow, all data and tools needed are provided (just need pixinsight free trial) 

I am so amazed at how much better my images are after, I will definitely be buying pixinsight. I just need to work out if I get an astro cam or PI first. Choices, Choices. 

These are the Images from following the tutorials. Now I just need some clear skies to catch some of my own photons again. Seems like it's been forever. 

Clear skies

Danny

On 18/10/2022 at 11:43, TheThing said:

Think there might be something wrong with my app cos it's showing wall to wall cloud for the next week! 🥴

Mine seems to be broken aswell, so I resorted to desperate measures. 

I think ill get some funny looks if i spread it around the garden, and some choice words from Mrs Enceladus. 

Thanks, I may just go for it. The 533 looks good from the little I know. Only one way to find out by the looks of it. 

Hopefully you get some clear skies some time soon. For me it seems the clouds know when I'm working and tease me on days I can't get out at night. 

What did you think of the 585?

Here in the UK it's £430 for the 585 and £670 for the 533, so extra £240 for double the sensor, which I hope will be just as good. 

Yes I forgot to mention the 14bit, was another factor that I favoured the 533 for. 

I don't really understand how all the charts will impact the end result, but the 533 to me seems better at a slight cost of higher dark current noise. How it will impact me? I have no clue, but for sure it's got to be better than my 600D. 

I see plenty of videos and images for the 585 as there seems to be a hype for it at the moment, but all I get when I look for 533 examples is the pro cooled. If it is pretty similar I'm gunning for the 533 i think. 

I did read vlaiv comments in this thread too on oversampling. I kind of get it, trying to work out the seeing was a whoosh over my head moment. So I googled seeing forecasts and cheated. My area at the moment shows seeing as 1.2-1.8. So guessing this is particularly good example I'll be very slightly under sampling, if it goes to anywhere from 2-4 I'll be in the green according to the calculator on astronomy tools. 

I put away each month, and next month I'm buying Pixinsight. I've just on a trial and i find it way better than DSS and Gimp. Maybe more so because I don't fully understand gimp. 

I have thought of the jump in deep end approach to save in the long run, but I get carried away and before I know it there is £2-3k in the basket for a cooled mono with all the filters and wheel. 

I'm gonna take a small step with a smaller OSC to get to grips with them, I tried it out with my asi462mc on M57( took some finding without goto on a 6x3mm sensor), I didn't know quite what I was doing and the subs were all blown out. Now I've read up and a bit more aware about the bit depth and full well capacities. It's a bit more obvious I was going to over saturate. 

I know that I will probably soon after want the mono, but while saving ( aprox 10-15 months) I can enjoy the colour while learning. 

Thanks 

Danny

Hello Roland, it will be for DSO imaging. I use a dslr so far and looking for a good starter dedicated cam to learn with. 

I have a smaller asi462 I use for planetary. 

@MichaelBibby hiya Michael, did you get the ASI585mc? If so how did you find it.

Im looking for a first dedicated astro cam as a stepping stone from my DSLR. Ive seen youtube reviews which make this camera look like a good starting point, without breaking the bank on larger cooled versions. 

At some point I aim to end up with something like the ASI294 Pro, be it the OSC or mono, but this will be further down the line. While looking at the ASI585mc I did see the ASI533mc uncooled. Double the sensor size, which I'm liking the idea of, as I'm not using goto a wider Fov would be easier to find my targets, but it also seems to offer similar low read noise, zero amp glow and low dark current as the ASI585mc. 

I tried to find a compassion of the 585 & 533 which brought me to this thread. But I've not found anything which really shows the 533 uncooled other than the pro versions, I'm hoping it's as good as the 585, meaning I can use it as a good first dedicated cam. 

If anyone has seen or used the uncooled ASI533mc, could you let me know your opinions. 

Thanks

Danny