Newforestgimp

They arrived today !!! Only placed order mid afternoon yesterday. They’ve tidied up my rig by removing about 4m of wrapped cables 😊

5 hours ago, fozzybear said:

I have a couple from them and work perfectly fine.

Thanks for this.

I’ve ordered a couple with nice short leads 👍👍

Andy

12 hours ago, fozzybear said:

https://www.dewcontrol.com/Dew_Heater_Straps_-_All_Sizes/p3099125_14674363.aspx

they can also alter the length the cable you require

Thank you,

Are they any good ?

because it’s exactly what I want, short cable on the strap just to reach power without wrapping around the scopes etc.

Andy

Anybody know of Dew Straps that have short cable lengths ? For scenarios  where straps are connected to a power box mounted on scope.

Andy

Thanks both,

that was what I thought but got in a muddle 😂 

thanks again

Andy

Hi All

I seem to be confusing myself lately & I should know this…

are calibration frames telescope specific ?

thank you

Southampton very clear tonight….

I don’t normally like to self congratulate but Thursday night it seemed everything came together, I’ve struggled for 18months or so trying to get a “good” result, and was beginning to think the move from small refractor to RC8” I had bitten off more than I could chew, tweaking collimation, different guiding methods, filters, focusing issues, NINA & APT issues, I got a shot I actually like, I know it’s not the best but it’s the best from me so far, so I’m chuffed to nuts.

M1 Crab Nebula 😬

Is there a middle ground that you’re aware of ? There’s just so many out there and only want to buy once. I was thinking the ZWO or Optolong ?

Hi All,

Question on UV/IR cut filters,  I understand why filters are sometimes very expensive, however, where I get confused is when the same type of filter from different brands price varies so wildly ? 
can anyone shed some light on why a Baader uv/IR costs say £110 and an svbony £12 ? And every budget in between, They all purport to do the same job, are Baader pulling my pants down or are svbony making me throw money down the toilet ?

Any real world experience of high end vs budget filters ?

regards

Andy

Well I’ve been trying some flat captures today and that pattern is WEIRD !!! It’s not the cloth (removed), it’s not the filter (removed), it’s not the reducer (removed).

I’ve cleaned the glass in front of the camera sensor with a cleaning kit and pattern is still there , however, and this is where it gets really weird, it’s not always there ? I did a batch absolutely clear of pattern then another batch and pattern returned. I’m at a loss now what it might be.

I don’t suppose one of the experts in the dark art of 3d printing on SGL has made an adapter to secure a right angle viewfinder to the polar scope on iOptron Skyguider Pro ?

Regards

Andy

Maybe ‘pattern’ is a poor choice of word, the fabric is muslin, it has a weave that is like a grid, I put three layers crossing to avoid the ‘weave” affecting the light, see the diffuse panel below

No change in focus, the 9.4 & 10 is the temperature -9.4 -10, just how I configured the naming convention so I could easily tell which set of dark frames I need to use.

I actually used an A3 light pad but I think the issue could be the weave pattern of the white cloth betweeen scope and light panel. I will try without cloth.

33 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

@Newforestgimp

What software did you use for capture and did you adjust any sort of  "white balance" controls in that software?

I used NINA, only exposure, binning & dither were used.

for the flats I let Nina work it out with a flat light panel and cloth over scope.

Does the diagram suggest I should set temp to say -13oC ?

I do have another 100 or so subs from night 2, but I ran out of Dropbox space 🤪

10 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Had a quick look as well. Flats dont seem to be working all that well and the end result has inverse vignetting for me. I dont know anything about the ASI1071MC so probably not that helpful for you but shouldn't bias frames be as short as they can be? Your bias frames are 1/50th second and the flats are 1/7th second exposure. Probably necessary to take dark-flats then to calibrate the flats properly. Looks like there is some dark current in the dark frames aswell so it could result in bad flats calibration. I dont really have dark current in my camera so cant comment on that on more than a gut feeling stance.

Also the flats have a very different vignetting look to them per color channel.

Dark current,  not sure what this is ? I will Google.

I did think the images were very noisy  considering it’s cooled (-10) maybe I need to rethink my settings and build better calibration library.

Thanks for this, it would seem I’m on the right track. It’s GEM45 mount, still getting to grips with the balance and guiding.

flats were my concern but didn’t want to lead you. Used an illuminated art panel and just let Nina sort it for me, I’ve noticed that one side cast to most images.

collimation is much better than it was not perfect though.

dithered every 4, changed to 5 for tonight, binned 2x2 also.

yes, filter, I can’t decide ? I’m in bortle 5 not sure if I need, maybe I should get just get a IR UV ?

I just didn’t want spend hours capturing if it’s unworkable and I think you’ve proven it can work but needs a bit of refinement. 👍👍👍

I just can’t seem to get a nice image without stretching the nuts off it, I need a workflow that proves to me if the data is good so I can have faith in the data capture technique

HI All,

I wonder if anybody would care to review a set of data I've captured, post processing for me is a massive learning curve and ive been concentrating on trying to improve the DATA IN.
If anybody could look at the following and maybe do a quick process and advise what the main issues are to set me going on an improved path id be most grateful.

The following were captured via NINA, with an ASI071mc Pro via an RC8" scope with apprx 0.71 reduction giving apparent FL of 1166mm, 2 min guided subs at 90 Gain 20 Offset, a CLS CCD filter is in the image train

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ye0fs1ynm67a8bz/AAC3Br8t0mlMmS4ufXvwVxNMa?dl=0

Any pointers as my attempts to process are not good, I dont know if its crap data IN Crap data OUT or Decent Data IN, crap bloke in middle causing crap data OUT 🙂 

Either way im sure it will cause the gurus some laughter, i wont be offended.

Regards & Clear Skies

Andy

15 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

I have to say it's been rock solid for me - I'm using the Beta by the way. I have done nothing special for PHD2 and it just connects when I "connect all" in NINA. This is what I have configured though:

Cheers I’ll take a look and adjust mine 👍

16 hours ago, scotty38 said:

Agreed, I am in massive danger of becoming a NINA fanboy 🙂

I really like NINA until it randomly stops working for reasons unknown, however, I’ve just experienced the same with APT sooo…..

With regard to NINA how do you handle the automatic Phd2 startup ? I always seem to get in a brain fudge with it.

Andy

3 minutes ago, jjosefsen said:

I've been using NINA for a couple of years now, and it mostly works for me I must say, even though I work and test the latest beta/nightly builds which, CAN have errors, but that is the nature of working with beta releases.

If you are not already on the Discord server, I can recommend it, as help is often extremely fast.

For NINA I can recommend the Patriot Astro youtube channel, he has a whole series on NINA, it is very good!

Some of it is from the old 1.11 version, but I would suggest to go with the new 2.0 beta xx build, most of it is still relevant.

If you like APT more, then maybe try raising the issue on their forums, maybe it can be fixed..?

Whatever software you chose, there is a million things that can go wrong, so much software, bad drivers, ASCOM quirks, bad cables, you name it.

Ain’t that the truth !!! NINA is working for me tonight so I shall stick with it, we get precious few clear nights it kills me when you get some new error from the same setup that worked fine before. The APT forum are pointing to power supply mainly, and drivers, but it’s working with same supply and drivers on NINA.

23 minutes ago, jjosefsen said:

Could you try some other capture software? See if the same problem happens.

Just tried NINA and temp is stable after three exposures, no power cuts etc, no Nina camera errors, the NINA errors may have been fixed by driver update performed Friday I guess ? So it would appear to be the way APT is triggering the image download or something ? Probably one of a million settings not correct on APT.

problem is now is NIBA has been less than a fun experience for me so far, just when I think it’s working it errors on camera or mount or “insert any random device”