powerlord

It's definately worth all 3 for 1396. Here's my NB one for instance:

well, thats the issue, back focus distance isn't pulished anywhere. I've found that if I put an eyepiece up against it, I can achieve focus and use it as a microscope.. if anyone knows what back focus eyepieces have ? But yeh, without knowing the back focus, I figured trying to get a lense to work i get from ebay hasn't got any more chance of working that getting it to work with the allsky lens that comes with the asi224. 😞

thanks - no calibration data in there though. just guiding ? Oh - and what FL were you using ? was this with your 72ED ? I'm beginning to wonder if it's asiair that isn't PAing properly with wide angles like the 135mm I was using. because I was PAed to about 0.2". and yet looking at my PA log it says my PA drift was 20" ! so if the PA is mince, then maybe that explains my DEC drift.. I'm off to scotland tomorrow in motorhome for a week, and just brining the azgti/asiair combo, DSLR and some lenses - so if I get a clear night I try it all with a 300mm and see what the score is.. that would also explain why I could swear it used to work, because until recently I've not shot any wide field stuff. And looking at my logs I remebered wrong - I found DEC running away even when just doing RA guiding...which I suppose makes sense if it was telling my nonsense about being PAed. see here: Now I swear I PAed to about 0.01/0.20. AND I rebooted asiair and did a PA again to be sure. And it's telling me the PA is 20" off !! It didn't seem to be watching the guiding camera and seeing the stars not moving.. but still.. it might explain it - maybe 135mm is just too wide . Maybe need to PA with 300mm then go back to 135mm once PAed.

it was the stacking that got me in the end.. a few minutes were not enough. I tried distracting them with a picture of the pillars of creation, but they said that was old hat... then ate it. and my brain.

interesting. and what exposure on the guide cam ? I tried night before last again. Definately still running away DEC for me - east and west sky. And doesn't matter if I try north or south rather than auto. It is definately pier direction screwed up - you can see the pulses - though they appear in graph to be the right direction, each pulse shoots it further away - which I reckon would happen if it thinks the pier direction is the opposite of what it is. saying that - make no sense that yours works. I did try 3.26 and no difference. In the end, if I turn off DEC guiding it is fine, and guides and dithers RA ok - I posted heart and soul on samyang f2 thread yesterday as results. I also found it impossible to calibrate succesfully when I was quite high in the sky within.. i dunno 30 degrees of zenith - the movements were too small for east/west shifts. I thought it was screwed, and it was only when later I moved down to the heart and soul nebula and tried calibrating and it worked, that I realised it was the high dec that was causing it. Looking at your graph, it looks to me that your RA agression is far too high as its whipping back and forward over 0. try reducing that waay down to 30 or so. Also, if your exposure is too quick this can also cause this - try shooting 2 sec exposures or even longer (reduce gain as appropriate). Sub length you can get at the end of the day is gonna depend on what FL you are using with it of course. So just to check a few things with you: 1. guide camera exposure ? 2. target location - east/west, high/low ? 3. pier side at target location : east or west ? 4. can you post guide logs (in logs directory on asiair) 5. if you want yourself, try loading the guide logs in https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-log-viewer/ stu

sold for 475. a good price for sure inc the mount, case, etc. someone got a bargain

no reason to use bootcamp these days unless gaming - even then only for cutting edge games. both vmware and parallels run as good as nearly native speed AND no rebooting AND can see mac data, run VMs off USB SSDs easily. On top of that you have all the flexibilites of VMs - I stopped using bootcamp probably 5 or 6 years ago.👍 stu

ends in 3 hours ? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114943668346?hash=item1ac32d307a:g:x-AAAOSwhpFhHjtE 8" SCT for maybe 400 quid ?

I use a mac. Yeh registrax is a must. You've got either wine, or better maintained, crossover as one option. But tbh you're far better getting vmware. especially since the player is now also, free: https://www.vmware.com/uk/products/fusion.html You can then setup a real windows VM to run on your mac and stick registrax, SK3, DSS etc all on there. 100% compatible. Get your windows 10 from microsoft, https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10ISO download windows pro ISO. tell vmware to create a new windows 10 vm and point it at the ISO - job done. and then you can usually get yourself a key for a fiver to register cheapily on ebay or amazon from sellers selling excess OEM keys. e.g: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311&_nkw=windows+10+pro+key&_sacat=0 You will then have one of the most reliable windows PCs! and be able to use your mac at the same time, share files between them, etc. If youre not sure, and want to try without trying to get keys, etc you can download a ready to run vmware from microsoft here, but it will only work till december: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines/ I will just check you have not got a new M1 mac. If you have (I have 2 of em in the mac family in the hoose), its a bit more complicated - and tbh for now you are probably better sticking with wine unless you know what you are doing. Also - just looked at video and it's an mp4 - don't use compressed codecs. save as uncompressed video. You've started by losing loads of the data you captured by saving as mp4. And try firecapture on mac (get the beta version). It's free and compatible and far more feature risk than asicap. Also, if you want to then use autostakker or whatever its called, you will need an AVI format, and it can save in those.

what is it ?

well, mine configured to fit my DSLR lenses, my SW 72ED, Celestron C8 and SW 200P. SO I think you'd be fine with ZWO. stu

very nice. It made me want to go back and do one of my NB attempt on a close up bit. I think you've done a better job on the noise removal though.

Well, it's not one I'd choose. but I'll explain. I got this one yesterday actually for one of my asiairs so I can use it in motorhome with better range: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01NAYG15H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 So firstly, there are two basic things you might want to do here: A: add the asair to your home wifi network you have already . You will then be able to connect to th asiair from your home wifi OR the new wifi point. And while connected you will still have internet access. If you don't plan to ever use the asiair away from home, this is probably what you want. B: you want the asiair to be portable for travel, but just have a better wifi signal - so that out camping or whatever you have a far better range. Here how to do B (it's what I've just done this morning for the above bit of kit. Basically you are going to configure it so you don't use the asiair wifi at all. It'll still be there with it's crap range, but you are going to add another one with your device. You set your device to 'AP' (access point) mode. And you connect it to the asiair with the ethernet cable. Configure your device in AP mode, set an SSID name and a password, and job done. You can now connect to this new AP, and when connected, if you start the asiair app it should find the asiair and you can connect. You will find this signal much better and be able to use it further away. However, you will not have any internet when connected. The asiair doesn't need it of course. But if you do, you'll have to disconnect from that wifi and connect to your home one, or mobile signal. If you are happy with B for home use of course you can just do that too - but you might find that the signal is not strong enough to reach YOU in the house Here's how to do A: A is where you want to use it only at home, and wherever you use it has a wifi signal from you home wifi, but not a strong enough one for the asiair on it's own to find and bridge. Here you set your new device in 'extender' mode. And again, plug it into the asiair with ethernet port. You configure the extender mode by giving it the SSID and password of yourt home network, and providing an SSID and password for the new wifi network it will create (though you won't need to use that one). Once done, you can now connect to your home wifi as normal, and the asair will be found on it by the app. This way, you will have internet access of course, because you are on your home network. If outside near the asiair, you might find connecting to the new device extender wifi network quicker - so can do that too. I use mode A for my asiair that is mounted on my EQ6-R.

Here's the Heart and Soul... 300 subs at 30 seconds. No filters. Canon 6d. I can't say I'm that impressed tbh. I should have used L-extreme or a UHC filter. Lots and lots of light pollution gradients to get rid of.. and maybe that's why I couldn't pull out anything else..

So, I use the ZWO job. I do have a hand controller I got cheap from a SGL member. I wouldn't buy one new - it's basically 3 buttons and you can make one yourself. However don't - I don't use mine at all now. I should say I find no use for the zero position thing - so if you do, this won't apply. get yourself some knurled m4s. and use those to hold the focuser on the shaft (I also use 2 knulred m4s to secure the focuser to the bracket which allows me to swap the EAF between 4 different telescopes in a few minutes with no tools). ebay 'knurled bolts' and you'll find em. about 10mm long for most shafts, 12mm for my C8. With the knurled bolts, you can easily in darkness, loosen them, adjust by hand to get initial focus, then tighten up. then let it do it's AF thing. It's also great if you are swapping image train during session. e.g. adding a barlow, changing camera, using an eyepiece, etc. works a treat. I use the asiair and have mine set usually to then just refocus on filter change (which tends to be about every hour).

I was given the choice of a present: a baseball bat, or a camera. I chose the camera. Now I am regretting my decision - help me stay alive! I have a Canon 6d, and a Samyang 135mm. I have only 100 minutes (plus a few mins to stack and correct in startools) before the zombies arrive to eat my brain As we all know, the only zombie deterent is a high quality astrophotography picture (red nebulas a zombie favourite). Do I: 1: take 200 subs at 30 seconds @ iso 3200 (test shot seems to show this 1/3 or so histogram) or 2: take 100 subs @ 60 seconds @ iso 1600 (also about 1/3 histogram) or 3: take 50 subs @ 120seconds @ iso 800 (also about 1/3 histogram) quickly i can hear their cries ! stu

I set up last night, got PAed on both setups and then I swear I looked away for a second, and when I looked back there was 100% cloud cover. Forecasts said - no clouds at 1am.. so ok.. went to bed, set alarm.. got up at 1am and cloud was so thick you couldn't even see the moon. Tonight, its saying its clear again.. so again.. set stuff up... I have also got some new virgin chickens from aldi as I reckon the lack of a sacrifice last night was the reason. stu

bookmarked this one to come to in the winter - lovely image. 🤩

My immediate thoughts were that you were worried about people thinking you are perving on them. Clearly that is saying more about me. 🤣

Great news that the manufacturers have all been so helpful, I worried it might be a lost cause these days trying to get parts to repair things like that. I have one 24v PSU which I use with same output connector as 12v. So I mark them in white acrylic pens (amazon) very clearly. It's also a good idea imho to get a label printer - and stick labels on the end of your cables saying what they are, and what they are for - I colour code mine for the type of connector, and then label says 'asi224' or 'eq6' or whatever. I know it's a bit anal, but though I've not had it as bad as you, I've let the magic smoke out of plenty electronics in my time, so anything I can do to make it more idiot proof I know is not time wasted. I'm trying to think of the worse one now.. I've bricked cameras trying to firmware update them, blown up PSUs by not checking they were set to 220v first.. but you can't beat the connecting electolytic caps the wrong way around for basic errors - and since usually my face is within 6" of whatever board I'm working on.. the BANG followed by the smell of vingear and my face covered in bits of capacitor never gets old... 🙄

Hi chaps, got this really because it was 18 quid. It's actually pretty good for planetary and lunar, but I end up using my asi224 instead. So, I thought re-purposing it as an allsky would make sense. It does have a limited max exposure of 0.5 seconds, so its not gonna be great, but if I can get a cheap lens it's worth a punt. However, not sure where to start there - it comes with a 1.25in collar for slipping into a telescope. this is removable. I tried manually positioning the allsky off the asi224 on it, but the back focus is clearly very different, though can't find anything telling me what it is. I'd imagine the right size security camera type lens is what I need but no idea what. On the chance that someone has already solved this problem I thought I'd ask here ?

Hi chaps, so I've had a few more sessions on M27 between clouds. sii 30 mins oiii 54 mins ha 180 mins Starting to look a lot better now. Definitely my best M27 so far. Processed in Startools v1.8

Assuming it's sealed: silicone disiccant in there. and dry out in microwave every few months. cat litter also works if you have that lying around. if you really can't get rid of it, put rain-x on the inside and outside. it won't stop dew forming, but it will form into big drops that won't ruin the view as much. stu

tiffs can be 32 bit too. In fact that is what I usually use with affinity photo. JPG is the most compatible for posting to forums - and there' it is fine - however do make sure you realise that it has adjustable compression. usually for this sort of stuff set it to 100% quality. IF that is too big, reduce to as much as 80%. It is lossy, so not to be used for archiving or printing. A jpg at 100% quality (still lossy) vs a tiff or png for viewing on a forum will be identical, hence for forum posting, JPG is fine. IF you are posting for help and expect others to edit or process the image, THEN post a tiff.

Just sticking up for 3d printed gear a bit (as I've been 3d printing for 10 years). Most of the stuff you buy, and the stuff I printed above are done in PLA. This is a very high rigidity plastic, but it does not deform well - it will just crack. It therefore, does not need to be tightened more than hand tight if there are screws in it. I hate to say if it cracked it was user error, because it could be the part was not good, but it is more likely you didn't realise that PLA is not like nylon - it will not just start to deform a bit and spring back when tightened too much. I have printed most of my bahtinov masks myself other than the massive 8" and 10" ones - and they all work perfectly. I also use 3d printed parts as structurally engineered parts in lots of things. They just need to be used correctly. I am not for one moment saying those lovely CNCed aluminium parts are not superior - they clearly are - but like lots of astro stuff the premium you pay is usually well beyond what the part should cost. 2-300 quid. And I don't think any engineer would argue with me saying they are vastly over engineered. Just don't want to put other off from 3d printing - it really will save you the cost of the printer in a few prints in this hobby imho. And these days, there really is little you need to learn. I got a new 3d printer last week: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JN7HFYS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this is about the best in that price range. It takes 15 mins from getting it, to your first print. And assuming you are not wanting to design your own stuff initially, you will be printing your first part from thingiverse in another 15 mins. 1kg of PLA is 15 quid and will do you tons of parts. just my 2c 🤓