varius21

8 minutes ago, Grifflin said:

I ended up going down the L-Extreme route albeit with a dedicated astro camera and Bottle 4/5 zone.  I found it particularly effective when the moon is out.  In my limited experience I found the results to be impressive.

Neil

May I ask which camera you have?

1 hour ago, powerlord said:

You don't mention your bortle? A cheap light pollution filter can work well and you'll need less integration time that the l-extreme. However as owners of 2 l-extremes they are very good. Just be prepared for some long exposures which with your 1100 are gonna get a bit noisy. Maybe less so now its freezing at night.

Thank you for your tips. According to clearoutside it's class 5 bortle. Any good filter you recommend?

Vasilis

6 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

L-enhance or L-extreme are popular choices for OSC users.

The L-extreme is for narrowband imaging of emission type nebulae, so no use on broadband targets like galaxies, but it sounds like you're looking to shoot emission nebulae so this will be what you want.

Don't go for an Ha filter with a colour camera - you'll only be using 1/4 of your sensor!

Thank you  

Thanks for the advice.

however it was stuck in my head and so I decided to go for an L-eXtreme filter

Would L-Enhance by Optolong be a wise choice?
I'm between L-Enhance and H-Alpha

Hello,

After taking the first step, buying all my equipment:

• EQ6-R Pro
• WO Z73 w/Flattener
• Uniguide with asi120mm
• Canon EOS 1100D - with IR filter removed
• ASIAir Pro

What filter do you suggest I get to bring out more nebulosity? I've seen various replies online and it gets quite confusing for me if I'm honest.
If you were me, which EOS clip filter would you go for?

Thank you,

Vasilis

2 hours ago, Clarkey said:

That's a great improvement. Well done👍

1 hour ago, Grant93 said:

One to be proud of that! Nice one!

Thank you both! It’s great to see some improvement and your money paying off for the first time 😄

2 hours worth of data including flats and bias with post-processing following half a tutorial.

26 minutes ago, barbulo said:

ISO 1600 is supposed to be the sweet spot for that camera. However I'd try with 800 as well and compare.

As mentioned, depends on the target: the brighter the shorter. I would go from 30s to 180s depending on the brightness. Always preventing star trails.

As many as possible. More integration time = higher SNR = less noise = better images. As stated by @ollypenrice, several days, even weeks, for a single target.

And clear nights, of course. Be sure you book them. 

Thank you very much

Thank you all so very much for giving it a try and giving me tips.

tonight if the sky is clear I will shoot for longer.

setup is EQ6-R pro with WO z73, flattened and canon 1100d with IR filter removed.

I will see tutorials for flats, darks and bias tonight.

How do I know what ISO to use, how long of exposure and how many repeats?

thank you 🙏 🙂

Hello,

Tonight was my very VERY first session of "astrophotography" if you can call it that in my case.
I managed to set up my new eq6-r with my zenithstar 73 and my dslr and used ASIAIR pro to capture some images of M27, M31 and M45.

Since it was my very first attempt and I am a complete newbie, I didn't do much research on exposure times etc so I used today as a "Test shoot"

I captured:
Andromeda 10 x 30 second exposures.
Pleiades 10 x 30 second exposures.
Dumbbell Nebula 10 x 60 second exposures (if I remember correctly).

However all the tutorials I watched for post processing didn't do me any good. I need to LEARRRRN!
Here are the 3 stacked tifs. I was wondering if anything half decent can come out of them?

If anyone wants to give it a try...
Thanks

m27.TIFm31.TIFpleiades.TIF

m27.TIF m31.TIF pleiades.TIF

3 minutes ago, GoldTop57 said:

Hi I bought this and it works fine: https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/universal-mains-telescope-power-supply.html#SID=1667 

I also got this from Rother Valley: https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/rvo-ftdi-eqmod-direct-adaptor-for-skywatcher-mounts.html you need to set the baud rate to 9600.

Hope you get everything sorted.

Thank you very much for the recommendations 🙏 

It’s great help for me and I appreciate it!

17 minutes ago, GoldTop57 said:

I had the same problem with that cable - I noticed the burning smell before the mount was even swtitched on so I disconnected at the mains pretty sharpish. The mount was fine when I reverted back to the stock cable and a PSU with cigarette lighter adapter from Harrisons Telescopes. The cable went back to FLO for checking a few weeks ago and I haven't heard back. I've lost confidence in that cable so won't be using it. BTW how are you connecting the EQ6R Pro to the AAP - EQMOD cable or USB? I could not get the USB working having loaded the EQ6R specific firmware to the AAP from ZWO (wouldn't boot), EQMOD works like a dream and I'm very pleased with the mount.

I appreciate you replying. It looks like I need to get in touch with Flo about it. I am glad it seems I haven't done anything wrong and it's the cable at fault, basically.
I connected the EQ6-R to ASIAIR Pro via USB but it didn't seem to work. I guess an EQDir cable will do the trick?

Can you please recommend a PSU adapter I can use with the original stock cable?

Thank you

Vasilis

41 minutes ago, malc-c said:

In FLOs defence they don't claim the silicone power cable is compatible with the ASIAIR Pro.  They do state that the cable is unfused, and you need to check with the manufactures of the equipment you are intending to use.

But with the emphasis in that each cable is checked and tested then you would expect that there would be no fault with it that would cause it to get hot.  When something gets hot it's down to either a short, high resistance or far more current being drawn through the wire than the wire is rated at.  The fact that mount worked without issue after using the standard 12v cable after is a good sign as it means no damage has been done to the motor board.  The fact the LED wasn't on suggests that power wasn't actually getting to the mount, and as the silicone power cable got warm would suggest that it has a fault that prevented the current reaching the mount.  As the mount was unpowered it would not be possible to establish connection through the serial port.

I would suggest you contact FLO and aske them for a RMA number and return the cable to them for inspection.   But there could also be a compatibility issue, in that the polarity of the outlet of the AISAIR may have its pins reversed so in essence the reverse polarity protection of the mount saved the motor board, but effectively shorted out the supply form the AISAIR unit...  A simple digital volt meter could be used to test which pin is 12v and that the corresponding socket on the cable is the centre port of the 2.1mm connector and not the barrel 

 

29 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

OK first relax, seems no major damage has occurred and you are dealing with reputable suppliers and brands.

•     The EQ6 mount may have a USB port on it which can be used with a simple USB printer cable - but the Asiair Pro does not have a driver that recognises all of the EQ6 mounts due to updates to the mount, ZWO provide an update to fix this (it's a kernel update in the Raspberry Pi inside the Asiair).  This uses baud rate 115200.
•     If you have an eqmod/eqdir cable that uses baud 9600 not 115200
•     The DSLR needs certain settings to be spotted by the Asiair as per the manual
  •         Camera Mode: M
            Shutter Mode: Bulb
            Image Format: RAW (RAW + JPEG not available)
            Image Quality: L (maximum size)
            In addition turn off any any power saving mode or long exposure noise reduction. If
            using a DSLR camera with mirror lock functions you should also turn these functions off.
  •     Check the PSU is working as that is fused (if have you a multi-meter to check it). The Lynx Astro Silicone Power Cable 2.1mm DC Socket to GX12-2 DC Jack has no protection as FLO warn on the product page so if a fuse was blown it may be the psu. Or were you powering the mount via the Asiair?

You'll get plenty of help here to assist in setting up once the fault has been rectified.

 

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/lynx-astro-12v-dc-5amp-low-noise-mains-power-supply.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/lynx-astro-silicone-power-cable-21mm-dc-socket-to-gx12-2-dc-jack.html

and the part that smells burnt is this:

23 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

OK first relax, seems no major damage has occurred and you are dealing with reputable suppliers and brands.

•     The EQ6 mount may have a USB port on it which can be used with a simple USB printer cable - but the Asiair Pro does not have a driver that recognises all of the EQ6 mounts due to updates to the mount, ZWO provide an update to fix this (it's a kernel update in the Raspberry Pi inside the Asiair).  This uses baud rate 115200.
•     If you have an eqmod/eqdir cable that uses baud 9600 not 115200
•     The DSLR needs certain settings to be spotted by the Asiair as per the manual
  •         Camera Mode: M
            Shutter Mode: Bulb
            Image Format: RAW (RAW + JPEG not available)
            Image Quality: L (maximum size)
            In addition turn off any any power saving mode or long exposure noise reduction. If
            using a DSLR camera with mirror lock functions you should also turn these functions off.
  •     Check the PSU is working as that is fused (if have you a multi-meter to check it). The Lynx Astro Silicone Power Cable 2.1mm DC Socket to GX12-2 DC Jack has no protection as FLO warn on the product page so if a fuse was blown it may be the psu. Or were you powering the mount via the Asiair?

You'll get plenty of help here to assist in setting up once the fault has been rectified.

 

 

Woah thank you SO much! All this makes perfect sense!!! I will look for ASIAIR firmware that covers this mount and I will make sure the camera has these settings.
I really appreciate you taking the time to inform me!!!

Regarding the cables, I'll post a pic in a few mins to show how they were connected.

Vasilis

32 minutes ago, malc-c said:

In FLOs defence they don't claim the silicone power cable is compatible with the ASIAIR Pro.  They do state that the cable is unfused, and you need to check with the manufactures of the equipment you are intending to use.

But with the emphasis in that each cable is checked and tested then you would expect that there would be no fault with it that would cause it to get hot.  When something gets hot it's down to either a short, high resistance or far more current being drawn through the wire than the wire is rated at.  The fact that mount worked without issue after using the standard 12v cable after is a good sign as it means no damage has been done to the motor board.  The fact the LED wasn't on suggests that power wasn't actually getting to the mount, and as the silicone power cable got warm would suggest that it has a fault that prevented the current reaching the mount.  As the mount was unpowered it would not be possible to establish connection through the serial port.

I would suggest you contact FLO and aske them for a RMA number and return the cable to them for inspection.   But there could also be a compatibility issue, in that the polarity of the outlet of the AISAIR may have its pins reversed so in essence the reverse polarity protection of the mount saved the motor board, but effectively shorted out the supply form the AISAIR unit...  A simple digital volt meter could be used to test which pin is 12v and that the corresponding socket on the cable is the centre port of the 2.1mm connector and not the barrel 

 

Thank you for all the information. I used the cable to power the mount and not the ASIAIR Pro. If it was the ASIAIR I wouldn't have been stressed as much due to the price difference of ASIAIR and EQ6-R.
Thankfully the mount seems to be ok though. I used the cable with Lynx Astro 12v DC 5amp Low Noise Mains Power Supply after reading somewhere a suggestion of these products.
I will contact @FLO and see if I can get the cable replaced. I am wondering though, if the cable is replaced will everything be ok? Did I do something wrong I wasn't supposed to do or was it the cable's "fault"?
I'll post a pic to show in a bit

Hello!
If someone can help me, I have posted my issue in this link:

Thanks

Hello,

Recently I purchased the following equipment:
 

• EQ6-R Pro Mount (from RVO)
  • Lynx Astro 12v DC 5amp Low Noise Mains Power Supply (from FLO)
  • Lynx Astro C13 to UK Mains Cable (from FLO)
  • Lynx Astro Silicone Power Cable 2.1mm DC Socket to GX12-2 DC Jack (from FLO)
• William Optics Zenithstar 73 - 2019 with Flattener (from a genetleman in this forum)
• ASIAIR Pro (from ebay)
• Canon EOS 1100D with IR Filter removed (from a gentleman in this forum)
• ZWO asi120mm mini guidecam

So today that I received the asiair I thought: the sky is somewhat clear, why not try to get everything connected and see what issues I come up with? Cause sure enough I'll have small issues I'll need to overcome.
I get everything connected, except the guide camera because I need to order a saddle) in the garden and turn everything on. I connect to ASIAIR Pro with my tablet and I choose EQMod, the DSLR doesn't get recognised. It says None. DSLR is on and on Manual mode so I'm confused as to why it can't be recognised. I turn everything off and on several times.
Then I thought WTH let's try to setup the mount anyway. I set Baud to 115200 as advised and it's not letting me connect. I turn everything off and on a couple of times again.
Then I smell a something burning... I look at the mount, the button is ON but the light is off.
I took the whole setup back inside the house and it turns out the Lynx Astro Silicone Power Cable 2.1mm DC Socket to GX12-2 DC Jack (from FLO) smells burnt.

After half an hour of being REALLY stressed, I thought of testing the mount with its original cable in the car's cigarette socket. Thankfully it turned on in there and the mount is ok.
Cable is cooked though apparently.

I am really confused!!!!!!!! I am obviously a newbie with that stuff. I need suggestions of what I need to buy, a power tank is better than plugging it into a socket with a 12v power supply?

Why did the freaking cable get cooked?

What should I have done for Asiair pro to recognise my dslr which is supposedly supported?

So many questions!!!

Thanks and sorry for the long story. Sad day as I was really looking forward to at least "get somewhere" with a few issues that could arise today.

3 hours ago, johninderby said:

Fortunately my neighbours don’t like security lights. 🥳🥳🥳  

Only one in the area is on a garage and too low down to be seen over my fence. 

I wonder if that's my light between my garage and my door! 🤣 

9 hours ago, nfotis said:

The ASIair means that you are restricted to using only ZWO products. If you are fine with that, it's a good solution.

The following video is a good demonstration of an automated set-up around a Raspberry Pi, worth watching:

 

Cheers,

N.F.

 

Ευχαριστώ πολύ Φώτη! Το έχω παραγγειλει ηδη, ομως.

(Thanks Fotis, but I have already ordered it) 

-EQ6-R Pro from RVO

-WO Z73 2019 with flattener bought from a nice gentleman in this group.

expecting a uniguide.

UPDATE:
I ordered EQ6-R Pro, new, which I will receive tomorrow along with a William Optics Zenithstar 73 -2019 (incl. extras) I ordered from a gentleman in this forum.
So from tomorrow I will have the following equipment:
 

• EQ6-R Pro
• WO Z73
• WO Uniguide
• Flattener
• Canon 1100D

and I will buy a zwo asi120mc for the guidescope.

What else do you think I will need other than ZWO EAF?
Is an Asiair Pro necessary?

Thanks everyone

Vasilis

@Jamgood  How come you chose a reflector? Usually, when I see expensive setups like yours they use small refractors. I am asking obviously because I am learning

4 minutes ago, Jamgood said:

I control my setup from indoors (around 20ft away) via one USB cable. 

I have a 294MCPro and a 130PDS fitted with the ZWO EAF on a HEQ5Pro. Guide Scope and Camera also. Everything is connected to a Pegasus Power Box Advance (PPBA). 

I have a 13.8v power supply in a dribox. That powers the PPBA which in turn powers everything else. Everything is set up on the mount ready to go when the nights are clear. I just dump it all outside in the patio. I have drilled small holes on the patio where the mount feet go,  this ensures it is always in the correct place and pretty much polar aligned. I polar align with Sharpcap and, other than connecting the USB and power, a few little tweaks on AZ/DEC bolts are all I need to do outdoors. I use Google Remote Desktop on my phone to see the computer screen/Sharpcap while aligning.

Then back inside, everything else is controlled via APT and PHD2. Cool camera, slew to a bright star, auto focus, pick target, plate solve and start shooting.

Set up time is around 15 minutes which includes cooling the camera. 

Here's my set up.

That's a beautiful setup you have right there.
Thank you for showing me all this. I see you are in Derby too.... I live in Sinfin. 

I appreciate all your help, everyone! You really are helping a lot with the info you're giving me.
One more question. How do you go about auto-focusing? Do you have to have a ZWO EAF or are there cheaper alternatives?

Thanks ❤️