valleyman

Viewing during the day it will appear left to right, but at night you will not notice any difference as all you see is Dark and stars/Planets.

The Moon and Planets will appear back to front but that makes no difference

Hi Lisa Marie,

Welcome from Pontywuan.

Not much happening here at the moment but after Covid dare say it will all kick off again

Pat

All noted😃

Thanks Lee

 

Pat

Tried again with APP and those settings and got this.

When putting together a Set of Master Darks do you need to make them for each Telescope, each Camera or both?

I have a Williams 81 and a SW 120 APO and intend to make Master Darks for then with the Camera Cooled to -20c.

The exposer times will run from 30 secs to 300sec for each set.

Pat

2 minutes ago, tomato said:

That’s a nice M31. The tab 0 in APP is where you set up debayering the image, the matrix sequence can be read from the FITS header if it’s in there, depends on your capture software, otherwise you will need to pick it from the the four options in the drop down menu. Also tick the “Force CFA” button in this tab. If you calibrate and stack all in APP, it should give you a colour image at the end of the process.

Thanks for that tip Tomato

Ops ASI 533MC. I updated the Deep Sky Stacker before using it so the settings I had in there which included debayering might have been lost.

I'll have a look and try again.

Thanks for the heads up

45 minutes ago, valleyman said:

ZWO ASI 833MC.  Yes a one shot colour Camera

 

Have had to wait a few months collecting kit and then terrible weather for the last 14 days but the clouds cleared yesterday afternoon and there was a few hours window of clear skies.

Being fairly new to Astro was not going to go mad, so went for Andromeda.

 

Skywatcher AZ-EQ5,

Williams Optics 81 APO, 

ZWO ASI 833MC.

ASIair Pro

20x 180sec Lights, Darks and Bias frames  

Stacked with DSS then processed with Astro Pixel Processor (30 day free trial)

 

Pat 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will get good 2nd hand Cameras here. I have used them for years and never been let down.

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/

Stick to the Canon Brand  The 450D already mentioned comes in at under £90 which would be a good starting point before your wallet developed a Hugh hole in the bottom of it.

Hi and welcome to SGL from Wet Wales

 

A tip for using the Finder is to keep both eyes open when you are looking through the Finder.

Both eyes open works in the same way as using a range finder.

Use the left eye to look at your target and the right eye to look through the finder, then just move the scope until they come together.

Good Luck

 

Pat

Kick me if I am wrong but I dont think the 294 is cooled!

The cooled Cameras come with a variety of Adaptors and spacers have a look at the 183 or 533 for a few quid more.

Sorry if I am wrong

 

We don't need Weather Forecast here in Wales. It just Rains. 🤣

Sorry, But I did not 🥴

Here is the link to the Power supply I am using. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/nevada-ps-08-6a-8a-regulated-linear-power-supply.html.

 

The Cable I use from the Power supply is the https://www.firstlightoptics.com/lynx-astro-cables/lynx-astro-mount-power-cable-for-sky-watcher-mounts.html. This runs to the ASIair pro

Yes it can be done. I have run my Sky-Watcher AZ EQ5-GT from a ASIair pro power point. Problem was I was also running the Focuser and the Main Camera power from there also. I wanted to use 2 ports for the dew shields (Main and Guide scopes). So went back to Powering the mount from the Mains supply. You can also run the EQMOD cable for ASCOM direct from the mount to one of the USB2 ports on ASIair Pro. No more Cables to the PC. I use the iPad to control it all with just one Cable running to a Regulated Linear Power supply and a Cig lighter adaptor with a splitter to give 2 outlets to Power the Mount and the ASIair Pro.

Would make a nice ashtray 

Plenty of these around on Amazon etc but which one to buy to run from the USB Hub- PC.

Any recommendations please.

Pat

Update . 

The fault was that the drive wheel on the DEC stepper motor had come disconnected from the drive shaft. In the process of getting a new part from FLO

I'll have a look at that on the next clear night. Thanks for the tip about Calibrating. But the problem was on both the ASIair and PHD.

🥴. 

Over the last few weeks I have been getting back into Astronomy. Got kitted out with a new Sky-Watcher AZ EQ5-GT, skywatcher 120 ED Pro and WO 81 ED Pro. Guiding with a ZWO 30mm mini guide scope and a ZWO 120 mini Cam. Also using a ZWO ASI533mc as the capture Cam.

I am using ZWO ASIair Pro for the software guiding and capture.

Ove r the last weekend had some good results with the WO81 mounted and using the Mini set up getting 20x3minute exposers and near perfect Tracking staying within the 2" perimeters of the guide graph with ASIair. Happy Bunny lovely round stars from M13.

However last night I had the 120 mounted but everything else was as before. Mount is level and within 1 degree of Level. Polar aligned using ASIair Pro PA tool.(Fantastic bit of kit). GOTO M51 and Plate Solved with in 10 seconds. Guide scope in focus and star selected for guiding.

Then disaster. After about 10 seconds of guiding the graph goes haywire with the RA and DEC scales going of the Graph.

 

Tried again from the start and again. No change.

Stripped the ASIair out and switched over to PHD and APT to try again. PHD came up with the message that there was no tracking in RA.

Now have to admit that I had not used PHD with this setup before so I am not sure I had that set up correctly but with both systems having guiding problems my thoughts are with something amiss with the Ratio between the SW120 and the ZWOmini. As already stated it worked perfectly with the WO81 mounted.

All the locks, clutches etc etc were tight. This is my 10th year in Astronomy so not a Novice. The scope was set up in daylight and tested long before night fall.

Any advice appreciated

Pat

Hi Ross,

Welcome to the SWG.

It is still active but has been not been very busy because of the Covid. No meetings etc.

Hopefully some time in the future things will get back to normal and meetings will begin again at Blaenavon.

Not holding out for a early return to normal but fingers cross maybe before next summer.

Welcome again

Pat

 

2 tips received, thanks. Will have to get the ladder out if the scope is pointing at the sky before putting the T shirt on it 🤣

Just bought a 600D and hung it off the Telescope for the first time today to have a go at taking some FLATS. 

End result was not all that good.

Had a white T shirt over the front pulled right and pointed it up to the sky.

Had the Historgram showing a white area in the centre of the run as advised.

ISO was 400, shutter was 1/4000th. shooting RAW.

My gut tells me its a Camera problem, any advice before I start a return to MPB

You can see the dark band along the bottom of the Frame.

Then took a picture of the hills without White T shirt 

 

First Frame is using LV and 2nd is using the viewfinder