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wongataa

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Everything posted by wongataa

  1. When routing cables manually move the relevant axes to make sure you have enough slack to allow the full rang of movement. I use Velcro cable ties and cable clips on the mount to make the cabling neater.
  2. I would say the Canon Ra is a stock camera as the different IR filter is a feature of the camera. It is sold by Canon as having that different IR filter. It is just a different type of stock camera than say a Canon non a camera. Yes a Ha filter is redundant on a Ra. By Ha filter I am assuming you mean a filter that only lets through the Ha wavelengths. They really are redundant on all colour cameras as even if the camera doesn't have a IR filter blocking the Ra signal (I think all regular digital cameras will pick up Ra signals as their IR filters don't block it all) then only the red photosites will pick up Ra signal. Only a quarter of the photosites are red so you would lose a lot of resolution and sensitivity. For a single bandpass filter a mono camera is better as all the photosites will receive the filtered signal.
  3. Unless you are going to be printing a lot is is much more economical to use a printing service and just send them the files. Inkjet printers need a lot of use otherwise the ink just dries up before it is used and the print heads clog up requiring a lot of ink to clear out. They also take up space, especially a larger format one. Then you have the learning curve with how to set it up and what papers require which settings. You will also need to be using a fully colour managed setup to get the best out of one. Really for home use most people would not use an inkjet printer enough to make it worthwhile. There are many printing services out there with many more printing options than you can ever have at home.
  4. The guide camera is good. The guide scope is fine but you can get cheaper equivalents. I wouldn't use and ASIAir and would use a mini PC instead. This way you are not locked into using ZWO astro cameras or particular brands of regular cameras.. You can choose which control software, such as NINA/APT/Other, to use. You have more freedom. You can remote desktop into the mini PC so you don't need a screen or keyboard attached.
  5. What happens if you try a different plate solver?
  6. You could try doing what it suggests in the error message or you could switch the polar alignment to manual movement and then you can slew the mount yourself without NINA doing it and potentially failing.
  7. It sounds like the co-ordinates (RA & DEC) the mount is reporting it is pointing at isn't actually what it is pointing at. This will throw off any control software. There will be a way to perform an alignment to calibrate the mount so it's internal pointing position matches reality. This is separate from polar alignment. Or if you have a camera and computer attached you can plate solve to do this.
  8. Exiftool can probably do it. It is a command line application so you would have to work out the required parameters. There are general instructions on the website.
  9. Set the active hours to ones the cover the night time. Then the computer will not restart to apply updates when you are using it for astro purposes.
  10. If an image looks pixellated at different zoom levels to 100% then that will be due to the scaling algorithm used by the viewing software that is scaling the image to the different zoom level. Noise reduction software would reduce the noise you can see at 100% zoom. It may help improve viewing at different zoom levels if it helps the viewing software's scaling algorithm.
  11. The Star Adventurer wedge does have a 3/8 UNC threaded hole.
  12. Don't drill a 3/8 hole. You want the hole to be larger than the threaded part going through it. A 10/10.5mm hole will be just fine. Also metric bits are more available in the UK. Personally I would just saw off the AZ pin, file the stump flat, and put some paint on the wound to protect the exposed metal.
  13. I would be trying a computer to run the cameras & mount instead of the ASI Air to see it the issue stops or not. If it doesn't appear when the ASI Air is removed then it is likely the problem is with that. If it doesn't disappear then further investigation is required.
  14. Dust on your sensor looks like a circular blob. I would say that dark spot in the image isn't dust on your sensor.
  15. I have seen something similar on my mount (a completely different one to yours). When it happened I stopped guiding and recalibrated it. After that the guiding had no issues and worked as it should. I have no idea why it went funny and why it was happy after a recalibrate. The initial and second calibrations seemed to be successful.
  16. Nice detail on the Horsehead. The Flame Nebula looks too red though. As you are using a DSLR using no dark frames could well be better. Dark frames need to be temperature matched and you can't control temperature on a DSLR. Also, unless your camera has fixed pattern noise or amp glow then you don't really need them. If you do use them you need a lot more. Experiment with and without them to see what works best.
  17. You could do this. I would look at Onstep telescope controls. It is a DIY arduino based system. Look through what people have done with that on motorising Dobsonian telescopes. You will need pulleys, belts, and stepper motors. You could. It would need to be attached to a nose piece that would then fit into the eyepiece port. However this telescope is really designed for visual use and the focuser would not be ideal for camera use and the hole extending end of the telescope is most likely a little too flimsy to support the weight of a camera properly.
  18. Home printing isn't really viable unless you do a lot. High quality photo printers aren't cheap and larger format ones are even more expensive. If you don't use them regularly the inks will dry out etc making it even more expensive as you keep having to throw ink away every time you print. Then there is the learning curve on getting good prints. For occasional prints it is best to just send files to a print shop. They will have more paper options than you could have at home and the quality will be good. Order a small test print first to check things out. Regarding DPI, the DPI number in the image file is just a number in the metadata. It doesn't mean anything really and can be changed without affecting anything else. What matters is the pixel dimensions. Divide the number of pixels down one edge by the appropriate dimension of the print size you want and see what the result is. This is the number you want to be close to 300 ideally.
  19. NINA's sequencing is a lot more powerful than what is available in APT. I prefer the interface of APT and use it more.
  20. It is a bit of trial and error. Different targets will require different exposures due to their differing brightnesses. M42 is very bright and if you want detail in the centre you will need a very different exposure to that required for a dimmer target. As for how long to take exposures for, well as long as possible in general. Darker skies will require less exposure than brighter skies as faint details will be easier to capture. The camera you are using will make a difference as different cameras will require different settings. With some experience you should get a rough idea of what camera settings to use for different targets. Don't forget that the telescope/lens used will have an effect too. You can calculate how long before you get diminishing returns if you want to - Google for details - based on sky brightness levels and other factors. So far I have found with my setup that M42 needs exposures of different lengths to cope with the big brightness range so you get details in the bright core and the fainter outer parts.
  21. There isn't anything different between them in the numbers that specify them. A telescope is a type of lens. Aperture and focal length are properties of a lens/telescope that mean exactly the same thing for both of them. Your photographic knowledge applies to telescopes. Things like seeing also apply to daytime photography but is far less important so no one really cares about it there.
  22. The Orion Nebula is partly pinky red from H Alpha emissions and partly turquoise/cyan from O III emissions. The blue you saw will be from the O III parts.
  23. You will need something like this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-ultra-short-canon-eos-t-ring.html to attach the camera to the telescope and let you achieve focus without a Barlow. Something like a 200-300mm lens is great for M42, Andromeda, Pleiades.
  24. Quite possibly it will. I don't know until I get around to trying it! Part of the fun has been doing it myself even if it isn't the best for certain use cases. Ideally I would have used more metal parts but I don't have machine tools to make metal parts. If I do come across issues then I will look at improving the design. If skin panels would be an improvement they would be easy to add. For my primary use case of a camera and lens it is perfectly suitable. It is my first time using 3D printed parts and that has been a learning experience as well working out the best way to implement them and how the various printing parameters affect the final parts. BTW there is no design committee. Someone posted their deign for a home-made mount that isn't particularly expensive hence off the self parts and 3D printing. I just took that design and modified it a bit. Note that you can't call 3D prints castings. They aren't cast parts. I think you just mean thick section prints.
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