Grant93

Brilliant thank you Will post the result, might be a week or so yet, might be clear again tonight and tomorrow according to predictions. And also like to do multiple stacks and processes to try and make sure I'm getting the best result

Look at some 50mm Canon F1.8, can get one for 50-70 quid second hand. Not got one myself but heard good things about it, and at F1.8 you can collect a lot of data very fast, perfect for few and far between clear nights with British weather . Any reason you don't use an IDAS in the lens? Just asking because I had some weird purple and green reflections when using my IDAS in the Samy135mm, but not when using the ZS61. Never found an answer for it, always just assumed the lens was just too fast for it.

For 90 minutes I would say that is really good, I'd be very happy with that for only 90 minutes.. I took the advice of @alacant himself and try to always do 4 hours minimum, aslong as british weather cooperates. Sometimes you get a couple hours one night, then you get too eager waiting weeks for the next clear night and go ahead and process less than the optimal 4 hours anyway. @alacant How do you stack in Siril from different nights, Do I even need to put them in different files if every night is the same settings, similar temperature etc? Getting unusually clear skies here in the UK so I'm managing multiple nights on m45 😃

As far as I understand, Transparency is more of an issue for DSO imaging, as @Astro Noodles said above. You will notice this when you go outside but can only see the brighter stars of the constellations, and it looks quite hazy, reflecting more light pollution also. But bad seeing effects planetry imaging, this is the wobbling effect you notice at high magnifications, much higher than is used for MOST DSO imaging. You can also see yourself if its bad seeing with the naked eye, if the stars are twinkling more than usual, its likely bad seeing. Hope this helps

The reason I don't want to plug my Pi into the mount, is because when I set up I like to do the manual polar allign with the polarscope, then polar allign with the function on the hand controller, which I can do using the screen on my DSLR, then I can slew to the object I plan on imaging, check framing all without the use of a laptop, and I can keep that inside. And as I only ever want to stick to one object on a given night, I don't feel I need to control the mount from my laptop. I can then go inside, and I am hooked upto the Pi on my laptop via a long long ethernet 😅 (I find the Wifi slow and unrealiable on the Pi). And just control the imaging and guiding from my laptop. This is just me explaining the route I take, not that I think this is the best way to do it, so if anyone has better ideas, please do say as I am always open to advice.

I didnt realise EKOS has an inbuilt guider Ill have to check that out next time.. Thank you

Well that may explain it then.. I was clicking start guiding and the photographing sequence at the same time 😂 I never realised there was a calibration between 🤭

Yes, USB from the Pi to the Guidecam, then from the guidecam Via ST-4 port to the autoguiding port on the mount. Just specified this really as I wanted to reiterate this is the only thing other than the hand controller plugged into the mount. Yes this is what I thought that its extremely short.. I didnt try longer exposures for some reason, but tried the shorter ones and that seemed to help, will try longer next time and see how it goes. This is the answer I wanted - as I always give up nights with high wispy clouds, because I thought it would be a waste of time.. Which means I get 4 nights a month imaging as I have to work it around my worklife.. more if I am super lucky. My tracking is fine when I polar allign via scope, then do a couple of polar allignments with help via handcontroller.. With the ZS61 and 800D/600D I can get 40-50s unguided before noticeable trails. Which I did all this before guiding, the actual trails before I lowered the exposure on the guidecam were more extreme than anything I'd seen. I'm not sure what settings I should show on PHD2, but heres and image of the zigzag trails when at 1s Guidecam exposure. Thank you for the detailed answer & Help Grant

Hello everyone, Had a nice week off work with a nice gift of a ASI224mc for Christmas for use of mainly guiding but also future Lunar and Planetry work once I get some more focal length for it . But as typical, havent had a single clear night whilst being off during a new moon and nice gifts to try out. But I had a partial clear night yesterday, so I decided to set up to try and educate myself on guiding and get some minor amounts of data to try it out, just so I wouldnt waste a fully clear night learning. I got the hang of it mostly, managing my first 2 minute exposures on the ZS61 with nice round stars, don't think I would want much longer as the histogram seems to be in the perfect spot at 2mins in my Bortle5, I'll explain how I had everything set up and have a few questions so please bare with me . I had the Raspberry Pi4 plugged into the guidecam and 800d. I had the guidecam plugged into the Autoguiding port, and I had an ethernet from the laptop into the house. I don't plug the raspberry pi4 into the HEQ5 as I like to use my handcontroller as I only stick to one object per night and also I like the polar allignment feature on the controller, seems to do a great job. I had Ekos and PHD4 open on the pi. 1. Guidecam exposure - It didn't guide very well when the exposure was higher than .2s on the guidecam, it would cause the stars to zigzag on the final picture, I thought I was ok with .2s with that but then I read most people use between 1-4s guidecam exposure. How come this would happen with even a 1 second exposure on the guidecam. 2. Focus in the guidecam - How in focus does the guidecam have to be? Am I ok aslong as I see stars on the screen that are near enough (but not perfectly) pinpoint? 3. Dithering only being plugged into the autoguide port - As I don't have my Pi4 plugged into the mount, will PHD4 still work with Ekos and dither through the autoguide port between images, or to dither will I have to have Ekos controlling my mount too? (I hope not, as I said above I like using the hand controller). 4. A question I've always wondered but unrelated to guiding, but don't seem to be able to find a clear answer to - Does anyone ever shoot through wispy high clouds? I often watch some of the more popular youtubers, and have noticed they sometimes mention of high wispy clouds, but they're shooting anyway. But some people also say they throw away data if it has any amount of cloud drifting through it. What are your thoughts? Hope everyone had a nice Christmas! Thanks for your time and help . Grant

Thank you for that detailed explanation @ollypenrice And the beautiful process, love the colors. I'll probably download the free trial of Pixinsight and give it a go over the weekend. @alacant haha I know that but I want them out my photos so they don't take anything away from the nebula itself, did you try that NBAccent yet? I can't seem to get it to work. How would you guys say that was to proccess? Did my flats look like they were doing their job?

Hello everyone, Over the last new moon I was gathering data on the heart and soul, just love this object when people get it right, wanted to capture them cirrus areas of the heart that drift away from the main object. I have, and can see it in there, but the whole image has been absolutely obliterated by stars! Not even nice looking stars, just looks like the image is covered in sand. One thing I think is wrong - possibly over exposed, I think I was letting the histogram drift too close to the middle, although from reading I assume this won't help with the amount of stars. From what I can find to help with the stars, a good star reduction tool, which I have done multiple star reductions in StarTools, however doing too many ruins the image. But also I've read a multipass narrowband filter such as an L-Extreme would help images like this, I am looking to get one of them as I love seeing the images produced using these. Just deciding on which, L-Extreme, L-Enhance, or a clip in one such as the SkyTech Triband, what do people think here, how do these compare to each other? Heres the image anyhow, will also post the TIF to see what everyone else can do with it. Its taken on the Modified 600D, Skyguider Pro, 135mm Lens@F3.2, Caliberated with Bias and Flats. 4 hours worth of data. Regards Grant H&S.TIF

Welcome to the rabbit hole, enjoy your stay P.S. Very nice images!

What bortle do you shoot from?

Is this a post to tease us Northern Hemispherers about the LMC?? 😢 Maybe one day I'll make the trip to see the Magellanic Clouds! 😆 Good report, sounds fun!

Yes I did use Startools.. I can't fully remember as I did this process last weekend.. but if I do use Superstructure now days, I'll usually lower the aggressiveness a significant amount. 😀 I should of mentioned it was processed with StarTools in the post, I forgot sorry!

A really nice change! Brought out a lot more of the background! Thank you!

Hello everyone! Always posting away in the getting started with imaging forum, felt its about time to be brave enough to post here 😅. I hope its a worthy image. A bit of a story - Had this 135mm Lens for a while, not fully understanding or appreciating how fast it was, I use to think my backyard skys were too polluted for it, I use to stop it down considerably so I could get 'longer exposures' without overexposing the histogram. I don't know how or when it hit me how silly this was, but I finally understood the love of RASA's and the fact you don't need them long exposure times, just open the damn thing up and shoot for as long as it doesn't overexpose, whether thats 20 seconds or 120! It didnt dissapoint, this is probably my second or third cleanest image to date, but with 2-4 hours less total exposure, because this was shot at f2.8 compared to f4-f5. After the first result of processing, I was impressed and wanted more data to try and bring faint dusty regions out around it, sadly I think I've failed at that. I added another 2 and a half hours data, but it doesn't seem any easier to process, and even added difficult gradients, I will try scouring through the images, getting rid of bad ones and restacking on the weekend. However I am too eager to hold my image back as it is one I am rather proud of considering it contains less than 2 hours data, unguided and not dithered (This will change by christmas ). I am rather happy that I managed to pull out some dusty regions to the top right and bottom left - Will a few hours more intergration time be able to pull out a lot more from a bortle 5? Or do we need 20 hours+ for that dusty detail from a bortle 5? EDIT: Please please please, give me plenty of constructive criticism Heres the details; Modded 600D SGP Samyang 135mm @F2.8 (Heard it was sharper than F2.0) 150 Lights @ 45 seconds 20 of each caliberation frame.

Dont plan on using it with the SGP, I just use the SGP for a grab and go, so keep it simple with a intervalometer, no computers, so can just use it for them 2 hour windows free of clouds Gonna keep the RPi permenantly attatched to the HEQ5. Just got it delivered today Lets see how frustrating it is to set up!

I've ordered my RPi, so soon I will be setting it up from the comfort of my living room . Although if I know I've only got a couple hours to image, I usually just use my SGP. If I've got multiple hours I set up the HEQ5. I assume once I've got my RPi, Astroberry will have everything I need on it?

This all helps, thank you both Think I will be getting the 224 as a guide cam, so I can also use it for moon and planetary for them not so transparent/summer nights Going to have to buy the guide scope myself though as I don't want my fiance to spend too much on me for christmas 😅 Also buy the looks of your photos @AstroMuni it looks like it will be good for them Planetary Nebula and Globulars! Something I would struggle with in my current set up

I think you guys are twisting my arm into spending more money Just checked the 224mc on astronomytools and everything seems to fit so perfectly. Looks almost perfect for a full disk of the moon and sun in the ZS61 (How does this perform in solar imaging? Might be a dumb question but I don't know how solar varys vs lunar and planetary). And looks nice for planetary and zoomed in photos on the Dobsonian. Definitely going to go for the 224 I think, just them couple of questions above 😅. Cheers!

Thanks to everyone for the very helpful advice! I will get that recommended EQDIR USB Adapter Just a couple of follow up questions Whats the difference between the two when it comes to imaging planets, moon, and solar? Because that was going to be something else I'd start to do come summer when the nights are shorter. Some planetry, lunar and solar imaging (With the right solar filter ofcourse) with the mini. Is it just the frame rate difference? So I would have to expose for longer with the mini? Thanks

Hello everyone. Just looking at finally getting into guiding and using christmas to my advantage, asked the fiance to get me a ZWO ASI 120MM Mini and Astro Essentials 50mm Guidescope from FLO. Also going to get myself a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB to use AstroBerry on. Basically what I'm asking is, what else do I need to connect it all up? Any cables that these items do not come with, but I will need to connect it to the HEQ5? Also any recommendations for something I might need in the future. Or even if you recommend a different camera, scope, or mini PC (As you can see, on a budget), Because you think I may regret some purchases? Thanks in advance for your help Grant

Hi there, I use canons, but post processing definitely doesn't stop after stacking. The stacked version doesn't look much more impressive than the single frames. However it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive, there are many easy guides for free software such as GIMP, starting with easy curves adjustments and such. Or there's cheap software out there such as StarTools for around £40 one off payment, which is very easy to learn and use with simple workflows.😀 Hope this helps Grant

Hello everyone! Just a bit of imaging from the clear nights we had last weekend here in the midlands, sadly being a full moon also. Pretty much using every bit of my set up also. Got the Double cluster and Owl cluster, both on the 600D and ZS61 with the HEQ5. 2 hours each. Then the Andromeda galaxy on the 800D and Samyang 135mm with the Skyguider pro for 4 hours. All processed in StarTools. Let me know what you think Grant