Freddie

Set the rate to something slow like 3 or 4 and move to roughly where your target is and then use GOTO for the last bit of movement. That will keep the overall amount of noise down.

8 hours ago, nfotis said:

I am tempted by the Quark, because here in Athens the light pollution is really bad.

Adding a 400mm refractor should be a good combination with it for full solar disk images (with the 4.2x Barlow embedded).

N.F.

 

 

I don’t think light pollution will be an issue with solar imaging !!!!!!

Captured around 2.30 on Thursday afternoon. Last one was quite faint and I almost didn't notice it at first.

Ah yes, 100% with you on that.

I would avoid setting your gamma below default for actual captures. If you look at your histogram you have big chunks missing so that is data you can never get back. You can however achieve the same results in post processing if you capture at default.

Not quite sure why Rusted is suggesting to avoid sharpening, that’s the point of capturing and stacking multiple frames. I would suggest avoid over sharpening.

1 hour ago, Floater said:

Sorry, Freddie, think it was 2765. I worried about a typo in the OP.

You are correct. Maybe I should type slower not faster next time and check the data !!

AR stands for active region. In this case AR2735 was the active region (sun spot) that moved across the solar disc over the last week or so. Each AR is given a sequential number, so the next one will be AR2736 but we could be waiting a while as we are at solar minimum.

Must type faster next time !!!

Are settings in the FireCapture screen shot the settings you would use in an actual capture or just settings for a preview?

1 hour ago, Zakalwe said:

Also, cut down the number of frames. 3000 is way too much... Don't forget that the surface of the Sun is incredibly dynamic. Spicules and proms are moving at many thousands of miles per hour and a too-long avi file can blur them.

I don’t think the length of AVI is an issue as a 10,000 frame AVI would be captured in 34 secs with the parameters used. You have to consider image scale and at this image scale, movement over that time isn’t going to be an issue. I wouldn’t however stack anywhere near 3000 of those 10,000 frames though.

41 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

Bit rude ! 

Sorry you feel that why.

I helped by answering your question and based on your recent posts you appear to have an extremely limited knowledge on the subject so was just suggesting a better way for you to get some answers and guidance you clearly need.

Solar system.

Having also seen your DSLR question, you would be better off deciding what you actually want to do and then you can ask specific questions and get good advice on what’s needed. These somewhat vague questions are probably not helping you much.

Depends on what you want to image.

Click on the latest version under downloads. That will take you to github where you click on the win64 version to download the zip.

For visual or imaging? Will make a big difference to the mount that would be appropriate.

20kg for the OTA + weights on top of that.

1,000 stacked from how many?

22 hours ago, Montana said:

I have also found that I can't remove the dust bunnies from my ASI174 and flats don't work that well either. However I dropped my camera the other week on the floor with much cursing but the bunny shifted and is gone! hooray! however I don't recommend dropping your camera deliberately. The dust is on the inside and can't be blown away and I find it the most irritating camera I have ever owned. A friend had success by using an anti static gun for use on records (do you remember them) and it helped it to unstick off the window.

Alexandra

If you mean on the inside between the chip and underside of the window, just unscrew the top to expose the chip and give it a blow/clean.

If that’s the only place you can site your scope then there is not much more you can do other than make sure the scope is well collimated and cooled.

Maybe your processing could be improved? How are you processing your captures?

50 minutes ago, symmetal said:

Whether the sun is overexposed depends on your exposure time. The max theoretical frame rate is just the resultant reciprocal of the exposure time.

If you expose for say 5mS then the maximum frame rate possible is just how many 5mS exposures can I take in 1 second. This is 1 second / 5 mS or 1/0.005 = 200. Unless you go for a small region of interest you'll never achieve that frame rate as the hardware (camera hardware, PC processor speed, memory, USB link) will limit what's achieveable.

Your camera saying 41fps is the maximum framerate is it's hardware limit at full frame recording. If you expose at 1mS you'll still get 41fps. Likewise if you expose at 10mS you'll still get 41fps. Theoretically the maximum exposure time you can achieve at 41fps is 1/41 seconds = 24mS. So don't worry too much about the fps figure. It just sets how fast you collect your images. If your fps is say 20 then recording a video for 30s duration will give the same number of frames as recording at 41fps for 15 seconds.

The downside of a longer video recording is clouds getting in the way or the subject detail changing throughout the video causing blurring when stacked. Using my ASI174MM I manage 30fps at full frame and get 900 frames in 30 seconds which is fine for stacking. The spec says it's 60fps at full frame but it never achieves anywhere near that even using a fast PC. I doubt whether your camera would actually give 41fps in reality.

So whether the sun is overexposed depends on exposure time and camera gain setting, not the fps. 🙂

Alan 

 

There is something wrong somewhere in your system if you are not getting 60fps as per the spec. My 174 achieves the spec. at full frame and down through any ROI.

What is it that makes you say the filters don’t look good in the picture? I would have thought that determining optical quality from a picture of some filters in a case must be quite tricky!

I can’t imagine why everyone would suggest a guide scope would be better than an OAG on a Newt.

That’s a good spot and at that price you can’t go wrong.

As said above, those focuser units are lovely bits of kit. I have a Moonlite on my DSO kit.

For my 9.25 and planetary imaging, because my ASI 174, Barlow and manual filter wheel aren’t that heavy, I decided to give the SW unit a go. At £140 it’s not premium kit but to be honest it is spot on and I have had no thoughts at all that an upgrade is needed. I would highly recommend it.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-focusers/dual-speed-2-crayford-focuser-for-sct-telescopes.html

You need a new set of darks as the defects on the new chip will not be the same as on the old one.

OK, so you now need to sharpen the stacked image using something like Registax or ImPPG.

Not sure what you mean about doing the same with planets. If you are referring to the edges, then yes on a planet image the edges will still be choppy but the planet itself should look fine.

The key to all this though is to just use AS!2 to stack (don’t tick sharpen) and use something else to sharpen the stacked image.