Enigma_RL

Hi there,

For a number of reasons, including the very few clear nights a year I have, I am heavily considering putting my telescope at a remote hosting facility somewhere in the south of Europe. Is there anyone around here who has experience with this? Things to keep in mind and consider? Any remote hosting facilities to recommend?

Would love to hear about your experience or advice!

Thanks in advance and best regards!

I always thought it would be my very first nebula to photograph (recently got my first telescope as well), but surprisingly I didn’t look at it yet. Probably because Orion rises relatively late and is relatively short in the sky for me (quite some obstructions from my backyard). But I’m sure I’ll get to it soon if these damn clouds ever disappear

3 hours ago, rickwayne said:

Nice. Bit harsh for my taste, but you do you, right?

You're going to love the CEM70, if mine is any yardstick to judge by. Do exercise it thoroughly when you first get it, there have been quite a few QA/QC problems with them. Mine is great, no complaints.

A cool dodge I figured out uses the threaded holes in the side of the saddle (probably intended for 3D balance weights). I cut a length of aluminum channel, padded a couple of hose clamps with tape, and bolted it to the side of the saddle. My guidescope went into the hose clamps, I tightened them down, and now I can autoguide a telescope or a DSLR without having  to mount the guidescope to the optics.

Of course, if you got a model with an iGuider, you're one jump ahead of me already. 🙂

Thanks! What do you mean by QA/QC problems? And yeah I did get a the model with iGuider but I’m not sure how that would compare to a guidescope and PHD2? I almost can’t assume guiding will be as good or even better with an integrated guiding system but I could of course be wrong here. Do you happen to know how it holds up?

It's been a while since I've posted here but when all the clouds cleared last Monday I didn't know how fast to go outside and start imaging again. After 3 hours of guiding issues I finally managed to get a somewhat decent calibration to start guiding but even though I had quite a lot of errors there was some decent data left to use. I think the guiding issues really boil down to my low end EQ5 mount and I will soon be replacing it with an iOptron CEM70.

That being said this is only my second image ever taken in astrophotography so still trying to get the hang of things but overall I am really pleased with the end result. It has a total exposure time of 3,6 hours of which 2 are in Hydrogen Alpha and 1,6 is in Oxygen III. I know I went a bit hard on the noise reduction and I didn't filter out all the bad subs but man it is satisfying to finally be able to enjoy images like this. For anyone curious, it is shot with a William Optics GT81 IV on a ZWO ASI2600mm-Pro and a 0.8x reducer. It is stacked in Astro Pixel Processor and processed in PixInsight.

Enjoy!

34 minutes ago, Dps said:

I tink that struggle you have gone through is for every beginner and i am also in the line now. I have galileo beginner refractor, connected to nikon 5100 via variable tube with 10mm eyepiece which came along with telescope. But could not ge even moon clearly. Not sure what i m mssing. Please help me.

Dp

Which issue exactly are you running into? Also am I reading correctly that you are trying to take an image through an eyepiece?

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

Maybe try one MNML processing effort - go by "less is more" moto

See what you can make out of this image simply by stretching the data. Leave out all other stuff out - don't denoise, don't sharpen, don't do star reduction - nothing fancy, just simple stretch

I’ll try that once I’m able to shoot some more data in blue

After actually spending some time with processing. I feel like I killed too much detail and went too aggressive on some processes, but definitely not unhappy with the result so far

56 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Nice first image.

Two technical points from me - too much noise reduction and clipped background.

For noise reduction - look into masked noise reduction. This is simply done by creating two layers - one regular and one denoised on top of it. Then you make mask on denoised layer and use that same layer inverted for the mask (so that only dark areas of that layer are really used - that will denoise background and leave visible detail sharp).

Thanks for the feedback, will keep it in mind when I reprocess the image

5 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Though I cannot offer any technical advice or critique, I can honestly say I absolutely love this image of Andromeda, I love the warm tone and it is so nicely contrasted against a dark sky.

Those dust lanes are beautifully detailed and, you seem to have controlled noise so well. Bravo, it is beautiful and this is what I want my first andromeda to look like that I mount on my wall.

If this is your first ever image through a telescope then I cant wait to see future images.

I really appreciate this, thank you! ☺️

2 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

Great shot. We have all been beginners - I still put myself in that category after 2 years of imaging. I still have the nights fighting with the kit, but it does get easier. As for questions - if you don't know the answer then it's not dumb!

Regards advice.... Don't rush the processing or at least go back and see if you can improve. I've gone back over my earlier data and there was loads more detail that was previously missed. Keep at it - this is a great picture.

Thanks man! The rush this successful session gave me is enough to keep struggling

The rush in processing was because I couldn’t wait to get my first color image. I’ll definitely have an improved version in a couple of weeks!

7 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Disclaimer: woefully underqualified to be providing advice! 😁

Nevertheless: nice detail, and the background looks good (maybe a tad dark, but much better than I managed on my first attempt).

I wonder if there's something more that could be had in terms of colour? There's some lovely subtle reds and blues to be had in Andromeda.

Yeah I already have a lot of points that bother me, including blowing up stars, including some lower quality frames in my stack, saturation and brightness of the stars, sole light pollution  and rushed noise reduction. I was just too eager to poop out a color image haha. Next cloudy weeks I have something to work on. Also my blue’s were super bad and I could only take 9 before it disappeared behind my house, so will definitely add more data later. But yeah thanks, appreciate the feedback!

26 minutes ago, mr_belowski said:

that's really nice

It never ceases to amaze me what can be achieved with astro photography. I love to just sit at the eye piece and gaze but pics like this are just magical

I actually started looking for a telescope with an eyepiece, but I stumbled upon a video of someone taking amazing pictures (I used to be into photography) and compared what a camera could see vs an eyepiece I was pretty much sold (and broke lol). Once I save up some more I’m considering buying a tabletop for on the side so I can watch while imaging. Nothing beats the feeling of seeing it with you own eyes 😁

And I would also like to thank every one on this forum who has helped me out with troubleshooting and dumb questions. It is much appreciated!

So after a teasing couple of months, struggling with my setup and endless cloudy nights, I finally managed to get my entire rig to work last Sunday. After 4 hours of fixing issues I had just over 3 hours of imaging left to capture the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) before it disappeared behind my house, and man, I just couldn't slap that smile of my face watching the "live view". This evening I managed to get a small amount of time to process the data, but even though it is rushed and probably not as good as it could have been, I am extremely happy with the result. It's shot on a ASI2600MM-Pro camera through LRGB filters, with a William Optics GT81 IV. Feedback is more than welcome!

Breathtaking picture! Really impressive

I am by no means an expert, but from a visual point of view I'd definitely prefer the first one. Great pic!

I'm not sure on your budget, but I'm currently having an Eagle 4S mounted to my telescope. It runs Windows 10 and all the software I'm using is compatible (like APT, PHD etc). An other great feature is that all your gear connects to the available ports, including power supplies for the mount, camera and dew heaters. This makes for great cable management. You can simply set up your telescope, take control of the eagle through remote desktop protocol from a laptop or desktop inside. I'm aware they are not the cheapest solution, but I'm a big fan. Here's a link to a lower end model:

https://eu.primalucelab.com/eagle/eagle-le-control-unit-for-telescopes-and-astrophotography.html

On 30/08/2021 at 15:34, Catanonia said:

Done a SHO version. Struggling to control the bright stars, but looks ok.

 

Oh damn I am absolutely in love with this image and the colors! Really well done!

Aliens!

3 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Ok so the fist issue is that your backlash setting is way too low. 

The second issue is that your initial step size needs increasing by at least a factor of 3x  (maybe even more) what you are using here. 

The final issue is that you are using a linear fit to solve the focus position and I would recommend hyperbolic only. 

 

Adam

All right I've added this to my list. Thanks!

11 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

There was a similar fous issue with NINA a few weeks back which was resolved. The issues were a loose grub screw and a decent value in the backlash.

The backlash values you had at zero implies the focuser instantly moves in both directions, whereas it probably has a movement of 10 to 30 steps of the motor before the cogs engage. The NINA settings need not be the actual values you will have on your motor, but are used to work out the actual backlash.

The IN/OUT directions can be reversed so unless you know which yours is set at put the NINA values as the same. Or you can try one at a time and set the one which works.

Your focus motor may have a note about backlas values to give you an idea of its value.

I found this and more with this NINA Backlash video on YT

Thanks for the explanation, I'll make sure to give it a watch!

6 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

You can only set it for one I believe, on my GT71 its set to IN.

All right I'll do some experimenting next clear night. Thanks again for the tips!

2 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

Looks to me as if your step size is too small and that you have backlash (the cause of the flat bit on the right) , as @Skipper Billy says increase step size so that when the autofocus routine is at the extremes the FWHM or HFR or whatever NINA measure is 3 times larger than when it is in focus ie about 10, to start with i'd set your backlash to 200 or so and see if it removes the flat bit if not increase till it does...  

Also check all connections are tight

Dave

NINA uses HFR to focus, and I will definitely experiment with the step size next session. When setting the backlash, I can set values for IN and OUT. Do I set both of them to 200 or how can I interpret those values? Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate it!

This is beautiful 😮

Just now, scotty38 said:

I hope it works for you. My graph was pretty much like yours so I was massively sceptical a few changes would make such a drastic difference but they did. Even now every time I focus I am on edge expecting to see a crappy "curve" but so far so good 🙂

Hahaha at this point I am running into so many issues that I'm willing to give everything a go. Most of the people on here went through the same [removed word] as I currently am already so hearing all of your experiences definitely helps!

2 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

and here is mine. I am not saying this is what it should be but after changing things it all works fine for me at least.

 

Thanks a ton! I'll definitely give it a go next run