Bit of a washed out Dumbbell from last night.

[tich]

I took a gamble & went to the darksite at 9:30-ish I set up & waited for the stars to come out. Mars was sitting pretty above the Moon while Jupiter was quite low in the west. After collimating & lining up the scopes I did a polar alignment & slewed the scope to M27. Conditions weren't ideal for imaging due to the moonlight but it was a lot less dewy than last week, not perfect but better all the same.
I started off trying to use Canon's own remote capture software after the issues I were having with APT the week previously but that wouldn't function with the mirror lock enabled so pretty frustrating, I need to get APT sorted out for the next imaging run. I ended up using the camera timer again so at least that side of things were sorted.
That wretched APT2 froze on me again & I couldn't do anything with it so I had to reboot the laptop. After I got it set up for the second time it was behaving nicely with no pinging until the end of the session which was probably due to the hazy cloud & the fact it was getting lighter. You could see it getting lighter on the horizon at 1:30 so I'll be glad when the nights start to get longer again.
I saw a meteorite & three ISS passes so all in all not a bad session at all apart from the technical issues.

18-5 minute subs at iso 800 using a modified Canon 1000D Baader MPCC & Skywatcher 250P.
Stacked with bias & dark frames in DSS & tweaked in Photoshop CS5



Cropped & resized.



 

[PhotoGav]

Really liking that tich, excellent! Well worth the effort. Wow, loads of stars!!

What problems are you having with APT?

I know what you mean about wishing for those long dark nights, but it seems crazy to wish away the 'summer' days that we've been waiting all winter for!

[tich]

Really liking that tich, excellent! Well worth the effort. Wow, loads of stars!!

What problems are you having with APT?

I know what you mean about wishing for those long dark nights, but it seems crazy to wish away the 'summer' days that we've been waiting all winter for!

Thanks Gav, with APT the camera connects ok as I use it to focus on a star, I then create a plan then add it so I'm ready to start. However when I click on the start button I get nothing as it's not highlighted (if that makes sense) More than likely it's user error on my part. I do have the latest version so I don't know if that helps.

PHD is another pain as I've had the lock up for reasons unknown to myself, I didn't realise it had froze until I noticed that the graph had stopped. I ended up having to park the scope then reboot the laptop. When I had PHD running for a second time it worked perfectly, why couldn't it have worked properly the first time lol.

I've had a bit of a fiddle with the image & managed to pull a bit more colour out from it, but I found by pushing the saturation any more the image looked unnatural to my eyes so I've decided to leave it.

Hopefully next time it'll be a moonless night when I next have a bash at this.

[Guest]

I took a gamble & went to the darksite at 9:30-ish I set up & waited for the stars to come out. Mars was sitting pretty above the Moon while Jupiter was quite low in the west. After collimating & lining up the scopes I did a polar alignment & slewed the scope to M27. Conditions weren't ideal for imaging due to the moonlight but it was a lot less dewy than last week, not perfect but better all the same.

I started off trying to use Canon's own remote capture software after the issues I were having with APT the week previously but that wouldn't function with the mirror lock enabled so pretty frustrating, I need to get APT sorted out for the next imaging run. I ended up using the camera timer again so at least that side of things were sorted.

That wretched APT2 froze on me again & I couldn't do anything with it so I had to reboot the laptop. After I got it set up for the second time it was behaving nicely with no pinging until the end of the session which was probably due to the hazy cloud & the fact it was getting lighter. You could see it getting lighter on the horizon at 1:30 so I'll be glad when the nights start to get longer again.

I saw a meteorite & three ISS passes so all in all not a bad session at all apart from the technical issues.

18-5 minute subs at iso 800 using a modified Canon 1000D Baader MPCC & Skywatcher 250P.

Stacked with bias & dark frames in DSS & tweaked in Photoshop CS5

Cropped & resized.

Nice images

You can't use mirror lock up with that camera with APT through the USB cable alone, only by using a serial shutter control cable, you need a digic IV processor camera for that to work, and the 1000D is only digic III, this maybe your problem with APT just a thought.

MM

[tich]

Nice images

You can't use mirror lock up with that camera with APT through the USB cable alone, only by using a serial shutter control cable, you need a digic IV processor camera for that to work, and the 1000D is only digic III, this maybe your problem with APT just a thought.

MM

I'm sure when I used it with APT the first time with some assistance that I had the mirror lock enabled as I were using the 1000D to focus on the screen when using the star mask.

Then when I was ready to go I pressed the ok button on the camera to enable the mirror lock & I was away, unless I thought wrong.

[Guest]

I'm sure when I used it with APT the first time with some assistance that I had the mirror lock enabled as I were using the 1000D to focus on the screen when using the star mask.

Then when I was ready to go I pressed the ok button on the camera to enable the mirror lock & I was away, unless I thought wrong.

Well as I have stated you can't use mirror lock up with that camera with APT with just a USB cable, I can assure you.

In fact I am sure I am correct as the other guy who has liked that post, Yoddah, is the Author of APT so he should know, and maybe he can explain better what I am saying.

It can only new done by using a USB and a serial shutter cable release cable, newer cameras have the facility to do,it through the USB cable alone.

The only thing I can think of is that you had the live view enabled which creates a false mirror lock up, to get a live view the mirror has to be locked in the up position which would work, but when imaging this way, there would be two issues, firstly the batteries would not last long at all as the screen would be on during the whole of the exposure, and secondly you would be generating a load of heat from the screen and the noise in the image would be awful, but that would work as a mirror lock up, as when youn start the exposure the mirror would flip up just before to allow the view on the screen. So could be a work around with that camera.

But with the newer camera you can have the mirror flip up befor the exposure without having the screen on, so not heat or quick battery drain.

Regards

MM

[lensman57]

Nice capture, make sure that you have unclicked the liveview after the focusing routine in APT, if the liveview is still active the start button is grayed out.

A.G

[tich]

Nice capture, make sure that you have unclicked the liveview after the focusing routine in APT, if the liveview is still active the start button is grayed out.

A.G

Thanks AG that's where I were going wrong user error on my part!! I also pressed the set button on the camera so the mirror lock was initialised & took some test subs & it worked so a happy bunny now.

Fingers crossed I'll remember on my next session.

[Mr Bergman]

Impressive image! I´d love to get out if it hadn´t been for the lack of dark skies here in Sweden.....

/Eri

[lensman57]

Nice capture, make sure that you have unclicked the liveview after the focusing routine in APT, if the liveview is still active the start button is grayed out.

A.G

You are welcome, which CCD are you going for BtW?

A.G

[tich]

You are welcome, which CCD are you going for BtW?

A.G

I won't be buying a CCD for at least a couple of years as yet due to limited funds unless a better job turns up lol, plus I need to improve my processing skills & get more confident using Photoshop as I only do very basic processing at the moment.