New CCD setup help !

[gnomus]

..... You can also ensure that you capture data at the best time, so that you can programme your blue to be taken around the zenith as that will help to ensure that you don't get blue halos (as it's the colour most affected by the atmospherics)........ Just a couple of ideas!

Thank you for this tip. I wasn't aware of this..

[swag72]

I have the 383L and EFW2 and so think you have made a good choice...

You may still not get any sleep though...... I don't want to rain on your parade, but I hope you are not going to rely on the UK weather forecast!!!! You may end up waking up with soaked equipment....

Rain alarm!! While it won't stop your kit getting rained on, it will certainly alert you early enough to stop more than a few drops

[gnomus]

Rain alarm!! While it won't stop your kit getting rained on, it will certainly alert you early enough to stop more than a few drops

I've been thinking about some sort off weather monitoring set up.  There are a few different options at several price points.  Any recommendations?  

[swag72]

I use a very simple setup ...... a rain sensor  A length of bell wire, a 12v mini buzzer from Maplins  and a table lamp on / off rocker switch 

It doesn't control anything, but the switch is by my bed, and the buzzer is outside my bedroom window - The buzzer wakes me up with a start so I can run out and close the roof. Then switch it off while it's raining so it doesn't keep buzzing - Simple!

[gnomus]

OK.  That looks simple but seems to require hard-wiring.  My shed is some 35 yards from my house so I need a wireless solution - I have an Apple Airport Express out there that connects to my home network and seems to work OK.  I also seem to have hijacked the OP's thread somewhat so apologies...

[swag72]

Mine isn't hard wired to my observatory - if it's raining by my bedroom window, then its raining by my observatory a few metres away  

[gnomus]

Mine isn't hard wired to my observatory - if it's raining by my bedroom window, then its raining by my observatory a few metres away

Brilliant.  I laughed out loud when I read this.  Have you read Gulliver's Travels?  In one of his adventures Lemuel ends up in Laputa - where the menfolk are obsessed with mathematics and astronomy and such like.  However, they can make no practical use of their knowledge - many of their heads have become fixed into an awkward position (off to one side), one eye points always inwards, and the other points always upwards - such that the Laputan men cannot see what is plain before their face.

Your post made me feel decidedly Laputan this morning.  

[halli]

Luckily ive  escaped being caught out with rain while leaving my kit out overnight.  Sure thing is though as you say the minute I use any new kit it will happen.

I've been thinking about some sort off weather monitoring set up.  There are a few different options at several price points.  Any recommendations?  

Try this link - appears to be a good offer and is wireless

 http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Touchscreen-Weather-Station/36-3242

[michael8554]

Unfortunately most wireless weather stations only tell you, after its been raining for a while,  how much it's rained, they don't light up and sound alarms to say it's just started raining.

Sara's rain sensor setup should go off pretty quickly.

Michael

[Physopto]

I bought a Aurora Eurotech cloud watcher. Not entirely sure if I did the right thing as yet. It works fine but there are others.

The Boltwood is ridiculously priced at around £1500 I think.

There is also another by AAG ( around £190) but their website is a nightmare to navigate to find out how to order. If they cannot get that right I loose interest immediately.

Time will tell if I bought the correct product.

Derek

[halli]

Ah well having picked up the Atik 383l, filter wheel and filters I have now got them working with my 130pds.  

Its a different world from the Canon !   Firstly the CCD is very power hungry and soon my volts on my battery were dropping !  Also I think my power wiring was too long resulting in too great a volt drop.  I found that the EFW2 filter wheel was not properly switching between filters because of volt drop, but raising the volts soon cured this.    My 130 pds certainly needed a major rebalance after attaching the CCD and filter wheel.  

After mucking about with Artemis capture and convincing myself that all was ok I set about creating some darks at around -20c.  Now I needed to wait for a clear night to experiment.  Eventually the stars appeared and I managed to focus on a star !   Everything appeared to work ok with the CCD !  Couldn't get Astro Tortilla to plate solve though even though I had changed the FOV to match the CCD - needs looking in to still.  On to my first imaging run!

Protracted clear  skies do not seem to occur these days so the only available night was plagued with high cloud and moonshine !

I  eventually managed to get some subs of M45 over two nights recently.   

10x600s  L

8x600s    B

4x600s    G and R

All was 1x1 bin although I subsequently read that the colours can be done at 2x2 binned.   This is quite a learning curve as well as processing mono subs in DSS and PI !

I attach the result and at least I got something out of a fairly crappy evening conditions wise.  Less cloud, moonshine and more darkness with more data required !

I had to crop the image heavily because due to carelessness -  there was a significant position change from the first to the second evening - so not happy with the framing.   Where are you Astro Tortilla !  

The bright stars are also drastically overexposed !! There is however no bleeding as there was with my 1100D.  

I also wasn't able to take flats which would have got rid of some dust motes and improved the image a lot.

However,   I am just pleased I came out the other side with  something to build on that is recognisable the first time around which I just wanted to share  !!!

The beginning of a steep learning curve  - but quite exciting !! 

Cheers

Ian

[Physopto]

Excellent first effort. Better than any of mine when I started. I was so disappointed I binned mine. So well done.

Derek

[halli]

Thanks Derek.  Hopefully conditions will improve soon so more experienced can be gained !

[gnomus]

Ah well having picked up the Atik 383l, filter wheel and filters I have now got them working with my 130pds.  

Its a different world from the Canon !   Firstly the CCD is very power hungry and soon my volts on my battery were dropping !  Also I think my power wiring was too long resulting in too great a volt drop.  I found that the EFW2 filter wheel was not properly switching between filters because of volt drop, but raising the volts soon cured this.    My 130 pds certainly needed a major rebalance after attaching the CCD and filter wheel.  

 .......

m45 130pds atik lrgb pi fin 1 hdr.JPG

I am sure you have made the right choice going for mono and the larger chip. I also found that my Power Packs didn't last very long once I had the CCD powered up and cooling on. I eventually bought a DC power supply from Maplin and wired up a distribution box so that everything was powered from that. That made a big difference.

I think you may find it easier to bin everything at 1x1 to begin with. I did try some 2x2 stuff but then realised that this would mean doing 2x2 darks, 2x2 flats, and 2x2 bias frames so that I could calibrate my 2x2 colours. Sticking to 1x1 makes things a bit easier even if it does add a bit more to the capture time.

I use PixInsight to 'Linear Fit' my R, G and B channels. It seems to give a reasonable starting colour balance.

Good luck.

[halli]

Cheers for the advice Gnomus.

I am also now using a 240v powered 5A DC supply from Maplins to power the CCD and filter wheel.  

Its a good point about the 2x2 calibration frames if you use 2x2 for your colours 

Thanks for the tip about  the use of linear fit in PI and I discovered this on Harry's Pi videos after I had processed the LRGB !  but will probably go back and re-process.

I also discovered that when using the sequencer in Artemis that it didn't appear to change the filter wheel position automatically during imaging as I had set it -  it worked fine manually though  - needs further investigation.

I am looking at using APT as an umbrella to perform dithering and plate solving as backyard EOS cannot be used for CCDs - do you use this or some other software application ?

Ian

[gnomus]

Not entirely sure why Artemis Capture didn't move your wheel. (Was this when you were battery operated?) I know that many folks (with much more experience than I) like Artemis, but I found it a bit clunky. I did use APT when I was imaging with my DSLR, and I really liked the program. However, I strongly suggest you take a look at Sequence Generator Pro. A really good bit of software with a built in plate solver (Plate Solve 2 - you will have to download the libraries once). It will dither (I think Artemis can only dither if you have an Atik guider). You can also choose to cool down and warm up your camera at the rate you desire.

The only thing with SGP is getting your head around the idea that each sequence that you set up has it's own 'control panel', which can be different from your 'master' control panel set in your equipment list. I am pretty sure you get a fully functional free trial.

[halli]

Thanks for the response.   I will need to try the filter wheel sequence in Artemis again to establish what is wrong.  

I was aware of SGP and it looks really well structured  - I have downloaded a copy to try out !

[ollypenrice]

When you say the stars are over exposed, have you looked at them in the linear (unstretched) image? Whatever you see in this unstretched image is in your data. If the stars are not big blobs before stretching then there is no need for them to be big blobs in the final image. You just need to learn how to control the dynamic range. That can't be explained in one quick post but, trust me, it can be done. Onward!

Olly

[halli]

Ok understand your point Olly - I guess its almost certainly  down to processing - I definitely need to invest more time into the 'black art'  !