Stepping it up a gear

[Art Gecko]

Last weekend I got a new guidecam and scope, with a couple of clear nights on the forecast I thought my luck was in for my first attempt at autoguiding... But, this was a big step for me and I realised I'd never actually done any imaging with the camera tethered to the laptop, so I purchased a USB extention cable for the thether lead (as the conection cable from nikon is about 9 inches long) and a large plastic tub to keep moisture from settling on the laptop.... I spent the rest of saturday daytime trying to find an image capture software that works with a Nikon D3300 which was not easy as most of the common programs are incompatible with Nikon D3*** series it seems (even BYNikon which I paid for before finding this out! D'oh).... eventually I settled for digicamcontroller which seemed to work if I used the scripting commands... I tried AstroArt 6 as well as I've got the trial version and would like to try it out more but there's not many tutorials out there for AA and all I could get it to do was load up demo images... So maybe I'll investigate that at some point...

So as the sun started setting I set up my new Heq5 pro, waited for polaris, polar aligned, set up synscan.... got the whole lot up and running and pointed the scope at M81 + 82 as the moon was in Orion, started PHD2 and started getting some captures in digicamcontroller as well... PHD wouldn't calibrate, start not moving enough.. try again... get some more captures... try PHD2 again.... more captures.... try PHD2.... again!! this went on for some time and I couldn't get PHD2 to calibrate at all.... But I did get a good amount of subs even if they weren't guided! In the morning I sorted through them and found most to be useless... but I did get 16 good ones!!

16 x 180 second subs at 800ISO, 30 flats, 30 flat-darks, and 30 bias. DSS and Photoshop.... And this is the result...

So on sunday night I tried again and got PHD2 calibrating fine... they say you've just got to put the right numbers in the right boxes and this time I did!... but unfortunately the clouds rolled in before I could capture any actual guided subs, but it did put my mind to rest a bit... Experience gained and lessons learned... hopefully next time will go better!

Art.

[michael8554]

Well done!

Before you know it PHD2 will be a breeze, and congrats on getting your d3300 to image.

Michael 

[iwols]

thats  a superb start well done

[bobro]

Yes - you are well on the way to super images with the new setup! Don't forget dithering as it can make a big difference to noise and can save time with calibration frames.

[Art Gecko]

12 hours ago, bobro said:

Yes - you are well on the way to super images with the new setup! Don't forget dithering as it can make a big difference to noise and can save time with calibration frames.

Hey Bob! Been a while!! Yeah the scripting on digicamcontroller does have a PhD script that allows for various levels of dithering agressiveness... yet to try it out though... how many seconds do you think I should allow before starting a capture after a dither? 

Art

[bobro]

8 hours ago, Art Gecko said:

Hey Bob! Been a while!! Yeah the scripting on digicamcontroller does have a PhD script that allows for various levels of dithering agressiveness... yet to try it out though... how many seconds do you think I should allow before starting a capture after a dither?

Hi Art! Yes a while - I've been busy with my CG5 trying to get it to guide well (especially reducing backlash) to support a 150PL acquired some months back. After trying SkyWatcher geared stepper motors and 2 types of belt driven stepper motors with AstroEQ I have it working well enough, although clouds and the Moon haven't helped with testing.

I allow about 40 seconds for dithering to operate and settle - not always enough so APT detects this, stops the exposure and tries again (DEC is always the problem). Your HEQ5 Pro should be better, though I'm only guessing.

Here's a link to one of the few images I've managed so far with the 150PL : https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/309605-dso-imaging-with-150pl-m81/?tab=comments#comment-3387234

Looking forward to seeing more images with your setup!

Bob

 

[Art Gecko]

14 hours ago, bobro said:

Hi Art! Yes a while - I've been busy with my CG5 trying to get it to guide well (especially reducing backlash) to support a 150PL acquired some months back. After trying SkyWatcher geared stepper motors and 2 types of belt driven stepper motors with AstroEQ I have it working well enough, although clouds and the Moon haven't helped with testing.

I allow about 40 seconds for dithering to operate and settle - not always enough so APT detects this, stops the exposure and tries again (DEC is always the problem). Your HEQ5 Pro should be better, though I'm only guessing.

Here's a link to one of the few images I've managed so far with the 150PL : https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/309605-dso-imaging-with-150pl-m81/?tab=comments#comment-3387234

Looking forward to seeing more images with your setup!

Bob

 

Well it looks like you're getting on well with the CG5 (the celestron model?) though you are a technical wizard when it comes to diy so I'll bet you've got it running sweet! 

Cheers for the advice with dithering, I wanted to try APT but it's not Nikon D3300 friendly I'm afraid... looking to get a modded canon next I think, might leave me with more options!

Art.