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Anthonyexmouth

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david_taurus83

david_taurus83

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Anthony, just to update. I've set up 2 nights now using Polemaster to do initial polar alignment and then switching to Sharpcap to refine. The Sharpcap polar align is giving me better guiding than I've seen with just the Polemaster alone. It really is good!

2018-08-05 23.57.13.jpg

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Anthonyexmouth

Anthonyexmouth

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9 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Anthony, just to update. I've set up 2 nights now using Polemaster to do initial polar alignment and then switching to Sharpcap to refine. The Sharpcap polar align is giving me better guiding than I've seen with just the Polemaster alone. It really is good!

2018-08-05 23.57.13.jpg

thats good to know. guess its just a case of nailing the PHD settings for me then. 

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Anthonyexmouth

Anthonyexmouth

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I grabbed this short image of M51 last night to see if guiding was working, I took it with my ASI290 colour on my ED80 , i had planned to try guiding with it to see if my problem was flex in the finder guide scope but didnt get around to it. Anyway, anyone got any ideas why it looks like its shot in sepia , all i've dont is stacked the fits files in DSS

M51.thumb.jpg.a5f800fc0b1d5999d70af3e68302be1c.jpg

 

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newbie alert

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11 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Anthony, just to update. I've set up 2 nights now using Polemaster to do initial polar alignment and then switching to Sharpcap to refine. The Sharpcap polar align is giving me better guiding than I've seen with just the Polemaster alone. It really is good!

2018-08-05 23.57.13.jpg

I find the same..but then I find the drift align tool better than sharpcap..

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spillage

spillage

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I would have a look at the balance on the mount. You might also want to increase your hysteresis to maybe 20 and see if this makes any difference. Do try the drift align in phd. You do not need to make any mount changes but just run it and see where the drift is to help you make your adjustment.

But your graph is looking much better than before so you are going in the right direction.

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Anthonyexmouth

Anthonyexmouth

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Just now, Thalestris24 said:

Looks like something caused a sudden movement at the end - maybe you walked near the mount?

Yeah that's what it was. I did drift align and got both axis to show under 2. Lat adjustment was the hardest. Really need those upgraded bolts to help fine changes

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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1 hour ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I grabbed this short image of M51 last night to see if guiding was working, I took it with my ASI290 colour on my ED80 , i had planned to try guiding with it to see if my problem was flex in the finder guide scope but didnt get around to it. Anyway, anyone got any ideas why it looks like its shot in sepia , all i've dont is stacked the fits files in DSS

M51.thumb.jpg.a5f800fc0b1d5999d70af3e68302be1c.jpg

 

Yeah, maybe light pollution - what's it like where you are? Also, how clear was atmosphere? After stacking you need to align the histogram peaks in a colour pic and adjust saturation, do some stretching etc. Don't forget to take flats and bias frames...

Louise

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Anthonyexmouth

Anthonyexmouth

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5 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Yeah, maybe light pollution - what's it like where you are? Also, how clear was atmosphere? After stacking you need to align the histogram peaks in a colour pic and adjust saturation, do some stretching etc. Don't forget to take flats and bias frames...

Louise

Bortle 4 here, think atmosphere was okish. It's nice having the tighter shot on m51 with the asi290 but I'll try again with the canon tonight. Got a CLS filter on that. That image was 9x 120s with the asi

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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1 minute ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

It's nice having the tighter shot on m51 with the asi290 but I'll try again with the canon tonight. Got a CLS filter on that. That image was 9x 120s with the asi

In future you need to aim for taking at least 15 subs plus calibration frames :) Generally speaking, the more subs the better! I take it, it wasn't the cooled version of the camera? Having a cooled camera makes a big difference, especially this time of the year!

Louise

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Anthonyexmouth

Anthonyexmouth

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7 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

In future you need to aim for taking at least 15 subs plus calibration frames :) Generally speaking, the more subs the better! I take it, it wasn't the cooled version of the camera? Having a cooled camera makes a big difference, especially this time of the year!

Louise

Not cooled, I would have taken more but wasn't really planning on imaging last night, just getting to grips with phd . Might make a cooler for it sometime but will mostly use my canon I think and crop in on smaller targets. Need to start planning my pier too. 

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Anthonyexmouth

Anthonyexmouth

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15 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Anthony, just to update. I've set up 2 nights now using Polemaster to do initial polar alignment and then switching to Sharpcap to refine. The Sharpcap polar align is giving me better guiding than I've seen with just the Polemaster alone. It really is good!

2018-08-05 23.57.13.jpg

so where is the benefit of polemaster if sharpcap is giving you the final fine tune?

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david_taurus83

david_taurus83

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3 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

so where is the benefit of polemaster if sharpcap is giving you the final fine tune?

I struggled with Sharpcap at first. Also, I think there's a difference between using the guidescope piggybacked on top and using a camera like the Polemaster aligned exactly on the RA axis. Given the choice, I'd buy the Polemaster again.

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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8 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I struggled with Sharpcap at first. Also, I think there's a difference between using the guidescope piggybacked on top and using a camera like the Polemaster aligned exactly on the RA axis. Given the choice, I'd buy the Polemaster again.

Shouldn't be a problem using the guide cam providing calibration runs correctly and there's flexure.  After all, you use the guide cam to, er, guide! Of course, it's the mount that you Polar Align :)

Louise

edit: *and there's no flexure!

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david_taurus83

david_taurus83

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1 minute ago, Thalestris24 said:

Shouldn't be a problem using the guide cam providing calibration runs correctly and there's flexure.  After all, you use the guide cam to, er, guide! Of course, it's the mount that you Polar Align :)

Louise

You would think, yet I struggled! As excellent as I could get it, it would be poor the opposite side. Though this was on an EQ5. I have seen a thread where someone mounted their ASI120 to the polar scope aperture and fixed a 50mm lense to it and used Sharpcap. I looked into this first but thought it would be money wasted if I couldn't get it to work. So shelled out for the tried and rated Polemaster! Though the cheapest option for anyone is the free and most accurate, drift align! As long as you have the time and patience of course...

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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1 minute ago, david_taurus83 said:

You would think, yet I struggled! As excellent as I could get it, it would be poor the opposite side. Though this was on an EQ5. I have seen a thread where someone mounted their ASI120 to the polar scope aperture and fixed a 50mm lense to it and used Sharpcap. I looked into this first but thought it would be money wasted if I couldn't get it to work. So shelled out for the tried and rated Polemaster! Though the cheapest option for anyone is the free and most accurate, drift align! As long as you have the time and patience of course...

Drift aligning doesn't take too long. You can do it while you wait for your kit to cool down in the colder months :) Sounds like you had a cone error problem? I'm guessing - I've no experience!

Louise

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david_taurus83

david_taurus83

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I did think either cone error, dovetail flexure (12kg kit) or manually loosening the clutches. Anyhow, last night's guiding was just over 0.50" RMS by the time I'd finished. If I could get that every night I'd be very happy. Drift aligning for me is for the longer darker nights. For now, I'll carry on with the Polemaster/Sharpcap combo.

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Stub Mandrel

Stub Mandrel

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44 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I think there's a difference between using the guidescope piggybacked on top and using a camera like the Polemaster aligned exactly on the RA axis. Given the choice, I'd buy the Polemaster again.

The guidescope will be aligned to a point about 10" to one side of the correct spot ... many light-years away...

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