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A great nights work :)

Beyond_Vision

By Beyond_Vision
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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Beyond_Vision

Beyond_Vision

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With the half Moon dominating the evening until near midnight it gave me chance to sort out a few things with my setup. After a bit of initial trouble with the serial coms link to my Synscan handset I finally managed to get EQMOD working through the handset in direct mode. It was fantastic to be able to point and click on a star and carryout the N Star alignment. Once setup I was able to retire to inside the house and select targets to image and nudge them to the centre of frame from the comfort of living room. The only task reaming to do is to lengthen the power lead to the CCD and put a cable tidy on the loom and then I can trust the system to slew without the lead snagging.

Once all that was sorted I waited for the Moon to start setting then started an all night run on M45. I managed a total of 4 hours data but found the subs were progressively worse as the transparency had gradually worsened.

Here's an initial image of 21 x 7min subs. ( I may add more subs to the stack when I have time from the discarded ones)

 

10832_normal.jpeg
(click to enlarge)

Regards

Kevin

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glennbech

glennbech

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That is a great M45. Isn't EQMOD great? My only concern now is to configure it with limits so I don't hit the tripod leg with the newtonian :-). I've also experienced that the mount stops tracking if i adjust the mount using the handcontroller during n-star alignment in EQMOD. I guess that's where the joystick/gamepad cones into play. Do you have one, or info on what will work?

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Parallax

Parallax

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... I guess that's where the joystick/gamepad cones into play. Do you have one, or info on what will work?

I've got a Logitech wireless "rumblepad" from Comet - £19.99. Initially I bought a wired gamepad, but this was false economy. Wireless is the way to go.

Steve

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Beyond_Vision

Beyond_Vision

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Thanks all for your great comments :D

Lovely shot Kevin, great nebulosity there. I can never get DBE in PixInsight to do a good job on bright objects like big stars and galaxies, it seems to leave a black edge around them, how do you apply it?

Dave, I tend to use the absolute difference maths function instead of the divide function that you are told to use in the tutorial. I also scale the operand somewhere between 0.4 to 0.8 for each channel to make sure the background level doesnt get clipped.

That is a great M45. Isn't EQMOD great? My only concern now is to configure it with limits so I don't hit the tripod leg with the newtonian :-). I've also experienced that the mount stops tracking if i adjust the mount using the handcontroller during n-star alignment in EQMOD. I guess that's where the joystick/gamepad cones into play. Do you have one, or info on what will work?

Glen you are supposed to be able to use the direction pad and the change of rate keys on the synscan controller whilst in direct PC mode. I used it last night to centre an object and i also used the virtual direction buttons on the PC. I did experience a freeze up and had to restart the planetarium program but I think that was Starry Night 5 playing up rather than the handset or EQMOD. I may try the wireless gamepad sometime as I have an Xbox one.

Regards

Kevin

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thing

thing

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Thanks all for your great comments :D

Lovely shot Kevin, great nebulosity there. I can never get DBE in PixInsight to do a good job on bright objects like big stars and galaxies, it seems to leave a black edge around them, how do you apply it?

Dave, I tend to use the absolute difference maths function instead of the divide function that you are told to use in the tutorial. I also scale the operand somewhere between 0.4 to 0.8 for each channel to make sure the background level doesnt get clipped.

Thanks Kev.

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Tim

Tim

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Wow Kevin, I reckon thats one of your best! Love the faint nebulosity around the edges, and the star colours.

With the EQDIR from OpticStar (dont buy the cheap versions!) you can get rid of the handset all together and link straight to the eq6.

Combine this with the rumblepad 2 and everything is a breeze, I just cant believe how simple it is, and also, I find that having the planetarium software take the time etc from the PC, the initial goto is more accurate than the sysnscan alone, which makes everything easier, In fact, I've been just using one star align some nights because its been so accurate!

So now wow us with something new Kevin!! :D

Tim

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Beyond_Vision

Beyond_Vision

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Wow Kevin, I reckon thats one of your best! Love the faint nebulosity around the edges, and the star colours.

With the EQDIR from OpticStar (dont buy the cheap versions!) you can get rid of the handset all together and link straight to the eq6.

Combine this with the rumblepad 2 and everything is a breeze, I just cant believe how simple it is, and also, I find that having the planetarium software take the time etc from the PC, the initial goto is more accurate than the sysnscan alone, which makes everything easier, In fact, I've been just using one star align some nights because its been so accurate!

Tim

Thanks Tim :hello2:

I will probably just use it like it is at the mo, at the end of the day the handset is doing the level translation just the same as a EQDIR or any other widget. You can use the direction keys and rate buttons. I have an xbox wireless controller so I could utilise that too. The EQMod program has some really neat features especially the ability to set limits to where it can slew too. I love the ease at which you can just click and point the scope anywhere so you can place the centre of view between objects if you are trying to frame several things in the same shot.

So now wow us with something new Kevin!! :D

There is always something more to squeeze out of these objects :)

This is the first time I have been able to match the DSLR shot that I took at Kelling so I think I can put this one to bed now.

Now I wonder what I shall go for next ?

Regards

Kevin

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