Can’t focus with Skyris!

[Tony Connor]

Hello all, I’m a newbie...that will become very apparent in the next few sentences! I have a Celestron Nexstar 130 SLT and have a desire to take up astrophotography, I started with a few reasonable shots of the moon with my iPhone and have bought a Skyris 236C with no success. I would be greatful for any tips or advise on how to focus the moon for a start, I have uploaded a couple of photos one with the iPhone and one with the Skyris taken at the same time. TIA, Tony.

[Cornelius Varley]

The top photo (using the Skyris ?) has a sharp edge, which means that the camera is focused. The problem appears to be that the exposure settings need to be adjusted to bring the brightness down.

[Stargazer33]

First of all hello and welcome  to SGL! You are in an excellent place for help, advice and support.

How are you focusing your Skyris camera? When you change out the eyepiece, which I presume you are using to take your iPhone picture, you will have to re-focus for the Skyris camera. 

The exposure looks way too high too. Try turning the exposure (time in milliseconds ms) and gain down. It's better to be under exposed rather than over exposed.  You can always lift detail out of the shadow; but once detail has been burnt out there is nothing you can do to bring it back. 

Edited May 3, 2020 by Stargazer33

[Tony Connor]

9 minutes ago, Stargazer33 said:

First of all hello and welcome  to SGL! You are in an excellent place for help, advice and support.

How are you focusing your Skyris camera? When you change out the eyepiece, which I presume you are using to take your iPhone picture, you will have to re-focus for the Skyris camera. 

The exposure looks way too high too. Try turning the exposure (time in milliseconds ms) and gain down. It's better to be under exposed rather than over exposed.  You can always lift detail out of the shadow; but once detail has been burnt out there is nothing you can do to bring it back. 

Hi Bryan, thanks for the welcome and your reply. I am refocusing with the telescope after I’ve swapped over the eyepiece for the Skyris. I tried lots of different combinations of exposure, gain and even auto setting to no avail. Should I see a crisp, clear picture on screen? Thanks, Tony.

[Tony Connor]

16 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

The top photo (using the Skyris ?) has a sharp edge, which means that the camera is focused. The problem appears to be that the exposure settings need to be adjusted to bring the brightness down.

Hi Peter, thanks for the reply...yes the very bright one is with the Skyris. See my reply to Bryan re exposure. Cheers, Tony

[Stargazer33]

Hi Tony, you should see something akin to what you see through the eyepiece; depending on your screen resolution.

Does your capture software record a log file of your imaging videos? If it does then could you post a copy here. Then we can see if there is anything obvious standing out. The Moon is very bright so exposure, gain, gamma etc need to be set correctly. Just as an after thought do you know what the binning was set to?

[Bobby1970]

I wonder if theres not enough focus travel to bring the camera to focus?

a google search throws up issues with DSLRs, not sure if these would apply to your Skyris tho, sorry

Edited May 3, 2020 by Bobby1970

[Tony Connor]

58 minutes ago, Stargazer33 said:

Hi Tony, you should see something akin to what you see through the eyepiece; depending on your screen resolution.

Does your capture software record a log file of your imaging videos? If it does then could you post a copy here. Then we can see if there is anything obvious standing out. The Moon is very bright so exposure, gain, gamma etc need to be set correctly. Just as an after thought do you know what the binning was set to?

 

58 minutes ago, Stargazer33 said:

Hi Tony, you should see something akin to what you see through the eyepiece; depending on your screen resolution.

Does your capture software record a log file of your imaging videos? If it does then could you post a copy here. Then we can see if there is anything obvious standing out. The Moon is very bright so exposure, gain, gamma etc need to be set correctly. Just as an after thought do you know what the binning was set to?

Hi Bryan, thanks again for you help. I thought so with regard to some sort of image being on the screen, as for the file log...I only attempted to video twice last night with the same result. I thought I had taken a screen grab of the setting but it seems that didn’t work either! I will keep a closer eye on the log files in future and post for your comments. I might be that I’m not spending enough time with the exposure and gain combinations. Should the default setting be somewhere near? Cheers, Tony.

[Stargazer33]

Hi Tony, what capture software are you using?

I will have a look at the Skyris manual and see if I can see some basic setting suggestions regarding gain.