My first imaging session with ASIAir Pro and Quattro " Newtonian on a EQ6R Pro mount

[cnarayan]

This is Chandru after a very long hiatus away from everything during the pandemic, I got my first vaccine shot yesterday!  I mustered enough courage to pick up where I left off in the long road to astrophotography.  After all of this time I have added to my astrophotographers gear, the full set: EQ6R PRO, 8" Skywatcher Quattro Newtonian, Synscan WiFi adapter, ASIAIR PRO, Skysafari 6 Plus, ASI120MM Mini Guide Camera with 30F4 Scope, Canon T6i DSLR Unmodified Primary Camera, NO filters, Zwo EAF automatic focuser (not installed yet), iPad/iPhone only for imaging sessions, Mac Pro server for Image Stacking and Processing using the fantastic and free SiriL tool (https://siril.org) for macOs. Completely ditched the hand controller that came with the eq6r replaced with Synscan Wifi.  Phew .. That is the current setup.  I am a high-school computer science & math teacher and purchased this telescope for a 3-week long immersive cascade session for my students with this setup starting on May 17th this year. 

First light with this setup was on Tuesday of last week (the ONLY clear night in a month) from my house balcony in light-polluted Seattle. My goal was to image M42 and then M81/82 with a meridian flip added in so that I can everything through its paces. For the very first time, I succeeded in imaging. You can judge the (poor beginner) quality of my first time images below.  

Alignment and Guiding: I first setup, balanced, and  leveled the telescope with all gear installed roughly pointing north. Fired up the SysnScan app on the iPad to connect to the scope wirelessly just to have the mount record date, time attitude, longitude from my iPad and to make sure everything was working as expected. This step is really no t necessary, but it gives me an alternative and direct way to control the mount without going via the ASIAIR. Then I fired up the ASIAIR PRO and connected to the mount, primary camera, guide camera. No EAF yet, but coming later. I then went into Preview - Focus on Polaris with bahtinov mask for the primary camera and visually for the guide camera. I then did the Polar Alignment PA with the plate-solving, 60-deg automated slewing and plate solving again as instructed. Never had to look through the polar scope on mount! I then carefully adjusted the Altitude and Azimuth bolts to get withthin a 4 arc-second precision. Then I selected M42 target from the ASIAIR to go to. It put it smack on the center of the primary camera image! Note that I had not done any alignment at all. I then fired up Skysafari Plus on my iPad to see all of this visually and for future go to slewing and saw the cross hairs on M42 precisely. All of this worked perfectly without any glitches. In ASIAIR I setup the light imaging sequence as described below - a very short sequence indeed as M42 was setting fast! (see below). When that was finished I slewed to M81 using Skysafar goto. I setup a longer 2-hour iimaging sequence (see below) in the ASIAIR with a meridian flip (exciting!). I asked the mount to go to Home after the imaging was done and power down.  I then retired to my living room with a warm fire going watching the scope do its magic from afar! I observed the meridian flip an hour or so later in my iPad and visually to the balcony from the comfort of my living room and see ASIAIR obtain the guide star once again and result imaging.  What a kick! It reminded me of my days in the GM tech center labs where I programmed dynamometers to test new engines through its paces operating for days on end with several changes in RPM and Torques etc! 

M42:  Each exposure was just 5 seconds long, at 400 ISO. I took a paltry 12 such images as Orion was very low in the Western horizon and setting fast! I then stacked and processed the images (in SiriL) with dark, bias, and flat calibration frames I took the following day. The total integrated exposure time was just 1 minute! Not great   I did not have enough time before Orion disappeared!

M81/82: Each exposure was 30 seconds long at 400 ISO. 300 images were obtained The total integrated exposure time was 2 hours and 10 minutes. No dithering. The guiding was OK (not great) with about 1.5 arc-sec average RMS error. I took down the RA and DEC aggressiveness to 50% or so. A lot of guess work!

Post processing in SiriL involved, Stacking with Calibration, Cropping, Stretching, and Color Correction specifically applied for M42 and M81 respectively using photometry data from  Simbad database. Further final processing was done using Photoshop. Here are my images. The link below has additional pictures of my astro gear.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pTJXCcFNYs4KMTmY9

[Rich1980]

Nice setup. Is the synscan WiFi needed though with using the asiair Pro? 

[cnarayan]

No, not needed at all for ASIAIR PRO.  You connect the mount to the ASIAIR PRO using the EQMOD cable. But the SynScan Wifi  is very helpful as you can connect to the mount directly.  I use it for visual Astronomy along with Skysafari when I am out with my high school students.  One really nice advantage it provides is to build specific lists of targets for observation and use your phone to go to each object - nothing to do with ASIAIR. 

[StargazerBiker]

Dru, fantastic first imagining!  Tracking on M81 & M82 without fine alignment look really good for first attempt. Your gear now exceeds mine!  

Did the ASIAIR PRO control the meridian flip?  I've thought about upgrading from my Canon T3 to one of the ZWO cameras and guiders, but there are so many choices to select from.  I've also considered other astro controllers, but the PRO's price point with your testimony on it managed the image session and how the guider performed will probably sway me to get the PRO.

[cnarayan]

Hi Mike, Welcome to the star gazers lounge!  I did not recognize you with the hat ! The meridian flip was completely automated by the ASI air. My first attempt to do all of this in my own homegrown raspberry pi was not very successful and took a lot of effort on my part to figure out the software rather than focusing on Astrophotography. The ASIAIR made it easy in comparison. We can talk on zoom if you like and I can give you more details!

small correction, not my rig. It belongs to Bush School!
 

[cnarayan]

Hello all.  Here are my newest (beginner) attempts at using my imaging setup.   I have more details if you are interested in my first attempt at astro imaging!

The Pinwheel galaxy M101, 70x180s @400 ISO with dithering, no dark, but used flat and bias fames

Whirlpool galaxy M51, 60x120s @800ISO no dithering, dark, flat, and bias frames used

Sunflower galaxy M63, 45x180s @1600 ISO, no dithering, dark, flat, and bias frames used (terrible pictures with many issues)

and a second attempt at Orion Nebula with Ruuning Man Nebula M42 in order below.   -dru