Have just been gifted a HEQ5 pro, where do I go from here?

[ollypenrice]

9 hours ago, Olli said:

Thanks everyone for all the help. Still feel a bit overwhelmed by it all lots to take in. 

There is no single aspect of astrophotography which is inherently difficult. (It isn't like learning to play a musical instrument, in which almost every aspect of the process is difficult!) The only issue is that a considerable number of fairly straightforward procedures have to be in place at the same time. If you're feeling overwhelmed, start with those procedures which matter most and leave the less critical ones till later.

You need

- to track the sky, (so driven and preferably equatorial mount, polar aligned.)

- to capture focused images with the object on them  and to file these in a place where you can find them. (Focus, use Bahtinov mask.)

- to have and understand a software program for stacking.

- to have and understand a post-processing software package. It used to be Photoshop, mainly, but now there are dozens. If you don't like being overwhelmed, stay away from Pixinsight.

You can begin without

- Guiding, but make it a priority ASAP.

- Dithering if using an uncooled camera. With a cooled one it is no big deal despite all the hype it gets. With a DSLR it should be part of your guiding routine.

You do not need

- to throw your brain in the dustbin and insist on controlling everything via a PC.  Plate solving, robotic focus etc., are luxuries at best and when they work. At worst, when they don't, they are a total waste of time. Use your own eyes, your own fingers and your own brain.

Olly

[Olli]

43 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

There is no single aspect of astrophotography which is inherently difficult. (It isn't like learning to play a musical instrument, in which almost every aspect of the process is difficult!) The only issue is that a considerable number of fairly straightforward procedures have to be in place at the same time. If you're feeling overwhelmed, start with those procedures which matter most and leave the less critical ones till later.

You need

- to track the sky, (so driven and preferably equatorial mount, polar aligned.)

- to capture focused images with the object on them  and to file these in a place where you can find them. (Focus, use Bahtinov mask.)

- to have and understand a software program for stacking.

- to have and understand a post-processing software package. It used to be Photoshop, mainly, but now there are dozens. If you don't like being overwhelmed, stay away from Pixinsight.

You can begin without

- Guiding, but make it a priority ASAP.

- Dithering if using an uncooled camera. With a cooled one it is no big deal despite all the hype it gets. With a DSLR it should be part of your guiding routine.

You do not need

- to throw your brain in the dustbin and insist on controlling everything via a PC.  Plate solving, robotic focus etc., are luxuries at best and when they work. At worst, when they don't, they are a total waste of time. Use your own eyes, your own fingers and your own brain.

Olly

Thanks Olly appreciate the help, will hopefully be able to set everything up today during the day and get familiar with all the equipment.  I’ll try and get a guide set up as soon as possible. Seems like it’s the last piece of the puzzle!

[PeterCPC]

....but a very important piece!

[Iem1]

I'd say keep it as simple as possible for the first good few outings, do some research on the procedure to set up GoTo and use Synscan (Balancing/Home position/2-3 star alignment/Polar alignment).

Look up back spacing with your dslr/scope/field flattener, nail your Polar alignment and focus.

You will need an intervalometer for the dslr too, start with 30 second subs as it will be a lot more forgiving in every respect than 60+ seconds.

And you should definitely dither with a DSLR! Very important if you do not want your images looking like this;

Not dithered between each image, The red channel from an auto stretch in Siril of my whirlpool data, taken with a WO Z73 and 600D

And it can not really be rectified in Post processing either, end result;

Dithered between each image, Andromeda red channel after auto stretch in Siril, same scope and camera

end result, almost zero walking noise

If you spend enough time on this forum, you'll have all the same experienced imagers drumming the importance of dithering into your head too, as I did 

How I dither (While unguided) with the SynScan hand controller is set the slewing speed to 2, and with the intervalometer I set a 13-15 second pause between each image, during which I use the arrow keys to move a tiny amount in both DEC/RA. It should be barely noticeable that the subject has moved in the frame, and slewing speed 2 seems perfect for it.

Ideally it would be in completely random directions done by software, but I most definitely notice a big difference when I do not dither compared to when I do! 

  

[vlaiv]

10 minutes ago, Iem1 said:

How I dither (While unguided) with the SynScan hand controller is set the slewing speed to 2, and with the intervalometer I set a 13-15 second pause between each image, during which I use the arrow keys to move a tiny amount in both DEC/RA. It should be barely noticeable that the subject has moved in the frame, and slewing speed 2 seems perfect for it.

That is excellent - never would have thought of that.

Good to know that one can dither manually as well. I guess it is a bit of a chore but will certainly improve results.

[carastro]

If you are feeling overwhelmed l would take one step at a time.  
 

1.  Get used to the mount first and polar alignment routine. 
 

2. Take simple shortish images and see how long you can go before you get trailing. 
 

3.  Add finderguider.  See what improvement you get over non guiding.  I have an HEQ5 and do all my imaging on it.  Great mount.  I used to own an NEQ6 and did find l could do 900 and 1200 secs on it whereas the HEQ5 tends to give slightly elongated stars if l go over 600 secs.   My HEQ5 has been belt modified in last couple of years. 
 

4.  Once you have mastered the above you can think about adding mini PC etc. 

My motto is don’t try to do everything new all at once it will lead to failures and frustration. 
HTH

Carole

Edited April 30, 2022 by carastro

[Olli]

27 minutes ago, carastro said:

If you are feeling overwhelmed l would take one step at a time.  
 

1.  Get used to the mount first and polar alignment routine. 
 

2. Take simple shortish images and see how long you can go before you get trailing. 
 

3.  Add finderguider.  See what improvement you get over non guiding.  I have an HEQ5 and do all my imaging on it.  Great mount.  I used to own an NEQ6 and did find l could do 900 and 1200 secs on it whereas the HEQ5 tends to give slightly elongated stars if l go over 600 secs.   My HEQ5 has been belt modified in last couple of years. 
 

4.  Once you have mastered the above you can think about adding mini PC etc. 

My motto is don’t try to do everything new all at once it will lead to failures and frustration. 
HTH

Carole

Thank you, that’s a good way to go about it. I think what I’ll probably do is start with my camera by itself without the scope just to learn the process and once I get more comfortable start adding on the additional equipment like guiding ect. Will follow your advice.

[Iem1]

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

That is excellent - never would have thought of that.

Good to know that one can dither manually as well. I guess it is a bit of a chore but will certainly improve results.

Doing it with the Synscan handcontroller is a breeze! Easy as tapping 2 buttons.

...But, I still wake up during the nights in cold sweats, shivering, thinking about manually dithering on a Sky Guider Pro, having to adjust the Dec bolts every 30 seconds, often knocking the subject to the other side of the frame. Manually reframing every few minutes, the 'slip' caused by system coming to rest..

Doing that between almost every Image when taking 200 - 300 30 second subs, out in freezing temperatures, now that is work!

ASIair Plus should arrive in a few days, its going to feel like a different hobby from when I started!

[Olli]

All the rest of the equipment came today , did a quick dummy run and couldn’t be happier with the set up. Wasn’t as bad as i thought it was going to be. Just need to practice polar alignment and balancing. Hopefully will get my first image soon! Once again thanks for all the help.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Olli

[StuartT]

On 29/04/2022 at 20:05, ollypenrice said:

I think Vlaiv's point is that it isn't focal length which determines tracking tolerance. Rather, it's resolution and this is made up from the combination of focal length and pixel size. You can have low resolution from a long focal length and large pixels and you can have high resolution from a short focal length and small pixels.

In the past pixels tended to be on the large side and of a fairly consistent size (around 6 to 9 microns). So in those days focal length tended to be the dominant variable.  Now pixels come in a vast range of sizes from large to tiny, so focal length is not as reliable a shorthand for resolution as it used to be.

Olly

My apologies. You are quite right. I was being imprecise. (I knew it was going to be a mistake to question @vlaiv 🤣)

[ollypenrice]

13 minutes ago, StuartT said:

My apologies. You are quite right. I was being imprecise. (I knew it was going to be a mistake to question @vlaiv 🤣)

Been there, done that!

lly