ASIAIR Help!

[AstroGeorge84]

Hi folks. 
Firstly my setup- Skywatcher 250pds -        ASIAIR+ - ASI533pro - 

I am having issues with the ASIAIR+ and getting an image. I had tried at night and it just wasn’t picking up anything. So today I tried during daytime (on video mode) and again just a white screen. It must be picking up something as it does turn dark when I put the dust cap on the scope. I’ve tired adjusting gain but doesn’t do anything. I’ve got 55mm back focus with my ASI camera so that should be good.

The scopes collimated ok as well. 
It’s getting so disheartening and just frustrating, so if anyone can help suggest a fix would be great. 

[Elp]

Have you got something far away during the day you can focus on?

During the night try focusing on the moon if you're struggling to focus on stars.

One thing you haven't mentioned is what exposure time you're using, I'm guessing it's too long (for the video mode) hence the preview is white. If you're not seeing anything at night I'm guessing the exposure time is too short or more likely it's out of focus. If it's out of focus completely you won't see anything regardless of the exposure time other than bright light and darkness.

Depending on what you're imaging, image or video mode, exposure settings are usually different.

 

[Tomatobro]

1000ms / 8.6 fps would suggest that exposures are over a tenth of a second which is way too long for daylight. Try reducing the exposure times while pointing the scope at a distant tree or chimney.

[AstroGeorge84]

Yeah I did play around with the exposure lengths etc but still nothing. 

[Elp]

What exposure are you using exactly? During the day if it's bright out it usually needs to be the fastest you can do if the camera is pointing out a window or outside otherwise it'll generally be a white display.

You also didn't specify if you're trying to do it as video only or imaging mode, video and images require different exposure settings depending on what you're trying to image.

If you're in focus stars will resolve quite easily when imaging say for 1s or more, but not when shooting video as that is primarily reserved for brighter and larger solar system objects.

Edited April 3, 2023 by Elp

[bosun21]

I take it you want to image DSO’s as the planets have more or less gone apart from Mars which is getting really small. I had this problem when I first tried AP. The exposure is too long causing the white screen. Point your scope at a distant object like a tree and take individual photos of a really short exposure and loop them. You can then just keep decreasing the exposure times until the image appears on the screen. Then you can do the same at night only the focus is also crucial in the images resolving on your screen.

Edited April 3, 2023 by bosun21
Typo

[Stickey]

I feel foul of this when I 1st tried videoing a planet. There's a way to reduce the exposure time per frame, independently of the f.p.s. figure. Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact procedure,  but your photo looks like over-exposure to me. 

Mike

[The Admiral]

More importantly, if you aren't even in the region of focus when you come to the night sky, you won't see anything. I found it useful to get a focus on a distant object during the day, and lock the focus there. That way, when you come to look at the night sky you shouldn't be far away from getting the stars resolved. You can then close in on the focus point. Useful for the guide scope too.

Ian

[900SL]

 

This is not an ASI problem but an operator error, or more accurately errors  😁

I say this having done the same

First up, your ROI is too small, you are cropped in to a small region of the sensor (button on left side). Increase this to 1000+P to get a wider FOV for initial set up

Your histogram tells you that you are massively over exposed. Turn gain down to zero and use one of the keys on the right hand side to adjust the exposure to a few milliseconds. Daytime with a fast telescope requires very short exposures

You may also be out of focus, it took me nearly an hour to get focus when first trying lunar photography, as the camera needed an extension tube to make up for the removal of the flattener/reducer etc, once you have a darker (but not black) screen try finding focus

 

 

[AstroGeorge84]

Thanks so much for all of that. Yeah I don’t doubt it’s operator error, I am relatively new to the hobby but appreciate all the help. 
I realised this morning also that I was using a USB 2 cable and not the USB 3, not sure if that would make a difference but I’ll try all your advice when I get home form work today. 
 

kind thanks 

[900SL]

USB2 will slow data transfer. For 533MC Pro best to use USB3 cable and connect to ASI Air USB 3 socket

[AstroGeorge84]

ok, so I’ve rigged up the camera to my laptop using USB3 cable. 
ZWO advised me to use ASI studio take a very short exposure/ low gain photo in a well lit room (I pointed my camera outside from a window) without any scope attached to the cam. The result was a bright green screen, I’ve tried making small adjustments but to no avail. Any ideas? 

[StevieDvd]

1. Have you got the latest ZWO drivers loaded.

2. Try with the scope cap on (but the smaller cap removed) to reduce need for shorter exposures

3. Try the USB2 port - there was an issue with some cameras using the USB3 port (was supposedly fixed in driver)

4. Try sharpcap it's auto settings might do the rick to work out the exposure/gain values.

5. Try a re-focus on each setting you may be wildly off

6. If it's clear like here the darkening skies may help - but you can still use a distant object to get rough focus value.

 

[The Admiral]

Hard to say, as without a scope it's difficult to know what light the camera is seeing. In any event you might expect a green tint because there are 2 green pixels for every red and blue pixel. On its own though that wouldn't explain the large difference in intensities. At least the exposure isn't so far off. I'd be inclined to attach it to a scope though, because ultimately you'll need to focus it. But failing that, do you have a guide, or other small, scope that you can temporarily connect it to? At least you wouldn't need to use your mount, just lay it down where it can see something outside.

Ian

Edited April 4, 2023 by The Admiral

[AstroGeorge84]

Yeah I have the skywatcher 50ED for my guide which I’ll remove and attach to the camera, will let you know how that goes 

[900SL]

Make sure you have correct backfocus

[AstroGeorge84]

Yeh back focus is 55 so should be all good 

[M40]

I've just started playing with the aa+ so may not be much help but can only try. 

Did you get the all sky lens with your camera? If yes try that on your laptop as you should get some sort of picture. It would be good to know the camera works stand alone.

If no, stick the camera back on the telescope and give it a go during the day pointing, if possible, at somewhere remote, then with the gain set to 0, set to preview rather than video, put a very short exposure time, start with the focuser racked all in and take a single picture. If its bright white, stick a moon filter on and take another picture ( you do have a bit of a light bucket there) hopefully it will at least be a darker picture. If it is, start winding the focuser out a bit and take another single picture. Keep going until you either get something or you get to the other end of focuser travel. Give it a try and see what happens. 

[Elp]

There's something else going on here, typically even if overexposed in normal white light the histogram should show roughly aligned RGB peaks, this one isn't, the green is way out of alignment in the highlights whereas the blue and red are in the shadows. Is there a white balance setting you can adjust in asi studio (this however does not address the original issue within the asiair as it doesn't have a custom white balance setting on the air when taking images).

During daytime, try the camera on its own but put it on the floor and within some shade (like a box), this should dim the amount of light getting to the sensor, you can then leave it in focus mode when connected to the asiair and try 0.5 s exposures or shorter until you get a middle ground to low level of light getting to the sensor (not too bright, not completely dark) and adjust the light getting to the sensor in real time (block light/introduce light) to see how the sensor reacts, all you should see is light and dark changes, there should be no excessive red/green/blue.

Did you buy this camera new?

Edited April 5, 2023 by Elp

[AstroGeorge84]

Update: 

so I set up my guide scope (Skywatcher 50ED) pointing out my back window and managed to get focus on some distant trees with the ASI533 which im super chuffed about lol! I also got focus with my guide cam (ASI120MM). 

So… I set my big scope up outside earlier this evening and got the guide cam on some rooftops over the road from me but I couldn’t get anything on the main scope cam. Tried adjusting the focuser (EAF) out fully, but no success. Do you think I need an extension tube to get the camera further out at all? it could be the roof tops I’m aiming at are quite close… I may try again tomorrow and point to some trees much further away (I’d need to open my back gate to point the scope out of). 

 

[The Admiral]

If that picture of the bird is with your main scope, you can't be far off. For more distant objects, like the Moon, the focus will be further in. For stars you are likely to need seconds exposure. I suggest that you slowly wind your focuser in, bit by bit, taking an image after each adjustment, until stars become visible and sharp.

Ian

[AstroGeorge84]

Hi Ian, thanks for responding, the bird is with the guide scope but can’t seem to get anything on the main scope/ camera which is frustrating. Im going to try again tomorrow with some trees which are a bit further away, I’m not sure if the roof top was a bit close for the main scope. I did have the focus tube all the way out and took preview images every so often as it wound in but never managed to get near focus at all. Hopefully with more fiddling about tomorrow I’ll manage to get something. 

[Ouroboros]

In your situation @AstroGeorge84 I’d try focusing up on the moon which is good and bright at the moment. Using a short exposure obviously.   If that fails I’d be tempted to take the camera off and use a piece of white card to focus the image of the moon onto. That will give you an idea of the position of the focal plane of your scope. You could measure the distance of the card from the scope. You can then compare the position of the focal plane with the postion of your sensor’s camera.  If it’s obvious that you can get the sensor to that position then there’s clearly something else wrong. 

[AstroGeorge84]

Ouroboros thanks for that, very helpful. I am struggling to get focus with the main ASI533 cam. I’ve had it set up during daylight to try focus on distant roof tops. I had my 55mm back focus but using a 0.9 Coma Corrector so not sure if that alters back focus at all? I do have extension tubes which I’ll try next time I get out. 

[Elp]

Even if your spacing is off a little you should still be able to focus to a degree. I've managed to focus an OAG at 1000mm+ focal length easily during an overcast day on a far off tree branch. The difficulty during the day was adjusting the exposure because the image would just be white if it was too long. If doing this at night you should take preview images (1-2s of starfields without any filters) rather than using a focusing routine as you'll see the stars better. Out of focus you won't see anything, near focus they'll be large circles turning into doughnut rings as you get closer to focus until stars are resolved as dots.