M3 NINA Tester

[Budgie1]

Normally I don't bother trying to image between May & late August because there's little to no astro darkness or just too much light in the sky.

So I use this break to go through the kit and prepare for the next season. So far I've tuned my HEQ5 with new bearings, grease & removed the backlash. I've also started setting up NINA to give that a try for image acquisition. This week I managed to get everything connected and set up profiles for each camera/scope combo I may use and then last night it was unexpectedly clear, so I decided to try out NINA's polar alignment tool to dial in the mount after it's tune and do an experimental image sequence to get used to the software (I've been using ATP for the last 3 years ).

Things went well, with a couple of learning points and I managed 40 minutes on M3, which turned into 34 minutes by the time I'd weeded out some poor subs. I also used the flats tool, which was very quick & easy to use. Overall I like NINA and it's got some good tools but I need more time using it and getting use to it. I'm still finding my way around the various controls at the moment.

Anyway, here's the 34 minutes of M3 using a Sky-Watcher Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR and ZWO ASI294MC Pro at 200 gain & 30 offset, with flats, flat-darks & darks. Stacked & processed in PI.

C's & C's welcome.

[daemon]

That looks excellent to me, considering such a short session!! Well done!

And well done for all that work you've done to set things up for all your combos - I wish I was that organised! 🙂

I'm aiming for M3 tonight, despite a 3/4 moon and questionable seeing. It will also be a short session - aiming for a couple of hours. 

I'll be happy if I can get as clean an image as you've got here.

Cheers,

Steve

[Budgie1]

Thanks Steve.

I've now completed six profiles in NINA, but still only used the one to date.  

I would love to be out again tonight because it's a beautifully clear evening, but it's just too light up here now. It's 22:15, as I type, and we haven't switched any lights on in the house yet because it's still daylight.

You enjoy the evening. M3 should be far enough away from the Moon so it's won't cause too much of a problem. You could always go for M13, as that's even further away.

[daemon]

Cheers Martin! The subs are rolling in on M3 right now. Not looking too bad, but I'm gonna need some serious flats to sort out various issues! 🙂

About to go through an auto Meridian flip in NINA for just the second time (first time went suprisingly well), so fingers crossed.

I'm imaging in Spain at the moment so getting darker skies than you I guess. 🙂

Cheers!

[Budgie1]

I always like to be there for the Meridian flip when using new software. Even using APT I still like to check it's all gone okay because I've had a couple of times when the auto-focus after the flip hasn't gone well and the it starts taking out of focus images. I think I've now sorted that by tightening up the focuser a little.  

You'll definitely have darker skies in Spain!

This was midnight on the 25th May from my garden, and we're currently getting 3 minutes a day more daylight.