Orpington Astronomical Society

JohnH · Mar 17, 2020, 19:55:37

Dear All,

I apologise for the recent bad weather, it is my fault. I bought a new telescope at the beginning of the year.

This is my first effort (initial processing):

It shows M81, M82 and you can make out NGC 3077.

Unfortunately, I made a bit of a mess with the focus, not realising that I accidentally changed it.

My (almost completely new) set up is:
Telescope - Sharpstar 15028 HNT
Mount - iOptron CEM 25 P
Camera - ZWO 1600 Pro MM
RGB filters in a ZWO housing
ZWO electronic focuser
Controlled by ZWO ASI AIR
(I like ZWO)

The image is
L: 57 x 30 secs
R: 19 x 120 secs
B: 19 x 100 secs
(I will have to go back for Green frames, plate solving works brilliantly)
Processed in APP and Photoshop.

The telescope is pretty well collimated. Slightly off but I do not want to fiddle with it yet.

This my first ever image using guiding (ZWO, obviously).

Thanks for looking,

JohnH

Roberto · Mar 18, 2020, 10:58:56

John

Very good result! Nicely framed.

Roberto

Carole · Mar 19, 2020, 07:28:55

Well done John, and congratulations on getting plate solving done at such an early stage. I still do it the old fashioned way.

Carole

MarkS · Mar 19, 2020, 08:14:48

Great result John! You should be really happy with that.

Mark

The Thing · Mar 19, 2020, 21:20:51

Nice one John. I find processing a pain as well, sometime it just happens and comes out nice and other times not. In my experience anyway.
You need to automate your focusing as its key, if ASIAir uses EKOS you should able able to build it into a sequence and repeat every few shots just to be sure but I notice on the ZWO website it doesn't mention focusing as an ASI AIR function, only Pro. I have a Raspberry Pi 4 set up to do all that and a bit more...

ApophisAstros · Mar 20, 2020, 10:02:30

Quote from: The Thing on Mar 19, 2020, 21:20:51
Nice one John. I find processing a pain as well, sometime it just happens and comes out nice and other times not. In my experience anyway.
You need to automate your focusing as its key, if ASIAir uses EKOS you should able able to build it into a sequence and repeat every few shots just to be sure but I notice on the ZWO website it doesn't mention focusing as an ASI AIR function, only Pro. I have a Raspberry Pi 4 set up to do all that and a bit more...

I have just put an auto focuser onto my Skywatcher 120p and seems quite good havent set up for different filter focusing yet.
Might put it on my Solar scope or get another one, a good image there John,
Roger

JohnH · Mar 20, 2020, 16:31:37

I appreciate everybody%u2019s comments.

I agree that autofocus would be very useful. The ASIair promises it as an upcoming feature and I am looking forward to it. I have tried Stellarmate and Ekos, Ekos is very comprehensive but (to my taste) there is an annoying time lag between inputting on my iPad or laptop and anything happening. On the ASIair the response is immediate. Additionally, I have not managed to get my head around plate solving - it seems to require astrometry files to be downloaded first. ASIair has everything built in (although it is not possible to plate solve from an existing image as far as I am aware. This would be a significant upgrade).

It is a matter of taste and expectation and what works best for you.

Regards,

John

Edit: Sorry, that last paragraph looks grumpy, I didn't mean it in that sense! It is what you are comfortable using. JH

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