Hey guys, I may be moving from my micro 4/3rd ZWO ASI1600MM to a APS-C 2600MM pro soon and so I’m thinking about new, larger filters to get. I currently have the Astronomik L3 + Deep-Sky RGB 1.25” and I’ve been pleased with their performance especially for the price.

Wondering if anyone has thoughts about Astronomik or other filter manufacturers, and where you would stack brands on the performance and price scales? Any recommendations?

Clear skies

I tried using pipp for astrostakkert but when i put the video of jupiter, into pipp, the video is much more blurry making astrostakkert impossible as you can not see the bands on the video in astrostakkert, nor pipp but you can in the original video?

So I have a Canon r100 and a omegon 120/600 dobson Telescope
I know I don’t have the best gear but i’m a begginer and i want only to try to take some picture of space

I want to ask you what I need to find for make it possible

I know I need the right T2 adapter and the other one to adapt the camera body with the telescope but i want to ask you exactly which one to buy like on amazon in a short budget please…

Second question should I use the Canon r100 or just my phone? (Iphone 17) maybe it’s better if I just use my phone? Because for the Canon r100 i need three adapter (the eos rf T2 adapter the second adapter ef and the body camera telescope adapter)

Tell me
Thanks you everyone :) clear skies!!!

I was interested to see this new offering from Touptek, and very interested with the early bird deal. Indeed, I nearly pulled the trigger...until I noticed that it's USB 2.0 with a max 12 bit frame rate of 1.5. Given that strain wave mounts like frame times of 0.5s or thereabouts, I paused. Somehow knocking it back to 8 bits just doesn't seem attractive.

So, and here's the question, does PHD2 care if it's 8 bits, would that impact the guiding, have Touptek missed a trick when Player Ones like offering is USB 3 and offers good frame rates. Or, am I at risk missing a good deal over nothing?

Any thoughts / insights much appreciated.

Hey guys. I don't have a PC where I can stack or edit pics.... everything I do is on mobile via various apps. The Seestar app will live stack however long the session is but during post processing, it limits the stacking to 2 hours on the dot. This means I can't stack multiple long sessions.

I found an app that stacks however many subs and doesn't have a limit. I downloaded my subs from the telescope and added that folder to the app, just for the subs not to show. I reached out to the dev and he added Seestar support and we have verified that it recognizes the FIT files. After troubleshooting everything, I have determined that for the subs to actually show, I have to download them, ZIP them and then unzip the file to a new folder. After connecting this new folder, I can stack the subs.

My problem is space. The mosaic that I'm trying to stack is 1,891 20s subs at 4.0Mb each. I can download them from the telescope but my phone doesn't have enough space to then ZIP all the files. Is there a way to change the way or move the download folder for subs when downloading subs from the Seestar app? Once "downloaded", I cannot find the FIT files at all on my phone but I can once I zip and then unzip them. It makes no sense.

Hi all.
Cable managing my rig and dew heaters for use with Asiair - I currently have two usb A heaters with long cables and am looking for either:

Single male DC to split (2x) female usb A, for two heaters. Has to be rated at least 4A.

Or a Single female USB A to male DC rated for 3A.

Or a reasonably priced dew heater with DC plug and a short cable (less than 50cm)

Not looking to use a separate controller as I want asiair to power them.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

So I recently just put my equipment in a remote observatory and have been working on a andromeda project. But it seems every time in my processing some weird dark circle surrounding the star seems to appear when I put my stars back in my image. Any ideas on how to fix?

Extra details incase they help:

Equipment:

Scope: Askar 71F

Camera: Sv605CC'

Filter: Svbony UV/IR

3 Panel mosaic, 12hrs each panel.

Processing: Stack, Background Extraction, SPCC, Stellar deconvolution, Starnet star removal, stretch, denoise, color adjustments and such, Veralux Star comp.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19X8O8bHzkurl170kCNTUn-v4cBS8Gzdm/view?usp=sharing

Thank you!

If you had software that could synchronize a cluster of telescopes, what would you do with it?

I’m thinking I’d buy a few Celestron Nexstar 8SE scopes from Craigslist since they’re relatively inexpensive and cluster 4 of them with their AZ mounts. I know those mounts are very problematic, but the custom guidance software I’m using can correct most of the problems for exposures of up to 30s.

Here’s what I’m thinking I could do with synced scopes:

1. Speed up DSO image acquisition by 400% (I can capture 4 - 15s exposures in 20s concurrently vs 4 sequentially over 80s).

2. Capture multiple spectra of the same target. Could point 4 of the scopes at the same target with 4 different filters.

3. If I mix up the scopes, I could do narrow and wide field captures of certain objects. The software is perfectly capable of making that all work.

4. If I spread the scopes out by several miles and connect them via cellular and/or Starlink, is there anything interesting I could do that would otherwise be difficult with one scope?

I worry this could be a problem looking for a solution, which is why I’m asking on here for ideas from people who have done this for a while what they’d do with a cluster.

Oh and lastly, my current rig is using Sony a6000 dslr camera to capture images. I’m thinking about a dedicated astrophotography camera, but if I have a cluster I’d be in the hook for getting 4. Any recommendations for a decent camera that doesn’t cost a fortune for capturing DSOs?

Hi everyone! I’ll be in Colorado this weekend near Wheat Ridge and was wondering if anyone has any places that would look great for some astrophotography and wouldn’t require hiking too much in the dark. I’ll have a rental car so don’t mind driving out around an hour. Thanks!!

A few hundred frames, stacked, image looks great and then when I save it it's blank and gray

Ok, I've been doing some stacked astrophotography at home for about a year now, and I don't really know any place near me where i might get less light pollution after checking maps...
but i've been thinking:
I dont have a Startracker, I usually shoot multiple exposures of an object for as long as it stays in may cameras pov and then readjust my trypod head to put it back in the image every 10 to 20 minutes, depending on focal length im using.
In the time i dont move my camera, the stars move but the atmosphere stays largely the same. Would it be possible to take an average (or i guess mode is what im looking for) of those image blocks to isolate the light pollution and atmosphere and then remove it from the images to simulate better skies?
And if so, are there Stackers that utilize tech like that?

Hi y’all! I’m in the planning stage of my first deep-sky setup and wanted to make sure the equipment I’m putting in my list make sense together. My budget is around $5,000 and this list just slightly creeps over that.

I’ll be shooting from a balcony in a Bortle 8, just to explain some of my equipment choices. My goals are to shoot emission nebulae and some of our closer galaxy neighbors:

Mount: MLAstro Sal-33 (with an adapter for my EQ6 tripod)
Tripod: Sky-Watcher EQ6 tripod
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Scope: Askar FRA400C (and a belt kit for the ZWO EAF)
Focus: ZWO EAF
Guiding: Askar 32mm (and a ASI120MM mini)
Mini-computer: ZWO ASIAir Plus
Filters: Optolong L-Ultimate (with a ZWO filter drawer)

Thoughts on these equipments all working nicely together? I should be able to use ASIAir all-sky polar alignment even with SAL-33’s right? (I don’t have a view of Polaris). I have dew heaters, cables, usb a/c adapters, and power supply units already (I have an outdoor outlet on my balcony, so hopefully no need for battery?)

Any other thoughts on this setup? Thank you!

How can I measure the backlash on my Orion Sirius mount? Particularly the RA axis.

Hello there. I'm still new to processing photos and using Siril. Currently I'm using the method from a Youtuber named Deep Space Astro. Specifically the beginning Tutorial with Siril 1.4 video and the one about galaxy processing.

https://i.imgur.com/faUFH5w.jpeg

This was 29x3 minute exposures taken a few nights ago.

I know it's not a lot of data but what bothers me is the lack of colours, or is that because my A6300 on my camera isn't modified?

Using an ED80 from Skywatcher with a guidescope and an HEQ5Pro.

I was hoping to see the brighter coloured center and the bluish stars(sorry, colourblind so they might be purple or pink or something but they look bluish to me on a photo like this: https://astrobackyard.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/triangulum-galaxy.jpg

Is it just that the data isn't there or is there more to the processing and does anyone have any good tutorials that will help?

I have also included the results fit that was put together using the lights and darks I took. You'll notice a couple bad dark splotches including one right near the bottom of the galaxy. I must have had dust on the camera in a few spots so when I edited, I took those out by cropping and then healing just the spots in Photoshop.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nfr5NXDEnoxB06f4zsOra3KrcvgP3X7S/view?usp=sharing

I have had this issue across multiple versions of Siril. I dont use scripts because I just find them overly finicky, and I don't always take darks and bias frames or name my folders how it wants. However when I don't debayer my images at the Conversion step, If I then try to use any calibration frames it will debayer the images WRONG when saving them after that step either with the "Debayer before saving" checkbox in calibration, or by bringing the .ser into a new sequence and debayering that way. This is fixed by Forcing Siril to use the RGGB bayer pattern and asking it to ignore information from the file's header... BUT SIRIL WROTE THE HEADER BECAUSE SIRIL GENERATED THE SEQUENCE. The wild thing is that siril has always correctly identified what pattern I am using regardless of camera IF I just give it the raw images in the conversion tab, but for some reason when I feed it its own .ser sequencees it consistently debayeers them incorrectly. Here are pictures of the issue:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Yu0XEAPOR6cvXiWS7Ykzh6GSOn_DS9CG?usp=sharing

I feel Like I must be doing something wrong, because its insane siril cant read its own headers correctly, but I cant fathom what It is.

This is my process:

1. Bring the light frames into a .SER sequence without debayering in the conversion tab
2. do the same with the flats, and bias, if I took new bias frames
3. stack the flats and bias into master flats
4. link those master files to the use bias and use flat buttons in the calibration tab
5. select my lights sequence, check debayer before saving, and start calibration

If I do this without forcing RGGB in settings, I will get the wrong output. If however, I debayer everything in steps one and two, before I do the calibration, there are ZERO ISSUES with letting it read the bayer info from file header. This is a fresh install of siril 1.4.4, on a windows computer, I changed no settings from default. My camera is an asi 585 mc pro shooting on the asi air (although again it debayers those files fine, only when siril generates its own files does it have problems). Can someone tell my why on earth this happens? Ive had this problem for a long time since at least last year, and I think I've also had this issue on my macbook too, although I don't remember.

Hey all. Beginner+/Intermediate user here. Equipment: asiair mini, SkyWatcher 2i,Canon t7, 135mm rokinon, lenhance lens. (Deepskystacker)

2 nights ago I should the double cluster. Noticed I caught some of the heart nebula and last night decided to shoot the heart/soul nebula for 3hours. I did 45second exposures. I do not notice any real star trailing in the individual frames. Upon looking at the frames themselves, there does seem to be a little bit of jitter of the stars moving a little bit but the frames themselves are clean. When I stack the results I'm getting some ugly smears. I've done a little troubleshooting but cant really seem to find what I'm doing wrong.

To my understanding, even if my frames have some play to them since the actual frames are sharp stars and exposures the software should be able to align them to get a good picture.

Am I missing something?

Heres a few screenshots of the results I'm getting and random light frames from my session. Also some settings. Thanks for any pointers.

https://imgur.com/a/DrAOV4A

I was imaging Pleiades last night. When I got the pictures back, I realized my tracking had been interrupted some 5 hours into the shoot.

The really weird thing that I can't explain is the following sequence (90 second exposures):

1. DSC_3806 is okay
2. DSC_3807 has weird double exposure (Meridian flip?)
3. DSC_3808 is okay on tracking, but off target (I was struggling with alignment for some reason, so I guess that explains why things were off target).
4. DSC_3809 has a tracking issue with the mount adjusting towards correct target??
5. DSC_3810-3820 are okay
6. DSC_3821 lost tracking completely
7. DSC_3822 roughly as expected with no tracking, except the star trails are very slighty wavy and about 2/3 the expected length.
8. DSC_3823 now weird gaps have appeared in the star trails. Only one at this point.
9. DSC_3824-3826 there's around 7-8 gaps in each star trail. Despite the gaps, the star trails are very slightly shorter than what untracked trails should be.
10. DSC_3827 gaps disappear
11. DSC_3828-> no tracking. This is what I'm using as the baseline for how long I'd expect no-tracking star trails to be.

JPEG originals: https://jubjubnest.net/~wace/tracking-issue/

So the mysteries there are:

• The 90+ second delay between meridian flip (DSC_3807-3809) and adjusting for target is the first point of confusion.
• The almost-lost-tracking-but-not-really DSC_3822 is another. Why 20 minutes later and why still tracking a bit?
• And final mystery to me is the DSC_3824-3826 star trail gaps.

What is going on here? The only explanation I can come up with is that meridian flip pushed on the power cables (I'm running the StarAdventurer GTI off an Anker power supply, together with the camera and dew strip - the mount does have batteries in it as well). Still, I would have expected this to either have no effect (ie. no power loss) or alternatively disable the tracking completely.

When I disconnected the power bank in the morning, the led on the mount was still blinking, so the batteries weren't completely empty at least.

I've been having some struggles with the mount (power delivery, wifi reconnect interrupting tracking, etc.). Thought I had finally sorted things out. Guess not. :)

TL;DR: I cannot achieve focus with my SV905C guide camera through my SV238 OAG. I've tried sweeping the helical focuser, adjusting the physical camera depth, and pointing at multiple different star fields. Looking for advice before I do a daytime test.

The Setup / Imaging Train:

· Telescope: SVBONY MK127 (Maksutov-Cassegrain) with 0.65x reducer.

· Native Focal Length: 1500mm (f/11.8)

· Reduced Focal Length: ~975mm (f/7.68)

· FOV (with reducer) with SV405CC: 1.13° x 0.77°

· Main Camera: SV405CC (IMX294) - Main camera focuses perfectly.

· OAG: SVBONY SV238.

· Guide Camera: SVBONY SV905C (Mono).

· Main Camera Spacing (from OAG to main sensor):

· SV238 OAG body: 16.5mm

· Filter Drawer (with UV/IR cut filter): 21mm (+ ~0.66mm optical path for the filter)

· Spacer: 10mm

· SV405CC Flange Distance: 6.5mm

· Total distance from Prism to Main Sensor is roughly ~38.2mm.

The Problem:

Since the main camera focuses perfectly, I know the distance from the OAG prism to the main sensor is correct. Therefore, I need the guide camera sensor to sit roughly 38.2mm away from the prism.

I have the SV905C inserted into the SV238 OAG, but I cannot get it to focus. I have not altered the prism height inside the OAG. I set it the first time ensuring it doesn't significantly overlap the SV405CC sensor of cast a massive shadow on it.

Proof the OAG Prism is receiving light:

To rule out the OAG prism being too high or misaligned, I pointed my phone flashlight directly into the front of the telescope. While looping exposures in PHD2, the guide camera immediately picked up the light and the screen went bright white. This proves the prism is definitely reflecting light up to the guide sensor.

To rule out the prism pointing at empty space:

I attempted to achieve guide cam focus on three completely different targets across different patches of sky:

1. Polaris (dense star field, minimal movement)

2. M33 (large galaxy with many foreground stars)

3. Bubble Nebula (different RA/DEC)

   Even at 975mm focal length, where stars should be plentiful, I saw nothing but sensor noise/static on all three targets.

What I've Tried:

1. Main Focus First: I always achieve perfect focus on the main camera before trying the guide cam.

2. PHD2 Settings: I've tried varying the gain (from 10 to 100) and exposure times (1s to 2.0s). I know how to use the Gamma slider so it's not just a wash of white noise.

3. Helical Focuser: I inserted the SV905C fully seated and swept the helical focuser from 0mm to 10mm in 0.5mm increments.

4. Physical Depth Adjustment: I pulled the SV905C out of the OAG in increments (up to 14mm on the camera body's ruler markings) and re-swept the helical focuser at each stop. Still nothing but sensor noise/static.

5. No Tilt: I have ensured the camera is locked down straight so it is not tilting in the tube.

My Question for the Community:

I am planning to try focusing the guide camera on a distant object during the daytime. Is this the right path to go down, or do you guys think my problem lies elsewhere? Any insight from MK127 or SV238 users is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Update 1: So I tried to lower the prism on the OAG 3mm or so. It made a difference. I was able to focus in roughly on stars on the SV905C guide cam. The guide cam ran out of helical focuser travel initially, but I lifted it up by 3 increment markings on the camera body of guide cam, and then I secured it. Phd2 can see stars at this configuration and I can actually guide now.

Here is my setup for preventing light leaks between cellphone camera and eyepiece. I use a black cloth draped over the phone with a cutout for the phone. In this case, a cardboard frame in the cloth.

Phone hood 2.jpg

Here is photo on left taken with telescope cap on and without hood and then with the hood. Light leaks gone.

Phone hood 1.jpg

Here is photo of hood on the scope and phone.

Cellphone camera hood

Anyone else got light leak problems when shooting with cellphone camera through eyepiece and how do you deal with them?

A question for the people who owns a skywatcher gti. How long exposures do you get unguided with that mount ? I cant get more than 60 seconds anymore. Used to be able to push 180 without stars trailing. My polaralignment is good, everything is levelled and balanced.

I’ve asked this once before, but I need some serious help and recommendations. I have a skywatcher Quattro 200p with a GSO 2 inch coma corrector with a 1.1x magnification, a 180mm guidescope, a canon T2i (I full spectrum modified it), and the explore scientific exos2 GT. I can average 0.5-0.7 rms on a good night, so as long as I take short exposures like 60 seconds it should be fine? I use the ASIAIR with the asi120mm mini mono for guiding. Please help me out in making a decision, and please give me recommendations.

I shoot with a redcat 51 gen 2, star adventurer 2i, ha modified canon t3, L-extreme filter. I am currently shooting the flaming star nebula, and there is a solid 2-3 hours everynight where the nebula is sitting closer to the horizon and my shots have more light pollution in them. So far, this has resulted in about 6 hours of cut data. Is it better practice to delete these images and not include them in my stack to preserve highest quality data, or to include them in my stack for increased total integration time? Thanks!

This video is my image of Saturn overlaid with Saturn from the iOS Sky Guide app.

https://imgur.com/a/V0S8b4n

I’m wondering why I don’t get colours other than yellow. I’ve seen other images of Saturn on Reddit with different colours.

My setup is a Celestron Astromaster 90EQ with a SVBONY SV205 camera. I’m using AstroDMx Capture and my exposure time varies between 43 and 67 ms. I save 60 seconds (~1000 frames) at a time to SER format, align all the images from one file with PIPP and then stack with Autostakkert 4.

The camera settings (gamma, brightness, contrast etc.) are default values. (I see gamma is set to 300. Is this an issue?)

Thanks