Hi Chuck, Thanks for the ride! Two rigs what a great workout/headache. Only those like you with the knowledge of their equipment would succeed with such coolness at the task. Anyone who hasn’t tried it and doubt the potential problem solving difficulties that often arise would wave their hand and say it’s nothing. I salute you. And the finished product is up their with the top of my favorites that you have shown. Best! Dan
Hi Chuck. Thank you so much for this video for us all to see how you make your magic happen. I wish I had a garage like yours... I have to physically lift and go down some stairs with all of my rig to shoot at night in my backyard. Cheers Chuck !
Hey Chuck, enjoyed seeing a master at work. I found a solution to your autofocuser restarting in SGP when it doesn’t have enough outward focusing points at the start. You have to make a selection change in the focus tab in the control panel. Goto the autofocus “set” menu and select “disable smart focus.” Then SGP will extrapolate your closest focusing point without restarting the focusing routine. Saves time when starting a sequence. Keep up the good work!
Chuck, on the cgx instead of a one star alignment give "quick align" a go sometime. Doesn't require any stars or slewing at all, just assumes you are polar aligned and your clock/position is decent. Since you are platesolving the first solve/sync will be all it needs for the whole night. Thanks for sharing your work with us!
Hey, thanks for including that little ASCOM fix. I've had two drivers for my Moonlite and ZWO filter wheel showing up for months and you steered me the ASCOM profile settings and I was able to delete the keys for the two bogus items! One less headache solved.
Hey Chuck! luv the vid. I like the dolly wheels you use for your rigs! What a simple yet hugely effective solution for getting what are cumbersome equipment in and out the Garage! luv the vids explanation of how you set up everything. Very helpful for novices like myself. Great images at the end, absolutely beautiful sir! Thanks Chuck, keep 'em coming sir!
Cool live view Chuck! I always hit last alignment on my celestron avx to avoid the star alignment process. And i connect PhD to my guidecam before starting sgpro. Cheers.
Wow it's exhausting just watching it Chuck. That's a lot of stuff happening at once. Pretty impressive though got to say. Amazing how you seem to have gotten everything so automated and playing together so well. I had my plate solving working well and now for some reason it's gone to crap. Soon as I get my CGX up and running properly then I'll have to find time to revisit that issue.
@@ChucksAstrophotography I use APT which still has no native zwo support. Where are the limitations you see with the ascom driver compared to the native driver? I only miss white balance so far (294mc pro osc). you could use the ascom driver for guiding and the native zwo driver for imaging.
@@realmcerono In SGP, the native driver will let me set the gain and offset for each filter in my sequence which is handy because I use a different gain/offset for OIII. The ASCOM driver only lets me set the gain/offset globally.
Gorgeous as usual! Almost 28 hours of exposure time is crazy! I'm happy if I get 3 hours. LOL And I had the exact same problem last night with my ASI1600mm. I opened up SGP and it found it okay. But I went to APT and it kept trying to image with my ASI290. So then I got to messing around and by the end of the night neither program could find my ASI1600mm... sigh. I think I'm going to completely wipe my computer and reinstall everything. When I first started I wasn't completely sure where to put everything and I'm figuring that that's the problem. Glad you got it solved easily though.
Chuck great video as always and the production quality keeps getting better with each post you make! I noticed on your PHD2 screenshot you are using 1.5s exposure interval. Have you thought about going to at least 4s? When I went long intervals my guiding got so much better. The way I look at it, if your mount can't guide on its own for 4-6 seconds then its a really crummy mount... you have great mounts! You might be over guiding at times that's why your guiding is not what you want it to be. Just a thought.
Yes, I have crummy mounts. I haven't done PEC on them, maybe that would help. The CGX especially has an RA issue and I need to make corrections immediately before it gets out of hand, I shortened the exposure down to one second on that one. Thanks for the advice.
My head would explode trying to get two rigs automated the way you did, Chuck. You’re amazing! And the final image? Simply gorgeous 🤩 I have enough problems just trying to figure out how to Polar Align my new CGX with the Polemaster attached to the dovetail bar below my 8SE. I upgraded from the AVX and the CGX saw First Light this weekend 😁. During PA, after the steps where you slew the RA 30º and the green circle appears, the star that you selected doesn’t follow the green circle when you return to Home Position. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.
Oh cool, congrats on your first light! When the star doesn't follow the green circle back to Home, in my case, it usually means my mount was not in the home position when I started at the beginning of the PoleMaster process. So I always make sure my mount is Home before I start PoleMaster.
Chuck's Astrophotography I could have sworn it was in the “Home Position”...but now I’m not so sure. I’ll retry it this week and see how it goes. Thanks Chuck. Clear skies!
Chuck's Astrophotography you nailed it! Last night I made sure the mount was actually in the Home Position by pressing ‘Enter’ twice on the Nexstar + hand control to set the RA and DEC switches, did my PA with the Polemaster and sure enough the selected star followed the green track perfectly. I was also able to autoguide for the first time last night since I started this amazing hobby just over a year and a half ago. Granted, the numbers weren’t great for my first time, total RMS between 1.21 and 1.39, but it’s a start 😁. Thanks so much for the help Chuck! Clear skies
Stunning as usual Chuck, beautiful colours. if only you could bottle your enthusiasm and dedication you'd make a fortune. By the way can you tell me which processing software you are using. Thanks, Ozzie
First thing I thought was "Why didn't he check for black widows when he stuck his hand up under the garbage can?". Then remembered you don't live in Sacramento! Love the two rigs Chuck!
🔭 Cool startup music and demo. Looks like you are ready to take the roof off the garage and build a observatory. (1) What are you using for the wheels on the tripods? (2)Does someone make wheels that will work on grass? Like how easy they come out of the garage. 😎🔭 • Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway 🚂
Everyone says to convert my garage into an observatory, lol. My wheels won't work on grass, but a ScopeBuggy would, but it costs hundreds of dollars. My wheels only cost around $6 each. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0052PNBW2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Hi Chuck, thx for the new video again, I always look forward to your productions. I have a question about auto focus (if you have time). I have yet to get a "V" curve with my rig, the points are all over the place, with the end result being around 1.8 HFR, and quite often it will run the routine 2 or 3 times (and showing "240% complete). My end result images are always quite in focus tho. I have the "Auto Focus Data Points" set to seven, but most often I see 8,9 or more points on the graph.Do you or your followers have any pointers that might help? I may just be off on a particular setting in SGP? My BM focus routine confirms that the focus is within tolerance. Keep up the awesome work. :)
I wish I could help, maybe someone else can offer advice if they see your comment. But here are my complete settings for SGP, including my auto-focus settings. I don't know if it will help: th-cam.com/video/l3o8c10TCZQ/w-d-xo.html
@@ChucksAstrophotography It's a single button press and it instantly begins tracking. From there, I simply input my object and slew relatively close before letting SGP handle things. Not sure if it would be a big time saver, though, since 1-star does suond pretty quick.
I figured as much, but I have a CGX-L and the tripod is ridiculously heavy (and I'm getting older!) as you probably know. I just thought I'd put these under the legs, and then once I've got the polar alignment in the ballpark, I'd remove the wheels and then do a real polar alignment.
@@alanrock24 Right, I get the PA in the ballpark, then remove them. But if the CGX-L is so heavy, maybe you can leave them on, I doubt it will roll away, lol.
My house is too crowded, that's all I can say, lol, but everyone puts up with me going in and out of the house in the middle of the night to fix problems.
Please support and subscribe to my TH-cam channel to see more videos like this. Thanks.
Hi Chuck, Thanks for the ride! Two rigs what a great workout/headache. Only those like you with the knowledge of their equipment would succeed with such coolness at the task. Anyone who hasn’t tried it and doubt the potential problem solving difficulties that often arise would wave their hand and say it’s nothing. I salute you. And the finished product is up their with the top of my favorites that you have shown. Best! Dan
Thanks Dan, much appreciated. Headache is right! lol.
Hi Chuck. Thank you so much for this video for us all to see how you make your magic happen. I wish I had a garage like yours... I have to physically lift and go down some stairs with all of my rig to shoot at night in my backyard. Cheers Chuck !
Thanks Rosevan
, you must be building some muscles at least going up and down the stairs with your rig.
Perhaps... but my back surely is taking a beating ! :-)
Chuck , thank you for sharing your images and doing the videos. You prove that you don't need a $8,000 mount and $6,000 camera to take GREAT images.
No prob, thanks for the feedback Dave!
Hey Chuck, enjoyed seeing a master at work. I found a solution to your autofocuser restarting in SGP when it doesn’t have enough outward focusing points at the start. You have to make a selection change in the focus tab in the control panel. Goto the autofocus “set” menu and select “disable smart focus.” Then SGP will extrapolate your closest focusing point without restarting the focusing routine. Saves time when starting a sequence. Keep up the good work!
Awesome tip, Brian, thanks!!!
Inspiring. Just inspiring. And the final image is gorgeous. 👍
Thanks Adrien!
I love the comical music and the comical actor. The best!!!!
Sometimes it does seem very ridiculous, lol.
Chuck, on the cgx instead of a one star alignment give "quick align" a go sometime. Doesn't require any stars or slewing at all, just assumes you are polar aligned and your clock/position is decent. Since you are platesolving the first solve/sync will be all it needs for the whole night.
Thanks for sharing your work with us!
Thanks for the tip, Jonathan. I'll try it.
Chuck, that is some Varsity AP. Very impressive work and final image.
Thanks Gerry!
Hey, thanks for including that little ASCOM fix. I've had two drivers for my Moonlite and ZWO filter wheel showing up for months and you steered me the ASCOM profile settings and I was able to delete the keys for the two bogus items! One less headache solved.
Glad to hear you found something useful in the video.
Hey Chuck! luv the vid. I like the dolly wheels you use for your rigs! What a simple yet hugely effective solution for getting what are cumbersome equipment in and out the Garage! luv the vids explanation of how you set up everything. Very helpful for novices like myself. Great images at the end, absolutely beautiful sir! Thanks Chuck, keep 'em coming sir!
Cool, thanks for all the positive feedback,
Wesley!
Another Lvl 10 image, outstanding Chuck!
Thanks JD
Nice work as always chuck
Thanks Moe
the tension will the second camera work with the sound of rusty swing and crickets in the background
Cool live view Chuck! I always hit last alignment on my celestron avx to avoid the star alignment process. And i connect PhD to my guidecam before starting sgpro. Cheers.
Thanks for the tips. AstroForum
, I'm going to try that Last Alignment next time.
Wow Chuck! Beautiful final image! Good workflow!
Thanks Ray!
Enjoyed the intro, beautiful image and thanks for sharing how you do it!
Thanks TUA
"much data to process" I'm sure rainy days will come in handy then. BTW the video and sound quality is Top Notch Chuck!
Good to know, thanks Tony
he sleeps when it rains its the only chance he gets lol
cheers
james D
Gorgeous outcome Chuck. Very Impressive running two rigs, I think I would get too confused trying to do two rigs though. - Cheers
Thanks Kurt, I am in a constant state of confusion, lol.
Wow it's exhausting just watching it Chuck. That's a lot of stuff happening at once. Pretty impressive though got to say. Amazing how you seem to have gotten everything so automated and playing together so well. I had my plate solving working well and now for some reason it's gone to crap. Soon as I get my CGX up and running properly then I'll have to find time to revisit that issue.
I try to take my time so I don't go into panic mode, lol. With plate-solving, it's usually something obvious why it doesn't work.
Wow Yr Mount Wear Shoes! i Love it !
lol
Rocky beginnings are ‘de rigeur’ for any of my observing sessions.
you have 2 ASI ascom drivers. I use 1 for my main camera and 2 for my guide camera. so it never confuses one for the other.
Yes, but the ASCOM drivers are limited, the ZWO native driver has more functionality so I use it for my imaging camera.
@@ChucksAstrophotography I use APT which still has no native zwo support. Where are the limitations you see with the ascom driver compared to the native driver? I only miss white balance so far (294mc pro osc). you could use the ascom driver for guiding and the native zwo driver for imaging.
@@realmcerono In SGP, the native driver will let me set the gain and offset for each filter in my sequence which is handy because I use a different gain/offset for OIII. The ASCOM driver only lets me set the gain/offset globally.
Awesome!
Thanks
William
Ur the best, hope one day reach ur level
Thanks alejandrix03
, that one take long.
Wow great
Thanks Michael
Gorgeous as usual! Almost 28 hours of exposure time is crazy! I'm happy if I get 3 hours. LOL
And I had the exact same problem last night with my ASI1600mm. I opened up SGP and it found it okay. But I went to APT and it kept trying to image with my ASI290. So then I got to messing around and by the end of the night neither program could find my ASI1600mm... sigh. I think I'm going to completely wipe my computer and reinstall everything. When I first started I wasn't completely sure where to put everything and I'm figuring that that's the problem. Glad you got it solved easily though.
Thanks Ozark, but sorry to hear you lost a whole night on that. Good luck on your next night.
Chuck great video as always and the production quality keeps getting better with each post you make! I noticed on your PHD2 screenshot you are using 1.5s exposure interval. Have you thought about going to at least 4s? When I went long intervals my guiding got so much better. The way I look at it, if your mount can't guide on its own for 4-6 seconds then its a really crummy mount... you have great mounts! You might be over guiding at times that's why your guiding is not what you want it to be. Just a thought.
Yes, I have crummy mounts. I haven't done PEC on them, maybe that would help. The CGX especially has an RA issue and I need to make corrections immediately before it gets out of hand, I shortened the exposure down to one second on that one. Thanks for the advice.
My head would explode trying to get two rigs automated the way you did, Chuck. You’re amazing! And the final image? Simply gorgeous 🤩
I have enough problems just trying to figure out how to Polar Align my new CGX with the Polemaster attached to the dovetail bar below my 8SE. I upgraded from the AVX and the CGX saw First Light this weekend 😁. During PA, after the steps where you slew the RA 30º and the green circle appears, the star that you selected doesn’t follow the green circle when you return to Home Position. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.
Oh cool, congrats on your first light! When the star doesn't follow the green circle back to Home, in my case, it usually means my mount was not in the home position when I started at the beginning of the PoleMaster process. So I always make sure my mount is Home before I start PoleMaster.
Chuck's Astrophotography I could have sworn it was in the “Home Position”...but now I’m not so sure. I’ll retry it this week and see how it goes.
Thanks Chuck. Clear skies!
@@randydonnelly5897 Good luck!
Chuck's Astrophotography you nailed it!
Last night I made sure the mount was actually in the Home Position by pressing ‘Enter’ twice on the Nexstar + hand control to set the RA and DEC switches, did my PA with the Polemaster and sure enough the selected star followed the green track perfectly.
I was also able to autoguide for the first time last night since I started this amazing hobby just over a year and a half ago. Granted, the numbers weren’t great for my first time, total RMS between 1.21 and 1.39, but it’s a start 😁.
Thanks so much for the help Chuck!
Clear skies
@@randydonnelly5897 Awesome!
Stunning as usual Chuck, beautiful colours. if only you could bottle your enthusiasm and dedication you'd make a fortune. By the way can you tell me which processing software you are using. Thanks, Ozzie
Thanks Ozzie, I use both Photoshop and PixInsight.
First thing I thought was "Why didn't he check for black widows when he stuck his hand up under the garbage can?". Then remembered you don't live in Sacramento! Love the two rigs Chuck!
Really? Sacramento has that many black widow spiders? I don't think I've ever seen one. Wow.
@@ChucksAstrophotography Oh yeah. We have more than our share and they love to hide in the nooks of our garbage cans.
@@cl330b Scary!
🔭 Cool startup music and demo. Looks like you are ready to take the roof off the garage and build a observatory. (1) What are you using for the wheels on the tripods? (2)Does someone make wheels that will work on grass? Like how easy they come out of the garage. 😎🔭
• Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway 🚂
Everyone says to convert my garage into an observatory, lol. My wheels won't work on grass, but a ScopeBuggy would, but it costs hundreds of dollars. My wheels only cost around $6 each. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0052PNBW2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Chuck's Astrophotography • thanks for the tip • The Detroit Lions, hung in today 🚂
@@trainroomgary Yes, I was watching the game, but I have faith that the Lions will disappoint me once again this season.
Sounds like you are recording while riding the Jigsaw tricycle.
lol
Hi Chuck, thx for the new video again, I always look forward to your productions. I have a question about auto focus (if you have time). I have yet to get a "V" curve with my rig, the points are all over the place, with the end result being around 1.8 HFR, and quite often it will run the routine 2 or 3 times (and showing "240% complete). My end result images are always quite in focus tho. I have the "Auto Focus Data Points" set to seven, but most often I see 8,9 or more points on the graph.Do you or your followers have any pointers that might help? I may just be off on a particular setting in SGP? My BM focus routine confirms that the focus is within tolerance. Keep up the awesome work. :)
I wish I could help, maybe someone else can offer advice if they see your comment. But here are my complete settings for SGP, including my auto-focus settings. I don't know if it will help: th-cam.com/video/l3o8c10TCZQ/w-d-xo.html
Interesting video, Chuck! I personally use the "Last Align" button on my AVX to get my mount tracking. Is that not a feature on CGX?
Hi Rob, I'm sure it's a feature on the CGX too. But I'm not sure it would speed anything up considering how fast a 1-star alignment is, would it?
@@ChucksAstrophotography It's a single button press and it instantly begins tracking. From there, I simply input my object and slew relatively close before letting SGP handle things. Not sure if it would be a big time saver, though, since 1-star does suond pretty quick.
@@robsbackyardastrophotograp8885 Hey, a single button press is a couple less buttons than I do, I'm going to try it, thanks!
Chuck, you've probably answered this before but I can't find it anywhere. Where do you get those wheels that you put under the tripod legs? Thanks!
Here you go: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0052PNBW2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Perfect, thanks. Those are exactly the one I was looking at!
@@alanrock24 By the way, I remove the wheels before I start my polar alignment, I never leave them on for imaging.
I figured as much, but I have a CGX-L and the tripod is ridiculously heavy (and I'm getting older!) as you probably know. I just thought I'd put these under the legs, and then once I've got the polar alignment in the ballpark, I'd remove the wheels and then do a real polar alignment.
@@alanrock24 Right, I get the PA in the ballpark, then remove them. But if the CGX-L is so heavy, maybe you can leave them on, I doubt it will roll away, lol.
wow.that is a great one,and also not so easy. so faint..even with darker days now.
p.s. that setup needs some benny hill sounds.
I wish TH-cam's free music library had the Benny Hill music, lol.
@@ChucksAstrophotography p.s. i hope santa read my wishlist. optcorp.com/products/zwo-asi6200mm-p
Wow
As always, very impressed. One personal question, are you single or do you have a very understanding wife?
My house is too crowded, that's all I can say, lol, but everyone puts up with me going in and out of the house in the middle of the night to fix problems.
Calice que c'est long
Thanks, I think.