7. Complete Setup Tutorial for Dedicated Astro Cameras
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- In this video I'll show you how to setup your dedicated astro camera for a night of shooting. I'm using the SkyGuider Pro, William Optics Space Cat, ASI 1600MM Pro, and ASIAir Pro.
If you want to learn more about finding, photographing, and editing your deep space images, be sure to check out my Deep Space Course. I'll show you how to use a DSLR, star tracker, and telephoto lens to capture amazing images of nebulae and galaxies!
www.peterzelin...
Music:
Andrew Prahlow - Giants Deep, The Sun Station, End Times
Deus Ex - UNATCO Theme
The Outer Wilds music gave me chills.
If you balance your stuff on the northern hemisphere, always balance the east side of your mount a tad heavier. Because you will have much less backlash error during your guiding. The teeth of the right ascension gear of your mount are always under pressure if you have a slight unbalance. Never fully balance a mount!
Good to know
Late for my comment, but thanks, will try !
You can velcro the ASIAIR PRO to a leg of the tripod.
Loving your ear-to-ear grin 😁
Haha the music snuck up on me, I was like, why am I thinking about Outer Wilds!?
I have always done a pre-focus both scopes during the day on a distant object, trees, power line, etc. This will make fine focusing on the stars so much easier and a lot quicker. If at night, use the Moon or bright planet for initial close focus. Just so many little tricks in the learning curve. Clear skies from the Southern Cross Observatories-Tasmania 42 South.🔭
Great Video and really nice Setup!
Because of the Direct WiFi connection problem, you don't have to turn on airplane mode. It's enough to disable the mobile data connection on your phone. In this case you can still receive phone calls.
Keep up the good work and stay safe. Greetings from Germany.
Big help! Great video!
Big thank you for this ever so helpful video. Please cover processing in Pixinsight
Very good video for a new astrophoto like my self
Gotta love astro photography, there is always another problem lurking around the corner.
Mine was exactly the same I was having minor set up issue's.
And it was getting very late for a work night.
So I thought fuck it, and just left it running overnight mistake as my 80mm refractor was bashing my go-to mount at about 4am
i usually go out often and check the equipment, especially when i did not made the meridian flip and my camera is closer to the tripod legs, it was close a few times of hitting the tripod when i stayed more in the house in this situation, but after you you perform the meridian flip and the camera and telescope are far away from the tripod, it should not be problems if you leave the mount outside for a longer time.
Great setup and walk through video! Very well explained. Really needed to see how you used the ASIAir Pro for PA and focus of both scopes! Well done!! FYI...You can setup the ASIAir Pro to use your home wifi network also.
Great idea about using a laser pointer.
The reason your images taken with 0 gain looked ok in the app is because the app will have been applying an autostretch to the image, which you can change or turn off from the bottom left of the preview screen.
Great video peter very useful . Thanks
Hey Peter! use the side of the AsiAir Pro and attach a vixen block, that way you can mount your pro to the Cat and the guide scope will be off to the side.
Once you jump into a go to eq mount the things are going to be a lot easier.😁
Sigue adelante amigo Peter ! Clear skys!!
Big Thanks for the video! Instead of a laser you could attach a reddot finder to the setup ;-)
Got some great results using my diy (analog) barn door tracker and decided to upgrade to the moveshootmove tracker according to your recommendation, it's arriving any day now, can't wait! Thx for answering all my questions.
Love these videos. I am looking at getting into this. So much to figure out. These videos will help greatly. Thanks.
Excellent video and instruction! Kudos!
These videos are all much appreciated. Saved me huge headaches again and again. I have a question though, focusing the guide scope with 3 second exposures seems difficult especially if your guidescope is way out of focus. Is there any way you can up the gain and do the focusing in real time? Thanks for all of your work, Peter. It's much appreciated.
The redcat would look so cool in the all red setup. But still and awsome setup you're really getting a lot out of the sky guider pro!
You might find the Manfrotto Super Clamp or similar product and a small ball head useful to attach your AirPro directly to one of the tripod legs.
Great Peter !! Awesome help !!
Now that you don't use the reflex, the steps mix a bit!
Thank you!!
Love your videos man. Just found you and learning so much!!
Great video, Peter!
You can use some kind of plate solving software to help aiming if you have internet available. Like astrometry net website.
Also, you may want to connect the guider scope USB to the main camera hub ... using a shorter cable. 2.4GHz is more reliable and better distance.
Focus the guide scope during the day at something in the distance is usually a good way to get near focus
Hi, why don't you try a GoTo mount? It will simplify your framing process. SkyWatcher AZ GTi seems to be a good option, not expensive and could work for your equipment. It has now the EQ mode. You just need to download the software update, and use a counterweight. You can adapt it from the accesories you already have. It doesn't have a polar scope but with a Polar Allignment process you can make it work. I personally use SharpCap but the AsiAir Polar Allignment process may work. Or try to move already to a bigger mount. You will eventually have to move to a bigger scope.
Budget and space. Right now, the SkyGuider Pro is still doing a fine job (surprisingly). A Go-To mount would be a nice upgrade, but it's not in the cards right now. Although, I would like to use one and create some tutorials for this course
@@PeterZelinka It would be great for you to ad content related to go to mounts. That would be very helpful!
Per your recommendation I ordered the WO base for my SGP, because the original one broke. It is junk. I managed to learn how to adjust the original base, though it was always a pain. But I stupidly left it mounted on my tripod once, leaning against a wall. Of course it fell, onto my wooden floor. The corner of the dovetail bracket on the mount broke off. It appears to be made of some cheap and brittle metal composite. Thankfully my SGP is fine. The original junky base is super glued together while I wait for my new William Optics base.
Huh, I'm surprised it would break like that. Considering how heavy the base is, I figured it was a solid chunk of metal and would hold up to a lot of abuse.
Hi, the ASIAir Pro, you can try to fix it on the tripod, either with Velcro or some rubber bands one one of your tripod's legs, that's how I fix my intervalometer.
Great video, Peter. What make is the tripod hammock. I will get one knowing it holds a Jackery which I also us. Thanks!
Beautiful setup. I just bought a Space Cat on Cloudy Nights hope it arrives soon. Wondering where you got the dovetail for attaching the scope to your mount?
hello, excellent video !!!!. what software do you use for the capture with the zwo camera?
Very nice ! You may have mentioned it and I just missed the info, but how and where are your files being saved to ? Thank you !
Your comment about doing the polar alignment using the app is confusing. You are only using the app to show how Polaris should look in the radical of the polar scope. So you are always doing a visual polar alignment. The app is just a reference it does not control anything.
Why not an EQ mount at this point?
Hi Peter, you mentioned the problem of the big screw being jammed with skyguider pro. Do you think keeping the long end of declination mounting bracket in the factory setting would have avoided that problem assuming we've more counter weight and the WO extension rod?
Hi Peter - u mentioned that the AC power cord from the AsiAirPro into the Jackery battery was maybe not the best choice, versus the DC cigarette lighter-style one that u have switched to. I also have a Jackery but that DC cigarette lighter plug is already in use for powering my mount.....and the only one left open on the Jackery is the AC normal "wall plug" one. So I was going to run my AsiAir Plus plug in just as u were....is there something not optimal about that? Since it's just a regular AC plug, and I have the right power adapter, i thought this was okay?
Hey, Peter. Quick beginner question...if you need to add extensions, new counterbalance rods, etc. Isnt it better to step up to the ioptron mount WITH go to programming that Nico Carver uses of Nebula Photos for only $100 more or go for the Skywatcher Sky Adventurer Pro tracker?
Great video thanks just wondering if you updated the firmware on the cameras for your first use?
@Peter Zelinka, can you provide a link to the cigarette lighter adapter?
Being setup on a deck, do you get any viberation from foot steps while capturing data?
Hi Peter!
Great video, as always.
I just started my journey in astrophotography, im going to buy sw star adventurer, and i want to buy good telephoto lens. Can i get some good quality telephoto lens under $300 with canon EF mount? As i was looking for one i only found EF-S but i cant use them becouse i want to use my clip in filter with my lens and my canon 450d. Im not sure if i can get any good quality lens under $300. Do you know if there are some nice astrophotography lens with ef mount that wont be super expensive?
Hello, I am very new to astrophotography, and I have the sky guider pro also. Regarding the big knob issue hitting the guider, I switched the positions of the camera and counterweight shaft. The dec bracket has a long and a short end, so I put the camera on the long end. I don't think it can hit the sky guider pro in any position now.
I guess I won't need this for my non-tracking Dobsonian.
So Peter i like this particular setup (might buy something quite similar) but similar to my other question, how do you "find" the objects. I've seen one like this that had a red-dot that looked promising, however looks like you have green laser if i'm not mistaken, which i can't use in my area. Suggest beginners just start with a MC camera, which still very good quality , but no filter wheel or mulitple passes.
It's really just about knowing the night sky. This is something I cover in my deep space course on my website. I explain how to find all of these objects just be using some bright stars in the sky as guide posts.
Once you know where to look for the objects, that's where the laser would come in handy. Very often, you'll be pointed too high/low and not at the object, but you can't tell until you turn on the laser.
If you can't get a laser, then it's really trial and error. If you take a photo and don't see the object, make some small adjustments and try again. Keep moving the camera up/down or left/right until you finally see the object in the frame.
Can use a phone app like SkyView or SkySafari to find objects. Place the phone on the backside of the camera, and readjust the telescope direction while looking at the app. Should roughly get you in the right area.
Hello Peter, thank you very much for helpful video. I would like ask you. I use ioptron sky guider too and I have sometimes troubles with pointing my camera. Witch laser do you use ? My thanks in advance.
I'm using a laser that came with my MoveShootMove star tracker
Could mobile phone be mounted on the scope running some app such as Google Sky or some similat to locate the target?
Hi at what point do you turn on your star tracker?
Which tripod do you use for your imaging rig?
Can you only connect to its(asiair) wifi directly ? or can you connect to the same network ? as well
Sorry hit return too quick...can you connect to your home network with the asipro
Yes, a recent update allows you to connect the ASIAir Pro to your home wifi network. Check out my "Monochrome post processing tutorial" to see how
@@PeterZelinka I will check it out, nice videos btw, keep it up !
I have an ASIair pro with firmware version 5.81 and the Skyguider pro. I start the polar alignment process with success in plate solving but it doesn’t pass step 2 (Calculate). The message after plate solving is ‘Tap Next, RA axis will be around60 degrees for calculating’ ... so I press next at the bottom of the screen. Then I get the message RA axis rotated 0 degrees and the button at the bottom of the screen is Cancel. I can’t seem to get any further and I have tried releasing the clutch and rotating left then right and using many different angles ... and still the 0 degrees message. I welcome and suggestions.
I've never heard of that problem before. Just to be clear, you are doing the initial plate solve, then clicking "Next". Before you click "Rotated", you need to loosen the clutch and drop the whole camera down about 60 - 90 degrees, then lock down the clutch. Now click "Rotated" and it should plate solve again
3:49 Is there a solution for stopping the knob from hitting the mount? I have a similar problem with my SkyGuider Pro. Can you use some sort of riser to give the knob some clearance over the mount?
Hello, I am very new to astrophotography, and I have the sky guider pro also. I switched the positions of the camera and counterweight shaft. The dec bracket has a long and a short end, so I put the camera on the long end. I don't think it can hit the sky guider pro in any position now.
Are you using the second tripod as support for the ASIair?
Yeah, although now that I have an extra arca-swiss plate, I can attach that to the screwhole on the ASIAir, rather than clamping the unit itself into the ballhead as seen here.
what's a full setup like this cost?
Why didn't you dither? Is it not possible with a Star Adventurer or SkyGuider?
I tried dithering but it only works for one or two images before it gets stuck settling the error. Asiair needs combined RA and DEC error to be within 2''. The DEC will slowly drift off because there is no DEC motor. I think this is a bug on Asiair. It should only look at RA error if DEC guiding is turned off
The SkyGuider Pro and star Adventurer can only dither in RA. As I understand it, the ASIAir Pro doesn't have the option to just dither the RA axis. PhD2 does though, if I'm not mistaken.
I haven't had any need to dither with this camera yet, since I'm not noticing any fixed pattern noise problems in my final photos. It would definitely come in handy for some DSLR users though
Your Bahtinov mask looks to be too tight. You were shaking the whole mount while removing it. I'm using a design where it is a flat mask with a single post which sits inside the rim of the scope. I can maybe blow on it to remove it.
@Peter Zelinka sir, i'm planning to buy the ZWO ASI120MM Mini (mono), if i connect it in my windows 10 laptop, is there any issue/issues? Or is ASI120MC-S (color) the better alternative?
I've been using the 120MM Mini for a while now without any serious problems. I originally did have some weird problems, but they haven't happened lately. I think you'll be okay going for the 120MM Mini
@@PeterZelinka sir, how about the ASI120MC-S as guide scope? it is threaded and i think it is good using the zwo 30mmf4 guide scope. im wondering if i have any problem with the focusing later. I saw photos directly attached the 120MC-S to 30mmf4 directly.
@@PeterZelinka www.aliexpress.com/item/32872305557.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.40493c00VtqOa5&mp=1 it is set-up i want to achieved as my guide scope and guide camera later. Hope for an advice about this kind of set-up
Acratech ballheads are the best
can you not replace the knob?
I'm really not sure, I suppose it might be possible
Great job Peter! The course is really taking shape!
th-cam.com/video/BnHpvgbhSdY/w-d-xo.html confused. Did you just polar align during daytime?
first
gees for the amount of money you spend on that stuff it s not reliable
Nice video but Polemaster takes away the pain