Another great and informative video. I have been into astophotography for less than a year. You seem to know the issues beginners face. Much appreciated! Thank you.
SGP and plate solving are a great boon. For those of us who don't plate solve, another method would be to use a star atlas or Stellarium to determine the RA and dec. of the center of the previous night's image, and slew to that same position the next night. I realize that's a dusty old technique from 15 years ago...
That beautiful lawn, is just crying out for a two telescope observatory to be built on it. Maybe you need to wink wink, a bit more. 😀 I strip down my rig into two parts each night after imaging, so no permanent solution for me, but what I find is a great help, try and place the mount in the same place each imaging session, saves quite a bit of time when it comes to polar alignment.
I mark my tripod location each time I go our with a rock. Then somebody...he says the squirrel removes them every week. Oddly about the same time the grass is mowed.
Thanks so much for doing this tutorial. I picked up a few good pointers. I need to work more on letting APT move my mount and align from the previous session. I'm like you and have to tear down each night, and can't have an observatory. So I partly buried 3 cinder blocks where I set up my tripod and made them level with each other. Once I had the mount polar aligned the first night, I painted a white mark on the cinder blocks so that each night now, I just set the tripod on those marks exactly and I now never have to do polar or even 2 star align. As far as the camera, I've found a way to mark the position it is sitting in the focuser, so now that is aligned each night too. It sure speeds up my set-up time. Thanks again.
Great video as always Amy! SGPro also works with both manual and automated rotators if one's image train is built each night or there's any slight rotation difference that needs to be corrected on your next night. SGPro will just prompt you for a rotation change if manual rotator is setup. I'm glad I'm not the only one with zillions of files and your recommendation for new flats can't be overstated! Well done.
Very cool- I've done some multi-night projects and it can be a bear to manage data. I'm still trying to work out a storage workflow that I can at least mostly automate. Have a great holiday!
Wonderful video, thx so much for sharing your journey. I use an asiair pro on my rig, which is built similar to several other systems for sequencing and tracking. Haven’t jumped to mono yet, but will be curious to see how plate solving works on that product here in 2021! Thx so much!
Hello Amy, with a CMOS dedicated camera what is it better, take multiple short pics, just say 100 pics 10 secs each or only one exposure of 15 mins. Just thinking about plane and satelites trails or clouds. Several pics short time exposure will give nice results too?...thanks and clear skies
There are so many different opinions on this. I find taking long images here in the south with moisture and many planes I would lose more images. Ten seconds is really too short to capture detail. I typically take 2 min or 4 minute images, and I will attempt at least 30 images up to 50 before I start processing. I hope this helps.
Ian Nelson I have a master dark for every exposure I typically do. I no longer use bias frames. I use flat darks. These are taken at the same time as the flats. So I have a master for that also. I only take flats every night
I have to take my camera off my telescope after every session. Any advice on aligning my camera with my telescope the next imaging session for plate solving to work?
If you platesolve it will tell you to rotate your camera to the same position until it is aligned the same way as the night before, and then it will start imaging :) If you don't have a rotator in your setup you can choose "manual rotator" and that is that you have to rotate your camera by hand.
Another great and informative video. I have been into astophotography for less than a year. You seem to know the issues beginners face. Much appreciated!
Thank you.
It helps being new to this also. :) I figure if it frustrated me, others were also. Happy to help.
You answered all my questions about multi night processing, thank you.
SGP and plate solving are a great boon. For those of us who don't plate solve, another method would be to use a star atlas or Stellarium to determine the RA and dec. of the center of the previous night's image, and slew to that same position the next night. I realize that's a dusty old technique from 15 years ago...
I would not have survived back then. lol
That beautiful lawn, is just crying out for a two telescope observatory to be built on it. Maybe you need to wink wink, a bit more. 😀 I strip down my rig into two parts each night after imaging, so no permanent solution for me, but what I find is a great help, try and place the mount in the same place each imaging session, saves quite a bit of time when it comes to polar alignment.
I mark my tripod location each time I go our with a rock. Then somebody...he says the squirrel removes them every week. Oddly about the same time the grass is mowed.
Thanks so much for doing this tutorial. I picked up a few good pointers. I need to work more on letting APT move my mount and align from the previous session.
I'm like you and have to tear down each night, and can't have an observatory. So I partly buried 3 cinder blocks where I set up my tripod and made them level with each other. Once I had the mount polar aligned the first night, I painted a white mark on the cinder blocks so that each night now, I just set the tripod on those marks exactly and I now never have to do polar or even 2 star align. As far as the camera, I've found a way to mark the position it is sitting in the focuser, so now that is aligned each night too.
It sure speeds up my set-up time. Thanks again.
Very nice. I wonder if my husband will notice cinder blocks buried in the yard. :)
Outstanding as always. Its amazing how simply this can be with software like APT and SPG
These softwares are very impressive with what we can do with them.
I’m visualizing a neat little observatory in the middle of that beautiful and spacious garden 😉😉
I'm liking your vision!
Great video as always Amy! SGPro also works with both manual and automated rotators if one's image train is built each night or there's any slight rotation difference that needs to be corrected on your next night. SGPro will just prompt you for a rotation change if manual rotator is setup. I'm glad I'm not the only one with zillions of files and your recommendation for new flats can't be overstated! Well done.
Thank you! Flats are amazing.
I remember when I first discovered plate solving, it was almost magical. I was manually aligning between nights before that.
It is truly incredible. I love it.
Excellent video Amy. I learn even more thanks to you, particularly about plate solving using past images.
I'm loving your garden. I smile when I see you move around a lot in the yard for different targets. The things we do.
Very cool- I've done some multi-night projects and it can be a bear to manage data. I'm still trying to work out a storage workflow that I can at least mostly automate. Have a great holiday!
Automating is my favorite.
Wonderful video, thx so much for sharing your journey. I use an asiair pro on my rig, which is built similar to several other systems for sequencing and tracking. Haven’t jumped to mono yet, but will be curious to see how plate solving works on that product here in 2021! Thx so much!
Thanks for sharing! Plate solving is magic when it works.
👍 i do exactly the same way.
Great video.
Thank’s Amy.
JM
Great to know. Thank you!
Great video Amy - I have the opposite issue, I can build a permanent observatory but I'm not allowed too ;-)
Oh no!!!
Hello Amy, with a CMOS dedicated camera what is it better, take multiple short pics, just say 100 pics 10 secs each or only one exposure of 15 mins. Just thinking about plane and satelites trails or clouds. Several pics short time exposure will give nice results too?...thanks and clear skies
There are so many different opinions on this. I find taking long images here in the south with moisture and many planes I would lose more images. Ten seconds is really too short to capture detail. I typically take 2 min or 4 minute images, and I will attempt at least 30 images up to 50 before I start processing. I hope this helps.
Lot of work
Good things usually are. :)
Do you just do flats each time or bias and darks too?
Ian Nelson I have a master dark for every exposure I typically do. I no longer use bias frames. I use flat darks. These are taken at the same time as the flats. So I have a master for that also. I only take flats every night
I have to take my camera off my telescope after every session. Any advice on aligning my camera with my telescope the next imaging session for plate solving to work?
If you platesolve it will tell you to rotate your camera to the same position until it is aligned the same way as the night before, and then it will start imaging :)
If you don't have a rotator in your setup you can choose "manual rotator" and that is that you have to rotate your camera by hand.
@@Calzune awesome, thx !
Plate solve will run until it is right. An amazing tool.