QSI583: filter wheel not perfectly positioning the filter over the ccd window
Hello All,
does anybody of you had issues with the filter wheel non perfectly positioning the filter over the ccd window?
The test I did was: 1) Opening the cover and positioning the filter number 1 over the window manually
2) by using a common software, moving all the filter carousel (LRGBH) one by one over the window 3) After coming back to the first filter again (L) the correct position is lost, i.e. is shifted of, let's say 1mm
A similar test was: 0) power off camera 1) move manually the?filter 1 correctly over the ccd window 2) power on camera 3) the camera goes into starting mode moving the carousel of a complete rotation. 4) The filter 1 does not come in the same place, but it is slightly "behind" the correct position
How can I adjust this?
Many thanks for your help Nicola -- Nicola
Sky Monsters -
Skype: betelgeuse368
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Very nicely done Geoff.? A most pleasing image.
Clear skies, Kevin
From: "Geoff Smith" <ghsmith45@...> To: "QSI-CCD" < [email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 29, 2023 5:06:54 AM Subject: [QSI-CCD] Running Chicken
Taken over the last new moon weekend.
Telescope was Televue NP101is
Camera QSI wsg 540
Mount AP900
Filters: L, R, G, B, Ha
Exposure about 5 hours
Processed in PixInsight
I processed the stars and the nebula separately then combined the two images at the end.
Full details here
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Nice image, Geoff, well done! ? Bruce ?
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From: [email protected] < [email protected]> On Behalf Of Geoff Smith Sent: Monday, May 29, 2023 2:07 AM To: [email protected]Subject: [QSI-CCD] Running Chicken ? Taken over the last new moon weekend.
Telescope was Televue NP101is
Camera QSI wsg 540
Mount AP900
Filters: L, R, G, B, Ha
Exposure about 5 hours
Processed in PixInsight
I processed the stars and the nebula separately then combined the two images at the end.
Full details here
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Taken over the last new moon weekend.
Telescope was Televue NP101is
Camera QSI wsg 540
Mount AP900
Filters: L, R, G, B, Ha
Exposure about 5 hours
Processed in PixInsight
I processed the stars and the nebula separately then combined the two images at the end.
Full details here
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Re: Private: Re: Clusters and trails
Hi, David,
Thanks for going private with your good advice, perhaps you didn't want to embarrass me. But as you will see, no problem, so I'll go public, imho it's too important a subject not to be aired.
I use Maxim DL to stack my images, normally using median combination. But with this particular image being taken in the short period of Astronomical Twilight, I didn't really have enough subs for that to do a complete job. Sigma clip was marginally better, but the brightest trails still left a faint remnant which I had to work on in Photoshop. I would have been better with twice as many 5 minute subs instead of the small number of 10 minute ones.
For example the attached image is a single calibrated green sub frame (reduced to 1/3 size). Just a couple of trails, but one of them exceedingly bright, so as there were only 4 green subs, the resultant RGB colour combine contained a faint green streak which had to be further worked on.
It would appear that those who are now using CMOS sensors generally have many more but shorter subs than we CCD dinosaurs are used to working with, so the rejection algorithms have a much better chance of doing a good job. But of course those large amounts of data need very powerful up to date computers with a lot of memory to process the data. My desktop is quite well specified, Windows 7 64 bit, i7 processor, but with 'only' 6 GB RAM not all that well equipped for handling massive amounts of data, although since I recently fitted an SSD has improved quite a bit, and it zips along with my relatively modest requirements. The maximum RAM the computer can take is 8 GB, so very little room for improvement there.
I have to say the general feeling I'm getting both from this forum and Stargazers Lounge is that 'we're all right Jack', we can beat the satellite trails with clever processing. But that's not really the point is it? As Olly Penrice states in my SGL thread 'The satellite situation is like the plastic situation. We are drowning in plastic, yet still we churn it out.' Here is the thread for those interested in having a look:
It's bad enough for us amateurs at home, and must be particularly annoying for those lucky enough to have their own remote observatories at dark sites, with the attendant costs and initial hard work setting it all up. How much worse must it be for the large professional observatories with their huge multimillion pound telescopes!
Cheers,
Peter
Approx. 55 deg N, 2 deg W (Northumberland, UK)
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On 23/05/2023 03:17, David Ellison wrote: You need not put that much work into getting rid of those star trails. Most of us stack the images using a statistical rejection algorithm to eliminate the brightest pixel in the stack. Do that and your various tracks will disappear.
You align the images you plan to stack, then stack using that rejection algorithm. There are several rejection algorithms, any of them should work for this.
David
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That's interesting, Len,
But I suspect your almost 34 deg S latitude might have something to do with your success, particularly at the moment when you can have 10 hours of full darkness.
At my 55 deg N latitude I'm now in Astronomical twilight, so the Earth's shadow is much lower in my sky, particularly if the target and therefore the offending satellites are quite high, as is M53 which transits at 53 degrees altitude.
Interestingly you are at almost the same latitude and only 87 miles as the crow flies from my sister-in law in Capel. But looking at a light pollution map on Google Earth you clearly have extremely dark skies!
Cheers,
Peter
Approx. 55 deg N, 2 deg W (Northumberland, UK)
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On 22/05/2023 08:35, AstroLenn wrote: Hello Peter & Kevin,
In contrast, I am not plagued by satellite trails, but have varied my process to minimise their effect. On a recent capture series I got none.
When the sun is just below the eastern or western horizon the satellites reflect it¡¯s light back to us, but usually between 2100 hrs and 0300 hrs the satellites are in the shadow of the earth and their visibility does not show in my long exposure and stacked images.
If I can be bold enough to make a prediction, I see a future mount having no meridian flip or 180 deg image rotation. Also using the ¡®lost time' to do more photographing during this valuable overhead period.
From the dark skies of Muradup¡ cheers
Len
On 21 May 2023, at 19:13, Kevin Dixon <ksbtk@...> wrote:
Hi Peter,
I too have been experiencing an ever-increasing number of satellite trails in my images. Nothing like your image but it is a very disturbing trend.
Clear skies,
Kevin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Vasey" <petevasey@...>
To: "QSI-CCD" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2023 4:22:27 PM
Subject: [QSI-CCD] Clusters and trails
Hi, guys,
I don't often post on our forum, but thought you might find this
interesting, unless of course you've seen my thread on Stargazers Lounge.
In 2020 I imaged the nice grouping of Messier 53 and NGC 5053 using my
QSI683 and TMB105 (650 mm fl). Last Summer I bought a SharpStar 140
refractor to replace my Meade 127 - pure self indulgence! And very nice
it is too. With the poor season I've been having this year, I wanted to
try something in Astronomical twilight, and found the two clusters would
still nicely fit in the field of view. So went for it on the evening of
15 May. Unbinned so 10 minute subs to get reasonably deep. And in the
end it came out quite well. Luminance 8 x 10 mins, RGB each 4 x 10 mins.
BUT it needed a huge amount of work to get a decent looking image
because when I counted them up in the individual sub frames there was a
total of 54 satellite trails in 20 subs, the worst individual sub
containing 7 trails!
So I've also attached a summed image of all the subs, showing most of
the trails although some of the fainter ones are lost. I should point
out that my 2020 subs only contained 2 trails in all. An awful lot of
new stuff up there :-( I hope Mr Musk's ears are burning!
Cheers,
Peter.
--
Approx. 55 deg N, 2 deg W (Northumberland, UK)
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Hello Peter & Kevin,
In contrast, I am not plagued by satellite trails, but have varied my process to minimise their effect. On a recent capture series I got none.
When the sun is just below the eastern or western horizon the satellites reflect it¡¯s light back to us, but usually between 2100 hrs and 0300 hrs the satellites are in the shadow of the earth and their visibility does not show in my long exposure and stacked images.
If I can be bold enough to make a prediction, I see a future mount having no meridian flip or 180 deg image rotation. Also using the ¡®lost time' to do more photographing during this valuable overhead period.
From the dark skies of Muradup¡ cheers
Len
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On 21 May 2023, at 19:13, Kevin Dixon <ksbtk@...> wrote:
Hi Peter,
I too have been experiencing an ever-increasing number of satellite trails in my images. Nothing like your image but it is a very disturbing trend.
Clear skies,
Kevin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Vasey" <petevasey@...>
To: "QSI-CCD" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2023 4:22:27 PM
Subject: [QSI-CCD] Clusters and trails
Hi, guys,
I don't often post on our forum, but thought you might find this
interesting, unless of course you've seen my thread on Stargazers Lounge.
In 2020 I imaged the nice grouping of Messier 53 and NGC 5053 using my
QSI683 and TMB105 (650 mm fl). Last Summer I bought a SharpStar 140
refractor to replace my Meade 127 - pure self indulgence! And very nice
it is too. With the poor season I've been having this year, I wanted to
try something in Astronomical twilight, and found the two clusters would
still nicely fit in the field of view. So went for it on the evening of
15 May. Unbinned so 10 minute subs to get reasonably deep. And in the
end it came out quite well. Luminance 8 x 10 mins, RGB each 4 x 10 mins.
BUT it needed a huge amount of work to get a decent looking image
because when I counted them up in the individual sub frames there was a
total of 54 satellite trails in 20 subs, the worst individual sub
containing 7 trails!
So I've also attached a summed image of all the subs, showing most of
the trails although some of the fainter ones are lost. I should point
out that my 2020 subs only contained 2 trails in all. An awful lot of
new stuff up there :-( I hope Mr Musk's ears are burning!
Cheers,
Peter.
--
Approx. 55 deg N, 2 deg W (Northumberland, UK)
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Hi Peter,
I too have been experiencing an ever-increasing number of satellite trails in my images. Nothing like your image but it is a very disturbing trend.
Clear skies,
Kevin
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----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Vasey" <petevasey@...> To: "QSI-CCD" < [email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2023 4:22:27 PM Subject: [QSI-CCD] Clusters and trails Hi, guys, I don't often post on our forum, but thought you might find this interesting, unless of course you've seen my thread on Stargazers Lounge. In 2020 I imaged the nice grouping of Messier 53 and NGC 5053 using my QSI683 and TMB105 (650 mm fl). Last Summer I bought a SharpStar 140 refractor to replace my Meade 127 - pure self indulgence! And very nice it is too. With the poor season I've been having this year, I wanted to try something in Astronomical twilight, and found the two clusters would still nicely fit in the field of view. So went for it on the evening of 15 May. Unbinned so 10 minute subs to get reasonably deep. And in the end it came out quite well. Luminance 8 x 10 mins, RGB each 4 x 10 mins. BUT it needed a huge amount of work to get a decent looking image because when I counted them up in the individual sub frames there was a total of 54 satellite trails in 20 subs, the worst individual sub containing 7 trails! So I've also attached a summed image of all the subs, showing most of the trails although some of the fainter ones are lost. I should point out that my 2020 subs only contained 2 trails in all. An awful lot of new stuff up there :-( I hope Mr Musk's ears are burning! Cheers, Peter. -- Approx. 55 deg N, 2 deg W (Northumberland, UK)
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Peter,
I think we can feel safe knowing that Skynet is protecting us :)
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On 21 May 2023, at 6:22:27 am, Peter Vasey < petevasey@...> wrote:
Hi, guys,
I don't often post on our forum, but thought you might find this interesting, unless of course you've seen my thread on Stargazers Lounge.
In 2020 I imaged the nice grouping of Messier 53 and NGC 5053 using my QSI683 and TMB105 (650 mm fl). ?Last Summer I bought a SharpStar 140 refractor to replace my Meade 127 - pure self indulgence! ?And very nice it is too. ?With the poor season I've been having this year, I wanted to try something in Astronomical twilight, and found the two clusters would still nicely fit in the field of view. ?So went for it on the evening of 15 May. ?Unbinned so 10 minute subs to get reasonably deep. ?And in the end it came out quite well. ?Luminance 8 x 10 mins, RGB each 4 x 10 mins.
BUT it needed a huge amount of work to get a decent looking image because when I counted them up in the individual sub frames there was a total of 54 satellite trails in 20 subs, the worst individual sub containing 7 trails!
So I've also attached a summed image of all the subs, showing most of the trails although some of the fainter ones are lost. ?I should point out that my 2020 subs only contained 2 trails in all. ?An awful lot of new stuff up there :-( ?I hope Mr Musk's ears are burning!
Cheers,
Peter.
--
Approx. 55 deg N, 2 deg W ?(Northumberland, UK)
<M53NGC5053.jpg><Trails.jpg>
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Hi, guys,
I don't often post on our forum, but thought you might find this interesting, unless of course you've seen my thread on Stargazers Lounge.
In 2020 I imaged the nice grouping of Messier 53 and NGC 5053 using my QSI683 and TMB105 (650 mm fl). Last Summer I bought a SharpStar 140 refractor to replace my Meade 127 - pure self indulgence! And very nice it is too. With the poor season I've been having this year, I wanted to try something in Astronomical twilight, and found the two clusters would still nicely fit in the field of view. So went for it on the evening of 15 May. Unbinned so 10 minute subs to get reasonably deep. And in the end it came out quite well. Luminance 8 x 10 mins, RGB each 4 x 10 mins.
BUT it needed a huge amount of work to get a decent looking image because when I counted them up in the individual sub frames there was a total of 54 satellite trails in 20 subs, the worst individual sub containing 7 trails!
So I've also attached a summed image of all the subs, showing most of the trails although some of the fainter ones are lost. I should point out that my 2020 subs only contained 2 trails in all. An awful lot of new stuff up there :-( I hope Mr Musk's ears are burning!
Cheers,
Peter.
--
Approx. 55 deg N, 2 deg W (Northumberland, UK)
|
With ongoing poor conditions and moonlit nights, I decided to do what I could and target a globular cluster. NGC 5466 is an ancient globular cluster - roughly 12.5 billion years old - in the constellation of Bootes.? It has a low central concentration of stars overall and a significant population of "blue horizontal stars".? The latter are highly luminous blue stars that support helium-to-carbon fusion in their cores as opposed to the hydrogen-to-helium fusion of most stars.? This is a late stage of stellar evolution, consistent with the advanced age of the cluster.? Recent studies show that the cluster is also the origin of a tidal stream of stars that stretches 31 degrees across the sky.? Modeling suggests the stellar stream was caused by a gravitational interaction of NGC 5466 with the disk of the Milky Way galaxy.
The image was captured during 2 nights in April and May from New Mexico under moonlit skies. Image acquisition was done with a 12.5" PlaneWave scope and a QSI-640ws camera at f/8 for a final LRGB integration of 6 hours.
Thanks for looking,
Bruce W
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Re: ASCOM drivers and Windows 11
Hello Roman.
I can't help you because my laptop doesn't update to windows 11, but I see that there is a more recent driver than the one you mentioned in your message, it's called V2022.07.19
Regards
Jose
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Has anyone heard if Atik is planning on making a new CMOS based sensor using the current QSI body design??
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Thanks, Steve!? Sometimes these smaller galaxies can be a nice surprise. ? Bruce ? ? ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve Solon
Sent: Friday, May 5, 2023 11:19 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [QSI-CCD] NGC 4535 image ? For the love of Pete, Bruce - that's a stunner! Time very very well-spent, mate! ? On Fri, May 5, 2023 at 11:35?PM Bernhard Hubl <b.hubl@...> wrote: Hello Bruce,
Wonderful image of this beautiful face-on galaxy!
best,
Bernhard Hubl
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That is a gorgeous image Bruce!? Great job.
Clear skies, Kevin
From: "bw msg01" <bw_msg01@...> To: "QSI-CCD" < [email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 6, 2023 12:41:04 AM Subject: [QSI-CCD] NGC 4535 image
This is an image of NGC 4535, a grand-design spiral galaxy in the Virgo Cluster and one of its largest spiral members. It's about 15% larger than the Milky Way galaxy and was included in the Hubble Extragalactic Distance Scale project, a research effort directed at refining the Hubble constant to a 10% uncertainty.? The project identified 39 well-resolved Cepheid variable stars in NGC 4535 to determine its distance at 52M +/- 1.9 light-years. The image was captured over a 4-night period in April from New Mexico. Image acquisition was done with a 12.5" PlaneWave scope and a QSI-640ws camera at f/8 for a final LRGB integration of 16.8 hours.
Thanks for looking,
Bruce W.
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For the love of Pete, Bruce - that's a stunner! Time very very well-spent, mate!
? - - Steve
On Fri, May 5, 2023 at 11:35?PM Bernhard Hubl < b.hubl@...> wrote: Hello Bruce,
Wonderful image of this beautiful face-on galaxy!
best,
Bernhard Hubl
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Hello Bruce,
Wonderful image of this beautiful face-on galaxy!
best,
Bernhard Hubl
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This is an image of NGC 4535, a grand-design spiral galaxy in the Virgo Cluster and one of its largest spiral members. It's about 15% larger than the Milky Way galaxy and was included in the Hubble Extragalactic Distance Scale project, a research effort directed at refining the Hubble constant to a 10% uncertainty.? The project identified 39 well-resolved Cepheid variable stars in NGC 4535 to determine its distance at 52M +/- 1.9 light-years. The image was captured over a 4-night period in April from New Mexico. Image acquisition was done with a 12.5" PlaneWave scope and a QSI-640ws camera at f/8 for a final LRGB integration of 16.8 hours.
Thanks for looking,
Bruce W.
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Pico de Paperis
AstroLenn
Steve Solon