|
Post by ChrisV on Jul 2, 2016 13:02:17 GMT
Had another tonight (during the boring bits of election telecast) and all okay.
Probably should announce when I'm doing one now
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Jul 2, 2016 13:11:26 GMT
Excellent Chris.
Yeah, let us know, if you can.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2016 2:18:36 GMT
M7 first try wit Astro Toaster 10 flats, 5 Darks, and 18x180sec lights Software very easy to use, FREE , and quick
|
|
|
Post by davy on Oct 14, 2016 6:30:25 GMT
Very nice and welcome to the forum Klaus
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Oct 14, 2016 7:21:00 GMT
Welcome Klaus ... hmmm ... are you the Klaus from the SAS club? If so ... where'd you find the clear skies to grab that first session with astrotoaster! My skies have been clouded over for the past week cheers and welcome to the forum.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2016 15:10:57 GMT
Thanks Ken and Chris ... whew ... I couldn't really figure out why the link wasn't working. Still concerned Dave had problems .... Hopefully he tries again and its working for him now. Yes, Chris, another tool in the tool-chest for astro work. I used to watch "DonBoy" use FireCapture and AstroToaster with his ZWO. And that's what I have always used for the ZWO I own. I saw MegaBob (think it was) on NSN recently testing image acquisition in SharpCap, but NOT do stacking in SC but instead get AT to monitor the SharpCap folder and do all adjustments in AT. It worked fine except he couldnt get SharpCap to stop creating a new output folder everytime he started a capture run! lol! But it's only one setting in AT to change the folder and in a few seconds its off and monitoring the new folder. BTW I am putting finishing touches on a new vid showing what the buttons in AT do ... should speed up / help figuring out what they do in AT. cheers Many thanks Howie1 for providing all the info on how to set up Astrotoaster. I plan to use it with Sharpcap (for capturing images into a folder that AT can monitor). When capturing FITS files in Sharpcap, I noticed that Sharpcap creates a subfolder inside my AT monitor folder, even though I have Sharpcap settings set to NOT create subfolders. Is there some other setting in Sharpcap that I'm not aware of that will prevent Sharpcap from creating new subfolders for each capture sequence? Alternatively, the only work-around is the one you've described above where I need to change the monitor folder in AT to point to the new subfolder for each capture sequence. I've just looked at FireCapture, and it does not create any new subfolders, so I may try it with AstroToaster instead of Sharpcap. Any reason why FireCapture would not be preferred over Sharpcap for use with AstroToaster? Thanks.
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Oct 28, 2016 23:37:46 GMT
Hi saguaro, SharpCap (SC) interface is a little easier to use than firecapture. I hate complicated software, so have had much more experience with SC over FC. Also FireCapture (FC) did not display a colour preview window and capture in colour at the same time (although I haven't used FC in a while and maybe that issue is fixed?). So to answer your question, I don't know any way to stop SC from creating a new folder/sub folder. Yes, I simply had to constantly change the monitor folder which in older versions of AstroToaster (AT) meant quitting out and restarting but the new version of AT allows you to change it in settings as many times as you like without quitting out of AT. I found one of the major benefits of SC was the image preview window had a histogram function so you could immediately see if your exposure time and gain was putting the histogram peak slightly away from the left side of the graph (best for processing in AT ... no data lost/clipped on the left and at the same time not too over-exposed with the 'hump' too far to the right of the histogram). So you could easily and quickly adjust exp and/or gain to just put the 'hump' away from the left hand side, then start a 'sequence run' and point AT to that folder it creates. And away you go! Cheers
|
|
|
Post by davy on Oct 29, 2016 0:05:26 GMT
At last got my first go at using astrotoaster,and what a complete pigs ear I made of it,lol. I got a surprise of a half clear night, half my view from carols was clear to south west ,with clouds to south east clearing at times. Set up, Skywatcher allview, Skywatcher st102 ,canon 450d modded, byeos,astrotoaster. Forgot I switched monitor folder,had to reset,finaly got it monitoring the folder and stacking,, bit of star trails on some shots,, bit of a hit n miss session,, still to review the images and workout problem,, one thing I did notice,2 min exposure's at ISO 1600 took ages to stack and view
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Oct 29, 2016 1:55:33 GMT
Hi davy ...
Every single time I start EOS Utils (in your case BYEOS) I check the folder it is sending the frames to.
Also, then every single time I start AT I check the following ...
1. Click on FileList and check ... 1.1 Set "Star Detection Threshold" is 20 sT ... This really helps speed things up! 1.2 Set HotPix Detect is OFF (this is in the latest version) 2. From FileList click on Settings button at the bottom 2.1 Check the Picture Type/Extension to Monitor is correct 2.2 Check Monitor folder is correct 2.3 Check Output folder is correct
And the biggie for speeding things up and learning how to use it is do NOT use RAW to start with. They are huge files from a DSLR. You are not going to be doing NASA photo of the day are you? You are not going to be wanting, nor even needing to have the full RAW data for post processing! So trust me ... start with Small but Fine quality JPEGS.
Don't get hung up on shooting RAW. Jpegs work great to start with. Once comfy with it all then you can start to try out RAW.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2016 3:45:17 GMT
Hi saguaro, SharpCap (SC) interface is a little easier to use than firecapture. I hate complicated software, so have had much more experience with SC over FC. Also FireCapture (FC) did not display a colour preview window and capture in colour at the same time (although I haven't used FC in a while and maybe that issue is fixed?). So to answer your question, I don't know any way to stop SC from creating a new folder/sub folder. Yes, I simply had to constantly change the monitor folder which in older versions of AstroToaster (AT) meant quitting out and restarting but the new version of AT allows you to change it in settings as many times as you like without quitting out of AT. I found one of the major benefits of SC was the image preview window had a histogram function so you could immediately see if your exposure time and gain was putting the histogram peak slightly away from the left side of the graph (best for processing in AT ... no data lost/clipped on the left and at the same time not too over-exposed with the 'hump' too far to the right of the histogram). So you could easily and quickly adjust exp and/or gain to just put the 'hump' away from the left hand side, then start a 'sequence run' and point AT to that folder it creates. And away you go! Cheers You are right about FireCapture not displaying a color preview; I'll stick with Sharpcap for now. Great tip about using the histogram. My biggest issue turned out to be the Webroot security software installed on my laptop. It kept causing AT to quit randomly. Once I disabled it, AT ran fine and I was able to practice using it with a bunch of .fits files I had previously captured. I look forward to trying AT out with Sharpcap on the next clear night. Thanks again for the AT tips. So glad I found this forum!
|
|
|
Post by davy on Oct 29, 2016 8:13:49 GMT
Cheers Howie ,I was on raw and large format, when I was watching astrotoaster star count could go from 16 to well over 100, with one of the stacked images I had field rotation,should AT not throw out bad images. I really need to get it sped up ,I did drop exposure right down to five seconds and the files were firing straight in to AT,but was ages stacking,,will try jpegs next outing,first go at it,must admit on my settings it was astrophotography,was like watching paint dry,, lol
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Oct 30, 2016 11:24:45 GMT
Hi davy ... yes, like watching paint dry ... that's why I started going shorter and shorter with DSLR and AT. I ended up finding that by using small S1 fine quality setting jpegs and going very short like 4 to 15 secs high ISO 6400 just works! Since then, I have pretty much stabilised on iso800 and 30 sec shots for all but faint nebs and galaxies for which I increase ISO to 1600 or even 3200 and stack 30 sec shots. Great images come from these settings and the f/5 200p newtonian. I do NOT go for any post processing ... just good qual images at night viewing live in-field. And hence I dont care two hoots about not shooting RAW. Jpegs are just perfect. I shall post up a vid.
Re video ... I am trying to gradually produce better videos with the aim to creating a dedicated SEQ_Skies YouTube channel. Sat night I drove nearly 3 hours out of Brisbane to try to escape the overcast conditions at home, so I could try out some new video techniques and stuff. I found clear skies but it was very windy. However, in the hour I was able to not only try out a few things with desktop capture HD software etc, but in the end the need to hop from target to target very quickly due to the wind, I ended up with a great video on 15 sec single shots ..... I shall post it up on the live results forum for all to see. davy, watch it and pause regularly to see the color adjustments and take note of them ... with S1 fine and iso1600 or iso800 and 15 to 30 secs the settings will work great with your 200 f/5 newt as the cam and the newt are pretty much what you have so should be a great starting point for you.
|
|
|
Post by davy on Oct 30, 2016 15:01:08 GMT
Cheers Howie ,, my adventure the other night with my setup was a disaster after reviewing the images,,the backyard Eos captures were pure mince , star trails and field rotation at the zenith,the only decent images were two second exposures,,I believe the weight of the scope and DSLR may have been slowing the Skywatcher allview mount,, week before using just the DSLR and 300mm lens all was ok on byeos,will try just dslr/300mm and byeos / astrotoaster.
Weather still too unstable to warrant getting heq5/200pds - ed80 combo out,, to be honest if I don't get to use the big kit this year I'm not too bothered as I have green light on my new astroshed observatory.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2016 23:02:39 GMT
Howie, many thanks again for this post! Last night was my first night to try Astrotoaster with Sharpcap, and this combo works very well for my EAA needs! You can look at my Astrobin page here: www.astrobin.com/users/robinandcurtis/The first 11 images in my Astrobin gallery were taken with an Orion Short-Tube 80mm and my ASI1600MC-Cool with an IDAS LPS-D1 filter. The only software used was Sharpcap for capture and Astrotoaster for stacking and tweaking the images on the fly.
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Oct 31, 2016 2:24:52 GMT
Wonderful images saguaro!
And for a first try .... just amazingly great! You are using a camera I have pretty much settled upon to purchase as my two uncooled Canon's both feel the Australian heat badly! So the cooled asi1600 I have watched many images and live NSN broadcasts on to be sure I am making the correct decision. Lots of fine pixels which give fine stars and details as well as big image scale. And that combo (lots of fine pixels and big sensor size) enable 'zooming/cropping' without bad pixellation/loss of detail. Your images with it in combo with AT seem to backup what I have read and seen on NSN ... AT does a better job at stacking and color adjustments.
Beaut images!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2016 3:21:17 GMT
Thanks, Howie. I live in the desert in Arizona so having a cooled camera is a must. I'm impatient too, so I want to use as fast an optical system as I.can so I can take short exposures. Right now the ST80 f/5 is my fastest scope, but the field curvature is noticeable. I'll probably want to upgrade to a better quality refractor at some point. The ST80 rides piggyback on my C14 Edge SCT. I'm planning to get a Hyperstar for F/2 with the ASI1600 on my C14. But I wanted to find the best software and workflow for my EAA use first. I can also use the camera with my C14 focal reducer for F/8. But that's slower than I'd like for EAA.
The camera is easy to use and performs well. I don't think you can go wrong with it. I used gain of 350 and 400 with bin 2 for the images, so you can use these higher gain settings without ill effects
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Oct 31, 2016 12:18:00 GMT
Saguaro ... hyperstar would be great. Get the right adapter / mount piece from starizona for the hyperstar use with the asi1600 and Wow ... Not only fast but flat field across the FOV. Thanks for the tips re gain and binning too for when I save up for the 1600. By the way ... I saw a NSN broadcast (TomSoIn's channel) and he was using the asi1600 with the software called Sequence Generator Pro ... no sub-folder problems like SharpCap has. Just tell SGPro where to put the frames from the 1600 and it does.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2016 13:38:36 GMT
Thanks for the tip about SGP. I will investigate it. I don't mind paying for software if it's suitable for my use for EAA. Starizona recommends Maxim but while it's very powerful it looks like overkill for my needs and is expensive too. Sharpcap occasionally crashes on my Windows 10 Surface Pro 4, which is annoying. I also find that when I adjust gain and exposure there's a lag of several exposures in Sharpcap before the preview image updates, also annoying. AT works fine but is a bit slow to stack my fits files. I'll have to try your tip about using jpegs instead. By the way, I've been to your beautiful country a couple of times, and visited Brisbane. Years ago I went to Ayers Rock and photographed Halley's Comet during it's closest approach to Earth. Climbed to the top too. Also snorkeled at Heron Island. Gorgeous country!
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Nov 3, 2016 6:24:32 GMT
No worries. Yeah, SharpCap crashes on my laptop too. Never been able to figure out why. One of the reasons I like AT ... although even it slows down as the night progresses and eventually sliders for colour adjustments start to "stick" or you slide and some crazy adjustment happens at which point you have to Quit out of AT and then restart it. Seems to be about an hour to an hour and half when that starts to happen on my laptop.
You did well getting to the top of Uluru (as it's now called). Along with the local place name, you can no longer climb to the top either. Shame. Was a combination of respect for the traditional land owners rights and its significance for them, plus that rather narrow section on the climb up where it's quite a slide down either side of the rock! The bureaucrats feared it would result in a law suit! Which it no doubt would have! Always seems a bit odd though, as tourist treks to Nepal past innumerable prayer flags and walks over monuments all over the place, and then there's kissing the Blarney Stone where you have to hang out in space upside down over the edge of a 1000 year old castle parapice, and walk the Twelve Apostles trail out on eroding rocks in South Australia etc, not to mention bungy jumps and parachute and paraglide things are all seemingly ok ... but not the walk up the Rock.
|
|
|
Post by davy on Dec 13, 2016 22:54:57 GMT
bit of work done on my windows 7 laptop that I had repaired, loaded in canon utilities , deep sky stacker and astrotoaster... set up the monitor folder and output folder and linked camera and laptop and just practiced the settings till I was quite confident in working it,, will give it a go next clear night with the skywatcher allview and canon modded 450d with a 75-300 zoom lens and just have some fun ,,,not looking for great images just a learning curve till I get the observatory up and running and get more serious.
|
|