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| After reviewing several other posts very close to mine I am sorry for revisiting the same old thing but of course none of the topics are exact to my situation so it "feels different"... I FEEL LIKE the issue is exposure and or the like but I just could not find a sweet spot on either camera.... I have done a lot of trouble shooting but continue to fight this issue. I have a TPO 8 in RC scope - EQR6-pro mount, and an ASI1600mm PRO CCD main scope and cam, guide is AOG on "train" with an Astromania "SGCMOS Series Telescope CMOS Camera" - that one I am a little more unsure of the back focus... but it has either an all white screen with black dots and or a black screen with almost all white dots. Back focus is very near 250mm for the scope with extension and the like and as well I have "day tested" and get reasonable focus on a power pole about 8 blocks away... with both camera's... that is also kind of grainy but I am assuming that is due to light and these are "star camera's only at night" maybe... I as well used a 70mm "supposed to be guide scope" with a normal eyepiece and was able to see through that scope the sky and stars "silly test likely but it still proved to me there were stars there in general in the sky "area" I was using the others scopes to zoom in on although a much tighter FOV". Anyways ASIStudio, APT or any other planetary imaging software that I have on my laptop to focus at night, it is either black or full of "blinking fake stars" and as well I have found "white rings" and focused on those but they seem to be either hot pixels or a sat - I though but then again they were moving so unsure. I have tried many settings of course and about 2 hours of changing back focus adding and removing extensions as well and rolling focus back and forth to find focus with no luck... can you all please suggest some things please or give me an idea of what I may be missing? Thank you all for any ideas ahead of time... |
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I remember when i first tried to find focus on my RC8. It took me hours - and i mean hours. The best way was to point the scope at the moon, add and remove extension rings while watching the histogram. When it moves to the right (even just a tiny bit) the direction is right :-) You can check here what my distance was with a ASI294 (needs same spacing as yours):  |
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You look like you have almost the identical build that I do in that picture..... I have and ASI 120mm on the way but am using the Astromania guide right now. So on what you said.... do you mean the histogram in PHD I assume... correct? And by the direction is right you are talking about taking a ring out of the train IE decreasing the length and that the right way to get closer focus if the histogram is going right? Oddly enough... other than that OAG I feel like my image train was in the exact same "build" that night and it was failing miserably. Are you using the guild port from the guide cam going to the ST4? I am using the USB to the controller to the controller port. Thanks  nice build lol
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- Histogram: Any imaging Software should be able to show the histogram. The point is: If you have point at the moon and get a black image, the image should get brighter when you change the distance in the right direction (closer/farer). But this small amount of change in brightness is not visible to the eye, but you can see this in the histogram. - Distances between cam and scope: Yes, that is what i mean. If your chip is too close to the scope you will get a black image. If your chip is too far away from the scope you will also get a black image. You are at the point that you don't know if you are too far away or too close, so the first step is to check this. You should either reduce or increase the distance and check if the image gets brigther. - Guide port: Yes, i use the guide port of the ASI120. The ASI120 is connected to my laptop via USB and connected to the mount via ST4. But don't bother about guiding at the moment, first step is to get your distances right ;-) Hope that helps, Michael |
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A-lot of the things I read said no no to the ST4 port "i thought" maybe I need to revisit that then lol....but yes onto the images. I made good progress last night "until CLOUDS" and surely the "white and black" screens are related to exposure time - as when I put that much further in the ms range instead of sec range things made sense and worked. I guess me being new didn't understand how low that setting needs to be for "day time testing". As well even though I was down the road that is likely still too close so far far off tower it was and that as well made a difference. I will keep your contact info if you don't mind... I am blown away at your photos I can only hope to get some like that so I WILL surely have more questions.BTW - Not sure your overall tech savvy level but I am by trade and IT guy of almost 40 years... anything you would like to ask feel free!!! My name is John btwTHANKS ALL for the help. |
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| John, feel free to contact me via PM if you have more questions, i am totally glad to help. The community here has helped me a lot - and helps me still. That's the best part of AstroBin :-) Thanks for your nice commentary on my images, but i consider me still as a beginner - maybe some sort of experienced beginner, but a beginner. Others here on AB are way more experienced and skilled :-) |
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| I would say Ameba on my part - lololol - Thanks Michael |
