Astrophotography Walkthrough: Hardware and ASIair
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2022
- Astrophotography is harder than it looks and my quest to take cool shots of space led me down many wrong paths. What I needed was a teacher to walk me through it... let me be your teacher!
In this full walkthrough, I'll teach you the differences between various kinds of cameras and how you how to assemble a full featured deep-space astrophotography rig. You'll learn how to setup the hardware for both the 8" Celestron RASA as well as a C8. You'll also learn how to run everything in the ASIair app. From focusing, to tracking, and polar alignment, this video will walk you through it all.
Processing your astrophotography images is just as important as taking the shots in the first place. Watch this video and then watch my walkthroughs on stacking and processing your images:
Step 1: Data acquisition: This video
Step 2: Stacking: • Astrophotography Image...
Step 3: Processing: • 11 steps to astrophoto...
Table of Contents:
0:0 introduction
1:34 Intro to basic components
Rasa Hardware Setup:
8:59 tripod & Mount Setup
10:36 Telescope Setup
11:32 Backfocus and filter drawer
12:28 Dedicated Astronomy Camera
12:59 Tracking Scope
14:20 Tracking Camera
14:51 Router for Extending Wifi Range
16:14 ASIair Pro
17:25 Wire Management
22:11 Rough Optical Polar Alignment
27:54 Balancing the mount
ASIair Software Setup:
28:43 Connecting tablet to telescope Wifi
29:13 ASIair Initial Setup
31:14 Rough Manual Focus
33:10 Precise Auto Focus
37:11 Precise Polar Alignment
42:09 Focus Tracking Camera
43:45 Find and Slew to Target: ASIair
44:25 Measuring Camera Rotation: ASIair
47:29 Find and Slew to Target: Sky Safari
48:54 Camera Rotation: Sky Safari
49:51 Start Shooting: Auto Run
50:41 Dither
52:10 C8 Hardware Setup:
53:05 What is a reducer
54:44 Tracking Considerations at Long Focal Lengths
55:39 C8 with Reducer & Guide Scope
1:00:02 C8 with Guide Scope & NO Reducer
1:02:03 What is an Off Axis Guider
1:05:36 C8 with OAG & Reducer
1:09:35 C8 with OAG & NO Reducer
1:11:32 Attaching the ASIair to the C8
1:12:35 Conclusion
1:13:13 Rho Ophiuchi Nebula and IC4603
Parts list for the things used in this video:
docs.google.com/document/d/1_...
You made me quickly understand that the key is the GOTO mount and that it must be an equatorial mount. That if i was going to spend money, the money must be spent in a high quality mount.
I am a beginner astrophotographer and depending on your level of interest, your mount is the most importantly part of your system. If you can’t afford the entire set of gear, try a star tracker with a camera and lens. I chose the route of the zwo set up, no regrets. They make a great mount, scope, cameras and a little box which is a computer which works wonderful. Make no mistake the learning curve for the image processing is both time consuming and can be difficult for those who have never ventured into image software programs. My biggest problem is where I live, the weather sucks. Regards
You just saved me so much headache, my skywatcher polar scope reticle is way off. That is exactly what I did wrong, My mount was way off last night. You are the greatest teacher on CZcams when it comes to astrophotography. You have a subscriber for life. I thought my reticle was supposed to be off axis , because that is the way it came. Thank You!
So glad to help. My reticle came from the factory all funky too, so I also thought that's how it was supposed to be. The asi air doesn't use the polar scope for it's alignment process so it wasn't until I used the scope to do a "rough" alignment and then dial it in with the asi air that I realized just how far it was off. Some experiments and research led me to this solution. Glad it helped. And thanks for the sub. I really appreciate it.
First off, thank you so much for this video! A year later and while not as amazing as the setup you have, the Seestar S50 came at the right time for me. Getting into the hobby and having basically a robot to all the work, for $500 is amazing.
I saw that device and was quite impressed by it. It's such an easy and affordable way to get into the hobby. I hope more people try it out and get hooked. It's so amazing to see what's out there and getting the satisfaction of capturing your own images. There's just so much more the camera can see vs what you can see with your eyes through a traditional telescope.
I thought I was the only person who bought a bunch of stuff I didn't need! I kept buying "one more thing" that was going to solve all my problems, but I recently pumped the brakes on that habit, and I have been enjoying the hobby with a simple setup. Thank you for the videos, I've really been enjoying them.
Lol. You are certainly not alone!
You must be my astro-doppelganger since I, like you, knew nothing and purchased things I didn't need and, following that, spent months figuring things out. Still learning and discovered, as often is the case, that the more I learned the more I realized that I had only scraped the surface of what there was to learn.
One of my favorite quotes is "the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know"... AP definitely makes me feel like that... As does many things 🤣
@@MrWilsonsChannel ....and then there's Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns" 🙄
Thank you SO much for this video! I now feel confident that I can master this.
Glad to help. Clear skies ☺️
wow wow wow after wandering for over 100 odd videos finally got to one video which is exactly what I wanted. awesome !!!!
Glad to hear it helped 😊
Great video, I'm a seasoned astronomer and intermediate astrophotographer, but I will recommend this video to folks!
Thank you for the support. Clear skies👍
Excellent video, I'll have to watch it again and again. 👍
Thanks so much! I saw your video in time to return my Celestron Nexstar 5SE and all the garbage I had bought with it.
nice was waiting for this videos..
I have a neighbor dog that barks incessantly at me while in my own yard doing astrophotography. Ive found that the safe and legal 'fun snaps' used on my property while said barking is occurring, gives me hours of sweet sweet night time silence. On a side note, you can loosen the thumb screws on the green graduated ring and rotate it, so that 0 lines up with your arrow. Cheers!
Thanks for the dog tip 😊 all the neighbors have them and they drive me crazy. It's like "let your dog inside when it's cold, people!" I have zero lined up with the "home position". My reticle inside the eyepiece is what's not aligned. I found a complicated way online to correct it, but I don't want to risk messing it up and making it worse. Moving to 4-20 puts the reticle in the right position and lets me reserve zero for home. I guess it's just the lazy fix 😉
Thanks, you've saved me a small fortune in time and money
Glad to hear it! 😊
Good, Spectacle JOB!
Ah, the 420 position. That's my Favorite one.
Jokes aside, this is a huge help. Thank you, sir.
That was a great video!
Thank You Mr Wilson!
Yes, this was beneficial and helpful. It will make a difference this week as I get my rig set up. Thank you for taking the time and effort!
Glad to help. Clear skies!
G'day Mr. Wilson, Esq.,
A perfect presentation in every way. You had my attention, you made it interesting and very informative with giving me the desirer to wanting learn more. I would like to get into astrophotography, being a visual viewer at the moment, but not knowing were to start, has made the thought process easy in what I have learnt through your real life practical experiences. Thank you Mr. Wilson, thank you!
Excellent production,very helpful 👍
Thanks for the super usefull video, the very best I've seen so far.
Thank you Mr. Wilson, I'm new to the hobby and most astrophotography videos out there assume a lot of knowledge but your video really starts where I need direction. Figuring out what the workflow should be and what adapters I need to make imaging possible. The back focus explanation is a great example. I discovered the back focus is an issue because most content creators talk about it while reviewing/evaluating something else but never really show/explain the steps in the process and the adapters they were using to meet the requirement. Thank you for the clear-eyed explanations. I sub'd to your channel and look forward to learning from your experiences (I just upgraded from a Nexstar 127 Al-Az to a C9.25 XLT SCT with a CGEM2 mount and WOW, what a learning curve!)
Thank you for your kind words. I thought astrophotography was just hooking the camera up to the telescope and pressing the shutter release. I had no idea there was so much involved. I hit the CZcams hard trying to find answers and ran into the same trouble you have with other videos assuming you already know what you're doing. My goal was to make everything much more approachable to the beginner like me. I'm glad you found this useful. Clear skies!
Great tutorial very informative!
I need to say thank you. I am at the research point before starting astrophotography. I was doing exactly what you were saying about the rabbit holes. This video has been the most informative that I have seen that I could understand, so much so that it also helped me to understand all the other videos I watched for countless month's. Thank you again. I hit the like and subscribed button and can't wait to watch all your other videos.
Mission Accomplished! Thank you so much for the awesome compliment. That's exactly the effect I was hoping for. I searched looking for things I thought I needed, all the while asking the wrong questions. I'm glad this helped and got you on the right track. One of the biggest things I didn't recognize when I started is that the photos you take don't come out of the telescope looking awesome... In fact sometimes they come out completely black! You have to do a lot of processing at the computer to enhance the images you capture. I did some videos on that subject too when you get to that point. Clear skies!
Thank your Sir, this is exactly what I was looking for. I really appreciate the fast-track starting point for me … learning from your experience.
I'm glad this was useful to you. Clear skies!
A very clear, very thorough video. Definately earned my subsciption. Thanks.
Thanks for the support. Clear skies!
Phenomenal video. Super informative. Great content! Thank you!!!
Amazing video. Thanks for putting that together. Very thorough.
Glad it was helpful 🙂
Really. Your setup says "I'm so stinking advanced!" A picture of my setup says "I'm new here and I don't know what to do". If I'm ever close to your level I'll come back and rewatch this.
Steve
Hi Steve, and thanks for your input. The beginning of the video discusses the inevitable progression from cellphone on a tripod to dslr to dslr on a start tracker to the full rig. The smaller setups are simply a matter of using the timer or a remote shutter release to take the photo. Not much else to say there. The full rig is much more complicated with focusing, guiding, polar aligning etc which explains why it constitutes the majority of the videos length.
Exceptional tutorial!
Hi Mr W.
I just viewed your astrophotography walkthrough video and found it very useful.
I am starting visual astronomy with a Celestron Edge HD 8 inch, and contemplating photography in a few months time.
Going back to complete basics was very helpful. Other videos assume too much prior knowledge.
Thanks for your succinct style.
Cheers. Jim, Sydney Australia
Thank you for your kind words. I know what you mean about other videos assuming to much. When I first started, all the videos totally left me in the dust. My goal is to make the subject much more approachable.
I have spent countless hours watching tutorials and procuring knowledge of this hobby. This is, in my opinion, the most comprehensive and useful guide on the ASIair workflow and explaining the critical importance of back focus. I am interested in the Celestron OAG for my SCT , already using the ASI120mm mini with a guide scope, but also considering the ASI2600NC duo. Big difference in price but is it worth it? Thanks for this amazing video. Love your work!
Thank you! I think my next video may be about OAG's, so be on the lookout for it 😉
Hey, Mr. Wilson 🙋♀️ Thanks for another great and informational video. I'll be sure to tag my sister and brother-in-law when I share this video. They're also into astrophotography, and I'm sure they'll learn a thing or two with all your tips and tricks. And thanks for cutting straight to the chase, to make your points clear. I've noticed that far too many people hem-and-haw in their videos.
I get that for sure. There's nothing I hate more than wanting some information and having to hear about some guys vacation to Utah for half an hour before we find the gets to the point. I try to cut out as much fluff as possible
Awesome, congrats, helps a lot. Thank you 🖖🏼🔭🤟🏼
I disagree with the cost of an astromoded DSLR compared to a dedicated astrocamera. The ZWO ASI533MC Pro is $900 (cheaper on sale). My rebel T7i was $900. This is a relatively inexpensive DSLR. In fact That's why I bought the cooled 533.
Way... better Purchase!
I discovered the Milwaukee PACKOUT for all my photo gear as well. Well worth the cost to keep all those small parts organized!
Superb! Like, saved and subbed, you're an excellent teacher and I look forward to watching all of your extremely helpful videos!
Thank you for the compliment and support. It is appreciated 😊
Very Informative. Liked & Subscribed. Thanks
Well done!
An absolute deluge of knowledge and I thank you very much. After 3 weeks, merely, setting up my focal train and rig and ripping my hair out, I happened to stumble upon you. Now I reluctantly look forward to the coming weeks in setting up my guide camera. This will certainly big a huge help. I hope you have an inkling on how grateful I am for this tutorial. I’ve certainly subscribed and shall follow your journey. There are many other great videos that are equally helpful but for the middle-aged technophobe the lapse on details can add to frustration. Keep doing what you are doing sir (strangely feeling like the kid in the classroom now 😂)… Edit: And my frustrations continue. Still no success with focusing or plate solving
I did a video detailing my journey to get the ASI electronic auto focuser working. I had a lot of trouble with that one. I don't know what auto focus you're using, but maybe something in there could be useful?
Great video. Unfortunately, I have fallen down into the Astrophotography rabbit hole. It's nothing new. Whenever I find something that grabs my interest like this wonderful hobby, computers, art whatever, I'm all in. But I ran into this thing of collecting the equipment instead of learning about the process. I suppose it's cooler collecting the "stuff" than learning the processes necessary to run the "stuff". Something I hope to overcome....I'm 72 years young! LOL. Maybe there's hope for me yet. Anyway thanks for your videos, I'm a new subscriber!
Thanks for the subscription. This can be a challenging hobby and there is a steep learning curve. But it's a lot of fun and can be very rewarding 🤩
I found it confusing at first to understand the optical chain for the off guide guider with no reducer, so to simplify it for others here it goes:
SCT to 48 adapter 1.5 + M48 tube 10 + M48 tube 12 + OAG M48 4.5 + OAG 29 + OAG M42 12.5 + Filter Drawer 19 + M42 20 + M42 5 + Camera 6.5
1.5 + 10 + 20 + 4.5 + 29 +12.5 + 19 + 20 + 5 + 6.5
36 + 29 + 63 = 128 mm
And for the guide camera it is:
SCT to 48 adapter 1.5 + M48 tube 10 + M48 tube 12 + OAG M48 4.5 + OAG 76
or for the OAG optical chain:
1.5 + 10 + 20 + 4.5 + 76 + 12.5 = 124.5 mm
It's possible I may have accidentally cut something out while editing. I'll be happy to run you through the parts list I use. Which configuration were you looking at? With or without the reducer? And with or without an off axis guider?
The 1 mm on the main chain can get compensated with the main focus. The now 2 mm offset between the two optical chains can get adjusted with the focus in the OAG.
Great video, a wealth of information. It really helped me. I am finally getting into Astro photography, so I bought the cgx 9.25
Edge hd My camera is from ZWO. Really looking forward to the day it arrives
I have a c8, but I really want an edge HD. I think you're going to really like yours. Clear skies!
Excellent presentation. I mount my Asiair Plus on the tripod leg with a clip-on from BuckeyeStargazer. Also, the 0.7X Celestron focal reducer has better optics than the older reducer you are using.
Oh man! Thanks for the tip. I didn't even know there was another reducer option available. I'll definitely be looking into that 😀
Thank you.
My wife once said to me "do all your hobbies involve gadgets?" and then I bought a telescope 😊 I've recently been studying the zwo asiair plus as a way to go. Thanks for the information 👍
Lol. I can totally relate 🤣
His wife told that too? Me three 😂
Hilarious! Good starting viewpoint. I’m there. Sub
Thanks for the support. Clear skies 😊
Fantastic. I have got a 8se on a EQ6R and asiair. I am currently using a EAF and a Canon 600d and zwo 224 for planetary/guidecam. I have been using the 224mc with the 1.25" nose adapater but the focal point compared to visual use is so far apart, I didnt think of using rings like you did. Also be far more secure as I find the screws on the nose adapter skews the camera slightly. Great video.
I've done a little planetary with the 224, but the processing is so different compared to deep space targets and I just don't have it "figured out" yet. Glad you were able to get some new ideas from this one. I figured if I covered my full process that someone would be able to pick out something useful along the way 👍
@@MrWilsonsChannel definitely a different ball game, just cant believe I had not thought of using the back focus point with rings and using the m42 thread on the camera, as I never liked the nose adapter. Odd thing is I had in my mind for the canon 600d, although that was very easy to work out with the celestron tring etc ... I do love your videos, always entertaining and full of information.
Thank you so much for the awesome compliment. The channel is still new and it's encouraging to know people are enjoying my content 👍
Hi Mr. Wilson, thank you for your time and effort invested in making this very clear and understandable video for us who are new in this field.
I have a Celestron 6SE and I just got a ASI air plus and a ASI678 MC planetary camera with the intention of capturing Jupiter and Saturn pictures and was wondering, (based on the very last part of this video where you work with a Celestron 8” ) how to use the Asia air plus with my Celestron Alt Az mount to image planets and maybe some DSO imaging if possible? I have a Celestron focal reducer and a set of Celestron lenses. I will appreciate very much your advice Mr. Wilson.
Thank you.
I have an older version of the 8se. It looks just like yours, but they stopped updating the firmware for it like 10 years ago. My asiair pro isn't compatible with my mount as a result, but it may be compatible with yours? Even if it's not compatible, however, you can still use the hand controller to point to your target and the mount will track. I recommend using your reducer while you get the hang of things. The wider the field of view, the less tracking will be an issue. However, an al az mount is always going to track not all that great. If you decide to really go down the rabbit hole, then investing in a proper equatorial mount will give you the biggest bang for your buck. You should be able to do planetary imaging with an alt az just fine, however. For that, you will not use the reducer and put your camera in video mode. You'll use software on your computer to extract the frames from the video and stack them into a final image.
Trying to do the math on that last build - the target back-focus is 127mm - components add to 107mm. SCT to M48 adapter 1.5mm, M48 Tube 10mm, M48 tube 20mm, M48 Adapter on OAG 4.5, OAG 8mm, M48 Camera Adapter 12.5mm, M48 to M42 Filter drawer 19mm, M42 tube 20mm, M42 tube 5mm, Camera 6.5mm = 107mm. What am I missing?
The Celestron OAG I use is huge compared to some others on the market. It takes up 29mm, not 8. So if you plug that in I end up about 1mm too long, which is close enough for my rig 👍
always good to have extra stuff for the future!!🤘
Let me help you, absolute beginner! *Pulls out RASA*
🤣 good point. In my defense, I did cover the evolution from cellphone to dslr to star tracker to... Rasa 🔭
Great video, did I miss you balance the scope though?
Thank you for this, much appreciated. One thing I was hoping you might cover if how you know you need 105mm from your scope to camera.
Glad this was useful for you. The documentation for your telescope should tell you what the required back focus is. If you add a reducer, however, it will change. The documentation for the reducer will tell you the new value. If you don't have the user manual for either, you can probably look it up online at the manufacturers website
An excellent video, it covered almost everything I needed to know to get started. Could you do a similar video using a DSLR as the primary camera? I also wondered do you do much astrophotography with the C8, as being on an Alt-az mount, you must be pretty limited to 30 second exposures before star rotation comes into play. Also on the alt-az mount you are going to be hitting the mount with all of those spacers unless you add a diagonal to the optical train. Great job though and very clear explanations!
BTW this was also the best video of an ASIAIR workflow that I have ever seen!
Thank you for the awesome compliment. I'm glad this was useful for you. I think a dslr tutorial would be a great idea. I'll add it to my list. Regarding your question, you are right... the C8 on an alt az mount is almost useless for astrophotography. I did make my own wedge for it that actually worked surprisingly well. I made a video about that if you want to check it out. And yes, you do need to be careful with your target choices, even using a wedge, because the camera will hit the bottom of the mount. Those challenges led me to add a dove tail bar to the C8 so I can use it on my equatorial mount now. (Did a video on that too if you're interested). With the eq mount and an off axis guider, I don't have any problems at all. It tracks like a boss for as long as I want.
Phenomenal video. Comprehensive and clear. I've learned so much that the other million videos I've watched didn't pull together and explain. With the Nexstar SCT you have my exact setup exc. I have the ASI220 mini guide camera. So, it was as if you made this video for me! Anyway, very helpful. I don't know what you do in real life, but your teaching abilities are off the charts. Thanks again. One question tho'. The back focus distance with the reducer was 105mm. Without the reducer is 129? What is the back focus distance added just from the SCT itself?
I'm glad you found this useful. And in real life... I'm a high school teacher. So there you go 😉 when it comes to back focus, you start measuring from the back of the telescope, or the last piece of glass (Whichever applies to your setup). So if you're not using a reducer, you start measuring from the back of the telescope. I'm other words, the telescope itself doesn't add anything to the back focus value. If you're using a reducer, the reducer becomes the last piece of glass. So you start measuring from that. So any adapter rings or whatever you add before the reducer to get it to attach to the telescope wouldn't count. With the telescope we have, that point is moot because the thread on the reducer is designed to mate with the telescope without any additional components before it.
Ok. Understood. Good luck with it. @@MrWilsonsChannel
Mr Tks super😊
Even though this isn't strictly an ASiair tutorial, a few new features in the app where revealed.
I'm glad you found a few useful tidbits. Clear skies! 😊
That is what's so frustrating about the long winter nights. There offset by very few clear nights!
I hear that!
StellarMate is a very good alternative to ASIairPro, and it's not forcing you to ZWO hardware
Great video! One question: how do you determine the amount of back focus required, e.g., 105mm?
That's a great question. I think that's what my next video might be about.
Why do the old style polar alignment when the ASI \Air does a better plate solving alignment? It's faster and much more accurate. You promoted the ASIAir as the best way for a newbie to get started; utilize all its gifts. I have the same mount and it does a pretty good alignment on its own, but like you're showing, it's labor intensive.
I covered the asi polar alignment in this video as well. I wanted to cover the polar scope option also just in case someone didn't have an asi air or was using something like a star tracker.
Hi, I like your no-nonsense folksy style of presentation. Question: I noticed you position the cradle that holds the scope such that the Dec Clutch lever is located on the opposite side of the mount as the RA Clutch lever. I've always used it the other way, but because I have made really stupid mistakes so often, I downloaded the most recent manual and the photos show that the Dec Clutch and the RA clutch levers are positioned on the same side as the mount. Maybe it does not matter? Did you change the configuration for a particular preference? I am always open to suggestions and if you have found an improvement I appreciate the advice. Again, your videos are very good and I hope you continue.
That's an excellent observation! And one I don't think I ever really paid attention to. It does not matter which side you position it on. If I'm not mistaken, if you return the mount to it's home position before turning it off, it will assume it's still in the home position when you turn it back on. So if you leave the clutch on the right side when you're done one night, and turn it on with it on the left side the next night, it will still assume it's starting in the home position position regardless of how you have oriented it. I tend to do it that way because the dovetail saddle knobs are opposite the clutch knob. I like to be able to see the dovetail knobs (more specifically, I like to be able to see the part of the saddle clamp that moves) when I first attach the scope so I can see what I'm doing better. I once got the dovetail in the saddle a little caddy wampus and almost dropped the scope. Having a better view on it makes me a little more comfortable so I can see if it's seated properly a little more easily. Since I'm right handed, it feels more comfortable to mount the scope with me standing behind and to the right, which is where I usually position the saddle knobs. So long story short, no real reason other than preference, and it shouldn't matter 😉👍
Hello Mr. Wilson! Greate video! thanks for sharing ... Can you tell me how did you fixed the ZWO AEF on the C8 ? I have a C6 and I am trying to do the same ... Thanks !
There's a special bracket that does not come with the eaf you have to order separately. If you check my channel, I made a video called "I finally got it working" where I'll actually show you the bracket and how to install it as well as a few other tips on getting the eaf to focus properly 👍
@@MrWilsonsChannel Can you share where did you got the special bracket ? Thanks !
optcorp.com/products/zwo-eaf-bracket-celestron-c8-c925 this is the one I use for my c8. I think it would work for a C6 as well since there are a lot of slots for adjustments on the bracket. But you might want to contact a sales rep at OPT before pulling the trigger to confirm
Hey, I’ve recently gotten back into night sky imagining and had a go at cleaning my primary on my Newtonian. I also have a SCT and watched your clip from a year or so ago of you cleaning your primary on your SCT. I went to re-watch you clip but it’s not up anymore. However, I’m curious. We’re you able to salvage that mirror and is your SCT up and working again?
czcams.com/video/qMFeWtiw8C0/video.html
Here's a link to my telescope cleaning video. Since cleaning my optics, everything is still working great! I found better wipes than the Costco ones I used in the video. You can find them on Amazon by a company called Zeiss. They work way better then the Costco ones
I'm going to look into that router for sure. I did upgrade from the pro to the new plus but the range is exactly the same🤬 they said because my scope is in the exploradome there is too much metal.
I could definitely understand how an observatory could diminish your range. The router works infinitely better than the asiair pro by itself. But if you're still having trouble, you could try mounting the router near the observatory in a weather proof enclosure and use the router as a repeater for the asiair's signal to your home router.
does shooting with a film camera still have the same issue with blocking the IR light? or this does not apply to film?
To be honest with you, I'm not sure. If I had to guess, I'd say that's a function of the film itself. But I really don't know much about film photography.
Where were you 2 years or so ago, when I embarked on my astrophotography hobby? I have also amassed a bevy of doodads that I a) don't need and 2) don't really know how to use, but now that I'm more comfortable with the gear I have I have gone through and tried to sort it all, organise it and make it more usable. Your videos are amazingly useful to me as a result! I do have a question: why have you labeled your ASI224MC with all the specs? Is there a situation where you need to have that information when you're out at the scope?
I'm glad you're enjoying the series 😊There have been times when I needed the specs for the camera and looking them up was annoying, so I decided to put it in one easy to find place. Stellarium in particular wants some of that information to display the field of view guides. That's really useful , especially when setting up my off-axis guider. Finding a guide start with such a small area is hard to do, so being able to plan it out in advance in stellarium makes it easier
@@MrWilsonsChannel I'm always looking for reasons to label things, so this seems like a good wee project! Anything else you like to label?
I label all manner of things. A place for everything, and everything in its place, and a label to remind you where it is. 😊 I don't remember if it was mentioned in this video or not, but I have a couple of labels on the top of my storage box that tell me which parts to use to achieve proper back focus for my various configurations. There are so many parts involved, it's easy to forget which ones you need. So the label is a quick go to
@@MrWilsonsChannel I agree--I label everything! I have labelled all the spare parts that came with all my astro gear so I know what they all belong to. I need a reliable system to record how to set up my gear for various configurations--mono camera with EFW, OSC with filter drawer, etc, Maybe a good subject for a future video!
Did you define what long exposure is. It varies between many astrophotographers.
As both an astrophotographer and a traditional photographer, I'd say a "long exposure" is any exposure that may result in blurring when hand held. I can hand hold a camera at 100mm and 1/30 second and have it come out sharp. At 1/15 second I have to concentrate and control my breathing. Anything longer than that and I need a tripod. Anything longer than 1 second and I'd say you're definitely in long exposure territory. At 20 seconds with a wide angle lens of say 20mm and you're starting to think about star trails and may need a star tracker. At longer focal lengths you'll need that tracker even earlier.
Ive been unable to get skysafari to function with my setup, identical setup to yours im just doing something wrong.
It's not just you! It is not at all intuitive. I think I might do a short video just on this topic. 👍
The first step in making this all work is to make sure we snuff the neighbor's dog LOL
Exactly! Their 900kw flood light too! 😜
@@MrWilsonsChannel Priceless
I want to shoot semi deep space / closer galaxies with thebhelp of telescope and a film camera. Is that possible? and of course if yes, can you direct me somewhere?
I don't shoot film, but i would imagine the process shouldn't be that different from the digital workflow presented in this video. You'll need a telescope with a long focal length. I get decent shots of galaxies at 2000mm. You'll need to shoot long exposures to gather enough light since you won't have the advantage of "stacking" like we get with digital. I would imagine you'd need an equatorial mount to get a long enough exposure... But I'm not sure how long it takes to expose film under galaxy conditions.
@@MrWilsonsChannel Thank you! ❤️ i will come back to share what i have done once i start! 🌞
What router do you use?
Off the top of my head I don't remember. But if you look in the video description there's a link to a document that shows you all of the parts I mentioned in this video
Total cost of all the stuff you have (just to be curious)?
That's a great question, and one I'm afraid to answer 🤣 it's important to understand you can get into astrophotography with just the cell phone you already have. If you want to add a telescope that could cost anywhere from $300 to $1,200. I think I got my Raza for $1,800. You'll need some kind of a computer, perhaps a laptop you already have. I use the ASI Air pro which costs about $300. You'll need a proper equatorial mount, mine cost $1,600 before all this inflation stuff happened. You can use the camera you already have with your telescope or you can get a dedicated astrophotography camera for about $1,000. You'll need assorted rings and adapters to attach the camera to the telescope. Figure another $150 for those. You don't need an auto focuser, but it helps for another $200. If you live in any kind of an area with light pollution you're going to need some filters. I use the LeXtreme filter for about $320. You'll need a filter drawer to hold the filter for about another $50. If you're shooting relatively wide field like my Rasa does, you don't need a tracking scope. But you'll definitely need it if you're using a longer focal length or just want to improve your tracking. A tracking scope goes for $100, and a tracking camera for about another $150. If you want to add a do heater, that's another $50, and if you want a fancy controller for it too which isn't required that's another $200. You might want bags and carrying cases to store everything in. I use those nice Milwaukee tool boxes which aren't cheap. Probably another $300 there. No one obviously drops all of this at once. You start with one thing and then slowly add the next thing to get incremental improvements in your shots. Eventually you've got all that stuff and you start getting some pretty decent shots. Most of the real work, however, happens in your post processing. You can make somewhat crummy looking photos still look pretty good if you know what you're doing
I don't know why the RASA scopes have the mount for the camera in the front??!! The cables get in the way of the light coming into the scope! It makes NO sense what-so-ever!
It's a consequence of the original primary mirror borrowed from standard Celestron scopes. With its 400mm focal length (which is directly determined by the actual curvature ground into the mirror) you have to have either the imager optics or a secondary mirror sitting just slightly less than that 400mm from the mirror
Mr. Wilson - I run the Astrophotography page on Facebook and we get daily questions about how to get started in astrophotography. I would like to provide a permanent link at the top of our page to this CZcams post. Do I have your permission? Thanks - Steve
Absolutely. I'm trying to build my channel and would love any exposure you can offer. Feel free to share any of my videos you'd like. Clear skies!
@@MrWilsonsChannel Thanks/ I will post later today.
I posted the link to the page twice but it looks like CZcams does not like links in comments.
I've had problems with you tube deleting viewer comments whether they had links or not. I'm not sure what causes that. If you'd like me to post a link to your Facebook page on my next video, send me a pm on facebook and I'll try putting the link in the video description. We'll see if it lets me do that. You can find me at facebook.com/MrWilsonsChannel
It's really weird how I hear about infrared and H-alpha mixed together, I don't understand where it comes from but I got tricked too.
For a few years now, since I started, I thought H-alpha was infrared, I believed it and it was really dumb of me.. I did learn physics, I should have known.
Why do I see through a 3nm H-alpha filter just fine ? It's not black, it's red, I can see it.
So I checked and sure enough, H-alpha is a deep visible red line.
I don't know where this mistake comes from, infrared might be interresting to look for but it's not for H-alpha :)
You are correct, Ha is in a part of the spectrum you might call near infrared. I have some security cameras which feature "infrared" leds to illuminate the surveilled area in the dark. Yet I can still "see" these leds with my eyes. But my eyes aren't particularly well-suited for seeing this wavelength of light so it appears dim into me. The camera is tuned to this wavelength and can see exceptionally well. This is similar to what's happening with the Ha filter. It's a deep red our eyes aren't particularly well tuned to see, but the camera can pick it up nicely
@@MrWilsonsChannel mmm, it's not what I meant. When I said I can see through the filter, it was only to explain why I started looking into the details of it. We might have a small sensibility to near infrared but it's not what is going on. What I meant is H alpha is 656nm, it is straight in the red spectrum. Near infrared starts at 700nm, where red ends. An hydrogen lamp will emit pink/red light because of this line, almost everyone will see it this way, it's not infrared at all. If it was infrared, it would look blue to the eyes. This is what I meant, and I don't know where this common mistake comes from, it's weird.
Actually, I recently looked at my camera's sensibility (ASI533MC) and it has poor sensibility to near infrared. I looked for it because of the recent IDAS GNB with a near infrared band. I wanted to see if it could be of use, guess not.
Not exactly a beginner choice of mount or telescope.You are best to power the 12v for the EQ6R pro separate from the asiair. You obviously still control it by one of the USB2 ports. Clear skies.
I've been thinking a lot about power as of late and I think you might be right. In fact, I'm starting to think I might be at the bleeding edge of the single 5A wall adapter I'm using for my rig. I think I might make a new video soon where I actually hook up a multimeter to find the real current draw of my components under load. You're also right about this rig not being for beginners. That's why at the start of the video I was sure to mention that you don't need any fancy equipment for this. A cell phone on a tripod will get you good wide-angle shots. I also mention DSLRs and star trackers to demonstrate the usual progression of the hobby. Captivated by images from backyard astrophotographers on the internet, I started with my C8 on an ALT Az mount and a non astro-modified dslr with no tracking or knowledge about how to do this and had all manner of trouble. In this video I wanted to showcase a proper rig so beginners will know what's involved in getting those spectacular shots you see on the internet. Once you've made the leap from Star tracker to full rig, I think the Raza is an excellent choice for your first deep space rig. It's super fast and pretty wide, which makes tracking less of an issue. (One less thing to worry about as you work out all the other issues you'll inevitably encounter as a beginner). I've made some other videos about the mount to show my progression from the alt az to a wedge and finally, begrudgingly, springing for a proper equatorial mount. It's been quite a journey, that's for sure! Thanks for the tips on the power, I'm definitely going to look into that. Clear skies!
Definitely a separate power supply for your mount. Skywatcher mounts work best with 13v DC. I use a Nevada power supply which provides my mount with 13.2v. This will improve your guiding.
Could this be the video I have been looking for? LOL I am a moron, imbecile, noob, on and on..... and am just starting out! A dedicated camera came withe my telescope and it came without any instructions or even a clue as to what application to download to even try getting focused in on an object and my first photograph.
Welcome to the astrophotography club! We all start of exactly where you are right now. I found the learning curve on this to be exceptionally High and a lot of the videos on CZcams sort of start off assuming you understand what you're already doing. Most of the videos on my channel are about various aspects of astrophotography and I try to create them with the absolute newbie in mind. Check out the other videos on my channel and hopefully some of those will be useful to you as well. Let me know if you have ideas for other topics I haven't covered yet.
The dog's name is Heckler.😂
Wow you made that a million times more complicated that it all needed to be, you didn't mention scope balance either.
I'm sorry you didn't care for the video. For what it's worth, balancing was mentioned at 27:54. I'm not sure how I could have simplified the content as setting up a rig of this size has a significant number of steps, any one of which if missed will affect results. I tried to outline all the steps to account for telescopes with both wide and narrow fields of view to accommodate viewers with different needs. The video is also fully indexed in the description allowing you to skip to a specific area of interest in case you were only after a certain tidbit. I suppose I could have gone into less detail regarding each step, but I feel that would be less useful because knowing *why* you are doing something is more important than simply being told that it should be done. If you have specific areas of improvement you'd like to recommend, I'd be open to the feedback. I'm always looking for ways to improve the quality of future videos. Clear skies!
Suggesting a color camera for a guide cam is a really bad idea. Color cameras are especially bad at accurate guiding thanks to the bayer matrix.
That's a valid point, but the extra value in getting to use it as a planetary camera made it the right choice for my sct and I average between 0.5 and 0.8 on my tracking which is pretty good for 2000mm
now after seeing a small part of your video, it is my humble opinion that a beginner not go this route. your setup is far to advanced for beginners and very expensive.
Exactly. That's why I started by noting you can get into astrophotography with nothing more than your cell phone in a tripod. And then step up to a DSLR, and perhaps even add a star tracker. So there are incremental steps before you go big.
Camera should be wireless
That would be nice! There are a lot of options on the market, maybe one out there is? Either way, once the camera is attached to the asiair it becomes "wireless" in the sense that I can view its images wirelessly from my tablet. So at least that's something.
@@MrWilsonsChannel yeah but some usb wireless would remove any obstruction. I cant be first to think of it :)
Very true! It seems like a wireless uncooled camera could certainly be doable. If you needed to run the cooler however, that would use a lot of battery power. I wonder how big the battery would need to be to run the cooler for an acceptable amount of time?
@@MrWilsonsChannel can just make it longer, though im not sure how far out at the front it could go without itself obscuring
Hi Mr. Wilson and thank you for such a comprehensive video. I own 2 telescopes. One being the Meade LX850 14 inch SCT reflector with its accompanying GEM Mount and Tripod and a 127 mm x 952 mm triplet refractor, also with a GEM mount and tripod. I love both of these telescopes. I have been using my telescopes for primarily visual use but once in a while I'll hook up my Nikon D850 and record some video. But, I would really like to start doing some astrophotography, so I can show my friends and family what I'm looking at, and why I do this on EVERY clear night, and day for solar viewing, which is really awesome, and this is the best video I have seen that will tell me exactly everything I need to do that. So, thank you, once again, for your hard work in putting together your video and the telescope work you had to do to be able to publish a video such as this. You got my sub and a GIANT thumbs up! I will definitely be checking out your other videos so I can become more adept at astrophotography. Thanks again.
Sincerely, Rich Williams
Astor, Florida 32102
Thank you for the sub and the great feedback. It's very much appreciated. I hope you enjoy my other videos as well. Clear skies 👍😊
@@MrWilsonsChannel My pleasure Mr. Wilson. Thank you once again and I'm sure I'll enjoy your other videos!
This was very helpful. Thanks so much! 🙂🪐