Hi!
I printed a pikon - <https://pikonic.com> -
and attached the HQ camera to it.
I put the focus mechanism onto a small stepper motor -28byj-48-
and wrote a program to control the thing via a gamepad.

So I point it to saturn and jupiter, and run raspistill and raspimov to
get some images.

But they are kind of blurry .- which can depend an many things like
being low in the sky, thus lots of atmosphere to see through and so.

I did colimation as well.

I did not try the moon yet with the HQ camera (cloudy) , but I did with
a rpi camera version 2 which I had before - and well - not so good. But
images of closer objects - like a powerline 2 km away are good

So - I wonder - does anyone else in this group use pikon, and
then how do you get good images?

I juset found autostackert and PIPP which did not give the gain I hoped
for. but perhaps with more practise


--
Björn

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On Sat, 24 Oct 2020 18:41:25 +0200, Björn Lundin wrote:

So - I wonder - does anyone else in this group use pikon, and then how
do you get good images?

You might get more help from your local amateur astronomy group,
particularly if they have members who build their own telescopes and/or
grind their own lenses, than here.


--
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

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In Nachricht <rn1pg4$h2f$1@dont-email.me>
Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> haben Sie
geschrieben:

On Sat, 24 Oct 2020 18:41:25 +0200, Björn Lundin wrote:

So - I wonder - does anyone else in this group use pikon, and then how
do you get good images?

You might get more help from your local amateur astronomy group,
particularly if they have members who build their own telescopes and/or
grind their own lenses, than here.

--
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

Hallo,

or just try an astronomy-site like e.g. https://www.cloudynights.com, https://stargazerslounge.com , www.forum.astronomie.de or similar.
Just find the search-field and type "raspberry camera" or something
like this into it. And BTW the people in those forums are very likley
to help you.


Greetings,
Juergen

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Den 2020-10-25 kl. 01:06, skrev freak67nospam@freakmail.de:

Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> haben Sie

You might get more help from your local amateur astronomy group,

or just try an astronomy-site like e.g. https://www.cloudynights.com,

I thank you both for your suggetions.
I'm a bit surprised to see that noone is doing astrophoto in this group
though.

--
Björn

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On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 09:02:25 +0100, Björn Lundin wrote:

Den 2020-10-25 kl. 01:06, skrev freak67nospam@freakmail.de:

Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> haben Sie

You might get more help from your local amateur astronomy group,

or just try an astronomy-site like e.g. https://www.cloudynights.com,

I thank you both for your suggetions.
I'm a bit surprised to see that noone is doing astrophoto in this group though.

My guess is that they either use commercial shiny (Celestron or
equivalent and strap a good Nikon DSLR onto it) or they grind their own
mirrors and make tubes/equatorial mounts etc themselves, both because
they can and because its another part of astronomy that they enjoy.


--
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

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On Sat, 24 Oct 2020 18:41:25 +0200, Björn Lundin <b.f.lundin@gmail.com> declaimed the following:

I did not try the moon yet with the HQ camera (cloudy) , but I did with
a rpi camera version 2 which I had before - and well - not so good. But >images of closer objects - like a powerline 2 km away are good

Have you verified that you still have focus movement available when trying sky objects? The closer an object is, the more the sensor has to be "pulled out" of the tube. Objects at infinity should have the sensor as far
in the tube as possible.

Second -- how long are the exposures?

If my math is correct, celestial objects "move" ~15 arcsec per second, even a 1/4sec exposure well encounter nearly 4 arcsec of movement if you
don't have an equatorial tracking mount on the telescope.


--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
wlfraed@ix.netcom.com http://wlfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

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On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 12:09:16 -0400, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:

On Sat, 24 Oct 2020 18:41:25 +0200, Björn Lundin <b.f.lundin@gmail.com> declaimed the following:

I did not try the moon yet with the HQ camera (cloudy) , but I did with
a rpi camera version 2 which I had before - and well - not so good. But >>images of closer objects - like a powerline 2 km away are good

Have you verified that you still have focus movement available

when

trying sky objects? The closer an object is, the more the sensor has to
be "pulled out" of the tube. Objects at infinity should have the sensor
as far in the tube as possible.

Second -- how long are the exposures?

If my math is correct, celestial objects "move" ~15 arcsec per

second,

even a 1/4sec exposure well encounter nearly 4 arcsec of movement if you don't have an equatorial tracking mount on the telescope.

Another factor is diffraction: the PiCam HQ at 38mm square is relatively
large compared with the primary mirror at 11% of total the aperture.
That's not including the mount and with 3D printed support legs, which
will be relatively thick, so at a guess you'll be starting to see
diffraction effects from them as well as reducing light gathering
ability. This combination will tend to soften the focus as well as reduce
light gathering ability.


--
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

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Den 2020-10-25 kl. 17:09, skrev Dennis Lee Bieber:

On Sat, 24 Oct 2020 18:41:25 +0200, Björn Lundin <b.f.lundin@gmail.com> declaimed the following:

I did not try the moon yet with the HQ camera (cloudy) , but I did with
a rpi camera version 2 which I had before - and well - not so good. But
images of closer objects - like a powerline 2 km away are good

Have you verified that you still have focus movement available when trying sky objects? The closer an object is, the more the sensor has to be "pulled out" of the tube. Objects at infinity should have the sensor as far in the tube as possible.

Yes - focus is good. I hook it up to a tv (shooting from an open window
in a dark room) I can see when I gt in and out of foucs. The stepper
makes the movement _very_ fine, and that is needed. It is difficult to
turn the knob by hand and get it sharp. Hence motorized.

Collimation is good too - printed a tool to help that fitted a laser to
help out.

Second -- how long are the exposures?

If my math is correct, celestial objects "move" ~15 arcsec per second, even a 1/4sec exposure well encounter nearly 4 arcsec of movement if you don't have an equatorial tracking mount on the telescope.

I do not have tracking - yet. But that is part of whats fun with a pi
(and 3d-printer). I control the elevation but not the azimuth.
And I tried both taking pictures in burst mode, in slower mode,
and filming. I used the film to feed PiPP (amazing thing that finds the
planet and center it in the pictures) <https://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/downloads> and then I feed the
output to AutoStakkert <https://www.autostakkert.com>.

But hmm, I think I need to try more options in those tools.
I fed it 2 40-50 secs of video but well - it perhaps needs more but
said it was about 1400 pics which gives ca 30 fps which is short. like
33 ms. In that time the planet move from the edge of the screen to the
other edge. and it is small - like 50 by 50 pixels. sizewise it looks
like a tray icon moving.

I lurked a bit on the sites given as suggetions and it looks like my
approach is correct. I perhaps need more patience.

--
Björn







--
Björn

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Den 2020-10-25 kl. 14:25, skrev Martin Gregorie:

On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 09:02:25 +0100, Björn Lundin wrote:

Den 2020-10-25 kl. 01:06, skrev freak67nospam@freakmail.de:

Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> haben Sie

You might get more help from your local amateur astronomy group,

or just try an astronomy-site like e.g. https://www.cloudynights.com,

I thank you both for your suggetions.
I'm a bit surprised to see that noone is doing astrophoto in this group
though.

My guess is that they either use commercial shiny (Celestron or
equivalent and strap a good Nikon DSLR onto it) or they grind their own mirrors and make tubes/equatorial mounts etc themselves, both because
they can and because its another part of astronomy that they enjoy.

Yes - I would have thought that many here would fit into the second
category :-)


--
Björn

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Björn Lundin wrote:

But hmm, I think I need to try more options in those tools.
I fed it 2 40-50  secs of video but well - it perhaps needs more but
said it was about 1400 pics which gives ca 30 fps which is short. like
33 ms. In that time the planet move from the edge of the screen to the
other edge. and it is small - like 50 by 50 pixels. sizewise it looks
like a tray icon moving.

Try Polaris, nearly no movement.


Greetings, Kallu
--
Have a nice day <

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On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 21:16:59 +0100, Björn Lundin <b.f.lundin@gmail.com> declaimed the following:

I do not have tracking - yet. But that is part of whats fun with a pi
(and 3d-printer). I control the elevation but not the azimuth.

Alt/Az mounts will add another complication -- image rotation. From a quick read of the software web site, I can't tell if the stacking software applies corrections for image rotation. I believe the software that came
with my (archaic these days) Meade Lunar-Planetary Imager (monochrome) and Deep-Sky Imager (color) does apply rotations if needed -- haven't used them
in 20 odd years (I need to find new battery holders that fit the arms of
the 8" SCT).

An equatorial mount, if reasonably polar aligned, only requires tracking in right ascension (east/west) as the declination (north/south) of
an object doesn't change as the night goes on. No rotation of objects in
the view.


--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
wlfraed@ix.netcom.com http://wlfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

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Den 2020-10-26 kl. 01:02, skrev Dennis Lee Bieber:

On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 21:16:59 +0100, Björn Lundin <b.f.lundin@gmail.com> declaimed the following:

I do not have tracking - yet. But that is part of whats fun with a pi
(and 3d-printer). I control the elevation but not the azimuth.

Alt/Az mounts will add another complication -- image rotation.

Hmm, yes. Thanks for the pointer

An equatorial mount, if reasonably polar aligned, only requires tracking in right ascension (east/west) as the declination (north/south) of an object doesn't change as the night goes on. No rotation of objects in
the view.

Is that true also for planets?
I get that it correct for stars and deep sky objects,
but planet evolve around the sun, not polaris

As you may have noticed - I am a novice in this field.

--
Björn

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On Mon, 26 Oct 2020 09:41:11 +0100, Björn Lundin <b.f.lundin@gmail.com> declaimed the following:

Is that true also for planets?
I get that it correct for stars and deep sky objects,
but planet evolve around the sun, not polaris

The problem is that the EARTH is what is rotating. When you polar align an equatorial mount, you line up one axis with the axis of the earth. In
that configuration, while the earth is rotating in one direction, the
telescope is rotating in the opposite -- and since the axes are parallel,
any distance above/below the equator stays the same (so no adjustment
needed in declination).

Using an alt/az mount means you have no axis parallel to that of the earth (unless you set up the telescope at either the N or S pole itself!).
As you follow objects across the sky, the two axes of the telescope keep changing orientation relative to the object. Difficult to illustrate in a text-only medium but...

That equatorial mount, on the equator, will appear to the user to be completely on its side.

)|

(where ) is the curve of the earth, and | is the RA axis of the scope). In contrast, the alt/az axis will be

)--

and there is no way to point a scope tube at the end of that axis that can compensate for earth rotation.

https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/what-is-field-rotation-how-does-i t-affect-my-scope-s-viewing-and-imaging

Due to so many scopes now being sold with alt/az mounts (for visual usage, the computer controls on these models is able to track both alt and azimuth) there are https://telescopes.net/store/telescope-accessories/astro-imaging-accessories/fi eld-de-rotators.html
which are motorized to compensate (ignore the William Optics entry -- from
what I see that is a manual rotator which means you have to nudge it during
the exposure; more suited for easily rotating a camera so the long side of
the sensor fits the object better).

More information than you care for at https://telescopemount.org/alt-az-mounts-for-long-exposure-astrophotography-cam era-rotators/
along with the embedded linked articles.

As you may have noticed - I am a novice in this field.

--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
wlfraed@ix.netcom.com http://wlfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

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Den 2020-10-26 kl. 15:26, skrev Dennis Lee Bieber:

On Mon, 26 Oct 2020 09:41:11 +0100, Björn Lundin <b.f.lundin@gmail.com> declaimed the following:

Is that true also for planets?
I get that it correct for stars and deep sky objects,
but planet evolve around the sun, not polaris

The problem is that the EARTH is what is rotating.

Many thanks - I'll look into the links


--
Björn

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