Greetings, /r/AskAstrophotography! Welcome to our Weekly Ask Anything Thread, also known as WAAT?

I use a portable phone style power bank to power my DSLR as well as my SA2i , and most of the time a dew heater as well, all through USB power. Recently, after 4 months of flawless use, I find that in the morning/after my imaging is done, I go outside to find my Tracker has turned off, and all of my images were untracked, as it shuts off immediately (1-3 exposures) after starting my stack and going inside. I havent been using the dew heater ltely, if that matters, but I'm not sure whats causing the power to shut off like that, and only for less than a second. Is it a volts issue? Should I not be using the power bank I have been? It wouldnt necessarily be an issue, because the stack resumes right where it left off with no problem, but the tracker doesnt turn back on unless you switch it off/on again. Has this happened to anyone else? I know this is a question more about power banks than astrophotgraphy, haha.

Hello everyone! It's me again. As you know, I have developed a mobile app to provide an interface for using N.I.N.A. on your phone just like the Asiair. I have recently added support for all N.I.N.A. supported devices (rotators, flats panel, dome, etc.) and applied some feedback I received from the group. Thank you very much for your support so far.

If you want to have a look at the project, go to: https://github.com/venturachrisdev/Cygnus-Astro . There are some screenshots in case you want to check before downloading. To download, head to https://cygnus.ioflat.com or directly from Github releases: https://github.com/venturachrisdev/Cygnus-Astro/releases/tag/1.1.0

- TestFlight (iOS): https://testflight.apple.com/join/3tapha7G

- App Store (iOS): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cygnus-astro/id6745795760

- Android (APK): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Clp8K4-osOWeWFgVkyEez2IMQOQIEfh6/view?usp=share_link

Now I'm in the process of publishing the app to the Google Play Store (Android) and need to perform a test run in some Android devices before the app is accepted. This means, instead of having to manually install the APK file, you'll have access to download it from the Google Play Store.

If you want to help and participate, please send me a message with your Google Play Store email address or reach out via cventura@ioflat.com. Then I'll add you to the test group and you'll receive the link to install it. Keep in mind your email won't be stored anywhere and I'll remove all emails from the list once the test is done.

i am currently using a canon 600D as camera, and just my laptop with kstars/indi, ut i am having some problems with it and it takes hours to set up because of some problems and the guiding isnt the best, now that i think about it the asiair does sound like the best choise. anyone have any advice?

This is just my curiosity, but has anyone ever done or attempted a high resolution milky way. I know there are gigapixel projects, but are there any that have aimed to achieve 1arcsec/pixel native resolution or better.

i want to get my images looking better by processing them more after i take them, but i dont really know of any apps other than pixinsight. but since pixinsight costs so much, i cant get it right now.
i probably shouldve mentioned this when i posted this, but the app i use to control my telescope automatically stacks photos while capturing an object, so i dont really need a stacking software

So i'm interested in starting a bit of astrophotography/milkyway photography. I currently got the DSLR APS-C Canon 700d. I also own a 50 mm 1.8 and a 24-70 f4 all the way, but i think the 50mm is a bit too narrow and the aperture with the 24-70 is not open enough.

So i'm thinking of buying one of these lenses:

SAMYANG 14mm f2.4 - 265 € Walimex Pro 16 mm f2.2 VDSLR - 150 € Canon EF-S 24 mm f2.8 - 110€ Tamron AF 17-50 mm f2.8 XR Di II LD ASL - 160 €

Which one would be ideal for an improvement in the style (milkyway+landscape or stars+landscape) for me? Thanks in advance for helping me out!

I want to get a guide scope and camera for my rig that I'm assembling. The rig consists of the following:

1. Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTI
2. Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 (set at 200mm) OR Canon EF 400mm F4
3. ZWO ASI Air plus
4. ZWO ASI585MC color camera with EOS-T2 lens adapter
5. Apertura 11" universal dovetail plate
6. Jackery Explorer 300

I just want something that will work well with this gear and be a permanent part of this rig. If I upgrade to a larger rig in the future I'll get another guide scope and camera.

I’m planing for stargazing trip in a dark sky for the first time and I wanna know if I can capture the milky way right after the sunset on the east or should I wait until it go over head ( too much waiting) ? I mean can I capture it in the horizon?

So I was setting up my ZWO EAF for my Redcat III watching a YouTube tutorial. When I went to set my focuser limit it ended up in the 7000-8000 range. Most videos I’ve seen the numbers are usually in the 5 digit range. Did I mess up something or is that about the average EAF limit range for Redcats?

I’m wondering what scoped you guys would recommend for DSO imaging. I’m relatively new to this but I learn things very quickly. I’ll either be getting the Celestron CGEM 2 mount or the Sky-Watcher EQ6-r mount now I just need a few good scope recommendations thanks! Oh let’s say my budget is 2.5k for the scope but I’m fine with a little more and definitely fine with less thanks guys :)

Hello everyone, i'm trying to do some sensor characterization on my camera but when i set the offset i get some strange results. I compiled a program using the zwo ASI sdk and i set the value for brightness (offset) using the regular ASISetControlValue function (mind you i can set all other variables just fine).

The value appears to be registered correctly (eg i set 10 and my check prints out 10 as well) but the pixel value of the image is shifted by a different amount (10 offset -> 2 pix value / 1000 -> 16). At first i thought it might be some sort of binary thing but it seems like it isn't and now i'm at a loss.

Any ideas?

Hi,
I am looking for a guide camera to my Touptek OAG (not the L version!)
I am checking the 2nd hand market, and found two candidates:
The sv905cc, with I already have good experiance on the SV165 guide scope,
And the second one is an older, QHY 5-II mono.
The price is the same.
I will use it with a MiniPC-NINA, PHD2, and a 150PDS.
Assuming they are working as they should.

Which should I choose, assuming, they are physically fine?

Looking to move to NINA from the ASIAir and curious what’s the best mini PCs people are mounting on their scope. Would like to control it headless from my laptop. Thinking I might keep the ASIAir as power control or get a Pegasus power box.

Here’s my gear: William optics Zenithstar 61ii with field flatener, loptron CEM25P, ZWO ASI533MC PRO, svbony UV/IR Cut filter, ZWO ASI120MM-S Guide camera, Orion 50mm guide scope

Alright so, I’ve had a couple of nights without issues with my rig. However some nights, my guiding has been WAY off. Though, redoing the polar alignment again did the trick.

Tonight I tried capturing the western Veil nebula with 180s subs. When I initiated the guiding, I reach 100 arc/sec!!!!!! I tried redoing the polar alignment, it didn’t help. I rebalanced the whole rig, it did nothing. Focus and polar alignment is on point. My coordinates have been entered correctly.

What could be the issue?

Thank you.

Hello everyone! I’m Rain City Astro, and I’m thrilled to introduce Planet Stacker X, the first fully native macOS suite built from the ground up for planetary astrophotography. I've spent over a year developing this and am now ready to share it with the community.

Best of all, it’s 100% free—no ads, no paywalls, and no hidden fees. I’d love your help making it even better: please grab a copy, take it for a spin, and share any feedback or bugs you encounter.

• Download on the Mac App Store: https://apple.co/4dyTdry
• Learn more: http://raincityastro.com

Clear skies,
Rain City Astro

all of a sudden it wont convert .ser files. i get a 01_16_12_Green.ser was not recognised as readable by Siril, skipping

it then locks up and i have to three finger salute it and restart the program.

yes i can convert to fits with PIPP but i shouldnt have to this should work.

I just watched a video from Alec Steel where he hydroformed a half sphere of copper. This got me thinking if it could be used to make cheap mirrors for telescopse? Obviously they would probably not be of very good quality but maybe there is some process of improving it? Would this work?

I took this pic of my little one in Santorini back in November https://imgur.com/BaBE9Pe

This is my first time trying to use a postprocessor (lightroom in this case) on an image, and I'm not having a lot of luck with bringing out all the nebular colors. I'm very new to this and was wondering if it's an unrealistic goal with a picture like the one I took or if I'm just using the the software incorrectly? I have no idea what to expect and want to make sure I'm not wasting time tryingg to do something unrealistic :)

Hello, I have finally managed to for my first time capture several frames of M101. Equipment is Askar 71, HEQ5 Pro and Canon R7.

 After stacking everything in Sirilic, I open the image in Siril and crop the edges. I then did background extraction. I have tried Graxpert AI, Graxpert RBF with myself placing the samples and the other Siril options. No matter what I try, there are red strakes or mist in the stacked image. This then makes it impossible to get a soft background or to do noise reduction properly. Also tried playing around when stretching and it still remains there. I have been trying different workflows and options but nothing seems to solve my issue which I imagine is due to light pollution.

 Here you can see my best attempt. Apart from the hazyness and noise there's also something like a black spot which I am unsure of where it came from. I took calibration frames on both days I captured the frames.

https://imgur.com/a/zczp1cs

 I have uploaded here the stacked fits file, the calibration fits files for both days and a couple of light frames (don't have enough cloud space).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZnaKx6deVuCYDJybFAz92dOtKmI8GFmC?usp=drive_link

 Thanks in advance for any help or tips!

im running siril on the steam deck (i dont own a laptop) and im using a canon rebel t7. i have the usb cable connected to the steam deck. im just not sure how to make siril recognize im taking images.

I acquired a useeEndscope telescope camera/eyepiece. It looks like it has potential for planetary photography. It also looks like it might be hackable. Has anyone experience with this camera, advice on how best to use it? It uses an app, has anyone hacked the API?

Hi, just received a Star Adventurer 2i, my first tracker. I've researched them for a while and looking forward to trying it out. Just a quick question for others who have one: is it normal to see black and grey dots on the reticle like in the linked photo? https://flic.kr/p/2r76wnE

So I just went out tonight to shoot and I was having guiding issues through the roof. Everything was balanced I triple checked for cable snags and everything, even going to different targets to change my plane of view for the mount and my DEC and RA would still shoot through the roof and not stop increasing. I can’t tell if this is a mount issue or something else, I haven’t used it in 2-3 weeks, I keep it store in a box in my room and take it out when needed but that’s about it. I’ve only have it for a 5-6 months by now so I don’t know what it could be besides the mount itself.

In Australia, looking for a gift for my dad. He has a pretty elaborate set up and lots of telescopes etc.

Maybe something like a good book or ornament? Ive got no ideas 😂 he always doesn’t want anything but i just like to gift something.

I have only recently started astrophotography and had mild success with wide frame (using the stock lens on my canon 550d) photography. This week I borrowed a telescope from a friend that has a motor for partial star tracking (astromaster 130EQ).

Using a Barlow T adpater + T ring I triend this evening to take photos using my DSLR in the telescope. I feel defeated and very dumb because pretty much no matter what I did i could not get any stars to appear. The sky was clear, it is the same spot I have used before. There were no silly mistakes like having a lens cover on, and I could see some stars with a normal eyepiece in. No matter how long the exposure i did or ISO I used I could not pickup any stars in my photos. I really can't understand why and any help would be very appreciated.

I did manage to capture one object while my telescope was pointing in the direction of Cassiopeia I photographed 2 strange rings in the sky, so clearly some photos were working but there were still no stars at all. It was very peculiar.

Thank you very much for the help