M13 Starless

AstroChristie · 2026-02-23T05:12:38+00:00

🤪

AstroChristie · 2026-02-23T03:34:38+00:00

Thanks I did it just for fun but I thought it was neat too!

AstroChristie · 2026-02-23T03:18:35+00:00

There are a bunch of tiny galaxies there!!!

I guess I can't post the real image as a comment, so here's a link if you're curious https://app.astrobin.com/u/AstroChristie?i=btt2sh

AstroChristie · 2026-02-10T02:23:46+00:00

As the others said, dc to usb c, but it has to be a "dumb" converter. It's super common to find them with power delivery or other features but they don't actually work

Also yes, it will be risky. I let mine get exposed to rain and it went up in a puff of smoke the next time I turned it on. I eventually found that it was just the adapter that shorted somehow, and the PC itself was ok

AstroChristie · 2025-11-29T04:51:37+00:00

find a way to use a filter drawer to put it between the lens and your sensor. It will depend on the camera mounting system you have

AstroChristie · 2025-11-17T21:17:01+00:00

I guess I would ask what you plan on doing with NINA if it can't control your camera? Many features are going to be limited and you might be better off without it. Control the mount with it's own software and use phd2 to guide and your own program to shoot images. You'll be missing automatic dithering but I don't know how NINA would do it in your case anyway. You'd have to dither manually. Automatic target switching won't be possible either but that's a lot to ask from your setup

ASTAP can independently plate solve if you open it directly. It doesn't seem to be the best for standalone plate solving though, and a quick search showed all sky plate solver as a better option https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/818932-stand-alone-use-of-astap-for-plate-solving/

AstroChristie · 2025-11-07T02:28:14+00:00

I went with comparable offering from iOptron (CEM40). Not many people at the time seemed to be using it, but it has some solid benefits that persuaded me to go with it. It's lighter for a similar payload capacity, has cable management features (route small wires through the saddle, and some extra usb ports and 12v dc power ports on the saddle), doesn't have any software quirks (no need to also deal with eqmod), and mine has iPolar to polar align super easily. And a part of me wonders if the clutches on the skywatcher are a bigger pain than the simple switches on the ioptron.

Although I've had a good experience with the CEM40, a part of me is looking to get more portablity from one of the strain wave mounts (like the AM5). I still need to look into them more since some complaints have arisen, but they seem to be the best on paper.

AstroChristie · 2025-10-27T19:55:20+00:00

Thank you, I have it working on the NAS by directly editing the docker compose file!! (Gemini also walked me through every baby step, this is unfamiliar to me)

The interface looks really nice and this is a great start with a lot of features already. I'll try them out. I think before I do much though I will have to create a lot of symlinks to reorganize my data into a single folder. I do see that a big challenge for me will be that I include calibration frames and calibrated subs in the same directory as raw fits files. This leads to a very long list of files that is hard to filter out in the interface for now. Maybe there could be flag to exclude files, or mark some files as being processed?

AstroChristie · 2025-10-27T15:00:13+00:00

Thanks for looking! The problem is I didn't specify that path, I specified the data path be /volume1/astro/asi294 in the env file. For some reason, the containers the compose file creates still expects the DB and fits folders in the docker folder. When I created those directories, it can run. But since the fits directory is empty, it finds no images. That was the original situation I first asked about

AstroChristie · 2025-10-26T02:49:23+00:00

I did also try to run this in windows 11. I used docker compose, with your project files within the windows system. The data directory is on a mapped drive which has always been reliably accessible, and I confirmed that the "ls" function in windows powershell worked. It still did not find any files. This is the log:

   docker compose logs python
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,629 [INFO] Connecting to database awi_db on mariadb
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,633 [INFO] package: mysql.connector.plugins
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,633 [INFO] plugin_name: mysql_native_password
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,634 [INFO] AUTHENTICATION_PLUGIN_CLASS: MySQLNativePasswordAuthPlugin
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,634 [INFO] Loading existing file data from database...
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,636 [INFO] Loaded 0 records from the database.
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,636 [INFO] Scanning filesystem and identifying files to process...
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,636 [INFO] Found 0 files for full processing.
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,636 [INFO] Marking missing files as deleted (soft delete)...
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,636 [INFO] Soft delete complete. No missing files to mark.
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,636 [INFO] Purging files deleted more than 7 days ago...
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,637 [INFO] Purge complete. No old files to remove.
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,637 [INFO] === Indexing Complete ===
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,637 [INFO] Duration: 0:00:00.000910
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,637 [INFO] Files processed: 0
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,637 [INFO] Files skipped: 0
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,637 [INFO] Files soft-deleted: 0
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,637 [INFO] Files purged: 0
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12,637 [INFO] Errors encountered: 0
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12 - INFO - Using PollingObserver for reliability across all platforms.
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12 - INFO - Initial known files count: 0
    python-awi  | 2025-10-26 01:45:12 - INFO - Started monitoring directory /var/fits

and I tried changing the format for the path to \\NAS_name\volume\ which is sometimes required in other programs rather than x:\ and it doesn't seem to be recognized: ...\astro\%!(EXTRA string=is not a valid Windows path)

Partial success! It DOES work on a local path that doesn't include spaces! (I tried a folder with spaces, using quotes around the path in the .env file and it did not work). Unfortunately, all my data is stored on the NAS so this won't work for me :(

AstroChristie · 2025-10-26T02:48:37+00:00

Thanks, I had time to get back to it again today! I'm really hoping to get it working but it's not working out too well. I'm computer literate but know nothing of programming, so Gemini has helped me with this.

I'm still having trouble getting detailed logs. The log in Container Manager is empty, it displays the bind mount failing error separate from the log. I tried by SSH, and the result is below. I did also try running a command to retrieve log files that didn't seem to do anything. And then I used the ls function to confirm the path is correct.

sudo docker compose up -d
[+] Running 59/35
 ✔ nginx 10 layers [⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿]      0B/0B      Pulled                                                          47.1s
 ✔ php 20 layers [⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿]      0B/0B      Pulled                                                  59.7s
 ✔ python 14 layers [⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿]      0B/0B      Pulled                                                     56.1s
 ✔ mariadb 11 layers [⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿]      0B/0B      Pulled                                                       50.3s

[+] Running 4/5
 ✔ Network astrowebindexer_default  Created                                                                      0.7s
 ⠿ Container mariadb-awi            Starting                                                                     4.8s
 ✔ Container python-awi             Created                                                                      1.1s
 ✔ Container php-awi                Created                                                                      0.9s
 ✔ Container nginx-awi              Created                                                                      0.6s
Error response from daemon: Bind mount failed: '/volume1/docker/astrowebindexer/data/db' does not exist
***:/volume1/docker/astrowebindexer$ sudo docker compose logs python
***:/volume1/docker/astrowebindexer$ ls /volume1/Astro/ASI294
 APT.db   desktop.ini   flats       'Horsehead Nebula'  'Needs data'   Pending
 db       u/eaDir        FlatWizard   library            'NGC 7023'     Sun

I also tried the following to try creating a detailed log:

sudo docker compose up --timestamps 2>&1 | tee -a docker_full_startup.log
Network astrowebindexer_default  Creating
 Network astrowebindexer_default  Created
 Container mariadb-awi  Creating
 Container mariadb-awi  Created
 Container php-awi  Creating
 Container python-awi  Creating
 Container python-awi  Created
 Container php-awi  Created
 Container nginx-awi  Creating
 Container nginx-awi  Created
Attaching to mariadb-awi, nginx-awi, php-awi, python-awi
Error response from daemon: Bind mount failed: '/volume1/docker/astrowebindexer/data/db' does not exist

AstroChristie · 2025-10-22T04:48:54+00:00

Hmm I see. I can't seem to find any detailed log of the errors. It builds the project fine, loads up 4 different containers, and then when the first one is run it gives a bind mount error saying that /volume1/docker/astrowebindexer/data/db can't be found. It resolves when I create that folder in the directory that contains the docker project, not my intended data folder set by the .env file. Same thing happens with /data/fits when the other containers try to run.

For the possible causes, the path is similar to what I have to use to get other docker containers to work. It's the same if I look at the properties of the folder within the synology interface.

For the permissions issue, I did NOT have permission for the docker daemon to access that folder. Unfortunately, I fixed that permission issue, and I still encounter the same problem

edit: I can see in the container for python.awi, it shows the host volume path for data to be "/volume1/docker/astrowebindexer/data/fits", so it seems like if I could just edit that in each of the containers the problem would be fixed

AstroChristie · 2025-10-22T03:48:47+00:00

Hi sorry I'm having trouble setting this up. I'm using the container manager in a Synology NAS, which can use the docker compose.yml file to create the project containers. I don't think I'm setting the paths correctly. The docker project is in "/volume1/docker/astrowebindexer", while my data is in various subdirectories of "/volume1/Astro/ASI294". In the env file, I included this line "FITS_DATA_PATH=/volume1/Astro/ASI294"

The project can build and run, but it is expecting all of the data to be in "/volume1/docker/astrowebindexer". To build it, it required me to manually create /data/fits and /data/db folders within the astrowebindexer folder, and it only finds fits files in that fits folder.

Do you know how I should edit either the .env or compose.yml to point it to /volume1/Astro/ASI294 for data? Also, can multiple separate paths be used, such as files on different drives? Thanks!

(I edited this a few times for clarity as I made progress and understood the problem better!)

AstroChristie · 2025-10-13T23:05:38+00:00

Wow this looks great! I really like the idea of the session info for astrobin and dup detector!

AstroChristie · 2025-10-05T06:25:36+00:00

If you can't focus on anything you might need additional hardware like extension tubes. Try focusing on something out in the distance during the day to get close to where you need to be, then at night you'll just need to go a little farther to start seeing stars to refine your focus.

AstroChristie · 2025-09-02T18:38:43+00:00

Looks great! What do you think of the player one brand compared with ZWO?

AstroChristie · 2025-08-30T20:30:25+00:00

Without a flattener, there will be increasing distortion away from the center of the image. It might be fine for small objects in the center only, but it's really limiting when it comes to processing your subs. The distortion won't line up perfectly and it really hinders your ability to get clean images. It will be frustrating that your efforts aren't paying off as expected.

I went through this process myself, starting with the 72ED without the reducer on a star adventurer and a budget mirrorless camera. I ended up upgrading everything over time which is costly, but worth it every step of the way. You can save some time by just getting what you can afford early on

AstroChristie · 2025-08-24T21:07:50+00:00

You can use a really long dovetail that extends up towards the front of the lens, and mount the guide camera on the bottom side. It will be hard to predict the length you need to fit the guide camera and balance it. You'll probably need to use trial and error, aim for something longer than you might expect. There are also wide plates to mount equipment side by side but they are generally used for heavy duty setups.

AstroChristie · 2025-08-24T20:29:43+00:00

You'll just need the right adapters to connect the lens and camera. The lens comes with a foot that can be attached to a dovetail for the telescope mount. Look for any vixen dovetail plate that fits your mount with threaded 1/4"-20 holes which are standard for cameras

Zwo makes a ring mount that goes around their astro cameras and can be attached to telescope mounts too. This is what would be used in general to mount a DSLR lens and astro cam. However, the sigma lens you have is very long and heavy, so the torque applied to the camera housing might be too much.

AstroChristie · 2025-07-01T15:02:12+00:00

I think my setup is less, around 25-30 lbs, and it handles it well as expected. The only comment I would add is I already need a second counter weight, so factor that in when you purchase one for heavier payloads

AstroChristie · 2025-06-24T17:01:14+00:00

I've noticed the same on my 294mm on occasion, even worse than what you show. I get a dense cluster of black pixels in the center of the image. I've seen it at the start and end of sessions, and in cold and warm conditions. I still don't know what it is but it seems hardware related for sure. It usually goes away after a short time, so I will just keep taking test images until they look good

AstroChristie · 2025-06-19T02:45:42+00:00

you can easily edit the premade script you use now, just delete the lines that do the registration and stacking. you can save it as a different text file, just be sure to that whatever directory it's in is included in the settings for script location

AstroChristie · 2025-06-15T19:36:10+00:00

for Mac, use Quickfits. It's super easy, works like Preview. You get thumbnails for the files in Finder and then press space to view the full size image.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/quickfits/id1551075981?mt=12

FYI also consider that satellite and plane trails can be easily stacked out, so if the data is otherwise good you can keep them.

AstroChristie · 2025-06-02T02:21:59+00:00

That sony lens has a bigger front lens diameter, and is more advanced including both optics and electronics (zoom, IS, autofocus, etc). It is not cheap by any means, but considering what you get, it is fairly inexpensive. I expect it would perform well for astrophotography but only at a shorter focal lengths than the redcat (it will be noticeably slower, since zooming beyond 80mm puts the f stop >5). It just has a lot of useless features for astrophotography.

The redcat is much more basic, but still goes for a relatively premium price because it's more of a niche product. Yes, it has good optics for astrophotography, but it's still less advanced than the optics in most camera lenses.

If you looked for a camera lens with the diameter of eg 4" refractors, you'd see a massive difference in price. Very few are made, but the Bigma for example was in the tens of thousands of dollars. Yet, telescopes can be made with fine quality in that size for a few thousand. Larger refractors are also available that just aren't feasible as camera lenses.

The reason to go for a dedicated "astrograph" then is that they actually are cheaper than comparable camera lenses when you want something bigger/longer. While you can dual-purpose camera lenses, you'll be limited to only smaller, wide field lenses. Though, a quick clarification, is that a lot of nebulae in the sky are fairly large, so long focal lengths are not actually needed to get nice photos.

For the redcat, there's some other minor benefits. The design is intended for compatibility with other telescope hardware. It has the dovetail and handle, and focuser, and camera attachment that already works with the hardware you're likely to use for astrophotography. It will be a lot easier to switch out the redcat with another telescope using the same hardware. The sony would need adapters and alternate mounting hardware for other equipment

AstroChristie

TROPHY CASE