First light - test shots QHY9 mono.

[alpal]

Hi Troy,
I'm not exactly sure now about what happened -
but from memory:

I know that both USB cables for the QHY9 & the Lodestar were plugged into my laptop.
I know that I went to the setup camera tab & selected camera 2 as the Lodestar first.
I then went to the connect tab & connected it.
I then went to the exposure tab & made sure that camera 2 was selected.
I then took exposures in the exposure tab.
For some reason the exposure preset box was set to LRGB.
That is impossible because a Lodestar does not take LRGB & immediately -
although the QHY9 was not even connected -
the filter wheel started to move & the QHY9 started taking pictures - NOT the Lodestar.

In other words Maxim DL was able to control the wrong camera without
even having it connected!

I'll have to try & recreate it on the bench so maybe I'll be able
to make some screen shots.

Note - this did not happen 11 days ago when I first used both cameras in Maxim DL.
At that time I was controlling the Lodestar & couldn't get it to read anything but noise.
I didn't know then, about the screen stretch window to stop that.
I wasn't expecting a new problem this time.

Therefore - so far - Maxim DL has scored 0/10.
It has not been useable at all.

The main function I am looking to get from Maxim DL is dithering of frames
which PHD guiding cannot do on it's own.
Luckily Ezycap - the program that came with the QHY9 camera -
always worked perfectly straight away without having to read any help notes or watch any videos.

Anyway - at least I obtained & processed my first LRGB Ha pic.
Processing LRGB is easier than processing DSLR photos.
With 16 bits you don't need to use HDR toning!

Also: I had bad dust doughnuts on my pics & I discovered that
my secondary mirror is filthy.
I cleaned the primary when I moved it up last weekend but never
bothered to look at the secondary.
My next job is to clean up the secondary & try to center it better.

I will get this system right - one step at a time.

cheers
Allan

[troypiggo (Troy)]

To keep it simple for me, I set up camera 1 as imaging (QSI583) and camera 2 as guiding (QHY5). So for you, camera 1 would be QHY9 and 2 would be Lodestar. In your setup tab, camera 1 should have the QHY9's filter wheel, camera 2 should have no filter wheel. Sounding like you had the QHY9 filter wheel set below the Lodestar camera, which is easy to do I guess if you have lodestar as camera 1.

The "LRGB" option in the expose window is just a preset, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a LRGB camera attached to it. Create your own presets as needed. All fairly simple. Suggest you read the manual on that.

MaxIm is great and doesn't sound like it's at fault for any of your hassles above. Don't give it 0/10 before you even know how to use it.

Regarding dithering, you might be interested in DitherMaster. Never used it myself, just heard of it.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea...8a14bca7f38376
http://www.skymonsters.net/software.php
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea...sed/sb/5/o/all

[alpal]

Thanks Troy,
I just tried Maxim DL on the bench tonight with both the QHY9 & the Lodestar connected.
It seems to be working perfectly on the bench - I cannot
recreate the fault from the other night.
I am now at a loss to know what happened before?
The other night I tried everything to get it to work without success & now it won't fault.

I already used Dithermaster for my Canon DSLR.
I'm not sure that it works with the QHY9.

cheers
Allan

Originally Posted by troypiggo

To keep it simple for me, I set up camera 1 as imaging (QSI583) and camera 2 as guiding (QHY5). So for you, camera 1 would be QHY9 and 2 would be Lodestar. In your setup tab, camera 1 should have the QHY9's filter wheel, camera 2 should have no filter wheel. Sounding like you had the QHY9 filter wheel set below the Lodestar camera, which is easy to do I guess if you have lodestar as camera 1.

The "LRGB" option in the expose window is just a preset, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a LRGB camera attached to it. Create your own presets as needed. All fairly simple. Suggest you read the manual on that.

MaxIm is great and doesn't sound like it's at fault for any of your hassles above. Don't give it 0/10 before you even know how to use it.

Regarding dithering, you might be interested in DitherMaster. Never used it myself, just heard of it.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea...8a14bca7f38376
http://www.skymonsters.net/software.php
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea...sed/sb/5/o/all

[RobF (Rob)]

Allan, pardon my frivolity, but in astrophotography the degree to which problems frustrate you is frequently related to how dark it is where you've set up, and how far from home you've travelled. One thing at a time as you've said before, and gradually build on each success. Hope you track down the issues.

[alpal]

Originally Posted by RobF

Allan, pardon my frivolity, but in astrophotography the degree to which problems frustrate you is frequently related to how dark it is where you've set up, and how far from home you've travelled. One thing at a time as you've said before, and gradually build on each success. Hope you track down the issues.

Hi Rob,
Yes it looks like it may be " user operator error " but
then again maybe I should have rebooted the laptop
& tried again on the night?
Computer problems are almost impossible to track down afterwards.

cheers
Allan

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by alpal

Computer problems are almost impossible to track down afterwards.

Might be worth having a look at the Maxim log files. It records a lot of useful info and you may find some clues...

[alpal]

Originally Posted by RickS

Might be worth having a look at the Maxim log files. It records a lot of useful info and you may find some clues...

OK thanks Rick,
I didn't know about that.
This is all a learning curve & I'm sure I'll sort everything out given enough time.

cheers
Allan