I am having a few issues with this DSI and Envisage software, first of all the software tends to hang a lot. The "Preview" button works only when it wants to, I click it and it counts down to zero and then just sits there until I click Abort. This happens maybe 3 out of 5 tries, sometimes more sometimes less.
I have tried reinstalling and also have the latest version of the software (5.85) and still it happens.
This is happening on my laptop computer:
Win XP Home (fresh install and fully updated)
1.5GHz Celery
768MB DDR Ram
etc
And for the few images I have managed to get so far they are not exactly pleasing to the eye (example below), any part that is a little bit brighter than the rest ends up nasty.
I have poked the settings to death and tried different exposure lenghts but always end up with the same result, so if anyone has any hints/tips/pointers etc I am all ears.
Scope is a Meade LX-90 8"
G'day Portmac, can I begin by saying that your posted image is not all that bad. It needs a few things happening differently, but so do the 'fantastic' images, before they become 'fantastic'.
Before offering any help, on the image, how was that particular image acquired?
Is it one long exposure or is it a stack of several short exposures. There is a lot of noise evident, have you subtracted dark frames?
Please let us know what exposure settings, save options and and dark frame subtraction you were using.
As for the S/W hanging, yep it does that. I think it is related to internal image processing operations which sometimes seems to take a bit longer than at other times.
I haven't used my DSI sinse last year and my memory lately is a bit on the slow side, but as I recall there were some issues with issuing commands faster than the software can respond, causing a hang up. What I observed was that the counter would sit there on zero, no other imputs would be accepted, then all of a sudden I would have a responsive console again; but the instruction that caused the hang is discarded anyway. Well something like that in my case any way.
Please respond with details of how you acquired that image, it isn't really all that bad; good tracking, focus seems reasonable, that is an important start, you just need to improve your technique, and that is something you have in common with the best imagers!
waiting to hear back,
Doug
Quote:
Originally Posted by Portmac
I am having a few issues with this DSI and Envisage software, first of all the software tends to hang a lot. The "Preview" button works only when it wants to, I click it and it counts down to zero and then just sits there until I click Abort. This happens maybe 3 out of 5 tries, sometimes more sometimes less.
I have tried reinstalling and also have the latest version of the software (5.85) and still it happens.
This is happening on my laptop computer:
Win XP Home (fresh install and fully updated)
1.5GHz Celery
768MB DDR Ram
etc
And for the few images I have managed to get so far they are not exactly pleasing to the eye (example below), any part that is a little bit brighter than the rest ends up nasty.
I have poked the settings to death and tried different exposure lenghts but always end up with the same result, so if anyone has any hints/tips/pointers etc I am all ears.
Scope is a Meade LX-90 8"
One tip that comes to mind, is don't use the preview function.
If you want to play around with exposures longer than the 15 seconds allowed by the spin buttons or whatever they are called, just click in the live exp time window and manually enter the time you want in seconds. eg. 3.00 would be entered as 180.0.
The advantage of this is that you get auto repeat on your preview exposures while adjusting gain and offset etc. The manual doesn't tell you can do this, but it works.
best,
Doug
just offhand,try (cloud permitting) offset at 50, and try 100x30sec exposures. If you can autoguide your scope, set the quality at 80% or higher, and you might have to use drizzle if you are not polar mounted. What should happen is a few exposure sequences will be discarded while the scope adjusts tracking as required, but it works fine; 70 mins to get 50mins of guided images without a dedicated guide camera is not a bad trade.
gotta go out, will catch up later
Doug
Quote:
Originally Posted by Portmac
The image was 5-6 60 second images auto stacked as .BMP with dark subtraction.
Gain was 100
Offset 54
Auto Contrast active.
That is from memory so may not be 100% acurate.
I did a lot of stabbing at the settings that night
Thanks for the advice, will have a go at it very soon and let you know the results. And I did already check all the videos available from the Meade website, they make it look so simple
I should have looked outside before posting that last message, the clouds are starting to roll in from the south and its not looking good.
If it clears up in the next few hours I will have a go at it.
here is an older M42. It is an example of self guiding. 120 x 30 secs orion ED80. Quality was set to 90%, so some exposures were discarded making the overall acquisition time somewhat more than an hour.
now if I can just get this thumbnail business to work for me..............
Hi Ken,
You seem to be doing everything right and that is a great image for a first go. Make sure you don't tick auto contrast but use the preview button instead. Leave gain and offset as 100/50 . Tick long exposure box and set to 60 second if desired then click preview. It will do the 60 second countdown and should display the image on the screen. I don't know why it crashes on yours when clicking on the preview button. It might be that you have other programs loaded into memory such as antivirus/firewall etc. I normally disable all loaded software when imaging. Adjust the histogram bar black/white until you are happy with the image then click Start.
Also, make sure save all uncombined images are selected and save in .tif format.
Hope it helps and keep it up Feel free to ask away.
btw great M42 pic Doug! love the colours. Anymore?
I have tried disabling all other running software but still the same result, I will remove the Autostar Suite and cleanup before reinstalling again.
Adjusting the historgram sliders was another issue I had, even slight adjustments has a dramatic effect. And the historgram displays nearly nothing when using the DSI as apposed to when using the LPI.....is this all normal?
Does anyone know how to get the so called "Free Update" for Autostar Suite,meade says it's free but when you get to there web site you have to join there "4meade" and that group or whatever it is, is only for the folks in Yankie land, and that can cost you $35US a year you can also buy the update on a cd rom for $9US and $8US for postage but again thats only for the "Yanks" any ideas ? BTW nice pic Doug Thanks NightSky
Hi Portmac, that's really a great image for a first try. Some post processing would bring out a lot more detail. I have noticed that Envisage will hang up a bit during long exposure imaging but it's just a matter of letting it 'catch up' and it comes good.
Nightsky, I have downloaded the free update for Envisage. You have to join the Meade 4M community, but it is free. Unfortunately, only full US members are eligible for raffle prizes etc, but everything else is available (including the free update for Envisage)
Hi Portmac, that's really a great image for a first try.
Nightsky, I have downloaded the free update for Envisage. You have to join the Meade 4M community, but it is free. Unfortunately, only full US members are eligible for raffle prizes etc, but everything else is available (including the free update for Envisage)
G'day Hitchhiker I've tried that many times you would not believe when I use my normal email address ending in "au" it dont work, but when I use a Yahoo email ending in "com" no problem, however even then,when they send me 2 emails to the Yahoo address, and I click on the web address and it bring me to the 4meade it keeps telling me that my user name and password is wrong or I am not registered. I just keep going round in circles. how did you manage to register?
I just had a little play with your image and adjusted the Contrast/Brightness and Curves in Photoshop and there is a heap of detail in there just waiting to come out. There was a great article in one of the recent issues of Sky and Space or Sky and Telescope on post imaging processing which would be good for you to get a hold of.
Anyway here are the results of my 30 second touchup of your image.
Hi Nightsky, I just registered at the website as you described - I can't remember now whether I registered with my 'home' email address (a .au address) or my work email address ( a .com address). I don't recall having any problems logging on to the site.
Here's the mail address for the Meade 4M Community. Maybe drop them a line?
Hi Nightsky, I just registered at the website as you described - I can't remember now whether I registered with my 'home' email address (a .au address) or my work email address ( a .com address). I don't recall having any problems logging on to the site.
Here's the mail address for the Meade 4M Community. Maybe drop them a line?
I sent them a email yesterday and they answered it,asking what the problem was I replied, just waiting on a answer. In the meantime I done a search on Google and found a update, but after installing it and rebooting I still have the same versions. AutoStar Suite 3.18 version Envisage 2.31 version AutoStar Updater 3.62 version is that the versions you have?
I could E-mail the update to you, if you can handle a 5meg file.
I could post you a cd, if I had your address. I joined the meade group using .au, no problems. Maybe your ISP has issues with one of the relay stations or something. Anyway I think I can help one way or the other.
I have Envisage version 5.85
best,
Doug
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightsky
I sent them a email yesterday and they answered it,asking what the problem was I replied, just waiting on a answer. In the meantime I done a search on Google and found a update, but after installing it and rebooting I still have the same versions. AutoStar Suite 3.18 version Envisage 2.31 version AutoStar Updater 3.62 version is that the versions you have?
when I use my normal email address ending in "au" it dont work, but when I use a Yahoo email ending in "com" no problem, however even then,when they send me 2 emails to the Yahoo address, and I click on the web address and it bring me to the 4meade it keeps telling me that my user name and password is wrong or I am not registered. I just keep going round in circles. how did you manage to register?
