ASIAir Flat Frames: RASA Edition

Рет қаралды 6,230

Күн бұрын

Taking flat frames with the ASIAir? And a RASA? No problem! There are several considerations for flat frames with the Celestron RASA 8 and using the ZWO ASIAir (Pro or Plus) makes it even easier.
00:00 Intro
00:22 Why Take Flats?
01:42 Equipment Needed
04:51 Setup Considerations
07:22 Using ASIAir App
Links (non-affiliate)
Neutral Density Filters: amzn.to/3sc7P95
LED Panel: amzn.to/3ujeaCc
Embroidery Hoop: amzn.to/3B7ZK9z
Dew Shield: bit.ly/3HvdjBZ
My Equipment:
Telescope: Celestron RASA 8
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro
Mount: iOptron CEM40
Filters: 2" Baader RGB and f/2 3.5/4nm Narrowband SHO
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini
Guide Scope: Orion 60mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
ZWO ASIAir Plus
ZWO EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser)
Twitter: / nickjlake
Insta: / nickjlake
Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/users/bortle9/
Video shot on Pixel 4 XL
Rode Wireless Go microphone system
Photographs of the universe, with galaxies, stars, nebulae, supernovas, comets, planets, Moon, Sun. Inspiring wonder about the night sky, even from the light pollution of Chicago.

Пікірлер: 39

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching everyone! What flat panel do you use for your flats?

@KopLamp 2 жыл бұрын

I’ve placed a comment but I think it got removed due to a link in the comment…

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Uh oh! Yeah I don't see it in my review section, so it may be gone 😢

@KopLamp 2 жыл бұрын

I don't understand... Tried commenting again. This time without the link. Yet it is gone again...

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

@@KopLamp strange! I will look when I get home to see if they are getting held for some reason

@josephluciani5531 2 жыл бұрын

Keep up the great tutorials! Most videos seem to gloss over the finer details making it difficult for beginners, but your patient approach and attention to detail is what makes your channel so valuable.

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for the kind feedback! I am glad the tutorials are useful!

@benlloyd3216 9 ай бұрын

I couldn't put it better myself, They do it on purpose to try to sell you a membership. THEN, all you get is a chat room, and as we all know there is no telling who, you are communicatiing with. Thank you for your comment.

@Crypticdragon1 6 ай бұрын

Ha! I would honestly love to use some tidy-whities for a flats system 😂 I can only imagine the reactions when people would see you doing that 😆

@sebas_ruel Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tip for the Neutral Density Filters! I've order them and was able to finally have good flats with my light panel and RASA8.

@WindyCityAstrophotography Жыл бұрын

Awesome! So glad it was helpful!

@douglasestrada26 2 жыл бұрын

Great! I will try this next time when I shoot the Christmas tree nebula.. I also cleaned my dirty asi2600mc pro sensor yesterday following your video, it is like new again! 👌. God bless.

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Wonderful, glad to hear it!

@JonnyBravo0311 2 жыл бұрын

Good idea using the ND filter to help bring the light source down to a manageable brightness - especially with that RASA.

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Yes and being able to add layers as needed for RGB is a big plus!

@AB-ft2lb 2 жыл бұрын

Using the embroidery hoop is great idea!

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@KJRitch 8 ай бұрын

Do your ember which of the three ND filter you used, ND 3, ND 6, ND 9. I have a rectangular panel and will use you tip on the embroidery ring a T shirt. I plan to tape the ND filter on the panel. Thanks. Hope you start creating more content soon.

@deepd4393 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video. Could you please me how to do calibration frames for Rasa8?

@bobbeanbags 2 жыл бұрын

This was great! I love the tip about a five second flat so you can use the dark flats! I had a question do you need to refocus when shooting narrowband flats between filter changes because of new focus or is it close enough with the filters that you can reuse the flats for SHO filters. I was told you can did the focus setting the the asi air log files to refocus if needed.

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Robert! Yes I have found the focus to be close enough that I can go from taking one filter flats to another without refocusing. By reusing do you mean using the H flats for your S and O lights or reusing H flats for multi-night sessions? I have never attempted either but have heard of people with good dust covers and filter wheels doing option 2.

@bobbeanbags 2 жыл бұрын

@@WindyCityAstrophotography Sorry I was a little vague. After watching your video and the idea to reuse dark flats, I think I can take all my flats for S, H and O using autorun or plan mode in the ASI after focusing once. I was wondering if focus on one is close enough. I am using the Antlia 3nm pro filters right now ... not sure how well they'll elk with my Hyperstar yet. Ive mainly used them on my 600mm F7 refractor and my 280mm F4 refractor, I think I will have bandpass-shift filter issues at F2. You must be using a filter drawer with your RASA I assume? Thanks again!

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

@@bobbeanbags correct, using a filter drawer and the focus on my filters is definitely close enough between to not worry about

@3xistenc3 Жыл бұрын

I tried to do flat frames with my underwear but theres a giant Y in the flat frame. Any ideas?

@davidstearn1342 Жыл бұрын

Will the Viltrox fit on a C8 Celestron dew shield?

@TheRhike 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot on your videos, learning a lot, so basically you have a library of Bias, Darks and Dark Flats according to each of your camera, right?, and then on each target or night you take flats?, another question, if you have dark flats do you still use darks?, do you use MasterBias, MasterDarks, and MasterDarkflats like the one produced in APP?, sorry too many questions, you are great, thanks

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much! Correct, the only calibration frames I take night-of are flats. Yes to darks. The dark flats calibrate the flats (same exposure time as flats) and the darks calibrate the lights (same exposure time as lights) so yes I do need both. As far as the master frames, those are produced in PixInsight when I do a stack, so yes from then on I use the Master Flat/DarkFlat for other stacks which saves a little bit of time. I could also produce those masters right after creating the darks library, maybe I will look into that! I don't use Bias frames due to a general consensus I have heard from online forums for CMOS sensors (a similar short-exposure issue to the 2+ second guideline for flats apparently). How do you like APP? At some point I will check it out; I have heard good things!

@deepd4393 2 жыл бұрын

Won’t the OSC camera wires block the lights?

@bobbeanbags 2 жыл бұрын

Can you put a link to the light panel and the ND filters you showed in your video? It looked like just the right size for an 8" RASA or Hyperstar. Thanks!

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Links are in the video description 😀 The light panel looks like it is out of stock on Amazon but that company makes a bunch and it is possible an updated model is available or the exact one from somewhere other than Amazon

@AstroQuest1 2 жыл бұрын

Nice job with video. The flats look good. Just clarification, you said you want 1/2 to 2/3 or 32,000 ADU but when you did your demo it was 21,000 ADU and you lowered it even more? Also, when you do the dark flats, did you find the camera LED to be a factor? It did with me so I had to cover them. - Cheers Kurt

@WindyCityAstrophotography 2 жыл бұрын

Eeek, thanks I will fix that in post 😂 I meant to say 1/3 to 1/2. Target is 20K for me. When I take darks I have the camera disconnected and the cap on over the sensor, so no red light issue (I found I was getting light leakage no matter what I did with the camera still attached to the scope) but I have definitely heard of people covering it for dark frames because of that issue. And for flats apparently though I have never had an issue with it in that case.

@AstroQuest1 2 жыл бұрын

@@WindyCityAstrophotography Yeah that makes sense, in fact 20,000 is what used for the past couple of years. I asked Adam Block about this and just basically said as long as it is somewhere in the mid range of the histogram 20,000 - 40,000 it is fine. For the Dark-Flats just removing the camera and capping it like you do for regular darks makes the best sense. - Cheers Kurt