9 replies to this topic

[Dan56]

Bought one of these for my sister and my nephew. They are beginners . They're in Missouri, I am in Wyoming. So all communication is over the phone.  They were on vacation in the Smoky Mountains and took the scope with them. Lotta rain lotta fog. They sent me one picture of a galaxy or globular cluster. I can't remember, but it didn't look good. I immediately said you're looking at leaves on a tree or you got bad fog. Two weeks later they're back home. She tries to take another picture after she took the full moon and I said the same thing. It was M 101. You're still looking at leaves or you got bad fog and then she pointed out something that got my attention. The dark blotches are all the same, no matter where you're at and what night it is. And here's the strange thing, the moonshots are clear, the sun shots are clear. I asked them to put it in scenic mode. They said clear. I told him to take a light and look at the lens. See if you see anything. Clear. Looking for some ideas. I'll put the picture up that she sent me this morning. True it's full moon and I told her that's kind of a faint object. It's only four minutes long, but somethings not right. I would take my scope out tonight and take a shot of m101 on a full moon. But the forecast for here is rain and clouds so I thought I'd just post this.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Airstrike]

looks like clouds , out of focus ones at that  , or shooting through tree branches with leaves

 

during the day i would focus on the most distant thing possible and set the focus number in the app memory settings , by doing that it will give a better in the park focus to work with when aiming at stars then once focused on a star take note of the focus number then enter that into the app memory settings

 

it might be that your unit is way outa focus , so try the above see if it helps

Edited by Airstrike, 11 June 2025 - 12:47 PM.

[Dan56]

She showed me the moon shots before that, and the sun today looks dead on. She just sent me the shot of M 13 almost 2 weeks ago. I'm looking at a similar pattern. Different night, different object one state different. For now I told her to take some more shots and see if we can eliminate dew. If the same pattern appears over and over somethings not right.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[djbridges]

I would be posting these either in an email to zwo support or else on the zwo forum.  It's definitely the same pattern showing up on multiple images.

[Airstrike]

oh shtt , yeh pattern looks identical , i would send ZWO an email with the screens and voice your concerns 

deffo have got issues there 

i heard ZWOs  CS is amazing  so yeh hit them up or if you still have recipt from the vendor see if they will replace for you

[donniesoprano]

Based on the same pattern on different images of different portions of sky, I would say this is something in the optical train is dirty (sensor, filter, lens, etc).  Unless it's the front element, this S30 needs to go back to ZWO, IMO.

 

ds

[Bob Arnold]

Could the cause of the blotches be smoke from the Canadian wild fires?

[Airstrike]

Could the cause of the blotches be smoke from the Canadian wild fires?

no , the cloud smoke or whatever it is is the exact same pattern formation on both images which is proof enough that there is an issue with the unit

 

you can tell this as both his images are dated 2 seperate nights and locations

Edited by Airstrike, 11 June 2025 - 04:04 PM.

[Dwight J]

Taking a flat frame, as in the latest update, could/should remove those.  I also select a slightly larger image area as in mosiac mode, can help average out those artifacts.

[Dan56]

Update       

A few people here said contact ZWO and or the vendor. I told her that, maybe try a couple more pictures. But she went ahead and contacted. ZWO and the vendor. ZWO did get back with her and gave some suggestions they  did see what she was talking about from the picture she sent them. But later on this afternoon, the vendor got in touch with her. They said , we do not know what those are or why they're there but we're gonna send you a return label and when we get the old one, we'll send you out a new one. I thought I would post this because it's good to see people stepping up in this day. And when this gets resolved, I will even name the Vendor