CGEM DX 11" EdgeHD Lodestar and Lodestar 0.90

[AstroEd]

I did not want to start another thread but I could not get the images to upload when I tried to add them to my previous post. All it would let me do was URL links and I had no preview post ability to see if it worked.

First time I have imaged this.

  I can't believe I did another double exposure of the same 2 objects.

First time I imaged this one as well was very faint..

[Grotemobile]

M13.Hercules.Cluster looks very good.

Steve

[nytecam]

These are more excellent results which would be perfect if you used 'darks' to remove hot pixels - only kidding :-)

Yes - for some reason the edit feature won't allow pic preview but if it's a longish thread or pic filled then a new thread, as you've done, is best. Keep 'em coming :-)

[AstroEd]

Can I pot pics 2 side by side to shorten the post length? I did not think to try last night.

[HiloDon]

Very Nice, Ed. Is that a picture of you actually hugging your mount and scope? lol

You should set up an album in the gallery. Here's mine. Maybe I can get you interested in searching for Hickson Compact Groups. You have a great setup to do it.

http://stargazerslounge.com/gallery/member/36930-hilodon/

Don

[AstroEd]

Thanks for the link will look into it. My new cable came for my Mallincam so going to try actually using my Lodestar for guiding for the first time ever. Yes that is me adoring my newly arrived scope.

[AstroEd]

Very Nice, Ed. Is that a picture of you actually hugging your mount and scope? lol

You should set up an album in the gallery. Here's mine. Maybe I can get you interested in searching for Hickson Compact Groups. You have a great setup to do it.

http://stargazerslounge.com/gallery/member/36930-hilodon/

Don

Don I saw in a post you made of some Hickson Compact Groups you mentioned stacking with SUM feature. Can you msg me details on proper use/settings to do this? When I tried the Histogram bounced all over the place so I shut it off and have not tried stacking with LL since.

[HiloDon]

Don I saw in a post you made of some Hickson Compact Groups you mentioned stacking with SUM feature. Can you msg me details on proper use/settings to do this? When I tried the Histogram bounced all over the place so I shut it off and have not tried stacking with LL since.

Hi Ed,

I still in the learning stage with the LL stacking feature, too. First, make sure you have Paul's latest version v0.10. There are three types of stacking. Paul does a better job of explaining these than I could in the write up included with the LL download. The mean and median stacking with help smooth the image and reduce noise as Nytecam has shown recently. They're easy to use and don't actually change the exposure much. The sum stacking does. What I usually do is only use the white and black level controls. I keep the white level far to the right and black far to the left to start. Once the sum stacking begins, the histogram reading should step to the right for each frame stack. If a frame is not right, the program will not use it, so sometimes you have to wait a couple of frames before they start stacking again. Then as it's stacking, I move the black level to the right to keep up with the histogram and the object will appear and you can watch it get brighter with each stack. You can move the white level back to the left a little as well, but don't let the histogram get past the white level or it will white out. The exposure I use is still in the experimental stage. If an object needs a single exposure of say 90 sec, I might try 10 second subs and stack 10 or 15 images to see what it looks like. My thinking is that if I can stack more and shorter subs that would help with noise and tracking errors. Paul used 30 second subs and stacked five or six of them and got good results, too.

Hope this helps get you started. Just let me know if you have more questions. I'll be testing LL more and will report back here with any findings. I would also ask Paul, if he reads this,to add his views or correct anything I may be wrong on. I'm sure the technique of using LL will improve with use.

Don

[Paul81]

I think you pretty much have it there Don - I do a similar thing myself (with sum stacking). An alternative is that I reset the display processing controls, start taking exposures and take say 5 or so and then stop the camera. The stop button does not reset the stacking. Whilst stopped, I then play with the display settings and see what I have got. If I want more exposures I start the camera again, collect a few more and repeat. I find this a good way of exploring the data I have - sometimes you can see different parts of a faint object by really washing out other parts. The image looks rubbish, but if there is one little area I am interested in I look at that and then put the levels back to something more 'visually pleasing'.

In theory, you should find the part of the histogram which has your signal gets 'fatter' as you sum stack, so you can separate out some noise by virtue of the black and white levels.

It's defiantly a case of playing around with it- I guess a bit like honing one's visual observing techniques!

I hope to find some time to crack on with the next wave of features - notably is the hybrid stacking modes (sum and median combined) and non-linear black-white levels display processing (there will be a choice of linear - as current, and a non-linear function).

[AstroEd]

I want to thank you both for the informative replies, Right now we are clouded (rainy) and other lousy conditions for imaging for the rest of the week so will be awhile before I can try again. Also got new cable for my Mallincam and using the Lodestar to learn my first attempts at guided imaging (See my Flickr for 6 images guiding for the first time ever. I had to use Photoshop to remove hot pixels and tweak histogram, Still learning how to use Photoshop CS5).

https://flic.kr/ps/2wxFNG