steppenwolf

I'm pretty sure that the LX -55 doesn't have an ST4 guide port so you will be limited to pulse guiding using the LX200 driving software and Autostar controller. It may help to be sure that the RS232 port is properly recognised by the system as this can be problematical.

This should be a really interesting and 'different' presentation - roll on Sunday!

This!👆 I recognise those 'manly arms' in the second video 🤣

This is the tool I am referring to (sorry was doing all the above from memory).......

Ooops, for white replace grey!! I don't use the white slider at all. To 'balance' the colours, I open the Histogram view, and set the RGB display to 'Colors (sic)'. Next I invoke Levels and adjust the Grey level of the two extreme colours (i.e. those that are shown kin the histogram view as being either side of whatever the central colour is) until all three colours overlap. Essentially as discussed in my first post:- 1. use 'Levels' to adjust the RGB levels together to get a brighter image using an iterative process, i.e. moving the grey slider to the left in small increments to brighten the image and the black slider to the right to bring the background brightness back down. 2. balance the colours as already described 3. once the background is right and the image bright but not burnt out, I invoke 'Curves', pin the background at around a figure of 23 by clicking on the background using the Curves selection pipette (with the sample size set to 3 x 3) until I find a suitable location in the dark part of the background with a sample figure of 23. I then press the 'Ctrl' key and click on the same location to 'pin' the bottom of the curve at 23 then increase the rest of the curve to get the brightness that I want 4. work on the stars if they are over-blown (as was the case with your image) - the stars had strong halos after the Curves stretch so I used the Noel Carboni halo removal 'Action' to remove the halos 5. make adjustments using the 'Hue and Saturation' tool to taste 6. make final adjustments using the Curves tool again With the full RGB set, all colours together Set the 'colour picker tool' to a sample size of 3 x 3 then invoke the 'Curves' tool to sample the background and note the level of both input and output then adjust Levels black slider, resample until you get the required level

There is some colour in there but my very quick process is still a little too magenta for my liking but it is an indication of what is there. In fairness, M33 is a rather tricky object to tackle! Your workflow is very different from mine but that doesn't mean that it is wrong!! However, starting with your 32 bit TIF, I processed the data in PhotoShop starting with Levels first on the whole RGB image and making numerous iterative changes to both the black and white points until I had enough to balance the colours so that their intensities were similar - again I used levels for this, adjusting the red, green and blue channels separately. This latter process got rid of much of the light pollution in the image. I then continued with Levels adjustment until I had a reasonably attractive image with a background level of between 22 and 24 in the Histogram display for each colour. Once I had achieved the background level I wanted, I pinned the 'black' level at 23 and raised the rest of the histogram in Curves. This resulted in over-bright stars so I reduced them using the 'halo removal' tool in Noel Carboni's Actions followed by a further pinned Curves boost and a final tweak with Hue and Saturation.

Hi, I hope you enjoy reading the books! Concrete is the obvious choice for a ground-based observatory but I am no architect so I am unable to offer any advice on your roof other than to say that if the mount isn't as solidly mounted on your flat roof as it would have been on the ground, you are likely to run into issues with vibration and other movement while you are operating the imaging system in the future. The 25th post (Page5) of this thread tells the very sad story of how sensitive the pier/ground equation is and this poor guy did a really good job of everything else! There may well be a construction solution for this but I would urge you to explore the requirements very carefully and try out a proper imaging session or two on the roof in the open before you consider a permanent observatory installation. I hate having to dampen spirits like this ☹️ but mounting is the most important aspect of AP and I hope you do find a way of resolving the potential issues.

I have the 2.2m version and with my 150mm Esprit refractor (1070mm focal length) on an equatorial mount there is adequate room for three adults who understand that the mount moves and they must not impede that movement! Most of the time though, the observatory is used remotely and is, therefore, unmanned. For one adult carrying out maintenance work there is plenty of room but regular attendance by other observers would take a little management with my equipment. Your much shorter C11 would be much easier to 'avoid' as it slews around so three/four adults would be OK. Consider carefully installing on a flat roof with regard to warm air current from the rest of the building and for the future when you move into AP - will the mounting pier/tripod be on a solid enough footing? I cannot stress too much how important a REALLY solid mounting is for AP, even a single concrete pouring for both the floor and pier can be problematical and two separate pourings with a gap between them is the preferred method for a ground-based installation!!

Thanks, Steve, I shall watch the progress of the NINA project with interest.

This will certainly make a big difference to your imaging. Is your light pollution predominantly Sodium or LED based? If it is Sodium based then an IDAS P2 LPS or IDAS D1 LPS filter would be a better choice as they don't impart any unwanted colour like the CLS does - I use an earlier version with my astro-CCD camera and have been very pleased with the results. The IDAS D2 LPS filter claims to be successful with LED lighting but I haven't put it to the test to confirm. Unfortunately, these filters come at a price but the Sodium ones absolutely work very well!

My pleasure!

Ooooh, shiny - well done but ouchhh on the clamp bolts failing .......

I think that your CLS filter is perhaps giving you more problems than it is solving and the strong blue hue is overpowering the red making it hard to recover the signal. In my own quick processing run, the noise developed very quickly indeed. It would be very interesting to see the results obtained from using no LP filter at all although I do appreciate that clear nights are at a premium right now.

Thank you - looking into it to see what is going on!

At first glance, this is a very colourful image but you are, unfortunately, right about the noise and I do wonder if some of your noise reduction process and colour adjustments have destroyed detail in the image. Sometimes a more laissez-faire approach can produce a more natural image. Would it be possible for you to upload a 16 bit .PNG file showing the image after you have done the switch to 16bit mode but before you have carried out any noise reduction/colour adjustment?

I don't think so, your idea of re-purposing PSFimage for star shape detection was inspired!

I guess the answer to that is Yes! in that I have several images that have been taken over a couple of years with a several strip-downs in between! The key to success here is to get the camera orientation as close as possible for the two 'sessions' but this is relatively easy to achieve by always having either a 0° or 90° camera orientation or having alignment markings on all the connections to the focuser.

In that case, what could possibly go wrong! 🤣

You only need to consider three things when doing this - 1. be careful 2. be careful 3. be careful I hope it goes well for you - this link *might* help

@sloz1664 Hi again, Steve - DOH!! I haven't thought this through properly........ yes I can get slaving sorted but, of course, as you have indicated I still can't open and close the aperture or couple and de-couple the dome!! The search for a replacement to CCD Commander continues which is such a great pity as NINA shows amazing promise for just about everything else except perhaps running external scripts at the beginning of a session rather than just at the end of a sequence.

Sorry, only just realised that this had been posted [ thanks for the information, much appreciated.

Excellent news - very pleased for you!

Thanks, Paul, I am very pleased with how it came out.

Crazy how manufacturers allow such an important set of connections to be so flimsy.

So easy to blame the equipment but once there is a doubt set in, it is difficult to shake!