Sp@ce_d

All the above. One I don’t see listed... My first delve was inspired by Harry’s tutorials here http://www.harrysastroshed.com/

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/

Almost posting this one out of frustration with the weather but I guess I've been lucky to get enough to make the effort, so here's what I have so far.

Captures between 22 & 30 November through pretty dismal skies.

9x900 Ha Astrodon 5nm

6x900 OIII Astrodon 3nm

6x900 SII Astrodon 5nm

Esprit 150 with the new Flattener/Reducer 0.77x & QSI683

Processed in Pixinsight with a final pass through Topaz DeNoise AI. Still finding it a bit heavy handed & feeding my overcooking tendencies. 

Feel free to poke, prod and mumble about it. Be warned, it's not too pretty in deep. I'd love more data but it's been dire. I have 15mins each of RGB for stars but not happy with results so far so desat ones will have to do for now. 

8 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

I was happy to pay what I paid for my Mesu mount and my Takahashi scope - there was a clear and obvious advantage and they 'felt' like value for money.

But £2300 for 3 tiny bits of glass ???? 

 

Oh yes I do get you. It is very hard to swallow, but the difference between the Baaders (I still have a couple of full sets) & Astrodons were significant (for me anyway).. even if the Baaders are/were better packaged than the Astrodons! So, they do eek out that extra bit, even through the awful skies we seem to constantly have these days. So we're a bit of a captive audience if those are the photons we want to capture. However.. moving up in size & paying those prices even if it is "affordable" has to be conscionable. So if the prices are going up significantly then what is the reason. Manufacturing costs or because there's been a "cheap" supply to get us hooked. If they're going above the Astrodons in price then they loose out because people will buy Astrodons surely if they are in competition. Anyway, it'll all be irrelevant soon if they don't come up with cloud & satellite filters.

4 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

 

 I really cant put hand on heart and say its money well spent.

🤣😂😆 How can you use that turn of phrase in relation to anything Astronomy related under "our" skies 

oh great.. been saving too. So are we talking Astrodon matching prices or beyond? I've got 1.25 Astrodons in the QSI that was bad enough when they were even cheaper?.. (err no.. "less expensive" than they are now!) but thinking of a larger sensor at some point & was gonna get the chroma's. In some ways it's almost worth rethinking.  A set of 2" NB's or a CMOS 2600 or equiv with a dual/tri band filter come in around same price now.. Actually less with the xmas sale/promo on. From some of the results I've seen tempting to try that route. Are sales on filters still as high or is the CMOS OSC now threatening to reduce that market. Or is this just a rumour to pull sales in?

My Obsy is wood and has ventilation so not too bad. The only thing that seems to have been killed by damp over the past few years in my Obsy was a PC, and that was because I shut it down & left it for a year or so. The motherboard had pretty bad corrosion, lasted a few years when left on tho. I have a dehumidifier but don't use it all the time. It's automatically switched on/off when the obsy closes/opens.  Runs on a timer, can set humidity etc.. I usually have it set to run for a couple of hours after close unless the humidity is particularly high and the kits very wet. Got it from these guys.. https://www.dry-it-out.com/dry/observatories.html

This is lovely.. colours are really nice. I prefer this over the deeper saturated hubble palette. I remember a few years ago when richer colours were more fashionable   I had some comments about "make it less muddy" on one of mine which put me off for a bit..  when in fact I find muddy (not in a bad way) and smokey invoke a moodiness I really like. Bit more Turner.. and less Pollock/Warhole ? (I'm no art critic)

Focusmax sorts my focussing for each filter so wouldn't worry me I guess. Is it odd that they are not par focal ?.. I'm thinking of trying Chroma when I eventually need to move on to bigger filters than my 1.25" Astrodons. 

All a matter of taste. So, I like both but.. I guess it's like toast. Now on one hand you can have your toast fully laden and in some cases completely masked.. you could be munching on a coaster!. On the other.. well dry toast is an acquired taste.. Me?.. I go for just the right balance of flavour and crunchy consistency.. so reduced stars on a nice nebulas canvas it is.           Unless it's marmite.. ah now.. do you really want peanut butter with that... hmmmm... 🤣

Yup bino's are the way to go if you're imaging as well.. no fussing about. Before I built my automated obsy 😏... Back when I used to actually go out dragging all that gear about.. Bino's were brilliant for just looking about without distracting from the imaging kit. Still are.. very handy for looking out of the window at the clear skies in middle of night on those err.. increasingly frequent visits to the.. bathroom  

19 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Very nicely done.  How are you finding TNAI?  I've starting using it myself but find it can be a little harsh even with the settings at 1, and it can introduce artefacts around the stars.

16 hours ago, Xiga said:

Topaz Denoise Ai can work wonders on some images, and not work at all on others. It does seems to work well on NB i've found (so far). You do need to crop off those borders first though! 

It does indeed destroy small stars Adam, so you either need to protect them with a mask, or first remove them with Starnet, and then add them back in in blend mode Lighten. 

It also doesn't surprise me that you find it harsh even at a setting of 1. With your 180mm of aperture, your needs are less than most. I often need something in the region of 5-15, but for your setup, you probably would need to either use the 'Recover Detail' slider, or just bring the Denoised image back into PS, and use a combination of a mask and the Opacity slider to find the right balance. Experimentation is the key to making it work with your setup.

Yes I'm finding it a bit strong if not careful and easily feeds my tendency to overcook. It doesn't work on everything and I'm not sure I needed it on this one really as TGV was probably enough on it anyway. Same with the Sharpen AI but I think they are handy in the toolkit. I haven't used PS for some time.. so I use them standalone at moment. I've got Affinity Photo but as with everything not enough time to process with what I know let alone learn new stuff these days. If I hadn't automated the obsy I wouldn't even be getting time to get the subs. 

19 hours ago, MartinB said:

Great capture and lots of interesting detail.  I would call it "The Mexican gun toting bandit nebula"!

Now you mention it Martin, it's so obvious!.. I'd never noticed before 🤔

On 02/12/2020 at 09:34, Kinch said:

Looking good in Ha. I have found this area very difficult to finish in a colour image ....but sound like you won't have to worry about that until next year. 😏

In some ways I think these type of areas look better in monochrome.. At this rate I'll not be satisfied with the amount of Ha yet so it'll be OIII next year at the earliest and SII the year after if I'm lucky so might be a while yet to find out 😁

Never shot this one before and this is a tricky one to get from my obsy now. It's a bit low and the trees to the south west have grown so much in the past few years that I'm only getting around an hours window to shoot between the branches just after dark now. So this is the best 3.5 hrs of Ha out of the 5 I've managed through cloud and branches 😒. Not expecting to get enough OIII & SII this year!

Esprit150 with the new 0.77x Reducer, QSI683, 14 x 900 Ha Astrodon 5nm. Processed in Pixinsight with a final pass through Topaz Denoise I'm currently trying out.

I like this.. you've done a nice job, very natural.

Hmm now you mention it I can't remember ever actually looking through mine.. 🧐 

I take it you got it for imaging primarily?.. get a camera on it you'll love it.

Nice one.. I like this!

Yeah.. Weathers been absolutely awful... teasing us with some clear days & soon as its dark clouds roll in!!

Mine arrived today.. (Thank you @FLO prompt service as always )...  along with more rain.. let alone clouds! That's over a month now with no let up.. no idea when I'll get a chance to test it.. if this year!

Meantime.. here's some pics & initial thoughts. If you are someone that judges value by weight then you certainly won't be disappointed. It has a very solid and well built "attitude" about it. Smooth, clean feeling threads, very happy

Pics show the adapter taken apart to reveal the 2" filter thread.. I've fitted one to show it clearer. Also, less bits are needed with this to attach it to the scope. It fits straight onto the tube rather than needing the extra reducer that the standard flattener uses. One observation I think is an error on @FLO's website. The adapter presents as M48 which is correct in the description but the list of Features and Specs talks about a T2 adapter? As with the standard flattener you'll need an M48 to T2 adapter if going to a T2 thread as I am with my QSI that's going on this. Other than that, I'm at the mercy of the weather until I can get some photons through it to see how it performs.

I'd like to hear experiences too. This must be a fairly common thing but I've only gone to Ron direct once, my experience once on the uk side to get it delivered to me put me off a bit.

 I was in the same dilemma a few years ago when I wanted to convert my focuser/rotator from SCT to RC. If I remember right, when I originally bought it Ron used USPS which was handled here by Parcelforce. Think they gave me a bill of just under £300 for customs etc. to release it when I originally bought it at around $1350. The exchange rate was much better then too. In the end I decided not to send it for the mods & just buy another Moonlite from FLO at £350 as chances are if I got clobbered again its not much more! I'd hope the process is much easier now. Even though my email & phone details were on it Parcelforce only contacted me by letter adding an extra week to the wait time and they didn't even deliver it! I had to go into their depot, a round trip of some 40 odd miles, with ID etc to pay for it and collect it. 

yeah LiFePO4's the one..  l got a couple of Tracer Batteries from FLO years ago and they are still going strong. My 24Ah - 288Wh one is amazing.. goes all night!.. unlike me these days.. 🤣  and still shows hardly any drain.. in fact I never used it from Jan 2018 until July this year when I went out with the portable rig to get some comet shots.. still showed full charge.. and just checked it now as not used since.. all lights are up.. storage life is amazing. My lead acid batteries died in less than a year & that's before I had an obsy!

Hmm.. ok so short answer..this stuff used to keep me awake at night too... {no pun intended!} yes of course you need to rebuild it.. its electrically changed & uncooled.. it's a nightmare to calibrate... BUT... I used to get really stressed about this, however (ok having not used my "self modified" DSLR for.. well.. literally years...)   Olly has a point, his experience is well worth taking into serious contemplation. It's not as if we're not short of clouded out and moonlight skies to do [removed word] all else right now is it? How do your latest "non darked" processed images compare to the "darked" ones anyway? no seriously, I am interested, uncooled DSLR imaging is a challenge.. I took the easier route to cooled ccd.. I don't even bother with darks.. sleep much better now.. 

Oh yes.. my trusty PST has given me some amazing insight into our nearest star.. Eclipse & Mercury transit included.. amazing!

20 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

Not sure but I was literally just looking on the SX website. There was a firmware update issued in May this year and it refers to rebooting the FW after Windows shuts down or if there's a glitch. I will give this a whirl shortly.

 

Interesting... I haven’t updated mine in years “if it ain’t broke “. So, just back to USB for a sec. The quality of usb Components seems to vary considerably. I went through a few hubs & cable setups before I got things settled. Also using active and powered. I’m not sure powered are all equal and actively disconnect the feed from the computer port rather than just boost it. I know mine isolates it so I can remotely switch the 12v supply to the hub to simulate an unplug/plug of the usb. Works a treat. I think the Altair Pegasus powerbox can do this at a port level too. Be interesting to know if this SX update fixes your issue. For any remote setup the ability to simulate a plug/unplug is a must really otherwise you end up having to reboot/restart everything & bite nails hoping it comes back online!

I had this randomly a few years ago with mine. I installed startech industrial usb hubs in the obsy and configured them to supply power to the usb bus rather than use the supply from the computer USB port. Computer ports can vary in their ability to supply enough power to all attached devices.

It does feel like it gets harder and harder every year. I realised a while ago that the only way for me was to automate the obsy. Not cheap but it’s the only way to grab a few subs here and there. In the uk with our constantly changing weather it’s surprising how many gaps there can be between going to bed with thick cloud and waking up to thick clouds.