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2 hours ago, morimarty said:

Thanks Ian. I can remember that fantastic narrowband image of the Dumbell nebula you did a few years ago with the edge11. And I thought exactly the same🙂

Blimey Martyn you've got a good memory 🙂!

On 02/09/2020 at 18:25, Backyard Space Dude said:

I love this! I'm trying to process my version of this same area but can't get it anywhere near what I'd like... especially when I look at this amazing example!

I always think it's good to have a reference image like this to aspire to.  If you are confident that you have good data it really gives you something to aim at.  Martin has done a truly superb job here though.  It's a sumptuous image and so cleverly processed - I think he has selectively sharpened structures across the entire frame which gives a wonderful illusion of depth of field which, given everything is essentially at infinity, isn't really there but wow it makes for an incredible image.  I have to say that this is right up there with the best deep sky images I've seen on SGL this year... and the bar is very high these days.

This and he is "fighting some problems with spacing and/or tilt". 😲

That is an absolute beauty Maurice - you must be very pleased with that.

A great advert for @ollypenrice's lovely skies too.  (I hear the wine is pretty good as well!)

First class image Alan - very nicely done and a worthwhile improvement on the original in my view.

Beautifully processed image.  Looks absolutely stunning.

That's very nice Göran - well done.

Fantastic - wish I could get a result like that from my Edge 11"!

Lovely little scopes.  I am not at all surprised that they are in such high demand... worth the wait, though, IMO.

Following on from my previous post, here are a couple of cropped versions that, I hope, show off the Pillars of Creation a bit better.  Just shows how well the data holds up in my opinion.  Again the data was deconvolved in PixInsight with a bit of MLT noise reduction but the leg work done in PS.

Here it is in SHO (Note I have updated this to a different version in which I have deliberately left a little green; I know that's not fashionable but I think it adds a little definition):

And here is a completely different starless process (which admittedly followed very similar steps) that used Starnet++ in PI.  I really like this one too, but in fairness I don't think that the starless images show off just how good the data is... I can (and have) stare at this one for hours, though.

Thanks again FLO and IKI obsy team.  I've been having a really tough, stressful, and busy time at work these past couple of weeks and I have really enjoyed playing with this data and it has really helped to keep me sane - particularly since the weather has been so poor that I've not been able to capture any data of my own.  

Clear skies and stay safe, Ian 

My thanks too to FLO for the IKI Observatory project and for making this data available.  As others have said, the data is a pleasure to work with and I have really enjoyed processing it.  I'm loving the various different versions posted thus far.  I've done a number of renditions - pretty much starting from the data stretch each time - and I am posting my favourite six five - three full frame in this post and three two cropped that I will post separately.  I hope that they are sufficiently different not to fall foul of the letter or the spirit of the rules.

The data was deconvolved in PixInsight using the excellent PSFimage script to generate the point spread function (it's sooo quick and easy), a star mask on the brighter stars, and the following settings (first settings for the Ha and SII, second for the OIII):

To be honest it didn't make a huge difference but did tighten up the data just a bit.  I then used a very gentle application of MLT noise reduction before moving to Photoshop.  I did the colour combine in PS and then used various sharpening approaches (high pass filter, smart sharpen, unsharp mask) selectively.  The various versions come from different stretches of each channel and different applications of selective colour.

First version is a pretty straightforward SHO palette (slightly updated from the original post):

Then this one is with a very different colour mapping but to my eye this highlights a different set of structures and gives pretty good star colour:

Finally, here is a rather indulgent homage to the cover of Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits (an album that was a favourite back in the day).  I found I was able to get some pink into the image to contrast with the blue...  I also left some sharpening in the extended gas clouds that I'd usually think was a bit too much but liked in this version (in retrospect I felt that the original was a tad over-sharpened so this too has been tweaked slightly).

Thanks again for making this data available.

Ian

Brilliant!

Excellent image.  I see lots of images taken via Edge scopes that have chromatic aberrations on the stars - my own images included.  No such artefacts in your image... I'd love to know if that is set-up or processing...

Another lovely image Brendan - excellent stuff.

2 hours ago, Pryce said:

Baud rate?  I am so confused.  

I guess it will make sense once I have the manual in hand and can start fiddeling with the mount.

It's just the speed of communication between two devices.  In simple terms, back in the day you had to ensure that the speed of broadcast matched the speed of reception.  Sometimes bits of the astronomy world takes a while to catch up which is why we've all still been using RS232 interfaces instead of USB on mounts until recently...

I have the 3nm OIII Astrodon and the 5nm SII and Ha.  I must confess that's because that's what Ian King recommended and I trust his judgement.

Excellent rendition Göran - looks like you already have the set up working very well.

That's an excellent version of a target that is difficult to process as - despite it's angular size - is quite diffuse.

The background sky looks a bit too black to my eye, but that aside an excellent image with lovely star colour.

Really wonderful images Brendan - thanks for posting.

or... I used a section of 150mm diameter circular plastic air con ducting filled with concrete.  Now admittedly I poured it at the same time as the slab with rebar bridging the two but it works a treat, looks smart enough to keep the Financial Director happy and was very cheap.

6 minutes ago, -philip- said:

Of course he does, we all do. However throwing your toys out of your pram because 1 edition doesn't have photo's which are from the UK is ludicrous. 

Well that would be your opinion of how he chooses to spend his money... but that's not even what he is saying.  If you read his post he is bemoaning a general lack of UK images "...quite a while back the lack of..." and that this month there are no images at all.

I'm confused as to why the OP's decision is so contentious for you but I am sure they are able to defend themselves so I am out of this thread.

3 hours ago, astro mick said:

You can contact ES yourself,without going through FLO(i think).

Mick.

Anyone know how to contact him then?  Grant from FLO suggested that he pretty much only does corporate work on one of the StarGazine chats.

3 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

No there was star trails picture by a chap that bought my telescope 

Incorrect.  There are no UK images in the September issue gallery.

The images are from: UAE (picture of the month); Ireland; USA; Australia; Chile (remote observatory, unclear where the three people with the image credit are from); France; USA; USA; USA.

I haven't submitted an image to S@N for years so I can't really complain but it does seem somewhat surprising that there wasn't a single UK image submitted that was deemed suitable for publication for a magazine that is published in the UK under the BBC brand.

47 minutes ago, -philip- said:

So? 

Well for me, I like to see images that are taken under similar circumstances to my own - objects that are visible from my location, with similar weather limitations etc.  Of course conditions vary greatly across the UK, but not as much as the difference between the home counties and Texas.

Each to their own, but the OP has every right to spend his money how he sees fit.

1 hour ago, tich said:

I haven't actually tested it yet Ian but with a loose lens group you can feel slight play between that & the corrector plate so I would imagine the star field would end up being quite a mess, I have looked at it & there doesn't seem any obvious way to tighten it so I'm guessing specialised tools are going to be needed to do it.

Fair enough but that would definitely lead me to removing the corrector plate and getting a look at the back end of the lens group.  I couldn't see the screw thread that Francis was referring to on the schematic but that would match what Celestron have done on other scopes. 

I’m not very familiar with the RASA but the secondary holder on my Edge 11 became loose (it was possibly always loose and I just hadn’t noticed...). It wasn’t too hard a job to carefully remove the corrector plate and tighten the secondary carrier - I took this opportunity to flock the scope at the same time...) I’ve never been sure that the secondary is in the factory position - some resources say it doesn’t really matter and the scope collimates well confirmed with star tests. 
 

So I wonder if the same principle applies. Obviously a world of difference between f/10 and f/2.2 but if it’s knackered already you can’t make it any worse!  
 

What are the symptoms of the problem you are having optically or is it just that it is loose?

cheers, Ian

Lovely mosaic Adam.  As said having some space around M31 give it a very different feel and I love the panavision look!