Sarek

Had another go using Lukomatico's excellent OSC tutorial. I think its marginally better but there are lots of possible tweaks still to explore. First time I've used GHS in PI.

Hi Chris, Yes this was using the Starfield. Its a great scope. We should probably meet up sometime as we are in the same part of the world! Vaughan

Another version, maybe a little better?

Thank you Thank you. I'll have a play bearing that in mind.

First stab at processing data from last night in PI. Skies were very clear until the early hours and guiding was the best I've yet experienced at around 0.55-0.85 rms for most of the night apart from a 20 minute blip into the 3s. after meridian flip. I wonder if its best to restart the session anew after that? 49 x 300s subs, 25 flats and darks. I think I definitely need to spend more time on processing skills but there is so much to learn in PI and so many different ways to achieve similar results it can be quite intimidating. I'm starting to settle on a standard workflow but keep getting distracted by you tube videos with new techniques!

Was aiming for something like this. Didn't get that close!

Thanks Chris. I just used a one shot colour camera (533MC pro). For a change I started processing by not removing the green cast that came out of WBPP in PI which seemed to allow me more flexibility later on? I wasn't sure about the colour accuracy of the result but I quite like it so let it be. I'm tempted to go down the mono camera rabbit hole but we get so few clear nights I'm not sure I'd have the patience!

First go at this target with the Starfield 102. About 2 hrs of 3 minute subs. Used PI to process including BlurX and StarX with a bit of tweaking in Snapseed Not so sure I've processed it very well but at least I have some data to play with when the clouds roll back in!

Well done Ian. That's a nice image.

A more saturated version. Not sure I like it. Its cloudy again here so will have to wait to better data for the core

Thank you. Processing is quite (sometimes very) challenging but like most things it hopefully improves with practice, not to mention some great advice from others further along in their journey.

Yes, you are right. This image was pretty close to what I wanted to achieve. I'm less concerned with true rendering but don't want to move too far away from it either

Thanks Robin - that is extremely helpful and much appreciated. I will explore these suggestions when we next get some clear skies.

Thanks Chris. I should have done more research on how to image this target. I was only using an IR cut filter this time. I'll have another go with shorter exposures and with the L eXtreme . Interested to see the gain you used there - I normally stick to 101 but it makes sense to up it with shorter exposures I guess? Guiding accuracy is a bit of a mystery to me. Last night it almost never went below 1 and like you seemed to hover around 1.5 - 2.2. I've also rebalanced and made sure I've no cable snags. Can only think its related to atmospheric conditions? Now we have some cloudy nights ahead I'll have time to go back to processing school! Vaughan

I hadn't intended to image M42 when I was setting up last night as it's inconveniently located in relation to my house but as I started early in the evening I had a 45 minute window to give it a go. I went with 180s exposures as I thought it might get even more blown out with longer ones? I used my HEQ5 Pro, Starfield 102, Asi 533MC Pro and guided with Asi 120mm mini (quite stable at around 0.8 -1.0). Processed it in PI mainly using WBPP, BlurX and Noise X (the latter was first time for me and perhaps over egged). As a PI novice I found this a hard target to process satisfactorily. I plan to have a go using GHS and have a few tutorials lined up. Maybe teach myself masking as well? Any advice gratefully received