WolfieGlos

When it’s finally clear for extended runs, of course it’ll be Moon affected! With the way this year has been so far, even with the Moon I’ve decided to make the most of it with two rigs on the go, and a pair of binos for observing. Main rig of the Starfield 102 with an ASI 585mc on the HEQ5, with a smaller rig of the trusty Canon 800D with SY135 on the star adventurer operated with an AsiAir. One of the few times I’ve had a chance to use the Air that I purchased back in the Black Friday sales! Not 100% sure on it though, I really like Nina and the laptop control so I’m struggling to see if I’ll keep the Air long term.

Nice shot, despite the LP, it looks great. We were up there last August, lovely part of the UK. We went over to Lindisfarne for a day, and found out that you can stay there. I did wonder whether it might be a good location for the Milky Way season.

7 sessions in 3 months must be demoralising (I thought you had been quiet), but I'd say from this one image it was worth pursuing. The detail in that core is really nice, Ha isn't overdone for me, and the 25 hours shows across the whole image. It could even be one you return to with more data next season? If not, it's one of the best Pinwheels I've seen.

Thought I'd revive this topic. I currently have PI and Blur/Noise XT on a trial license, and want to revisit old data to see what it can do. I know most people have already been down this rabbit hole....so thought I'd give it a go too. I've just had a very quick re-process of my data from M33 last year. I think a year of additional experience, and using different software.....the result speaks for itself by comparison. I would never say that this had been captured with a DSLR - it seems "too clean" compared to what I'm used to!!! That's thanks to Blur and Noise XT all used on default settings to be fair. Blur XT even sorted out the horrible corner stars that my 72ED always showed. In fact, given that the XT tools can create an image like this...I'm partially questioning myself over whether there is any need to upgrade from a DSLR to a dedicated astrocam....

Holy moly, that's an incredible image of M51 and the tidal stream you have there Olly. Well done 👏 In fact, you've got nearly as much of the stream as the 250 hour collaboration that team did (last year?), although I think they had a lot of Ha exposure in that time. I wonder what 250 hours of RASA imaging would reveal ........ 😉

Here is a 4 panel mosaic of Caldwell 41, or the Hyades Cluster. Captured on 30th March when it was already low in the sky, this is a 4 panel mosaic using my ASI 585mc with an Astronomik L2 filter with a Samyang 135 wide open at f/2. Each panel comprises of 30x5s subs at gain 252, under less than ideal conditions, which ironically assisted with emphasizing the brightest stars especially Aldebaran. Stacked individually in Siril, Mosaic created in ASTAP and then processed with Pixinsight and Blur/Noise XT.

I’d agree with this, I’ve just got the 45day trial for PI and whilst it’s similar to Siril with its tools (but more of them, and easier to control… I feel), it’s the XT tools that really do it. Which you can also get on a trial, for 30 days, and I think some are available for PS. Honestly, the image I posted this week of M106 I have tried several times using my usual processing workflow in Siril, Gimp, Starnet and Topaz, and despite 2 years of use, I cannot get anywhere near the result of PI (coupled with Noise and Blur XT). And I did that in PI with fewer processing steps than usual, and on my first real attempt at using it. I was utterly blown away sat at the screen watching this image unfold. Ultimately I’d suggest it’s down to the AI trickery for sharpness and lack of noise, and I would never suggest capturing less data, but the fact I have a presentable image with only 3.5 hours of data is unheard of for my system at f/5.6 - it’s usually too noisy, but it has possibly been helped by it being a fairly bright target. If we were to have permacloud for the rest of the year, I’d be happy to leave that image alone, but alas, I plan to add more data when I can.

I agree, that's a very photogenic barred spiral and nicely processed. I'm disappointed to read that for something you've paid for, that you get sub-par data in return. I always think of these remote sites as being able to provide the best kinds of data due to the dark skies. Saying that, you'd never know from that final image 🙂 I get what you mean about unsatisfying. In the recent IKI competition for the Crescent, I really didn't feel the same satisfaction and didn't have the same "will" as if it was my own data. I had the intention of trying more of their past collections (for free!) because I have been thinking of going to Mono, and trying my hand at free data would be a good learning experience before deciding to take the plunge. With all of the cloud we've had it would have been ideal, but in truth, I've only tried one other set (M81/M82) and I have to say, I didn't find myself enthralled by it. Perhaps the chase and collecting our own data has more worth to it, psychologically, to some of us than we realise.

Thanks Clarkey. For me it wasn't wind, just standing outside told me that and the guiding graph was very consistent with it's fluctuations (no sudden wind gusts causing a spike). The only thing I can put it down to, is PHD was showing a green text for the SNR, but the SNR was around the 10 mark. The best guiding I had all night (post meridian flip), the SNR jumped up to around the 20 mark. What confuses me, is with the DSLR, if I'm hitting those kind of guiding stats I have star trails. But I didn't get that here. Either way, it worked, so I'm happy. Just on the Ha, I found this example on Astrobin. If I can get two more clear nights, I'll try and dedicate one to RGB and another to Ha. The Ha in that one is seriously impressive! Thanks Lee! Thanks Olly, appreciate it. I have to say, SPCC in PI makes it a lot easier to get the colour balance more natural, and it's probably one of a few of my processed images that "looks right" to me. And it's your fault for showing me Noise/Blur XT on that Triplet image....blew my mind!

Something I've been wanting to try and test this year, hampered by the clouds obviously to date, was to pair my Starfield 102 with the 585mc. Coupled with the 0.8x reducer, essentially I get a huge "zoom" on the target due to the small chip. Being an astrocam, the benefits of cleaner images vs my usual DSLR noise is a major bonus and something I've wanted to explore before I pull the plug on a cooled cam hopefully later this year. The main reason for testing was obviously for galaxy season and to try and put theory to practise, especially given that this system is operating at 1.05"/p. Last night was the first time I've had to try this combination, and with clear skies I was all set. For whatever reason my guiding was all over the shop, spending most of it's time around the 2" mark - low of 1.4" that I spotted, highs of 2.8". Not good. I checked PA, RA/DEC balance and possible cable snags and nothing stood out. My guiding usually sits somewhere between 0.7-1.2, so it's something I need to review. The initial subs captured in NINA varied from 2.4 up to 2.8 HFR, so circa 6 FWHM (Siril reported this as max of 4.8 FWHM 🤷‍♂️). Luckily the individual subs looked fine, so I decided to plough on until cloud ruined play. Having just downloaded PI on the weekend for the trial, I've also now downloaded BlurXT and NoiseXT, and OH MY GOD 😲. What have I been missing out on!!!! Other than the M44 cluster I posted the other day, this is essentially the first image I've fully processed with PI (and a finishing touch of sharpness to the galaxy cores in GIMP). 103 x 120s subs (03:26:00), calibrated with 15 darks, 20 flats and 25 dark-flats. I intend to add more exposure time when the opportunity presents itself, so I haven't focused much on the background here or that horrible star halo. But for a first test, I think it was pretty successful. Comments welcome, and thanks for looking 🙂

NINA should handle it automatically (as long as you enable it), so if it did flip, then well done 👍 I've been doing them for over a year now since I got my HEQ5, but I still watch it when flipping just in case 🙂 I'm also going to be investigating this for myself, along with the multi-star guiding @Clarkey mentioned. I set PHD2 up following a guide (might have been Astrobackyard) early days and it uses single star, and I rarely have issues, but my own guiding last night spent most of the time above 2", which is atrocious. But then none of my images showed trailing and my HFR's ranged between 2.4-2.8...usually they are circa 2.1-2.3. Sometimes we can get obsessed with the numbers, but just looking at the output with your own eyes sometimes can suggest otherwise, but it's definitely best practise to get it as good as possible.

I don't know about other software, but in Siril it can be applied through manual stacking. I've tried it recently with my 800D and it made a small difference to the image statistics, but to my own eye looking at a stack, it made no difference. You would apply it in the flat preprocessing stage, and just type "=2048" instead of specifying the stacked bias master. I don't know about the 600D, but personally at this stage, I would say don't worry about it and sort out the fundamentals of guiding / dithering / flat issues. You can return to bias later. With regards to flats, NINA is great for astrocam flats but I don't find it much so with my DSLR. If you're really struggling, you can try using Aperture Priority (Av) mode on the DSLR and it will automatically set the exposure, I find a white t-shirt and IPAD screen with a white picture on max brightness to be best. Much easier, and I've never had any flat frame problems, from the first time I ever used them. I've got to say, you've certainly come a long way so far Tiffs, lots of questions which is great 👍 I learnt a lot of this over a prolonged period of time, but you'll get there faster than I did 👍

Nice job so far, can't wait to see the final process. I tried it with about 8 hours with a DSLR, it took numerous attempts to process and masking of the core to do it. It was difficult, especially as a beginner at the time. Are you not using the 533mm anymore? I know the weather's been rubbish, but wondered how you were getting on with it?

Nice job on such a small target and limited data.

Thanks @900SL 🙂

The 1.25" focuser is another thing that was putting me off - and the very low price tag suggesting that something's amiss. Given the 533 can use 1.25" filters (I've been told) I thought it might have been worth a punt. But I'd agree with your other comment about Skywatchers QC. Whilst my mount is fine, my 72ED was pretty bad and feels very cheap compared to the Starfield 102. Sat here, looking out at the rain whilst eating my lunch, I nearly spat my yogurt out when I read that 🤣

Hi, and welcome from GloucestershireChris 🙂

Half n half is the best of both worlds, whether that’s a curry or your image. Even if the weather doesn’t let you image now in a minute, the end result is cracking 👍

FLO’s advise and Mr Spocks review (which they linked me to!), convinced me to get the Starfield 102, and I have not been disappointed. It’s a fabulous scope. I’ve only used it for imaging, and although I can’t compare it to other similar scopes, I’d recommend it every day of the week.

It certainly has been a trying number of months now, the cloud just seems to be endless. It's probably a bit like going to the gym; you'll commit and go time and time again, and then if you stop, you find it hard to get the motivation back. But once you do, you'll be back and enjoying it 😀. Fingers crossed tomorrow is clear (for you and everyone else) and gives you some motivation to get out there and put all of that kit to good use. As a suggestion, plan beforehand to focus on one target, maybe a bright one that's easier to capture and that is visible all night long, so if it is clear all night, you'll have enough data to produce a decent image and think "yes, I've done it" and have a reward for your work at the end of it...rather than a multiple night image of a fainter target, waiting for the next clear night to finish it off. Or even put that SY135 to good use at F/2 and capture a nice, deep, widefield image 👍

I think I posted about this last year, and I think it might have been clarkey in fact who recommend an RC! For me, it would have been a 6" due to my HEQ5, but I did find this 0.67x reducer which might be of interest. Essentially, the 8" RC you might have considered would become f/5.3 and reduced to 780mm. I ended up going for the Starfield 102, less focal length but stuck with the frac for no collimation. I have no regrets with this, other than the loss of focal length to be honest. But, lately I've been considering a Sky-watcher 150PL. Although at f/8 it is relatively slow, 1200 focal length for £149 (currently on offer, down from £189) seems a very good option. Reviews suggest it'll work on a HEQ5 (I haven't been able to locate the weight of the OTA, but it is available with an EQ3). The only downside, is that I cannot locate many images on astrobin, which perhaps suggests it might not be suitable for imaging. Those that are there, are pretty good for short integration DSLR images. Failing that, a Seestar might be of interest 😉 HTH.

Are you looking at single shots or stacking? These are single shots with a Canon 77D + EF 70-300L lens. I captured this 18 months ago from Uluru on our Honeymoon. I can't recall if it was edited at all, but if so, it would have been for sharpness only. And this one last year with the partial lunar eclipse, with Jupiter in the frame for reference at 70mm. You can just capture the Galilean Moons at 300mm if your exposure is high enough and you crop right in: Hope that helps.

It can only really be down to the focal length, of course it'll be able to resolve smaller detail. I don't think for one second a 2600MM is worse than an 800D. Although I'd be willing to trade to find out, complete with filters and wheel of course for a fair test 😀

That's a nice one too Vroobel, nice job! Especially with the FMA230, looks like it's working well. I did consider buying that for widefield, but went with a SY135. I take it you are talking about the star at the centre of the hive? Using a 2600MM, nice, that's a serious piece of kit 👍

Thanks Jim, appreciate it! I'm not sure how I'll fare with galaxies and nebulae yet, but it's a learning curve. At least with all this cloud I have a lot of previous data that I can reprocess and test out PI on. Next up will be the XT tools, which I also see can be tested out on trials ......