WolfieGlos

How many hours? That’s dedication, and a great result!

Wow, thanks very much Russ! Thanks Peter! As I said in the post, I find ASTAP stacking much better for star colour. It just doesn't do as well as Siril with satellite and jet trails, otherwise I would have had 3 hours of exposure...but I don't think it would have made much of a difference here anyway.

Clusters are great with the Moon period, so here is the popular M13 Globular in Hercules. Stacked in ASTAP, processed with Siril and GIMP. Once again, the star colours from ASTAP are great, much better than a stack from Siril. 144 x 60s subs (02:24:00), imaged across 3 sessions after capturing subs on other targets. Canon 800Da + Starfield 102 + HEQ5. No filters.

Thanks Elp, good idea with the mask in GIMP. I tried layering but it looked awful, and as I stretched the star layer the nebula grew and didn’t overlap with the dimmer nebula layer well at all. Works taken over at the minute so will try again when I get chance.

First ever image?! I’ve yet to image his one, but wow! Great work.

Very nice, great work! Don’t often see this one in SHO, but the blue really highlights the details in the core of the Lagoon. Also I like all of the dust in the surrounding region, something that is completely lost on my RGB rendition thanks my cursed streetlight.

Thanks Roy ! I was surprised how well the detail came out for such a short amount of time, so happy with that Thank you Alan! Yes, that Moon typically cropped up at the wrong time, last 2 nights were clear but it was right over this area. Hopefully you get a chance soon. Thanks Elp! I took the view that if I image these for an hour a night, I can then move to an alternative target and collect data on 2 targets in 1 night; that's how many clear nights we had in succession with no Moon! Very unusual, but fortunate to take advantage of it. That's a shame about that tree for you. Thanks Peter! I didn't notice anything with the stars, care to show an example? I wonder if that had to do with some final colour balancing...which I did after I re-imported the stars. Definitely post it, we don't see many from the UK so be great to see other peoples efforts !

I have been collecting data on M57 (Ring Nebula) with the L'enhance filter after I couldn't get any more on M8/M20 (https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/411320-m8-and-m20-mosaic/ ) after each session, and I'm having a lot of problems trying to process it without blowing out the nebula itself ! Does anyone have any tips or experience with this one? I know the target is a little small for my setup, but where there's a will and all that.... I'm wondering whether this requires a HDR type of process (similar to Orion) to bring this out correctly? I've tried running Starnet on it to try processing separately...but it see's the Ring as a star and removes it ! Examples as below. Any help much appreciated (I use Siril and GIMP), below taken from Siril. Here we have it straight from the stack...no processing at all...and the Ring is clearly visible in the middle: And here it is with nothing more than just a histogram stretch, set to auto and the stretch toned right back. ... Even at this stage, it is already clipping the highlights in the nebula itself, but none of the faint outer shell is even visible yet.... but it is in my data if I use the auto stretch: Any help appreciated 🙂

With the run of clear skies we had a few weeks ago, I decided to have a go at these targets to gather as much data as possible, mostly just to see what I could get even without any astro dark time. This is an exceptionally difficult target for my location, rising above houses near a streetlight, before disappearing behind a larger building across the road from me, it is visible for no more than 1.5 hours per night; and the last 30 minutes are all affected by another LED streetlight beaming straight onto said building and straight into my scope; fortunately, this occurred before the meridian, so no time wasted with flips! But almost every sub beyond 45 minutes into the session was affected by that light, but I kept a number of them purely for more integration time. I've had to contend with a lot of gradients and light streaks in this image, both in SiriL and GIMP. To put this in perspective; Upper Panel - 3 frames on 16th June, 21 frames on 24th June, 14 frames on 25th June (01:54:00 total) + Lower Panel - 15 frames on 15th June, 8 frames on 21st June, 27 frames on 22nd June (02:30:00 total) Given the constraints, I'm reasonably happy with the result. I did lose a lot of the fainter outer shell of M8 with the noise reduction, but it was so noisy I decided it wasn't worth worrying about. I also suspect that M20 has lost a lot of its characteristic blues due to both LP and a lack of integration time. I won't be able to gather any more data on this now, due to the Moon phase and the later rising of these targets. Perhaps I'll make this a multi-year image? We'll see 🙂 So this is a 1x2 Mosaic comprising of 38 x 180s for the top panel, and 50 x 180s for the lower panel, individually stacked with SiriL and then combined with ASTAP's mosaic algorithm. Edited in SIRIL, Starnet, AstroDeNoisePY and GIMP. Equipment - Canon EOS 800D (modded) + Optolong L'enhance + Starfield 102ED + 0.8 Reducer Mount - Sky Watcher HEQ5 with Belt Mod, captures with NINA Total of 88 x 180s frames (04:24:00) at ISO-800, with 50 bias, 40 flats, 26 darks. I ran some sharpening with both Wavelets and also tried SiriL's "new" deconvolution for the first time, seems to be pretty good for the relatively short amount of time in this image 🙂 Comments / criticism welcome 🙂

My first time seeing...and photographing....noctilucent clouds ! Taken on 21st June at 01:30 from the back garden, looking north towards the Malverns (not visible) whilst the scope was aiming up at M57 I believe. Single shot Canon 77D + EFS 10-18 at 10mm, f/4.5, ISO-200, 20s exposure. Minor crop, no processing.

Elp, that is an incredible effort! 👏 For only 54mins per panel as well. Definitely enter it, I've just put one in which I was going to enter but due to forum downtime hopefully it's accepted. I've been considering doing a mosaic of this region next year so this is the inspiration I need! I've done 2 mosaics so far...1 I've posted, other I haven't....both have been 2x1's and I stitched those with ASTAP. It worked quite well for me 👍

I think I'm to have to replace my keyboard....the F5 key has gone kaput! Glad we're back up. Normality restored 🤣

Hopefully this is still accepted for the competition, what with the forum outage for the last few days. I was hoping to add more time to this image, but work, homelife, weather and the Moon had other ideas. Since I last posted this image back in May, I have added a bit of deconvolution on the image which has sharpened it up a bit so have entered this version below. I was a little unsure whether to enter it given the number of phenomenal images already entered, but hey, why not? The DSLR has picked up galaxies in the PGC catalogue and other even fainter catalogs. I can see 2, maybe 3 distant galaxy clusters. Second image with the new scope, imaged across 5 sessions; 10 frames on 9th May, 32 frames on 12th May, 28 frames on 13th May, 45 frames on 15th May, 39 frames on 17th May. Some discarded for the final stack. Canon EOS 800D (Astro modded) + Starfield 102ED with 0.8 reducer. No filters. Sky Watcher HEQ5 with Belt Mod ZWO ASI120mm Mini + ZWO 30mm F/4 Frames - 144 x 300s (12:00:00), ISO 400 Calibrations - 50 bias, 40 flats, 6 darks. Stacked in ASTAP, processed with SIRIL, AstroDeNoisePY and GIMP. Minor crop for stacking artifacts, FL = 570mm.

Wow, what a difference!

Three. things jump out. Firstly, you mention lights and darks, did you take any flats and bias frames? Secondly, the unmodified camera will be a problem. The red in nebulae ( typically known as emission nebula) is in the Hydrogen Alpha wavelength of light, which is beyond the visible spectrum of light and which our DSLR cameras are designed to block out. Otherwise photos would have a red cast to them. Saying that, they don’t block all of the Ha wavelength, typically with Canons circa 80% of Ha is blocked by a filter. By removing that filter it allows around 95% of that light through to the sensor. You can either get your camera modded or buy a second camera that is modded, which is what I did from astronomiser (or elsewhere). His website gives a good explanation: http://www.astronomiser.co.uk/intro.htm http://www.astronomiser.co.uk/filters.htm . That’s not to say that unmodded is useless, it will work well for galaxies and reflection nebula (typically blue, I.e. The Pleiades). Unmodded will also work for brighter emission nebula but it will require a lot more exposure time than a modded camera. Third, total exposure time. 45 minutes isn’t a lot. Generally images have hours of subs to generate that final image, getting more signal and less noise, and allowing fainter details to come through. Heres an example of a work in progress I’m currently imaging. It’s 15 x 180 frames (45mins) , iso 800 in bortle 4 taken at f5.6. Canon 800d, modded with an lenhance filter to isolate specific wavelengths of light. It’s by no means finished needing more time for the outer shell, but this shows the difference a modded camera will make with the same amount of integration time. Stacked and processed in Siril and gimp.

Congrats all, well deserved

Thanks Elp. I didn't consider that, I do have a Star Adventurer which I used to run the 72ED on, but it needed the guider or else subs were limited in length (best I ever achieved unguided was 20 seconds with that FL). So potentially I could invest in another guidescope bundle and do this. With regards to different stacks, I didn't mention this originally but I did consider (if possible) to stack them both separately, then stack the stacks and then run starnet to remove stars. I would then add back in the stars from the 102ED stack and crop to suit. The stars on the 72ED are terrible, so losing them wouldn't be the end of the world, I suppose a bit like some do with RGB stars on narrowband images. Thanks Onikkinen. I always scan my subs (i.e. for trails) before committing them to Siril's stacking and I currently only use scripts for ease, but sometimes I do go back and check the graph, remove bad subs and then restack, so I'd have to get more involved with manually stacking. Which is fine, I just need to understand the whole process a bit better 🙂 I've done it a few times following Siril's guide on the Comet earlier this year. In fact, I have just found some older data of M51 (that I thought I'd lost) that was taken on the 72ED, so I could try combining it with data I've recently captured on the 102ED.....so I might give this a go later this week and see what happens. With regards to NINA, I think you're right. I was trying to see if one instance could operate two cameras, but a quick google search has come up with the same thing you mention; running two instances of NINA. If the stacking seems to work, I'll investigate this and see what it can do. Thanks woldsman. Not heard of it before, but if all else fails I'll take a look at that software.

Due to limitations in my area with buildings and a pesky streetlight partially blocking the south-east to southern sky, it makes imaging targets in areas such as Orion, Sagittarius, etc, very difficult and time limiting. I ran a test a few nights ago and with the current conditions I can capture no more than 45 minutes on the Lagoon Nebula...which will only get shorter as it rises earlier (and is darker later). In fact, as it starts to rise earlier, it will be totally obscured by said streetlight even quicker. Currently I'd be looking at a multi-year project to try and justify imaging this target! Never mind then picking up M20 to make a mosaic..... So what I'm looking to try and do is to gather photons faster. Upgrading to a faster scope is out of the question, given I've only recently done so! My setup is currently a modded Canon 800D + Starfield 102 on a HEQ5. I guide using the ZWO miniguider bundle, all operated via Stellarium and NINA. Now I have the Starfield, I have a semi-retired Skywatcher 72ED, and also a stock Canon 77D, so I was considering whether to mount the 72ED on top of the Starfield. I would need to run a dovetail bar across the top of the SF (I have a spare that fits, it just needs a hole drilled), so in theory this could be done. I've tried to show it below in my superb mock-up in paint... Both cameras have the same sensor, but the scopes are different focal lengths (570 vs 357 with reducers). Working out the weights, the OTA's with cameras and the guider comes to 7.8kg (without flatteners), so I should be within the HEQ5's limit of 11kg. I imagine I would need to stack images from both separately (at least due to flats), but in theory I could then combine the stacks? Is this achievable? Are there any issues combining images taken at different focal lengths with the same camera sensor? Also, can NINA operate two cameras at once, and control dithering? Any help appreciated 🙂 45 minutes on M8 with l-enhance filter, AstroDeNoisePY and then mild stretches in Siril. Played about with wavelets as a test to sharpen. Outer shells just visible.

Wow, incredible series of shots! To also get the aurora whilst there you were very lucky. Agree with the mist, it looks almost magical. Great work!

Great result for the relatively low amount of subs! How much total time was this?

Another one I've been working on with the short nights and lack of astro-darkness, is the favourite M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy. Just like my post of my image of M63 https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/409905-m63-sunflower-galaxy/ , the colours produced from Siril of galaxies were of a mauve and warm feel to the whole image and the galaxy. Whilst it did show some blue, it was very dull and I just cannot understand why this is. So I once again stacked with ASTAP, and again, it produced a far more colourful and better balanced colour image right from the off. However, whilst Siril leaves no trace of satellites or even brightly lit planes flying overhead, ASTAP struggles to fully remove satellites (some small traces remain). As for planes with their bright lights streaking across the image? They get left in, so they have to be removed from the stack. Fortunately I only had 4 subs like this, so not a huge loss. For 10 hours of imaging I was hoping for more of the fainter swirls but that's probably due to the brighter night skies we have. Details: Starfield 102 + 0.8reducer + Canon 800D on HEQ5. Imaged across 4 sessions in May and June, 296 x 120s lights, with 50 bias, 40 flats and 26 darks. Processed in Siril, GIMP and DenoisePY. Hope you like, comments/criticism welcome 🙂

UK weather lately has been really good (in the south at least 🙂), so lots of clear skies...naturally coupled with the loss of astro-dark and short nights. Working on a few different targets, but consider this one complete now. So here is M3, a Globular Cluster in Canes Venatici imaged during the Moon phase. 170 x 60s (02:50), + 50 bias, 40 flats, 10 darks, ISO-400 on Canon 800Da + Starfield 102. Stacked and processed in Siril.

Another vote for the Starfield 102. I've had mine for about 6 weeks now, and it is a superb scope. Coupled with the adjustable 0.8 reducer to achieve backfocus, it performs flawlessly and backfocus was easily achieved. My stars are near perfect right into the corner with a DSLR. This would be slightly above your rough budget at roughly £1100, but worth it in my opinion. It will be limited for larger targets (i.e. Andromeda, NA and Veil Nebula, etc), but mosaics can be considered instead. I did consider the Stellamira 110ED, but it was (and still is) out of stock. My only other comparison is with my other scope, the Evostar 72ED. The performance of that with the SW flattener or Stellamira version, has put my off of skywatcher refractors in the Evostar range for good.

Great result! And nice setups. I recently imaged this one for 12 hours too, I got less detail in the galaxy than you but I got some of the faint stream. I only stopped due to loss of astrodark, but looking at your result perhaps I should have persisted.

I use both modded and unmodded, and I haven’t noticed any difference. Only with the modified that you get some of the Ha in galaxies if it’s there. I think it depends on the camera and the mod, since my modded camera still retains most of the IR blocking from the description of where I bought it from: http://www.astronomiser.co.uk/filters.htm - assume this would be pretty universal mind. This one I posted recently was with a modded DSLR; https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/409905-m63-sunflower-galaxy/ As I said in that topic, the biggest difference seems to be stacking differences between Siril and Astap, something I intend to investigate. I’ve tried M51 with the same camera a few nights this week, with no astrodark and only a few hours of “darkness” per night, and the stack from Astap produces a lot of colour and blues in the galaxy (but also some satellite trials). I haven’t tried it in Siril yet for its colour, but I will be trying but I never get satellite trails with it.