Mal22

Great job! Which PI tools do you use for the colour details? I’m currently processing my own M51 data but can’t get a result I’m happy with. Thanks

I use this website which is pretty reliable https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/outdoorsports/seeing/london_united-kingdom_2643743 I also use Cloudy Nights and if the two concur, happy days

Thank you, very helpful response! So my misguided assumption was that using a Barlow would ultimately yield more detail in the galaxy, but clearly that’s not the case? 20 hours with a 2x Barlow would get no more detail and resolution than 10 hours without. That settles it then. No Barlow. I’m in the UK too which it seems is just one big permanent cloud now anyway so a decision to double the necessary imaging time would have needed real justification…

Hi everyone, Now that we’re in galaxy season I’m weighing up whether or not to add my 2x Barlow lens to the imaging train to get a bit more up close and personal with the likes of M51, M101 and M81 + 82. What are the considerations in doing so? I know that it will double the F ratio and therefore I would need twice as much imaging time, but is that a worthwhile trade off to get a closer up image? Or is sticking with the non-Barlow field of view and going for a closer crop when processing a better approach? I tend to get good guiding over long exposures (with guide scope/camera) with good stars so I think that will still be ok. My set up is a WO Zenithstar 73 and ZWO ASI294MC Pro. Below is the current FOV on M51 without a Barlow, and an image I did with this set up last summer (before I knew how to use PixInsight properly…) Thanks for any advice!

Agreed. If for whatever reason someone has an issue with someone’s question or post - think it, say it out loud if you need to, shout it at the wall. But don’t type it.

Yep. I’ve seen blue stuff before, and this is it. @gorann great image!

Really helpful, thanks! Funnily enough over the last few days I’ve been searching for an updated PI workflow incorporating the AI tools, and THIS video is exactly what I’d been looking for. Perfect, thanks!

Excellent image! And very delicately processed. You should be very pleased with this. What have you been using to learn PixInsight? I’ve been at it for about 6 months now and steadily getting there, but still a lot to learn and I can’t quite achieve what I’m aspiring to. Mostly YouTube tutorials so far and recently bought Warren A Keller’s book Inside PixInsight, which is good and easy to follow. What’s been working for you? Inevitably, I think I’ll end up buying the Adam Block videos as everyone says they’re a game changer….

Depending on where the objects you’re observing are in relation to the meridian line, a mount may go round the houses rather than “as the crow flies” to avoid the scope crashing into the mount during tracking. Clever mounts will also flip automatically during a tracking session when the object gets close to the meridian line, if “Meridian flip” is enabled in settings. And collisions do happen! I smashed the thermometer on my WO Z73 focus knob because I’d accidentally disabled meridian flip and it grinded into the mount for goodness knows how long… it could have been a lot worse! However, I will defer to brighter minds than mine on this particular instance, as given the time of your post yesterday and the objects in question, I don’t think the meridian line will have been a factor…

Well this is just ridiculous… An absolutely incredible image. So much to see and so much depth. Wonderful stuff.

It is deep space imaging where you would take lots of exposures, hours and hours worth, and stack them together, which certainly does take a long time. For planets, the wobbly atmosphere and rotation is more of a challenge. I’ve not used a DSLR so can’t comment in relation to that process. I use a dedicated astronomy camera to take a short video, maybe 3 to 5 mins depending on the speed a particular planet spins. That video will consist of thousands of frames, so we then use software to select a percentage of the frames where the atmosphere was least wobbly, this might only be 20%, but could be less or more. The software then stacks those selected frames together to produce a clearer image, but it is a far quicker process than stacking deep space object images, just a few minutes.

Outstanding image!

Here is the difference between the 102 and the 127 using a 10mm eyepiece for Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon. The outside circle is how much it will fill the view on the 102, and the inside the 127.

I should add, that unfortunately there is little to no value in astronomy through a window, open or closed. If the window is closed then viewing through glass will heavily distort the view, and if the window is open then the heat waves escaping out of the window into the cooler air will make for very wobbly moon/planets etc, like they are underwater.

Second this. @Lung you say that the children are unlikely to want to spend too much time outside at night, and that budget isn’t a big concern. The Seestar S50 means you can plonk it outside with minimal (almost no) set up, and then sit inside with the children, controlling it with and displaying it on your phone/tablet screen. It will align itself and find objects in the sky, that you pick from a list of what’s in view that night. and it comes with a built in light pollution filter.