fwm891

NGC6888 shot with the moon last night 25x 240 second subs TS RC8 scope with 0.67x reducer, ASI533MC Pro OSC via IDAS NBZ filtration. Processed in PI & PS

Another M33 using 5x 300 second subs using my ASI533MC Pro OSC camera. I've been playing with splitting the OSC images into their RGB components and then recombining the separate channels to give me a luminance channel in PI (or PS). I've added my basic workflow as a word/libre doc I've kept things fairly simple as each stage can be enhanced as needed as the process goes works through. I'm sure everyone will have their own methods, this is currently my basic workthrough (changes in detail for each image) Cheers LRGB 4 OSC processing.odt

Spent a couple of hours on this one. 15x 240s per panel with the subs processed in PI and PS. PS mainly to try and balance the two panels as one panel being shot earlier had a completely different colour balance to the later set. The scope is a TS 8 inch RC with a 0.67x reducer in place. Filtered with an IDAS NBZ NB filter. Camera: ASI533 MC Pro OSC camera. Attached are the two individual panels and the combination. Hope you like 🙂

Whilst I can remove dust and other loose items with a blower and even resort to flat frames for those I've missed. I find it very difficult to remove entirely the odd fingerprint residue/smear completely. I've tried Optic Wonder but find my best results are with plain clear ethanol on an optical micro fibre cloth. Even then I can see smears where the cloth is lifted off the filter... Sugestions please.

Had a mixed night. Imaging rig worked reasonably well last night so while that chuntered away I got the 16 inch dob out to play to 'look' at some M's and 'NGC's. Always amazed how M17 looks like a swan visually but imaged there's so much more around it the basic swan gets lost. M16 even with a nebula filter didn't show much more than the cluster. M57 and M27 both favourites at this time of year were superb. So too both main halves of the veil. Some galaxies too were enjoyed: NGC7331 and some faint blobs nearby. NGC891 was easy(ish) now I've learned the route to it from M34. M52 the bubble and NGC7380 (Iris) being high overhead were very pleasing. Bring on the longer nights.

First all nighter for weeks. Patchy seeing due to high cloud but it gave me a chance to try out AstroArt 8 Sp1 for both image capture and scope control. Very pleased with the program too. M27 was shot as 15x 300s subs with 4 being dropped as the background sky was just too bright. Captures were to an ASI533 MC Pro OSC via a Baader UV/IR cut filter. NGC6960 used the same camera but with an IDAS NBZ filter being used. Here 9x 300s subs were captured and all used. NGC 7331 group taken through the Baader UV/IR cut filter with all 7x 300s subs used. The Bubble neb (NGC7635) was taken with the IDAS NBZ and 9x 300s subs taken with 2 being dropped due to too many bright trails across the frames. Scope used: a TS/GSO clone RC8 @ f8 (1624mm fl) on an iOptron CEM60 mount. Processing of the subs was done in PI with the M27 and NGC7635 images being further tweaked in PS. This was my first chance to do more than play with the AA8 tutorials (very good they are) and I played first with just getting some images to plate solve and find other targets. I tried guiding on a single star first but found the full frame guiding to be superb giving fractional pixel errors - better than I've had with PHD2 for ages. Initially the goto was a little off but the more targets sync'd to the better it became. (Even better after I updated the CEM60 handset and boards with new firmware). I've not tried the image processing side of AA8 yet but the subs from these images will give me a good chance to play with that side of things. I've had a few issues with SGP in recent times so that was my reason for trying AA8. I used a very old version of AA years ago (on an windows XP machine!) it's certainly changed, although the uncluttered screen area and tool layout seemed quite familiar. I even got time during the captures to play with the 16 inch Dob so a successful night all round

Tried a process in Photoshop CS3 on M27 as a comparison

Couldn't sleep so went out to play... Started on comet C2017 K2 (Panstarrs) Baader UV/IR filter, small faff with this as SGP kept wanting it framed differently so I ended up framing it as I wanted then saving a set of Frame and Focus 30sec subs (x17) to disc. Then took a few subs of M27 (7x 120s + 2x 300s with Baader UV/IR cut filter) and NGC6888 (5x 600s with IDAS NBZ filter) before calling it a night at about 2.15. Scope: TS 8inch RC @ f8 Camera: ASI533 gain 100, -12°C Mount iOptron CEM60 (non EC). Processing entirely in PI.

Great imaging Lee

Great location Steve, Hartland Point and Exmoor nearby. I lived near Sth. Molton for a while. Much better than Hereford…

Pennington’s Messier Marathon- meadeuk.com show as in stock £29

If you find a copy then Pennington’s Messier Marathon takes you through things in sequence.

You could always twist the vane 180 degrees along its length which will give you curved edges. OK for narrow ish vanes…

Tried imaging this pairing over a couple of nights. They sit quite high not far from M94 but they both look quite clumpy and irregular. This image is 10x 300s subs with a TS RC8 at f8. ASI533MC Pro with UV/IR cut filter. Processed mainly in PS with stacking in AA8.

Super image especially given your skies. Well done👍

To install turned out to be quite simple. You simply copy and save a link into the catalogue folder not the actual data set…

I’ve just downloaded AA 8 and going through the setup process but can’t find a way of getting star catalogues and comet data into the program. Anyone got round this ?

Result of subs over 3 broken cloud sessions. 10x 300s subs processed in PI & PS. TS RC8 @f8 (1624mm fl) with an ASI533 MC Pro and Baader UV/IR cut filter. On an iOptron CEM60 mount. Guiding PHD2 (v?) capture (2 sessions SGPro)(1 session AstroArt 8 ) - after lots of problems lately with SGP I think I'm switching to AA 8. Hope you like.

I've just bought AstroArt 8 having got really frustrated with SG Pro (v4....). I used AA? many years ago and reloaded the software on an old laptop and away it went like yesterday. Not so many features in the old version and looking at the demo of v8 and comparing it to SGP I made the decision to change over to AA8. Will see how it goes.