fwm891

My Workflow with ASI294MC Pro Generate Bias – circa 50 subs Generate Darks – circa 20 subs (use subs at same duration and temp as lights) Generate flats – circa 25 subs No Flat darks (must try these) Above masters are generated as per Warren Keller’s notes in ‘Inside PixInsight’. 1, Blink (assess images to weed out aircraft trails etc) 2, Image Calibration – apply bias, Darks and flat masters 3, Cosmetic Correction 4, Debayer (RGGB) 5, Star Alignment 6, Image Integration 7, Crop as required 8, Background (ABE or DBE) 9, Background Neutralisation 10 Colour Calibration Then various transformations, SCNR, TGVD, Colour saturation… (as I think is needed) I'm open to suggested modifications to this....

Hi - I'm thinking of getting a RASA-8 astrograph and coupling my ASI294MC Pro with it. I'd like some comments from RASA-8 users out there (if there are any) in general terms regarding it's handling etc. etc...

Is this just for mobile aps or will this migrate to a desktop version too?

I have an asi294MC Pro but when using auto stack in SharpCap all I see is stars with no hint of back nebulosity. I use SG Pro for capture, while the image is mono on screen it does show nebulosity with same sub lengths. Tend to use SharpCap for alignment early on with a bridght sky to pick out, centre and sync to the summer triangle stars which sets me up for tight goto's later in SGPro.

Great start. I remember when starting with PHD putting in the focal length of the imaging telescope not the guiding scope that caused me no end of problems. Try some longer exposures and match the dark exposure length to the light exposures.

Great stuff - another builder of concrete blocks...

@souls33k3r I don't have this problem with mine probably because my guide scope sits directly over the main scope - I do that for all scopes with separate guiders. My Edge HD8 is used with an OAG so not a problem there. Re: cables where possible I have tied my cables back along their respective tubes until they're close to the mount, there I give them some slack to allow for slews east or west of the pier. I use the 4 point USB hub which has allowed me to further shorten cables.

Late for a spring clean

I'm really liking my ASI294MC Pro but having headaches trying to get dark frames that work. I capture at -20°C with a gain setting of 122 and offset of 15 which seems to suit my DSO's (I'm not a planetary or lunar guy). What sort of settings are other 294MC users using? At what stage during processing are you applying your darks?

I had a problem with mine last night too. Came to the end of a run and went to warm up the sensor only to find it had switched itself off and was already at ambient anyway?

I was hoping to get more subs on this last night but cloud from the SW stopped that. Some subs suffered from thin high cloud but most were OK. 7x 300s 4x 600s ASI294MC Pro + Altair 115 EDT-APO on CEM60. Processing in PI, Flats, darks and bias applied

Thanks Mick - No flats done for this. I've taken some last night but not tried a further reprocess (yet). Thanks Adam - I have to admit that at present getting a good dark frame correction is eluding me...

Another attempt to get my head round the processing steps needed to go with my new ASI294MC Pro. Definitely requires more attention in the early stages (Cosmetic correction etc) then at the end with switching between histogram transform and colour saturation to adjust the colours and densities. Kit: AA115 EDT APO, iOptron CEM60, ASI 294MC Pro, Baader UN/IR (Luminance filter). Processing in PI. Getting there

Hi Emil - nice shots there. I shoot with a UV / IR cut filter as close to the sensor cover glass as I can. I use 122 gain and 15 offset with the 295MC. I have to admit I haven't been very adventurous with gain and offset numbers. 122 & 15 I chose from the graph data on ZWO's website.

Hi Steve - The ngc7023 image is completely worked through in PI. Here is my WF for that image: Blink (to weed out the bad subs), Debayer, Cosmetic Correction (lights to respective darks), Star Align, Integrate, Dynamic crop, ABE or DBE, Background neutralisation, colour calibration, Multiscale Linear Transform (mild dose to remove background noise), Histogram Transformation (to set back point and some colour adjustment), Colour saturation (tend here to push the saturation high across the range), Histogram Transform (here I try to neutralise the oversaturation), Colour saturation (reduce saturation levels to normal and make minor adjustments to the saturation curve for specific colours), SCNR if needed, Histogram Transform and save as.... However after doing that on the M20 image I had to open in PS to make final corrections using Select / Colour Range to increase saturation on the central nebula area .... Francis

I've just changed over to an ASI294MC Pro OSC cooled camera and I'm finding that my previous although basic PI workflow just wasn't working well enough for the 294MC. I've had a Warren Keller book sat on my bookshelf for a while now (Inside PixInsight) which I've dabbled with in the past but yesterday I decided that I would go through warrens workflow for OSC cameras and see how things turn out. Well I have to say the image has improved many in the earlier calibration stages, and some of the latter I found detrimental so I've ended up with my own version of the workflow. I need to try it out on other data now. I'm expecting things will change depending on the subject and may end up with a 'set' of workflows rather than a single one. Hope you like

Late spring cleaner

Hi Martin - I use 122 gain with 15 Offset.

Alan - Yes the 115EDT 805mm / f7 I used a UV / IR cut filter just before the sensor. Otherwise a straight OSC image.

I exposed this frame purely prospecting for a new subject. So after I'd finished my run on other objects last night, while the camera warmed up from -20°C I took a single 10 min sub of NGC7331 and the quintet. The frame has been cropped a little, debayered and processed in PI. I'm pleased for a single sub. So NGC7331 & Co are on the target list now. Francis

Hi Andre, I have just got the 294MC Pro OSC and enjoying the convenience of the one shot system. One thing that helped my decision was to look closely at the camera/scope simulations and picking the sensor size that suited my favourite objects with my scopes. Then look at the cameras with that sized sensor whether mono or OSC. OSC is an easy switch from a DSLR. Your DSLR and the 071 have similar physical sensor sizes so that would make the mental compositional shift easier. The mono 1600 has a 4/3rd's sensor but opens up the prospect of RGB and narrow band imaging with the same camera. There are multi narrow band filters for OSC cameras but from what I've seen of some prices you can get another camera + filters instead! These was taken with my ASI294MC Pro:

I took the above image into PS, duplicated the layer, desaturated it and turned it into a luminance layer. Then applied levels and saturation to each before recombining them. Added a bit more depth to the image.

I managed to add a further 60 mins to the data on NGC7023 last night. Now 147 mins. I've kept the processing virtually the same with the exception of a crop. The crop was due to the two sets of images being at 180° to each other (well almost 180°) so the miss alignment has been cropped out. Background sky still blue but the extra data has helped.

Thanks James, M33 was taken against an ever brightening background and that made processing more difficult so I probably (did) ruin it by over processing. 7023 not sure about that. I'm shooting more data as I type so will reprocess tomorrow...

I have a UV/IR cut filter mounted in front of the sensor. But that's the only level of filtration used on all the images.