MartinB

That is a terrific image, especially, for me, the first one. Lovely colour palette and very nicely detailed without it looking forced. You've got some likes but I'm suprised that no one has bothered to comment.

The results are now in https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/401323-sgl-2022-challenge-7-mobile-phone-imaging/

This has been a very popular challenge with a wide variety of targets. The judges have had to consider aesthetics, technical competence and creativity and we have all come up with differing choices!! In the end we have chosen a widefield image, a solar system target and a deep sky shot. On another day the selection might have been completely different but I think we have 3 very worthy winners. A big thank you to everyone who took part and I hope it will serve as inspiration to those who don't possess an arsenal of high tech kit. 1) Scotty1 - Winter constellation rising A beautifully composed and executed widefield image 2) Naxatras - Jupiter A remarkable result using a mobile phone 3) Penumbrella - M13 Despite the wonders of low light chip technology deep sky imaging remains a very big challenge. Mobile phone "astronomy modes" are optimistic to say least. However, Penumbrella has managed to produce this technically excellent image. As always it is worth having a look through all the entries. There an many other excellent images including some wonderful lunar shots. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/396563-sgl-2022-challenge-7-mobile-phone-imaging/

A wondeful image Olly which had me gawping at my laptop screen. The stars are certainly looking very natural.

That is looking good Pete. The stars are nice and tight and the brighter blue stars are well controlled. The star colour is lovely. I noticed the slightly blue background which I am sure was deliberate. I downloaded the full size image and neutralised the background and actually preferred the star appearance against a neutral sky.

That is a nice field of view for this galaxy and the outer arms are showing up nicely although they look a little smeared, presumably related to some noise reduction. Whenever I have tried to image this target I have always found those outer areas very challenging. The colour is very subdued which in many ways is an excellent thing and is probably a more faithful presentation than the more saturated palette we normally go for.

This is a beauty Steve. The image has real depth. Perfect implementation of the Hubble Palate.

Well done William. The Pelican is also showing nicely. It is wonderful to to see large targets like the NA neb given enough room. One problem with these widefield images is that the stars can become a bit intrusive during the processing. I see you are using photoshop. There is a superb plug in for PS called StarXterminator. It is around £50 but it is invaluable for this sort of image.

That's lovely Phil, the framing and field of view are perfect and give the heart and soul room the breathe. I think you have just the right amount of faint nebulosity. There is always more to be gathered but it can then detract a little from the main target.

The "misty morning" reflection nebulosity is beautiful. Those orangy small stars do detract from the aesthetics a little, sometimes the divine create made life awkward for us.

The first image is particularly striking Olly. The ghostly reflection nebulosity which pervades the image is what makes it special for me.

Well I much prefer the first one!! It is a beautiful atmospheric image with a lovely delicacy that the second image lacks, there is just a hint of green in the background which SCNR would fix in an instant.

I think people like to post that they used pixel math!

Usually the classic hubble palate for me Ha - G, OIII - B, SII - R. I like to leave some green in the image rather than go for the blue and gold look. I really don't like other variations of the 3 channels. However, some targets have a very discrete OIII component e.g. the Cresent and Jellyfish nebulae. I think a bicolour approach then works very well giving a fairly natural looking colouration, Ha - R, OIII - B+G

What could be simpler? When deep sky imaging stars tend to be things that have to be "managed" in order to avoid detracting from our intended target. This is a shame because stars are such beautiful things. This challenge places stars centre stage. We are looking for images purely consiting of stars, either a single star, doubles or open clusters. Globular clusters are excluded from the challenge. If you have any queries about the challenge please contact me via PM rather than from within this thread. Please provide information regarding how you went about capturing your image including equipment used. Start date 1st October 2022 End date 31st December 2022 No entries will be accepted after this date. As previously the winner and runners up will receive an SGL challenge mug showing their image along with a virtual medal-of-honour for their SGL signature. Please post entries directly into this thread To keep the thread manageable for the judges please do not post comments about entries, emoji reactions are welcome of course. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Multiple entries are allowed but please make a fresh post within the thread. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted.

This challenge is now closed. The results will be announced within the next 2 weeks.

Thanks Robin, I will do what you suggest. The good thing is I can do this during the day without having to tear my hair out!

Asi 1600 Pro. Ascom drivers, latest platform 6.

Thanks Steve. I think I will try connecting and running the camera during the day. I've registered with the discord site so will post there as well

For the last 16 years I have used MaximDL for my imaging. The version I have now is failrly ancient but I really know my way around it and all it's foibles. However, I want to use automated focusing and also my version of Maxim will either dither after every sub or not at all. I have started using NINA and am slowly getting to grips with it (I am a slow learner!). I have had 3 main problems, PHD2 kept stopping working because of connection problems with my ASI 120. Solved by changing for a Lodestar but not sure why I was having this problem. Occassionally the mount switches to slewing mode, weird but I think I might be able to sort that out. I finally thought I had things sorted. I ran through about 8 frames of my sequence with everything working perfectly but then this.... After this the camera would not function. The same problem came up after disconnecting and reconnecting. Eventually I gave up. Went back to Maxim on my old computer and everything worked fine. The camera had worked perfectly previously but then it was the guide camera connection that caused the problems!! Has anyone encountered this and have a solution?

The lights weren't being switched of at the time Olly but they were cowled. I put in a CLS filter towards the end of the run when the scope was pointing above the village, that worked well.

About 12 years ago I enjoyed a wonderful holiday with @ollipenrice at Lesgranges. I got around 10 hours of data on M81/82 using a supersensitive QSI 532 camera and a Tak FSQ106 reduced to F3.6 in a hunt for the elusive IFN. At the time IFN was a very new challenge for imagers. My set up was sensitive but at the expense of major microlensing artefacts when the data was pushed. So the IFN was captured and Olly was able to add a little colour data. Some years later I got a big bundle of colour data and tried another process. I didn't push things as hard and produced what I thought at the time was a reasonable image but with subdued IFN. Recently I thought I would have another go using the latest star removing tools. Starnet 2 did a better job that StarXterminator but I think the latest iteration of StarXterminator has eliminated some of the issues I experenced. Unfortunately I couldn't match up my colour data very well for one reason or another but I think that I can now, finally present the IFN that was hiding there all along . The first image is the latest iteration, the second is from 2016 and the 3rd is the original from 2010

Thanks for this. I'm running an old version. Think I'm going to opt out of SGP and migrate to NINA.

I've now found the "reverse direction" check box in in the control panel. Still some gremlins. MHP focus control increases the stepper motor value on zooming in whereas conventionally I thought fully zoomed in should be 0 as it is with the SGP focus control. I set my close focus position under MHP to 1500. Connect to SGP and the stepper value is around 64000. I can set the focus control to overide maximum steps in the control panel. I am getting some odd behaviours. Sometimes there is no response to the in and out commands from the focus control, on other occassions there is a loss of control with the motor running away and I have to switch off the power! Am I alone in having these problems?

I am trying to set up autofocus in SGP. I am using a Tak FSQ with a robofocusser and a Mount Hub Pro V4. The default focus setting using the MHP software moves the draw tube inwards when focussing out and vice versa. This is corrected by selecting "reverse direction". When I use the focus control in SGP clicking the out box moves the focusser in. This still happens when I have selected "reverse direction" in MHPv4. I cannont find a way to reverse the direction withiin SGP. Given that the v curve generation operates based on an inward movement I cannot currently use autofocussing. I'm sure I'm missing something very straight forward. I has sought high and low for a reverse direction check box. It must be in there somewhere!! Can anyone help!