kirkster501

We've had no proper clear skies at all other than the odd 20 mins here and there. Certainly nothing suitable for astrophotography. I got in a bit of time with the Dob but seeing was rubbish. It has been brutal for astronomy since last summer. Utterly terrible. Winter is now the off-season in astronomy in these parts.

I will settle for cold and clear any day. Just one night of clear, please? Not too much to ask for in an entire winter season? The last clear, moon-free night in Nottingham was 5th November. So I will settle for cold, however cold. Will get the thermals and multiple layers out.

Yep, you need to man up! I've been out in Siberia observing in -45C before when I was working in Russian gas fields years ago. So were others. Wrap up well and it is fine.

It is also why darks are so important with this issue. I can also get it with my QHY268C if I use incorrect darks.

Here is my workflow:

It is imperative that the darks and flat-darks match the lights in offset, gain and temperature in a CMOS sensor. Flats do not matter so much.

Mine too. I am sure it is fine.

I use a El panel too. Only issue is getting it dim enough for the flats to be of long enough time length to overcome the sliding shutter of some of the CCD cameras. I put thick white card in front to overcome that in the contraption I built.

Seriously mate, you'll get a lot more benefit learning from Ollie than you will buying the filters.

If Astrodon = 95/100 then Baader = 90/100. The Astrodon 3nm Ha is a superb filter. If you absolutely must have that one then go for it. However, the Baader at a quarter of the cost is 80% as good. You have to ask yourself, in our skies, with the use that they'll get, seriously, it isn't worth it. Save that £3000 or spend it elsewhere. The difference the Astrodons will make is infinitesimal. Sure, if you are like Sara in southern Spain or Ollie in France where the weather is so very much better and they will get used 3 or 4 times per week then it may be worth it because you'd get so much more from the investment. I wish I hadn't bothered with my Astrodons with the use they are getting, a complete waste of money in the UK. That's what I meant when I said in my "experienced opinion" above.

Baaders are excellent. I will tell you right now, in my experienced opinion, save your cash and stick with the Baaders and sew-up that hole in your pocket wanting to burn the money. I also have Baaders and Astrodon. Yes of course the Astrodon NB are a bit better. But are they worth the difference in price, per cost of use in our country? Absolutely not. If you were using them night after night then maybe I might give you a slightly different answer, although even then the Baaders are super. I think Baader LRGB are just as good as the Astrodons, indeed, slightly better. The Astrodon Blue and Lum filters are very permissive of IR whereas the Baaders block it.

No matter. I found a new piece of software that handles larger captures better: Planetary System Stacker. It is excellent. https://github.com/Rolf-Hempel/PlanetarySystemStacker

My iMac late 2013 is not on the BigSur compatibility list so will stay where it is on Catalina. Interested in getting a M1 Mac Mini and removing some desk clutter in my office. Anyone comment on Parallels/Fusion performance on a M1 Mac Mini please? I would fully commit every day computing to OSX if Astro Apps and Microsoft 365 ran better on it so I need to keep my i7-8700/32G for now. O365 is better on PC IMO.

Problem sorted! Thanks guys!

I think the issue is that due to lack of use in the UK, it can start to cause stress and anxiety, the sheer value of this very expensive gear lying around doing nothing, especially if you havd to justify it to a SO, a problem that I do not have as yet. Then, a clear night comes along and you waste it sorting out equipment gremlins.....

All of us in the UK go through this doubt because of the weather. There can't be many places in the world more poorly positioned to be doing astro imaging than in the UK, there have been no clear nights in Nottingham without the moon since the start of November and I have counted on one hand the clear nights where I can do AP since last June. That's a lot of £££ per use. I'll say for sure I am making no further large investments into dedicated scopes and cameras/filters, I am becoming more of a DSLR lens imager. I would love a C11 Edge but I cannot justify it for the use it will get (or not).

Hi, I should had the camera resolution is a ASI174M, 16-bit and 1936 x 1216 and the "clip" size is 96Gig in size - and I have one for LRGB !!!!!!. So they are big files. But it worked before just fine.

Thankyou guys! Will try that next time I am doing my moon stuff.

Hi all, I recently rebuilt my Windows10 i7-8700k/32G RAM machine. All drivers and all benchmarks other wise superb and machine bang up to date. A respectable spec with the 1070Ti graphics card as well. Flies through all other software grand. I run AS3 3.1.4 (latest 64 bit version) and now this software takes HOURS to do a 20000 16-bit clip. Before I reinstalled it was fine, albeit on slightly smaller 15000 frame clips. I notice it uses up all the 32 Gig of memory in the machine as per the picture. To me it looks like a memory leak in the software. I have abandoned it trying to compute the reference frame after two hours. Something is clearly amiss and I have set it up wrong, but struggle to think what..... Any thoughts folks please? Thankyou in advance. Steve

Thanks Dave. So you return to sidereal rate when you've done by just clicking on that script then?

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into that Skyview option, I've not thought of looking there. I am getting more and more into lunar imaging in LRGB or HaRGB, the skies being what they are lately in the UK. Almost every time the sky is clear The Moon is beating down so I might as well embrace that fact and work with it.

Thanks. I do it all via software. Yes that's a thought to try and use the handset too. Reason this is important is that I am doing LRGB lunar imaging in high resolution (relatively). It is a pain to keep re-entering after the object slowly drifts away.

Hi all, on DSO imaging my mount can keep thje subject bang in middle of the FOV for hours on end. Why is it that when I am doing lunar imaging (and visual), The Moon steadily drifts out of the FoV view???? I use Sharpcap and set it to Lunar mode (the little cresent symbol). It still drifts out though. My mount is polar aligned perfectly. The only thing I can think off is that I am not guiding whereas I would be in DSO work. Any thoughts please?? I see no option in Sitech to set the mount to Lunar mode... Thankyou in advance.

At no point did I critisise anyone personally and all I said was that it had lost its way. "You might not like the latest format and presenters, but the reflection In the mirror might be the least palatable thing on the menu" May I suggest you take your immflamatory rhetoric elsewhere.

Just search for the Sky at Night on YouTube and you’ll see it in the list of results. They essentially use Stellarium and talk through the month’s targets. It’s really good. 20 mins or so. No camera work at all and all done on Stellarium screen share with Pete and Paul discussing it. Great idea and head and shoulders above the main SaN program. As I said, respect to Maggie and Chris since they are both really lovely people and this is a production issue and not a presenter one. BBC might as well just cut the program IMO, it has lost its way if you ask me.