kirkster501

I have the QHY version of same camera. I use Gain 0 and Offset 30 so far I use darks - although sensor is very clean anyway so may not be required, I need to experiment more. I use flats and flat-darks as well. No BIAS. I have been very happy with the results so far. Will try gain of 30 too but weather conditions since I have received camera in September have been diabolical so not had enough chances to use it.

You keeping it in the unheated garage is the best thing you can do other than have an observatory. Even with an observatory, there can be a temperature delta between having the roof open and closed. When I had my 14" SCT this was very apparent sometimes. Such large scopes need to be outside otherwise they need multiple hours to cool down. A dew heater or shield will help with the dew.

Pete always does a great job. I love his and Paul Abel’s monthly night sky show on YouTube as well. Indeed, I prefer that than the SaN programme itself since it is highly relevant. SaN is too general for my tastes and goes off topic and I rarely bother with it nowadays. It is a production problem rather than any issue with Chris and Maggie, they are both great people and I’ve met them several times at talks and events and they are very nice and approachable.

I never did compete my M76. Clouded out for DSO since I added that post. It's been diabolical for astro.

What video guys please? Was there one attached to this thread?

I have never quite got on with Fuji and Astrophotography. I have their X-T2 and the X-T4 and several prime Fuji lenses and they are magnificent cameras for photography and videography, I love it. You'd think the magnificent 16mm F1.4 would be made for AP but I have struggled with it. Maybe I need to try a bit more with it and experiment further.

What are your calibration frames like? Many don't but you should always check them all individually as well, you should blink test or otherwise look at each individual flat/bias/dark frame and check it is ok. If a duff flat/bias/dark creeps in you can wreck the resultant master calibration frame which then in turn can wreck your master image. What image integration are you using? I use PixInsight for all pre-processing. It is incredibly powerful. Download a trial version. It is not cheap but it is masterful at what it can do.

Great, you sound a good candidate then. The best of luck to you.

IT for astronomy. Indeed, there is an entire Python programming library dedicated to astronomy!

Good to have your enthusiasm so go for it! I can't comment on the course you outline but as a fifteen year remote study veteran in STEM subjects let me tell you this: as others have said, that significant maths will be involved. VERY significant as you advance. It's then when your enthusiasm may wane, despite what you may think now in the glow of your initial excitement - I have seen this happen to many fellow students. Maths comes into every STEM subject, it is all over the place in so many areas, areas where you'd think "How could maths be anything to do with it"? But it does. Py (i.e. 3.141) comes into almost everything! You will spend many, many hours over very technical and detailed texts and books, stuck, and will have to work very hard at it. This is the nature of advanced study so be prepared for this. I have a BSc and MSc in electronic and computing/networking engineering, both done part time (my background is electrical) at Birmingham/Liverpool and Open Universities - all excellent. However, they are a *huge* time commitment. I mean HUGE and you need to be aware of this. I did the first year of a part-time PhD too but abandoned it, the time commitment and research doing it part-time was almost impossible for me. Maybe for you it will be different. Good luck whatever you decide to do.

You get out of the routine of imaging when there are such prolonged spells of bad weather such that when a clear night does eventually come along you waste it sorting out gremlins. as you describe! I had same on Saturday with my camera. If you have to set up it is a wise move to make a check list.

I did a load of flats and darks yesterday after updating the drivers and all seemed to work OK. The voltage seems to be stable. Will keep an eye on it.

Super stuff. The engines on that bad boy's first stage S1C burned 20 tonnes of fuel/oxidiser per second! The fuel pumps alone were 200 thousand HorsePower to shift that amount of gas.

Astonishing. That whole area is wonderful in a wide field and it is amazing how much nebulosity surrounds Orion. Would be interesting to gain more technical information on the image?

Hi matey, that is the next thing . I upgraded the drivers, rebooted and will do some flats in a bit to see if they come in OK. Thanks for the thought.

And another: I will upgrade drivers and look at the USB cable. Shouldn't need to though since I haven't changed anything......

Unexpected semi clear night tonight - first for weeks on end. Every six frames or so I get weird artefacts on my subs. Had no issues before and no changes to the rig at all. Any thoughts please? Drivers are from September and I could upgrade these first I suppose.

Early morning at 05:20, The Moon low to The South. It was freezing cold at -6C and it took some motivation to get out of bed to do this but it is rare to see moon pictures past last quarter. Best 75% of frames from 10000 in each of R,G and B. Best 70% of 25000 frames in L. TEC140 and ASI174M. I had some issues getting the masters registered due to moon being so low so had to do some post processing work to tidy it up (or attempted to). Hope you like it.

^^^As an ex sparky this is 100% the best way to do it. I do this too for the rig and gear. I have the PC on a UPS in case of a ten second or so glitch to keep the guiding, mount sync and subs going. When I do DSO imaging that is; which lately, is never due to the weather.

I generally use Autosattkert. I get along with it. I struggle with something though a bit. When I look at one of my capture videos many of the individual frames look as good, if not better, than the final stacked result. I never sharpen or drizzle and always do that in Photoshop/Pixinsight Am I missing something?

Yeah, just the small matter of getting 20000 miles deep into Jupiter, grabbing the diamonds and getting back out again 😝

Yes it amazing. The bit where the guy said a lot of the external insulation foil on Voyager's outside is turkey foil from a local supermarket that they went to raid when the government's own procurement system let them down. So turkey baking foil has left the solar system!

10000 frames in each of R,G and B and 20000 frames of Luminance. Best 80% of each. Processed in Autostakkert, PixInsight and Photoshop. Captured in Sharpcap. Moon slightly waning and went through full moon about 8 hours earlier, as can be seen to the right of the picture between the 1 and 7 O'Clock positions. TEC140 Refractor and ASI174M mono camera.

A fine set of images there. Lovely. Well done.

Top class dude. I like