Tzetze

Thank you all for your kind comments. As mentioned, the rig used wasn't the most stable and so star shapes are not great and there is a general bluriness/softness to the image (moreso than the oversampling should produce).

4 hours ago, lux eterna said:

Not much to improve here. The background is perfect. If anything, I would desaturate the blue a bit. And maybe you could work out a little more detail in the core if it was not as bright as it is here, but overall a very nice image.

Ragnar

Thank you Ragnar. I agree on both points. In fact, the saturation has been dialled back some from where it had been during processing. Perhaps a little further desaturation would be for the best.

Galaxy core is a little overblown and star cores are not great either. I had finished a working of the processing but wasn't pleased with the result - I had bad pixels showing up in the RGB combination and blue tints throughout the background. I had linear fit all channels to the blue channel (which I think was too noisy) and ended up reworking the RGB. I registered the colour channels against the fully processed luminance and had to further crop all of the LRGB. This then meant that I wasn't able to use the linear luminance channel to produce a starmask and, after too many attempts to produce a decent mask, decided to proceed without one. Lesson learned: Corners can't be cut without losing something in this game.

Thanks for the pointers and they certainly have been taken on board but I likely won't process this target again until I gather some fresh crispy data. 

This data was captured back in the Spring of this year before upgrading from an eq6 to an eq8 mount. I wasn't satisfied with my original attempts at processing so decided to try a rework of it.

I tried using the PhotometricColorCalibration process with 3 different options for white reference but in the end settled for using a more hands on approach with the ColorCalibration process.

Now that I've upgraded my mount and improved the stability of my rig, I hope to capture a fresh set of data of this target soon. Criticism and pointers towards improvement are most welcome.

Lum: 22x, 900s, 1x1

RGB: 7x ea, 225s, 2x2

10" Newt at f4.7, EQ6, Atik 460ex, Astrodon LRGB E series.

Hi,

Anyone else use this combo of hub unit and focus motor?

HitecAstro provide an adapter to allow db9 focus motor cable be used with rj45 focuser port on the hub unit. This adds a lot of bulk to the cabling loom and I'd like a much tidier solution. I've not heard a peep back from HitecAstro support on this. Maybe someone here can help.

Is it possible to purchase such a cable or would anyone happen to have the required pinout so I could make up my own?

This is my most recently captured dataset from last weekend. I was able to get some work done on the pre-processing during the week after work and got stuck into the post-processing today.

I've still got a lot to learn when it comes to processing images but have to say I'm very pleased with what I was able to achieve with this one. I hope to streamline the process and trim down the total time involved. Can see where process icon sets for project types would prove invaluable. I guess only experience can enable us to zero in on the finer tunings more quickly than my clumsy stumblings through trial and error.

10x Lum 1x1, 10x ea. RGB 2x2, (drizzled)

10" Newt at f4.7, EQ8, 460ex, Astrodon 1.25" LRGB filters

5 hours ago, MartinB said:

That's a new one on me.  Looks quite a challenging target made harder by PI foibles.  Nice work!

Thank you Martin. Yes, I found this to be quite a challenge indeed. Some new ground (to me) explored in both pre and post processing has benefitted results greatly. I'm impressed by the colours produced by a Photometric Calibration process which uses plate solving and, in this case, type G2V stars as reference. Very 'natural' tones.

5 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

Very nice Mike. I like the background as you've presented.

Thanks very much Richard. When there's so little actual background, I'm easily convinced it needs to be set lower.

5 hours ago, carastro said:

Very nice image. 

I've been trying to get this target for a couple of years, but always seem to be in the wrong place at the right time (due to obstructions such as house or tree).  I managed to get a couple of hours on it at Kelling Heath but it was VERY noisy, I am presuming it is quite a faint object and needs dark skies, therefore have not attempted it from home.

Would you say that was the case?

Carole 

 

 

Thank you Carole. It's certainly a faint object and I had quite a bit of noise to deal with here myself. I'd have been better off with a larger number of longer subs. According to lightpollutionmap.info Kelling Heath has similar sky conditions to my own location (4). I have no experience of imaging under brighter skies so can't really compare but I'd imagine it would quickly become more difficult to capture more than the brightly illuminated area.

Having spent a couple of evenings working on aligning my optics, I settled on star shapes that were good enough across the field for my liking. There's still room for improvement there but I'm happy enough considering the struggle to get to this point!

I've been tackling the extensive tutorials provided by Kayron Mercieca on Light Vortex Astronomy. A considerable number of hours were spent on this image. Including some wasted hours trying to get around a PI error that was stopping progress. It turned out that reverting to an earlier version allowed me to continue.

I'm very pleased with the results here. Star reduction left the smaller stars looking a little crunchy on close inspection but I think it's better overall than without the reduction. Perhaps the background could be pulled down a little lower.

For acquisition, I've been going with Lum 10x 1x1 600s and RGB 10x 2x2 150s simply because it allows me to get a full set within a few hours. Someday I'll learn to optimally expose for ADU.

Equipment used: EQ8, 10" Newt at f4.7, Atik 460ex, Astrodon 1.25" LRGB Gen 2 E.

7 hours ago, MartinB said:

Well there's plenty that is good in there Mike, especially the reflection nebula, that is very impressive.  The Ha isn't punching it's way through, this could be related to how you applied the luminence layer and how you added Ha to the image.  I see you are a PI user so can't help you a deal since I predominantly use PS.  Those star halos are very easy to deal with in PS although it is a bit tedious.  You make a duplicate layer, select colour as the blend mode and then apply the healing brush to all the haloed stars, works like magic!  However, that is blasphemy on planet PI.

Wow, thanks Martin. Unfortunately, there will be no Ha punching through until I at least get a Ha filter which isn't on the near horizon. I've only used LRGB filters here, although they are Astrodon and I believe they really deliver. I certainly have no complaints with their quality.

As for the star halos, well I think better star control through the process is key. If I were more happy with the data I would certainly rework this image and may come back to it again sometime. In the meantime, there's a much improved data set on the Northern Trifid keeping me occupied.

Not happy with the colour calibration here. With no background, I found it to be a very troublesome step. I think it may be close but not right. Detail has been lost in the horse and is suffering from clipped colours or poor calibration. The halos around the stars are less than pleasing too, perhaps a better star mask will help in this regard.

The sensor is not perpendicular to the light cone. Top right hand corner stars look ok in shape. All other corners are elongated and pointed towards the 'good' corner. Need to work on improving this.

In all, there's plenty wrong with this image and I'm sure there's more that I'm not aware of.  I think it's got potential however and can be saved. Would greatly appreciate any tips in how to do so.

Lum 10x 600s 1x1

RGB 10x 150s 2x2

From what I've read in other threads here, I believe the Moonlite focuser is Robofocus compliant. I found a pinout for the similarly compliant Pegasus Astro device on their website;

Pegasus Astro Pinout

My soldering skills are pretty lacking to be honest, but I think I can get away with one of these type of units;

DB9 Breakout Connector

Will this work in my case? Do I risk any damage if incorrect?

Still looking solid Malc. Yours was one of the builds that inspired me to get going on my own.

I've just noticed that I blatantly took your thread title.   oO