Mike73

Looks awesome! You did a much better job on the processing than mine. I dont know what its been like for you 'up north' but we've had tons of clear nights here but also quite poor transparency which has killed it a bit. Keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow though as I'm heading to Davidstow for the night.

This was from the 28th July, I went from borrowing a mates 200mm lens for a couple nights to getting a dedicated mono astro camera in a pretty short space of time. When I was a visual observer I just couldn't see the attraction to imaging but oh how was I wrong!

After your previous comment I thought what the hell I'II try the trial of Gradient Xterminator and was really surprised how well it did. I'm not finished with trying to get to the bottom of the strange subs but at least using software I can move on. I've read quite a few people mention how good APP's LP Correction tool is, I just haven't got that far into processing with it yet (only downfall to APP is lack of guides IMO). But thanks for bringing it to my attention anyway, I'II dig into it tomorrow. 👍

..and this is 55 x 300s calibrated and heavily stretched from last night.

@ollypenrice @tomato thanks for your input. 🙂 Olly I completely agree that it makes no sense that the problem stems from the sky but its the only variable light source that could effect my subs and since this problem isn't consistent and I'm only seeing around 50% of subs like this it was the only thing I could think of. You can see it quite clearly again in the single sub from last night but until now I haven't looked at my master dark which very closely matches the light areas you see in the single uncalibrated sub. 🤔 All the master calibration files are recent, made in the last week. My master darks were taken in my darkroom (I still shoot and print from film). Yes I did try the Light pollution Correction tool in APP but didn't really know what I was doing so just got a crazy result 😂. Theres also Gradient Xterminator in PS as a last option as well but I'd much rather get to the source of the problem first.

Really great colour and nicely edited. 😎

I've had quite a few clear nights recently but transparency has been fairly average at best with some patches of clouds occasionally drifting through. Each morning I check my subs deleting the ones which have this obvious edge brightness (that brightness varies in strength) then add all the what appear to be good subs to APP. I calibrate all my subs with 40 x darks, flats and dark flats then check in APP that my calibration files have worked which as you can see in the first screen shot they do. Now the problem starts when I integrate all my lights and calibration files into a final image and I get light edges as in the second screen shot. It does look like a problem with my flats but as each single calibrated sub looks fine I dont think flats are the problem (although could be wrong I usually am!?). Each sub is 300s and at the end of each night I probably have around 50% that are keepers. Does this look like a problem due to cloud or am I barking up the wrong tree altogether?

errr yes....Happy birthday dobby! 😳🤣 Thinking about it Mike I think I missed your dob build, will have a good read through tonight. 😉

Is it really something we can fix though or do we even need to fix it? I dont know why but I think an off centre halo looks better than a centred one. Ignoring the micro lensing (which is a whole lotta clone work saved for a cloudy night) and considering Sadr is actually pretty bright the halo in this doesn't bother me too much.

Theres been a few Elephant trunk images recently so this is my take on it. Total Integration of 11 hours with 6 hours of Ha gathered over the full moon period last week followed up by the remaining 5 hours of Oiii a few days later. Theres been quite a few clear nights recently but the light winds have kept transparency fairly average but it was so good to eventually go out. Used my little Redcat on a HEQ5 with ASI 1600mm and 3nm Antlia filters Processed using APP and Photoshop.

Definitely not! That Samyang lens is all but a classic for any body that's enjoyed landscape astrophotography. Yes it has coma and moustache distortion but that's something you just have to live with unless you want to pay +£800 fo a lens. The good news is that in the centre its usually pretty sharp and since it has a very wide field of view you can crop the worst of the edge coma out. Also, when you start tracking and stacking and the Milky Way is a lot more prominent in your image your eye is drawn to the Milky Way not any kinda of lens distortions.

Lovely image, really nice colours. Mabula's video was very interesting as well. Adding luminance to the combination to lower noise was a great tip, actually I've learnt a lot from that video.🙂

You should be happy as its a great image.🙂 I'm in SE Cornwall and M31 is sat in Plymouth's LP dome for a while yet so I'm planning on a trip to N Cornwall one night when we get a good forecast and moonless night.

Oh my word!!!! That really is something else, just stunning! 👏

There was someone on the forum a few years ago that just shot film and his work really was top notch although I can't for the life of me remember his name! Film is pricey these days, I think best way would be develop yourself but doing slide is a pain and I dont think C41 is used for night images. Great images of Hale-Bopp though. 🙂

@powerlordYep I've noticed that a lot of the outside fainter stuff gets picked up with Sii. I started another target but will go back to it tomorrow and add some more.

Wow!! Yes I'd be happy with that as my first Hubble pallet. Congrats. 😎

Have you looked at Antlia filters? I was dead set on the Baader 3.5nm but their was quite a few comments and pictures that I saw that put me off them. Antlia seem to be rated as not quite in the same league as Chroma or Astrodon but still better than Baader. These are from last night, just slightly stretched. The crop of of Sadr and considering how bright it is I'm more than happy with the halo. It was taken with the 3nm Antlia Ha, from what I understand the Oiii and Sii aren't as good but that seems to be the case with most brands. full.tif crop.tif

Thank you 😎 This leads me on to a couple questions..... From what I understand Ha and Sii can be used with a full moon (to an extent) with Oiii being the least tolerant of LP of any kind. May be a daft question but how do I know when its worth starting a night of Oiii subs? Is it just a case of taking subs and looking at the previews? So far I've been looking at other people final images on Astrobin to get a rough idea of how much time and what targets work well with each filter. Is there a better way to work out what targets need certain filters and integration times?

Thanks Richard. 🙂 Yes that's pretty much my plan, using Ha at full moon then Sii (if needed) and Oiii. I'm moving on to another target for a couple nights now though. I'm using a Redcat 51, HEQ5 and Antlia 3nm narrowband filters. The filters a pricey but I've placed everything that's in the image train a priority.

But look at that detail!! 👏

This is my first real image taken since I started imaging a couple months ago but a prolonged amount of cloud has made me wait until now to actually see something for all the cash I've been spending! Its work in progress with the aim of adding Oiii at a later date to make a final bi-colour image. So far its around 6 hours of Ha only but even though its been clear transparency has been fairly average at best and with a full moon on both nights the data was captured. I'm pretty sure there is far more fainter nebulosity but I'm guessing that I need more data, less moon and maybe less aggressive stretching to pick it out. Completely happy for constructive criticism and ways to improve and move forward with this. 72 x 300s 40 darks, flats and dark flats Edited with APP and PS

Just thought I'd point out that Pixinsight is fully compatible with Intel based OSX but if you have one of the newer Macs with Apples M1 chipset then you can't run anything related to Starnet++ within Pixinsight which is a real shame.

As from today I have 3 weeks off work and have clear skies right now and its looking great for the next week.....I'm seriously so happy right now!!! 🥳

I'm just happy to be imaging right now and the next 5 nights look very promising as well! 👏