Ryan_86

Thanks for your replies guys. Star tests showed perfect round stars when out of focus. This led me to look at the camera/oag/filter wheel end and it looks I'm on the right path as the oddly shaped stars rotate when I rotate the camera 90 degrees. 

Hi guys, 

Following the collimation of my laser collimator this is the shap of the red dot exiting my quadruplet refractor. Notice towards the bottom it becomes pointed. I plan to fix a little focus tilt, if this doesn't resolve the problem i guess I'm stuck as it has no collimation screws for the lens

Has anybody seen anything similar? 

Many Thanks

Ryan

Hi guys, I'm wondering if anybody has experience adjusting a rack & pinion focuser to fix tilt issues. My stars are triangular and have eliminated sensor tilt and pinched optics. 

My scope is a Primalucelab Airy 65F with a hybrid 2 dual speed focuser. 

The tilt is visible especially when I slight tighten the foxuser tube focus locking thumb screw. I removed the focuser mechanism revealing two beefy looking grub screws. I back them out and gave a turn each alternating between the two until a gentle contact was made. This has cured the tilt but am unable to adjust the focuser tube as the grub screws are holding the focuser tube in place. If i loosen slightly to be able to adjust focus the tilt come back.

I've contacted Primalucelab but are unable to supply a manual. 

I'm hoping I've missed how to do it properly. 

Many Thanks 

Ryan

Hi Micheal, 

No there were no warnings following calibration bwfore running a GA. 

Next time I'll calibrate as close to 0 dec as possible, I can get within 20deg for sure. 

I didn't manually clear the backlash prior to running PHD2, I'll try that also. 

Maybe I'm going a bit OTT with this but was a bit taken back by the backlash as I've adjusted the meshing and cant feel any play or binding.

Much appreciated 👍🏼

Thanks foe your replies guys. 

Yes Clarkey, I've adjusted the dec and ra worm gear meshing because i could feel some play in both axes. After lot's of adjustments I'm pretty certain there's no backlash or binding. Also the belts move precisely when moved at 0.2x via the hand controller. Also I've adjusted plastic casing where the counter weight shaft goes through and the ra nut behind the polaracope. Balancing is spot on and really smooth.

My guiding was consistently at 0.6rms that night even with really strong winds. I'm wondering whether the winds effected it along with my balance on the 3rd axis not being good enough as it does pull to the left when parked and clutches are released. 

I was unable to take any subs due to my shutter being stuck closed. I'll try these and go again. 

Does this calibration graph look ok, Indone thia bwfore running thw guide assistant. 

Sorry guys I've been out of the game for 3 years so am a bit rusty 😬😂👍🏼

Thanks again guys 

Ryan

Hi oal, just read you post. 

May I ask,  didi you resolve it? 

My Eq6r pro just reported 3.7 sexonds of dec backlash. I tinkered with my deca and ra worm adjustment because I could wobble axis. However there's lots there, so not sure whether to adjust mechanically again or isnit a guiding setting 🤔

Here's a pic of graoh, 10 ga. 

Total rms 0.6 with strong winds 😳 No images though, as half of my shutter wouldn't open lol. 

Thanks

Ryan

Hi guys, 

Can anybody recommend a good quality focal reducer to pair uuo with my Primalucelab Airy 65F? 

It currently has a FL of 420mm but wish to reduce it and speed things up a little. 

Thanks guys 👍🏼

Clear skies

I love the look/spec of the SS 15028, I can see this being added to my artillery next year 👍🏼

Thanks for the info guys, I panicked when I first read about a SGPro annual payment. 

Anyhow I'll stick to my v3 for now and must admit SGPro is absolutely fantastic. 

Clear skies

Ryan

Hi Carol, 

I haven't long bought the camera to be honest. SX are offering a modification to the main board to decrease thr readout noise (typically between 20 to 30%). I will give it a try along with dark frames, and ensuring the camera is consistently cooled 😬

If all else fails then I will be looking at alternative options 👍🏼

Ryan

Hi Vlav,

I managed to have a good go at salvaging what data I had. Being my first CCD/Narrowband image I am really happy with my attempt. Also I am excited to see what data I can capture with consistent cooling and more calibration frames.

Its far from perfect but a good start for myself I feel.

Thanks again for all your help pal. Stargazerslounge is a total god send for people like myself

All the best

Ryan 

On 18/11/2019 at 01:35, Xiga said:

Very nice Adam. Great to see the Epsilon working so well!

For those looking to use Starnet++ as a standalone package without P.I, it's actually really simple, and doesn't require any knowledge of DOS commands. Basically, after downloading and extracting the files, you should have a folder that looks like this:

If this is NOT what you have, then you haven't downloaded the right package.

In the example above, i copied in Ha and Oiii images, ready for star removal. They originally had very long file names, having come from APP, so i always rename them as just Ha and Oiii at this stage just for simplicity. Then you just need to Right-Click the run_mono_starnet.bat file and choose Edit. It should open in Notepad, and all you then need to do is check/edit the coding so it looks like the one below:

So all you need to do is reference the exact filename of the file you are removing the stars from (Ha.tiff in this case - and be careful, make sure you get it exact, as sometimes tiff files can have 1 or 2 f's), and then immediately follow it with the name you want the starless image to have, in this case just exactly the same but appended with -s

Save the batch file and close it. Now all you should have to do is double-click it to run it. 

Now, for future Ha images you shouldn't need to edit anything, and for Oiii and Sii, all you need to amend in the batch file are a few characters. 

The method works exactly the same with an RGB image, except you have to edit the run_rgb_starnet.bat file instead. 

HTH

CS.

Hi Xiga,

I hope you don't mind me asking, I have followed your instructions to process a starless image of my stretched 16bit tif mono and rgb images. However after I edit either in their respective notepads, the programme fails to process with the following message. Do you have any idea what I am doing wrong?

Thanks

Ryan

That's amazing Vlaiv condsodering how little data I have. Did you use just sub 8, 9 & 10 of the Ha. I will attempt using your workflow👍🏼

Much appreciated pal. 

Ryan

That would be such a help  

I shall look forward to it.

Thanks for all your input Vlaiv

16bitTIF Ha HDR Tonning.tifThat looks much much better Im not sure I could replicate that haha.

I've been experimenting with stacks. So far keeping all my DSS settings to average, applying a median noise reduction filter and applying just a 1 pixel hot pixel removal so far seems the best. Anyhow, when converting from a 32bit tif to 16bit in PS and converting to HDR toning, it produces this which looks far better than anything I have done so far with my Ha data, a little bright and soft in areas but I will try adjusting such areas.

What do you guys think?

Thanks

Ryan 

16bitTIF Ha HDR Tonning.tif

These TIF stacks include the median noise reduction and hot pixel removal, however they were stacked prior to changing my stacking settings so they are all stacked via kappa sigma clipping.

If this isn't of any use I can restack using average settings and upload 1st thing tomorrow  

Thanks again

Ryan

Autosave028 Stacked Ha with 3pix noise reduction.tif Autosave016 Stacked SII 3pix noise reduction.tif Autosave016 Stacked OIII 3pix noise reduction.tif

Ok Carole I shall attach tiffs now  

Ryan

14 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

On quick inspection, these look much better I must say, I'll have another go at processing now.

Amazing thanks  

P.S I forgot to change the hot pixel removal from 3 to 1.

Ryan

21 minutes ago, carastro said:

Yes give it another try.  Can I have the Ha separately plus the SHO combined.

Thanks

Carole 

I am unable to combine FIT files in PS, so I hope you don't mind that I have attached all three new stacks including 3x3 median noise reduction and a 3 pixel cosmetic hot pixel removal. Apologies I forgot to change to 1 pixel hot pixel removal.

Thanks again Carole

Ryan

32bit FIT Ha Stack with median noise reduction.fit 32bit FIT Oiii Stack with Median noise reduction.fit 32bit FIT Sii Stack with Median noise reduction.fit

7 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

You don't need a clear night to get your darks, nor you need to do it between filter changes. You need single set of darks, even if you are using different exposure lengths for different filters - as you will attempt to scale the darks. Just take a set of darks somewhere where it is close to temperature you were working at (but needs not be precise that temperature - so you can leave it in shed or basement or somewhere during cloudy night to record).

Don't apply 3x3 median filter - it will just kill any chance of stacking properly. You can try single pixel cosmetic correction though - that might work. In fact one of steps when trying to get that Ha signal was to apply my own cosmetic correction thing on whole stack.

You can even post all subs (maybe drop box or google drive) to see what sort of stacking would work the best on your data.

Ok Vlaiv, I will take a set of darks tomorrow night. All subs were 10mins long, how many do you recommend I take?

What's your drop box address, I will post all my subs 1st thing tomorrow.

9 minutes ago, carastro said:

This is what I managed to get with the data.  However as Vlaiv said it was incredibly noisy, and I only managed to salvage it by using Vlaiv's Ha Process by placing that over the coloured image and blurring the coloured image to get rid of the noise, and then using the Ha as a luminance layer.

I have no idea how Vlaiv managed to get this result from the Ha, as I couldn't.

I think the first thing is to try to work out why the data is so noisy.

I struggled for the first few months with combining data and getting it to align, but you seem to have sorted that aspect.

Carole 

Hi Carol, 

Thank you ever so much for your input.

The H18 is known to be a noisy camera, however I've been advised to apply a 3x3 median noise reduction during stacking (which this stack does not have). Can I restack including noise reduction to see what you think? 

Thanks again

Ryan

47 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I'm not sure I can make anything out of this data to be honest. It is just too noisy and noise is not "nice" kind of noise.

Why didn't you include dark calibration? That could probably help a lot with that kind of hot pixel noise.

Here is what I could manage to get out of Ha sub (with all kinds of magic):

There is some sort of bright ridge over that image that I can't get rid of - that is not there in other subs. Also, other subs don't contain this much signal at all (Ha is usually the strongest of the three). So I believe you won't be able to get a decent image out of this data unless you try to remove that noise.

I'm guessing that you did not want to take darks because you don't have set point cooling, right?

Why don't you just give it a go with dark scaling? Maybe you will be surprised with results. Do take a set of darks - same exposure and use them as well, but tick "dark optimization" option in DSS (and leave everything else the same, in fact - don't even do sigma clip stacking - use regular average for everything).

Btw, here is OIII sub processed the same as Ha:

Not much there really and denoise makes things too soft.

Thanks for your efforts Vlaiv.

Yes that's correct, due to no set point cooling and SX's H18 manual recommending a 3x3 median noise reduction over dark frames,. I didnt take any. Next time I'm out I will take the necessary darks in between each filter change. 

Can I upload a new stack of my Ha data including the median noise reduction to see if it helps. Also I will apply a cosmetic removal of hot pixels in DSS. What size pixels should I use to remove them? 

Thanks

Ryan

6 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Ok, let's keep things simple to see if we can avoid some issues.

No median filter for noise, no cosmetic correction at this stage. Use regular average for calibration frames (which camera are you using btw, since you don't use darks?) and use kappa sigma clipping for final lights integration. Set sigma to something like 3 and kappa to something like 2-3 (sigma being standard deviation and kappa number of iterations). You can use Ha as reference frame, but tell DSS not to include it in stack (or even better - use groups, DSS should align them all to same reference frame, right?)

Save result as 32bit fits and post those

Hi Vlaiv,

Here are my three individual raw stacks straight out of DSS. 

6 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Ok, let's keep things simple to see if we can avoid some issues.

No median filter for noise, no cosmetic correction at this stage. Use regular average for calibration frames (which camera are you using btw, since you don't use darks?) and use kappa sigma clipping for final lights integration. Set sigma to something like 3 and kappa to something like 2-3 (sigma being standard deviation and kappa number of iterations). You can use Ha as reference frame, but tell DSS not to include it in stack (or even better - use groups, DSS should align them all to same reference frame, right?)

Save result as 32bit fits and post those

Hi Vlaiv,

Here are my three individual stacks in 32bit Fit straight out of DSS. The amp glow in the Oiii opposite due to a auto meridian flip.

These stacks are integrated exactly as you mentioned above, however I unticked background calibration and debloom tabs as I wasn't sure whether to include or not. 

Thanks for taking a look.

Ryan

FIT 32bit Ha Stack.fit FIT 32 bit Sii Stack.fit FIT 32 bit Oiii Stack.fit

39 minutes ago, knobby said:

Hi Ryan, went through this myself when I went narrowband a few months back, it's more like art than science ... I didn't use a lum just Ha Oii and Sii.

Aligned in DSS usung best frame as reference to align the 3 colours, then put into Photoshop and created new RGB image from the 3 channels.

Then much stretching and balancing to my eye trying to match backgrounds as best as possible. Then colour tweaks as in this post - 

 

Good luck and keep at it !

 

Hi Knobby, 

Thank you also for your reply. Im quickly discovering its a dark art and I need a magic bullet. Vlaiv has kindly offered his help which I can't thank him enough for. 

Thanks again👍🏼

Ryan

2 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Ok, let's keep things simple to see if we can avoid some issues.

No median filter for noise, no cosmetic correction at this stage. Use regular average for calibration frames (which camera are you using btw, since you don't use darks?) and use kappa sigma clipping for final lights integration. Set sigma to something like 3 and kappa to something like 2-3 (sigma being standard deviation and kappa number of iterations). You can use Ha as reference frame, but tell DSS not to include it in stack (or even better - use groups, DSS should align them all to same reference frame, right?)

Save result as 32bit fits and post those

I'm using a Starlight Xpress H18 mono with the added external cooling fan. 

Yes apologies I failed to mention that I didn't include my Ha reference frame in stacks of sii and oiii👍🏼

OK Vlaiv, when I get back home I will restack following your instructions and post as 32bit fits👍🏼

Thanks again pal

Speak soon

Ryan