DaveS

When you have kit worth a nice family car in your back garden, telling all and sundry where you live (On an open forum) may not be a good idea.

I did try the trial version of PI but found it difficult to get my head around its way of doing things, perhaps because I started with AA 5 and got used to its way of working. V7 is now much more powerfull than V5 and does pretty much all I want apart from layers, and now I'm looking at Masks I may be able to work around that too, especially with Ragnar's tip about using a heavily stretched image as a mask.

OK, I've downloaded GIMP, but think it might be a learning curve. I've also been exploring the Masks menu in AstroArt 7, and may be able to do something there, though the "Help" and "tutorials" aren't terribly helpful here.

Thanks Ragnar and Geof good tip! Something for me to get my head around, as I've not used layer masks before. Yes, I know, lazy cheapskate lol.

This is the Luminance give a brutal DDP to show the background with no concern for burning out the galaxies

Thanks Geof. I think I'll download GIMP again, didn't have room on my old boot drive but do now. Will also have a closer look at my Luminance data.

Thanks Brendan. I don't have PS, I'm doing everything in AstroArt 7 which doesn't have layers, maybe a future version. AA is a package that I've used for a while and am used to. Time, I think to have another look at GIMP which does have layers.

Posting this for some advice. This is 15 hours RGB and 7 hr 50 Min L in 10 min subs. Sigma Add stacking with two iterations of Gradient Removal in AstroArt 7 then the RGB stacks entered into Trichromy before being given DDP. The Luminance was also given a separate DDP. LRGB synthesis followed by a couple of rounds of Histogram Stretch, Colour Curves and Saturation Boost with sky background suppressed. A fair crop to get rid of alignment edges. I'm trying to pull out the Tidal Tail of NGC 3628 while avoiding a horrible mottled background from some noisy data, plus avoiding burning out the cores of M 65 and M 66. so far with little success. Comments and Criticism NEEDED, not just welcome, so please don't hang back.

I had a look at this myself a couple of months back and I too found getting the brightness tamed to be a real headache, even with DDP. But TBH it was only look-see and will have to wait for the ODK12.

The Crux Harmonic Drive mounts certainly look interesting. You could always drop Rupert a line see if he has any suggestions. ATM my ASA software is behaving itself and doing everything it should, including autofocus. Haven't added full automation yet though.

Also seen it in AN.

Thanks. will give them a proper First Light the next good clear night.

From Auntie FLO, and a retirement voucher. Vortex Crossfire 10 X 50 bins. First quick look was a revelation.

Yes, very good. Could have done without the animated images though, a bit naff / lowbrow for the "arty" types.

My LRGB are Baader, and the offsets are only due to residual colour in the 'scope but the H-alpha is an Astrodon (I have the others waiting for some NB imaging) and is 3mm thick against the Baaders which are 2mm, so there is an optical path difference. Slight, but enough.

It still is From RS

Ah, sorry to hear of your loss, but that's a beautiful galaxy to remember her by.

Thanks Ole. Gonna need a bigger drive :).

One last (!) question then I'll let the thread back on track. Am I understanding correctly that if I want to bin, eg the whole frame, then I have to download the full size, 124 MB files and downsample after stacking? Or is there a more efficient way. Sorry to hijack the thread.

I was seeing this on the FLO site And assumed that it applied to the mono version. Are ZWO selling porkies?

Thanks Ole. I have a Moravian G3 16200 which is waiting to go on my ODK12, which itself is waiting on power being run to the obsy, even before the obsy is complete.

Is that a new 16200 camera or an IMX455? The last I saw of their IMX455 camera it had a price tag the wrong side of £5k unless you were an early adopter.

If you really *must* have an ASI camera (And after my experiences with a 1600 I would be dubious) then the ASI 6200 will give you 135 format and with that number of pixels could certainly be binned 2x2 or even 3x3. Else a 16200 based camera from Atik or Moravian. SX are expensive, and FLI rouinous.

Pity it couldn't be used as target practice.

I have a pier mounted 'scope, so if the forecast is clear until morning I leave it imaging and let the software shut everything down, then cover up when I surface, else I'll park and chuck the Telegizmos cover over.