geordie85

1 hour ago, Simon Pepper said:

My 135 turned up yesterday but I have realised I do t have any rings or dove tails can anyone recommend any and save me sifting through this thread please? I have both a zwo and a dslr so ideally work with both. Thanks 

I use one of these with some extra felt on the inside to make it a snug fit 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tripod-Collar-Mount-SIGMA-70-200mm/dp/B07DVKZBXG/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=lens+collar&qid=1629309904&sprefix=lens+coll&sr=8-3

On 23/07/2021 at 19:47, Rustang said:

So I had an infuriating and upsetting incident last Saturday, I had been out imaging Friday night and packed up about 3am and went to bed. The next morning it was really hot so I always open the shed where my gear is stored to let the air flow through, as i opened the door our cat ran out, oh so I locked you in by mistake, i didnt even know he was in there! Then I stepped into the shed and my heart sank, my scope with guide scope with guide camera attached was on the floor! it was 4ft above the floor position at a 45 degree angle away from the edge of the work top where i always leave it. I went numb and just stood there waiting to be pinched and woken up from this nightmare. How it happened i dont know, it was obviously the cat but considering it all weighs nearly 5 kg and the cat weighs nothing he must have gone mental trying to get out!!!

I didnt have the heart to pick it up for a while not wanting to accept any damage. I eventually did and started stripping it all down checking for damage. The bracket holding the guide scope on was pretty bent up including a screw on the back that holds the focueser to the scope body. The main scope sort of appeared unscathed but on closer inspection the focus unit appeared not 100% aligned with the body and the tube the same with the unit, it had taken a knock because it was locked but pushed in! apart from that it seemed ok. After sorting everything the best I could i decided to try imaging the next couple of nights. The guide camera still works, and all appeared ok with the images so I was relived but also not convinced i had gotten way with any issues just yet.

Sadly after looking at my data tonight I can see the stars are not great at the same focus, see images below. The crisper stars from before the fall, the crap stars after! So i would say its now out of colimation which I'm not surprised about! I'm gutted, my gear is my pride and joy. and there was me worrying about the stars in the corners in my earlier thread!

 

Does anyone know if i could be sent away and where to be sorted!?

 

Just seen this on ABS and thought of this thread.

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=176342

I use Astro Pixel Processor for combining data sets of different fov/ orientation. It will manipulate one data set, for eg RGB stacks, to exactly match my luminance data set. 

There is also a program called registar that can do the same thing.

Yep, well I suppose technically I am. I'm mainly doing tests on my wide field rig for when astro darkness arrives so I can take it to darker skies. Busy making sure guiding is working and everything is talking to eachother as it should.

Very nice.

I see you've even managed to capture part of the squid nebula down in the bottom right.  You should be proud of that as it is incredibly faint.

I've had a William optics star71 and now currently use a 2010 carbon fibre flt98 with a William optics adjustable flattener as part of a dual rig.

The thought of selling it has came across my mind a few times but can't seem to bring myself to put an ad out. 

31 minutes ago, powerlord said:

So I've got a few narrowband H alphas so sounds like they could be worth trying then...will give em a test !

No do not do this.

Standard ha filters have a much higher band pass than solar ha filters. 

My astrodon filter has a bandpass of 3.0 and ha solar filters have a bandpass of around 0.3.

1 hour ago, StuartT said:

do you mean the levels histogram? It looks like this at the moment. What should I fiddle with?

and where's all that purple come from?

In the channel drop down box change that to red, move the left hand slider to a tad before the black. Do the same for green and blue too so they all at the same point.

The purple is probably coming from the red and blue channels being too far over to the right. Once they're aligned you should have the correct colour balance.

You'll just need to align the histogram in Photoshop

I used to get something similar with my atik 383l if the power supply was low. How were you powering your camera?

Can you upload as jpeg/ PNG file please. 

I always thought this was the skull nebula. Rotate it 90 degrees clockwise

On 11/04/2021 at 23:05, tooth_dr said:

 

Thanks  I follow the routine that you showed me for processing colour data in APP, and I have to say it's fantastic.  Gone are my yellow images, and finally I have something that is vibrant - those blues and purples just pop out!  

Care to share?

My colour data always looks flat and forced.

Very nice, well done.

I've just started my imaging run on this too 

Personally I'd stack them separately then use layers and masks in Photoshop to add the details and maybe a bit of colour from the filtered data.

23 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

I'd say so, I'm currently imaging this myself and have around 4 hours in the bag but I'm struggling to bring out the colour (particularly the blue in M66) with my OSC camera. Forecast looks promising for tonight so hopefully I can add more data

I always stuggled getting a good colour balance when using a OSC camera. Having a dual rig really helps with data collection.

I've made a couple tweaks to try and fix the background

16 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

Nicely done, great colours 👍

Thanks. I'd say it an improvement on the last time I tried these targets with my 200p and canon 600d in 2016.

After a not so great imaging run on Monday i decided to go for something a bit brighter and "easier" on Tuesday night, the Leo Triplet.

3 hours in Lum from the ASI 183MM and 1 hour each RGB from the QHY183MM and FLT98

It sounds like you're very out of focus and the "pin prick stars" you're seeing are hot pixels.

Very nice. I started imaging this again last night with my dual rig. I lost 2 and a half hours due to falling asleep just before doing a focus check so the scope just followed the target without taking any images.

Hope to carry on collecting data tonight.

You've managed to bring out the nebulosity very well for such a faint target.

Well done on another super image.

I've seen people using something called Dropbox before.

I've not used it though so cannot really comment on it.

Just a little extra storage to back up my imaging data.

6 tb external hard drive.

2 hours ago, geordie85 said:

Mine are waiting for darkness. Just hope I can get everything working tonight and not have to waste hours on things going wrong or refusing to do what they're supposed to.

Thankfully everything's working as it should so far.

Mine are waiting for darkness. Just hope I can get everything working tonight and not have to waste hours on things going wrong or refusing to do what they're supposed to.