mightymonoped

I know I said I was finished but I managed to grab another hours worth of data (albeit under a full moon). Anyway, I added the capture to the previous session and recombined using the SHO Hubble 1 formula. Had to do quite a lot of cleaning and cropping due to the lunar pest. 2.8hrs worth of lights plus calibration masters Integrated and Recombined in Astro Pixel Processor Processed/Cleanup in Photoshop and Topaz Denoise AI SW 80ED & Optolong l-eNhance filter ASI294mc pro OSC camera EQ6-R mount ASIair pro - capture

Actually got round to doing proper flats for the 80ED/l-eNhance setup today, so I reworked the SHO version, calibrating it properly this time. Having reprocessed it, I found that I preferred it's OIII aspects but wanted to keep some of the SII & Ha outer nebulosity from the previous version, so.... I merged both images, hopefully retaining the best aspects of both. I promise not to mess around with this one any more...... unless I'm bored! 😝 SW 80ED & Optolong l-eNhance filter ASI294mc pro -10C unity gain EQ6-R mount ASIair pro capture Integrated and recombined in Astro Pixel Processor, processed in Photoshop (with Topaz Denoise AI) Tony

Processed as HOO using individual Ha and OIII channels this time. Otherwise the same processing as far as stretch and cleanup is concerned. Clear skies, Tony

Had a go at splitting the HOO capture into individual channels before recombining as SHO (using a false SII channel from Ha-OIII extract as mono). Played with the colour balance a bit, then croppped the frame and cleaned up before creating a starless version in starnet++ Played with starless version (Camera Raw Filter mainly)in Photoshop, then merged with curve-reduced star layer and did some final processing and cleanup. Have gone a bit snow-blind to be honest, so I've no idea if this is ok or a monstrosity at this point 🤪

Two hours worth of 120s subs captured earlier tonight. couldn't resist the temptation to do a quick and dirty process (without proper flats). This is just a straightforward process as Ha-OIII Colour. No separate channel processing our star layer skullduggery yet, this is just basic integration and cleanup in Astro Pixel Processor followed by stretch, saturation and cleanup in Photoshop CC. Skywatcher 80ED ASI294mc pro -10C unity gain Optolong l-eNhance filter EQ6-R mount ASIair pro to capture

Finally got round to adding some shorter and longer subs to this one. Also paid a bit more attention to stars using starnet++ to create a star layer to merge back into the nebula layer (once processed). A combination of 30s & 120s subs for the Nebula with 10s subs for the Core/Trapezium. The Long and Short were registered against each other in Astro Pixel Processor and the Registered Short was pasted into the Long image and merged in using a layer mask. Captured using Skywatcher 80ED + 0.85x Reducer/Flattener, Optolong L-Pro filter, ASI294mc pro camera at unity gain (120) -10C on EQ6-R mount. Processed using Astro Pixel Processor, starnet++, Topaz Denoise AI and Photoshop CC Clear skies all, Tony

Another opportunistic grab with the 80ED. should have spent more time on this (capturing and processing both) but ran out of steam. processed in APP & Photoshop CC Tony

Added 5 mins of 10s subs to the 30 minute quickie I did a short while back. Had to reregister the two images because of framing issues but no real problem. Funnily enough, 10s exposures were still a bit much for the Core but seeing wasn’t that great anyway. Have to take what you can get on a moonless night in this country! Tried not to push the suppression of the core too much as I don’t hold with ‘flattening’ or losing the natural feel of the whole just to pull detail on The Trapezium. Processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop with NR done in Topaz AI. SW 80ED, ASI294mc, L-Pro filter, EQ6-R mount. Captured using ASIair pro. Tony

Managed to grab 1.5 hours of testing time last night with the new dual scope setup (80ED/Redcat 51). Focus was rough and ready manually but that can be addressed easily. Overall, I'm really pleased with how painless the whole process was, everything worked essentially. still some tuning to do on focus and guiding but it wasn't a nightmare, just had to address the things I expected. Skywatcher 80ED (imaging) ASI294mc pro -10 unity gain WO Redcat 51 (guiding) EQ6-R ASIair (PA, guiding and capture) Integrated in Astro Pixel Processor Processed in Photoshop CC Clear skies all, Tony

I’m inclined to agree with you Martin (in fact I prefer the HOO). A number of people were asking if I could bring out the gold more, so I guess I was indulging them. All good practice though. 😊

…and a ‘blinged-up’ SHO version 😝

Spent an afternoon playing with different integration techniques and processing in different palettes. HOO - using separate extractions of Ha and OIII in AstroPixelProcessor (APP) separating the star layer and processing each individually before re-merging. SHO - creating a false SII channel from Ha-OIII Mono and combining using APP’s RGB Combine, then processing as above.

Thought I'd have a play with the HOO Rosette capture as the data seemed pretty good. First, I did separate Ha and OIII integrations in Astro Pixel Processor. I cleaned up the Light Pollution first to create two 'clean' Fits images, then registered them against each other (as the Ha image is always a different dimension for some reason) and merged the registered fits as SHO channels, using OIII for a false SII (yes, I know I 'should' use a mono Ha-OIII integration but that's why this was "playing" 🙂) The combined initially stretched image was then saved as a tiff file and some basic cleanup and processing was done (mainly Camera Raw Filter and Noel's Actions). Rather than use starnet++ at the initial stages, I waited until the image was more or less processed this time, having corrected and flattened. After running starnet++, I used Apply image with the starry and starless images to create a separate star layer. Then ran Peter Shah's Star Reduction action to reduce the Star Layer before merging it back into the cleaned up Starless for the final image. Actually quite pleased with the result and will do the same with the HOO version tomorrow I think. Tony

Had to take advantage of a cloudless (almost) New Moon, even if it was a bit windy. Crop from full image. 36 x 180s subs with Optolong L-Pro filter WO Redcat 51 ASI294mc pro -10C unity gain Skywatcher StarAdventurer tracker Processed with Astro Pixel Processor, starnet++ and Photoshop CC Tony

Thank you! 😊

First pass at processing this capture from last night. Will have a go at processing individual channels later. 40 x 180s lights plus calibration (no flats for this, had to try to sort through processing). Integrated and initial stretch/cleanup in Astro Pixel Processor and processing in starnet++ and Photoshop. WO Redcat Optolong l-eNhance filter ASI294mc pro -10C unity gain Star Adventurer tracker

Was asked by Highpoint Scientific if I'd like to feature in this weekend's Saturday Setup on Instagram and submit a couple of images alongside the kit breakdown. So I did! 🙂 Saturday Setup - highpoint Scientific

Reworked this one (hopefully more sympathetically) by doing an SHO recombine in Astro Pixel Processor and merging 50% with previous version after doing a bit of star-removal, cleanup and processing. May eventually get round to sorting out the stars properly. around 2.5 hours of lights with l-eNhance filter. WO Redcat, ASI294mc pro on Star Adventurer tracker.

Thought I'd have a go at reprocessing this one to try to get more colour and detail from the galaxies (having a lazy Sunday really). Used ArcsinH stretching in Photoshop to try to preserve the colour, then a general cleanup. approx 27 x 120s and 20 x 180s integrated in Astro Pixel Processor WO Redcat 51 Optolong l-Pro filter ASI294mc pro -10 Unity Gain Star Adventurer Tracker

Thanks, just got lucky on the clear nights but also had the kit all setup on the balcony (under a Telegizmo 365 cover) I seem to recall a lot of time spent in and around Cygnus last Spring/Summer lots of big emission nebula targets such as NA Neb and Pelican, also Sadr region and Elephant’s Trunk. You’re limited to the bigger galaxies with the Redcat but it’s great for Markarian’s Chain Tony

Captured over two nights, 5 hours in RGB, 1.5 hours in Ha using Optolong l-pro and l-enHance filters, respectively. Integrated in Astro Pixel Processor then merged and processed in Photoshop. WO Redcat 51 ASI294mc pro -10C unity gain ASIair for guiding and capture Star Adventurer tracker

Hey Dave! Welcome back from another old timer. I’m another one who had to move away from nearly ideal conditions (for different reason though). Never stopped completely, just sold the EQ6 and put the ED80 away until I move back up North. I’m currently in Mistley, not a million miles away from your old haunt and the PAIG meetings. Nice to see you back 😊 Tony

Thank you! 😊

Although conditions were very very windy last night, I managed to grab another 3 hours worth of lights. Only lost 4 frames from the whole session so not too bad on the whole. Added to the night before's session gives us just shy of 5 hours of data on this, which is the most I have ever had on any target 🙂 Tried to process the same as last time, light pollution cleanup and basic stretch through APP, fine tuning, colour, star control and noise reduction through Photoshop. Redcat, ASI294mc pro and Star Adventurer capture rig.

Had another go at SHO palette on the recent Heart Nebula capture. False SII created from Mono HOO extract. No star removal on this one, just a little bit of reduction. SHO image created from the individual Ha, OIII and Mono HOO grayscale images and played with in Photoshop. I know I need to clean up the background really, I'll try to sort that later. WO Redcat 51 and Optolong l-eNhance filter ASI294mc pro at -10C unity gain Skywatcher Star Adventurer