Skipper Billy

3 hours ago, old_eyes said:

Welcome back. A nice image to start with.

I am not sure I agree with @ollypenrice. I think your two palette image with RGB stars looks fine. After all, we are in no way 'authentically' representing the 'real' colours. As soon as we go to NB we are producing some representation that highlights the features in the target we find of interest or aesthetically pleasing. I would argue that in most cases with BB or OSC we also deliberately distort the colour balance for the same purpose.

Thank you.

It was more of an experiment as I have time on my hands at the moment and I found it quite interesting.

I probably wont do it again. I agree with all you say about interpretation and artistic licence!

4 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

can I ask how or why you have spikes in the stars with a tak 106… are the optics pinched slightly…?

I use an Atik 16200 and it has produced wee diffraction spikes on every scope I have tried it on.

I quite like the effect!!

4 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Have you tried Russ Croman's Noise Xterminator? It is utterly astounding and miles ahead of any other NR routine I've tried. It probably came along while you were out of action and I think it would be ideal for this image.

I havent tried them but catching up in the various forums it seems that almost every man and his dog are using BlurX, NoiseX and StarX etc. I might investigate!

19 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

OK, I'm not so sure about the rationale behind using two palettes in the same image. I can certainly see the point if, like HOO, the palette closely resembles RGB but the Hubble is in flat contradiction with RGB. I'd be more inclined to combine RGB stars with HOO. I think this would look more consistent.

I have looked at it again in the cold light of day and you are absolutely right - it looks ridiculous!

I have processed it again from scratch and left the stars alone. I am very rusty at processing after an 18 month absence but I am happier with this version than the first one. I might have another go as I think I have overcooked the star reduction and sharpness.

IC410 TADPOLE NEBULA.tif

I found this (by happy accident!) it fixes the above issue and enables GPU acceleration in a very simple way

https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?threads/experimental-tensorflow-gpu-acceleration-repository.22325/

Works like a charm!

I have just downloaded BlurXTerminator to see what all the fuss is about and I get this error message. I have no idea what it means but more importantly - does anyone know how to fix it ?? (it is embedded in Pixinsight)

BlurXTerminator: Processing view: rgb_stars

Writing swap files...

8887.302 MiB/s

*** Error: ERROR: MLLoad() could not load tensorflow graph. Error 3: Converting GraphDef to Graph has failed. The binary trying to import the GraphDef was built when GraphDef version was 440. The GraphDef was produced by a binary built when GraphDef version was 1645. The difference between these versions is larger than TensorFlow's forward compatibility guarantee. The following error might be due to the binary trying to import the GraphDef being too old: NodeDef mentions attr 'explicit_paddings' not in Op output:T; attr=T:type,default=DT_FLOAT,allowed=[DT_HALF, DT_BFLOAT16, DT_FLOAT, DT_DOUBLE, DT_INT32, DT_INT64, DT_UINT8, DT_INT16, DT_INT8, DT_UINT16, DT_QINT8]; attr=ksize:list(int),min=4; attr=strides:list(int),min=4; attr=padding:string,allowed=["SAME", "VALID"]; attr=data_format:string,default="NHWC",allowed=["NHWC", "NCHW", "NCHW_VECT_C"]>; NodeDef: {{node BXT/max_pooling2d_14/MaxPool}}. (Check whether your GraphDef-interpreting binary is up to date with your GraphDef-generating binary.).

Reading swap files...

5691.348 MiB/s

<* failed *>

I havent imaged fror over a year due to illness but thankfully I am fixed and back in action although extremely rusty and out of practise!!

This is the first time I have tried putting RGB stars into a narrowband image. I think its come out OK??

I imaged IC410 (Tadpole Nebula) over 3 nights. 2 nights were spent gathering Ha, SII and OIII data (3 hours in 600 second subs binned 1x1 for each) for the nebula and one night gathering RGB data (1 hour in 120 second subs binned 1x1 for each) for the RGB stars.

I removed the stars from the narrowband image and processed it without stars. Then I processed the RGB image to get the correct colour stars, removed the stars and added the RGB stars to the narrowband image (processed in Hubble Pallette).

The images were processed entirely in Pixinsight using a full set of darks, bias and flats for each filter.

It's great to be back again !!!

If its a steel bolt screwed into alloy try heating the assembly up - hairdryer or heat gun - not a blowtorch!!! Or put it out in the sun.

Alloy expands much more than steel when heated and it should release its grip.

Not what I was expecting to see!!!

8 hours ago, Mark2022 said:

Hi again David, Can you possibly describe/explain the roof design in more detail: What material/wood size used (9mm OSB?) and how you created the apex/v shaped hang over; how it connects and what material? Also, what sort of weight are the two sections would you guess? Do you think having a 1.6m x 1.8m version would make  the  roof section too unwieldy?

Hi Mark

The roof panels are 9mm Sterling board over a 1" x 1" wooden frame. The panels are then covered in EPDM. The two panels meet fairly flush when closed. I made an inverted V shape strip to cover the gap from two pieces of ~75mm x 25mm wood planed to give the correct angle of the V (glued and screwed together). This was then covered in EPDM and fixed to the Western side panel by screwing through the roof panel into the V strip from the inside along with a good bead of Sikaflex 291. This means the western panel has to be opened first and closed last. I chose to seal it to the western panel as thats where most of our weather comes from.

Each complete panel weighs about 9kg - the western one a bit more and the Eastern one a bit less.

I would expect 1.6 x 1.8 would be perfectly maneagable if you are reasonably strong/fit - you could decrease the weight by using polycarbonate instead of Sterling board as most of the strength is in the 1x1 frame. EPDM is surprisingly heavy!  I am 64 and I picked up a significant back injury last Nov (which is why I havent posted much in the last 6 months) but with care and good technique I can still open and close the roof. 

There are some detail photos and video of the sealing strip and videos of it opening and closing on the previous page in this thread.

The only downside I can see with this design is that it is almost impossible to motorise it to open and close remotely.

Feel free to ask any questions. It has worked really well for me and has never let a single drop of water in despite >100mph winds, biblical rain and temperatures down to <-20 degrees.

Welcome from a fellow 'Sandgrownan' !!! 

9 hours ago, cloudbuster said:

Love it Billy!!!!

Sorry - I couldn't resist it! 😉 

More than one way to skin a cat 😉 

It was pretty lively !! 

Almost everywhere in the UK has Aurora just now.

If you aren't outside now you are missing a really strong display - this is through thick cloud.....

Photo below and there is a timelapse of all the images I got before the rain came on too hard for my equipment. https://youtu.be/-oMydhe8VQs

3 hours ago, wimvb said:

No imaging in March and April? Up here, spring is usually the best season for AP.

I don't have the focal length for galaxies so I call time and get on with my summer hobbies! 

Well, this winter on the West Coast of Scotland has been a total disaster for imaging. Just 2 clear nights since August. I hope this is a blip and not a trend !! Just 2 images gathered in 7 months. Time to take the rig to bits and put it away until August. 😞 

18 hours ago, tim22 said:

Many thanks for the offer Skipper Billy  (I believe that you were the originator of the 2018 thread to which I alluded to above).  Yes please  (note --despite my reply above I  am not ruling out that there is some alignment error --- there is certainly some  there on more careful investigation )

This is the result from CCDI - it is showing that there is some curvature and some tilt but nowhere near as much as I expected to see.

Hope it helps!

If you adjust anything and want the result running through CCDI again just ping me a message - it only takes me a couple of minutes.

Good luck.

If you would like to post a single unprocessed sub in this thread I will happily run it through CCD Inspector which should identify the problem. 

If you missed it you can see the whole night here in 60 seconds - it was the longest display I have ever seen.

Timelapse from last night - strong and persistent Aurora. Nice to see the Milky Way also making an appearance at the end of the video. Fantastic display - fingers crossed for tonight!

Quick update in case anyone else has a similar issue.

PROBLEM SOLVED!!

I heard back from 4Tronix -(my emails had gone into their spam trap!)

The master file folder they use for creating the USB sticks to send out with their products had lost the ASCOM driver !!

Its now been corrected.

They sent me a direct download link and now every programme under the sun can access the focuser via ASCOM.

Happy days and many thanks to everyone that assisted.

Clear Skies - David (aka Skipper Billy).

2 hours ago, tomato said:

Apologies, I thought it was one of the default options in the NINA focus menu but perhaps it only appears if it finds something meeting that description connected to the PC. I was using the Hitec Ascom driver which NINA wouldn't recognise, but it must have assigned this 'Generic Hub' label to it, and it works OK.

Nae botha. I have tried everything now and I am convinced that I am missing the ASCOM driver package on the USB stick that came with it.

4Tronix are shall we say 'unresponsive' - maybe they are on holiday 😉 

Thanks for your help.

Thanks William

I have carefully checked that - no ASCOM options

Interestingly the link to the ASCOM driver on 4tronix website gives a 404 error.

Maybe the USB stick supplied is automatically created and the ASCOM driver is missing

I think I will just have to wait for 4Tronix to reply 😞 

Thanks for your help.

David

Thanks @Oddsocks William

The walk through is much appreciated - its a looon time since I last used ASCOM!

The driver doesnt show up - see screen grab below.

Also below is the contents of the USB stick supplied with the device - I think they have missed out the ASCOM driver - I have pinged them an email but they are very slow at replying.

Thanks again for your time and help.