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Tiny Small

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Everything posted by Tiny Small

  1. Tiny Small
    Cheers Olly. I have to say, getting the right balance is a bit trickier than with LRGB. More rewarding though.
  2. Tiny Small
    I replied when I was half asleep last night, so I apologise for missing this bit out: the individual channels look fine, but the Ha has physically bigger stars and i think that, combined with aggressive stretching is what is causing the halos. I think it's a sub length and processing issue. I'll need to take a look at some individual subs.
  3. Tiny Small
    They're about the same price as the standard baader ones (£250 for three 1.25 inch filters Vs £270 for the baaders) and the o3 and S2 have a narrower range than the baader filters.
  4. Tiny Small
    Thanks. I'm using Altair Astro filters. 7Nm Ha, 6.5 Nm OIII and SII.
  5. Tiny Small
    Had a play with using a desaturation layer and some extra curves. Think it has improved it a bit.
  6. Tiny Small
    When I used to shoot fashion and beauty, the skin was edited by non-destructive dodging and burning at pixel level, with a person's face taking a day or two sometimes, so the method you suggest isn't that labour intensive. I think I'll stay away from blurs as it's very easy to mess it up and very hard to get it right, but if there aren't any decent ways of globally controlling the halos then next time, the clone tool around individual stars might be a sensible option or perhaps just painting them out on a colour layer. One thing that I didn't realise was that a luminance layer can be used with narrowband. Seems obvious when you say it but it just didn't cross my mind. I'm assuming it's usually a Ha layer?
  7. Tiny Small
    I stack in either DSS or Astroart (depends if Astroart gives me issues or not), then do the entirety of my processing in PS. I don't use actions though as, coming from a conventional photography background, I'm well versed in editing the conventional way.
  8. Tiny Small
    So this is my first attempt at a three colour narrowband image and I ran into a few problems controlling halos around some of the stars. Quite sure that I'll figure it out in time but any advice would be welcome, as would advice on processing in the Hubble palette. Shot with the ZWO 178 mm-cool and Altair Astro 60 EDF at 200 gain and 65 offset. Integration: Ha; 72 x 300s OIII; 59 x 300s SII; 27 x 600s Total integration time just under 15.5 hours.
  9. Tiny Small
    Whilst a concreted in pier and observatory are the ideal way to go, you would be surprised with what you can achieve just using simple and none-permanent solutions. I have my scopes mounted on an NEQ 6 pier that stands on some flat paving slabs dug into the grass. Polar alignment needs adjusting once a year or so and I have no issues with tracking and guiding. The scopes stay outside all year and are covered by a plastic garden storage container on wheels. This has a slot cut in the bottom and gets wheeled on and off when I want to use the scopes. I can go from everything being put away to my first slew in about 90 seconds. To combat moisture in the little hut, I have two large desiccant tubs that get swapped a couple of times a year, and the scopes are covered in the hut by a bed sheet and a small tarp that are just thrown over them. This stops dew forming on the equipment. Certainly not hi-tech or ideal, but it works.
  10. Tiny Small
    M81 from the other night in Didcot. I'm enjoying using the 130 when I have time but I'm still struggling to get th autofocus working right. Might need to invest in a wider field of view camera too. 0.85 arc sec/pixel is really pushing it sometimes.
  11. Tiny Small
    A very informative review. I was debating whether or not to give this a go for when it's cloudy here. I eventually decided not to due to the expense of long imaging runs but I know a few people who use it and love it. It's good to hear that the support structure is there too.
  12. Tiny Small
    Collimation looks good. How many subs did you take and is that fuzzy bit exactly the same on all the subs? Could be a cloud.
  13. Tiny Small
  14. Tiny Small
  15. Tiny Small
    The clouds rolled in and stopped imaging again but I got a couple of hours Ha on the Crescent. 34 x 300s with a few darks applied. It needs MUCH more data before I move on to O3 and S2, but here it is, a work in progress:
  16. Tiny Small
    Interesting... I've got a 645 and an RZ 67 with a phase one digital back collecting dust at the moment... wonder what the wife will say when I pitch that idea to her.
  17. Tiny Small
    I've now swapped out the focuser on my 130 with a rack and pinion focuser from a 12" OO imaging Newtonian. This has a different size drawtube with an odd converter on the top to take it back down to 2". The focuser fits better than I expected and the gaps have been filled with silicone sealant. To achieve focus, I had to take 10mm off the top of the focuser and move the mirror about another 10mm up the tube. I've conducted some initial focus tests and it achieves focus fine. The robofocus also seems much happier with the R&P and over a few clear nights, I'll see if it makes a difference with autofocus routines. I don't know what this is going to mean for light loss with the mirror being so far up, but I'll see over the coming weeks.
  18. Tiny Small
    Has anyone successfully swapped out the focuser on a 130 PDS for a rack and pinion? I'm in the middle of trying to convert the Crayford but it's not a simple operation. Fitting the rack and pinion is easy but as the Crayford is a pressure drive and the rack and pinion is a geared drive, I'm running into issues with stability and spacing. Though the spacing is relatively easy to sort. So, if anyone has done this, any advice? Or has anyone successfully swapped an entire focuser? What issues are there? I'm assuming that light leakage is an issue though that shouldn't be too hard to rectify. The differing radii are on obvious issue but in terms of actually securing and squaring it, that shouldn't be anything a few washers can't sort out. Other than that, can anyone foresee any major problems?
  19. Tiny Small
    I did that for a long time. It finally got to me the other week though so I ended up doing both. I also finally got it collimated last night with the aide of a Cheshire. Took the primary out to clean and give it a new centre spot, took the secondary out to clean and just started from scratch. It's a good job I did too as everything was miles out. The only bit I had trouble with was keeping the secondary looking round whilst aligning it to the primary. In the end , and after about 4 iterations, I settled for 'pretty round' though not perfect. Also, keeping the primary screws equidistant from the edge of the field of view resulted in the centre spot being a couple of mm off so I moved the spot to the centre and although the screws aren't equidistant anymore, they are all still visible so it should hopefully be okay. I'm just awaiting a star test now.
  20. Tiny Small
    Yes they need to come out. And they can be in very tight. Get the longest shaft 1.5mm key you can. Halfrauds do them at reasonable prices... or, if you aren't risk averse, your normal key with a set of pliers on the end for added leverage. Giving them a tiny nudge clockwise can often break any bonds that have formed, allowing you to then unscrew them anticlockwise. If you do that though, it needs to be a tiny nudge, barely enough to move it at all.
  21. Tiny Small
    Yup. I've just lopped 15mm off my focuser AND moved the mirror up by about 10mm. Focus has moved from almost fully in to about 3/4 out which solves the problem of protrusion into the light cone, however, it's not somewhat more difficult to collimate. To the point where I'm tempted to go to the dark side and buy a frac. But I won't. I'll persist as I always do. Got a new Cheshire on the way as the laser just isn't cutting the mustard anymore.
  22. Tiny Small
    M33 with 6 hours of data at 0.85"/p. I've taken 15mm off my focuser but it's still protruding into the light cone. Pretty sure my collimation isn't great either. This image is also posted in the deep sky sub forum.
  23. Tiny Small
    I go down to headley and box hill a fair bit for observing. If you ever want to tag along, I have plenty of room in the car
  24. Tiny Small
    Going to be following this with interest.
  25. Tiny Small
    I also just stumbled across this thread. Excellent idea that mini obsy. Where abouts in Kingston are you? I'm down Kings Road, not far from Kingston Gate to the park.
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