tomato

Wow, 49 hrs... Respect. LA as an imaging site for capturing IFN, who would have thought it?

Superb Triffid, nice to see high end kit being used to the full.👍 That single 60 sec sub is indeed a sight to behold. Leaving aside, if I may, your considerable processing skills, how much further can the sensor technology take AP I wonder? Steve

Yes, the RASA is delivering some superb images from the Hole Observatory, but I think the sky quality helps an awful lot too. I imaged the squid and bat nebula using the same set up as Goran for the same integration time and only the brighter parts of the squid were visible on my image, nothing like the result that he obtained. However, I’ll give the M81/M82 region a go at some point when the RASA goes back on the mount.

Thanks for this, it helps in explaining how @gorann gets those amazing IFN images. I have a RASA8 and a QHY268c, but alas not the same class of sky, or indeed his dedication to the task.

This is a great thread, I’m really impressed with your work @Xilman, on the Saturnian satellite. I’m very much with you @Paul M, I don’t know if I’ll ever produce images worthy of the kit at my disposal, so I really enjoyed the “go deep” challenges this galaxy season, M87 jet (success) 3C 273 jet (maybe), but I don’t know if I can apply the rigour required for techniques described in this thread. My own challenge for next season will be to attempt a very modest version of the HST deep field image, even though it will obviously consume a large proportion of my available imaging time. It will be fun researching where I am going to point the scopes at...

Hi Steve, That’s a far from feeble Pinwheel. It is a challenging target but there is a lot of detail in there and the galaxy will really come through once the background gradient is fixed. I note you have APP, try using the ‘Remove Light Pollution’ in the Tools section, this should work a treat on the background gradient.

I think the talks have been brilliant, you have covered a wide range of interests and the speakers have been to a consistently high standard. A massive thank you from me for all of the effort you and the team have put in to set this up and maintain the high standard for so many weeks. I think with (hopefully) an end to meeting restrictions and increased socialising generally the attendance will drop off so it might be prudent to reduce the frequency. No doubt you have the numbers on the most popular talks, but I have really enjoyed the talks by SGL members and the image processing experts, including the software representatives. When the dark nights return I would be up for contributing to some live imaging/EEVA sessions but of course I know how hard this will be to set up given the UK weather.

So sorry to hear about the accidental damage, hope it doesn’t take too long to rectify. I know I’m stating the obvious after the event, but the Mesu mount is a serious bit of kit in all respects, I wouldn’t entertain powering mine up unless it was properly secured on either a sturdy tripod, pier or work bench.

After analysis of the quality of the subs in APP there is always a spread, but there always 2 or 3 which are well below par, usually trailed due to scope sag or cloud coming across during the exposure. I discard these but generally stack all the remaining subs unless I have the luxury of 3+ hours of exposures on that channel which needless to say is vary rare.

Great M51, I never tire of looking at images of this wonderful galaxy. I too can usually tell how good the final image is going to be by looking at the first few subs. Of course in the UK conditions can and usually do, adversely change during the course of a single night.

You don’t have to set up a sequence in NINA to capture images. You would use platesolving to sync your mount on the sky and centre the object, but as dark sky time is scarce now I would leave this for another time. Just set the image tab to loop and tick the save option when you are ready to collect subs. As you would with the DSLR use short exposures to centre your object and to focus. Best of luck

Try swapping your 27” Mac for an 8” Mak, I’m sure you will enjoy the night sky way more on the second option for all the reasons so eloquently posted.

Great image, a very sharp edge on galaxy, it will be on my list for next season.

Wish you well with this, you have the perfect advert for it with the IKI imaging competitions!

Thanks Olly, I now understand the point you are making, regarding the signal estimation introduced into the colour channels by way of the de-Bayering process. As you say, it can only strive to be as good as the ‘pure’ RGB collected data, never better. Will it still be acceptable with regards to the quality of the final image? Hopefully when Autumn comes around I can contribute some evidence to the debate.

Apologies Olly if I keep the Imaging Surgery theme going, but I wonder do you have any thoughts on my post 10 above on using channel extraction in Pixinsight to obtain RGB channels from a OSC image?

This is my final galaxy image for this season 😪, astro darkness almost gone from my location. It is unfortunately heavily cropped as attempts to make the rig less prone to sag introduced some camera miss-alignment which I decided not to correct and use the time to image instead. Captured with the dual Esprit 150/ASI 178 rig, data binned 2x2 so imaging at 0.94 arcsec/pixel, total integration 5.4 hrs L 58 x 3 min R 15 x 3 min G 16 x 3 min B 19 x 3 min Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP,AP and GIMP. Apparently this galaxy is considered to only have a single spiral arm, but to my eye there is a hint of an second shorter inner arm at the base of the galaxy, but it is more likely to be my dodgy processing. Thanks for looking

This is my final entry, astro darkness almost gone from my location now. NGC 4725, captured with the dual Esprit 150/ASI 178 rig, data binned 2x2 so imaging at 0.94 arcsec/pixel, total integration 5.4 hrs L 58 x 3 min R 15 x 3 min G 16 x 3 min B 19 x 3 min Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP,AP and GIMP.

Just wondering Olly, have you ever had a RASA imaging at Les Granges?

Brendan, sorry to hi-jack this thread but on Olly's point re channel extraction, I have loaded a OSC broadband stacked image into PI and using the Channel Extraction process tool, have created a Red, Green and Blue file, the images look to me like they have extracted the relevant data for each colour channel. Could I not now compose a LRGB image using these?

It will be a trusty KAF8300 taking Lum and a QHY268c taking the colour. Previously I have used two 8300 cameras, one taking lum and the other divided equally between RGB, so this is a ratio 1:0.3:0.3:0.3. I have used this capture ratio successfully on dual CMOS cameras but thinking about it the only project the dual CCD cameras has done to date was a M31 mosaic and the colour channels were a struggle on that one. As Olly says with the mono and OSC this will go roughly to 1:0.25:0.5:0.25, but the CMOS camera is quite a bit more sensitive than the CCD, so wouldn't that work in my favour? This set up has worked ok on NB with the CCD taking Ha and the OSC working with a dual band filter, but LRGB is a different kettle of fish. It won't be a big deal if it doesn't work, the OSC was purchased specifically for WF with a RASA, and it will be fun to try.

I plan to do this on my dual rig in the autumn. I will shoot Lum on one scope and use a CMOS OSC camera on the other to capture RGB. I can get very similar FOVs and resolutions by using a focal reducer on the Lum scope. I will process the data separately then extract the RGB channels from the colour data and combine these with the Lum, just as I would if I had captured separate RGB with a mono camera and filters.

I don't think they built really tall chimneys at the start of the Industrial Revolution, so most of the soot and dirt came straight back down, hence the Black Country name. The interstellar murk does create some wonderful opportunities for imaging but I think I prefer my space to be clean. That's why the Fornax Deep Field is my favourite HST image, nothing but the clean vacuum of space between us and the galaxies at the edge of the Universe.

A tiny hair on the sensor can produce a trail on the image that looks like a liquid drop that has run down.

I know the OP has gone mono but I don’t think the latest OSC cameras combined with the latest dual band filters are a non starter for NB targets. Here is a 1 hour integration with a RASA8/QHY268c OSC using the IDAS NBZ dual NB filter. I dare say a mono camera with separate NB filters will give a better result but this took an hour to capture and 20 minutes to process in APP, so I’d venture OSC NB imaging can be quick and reasonably straightforward with the appropriate equipment and software.