tomato

Welcome to SGL, you shouldn’t have too much of a shock on how far the technology and software has progressed, first time around I was using emulsion film, manual guiding and setting circles. Startools, Astropixel Processor and Pixinsight are dedicated Astro image processing packages, in ascending order of price, but all have free trial periods. GIMP is a decent free alternative to Photoshop. There is currently quite a buzz around dedicated CMOS Astro imaging cameras, they are a fair bit cheaper than the CCD alternatives, but require a different approach to image capture. It’s all on this well organised forum, happy browsing!

Here is a ASI 178 fitted with a Peltier cooler and fan assist. It will take the sensor down to about 15-20 deg below ambient, main drawback has been moisture droplets dropping on the sensor when the scope (a refractor) has been pointing near the zenith. Further improvements since these photos were taken include cooler control, and fitting of the ZWO dew heater to the front of the camera. More testing to follow.

It’s been so long since I’ve processed any subs I’m beginning to forget my workflow, but I do remember that I use the ‘process in one big lump’ approach. This is because I set up and take down each time so I have new flats for every session. Also I have been experimenting with CMOS cameras with a wide variety of exposure times so again, I’ve got very specific sets of darks to play with. Generally if I’m disciplined about loading the correct calibration frames with the lights, APP crunches the numbers without returning any warning messages. I’m sorry, I would post some specific APP settings but I’ve packed my processing PC ready for an imminent house move.

+1 for that, maybe I don’t have the optimum settings, but I too can often find remnants of satellite trails in my APP processed images.

Last time I looked the help/user’s guide was only half finished, but to be fair there is a separate help guide for the processing element. The main elements I have found that I need to adjust are those that control smoothing and blending in mosaic panels or images combined from different scopes and cameras. They work really well however, once the optimum settings have been arrived at. That’s the fun in processing I guess.

Wow, that's a brilliant find! Looks a bit like NGC 891 but a tad more distant no doubt. I continue to marvel at the depth and resolving power of the HST, as the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 comes up, the HST Project (it's highs and lows) must be right up there in terms of NASA's greatest achievements.

The APOD image seems to show that the top line could be part of M63 to my eye, but the lower one still looks like the thinnest edge on galaxy I’ve ever seen.

You are right, the lower one in particular has a very sharp definition, they look similar in the Atlas photo, just fainter. I suppose they could be some kind of diffraction artefact from the nearby bright star, but why on this subject with two different scopes and cameras? Anybody got a refractor image with them on?

The galaxy stands up to close scrutiny, those two lines to the right of the galaxy do look like distant edge on spirals. I’ve looked at M63 in the Cambridge Photographic Atlas of Galaxies, and they are there! The Atlas image was 345 mins with a SBIG STL-1100 on a 600 mm reflector from Skinakas Observatory in Crete. Although it shows more detail in the dust lanes, your image beats it hands down for showing the fainter outer arms of the galaxy, no doubt due to your impressive total integration time for a UK image. Nice One!

Spot on, lovely colour. I haven’t imaged anything since the start of May, all the gear is packed up ready for the retirement move but then the permanent observatory build can start and no work to get in the way! I’m afraid you then need to be prepared for the cloudiest UK Autumn on record...

Great detail right to the core, I agree with the comments on the brightness, adjusting that would make it a first class M101 in my book.👍

Where’s Vlaiv when you need him?☺️

Myself and Tomatobro have been experimenting with retrofitting Peltier coolers to ASI178 cameras. Early runs did produced some random black specks on the images, which were caused by tiny droplets of moisture falling onto the sensor window. As you would expect, this was definitely worse when the refractor was pointing almost straight up. Application of the ZWO heater strip at the front of the camera body, and cooler control, seems to have fixed the problem, but this has yet to be properly tested.

There seem to be a number of these "purist" debates going on in SGL at the moment. If we want to take it to an extreme, anything other than naked eye visual astronomy is manipulation of some kind, and anybody wearing prescription spectacles must take them off, its a technological aid! To quote John Lennon (out of context), 'Whatever gets you through the night, it's alright'.

It does give the impression that there is some artistic licence in there, but I love the photo of the instrument, proper machined components, bolts and not a bit of gold foil in sight!

I must be turning into a grumpy old man because nowadays most TV documentaries do seem to make 10 minutes of footage last an hour by recycling the same content. I remember the Horizon and Equinox programmes in the 80’s and 90’s being so superior, maybe it’s the passage of time.

I subscribed to S&T in the 1980’s, it was a brilliant read back then, here’s hoping it goes from strength to strength under the new ownership.

Superb image, who would say AP is so easy, a child could do it? I don’t think so, your son shows a dedication and application of knowledge well ahead of his years, you can be immensely proud of him.👍

I never thought I would get good retirement advice from SGL, but there you go! I retire on the 3rd July, I won’t be bored to start with as there is a house move then an observatory to build, 12 months down the line is when I will need to take your sound advice on board.

It’s an interesting concept, since acquiring APP, I’ve combined data old and new, different scope and camera set ups and recently CCD and CMOS data, all with reasonable success, so I am sure it would work. I wouldn’t use it to produce images, but would be happy to contribute data. Unless we all got really clever, I can see the images being heavily cropped....

30 hrs, and it’s all in there, great M81.👍

Very nice, I like the faint filaments of the rest of the remnant visible on the RHS.

Imaging a wide range of DSOs and planets with a single camera is not a practical option, but for small DSOs and planets, take a look at the latest smaller sensor astro CMOS cameras, their sensitivity and low read noise means that much shorter exposure times can be used compared to CCDs, meaning that guiding is less critical. You will however, have lots more sub exposures to stack so you it will challenge your PC processing power. They also have the advantage of being significantly cheaper than their CCD counterparts, and if later you move onto a larger sensor camera, it will make a fine guide camera. I would support the view to go mono from the off, you can start imaging in mono and buy the filters and wheel later on.

Congratulations to both parties, M & MC jests aside, if I may voice one small regret it is that the number of top notch UK Astro retailers has gone down by one.

Can anybody tell me how Clear Outside removes the clouds, or is that only on the pay to use version?😜