tomato

Nice result, is there a hint of IFN in there? I guess it will be hard to capture from a Bortle 8 location, even with 20 hrs integration.

Posts about SGP seem to have declined since they changed their pricing model, but interestingly, it’s the image acquisition software chosen for the FLO remote imaging venture in Spain.

I also follow the conventional method of counting the time I have photons hitting a sensor, irrespective of what filter is in front of it so 1 hour with a L filter, and an hour each with the R, G and B filters is 4 hours integration. I’m fortunate to have dual rig, so I have one scope on L all of the time and the other doing RGB, so I usually capture 3 x more L than R, G and B.

Were you using active cooling on the camera? It does look like moisture forming on the sensor to me although the symmetry of the light area is unusual. Do a I see a bright area on the LH edge of the image also?

No, I have kept the guide speed at 0.34. To answer your original question, my RA speed was too slow so I added the tick correction value to the original. I get around 0.3 arc sec total RMS on a good night, but usually it is closer to 0.45. I have got 70+ kg riding on the mount.

Before embarking on the tick adjustment option, do make sure your mount balance is as good as you can get it, particularly if, like me, you have a high load capacity on the mount. An out of balance in RA can produce the same effect, see what happens after a meridian flip. I’d be happy with 0.33 arc sec total RMS BTW.

The 3D effect is definitely characteristic of a shift in the sensor between the lights and the flats, but the root cause of the spots might be be dew. How close to vertical was the scope pointing during the session? In my experience, moisture droplets can impact the sensor more readily when the OTA is in this position, but they always appear as dark smudges on the image, being so close to the sensor.

There is also the thrill of the chase in getting all your imaging kit to work properly. I recently took a portable set up on holiday to capture an elusive object down near the Southern horizon. I had the rig working perfectly at home on the patio, but could I make it work at the holiday location? Nah!😕

Thanks Olly, I try to tread carefully on this topic, knowing the lengths folks go to to improve peripheral stars with tilt adjustment when tools now exist to correct these in software. But I suppose these are are real astronomical entities and not background artefacts, there must be a common sense balanced approach in there somewhere.

The 3D button effect is caused by a slight shift in register between the flats and the lights. If your optical train is still intact then I suggest you retake the flats. If you set up and take down every session I would recommend you take flats at the end of the imaging run before dismantling. If the dust buttons are only affecting the background areas, you can take a starless image into your photo editing software and remove them with the clone tool. A tad unethical perhaps, but it works.

Shining a torch onto your rain spotted All Sky Camera?

When the “you need a big scope” affliction hit me I succumbed and bought a used 16” Dob that needs a trolley to move it. It won’t get sold on until I have ticked off my visual object list or I kick the bucket, at the current hit rate it will be the latter. As for multiple scopes and hopeless weather, I have squared that circle by making most of them available on dual rigs so that if we do get a clear night I can use them all.

Having just seen the Tarantula Nebula APOD taken from the superBIT balloon telescope, I had a brief flight of fancy deliberating if the humble amateur could employ the same approach. 5 minutes on t’internet quickly dashed my hopes, hot air balloons rarely fly at night, and they are limited to altitudes of 1000-3000 ft, so most of the cloud would still be above the balloon. Also, how would you track the object? SuperBIT’s gondola uses a 3 degrees of freedom arrangement similar to steadicam technology and smart optics to achieve <50 milliarcseconds pointing accuracy, oh well. Having said that, I found the superBIT antennae galaxy image somewhat underwhelming, but maybe it was just a 10 second test exposure.😉

As Olly has said earlier, If you want to view finished Astro images there are countless sites on the internet that provide this service, please do take a look at his inspirational work or look through the Imaging section here on SGL. There are also a lot of sites where you can purchase time on a telescope to capture your own data, or purchase image datasets from them, but come to think of it, I’m not sure if there are sites that will take your captured data and process it for a fee. However, there are lots of able imagers here on SGL who will gladly process your data for nothing, if you make the request and post the data (or a link to it) on the forum. Most of us do enjoy the journey to learn how to use the processing software to arrive at a finished image but I can see how getting a good result early on with the minimum of effort can have its appeal. Sorry if this reply doesn’t really cover what you are looking for.

Wow! Brilliant video👍

Any image that can be blinked compared to the HST image and hold it’s own, as yours can, is a winner in my book.👍

Yes, absolutely first class.👍

As I understand it, if image solver successfully platesolved the image, then SPCC uses these co-ordinates to find the required stars from the installed database to do the calibration, so SPCC is not performing a plate solve. What error is SPCC displaying in the process console?

Great result, I would post it in the Imaging Deep Sky section, you’ll get more imaging feedback if it’s there.👍

Estimated starting price North of $30000, so need to wait a little longer…

Astro dark is now dwindling fast in Shropshire, but an excellent night last week enabled me to get 8.37 hrs on M100, another quite large and bright galaxy in Coma Berenices. My pet name for this one is 'the Blurry Galaxy' as it always seems more tricky to capture detail on this subject compared to M51 for example. The disproportionately bright core doesn't help either. As usual captured with the Esprit150/ASI178/LRGB dual rig, binned 2x2. SPCC and CSC didn't seem to do a decent job on the colours on this one, so I adjusted the RGB channel contributions in APP until I got something close to reference images I was using. I used a masked stretch in PI to try and preserve some core detail. BXT also made a big impact on this dataset.

Great result. As @wimvb has mentioned, I opted for ASI178 cameras to use with my Esprit 150 F7 refractors, albeit retrofitted with Peltier coolers to help stabilise the operating temperature to improve dark calibration in particular, lots of amp glow with this sensor. I also bin 2x2 to image at 0.94 arcsec per pixel which is frankly still too optimistic for my sky conditions. However, I have been satisfied with the results but ironically I’m about to embark on an experiment to see if a RASA8/IMX571 combination coupled with a radical crop of the image can perform at least as good if not better than my current set up. That’s AP for you, always something new to try.😊

Yes, terribly wasteful, but to be fair to them, sustainability was not part of their design brief, get guys on the moon and return them safely to earth before the decade is out, mission accomplished. There is great video of one of the guidance system engineers (an old man now) talking about it, he mentioned several times it only had to work once for a few minutes, their mission focus was something to behold.

Yeah, total respect to the Saturn V team, 100% successful launch all with 60’s technology, (ferrite core memory on the guidance system, how cool was that?)

Here is my next effort, M88 in Coma Berenices. 9.53 hrs with the Esprit 150/ASI178/LRGB dual rig as follows: L 141 x 2 mins R 47 x 2 mins G 49 x 2 mins B 49 x 2 mins All data binned 2x2, imaging at 0.94 arcsecs per pixel. Calibrated, stacked and LRGB combined in APP, colour calibrated with SPCC in PI, the BXT, SXT applied. Histogram and Curves transformation then images recombined with Pixel Math. Further adjustments in Affinity Photo, then NXT applied in PI. The annotated image is also attached.