tomato

Great results! I haven’t ventured into EAA, but I take it to mean almost real time imaging, e.g watching a stack of subframes building up as you watch the screen. In it’s purest form I would say it’s using those amazing image intensifier eyepieces but I’m still hoping for a price breakthrough on these devices which I doubt will ever happen.

Thanks, and once again there are some quite prominent small galaxies in the FOV that don’t seem to be in the Principle Galaxies Catalogue which does surprise me, given that it was published in 1989.

This is a collaborative effort, 254 x 2 min taken in January with the Esprit 150/IMX571c rig and just under 11 hrs of Lum and 40 mins each of RGB captured through Oct-Dec with @Tomatobro's StellaLyra RC10/ASI1600, so around 21 hrs in total. Combined in APP, processed in PI with all three RC Xterminator tools contributing. For some reason APP put a black border around the image, not sure why but I have left it in. Thanks for looking Annotated

I used a biscuit tin as a counterweight once, but it was full of stones, not biscuits.

My door faces West which was the only convenient orientation for access. No problem with rain coming in around the door, the worst gap for this is the top of the shutter, but this can be oriented so it’s on the lee side of any bad weather. I have an old dome so all the rotational gear is mounted on the moving dome which means I can position it for optimum solar panel charging.

Thanks, that was how I saw it, the mono camera and dual band filter taking luminance (and the detail) and the OSC camera and dual band filter taking the colour, much in the same way as we take LRGB.

Wonderful widefield untracked first image, so glad you persevered with DSS so you were able to post it on SGL.👍 +1 for taking and applying the other calibration frames, I was reluctant to use them when I started out, but they make another step change improvement to your imaging.

With imaging being a (sometimes) fully automated process, I purchased a scope to enjoy visual astronomy during all the downtime. However, after deciding that my ageing Mk 1 eyeballs would need all the help they can get, I went for a 16” Dob which takes way more time to wheel out and set up than my dome based imaging rig, oh well… But it is does provide some truly stunning views when it’s out there, so combining both branches of the hobby is thoroughly recommended.

Apologies if this notion has been discussed before and I missed it, but is it possible to use a dual band filter designed for a OSC camera with a mono camera? I presume it would produce a NB “luminance” channel made up of combined Ha and OIII signal. Could this then be combined with data from a dual band/OSC camera to produce a NB colour image? Not as efficient as separate NB filters and a mono camera, but worth a try?

Here is 273 x 2mins (9.1 hrs) on M74, captured over three nights during the festive period with the dual Esprit150/IMX571c rig with no moon intruding. Calibrated and stacked in APP, I tried SPCC in Pixinsight for the colour but got a better result using csc in APP. All three Xterminator tools used, hopefully with enough restraint to not detract from the end result. It looks a little bit lost in the FOV, would have been better I think with the ASI178s on there but a new camera (QHY268m) is on it's way so the rig will come apart when it shows up. Thanks for looking.

Great colour, did you mix the channels in PI or is this how they came out of the camera?

That’s some image, real dedication👍🏼

That’s a great M31, what kit did you use for the project? I’ve done a 12 panel mosaic of this galaxy, so I’ll have to look up how many pixels were in that image.

That’s a wonderful M45, great detail and colour. l’m awaiting delivery of a 268m to couple with a 268c so seeing your image has helped to reassure me that this arrangement can deliver.👍

My youngest daughter gave me this desk calendar for Christmas, I think you are supposed to tear off each day and throw it away, but each page has a wonderful image, quite a few of the objects are new to me so I will enjoy seeing if any of them are suitable targets for imaging.

I would also go with a satellite grid but interesting how they have followed precisely the same trajectory in such a short interval of time. A projected grid would be useful if plate solving or Goto mounts suddenly stopped working.☺️

I have an Esprit150/IMX571c set up, and was looking for a wider FOV scope to use with the same camera. I was mightily impressed with the images obtained by @gorann with a RASA8/ASI2600c setup and went for that scope. It holds collimation very well and on the one occasion when I had to collimate it when the secondary assembly came loose, it was a straightforward operation. Certainly no regrets with going with the RASA8.

Maybe I still have a lot to learn about processing, I used to use the sharpening tool in GIMP when I started out but in my hands it produced terrible artefacts around the stars. I was most probably applying too much in my efforts to improve the subject in the image, but rightly or wrongly I see BXT as a big step forward as I believe it has demonstrated that it can improve the appearance of both the extended object and the stars.

For sure, no sharpening algorithm is going to achieve the same result as the HST, but hasn't the middle oversampled image in your example resolved the structure closer to the HST image than the binned image?

APP usually puts eggy stars to the bottom of the pile so they go, but as you say BXT would move them higher up the table. The big issue I have is with subs subtly affected by thin high cloud. On the one hand some detail is missing but I know the software will take care of any gradients they create and each one is another 2 minutes on the total integration time. If all else fails I go with the best 80%....

But isn't there a distinction to be made between enhancing bright but blurred detail, as in M51 itself, and dim objects on the threshold of visibility above the background? I'm not advocating oversampling as good imaging practice, but my original question is can BXT improve an image derived from oversampled data without creating artificial detail? I would still venture that it can.

If I had to pick one "exotic" location, it would be the Atacama region. Much less of a gamble weather wise, and I'd pick DSO viewing/imaging over local atmospheric phenomena every time.

As requested I have attempted to crop the images and for (yet another) unscientific comparison, included my version of the HST data, no BXT applied! 0.47 arecsecpp, BXT 0.47 arcsecpp, x2 integer resample, BXT HST Its purely subjective, but I don't think BXT has created any significant structural artefacts that are not present in the HST image.

That’s a cracking image, not sure if BXT has made a contribution but the detail on the cluster galaxies is excellent. When I see my subs graded in quality order I always agonise about where to make the cut, so I admire your resolve to leave out a third of your data, but the end result speaks for itself. Thank you for the kind words.

This is perhaps challenging established methodology, but can BlurXterminator do a good job with oversampled data? I found just under 11 hrs of LHaRGB data captured with the Esprit150/ASI178, imaged at native resolution of 0.47 arcsec per pixel (before I knew better). I've just run it through my SPCC/BXT/SXT/NXT workflow and got a reasonable result. I tried the same thing but integer resampled x2 at the start. To my mind the first result is better, and certainly it stands zooming in better as the stars get pixelated very quickly on the second image. Of course the $64K question is is the detail real, but the consensus on BXT seems to be it is doing an honest job in that department. Any views? 0.47 arcsec/pixel x2 Integer resample