tomato

I’m presuming the sensor in my AllSky camera has deteriorated due to it being exposed to full on direct sunlight everyday, you wouldn’t normally subject an astro (or any other camera) to this level of radiation. None of my astro cameras which are all older by a few years, exhibit anything like the same number of dead pixels.

Having read a bit further, I think the OP may be referring to these CCTV cameras specifically, rather than all dedicated Astro imaging cameras.

There must be hundreds if not thousands of dedicated Astro cameras out there which are greater than two years old, but I haven’t seen any reports on here which indicate the majority are now unusable for imaging. I have a an ASI120MC-s which is in a permanent AllSky camera, and after 12 months outside it is showing a lot of dead pixels in the daylight, but I wouldn’t say it was unusable once a Bad Pixel Map has been applied to the image.

Yeah, not bad for a modern day horizon, at least they didn’t loop the same bit of footage over and over like C4 and C5 documentaries. Nice to see the low tech but hence super reliable design of the shield retaining pins. I never got wind of the ‘has the cover unfurled?’ scare at the time, did I miss this or did NASA keep it quiet?

Thanks, next time my wife asks why I’ve spent 3 hours in front of the computer staring at an Astro image I can reply “I’m developing my Science visuals”.

I agree, IMHO your rendition is more subtle than the NASA version, and the better for it. You should email it to them and ask for a job!☺️

Good to hear! It also has a great noise reduction tool which I use a lot with my short integration times although NoiseXterminator currently has the edge at the moment IMHO.

Hi Goran, Apologies for the delay, I got a bit wrapped up in the JWST images reveal... Here is a before and after cropped corner of your image after applying the StarTools Repair 'Warp' option, using default settings. Your star aberration was much less severe than mine so I think this more subtle tool was the best option. To create the mask I used Mask - Auto -Stars and used the default mask created. I'm sure the result could be improved a little with a bit more work. Before After

I guess there already is now the IR wavelengths have been mapped to RGB, but it's not something we visible light amateurs can emulate.

I love the diffraction patterns on the bright stars in the final image, a nice JWST signature.

Maybe we could give the presenters a break, they are scientists not the anchor of the Late, Late Show. For me they could host the reveal with a cardboard cut out, its all about the images.

I'll let them have 45 minutes of self congratulation, especially when you consider how many things they had to get right before we could see and enjoy any images.

Thanks for posting, best yet I've seen to display the resolving power of the JWST.

Zoom in, it’s just awesome!

Wow, objects 13 billion light years distant showing some structure! The galaxy cataloguers are sure going to be busy over the coming months.

My iPad battery has just gone to 10% remaining, looks like I will have to get out of bed…😊

Maybe it’s in the wrong file format.

And what’s with the jaunty muzak?

The suspense is killing me, it’s almost as bad as the launch…

The (sort of) clear nights are still with me so I'm continuing to look around for large, bright Ha targets before astro darkness returns and I can get back to imaging galaxies. So here is the Heart Nebula, 56 x 3 mins with the RASA8/QHY268c/NBZ combined with around 45 minutes from last year using the same set up. Two versions, the red dominated original and a pseudo HST palette for the second, making a blue channel by combining the r and g channels (0.6xr+0.4xg) using PixelMath in PI. I discovered the update to StarXterminator using the unscreen stars option, seems to do a better job. Thanks for looking

I lost 80% of my subs last night using the SY135 to what I can only conclude was due to stray light from the numerous red LEDs inside the dome entering the lens. The LEDs all serve a useful purpose so the solution was to extend the light/dewshield on the lens. However, with another clear night in the offing, I needed a rapid solution, so a quick look around revealed that a Bisto gravy granules carton was a nice push fit inside the existing lens shield, so after applying some FLO tube flocking it is in place and ready to go…

I captured 3 hrs of data on this last night mostly unattended, but something went South soon after I left it to it's own devices, weird banding and massive red light interference on the subs so most were unusable. So this is just 10 x 3 mins with the SY135 lens/QHY268c/NBZ combination, calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in StarTools and PI. I would prefer a pseudo HST palette, but not enough green or blue signal with just 30 minutes of integration. Thanks for looking.

Really impressive, I am determined to have a go at imaging the ISS before it meets a fiery end, but first I need to learn how you guys go about it. Imaging something so close has it’s own special challenges, I think.

Sure, I follow the default module workflow in StarTools, so I don’t use the repair function until right at the end. After first creating a star mask (mask-auto-stars, I usually need to shrink the mask with one iteration), I open the repair module and select the redistribution algorithm, use core from average distribution.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with SW. The SW Esprit scopes from FLO in the UK can be supplied with an independent optical test for peace of mind on the quality of the scope. I use Esprit 150s, I can’t fault the performance/cost balance for an APO of this aperture.