tomato

I resolved the driver problem successfully to run the G2-8300 with NINA, I confess I can't remember how but I'll check to see which driver (native or ASCOM) I was using. Anyway it will work fine with SIPS, the free camera control software supplied by Moravian Instruments, which is still supported. I agree with Olly, it may be 'Old Tech' but it's a solid performing camera IMHO.

Congratulations to the worthy winners, a lot of work went into them.👍

Great capture with the MN190 and Atik 460 combination, lots of tiny galaxies in the image.

So much Ha! Imagine aliens that evolved to have super sensitive vision to this wavelength, the heavens would be permanently cloudy to them. Enjoy the summer break, how many scopes could you be operating simultaneously when the dual Esprit 150 rig is up and running?

Stellarium states the size at 3' 46.98" x 1' 42.12". Yes, AB's image is a superb, with lots of Ha regions prominent. I could take some Ha now the moon is getting dominant, but I've just put the IMX571 OSC cameras on for a mosaic attempt on the Virgo cluster, but I could ask @Tomatobro to have a go with his RC. Thanks Olly, but if I can't fix it with a single button push, I'm afraid I'll have to pass.😉 The best solution for me is to wait until @Tomatobro has taken 8 hrs of subs.

What kind of grease do you use on those gears and bearings at 40 below, and do you switch off the Peltier coolers?

Thanks, I came across it while looking through Adam Block’s galaxy images. I really like the orientation which gives an almost 3D view on his image, mind you it was taken with a 32” RC from Arizona by someone who knows what he’s doing.☺️

Much as I applaud the software authors who provide automation of file loading and assignment, I’ve been caught out too many times to put my faith in them. As I am fortunate to have the time to do this, I load all my lights and master calibration files separately and manually assign them in APP. Takes a bit more time certainly, but no head scratching should a processing warning arise.

Is this in line with some sort of celestial clock?🙂

This is another collaborative effort, NGC 5033 in Canes Venatici. It is some 64 M light years distance, and is about 4' x 2' in size on the sky. This is about 11 hrs of integration made up of 150 mins from @Tomatobro's RC10/ASI600, and 510 mins from the Dual Esprit 150/ASI 178 rig, all data binned 2x2 and captured over 3 nights. Rather than taking the easy way out and cropping to the ASI 178 FOV I have retained most of the wider ASI1600 view which meant I had to try and smooth out the disparity between the two backgrounds, given the big difference in integration times. However, you can still see the join in places I’m afraid. There was also a big difference in the quality of the data collected from both scopes over the 3 sessions. Last Saturday night was an excellent sky in Shropshire, NINA was recording HFRs on my rig of 1.2 vs 1.8 which is usually the norm, but the poorer quality data was still needed to complete the image. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, PI, AP and GIMP. Thanks for looking.

That's outstanding detail from a 210 minutes of integration and a Bortle 6 location.👍 Are imaging at native resolution or are you binning 2x2?

I would love a processing package that would produce the best result from the input data by following a set of rules based on the science. However, the first and biggest hurdle is determining what is the ‘best’ result. The huge variation of results presented in image processing competitions is testament that getting consensus on this would be hard. For example I would agree that most galaxy images display too much colour saturation, but that's what most imagers (including myself) do, I can’t see that changing.

I have tried running @Pitch Black Skies's excellent M101 stack through StarTools using the default settings throughout. It produced a final result with a very bright background and strong false colours, clearly because the default settings in the second AutoDev stretch were not optimum. I altered just the Ignore Fine Detail and Shadow Linearity settings to correct this and ran everything else on default. The final result has a clear green caste but overall it's not too far away IMHO.

Here is the link, there is a Windows stand alone version. https://www.starnetastro.com/

I think the silvery tones are great but I agree the background is too dark and has clipped the faint regions. I find getting this right in Startools is one of the bigger challenges. In my experience, you need to spend some time carefully adjusting the parameters on the second AutoDev stretch, particularly the Ignore Fine Detail, shadow linearity and detector gamma functions, to get the optimum result. It’s very easy to clip the data.

The 1980’s experience taught me the importance of a substantial, well engineered mount, so when I got back into imaging the choice was simple, a bog standard Mesu Mk 1.

I have two cameras retro fitted with Peltier coolers, with the whole set up powered from a mains powered 12V power supply. The on rig voltage runs at 12.8v but drops to 12.0v when both coolers kick in. I think you are in risky territory if your supply voltage is down at 10.4v when the cooler is running.

This one is a bit off the beaten track, a DIY designed and built EQ mount and portable steel tripod pier, constructed by @Tomatobro back in the late 1980’s and used for imaging in the days before digital cameras. The mount has since been recycled and parts made from it reside on my current setup, but the pier is still around.

That’s a nice image and certainly a new one on me. I’m also surprised sh2-204 isn’t a more popular target, I can maybe see a crustacean of some sort, the Shrimp Nebula?

Here is a combined effort from the dual Esprit 150/ASI 178 rig and @Tomatobro's SL RC10/ASI1600, although the Lion’s share of the integration is from the refractors so the RC diffraction spikes are quite faint. Made up of: L 521 mins R 103 mins G 110 mins B 120 mins So 14.2 hrs in total. Most of the data was captured last year but I have added some more Luminance this season along with some longer FL LRGB form the RC. It's heavily cropped from the RC/ASI 1600 FOV as I couldn't get the colour to play ball without first cropping the channels. Thanks for looking.

So if an ideal process workflow can be derived just from the image data statistics, why don’t we have a “Process Image” button on the Astro processing software packages?

But no software package comes with a single button labelled “Process Image”and with the almost infinite variability of the input data quality, I don’t see how it ever could. It might be an interesting experiment to try processing a dataset entirely on APP’s and StarTools’ default settings and see how it compares to a “human input” version.

I totally agree, but of course it helps a lot that we can capture and process a well lit daytime image with the Mk 1 eyeball and brain, we don’t have that luxury with DSOs. If they ever make an Astro camera where you just press a button and a perfectly calibrated, stacked, stretched, colour balanced, sharpened and noise reduced image pops out, I’ll be in the first wave of purchasers.

I once took my imaging kit for a short break on the North Devon Coast. We stayed in the unoccupied Lighthouse keeper’s cottage, but yes you guessed it, the light was very much operational! I went NB and got a reasonable image of the Veil Nebula, right below the sweeping beam…

Crikey! It’s hard enough processing an image which is 90% dark sky, look at all those colours and textures, light and shade across the image, I don’t think I’m up to it.☺️