dannybgoode

Its PhotoLabs 3 that is really useful for astro work as you can open non-standard camera files at last. That plus the colour wheel make for a useful combo

Do you have v3 - the colour wheel is a game changer for me.

For those that don't know DxO it is an alternative to Lightroom whose biggest selling point has been the baked in lens correction profiles for just about any camera under the sun. They test camera/lens combos or just the camera in the case of fixed lens systems in their labs and measure the distortion etc and develop correction profiles accordingly. The downside is that up until recently if a camera wasn't in the database it would not open the image and you could not work on it. But now you can. So what has this to do with Astro imaging. DxO Photolabs 3 has a new feature they call the colour wheel and this allows you to alter the tone of an individual colour and also its saturation in a way I've not seen implemented in other packages. This allows you to very quickly balance the colours or to drop out the saturation altogether very quickly and very intuitively. It will work with any TIFF, DNG or JPG file and I can see it being really useful for a quick final going over of astro images - indeed it was me that requested they unlock the software to be able to work on images from unknown cameras for this purpose. 30 day unlimited free trial so worth a look

Nice story this and well deserved recognition https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/science/vera-rubin-telescope-astronomy.html

Not really because you need a ‘normal’ camera for the night scape’s and the 5100 is as good as any for that.

Imaging DSO’s is a very different discipline to capturing night scapes and the way you use the camera will be quite different accordingly. Your 5100 will be as good as anything to begin with but ultimately for DSO’s it will always be a compromise - any non- astro camera will be. That said you will still get pleasing results with practice. Much more important is the mount - do you already have an motorised EQ mount and if so which one? That’s where the money needs to go and not a new camera.

I’d like to try and make it. Will have to get clearance though as we’re off on holiday shortly afterward and Mrs Danny may decide it’s too close. I’ll check over the weekend.

So first of 604 frames of tonight's full moon processed. Don't worry - I am not doing them all! As always, with a subject as common as the moon, I try and do different things with it. It was largely covered by cloud at this point and there is surprisingly little post processing. A bump in saturation, fiddled with the contrast a bit and the like. Cloudy Moon - RX10M4 1/10 @ f4 and ISO100

Mono with filters really isn’t complicated, just more expensive usually because of the need for filters and wheel. Other than that it’s no more or less difficult than OSC and the extra data you capture, particularly narrow band, is beneficial. Processing too isn’t much different these days with the majority of the heavy lifting done by the software.

At the budget you have I agree that guiding will improve your imaging far more than a different scope at the kind of price will. It has really opened up viable targets for me and really isn’t complicated once you get used to it all. Does the mount have the Rowan belt mod? If not that’s a worthwhile upgrade too.

Baader’s own website are showing them in stock in 1.25”.

Made the Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/betelgeuse-star-night-sky-supernova-explosion-a9263626.html I’ve often thought how many of the stars we see are actually no longer there. Are there any estimates out there?

Lovely image. I’ve made a start on this target but it’s tricky from a light polluted garden. Just need much more data and for that I need a break in the clouds!

It’s one of the few places in the States I’ve always wanted to go so am very excited. Doing all the other Orlando stuff of course but toss is the highlight for me. That and the lightsaber workshop at Disney of course.

We’ve had Orlando booked for nearly a year now but only told babybgoode (well he’s 7 1/2 now) yesterday. Got two days booked at Kennedy. One with him and one on my own so I can geek out in peace. On the day I’m going in my own I’ve booked the lunch with an astronaut thing. Very excited

Yes absolutely

I only have a normal focuser and just use a 2” nose piece. How does the angle translate into camera position etc?

I have a bit of a queue for some reason

I bought some Baader ones off a kindly seller on here. Not tried them yet but looked at some images on Astrobin etc and for the money thought they’d be plenty good enough for me at the moment. Of course I’d love a set of Astrodons but then I’d love a Tak in every focal length they do and a Ferrari. If I manage to get my imaging to the next level then I may make the step and given my LRGB set are Baader so made sense to have a complete set Note I’ve not used them in anger yet. As for Astronimk - similar price to Baader but strictly from reviews and forum comments only they don’t seem as well received.

Another quick one hopefully this. It seems that most targets benefit from more than one night’s worth of data acquisition so how do folk that don’t have an obsy maintain camera orientation between sessions? Marital constraints mean a full tear down after each session so is there a way of making a temporary mark to note orientation or some other trick? I could get close by just comparing an existing image to a test shot each session but are there other techniques I could use? Thanks all

Looks very nice. That said I’ve not had a drink in coming in for 18 months so will have to take your word for it . Got some rather nice bottles of single malt that are barely drunk- will have to pass them on to a friend at some point...

I’m a ham but never tried to make contact with the ISS. To be honest my station has been packed up since we moved house nearly three years ago 😟 . Need to get it sorted. I do fancy trying to grab one of their QSL cards (the ham version of a post card to confirm a contact) that the licensed hams on board sometimes send via SSTV. Think one if the Russians currently on board is transmitting on and off at the moment. As for getting licensed-if you know one end of a soldering iron from the other then the M6 foundation license is very straightforward. The 2x0 intermediate licence is eminently achievable given a bit of study. If you can get your head around astronomy you can get your head around the material. The M0 full licence is a different kettle of fish and being a member of a local ham radio club is desirable although I did the RSGB distance learning course and found a friendly club that let me sit it there. I somehow scraped a pass. Great hobby to be involved in and with all the digi modes etc there’s plenty of scope to get into some niche areas 73 de M0SDB

So what astro related gifts did you get? I got a couple of books - The Planets and Astrophotography of the Year and also this rather neat weather talking device - the Fitzroy Storm Glass. Never even heard of these before however it be filled with water and salt and depending on the temperature the salt floats in different ways in the water. No idea if it works but it’s rather cool

The way Chinese manufacturing and bagging etc works is all about the quality control. As above you’ll see what looks to be the same product, but some badged from a known name and some generic. However they are often at varying price points. What generally happens is the likes Meade either have feet on the ground at the factories or they have the option to return any product that don’t meet their performance specifications. Either way they get the pick of a particular production run. This costs money to do hence they sell at a premium (the badge has an impact on the price too also of course). The rejects go back and are generally graded by the company and the ones that are ok filter down to the second tier sellers The second tier sellers-Ostara example, perhaps undertake some QC checks but perhaps a percentage of a batch. Generally they are ok because they have been graded by the first tier badge holder but the odd poorer copy gets through Then come the box shifters. None are QC’d and a lot have been rejected by the tier 1 and tier 2 ‘badges’ but they are sold so cheap that often really poor ones are not returned. Where they are returned they are simply replaced-maybe for a good one, perhaps another poor copy. Either way the consumer becomes the QC and decides whether performance is consummate to the price paid. So you have many sellers of the same product differentiated by the QC they go through.

I think people, both the imager and the viewer, can get a bit het up about noise and do anything they can to eliminate it - often at the expense of the overall balance and detail of the picture. Because of the digital world we live in people assume photos and astro images should be free of all artefacts but when you try to eliminate them all you can lose the ‘feel’ of the scene. This is a really nice image, well processed with a nice balanced look to it. Stuff the noise - it doesn’t detract from the quality.