stepping beyond

12 million light years away. 1st time with the asi1600mm cool, a work in progress.

What do yall want ? my jpeg channels or my fits channels? Here's my stacked channels.

Elp , I ran 10s, 120s in rgb and 180sand 300s in Ha then combined . Ha instead of Luminance is a pointer from another astro buddy. His processing skills are phenomenal . I'll attempt to give it another go until it starts looking the way I want it , challenging it is . I wish the magic wand could show me the way.

  I tried again and didn't blow the core too much , I did better but, I" blue the background" ? I have to learn how to process this galaxy? Elp , I'll give it a go and do more adjusting and see how it is thank you.

Well , this is what I can do . I don't want to keep blowing the core out trying to get it , until next time around.

This is 1/2 the data w/o my almost 3 hrs. Ha data , I've tried combining the Ha with the Red channel  and  substituted Ha for the Luminance channel and I'm  not getting the "That's it moment " that I get when I process the Ha by itself . Should I just add it as a layer in Photoshop ?  I've been really trying to understand what my next step is , this is what I did my 4th and 5th time before I hit the wall. Help please?

Sounds good , I'll  give it a go when I start to get some cloudy nights but, right ow it's clear for the past week.

Ok , Michael  that sounds easy enough but, if I want the Ring blums of nebulosity added to my Ring image how would I pull that off ?

A astro friend has been helping me with some of my processing because he uses the same as I do and he's even stumped from over 3,000 miles away . PROBLEM 👨‍🦽 I'm having trouble getting up this hill and it's not for lack of trying to work through the problem. I'm trying to layer a cropped ring , over a background image and everytime I attempt it in Photoshop cs2 following the steps { image windows side by side and click n  drag the cropped image over } I never get the right size ring even when both are at 100%. I've been working on this for 2 weeks and still no change the ring is still too small . HELP ?

Thank you Vlaiv, when I do shoot my flats doesn't need to be perfect focus right ? I've not really had any success adding the flats I took with my Asi174mm cool but, darks an bias performed in CCDstack 2 maybe do to not clipping in curves and levels in PhotoShop cs I really need to learn this flats process and my images will improve immensely in theory. I shoot my flats in my basement  {cave section that has black plastic over the windows blocking all stray light  using a T-shirt doubled up and a  15" light panel sitting in a chair somewhere from 2 feet away,  I focus until I start getting  get dust donuts . I remove the camera from the scope every night and it's never been in the same position even with marks and focus every channel each time I'm out . 2020 and so far this year haven't been good for imaging but, I'm taking this time for advancement in astro image processing  These do not have any calibration added , 2nd and 3rd have been stretched to the oblivion . I use Sgp for all my  equipment and Dso aquisition . I'll work on this hopefully with alot of luck . Ronnie

This is an awesome edition to my arsenal but, it's going to take a lil' while to get used to framing my targets to get the most out of it.  Orion nebula in different colors yall 's thoughts to improve on this?

This is the camera that I've wanted and now , it's part of my kit . Instead of getting a partial with the 174mm cool , I can now handle the outer regions also . Thanks for the advice Matt Jenko. Orion has some funky color and stretching it a bit too much but, it turned out better than I was hoping for. Awesome Camera , now to get it framed correctly before I make my run weather permitting.

It hasn't been a very good year for getting any imaging  but, I got one night for an hour in July of m63 The Whirlpool galaxy . 50L @30s , 20 ea rgb @30s.

I've had 3  new mounts since after Xmas last year and it has been a real pita trying to get the first to mounts to operate correctly with my Sgp Software . March rolled in and I had lost too much time trying to get the 1st 2 mounts to do the job . I dipped back in the kitty and got an AVX straight out of the box took me to galaxies FAR FAR AWAY, WOOHOO! I've been trying to process the galaxy for a mount  and match it with my archived data and finally I'm getting somewhere.

They're both Autostar 497 , The lxd55 uses that latest 497 {g} for the lxd models and the lx85/75 without the belt drives uses the autostar 497 ep  with audiostar that has the talk feature . According to Meade they both will work as long as the Autostar will plug into the control panel but, maybe the 497 {g} isn't forward compatible with the lx models. I've got nothing but, frustration from this mount since I used it with the lx85 mount.

Thank you Michael , I was out last night running a starpatch again and once again it came a downpour , I covered the rig with plastic and it never got completed at 1030pm est . The good thing is it stopped pulsing but, that's not saying that it's not going to again  . I'm going to bring it inside and test it out , we've got 20% possible showers today and I'm not taking the chance again. My new NEAF Celestron AVX should arrive Tuesday . I was swapping between the lxd55 and trying to get the lx85 to perform correctly , I did a reset to " telescope model to lxd55/75 /105  because it doesn't have an 80 in the list of models in the AS .

Wim that is awesome my friend , I've had rain  and clouds since getting a new Meade lx85 goto . I spent 8 nights trying to get it to work with 3rd party software and freeware and nothing . I sent it back for a replacement and I sent the replacement back for the same reasons. I'm now trying to get my lxd55 and autostar working again for planetary and lunar use with my 80mm refractor f5 / guidescope. I just can't get any help with this anywhere , I posted to the lxd55 group on YAHOO and still waiting and I've got some clear weather for 4 nights . Any help would be appreciated.

I've been working with Meade products since I learned to image the night sky. I've looked on the Weasner and the STARPATCH sites and cannot find a patch or anything for my model #, does it make that much of a difference to use {GG} or {EG}. The problem started when trying the AS on a new lx85 which I no longer have.  I performed sugery on my lxd55 after the {the saddles female screw hole broke. Repaired it with Loctite and JBweld but, I'm not going to put  27# weight on it like I did before with my newt. I put the time and date in and when I select "Enter" on daylight savings it starts pulsing and stops when I select easy align , it slews to the target area correctly but, when I try to center on the alignment star it keeps pulsing right on past and doesn't stop . What should I do , I'm lost . HELP PLEASE ?

I got a new Meade lx85 mount to replace my lxd55 and continue my astrophotography Quest but, frustration , weather and aggrevation has been getting the best of me . Does anyone use this same mount to image with software ?

I've been at long exposure for close to a year and finally got my auto guiding set right , I'm disabled and this has been difficult . Can I get an "ATTABOY" ? This is my 1st guided 60s image in mono of more than 20-30s, it's not pretty ,  it's not centered and it's the only one I was ok with. This straight from capture and this disabled amateur astronomer never gives up and I'm making progress.

I 'm a disabled amateur astronomer that enjoys imaging. Learning to get the alignment good enough not to trail stars is a real chore. this is my 2nd target M31,32 and 110 are in my other computer for stacking but, it hopefully will get alot better once it gets out of the trees. Dsi lll color /  plug n play usb /  astrograph 8 lxd55 modified mount. I worked really hard with a bahtinov mask and magic eye to get focus as good as I could get through the trees and the fog.I think it shows promise down the road.

I'm a disabled amateur astronomer and I also use one hand to do what I so enjoy. I'm learning and having fun doing , 40 yrs. ago I never would of thought thast I'd be doing this.