rubecula

It goes down very well for me.  I just love those Abell targets.

I found this topic dating back to 2012 and am wondering if anyone has made one for a larger scope:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/162437-carrey-mask-with-wires/

The example was for a 90mm lens.  I'm having trouble focusing with NB filters and am debating making one for my 8" Edge HD.  My question is should I just scale it up using the same number of wires at larger spacing or should I keep the spacing similar and use more wires?

Thanks,

Ha ha...glorious round stars, corner to corner! Thank you again @steppenwolf and @x6gas

@steppenwolf and @x6gas thank you so much for all the trouble you have taken to help me.  I've re-seated the Baader extension tube / OAG connection and am hoping that the clear forecast for tomorrow night holds so that I can see if that was the issue.

Well, I'm out of my depth here.  The visual analysis mosaic is indeed useful in being able to concentrate on different areas of the image.  I can see that the egginess varies from square to square but in my ignorance am unable to see what is causing this varience.  The image was taken about 30 minutes before a meridian flip and the guiding was good.  The image train feels very solid and I've never knocked into it, but could it sag over time even though it feels solid?  I have knocked into the weight bar but not particularly violently.

I'm stumped.

Thanks

Gentlemen, thank you for coming to my assistance. To be quite frank I've not heard of a visual analysis mosaic and do not understand what it's telling me.

This is a composit image of the four corners of a frame I took last night,  There are clearly misshapen stars a-plenty.

X6gas (Ian) kindly ran this through CCDInspector and the results are thus:

This is my set-up, Focal reducer - spacer - OAG - Filter Wheel - Camera:

The whole assembly feels very secure with no sign of any play.  The mount was recently polar aligned. 

Any suggestions as to what might be causing this?

Thanks

IT'S SGP!!!!!!!!!  Loaded N.I.N.A and everything works!!! Thanks Spillage.  That's a huge relief.

Given SGP connected to everything but the Atik devices I didn't think it could be the guilty party.  I've been using SGP for years and know it's ins and outs so I guess I'll have to start again to learn NINA and get all the settings sorted out.

Yes, I will tell the SGP folks.

Thanks

Daz, I really thought you had the answer.  There were 3 camera instances so I removed them, uninstalled the Atik software and then re-installed - didn't work.

The Artemis software isn't available now with the Atik drivers, in fact I couldn't find it mentioned at all on their website.

So now I'll give N.I.N.A a try.  If that doesn't work I'll take up knitting.

Thanks all for your help.

I've re-set all the cable connections, tried 3 different Atik driver releases including the latest, and tried plugging the camera directly into the PC.  Nothing worked.  I can't believe its anything to do with SGP, but in case is there another app that I can use to see if the camera and FW will connect?

Thanks

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Sounds like a driver problem, do you get an acknowledging bong when  you plug them in ?

What version of Windows are you using ? some older versions used to get their USB ports muddled or simply run out  and need to clear them all and start again then keep everything plugged in the same socket.

You can check in their properties and it should report this device is working properly but that's only the Windows bit

Yes, I do get the bong when plugging them in.  I'm on Windows 10.  On checking driver properties it says the are all working properly.

I have tried re-plugging the USB cables a couple of times to try to clear the connections.

The USB hub can be powered but up to now it has run fine with all the devices attached on PC power only.  On the hub the Lodestar, temperature monitor and Focuser are all working, it's just the two Atik devices that aren't.

I'm trying all connecting via SGP except the Lodestar which goes through PHD2.

Thanks guys, you've given me a few things to try.

I'm probably doing something silly here but can't see what it is.

Started everything up after quite a lay-off.  Everything worked accept connecting to the mount via EQMod. Upgraded EQMod, but still didn't work.  It was set to use COM 4 so I changed to COM 5 and it worked.  But then the Atik 383L and EFW2 wouldn't connect.  I didn't think that COM ports and USB ports were connected.  Am I wrong? 

When I look at the Device Manager I have COM 3,4 & 5.  Under the USB devices only the camera shows up but still won't connect.

So I have upgraded the Atik software, and checked all cables but they still won't connect.  I have a single USB cable going from the laptop to a USB hub mounted on the scope. The hub seems to be working as the OAG camera is working.

This has cost me two lovely clear nights and I'm getting desperate.

Thanks

Congratulations to all the winners!  Having played around for some time with this data I understand how hard it was to get such good results.

Wonderful image.  Colour for me, that small amount of blue really brings the image to life.  Another one for the list, thank you,\.

I like it also.  The subdued colours are more believable and much better than some of the more garish examp[les seen recently.  Like MarkAR I think the addotion of some RGB to put colour in the stars would be an improvement.

That's a beautiful image, I just love the blues.

😲

How do you focus the RASA?

Glorious image,

6 hours ago, Spongey said:

I've just converted the FITS files into 16bit and 32bit TIFFs for you, through PixInsight.

Thanks Spongey.  I've tried your TIFFs with CCDSharp and they don't open either whereas other apps will open them so clearly an issue with CCDSharp.  Shame as I was hoping to use it to do some deconvolution.  I'll have to work with PS Smart Sharpen instead.

Has anyone been able to open these files with CCDSharp?  On trying to open there was an "problem opening file" response with no explanation as to what the problem was.  I used FITS Liberator to convert to TIF and got exactly the same result.  This is with the latest download of CCDSharp on a Windows 10 machine.

Thanks,

Thanks everyone for your kind input.  You've given me plenty of options and saved me the trouble of jumping through hoops 😀🙃😀

For the last year or so I have been using TeamViewer to monitor a PC in the obsy from a Mac in the house.  Last night it failed with a message that my id was suspected of commercial use.  I emailed them explaining how I was using it.  Just now I have had a response suggesting I purchase a single user licence at £30 per month or sign and send to them a declaration that I am not using it commercially.

I'll try to jump through the hoops but just in case they deny me a free licence I was wondering if any of you could recommend a free alternative.

Thanks

GULP!  I don't know what to say.  I'm in awe!  Fabulous just doesn't sound enough.  We need some new superlatives for Olly and friends.

First you need to set a reference frame.  Find the image with the highest score, right click on it and then select as reference.  Your should get some symbols on the RHS; select the comet one.  As long as your images form a time series i.e the same time interval between them all you can click the centre of the comet in the first and last frames and DSS will stack with whichever stacking regime you want.

In settings under Comet you can stack on the stars (comet trails), stack on the comet (stars trail) or try to stack on both which takes quite a bit longer.  I found stacking on the comet gave the best results.

HTH

My first attempt at processing Ha and OIII subs of NGC 6888 was really garish but at least the OIII was apparent.  I'm trying to take a more gentle approach but no matter how I try I can't reveal the OIII without spoiling the rest of the image.  In Photoshop I've tried Selective Colour, Select by Colour range, Curves on the blue channel and none of them work satisfactorily.  Here's where I'm up to now:

The OIII can be seen very feintly so I know it's there (as it was in the garish version).  Is this a job for masks?  I've not really used masks and when I've tried it's obvious what I have done.

I'd be grateful if someone could give me some pointers as to how to tease out the OIII without impacting the whole image.

Thanks