rubecula

This is an RGB rendition of NGC 3628 Sarah's Galaxy (aka the Hamburger Galaxy)

R, G and B each  = 10 x 600s binned 2x2

I also took 15 x 600s Lum binned 1x1 but adding them to the RGB spoilt it so I have just left it as RGB.

Captured with SGP and PHD2.  Stacked in APP, rest of processing in PS.  Sadly no sign of the long tail, but I guess revealing that would require much, much more data.

It looks a bit fuzzy to me, I think that's due to some high level very thin cloud around during capture (or poor focus - I'm still struggling to get SGP autofocus to work accurately all the time).

I recently saw a thread that said using a Bahtinov mask to determine offsets for all filters and then only focusing with the L filter worked well.  I'm going to try that when we get some darkness back

Thanks for looking

Oh you beautiful people, thank you, I'll put them up then.

That's a splendid image.  I love the colours, the detail, the tiny stars.

I've got a couple of images I was going to put up but this puts mine to shame.  With pitch black skies and fat stars it's back to the drawing board for me.😧

Super image, I also think the second image is a little sharper than the first.  mmm.....I wonder can APP produce a synthetic luminance layer?  I'll look into that as I haven't yet downloaded the PI trial.

14 hours ago, x6gas said:

 - my advice would be get the trial, follow some tutorials (starting with this one) and try to work out whether you like the interface and if you do, go ahead and buy it.  As I say, it is very powerful and allows you to do a lot with the linear image...

Thanks Ian,  I'll give it a try on my most recent images and see how they turn out.

Interesting information Ian, thanks.  Until recently I'd been using 600s for everything but have just changed to 300s for RGB , 600s for L and 1200s for NB. I have tended to take an additional 3/4 frames of blue using the Baader filters.

I'm renting APP at the moment as well as having a subscription for PS and LR.  PI sounds quite complicated.  Do you think the 45 day trial period is long enought to get to grips with it? 

Like you I need to understand why to use certain commands and processes rather than just follow someone elses recipe.  I gave up on StarTools (because of the lack of documentation) in favour of PS which along with LR I use for wildlife photography.

I run data capture (SGP and PHD2) on a laptop and then move to a MAC for all processing.  Hoping I'm not stretching this thread too far in a wrong direction.

Thanks

What a brilliant image, I'm trying for longer exposures and more subs and you've managed to snatch that with only 2.15 hours!  The second version is really impressive.

This is M106 taken earlier this year, 7hrs 20min, made up of 25 x 600s Lum, 12 x 300s R and G, and 14 x 300s B taken with an 8" Celestron Edge HD with 0.7 focal reducer.  SGP for image capture, PHD2 tracking, stacking and LP removal in APP with final processing in PS.

Made a couple of attempts to do the complete development in APP but results were disappointing hence recourse to PS.  Despite using Noel Carboni's reduce stars size they still look too fat to me.  Is this a function of the focal length (1400mm), poor focusing or poor image processing?  I tried Starnet++ but the result looked awful.  The background also looks too black but not sure how to cure that.  Anyhow, here it is:

Thanks

Fabulous image, I think I'm tending to x6gas' dynamic image.  I just wish I could keep my stars as small.

that's a beautiful image, really fascinating.

Steve, When you determining your filter offsets using a BM did you take any account of the temperature at the time?

That's amazing, I love the star dust.

Thanks Carole & vlaiv.  Forcast is for clear skies tonight so I'll try 20 x 600 for L and 10 x 300 for RG&B

Excellent result for a first stab.  I wish mine had been as good, also with the 7D.  You obviously understand the way to go so I'm sure your results will improve rapidly.

So far I've been taking all images at 600sec binned 1x1.  For NB targets I've recently gone out to 1200sec exposures.  We get so few clear nights here in England that I'm wondering if I'm not making best use of the time available when it comes to LRGB imaging.  Say I took 20 x 600sec luminance binned 1x1, what would be the appropriate settings for RGB frames?

Thanks

By pure chance I found the answer on the Tips and Tricks Forum: Meteoblue.com.  I'd never heard of it before but it gives arcsec seeing values that cover where I live.

Despite getting a focus motor I've been struggling recently to get decent focus.  I'm getting some good help with that from people on the SGP forum.  But with all the recent bad weather we've been having in the UK recently I began to wonder if the problem is bad focusing or bad seeing.

Is there any independant way of evaluating the seeing conditions without relying on HFR values from SGP?

Thanks,

Thanks Adam,  based on the above I intend to use both dithering and darks.

Fabulous image. I'm surprised with the SII, I didn't realise any object had that much SII.

Thanks guys, I'll continue to dither and I'm also glad I didn't waste a day capturing 1200s darks.

Are dithering and using darks counterproductive?  So far all my CCD imaging has been based on 600s image with a small dither every alternate frame and calibrated with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.  I've just been getting some 1200s darks and wondered if you dither then the small movement means that the noise in the light won't match up with the noise in the dark.  In which case is it worth using dither and darks?  I'm imaging at a focal lenght of 1400mm.  Recent calibration has been done in APP.

If you only did one which would be the best?

Thanks

Just beautiful

Thanks (not so) Newbie

Wow!!

I'm using the Atik 383L.  It maybe belts and braces but I use darks and have PHD2 do a small dither every alternate frame.

I hink the mount would cope well with say 1200 but I'm worried about SGP aborting an image when clouds appear.  At least tonight I hadn't started imaging.  The forecast was for clear sky but just as plate solve had centred on the target the clouds rolled in.  It's still cloudy now despite the forecast!