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MarsG76

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Everything posted by MarsG76

  1. MarsG76
    Great result.... I like your last color image the most as well as the original mono image.
  2. MarsG76
    Looks artsy...
  3. MarsG76
    Beautiful image Ivo.
  4. MarsG76
    I hear you.. in the same boat.. with 2 now... Setting up and tearing down would all but kill any time I have with the scope.... but this is why I could see no reliable option than to build a small hut to house my setup permanently assembled. The whole structure is small and I have my PC in there also so starting imaging is literally a matter of a few minutes, if continuing exposures on the same object. The problem I have with the covered up solutions is that a lot of humidity and moisture will get in under the tarp and ultimately cause oxidization on the mount.. even the PCB... there would be times when its raining for weeks and this might be too close to leaving in in the elements.. just prolonged damaging effect. Observation is something I haven't done for almost a year, it's all imaging, but at least this much is possible.
  5. MarsG76
    I'm OK... I'm near the coast so it's mainly clear as the haze tends to pass north or south of me... some haze but not too bad.
  6. MarsG76
    Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere tropical climate...
  7. MarsG76
    Even with the hurdles to jump over, you have a very nice result.. the star bloat might have been caused only by actual seeing.
  8. MarsG76
    Amazing Witch Head.... See if you can capture the "Statue of Liberty" nebula.... it's between the Carina and Crux....
  9. MarsG76
    awesome collection of some familiar objects...
  10. MarsG76
    Looks awesome
  11. MarsG76
    Amazing..... I though that sunspots were soooo 2012.
  12. MarsG76
    Awesome images.... memories.... Good news is that we're only a few years away from another solar maximum.. but the bad news is that the maximum is expected to be a fizzle not a BOOM!!!!
  13. MarsG76
    It's a quite bright object, there were objects where I spend more than 25 hours, NGC300 is one, and narrowband total exposure in excess of 56 hours... the fighting dragons of Ara, both at F10.
  14. MarsG76
    That looks great.... well done
  15. MarsG76
    So did the Atik improve on the clarity & resolution when comparing to the DSLR at the same focal length?
  16. MarsG76
    I heard that too, but I always wondered "why?"... I think it's because of the native focal length and the difficulty of accurately tracking at such high magnifications. But the CGEM does track at accuracy at below the "/pixel res so this detail might be the limit of my sky & camera.
  17. MarsG76
    One thing I plan to improve next is the crispness of my images at 2032mm focal length. The 40D already being 1.16"/pixel on the C8 at 2032mm fl and consistently tracking at RMS below 1", it might not make a difference and this might simply be the limit of my equipment???
  18. MarsG76
    As Tony said you do need a controller. My AstroZap uses PCM to control the temperature instead of voltage control but you do need some kind of controller. Once installed you will no longer have any dew problems. I got a 12V 5A PSU and changed the connector to a female car cigarette lighter plug and plung my AstroZap controller in that for power, and it's been worked like this for a few year without issues.
  19. MarsG76
    Yeah, I like my 40D.. makes me think that I do not need a "dedicated" astrocam.
  20. MarsG76
    The more subs the better the SNR will be in the final stack, so I try to get as many as possible. I expose various length subs simply to expose for the brighter and dimmer parts of the object being imaged. When all of these subs are stacked into a 48 bit image, than the data is embedded within the 48bit stack but the levels are displayed linearly and I'm able to use levels to stretch out the image with great control on both the brighter and dimmer parts of the object. When it comes to preparing the subs for stacking, I only use 20xBIAS frames and 20X Flats taken through the corresponding filters that were used for the subs. I do not use darks at all.... when I tried using darks, the result was worse, but this could be that I'm a DSLR imager and I can't exactly control the sensor temperature so no dark frames for me. What I do is I use a 2 pixel at threshold 30 Dust and scratches filter on each sub after it was converted from the CR2 raw to 16 bit TIFF and pre process them in Nebulosity 3.3. Stacking is also carried out in Nebulosity 3.3, and it's remarkable easy to do, even then the subs are dithered, where my imaging is always dithered. One thing I plan to improve next is the crispness of my images at 2032mm focal length.
  21. MarsG76
    Hello Bryan, First I started imaging the galaxy through the UV/IR filter and ended up with subs 8x90s, 7x150s, 7x300s, 6x450s, 6x600s but they were on the overexposed side. The following night I used the Neodymium filter, AKA " Moon & Skyglow" filter instead of the UV/IRCut filter and did 1x900s, 1x660s, 2x600s, 11x540s, 1x420s, 4x300s @ ISO1600, totalling exposure time of 5h 41m & 30s. I did stack all subs to process the final image. MG
  22. MarsG76
    Thanks... The original framing template was generated by an action pack called "Astrophotograhy Tools" for Photoshop. I modified it slightly for my liking and use it for my DSO images. Gives a basic description of the object, such as the name, ID and date imaged along with my watermark. I do recommend the action pack as it does have some useful and effective actions/features.
  23. MarsG76
    Thank you all for the comments.... very much appreciated.
  24. MarsG76
    Fantastic image.. superb
  25. MarsG76
    Thank you all for the comments.
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