Yawning Angel

The data is here, if anyone wants some to play with : Google Drive Link

These are 2 separate things: The Orbitals plugin, remember to update the data : The hit frame, and from the framing screen slew and centre then update your sequence The loop option is on the sequence tab, and just makes it do L-R-G-B-L-R-G-B-L-R-G-B etc rather than L-L-L-R-R-R-G-G-G-B-B-B I hope this helps

We get limited time with these objects, so hopefully having something to practice on helps 🙂

Link to Google drive, Comet C/2022 E3 (now removed) 1.1GB zip: 15 x 60 sec L 15 x 60 sec R 15 x 60 sec G 15 x 60 sec B Master Flats LRG & B Master Dark, 60 sec Tracked on the stars My version is here: C-2022 E3 (ZTF), LRGB I'll leave it up for a few days , and I'd love to see what you do with it 🙂

If you want to try out processing some data, let me know and I'll try to upload it somewhere 15 x 60 per channel

I used the Orbitals plug-in for NINA, but if you can use Stellarium / ACSOM to point, it can easily be added to it's database

I tracked the stars for my attempts, then created a master star image. My thinking is the mount want to track stars, where as the comet movement if going to need it to work harder...plus comets are fuzzy anyway 🙂 After that, you can do a comet stack, aligned on the comet and a strong rejection algorithm can reject the stars (experiment with rejection settings) Good luck!

Early hours of this morning for a crack at Comet C-2022 E3 (ZTF), 15 x 60 sec for LRG & B. Acquisition in NINA, using the Orbitals plugin for the location and changing the 'Sequence Mode" to 'Loop' rather than the default 'One after another'. Library flats and darks asi1600mm + APM 107/700. Processed in PixInsight: Initially just stacked the data as normal, ending up with a 4 mono starscapes and comet-ish smear LRGB combine and tidy up of the stars, stretch and then StarXterminator, keeping just the stars image CometAlignment on the registered images, output to a folder ImageIntergration on the LRGB groups, with some aggressive rejection LRGB combine on the comet images, stretch and background clean-up (a slight detour into PS for that) PixelMath the stars back in

Thank you both!

Using my APM 107mm and a Powermate x2 to fill the sensor of my asi1600mm with moon! 50% of 1000 in each channel for RGB

Thanks! Imagine the lights are switched off in the starless version 😜

Clear skies at this time of year? In the north of England?! It had to be the Christmas Tree Cluster, if only to have my kids tell me it doesn't look like a Christmas tree 🙂 APM 107/700mm. Asi1600mm (@-15c, unity) w Baader filters. iOptron CEM60 7hrs total 60 x 240 sec Ha 60 x 60 sec RG&B Stars: Starless: Merry Christmas!

Very kind of you to say, thank you!

Thank you! Capture was 10 x 1000 in R then G then B. Processing: Batch stacked all 30 in AS!3 Sharpened in Registax, although I’d usually batch sharpen in Pi Mosaic each set in MS ICE Align the 3 in imPPG RGB combine in Pi RGB align in Registax Defringe in Photoshop Camera Raw Colour balance etc in PS Fine sharpening with the Low Pass filter Tada!

This was 3 x 10 panel (RG & mosaics with my 107 refractor and an asi178m click for the full image

Thank you! It does cement the image as a planet when it's moving like that. Shame it took about 12 hours to stack 🙂

The best night in a long while was on the 7th or December. Still a couple of frames needing some TLC to clean up the haze 80 x 3mins compiled from 20:20 till 00:30 on 07-12-22 8" SCT, x2 powermate (4046mm effective FL), Player One Ceres-C (imx224), 400 x 400 roi @ 350 FPS

This was captured at the end of a long session 12 - 13th, after grabbing about 1tb on Mars and Jupiter! I was too tired at 3amto do much more than a quick slice: Celestron C8, Player One Ceres-C (IMX224), ADC and x2 powermate. 10k frames @ 1.9 ms, 153 fps. 15 panels, sharpened in PixInsight then assembled in Photoshop Full size is 5605 x 1848

Thank you!

Thank you! For a reference point this was taken with the same scope, 6 years ago

Thank you!

toned this down a little. It was, to my eyes, a little pinker than it should be

Thank you!

During this planetary season I've tried to focus on getting my C8 to perform to a level I'm happy with. It's had an external focuser and motor, the Celestron dew rings (great bit of kit!) and a new camera. I even put a handle on the top rail! Lavished it with care, only for disaster to strike in the form of somehow managing to strip the aluminium threads out of one of the collimation screw holes! After some panicky Googling and a fruitless search for a replacement secondary holder I bit the bullet, drilled it out and tapped it M4. After rebuilding it I was dubious (and started window shopping for a C11😇) but it collimated up remarkably well with the OCAL (oh, that should have been on the list too) Star testing brought it to a point I was happy with so on the 30th I tried it out on Jupiter (and later Mars) to see if it was behaving 26 x 120 sec on Jupiter until the clouds moved me away, 5ms @ 350 gain and about 200fps giving around 24,000 frames per file. Seeing wasn't dreadful, which is good by the standards of NW England - some passing haze and thin clouds Batch stacked all of them at 50% with the intention of making a short animation, but on review the small pause to refocus was really noticeable, so I thought to experiment with derotating the lot and seeing what WinJupos could make of it I'm not sure I can expect much more from 8" 52 mins exposure time - Celestron C8, ZWO ADC, TS x1.5 barlow, IR/UV filter / Player One Mars C ii

Thank you! I think there were 6 contiguous panels that could be combined