fireballxl5

MaxImDL v6 for my main fixed rig and ASIair (with the Pro HW) for my travel setup. Both are great pieces of software.

+1 for the AZ-GTi as a light weight travel mount, though I do use the ASIair Pro now for alignment, control and guiding. Works well for me using focal lengths ranging up to 650mm with my 60mm travel refractor. There are a couple of related threads already on SGL, such as

Sounds like you may have solved your problem, especially if you aren't currently leveling the scope for initial alignment. One more thing to try is to enable the auxillary encoder in the Settings menu. This may indicate that the main encoder is faulty or contaminated. Good luck as it's quite a capable mount considering it's price. HTH, Andy

Although a fantastic bit of hardware and software, the WiFi range of my ASIair Pro is poor, 3-5m maybe for a good, stable connection using 2.4GHz station mode. I've seen that some are adding a separate WiFi extender to improve on this.

My images of the over the last couple of nights from Denham Quarry Trig Point on Hough Hill near Preston CS, Andy Friday 10th July: Canon 6D with 50mm, 0.8s Canon 6D with 100mm, 5s Saturday 11th July: Canon 6D with 70-200mm F4 + 1.4x extender @ 280mm, f5.6, ISO3200, 26x20s

I run a dual Tak setup, RGB using one and Lum on the other. Occasionally combining in PI will result in colour fringed stars, usually red though. When this occurs I transfer the individual, part-processed channels to MaxImDL for LRGB combination and this works without fail. I've not found a detailed explanation of how MaxIm works under the hood but maybe similar to Registrar?

love the colours in both of these images - nice👍

another +1 for the Baader Optical Wonder Fluid, great stuff!

it's worth noting that PI is great SW, very good value (compared with HW costs & other photo processing SW) and the tax helps governments pay for stuff like the health service...

I managed to make use of the limited period of semi-darkness last Saturday (13th) to capture this image of Sh2-115 (main image) and Sh2-116 (planetary nebula PK 85+ 4.1), the small ball of nebulousness to the lower right. This is a first posting of data using a 'new to me' Chroma filter set (thanks @Steve 1962), so this image was taken using a 3nm Hyd Alpha filter. Just 6 ten minute subs before the cloud came over at around 2:30am. Data captured using a 85mm refractor/mono CCD at 1.7"/pixel. Minimal processing in PI (DBE, MLT and some curves). Cal files need re-doing at some point😜 Hope to collect some OIII and RGB soonish. CS, Andy

wiki is your friend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WR_134

nice find Steve😉

Great image Rodd - I very much preferred the 1st version👍 I found the area using star SAO 69541. This is the region from SkyMapPro v12 with some of the background and the Fov of my 150mm refractor/CCD combo...

I have the JTD device carrying my FSQ85/QSI690 combo. To allow use of the JTD I reluctantly had to switch from piggy-back to side by side. Luckily I already had the heavy-duty ADM side by side system, but now that I'm here I won't go back! CS, Andy

It was a long time ago, but when I first tried imaging using my OO GX250 with my SLR (in late 90's) I didn't have enough back-focus. I overcame this by using the full range of the primary mirror holder to move the mirror further up, into the tube. This pushed the focus point further out at the focuser. If you can do this it should avoid the need of the Barlow.

Great detail in the close up and great colour, like the high res image

Interesting design there. How compact is your observatory? If that was in my observatory (approx 9x9 feet) I'd be concerned about tripping over the wedge in the dark! Hope it works out well for you. CS, Andy

potential issues with the optics aside, here's a 100% crop of the LRGB combined image using MaxImDL v6.09 for comparison. HTH, Andy

I have a dual rig setup for AP with an 85mm scope for RGB and 150mm scope for lum. When combining these stacks in PI I usually have similar problems though more pronounced. In these cases I transfer the part processed stacks to MaxImDL to create the combined LRGB, going back to PI to finish off. I'd try a different app for RGB combination to see if it's just a limitation of PI. Having said this, mine may just be a problem with my lack of PI knowledge/experience.

it's just been cancelled for today

ZWO ASI 290MM Mini - great guide cam https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi290mm-mini-usb-2-mono-camera.html#specifications

I much prefer v2, great colours and contrast against that sky👍

Thanks Des🙂

I managed to grab some colour subs the following night (9th May) and added them to the lum data for this colour image. LRGB, 10x600s for each. CS, Andy

Well this lock-down has given me some time to catch up on data processing and here's one from late last year. This is my attempt at the Propeller nebula over in Cygnus. I collected the data with my dual rig setup between mid-Aug to Nov, when I had a couple of breaks owing to holidays and significant work commitments. I usually seem to see false colour narrowband or just Ha versions of this object, but for some reason I went for LRGB with the Ha blended into the red channel using NBRGBCombination in PI. I always struggle with processing sky backgrounds, especially then there is useful signal lurking there, so please excuse any apparent heavy-handedness. Here's a stack of just the Ha, cropped to focus on the Propeller: LR(Ha)GB image details: 150mm refractor; Lum 62x600s and Ha 11x600s 85mm refractor; Red 24x600s, Green 21x600 and Blue 19x600s Image scale: ~1.7"/pix with both scopes Total time 22.8 hours collected over 11 nights during mid-Aug - Nov 2019