alan4908
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Everything posted by alan4908
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From the album: Automated Observatory
I decided to implement some observatory drainage channels. -
From the album: Automated Observatory
My new imaging set up from May 2017: a SW Esprit 150 with 3" Feathertouch focuser/stepper on a 10micron GM1000HPS. -
From the album: Deep Sky III
My first image with the Esprit 150 on my new mount (10micron GM1000HPS). Since the core of M13 is quite bright, to better reveal core details I decided to create two LRGB processed images: one with the Luminescence image stars DDP stretched such that the 8 bit PS values where less than 200 (to allow them to be easily coloured) and one where the stars exceeded the 200 value (which makes them quite bright). I then blended the two images via PS using the less stretched image for the core. The image represents about 4 hours integration. -
Pieter - thanks ! In addition to the Photoshop's High Pass Filter and Unsharp Mask, this time I applied Pixinsight's HDRMT routine, which is excellent at sharpening images. Alan -
From the album: Deep Sky II
This is an LRGB image with Ha blended in the Lum and Red channels. The Lum was quite faint, even after over 3hours, so I decided to blend quite a large amount of Ha in order make the image reasonably bright and not too red. The Ha is also blended into the Red channel but at a much lower level. I made a slight change to the Hue, towards the green, in order to get a slightly more appealing red. In total, the image represents about 13 hours integration time. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
A reprocess of my previous attempt which is also in this gallery. The major difference is that I attempted to correct the starfield which was distorted due to optical issues. I also applied the Pixinsight function HDRMT to get a slightly sharper result for the main galaxy. The net effect is that these changes allow me to present the image in a much wider field of view. -
Beating the weather (Cloud\Rain Sensor)
alan4908 replied to AlistairW's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Since I'm ultra cautious about mixing rain with electronics I use a total of three rain sensors in my obsey. The main one is from Hitech astro which I've set to close the roof if it detects rain or if it detects clouds, this is configurable for local conditions, it can also be configured to send email alerts. This has never failed but it is reliant on the obsey PC functioning. To guard against failure, I installed two backup sensors inside the obsey which are not reliant on my PC (so in theory these should never trigger). I initially installed a rain alarm weather monitor station which connects via a low frequency RF link to my house. The main advantage is that it is battery powered and is very simple to install. The main problem is that it needs quite a bit of rain for the alarm to trigger. I therefore decided to install a second device (a Kemo rain sensor) which is more sensitive, it also incorporates a heater which is required to prevent false triggering from dew. Since it incorporates a heater, I decided to power this from my main 12v power supply. To guard against mains power supply failures, I also installed a detector inside the house. For your particular application, you might find that the Kemo sensor is suitable, it's also relatively low cost http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/kemo-rain-sensor-dc-12v-n21dd?cmpid=ppc&gclid=CMHhlI3rg9ICFeq87QodbvsCdA and on rain detection it closes a self contained relay which you can use to trigger an appropriate alarm. Alan -
From the album: Deep Sky II
My second attempt at M45 (the first attempt with my SX26C is within the album Deep Sky I). Although this is not an ideal field of view, the close up of M45 does reveal quite a lot reflection nebula structure. The galaxy at the bottom right is PGC13696. I decided to go for quite a long exposure on the L to bring out the faint dust. I would like to have captured more green and blue data. In total, about 7 hours. LIGHTS:L: 19; R:12: G:5: B:6 x 600s. BIAS: 100; DARKS:30; FLATS: 40 all at -20C. -
Thanks Dan ! As I type this, I'm surrounded by dense fog, so I cannot even see the clouds.....hopefully this will improve ! -
From the album: Deep Sky II
A crop of the Sliver Needle Galaxy - the uncropped image is also within this gallery. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
An Uncropped view of the Sliver Needle Galaxy. I was quite pleased that I managed to extract a little colour and detail from the galaxy. The image was sharpened via three software packages: CCDstack (deconvolution); Photoshop (High Pass Filter and Unsharp Mask) and Pixinsight (HDR Multiscale Transform). The Pixinsight routine was particularly effective at extracting detail. I also tried the PS HDR toning routine but this was ineffective. The image represents about 8.5 hours of integration time - I've also included a cropped version within this gallery to show the galaxy details. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
Another attempt at the Heart nebula, this time with my Trius 814 camera using a 3nm Ha filter. The Ha was blended into both the L and Red channels via PS screen. I also decided to correct the star colours stars by taking the RGB layer and PS screening this with the LRGB + Ha. I quite like the variety of stars colours, so I decided not to push these into the background too much. -
From the album: Lunar
Believe it or not this is only my second lunar image.......I had just performed a software upgrade with MaximDL and was checking to see everything was OK. At the time a nearly full moon was present so I decided to take a few subs. Since ACP does not support lunar capture (it cannot change the tracking rate to lunar) I had to do a semi manual acquisition using ACP to perform the autofocusing. I selected my 3nm Ha filter since I thought it would give more contrast compared to the Lum. I took 20 subs each of 0.1s and stacked then in Registar. I then post processed in Pixinsight and PS - not sure if I have sharpened this too much, time will tell. -
Five images from 2016 - all taken with my Trius 814 and SW Evostar 80ED DS Pro: M51 M33 M31 - (my first mosaic) M106 NGC6888 Alan
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From the album: Deep Sky II
An LRGB image representing about 7 hours integration time. LIGHTS: L:14, R:9, G:10; B:8 x 600s. DARKS: 30; BIAS 100; FLATS:40 all at -20C. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
A heavily cropped image - taken from the image Deer Lick Group and Stephan's Quintet which is also within this album. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
A non cropped image of the NGC891 galaxy. The cropped version of NGC891 is also within this album. The annotation shows the numerous galaxies that are also present within the image - about 11 hours exposure. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
A cropped LRGB image of the NGC891 (aka Outer Limits) galaxy - about 11 hours exposure. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
A reprocess of the data captured in Feb/March 2016 (my original attempt is also in this album). This is an LRGB image with about 6 hours integration time. The main difference between this and the earlier image is that I concentrated on correcting the starfield colours and sharpening the galaxy. -
Thanks ! -
From the album: Deep Sky II
A M81 LRGB image with Ha red and Luminescence blend - about 16 hours. I quite like the colours and the galaxy details. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
This image has identical data to the other M106 with bonus galaxies images. The difference is that I tried to obtain better colours and colour balance by using Pixinsight. Basically, I used linear fit (to align the colour channels), background neutralization (makes the background RGB levels a similar value) and colour calibration (against M106 as a white reference point). I was quite impressed by the result. -
Thanks for the comment. I also like the stars in this image. Alan -
From the album: Deep Sky II
This image represents 18.5 hours of integration including 8 hours of Ha. It's quite an unusual image in the sense that the nebula and stars play an equally dominate role, particularly given the presence of some very bright stars. As a consequence I decided not to push the stars into the background. The Ha was mainly used to enhance the Luminance although I did add a little to the red channel. In an attempt to get accurate star colours I also attempted to blend RGB stars with the LblendRblendGB image. Colouring the nebula was the major challenge since some parts are quite bright (the "head") whilst other parts (eg the "legs") are quite faint. -
From the album: Deep Sky II
I gave this quite a long exposure with the H alpha filter (c7.5 hours) since I wanted to capture the various hydrogen clouds. The image represents about 15 hours of integration. CCDstack used for calibration, stacking and error rejection. Pixinsight for DBE, BN and Colour Calibration, PS for everything else. The major challenge with this image is that it contained various scattered light "rainbows" that where generated by out of view bright stars, one of these "rainbows" passed straight through the galaxy. To eliminate the scattered light issue I followed the PS tutorial by Adam Block in his "cosmic canvas" series - this is an amazingly effective technique to eliminate/reduce the problem. LIGHTS: L:15, R:9, G:10, B: 12 x 600s; H: 15 x 1800s. DARKS:30; BIAS:100; FLATS:40 all at -20C.
