alacant

Hi GIMP? To remove vignetting and gradient. Quick method. Layers: Duplicate the layer Blur the layer until you see no stars Invert the blurred layer Merge it. I found around 14% did it. Merge down the layers Re-adjust the levels Experiment with layers, %, layer masks, masked stretches You could also consider getting an astro processing program but learning GIMP first would be my recommended method; you're in total control rather than the computer;) HTH

Correct. Your camera produces twice as much green as B and R, use curves or color balance. Maybe start a different thread for the processing? Here's a 5 minute stint in StarTools and GIMP Must go now...!

Light leak? Badly misaligned frame? Put a black shower cap over the mirror end and make sure no light is entering via the focuser. A dark room with a torch inside the tube is good for this. Discard any -badly- misaligned frames. Sorry, no time ATM for a full process.

Here we are, luminance only in GIMP. It's fine. conclusion: the flat frames were wrong. Easy fix. you now know exactly where to look next;) Cheers and HTH.

Fine. Go ahead.

You are NOT stacking fits files. The fits tab is irrelevant. The Bayer pattern is in the NEF.

No. No white balance.

No white balance. Don't do anything apart from save the file when it's finished stacking.

Hi The single frame looks pretty good to me.

We can confirm or otherwise with a stack of just the light frames. Cheers

Hi The single flat frame shows off centre optics. The master-flat less so. the dust has been removed so in that respect, the flat frames are working. The stack shows intense gradient which is not present on the -quite nice- single frame. It looks like there was a change in orientation and /or light leak into camera or telescope when you took the flat frames. It's rescuable, but it needed a big hammer to remove the irregularities. I fixed the stars whilst I was at it; there seems to be coma toward the edges. Anyway, HTH and stay safe.

+1. Or if you also want to have a go at smaller targets, something longer? As can be seen, @Erling G-P's 200p on an eq5 works fine. Originality. Otherwise there's a danger we all end up with the same telescope taking the same images! Cheers and good luck with whatever you chose.

There are so many phd2 variables that it's easy for some to get overlooked. Go back to making a new profile from scratch and starting from nothing perhaps? It's been known to cure many a problem. Maybe a change in seeing or the telescope became unbalanced or moved to a badly meshed or poorly lubricated part of the gear wheel? As I say, loadsa variables! Cheers

Hi. The satellite trails can be removed by stacking with a clipping algorithm. Are those images unacceptable for you? Don't forget that seeing conditions have a big impact on guiding. On night guiding can be wonderful. The next, all over the place, circumnstances over which you have no control. Look first at the images, then the graphs! From bitter experience, I think that unless the mount is mechanically perfect, has been pulled apart, cleaned, regreased, and adjusted, fighting it with software is not going to bring much improvement. But hey, if the images you get are ok, just leave it! Cheers, good luck and stay safe.

Hi How were your images? Cheers

Hi If you're visual you may find that the tripod is too high. If you're imaging, you may need something more substantial. Here's our brute force and ignorance box section effort. Cheers

I'm not a stellarium user but if you're solving in sharpcap either it or both it and stellarium will have a 'sync' button. This is needed to do what you want; both mount and stellarium are at the same coordinates. HTH

Hit the 'synchronise' button to update stellarium. Now both will agree to the same position.

+1. If you don't have the latest release candidate, upgrade before trying again. Cheers

Hi Tell us what you did to get to this stage. Go through all the light frames and reject any with cloud, haze and any other imperfections. Link us to an example of each type of frame you used. Restack and post a link. Cheers

Ok. Lose the darks and restack. Post the link. A few thoughts. In fact for such a short exposure time, this is remarkably good. The best Iso for the 60d is 800 so there's some unnecessary extra noise at 1600. The more frames you can get, the easier the processing will become. The sooner you can guide and dither, the easier the processing will become. Make sure that no white balance is selected in dss; when StarTools says linear, it means linear. Cheers

Thanks, yes. In PHD2, in my case HFD 5 to 6 to -> 3 to 4. The screen is now noise free too.

My 60mm guide telescope produces fat stars. The uv-ir cut filter reduces their size. I wondered if filters were necessary. Thanks

What do you use to stack the dark frames? Maybe a good idea to send us a list of your software and the stages you use to stack images, otherwise we're guessing. cheers

? Point the telescope toward polaris with the couterweights down. Lock the clutches and polar align the mount. Do not release the clutches again until you have finished imaging. Plate solve somewhere near your target. Now plate solve again to centre your target. Most software will do this last stage for you. HTH