Nigel G

Here's how my evening started. Set up, aligned mount, set new camera up , eos utilities needs updating as camerais more modern. 1 hour later start taking subs through 210mm lens. 1.5 hours later find out I have the x 2 adapter on...... delete that lot, start again without x2 adapter. First light frame saved at 22.45, two and a half hours after I started Hope your evening is going better, at least the sky is very clear tonight. Nige

Well, all is not lost. It's still broken but repairable. It looks like I miss aligned a tape wire, worst case new PCB, best case new tape wire. Wire kit £30 PCB £65. It will work again. Could be expensive mistake but it can cost a couple of hundred to get it modified anyway In the meantime I bought the wife a new DSLR today with my scrap copper haul ( I'm a plumber by trade ) Forecast is for clear sky's tomorrow night so I'm going to try her new camera. Nige.

Sometimes you just need to walk away, I sympathised with Ken and his problems last night, tonight its all going Pete tong . First my camera, now the pc just decided to go to sleep when I started using my astro cam, by the way tif, fit or jpg is ok for DSS. I'm going to observe tonight, I don't often get the chance to just look, so I'm going to make the most I can of the clear sky's. Huff Nige ??

Great looking image Ian. That tool is well worth it. My orion as to cam can record in bmp, jpg, tif or fit, which will allow DSS to stack, any ideas. I'm firing up the pc now to hopefully find out but someone might already know and my astro pc can take 10 minutes to get going ☺ Nige

It might be terminal, but a fresh start tomorrow hopefully will sort the problem. I only know one way to learn and that's the hard way, I can see this costing me £s . Oh well s#@t happens. It's only a camera. The most annoying thing is the weather man was right. I could use my all in one astro cam, maybe. The trouble is it only saves jpg files I think. Big sigh. Nother whisky . Hope you're sky's are clear. Nige.

I'll have to continue this tomorrow, need a large whisky

Hmm, somethings gone wrong , might need a new camera ? I'm seeing red but only in frustration.

Well filter removed, camera back together, no screws left or lost, just going to turn it on and see if it works, I'm scared ☺don't want to turn it on! Nige.

Steve, that's fabulous I love it. Got to start saving ☺ I'm just about to remove the infared filter in my camera, got clear sky's tonight and it's Friday. Hope it goes well otherwise I'll be observing. Nige.

Ken, that's a good promising start, I'm impressed. Steve, that's a good improvement, the heart and soul are both easily visible. Going to check out that StarTools link now. A great link, very interesting, I had no idea you could use it like that, looking forward to trying that on some of my images, first book work to catch up with ? Cheers Nige.

Ian, a good thing about my 210mm lens, the zoom is at max when closest to the camera, so if pointing up it can't slip or move, also the focus is easy, turn the focus until it stops ( infinity ) actually is prime focus, not like my 135mm which requires a nudge back for focus. Having said that it is very smooth and easy to move and is the most likely cause, when I'm about to start shooting with the lens I check that it's turned all the way to the right and pulled right back to max zoom, even after doing this I noticed it out of focus once, checked the lens and I'd managed to move the focus. So it possible. Nige

Good luck Ken, I'm really hoping it goes well for you, stick at it. Cloudy here.

You and me too, your certainly not an idiot. I have asked that question quite a few times and never got a straight answer to it, I'm still non the wiser I understand the choice is to do with colour only, it will not affect anything else. I have always used the first choice because I thought my data was white balanced but now I'm not sure !

Ian that a very good point, yes its a zoom lens, it would only need the slightest touch to be noticeable, I use it at max zoom but its very possible and most likely the answer. The image is worse on the left to top left . Nige.

I took these frames over 2 nights, I think the camera might have been of line a fraction one of the sessions. XXXXXX The aperture was set at 3.6 and I have an old version of photoshop. I modified my focuser to achieve prime focus, it doesn't screw on its a tolerance push fit. I need to attach the camera then wind the focuser right down till the camera squares its self against the stopper. If this is not done correct this is the result. I had this with the Veil neb but spotted it straight away, the trouble with wide field you can set up your capture software and walk away for half an hour leaving the pc to it. Silly me, this could not be the problem because I didn't use the scope, what a fool. hmm, perhaps I need to close the aperture a bit but I haven't had this before with the 210mm lens..... It must be rotation or bad tracking. Nige.

Ken. I'm really looking forward to seeing an image from your new CCD probably almost as much as you. This might make me start saving some ready's. I found a stack from a couple of weeks ago I had forgotten about, I took this while waiting for another DSO to rise above my roof top. A nice easy one to process, M2. 30 minutes of 30s lights no dark or flats but 50 bias. 150p DSS & StarTools. Nige.

Heart and Soul attempt. I added 50 flats and 65 dark- 15 @ 90s and 50 @ 60s I asked DSS to stack 66% of lights due to lots of disturbance on the left and especially top left, so 106 lights total time about 1h 45 mins. DSS sorts all the frames into order so I just added all the darks in one mixed batch, same as lights. There is a big difference to no flats and less darks, the new stack is workable although still noisy, I managed to find some detail in there, the lights are not that good, think I went to long on exp times. ( I checked through the darks and was surprised to see quite a difference in some of them ) I didn't spend too much time processing this as I really don't think the data warrants it. I have learnt however, flats and lots more darks are worth it. So here it is 210mm lens, around 40% cropped out. Its 100% better than my first try. Thanks for the tips guys. Nige.

Thanks for your image, nice colours in the nebula, there's very different final images from this stack, it needs many more subs to rid the noise levels, its on the list This is the best I could do using StarTools, it took a couple of hours to process, Its not bad considering the lack of exposure time. The trouble is it starts to look fake the more processing you do. Cheers Nige.

I still am not a hundred % sure if I use the correct opening tab in StarTools, My camera is set to auto white balance so I use the first option is white balanced. Steve, yep both heart and soul are there, I must try my stack again, I have 3 hours of 60 and 90s subs with my 210mm lens. I need to take some flats and a few more darks to add to the stack,( Why didn't I think of doing that sooner) I'd given up hope with it as the noise and mainly gradients are awful. The extra darks and flats might do the trick. In fact I think someone mentioned it recently but it didn't really sink in. I'm doing it right now. Nige.

I found this quote in StarTools forum, must check this when stacking Any chance you could stack with Per Channel background calibration also 'no'? If left 'yes' it meddles with the colors and noise levels... http://forum.startools.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=696&p=2826&hilit=alt+az+mount#p2826 Nige.

Steve, I try different options for different dso's, for the veil I used simular colour and simular brightness, click on the nebula until mostly covered with a web of mask then grow until I'm happy, it will often fill the image while trying to fill the nebula so just undo last move and continue it seems to learn what your trying to cover, the veil neb took about 20 minutes to mask. I tried missing wipe and doing isolate, a big no go.. I also watched Ivo StarTools live on YouTube, it's clear to me that what works for eq mounts and long tracked exposures does not for alt-az mounts and short exp's , it's a completely different set of rules we have to learn. I mailed Ivo, he is keen to see some of our images to see the results that star tools can bring from alt az mounts. Cheers Nige.

I used dark anomaly setting 6 and found upping the aggressiveness was losing sharpness and nebula, but upped it to 85 % anyway. Then straight into isolate , getting the mask for isolate is very tricky, can take quite some time but worth it. I wonder what it would be like if I missed out wipe and went directly to isolate ??? hmm must try that now. Cheers Nige.

Ken. The only way I could rid the gradients and noise was with isolate tool. I think as many have pointed out, flats will (should) help with the gradients, I'll get right to it. Nige.

The veil is with my 150p scope.

Had a chance yet ??