Anthonyexmouth

4 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

The green gradient is normal, just do an unlinked stretch and it won’t show, the STF stretch is just for your benefit, the image is still linear..and GraXpert will work on the Linear data..

kicking myself now. getting old, couple of months not processing and forgot to unlink it. It's these new fangled AI tools upsetting my well established workflow. 

1 minute ago, City9Town0 said:

I'm still using DBE... just how much of a dinosaur am I? (polite answers only!)

I've only just this past week installed graxpert to try. 

26 minutes ago, Phillyo said:

I always do gradient removal first, then BlurX correct only, plate solve, SPCC, blurx, starx, noisex, GHS etc from there.

With the green cast on a OSC image, how do you see the gradient properly without some colour correction first? Just a touch of sncr? Been avoiding that since SPCC got so good at correction. 

Ok, due to clouds I've not imaged for a few months and wondering if I've forgotten a crucial stage in PI processing. Also just installed the graxpert script. Anyway, got 8 houts on the Cali Nebula the other night and after let WBPP do an autocrop. SPCC seemed to give an awful green background which I don't remember ver seeing before but if I run graxpert after it goes away. Should I be running GX before SPCC? using a OSC and the cheaper ASKAR duo filter. SPCC usually clears up any green cast, at least I'm sure it did. 

3 hours ago, Xsubmariner said:

As someone who now has a sizeable AP equipment collection may I offer the following for consideration;

when starting out it is likely best to limit your filter/optical equipment until you have overcome the initial AP learning curve and your images start to expose the mount/optical train/filter anomalies.  At this point you will either decide to commit further in equipment quality or remain content with the images you produce.

It may be considered my AP equipment inventory is illogical/ poor value for money based solely on the number of clear nights I can operate the equipment. For me the engineering aspects of this hobby goes a long way to balancing the benefits.

Also from experience I note a high proportion of long clear nights in the UK coincide with the moon present.  This is when most of my Narrowband data has been acquired as LRGB generally disappoints due to moon illuminance. This is precisely the time when my very narrowband (3nm) filters deliver on their investment.

My initial Astronomik/Badder (7/8nm) HSO filters are now in storage and have been replaced with Antlia (3nm) Chroma (3nm) and Astronomik (6nm) units that just deliver in the UK environment.

My skies are Bortle 4 and yes you will definitely see the benefit of very narrow HSO filters.

For clarity, my 7/8nm HSO Astronomik/Badder were excellent filters that supported me for the initial years and ably support many Astrophotographers today who produce stunning images. If you are unfortunate to acquire AP OCD during this hobby you will likely raid the piggy bank for 3nm filters, my precious.

 

 

I'm not new, just been dragging my heels to go mono for over a decade. Have had a permanent setup for 5ish years now and happy with all the automation that's now been working well for a few years, al the bugs ironed out, so time to add in some more complexity to keep it interesting. 

Considering going into mono next year. I'm in a Bortle 3/4 area. Are the really tight NB filters worthwhile in every situation, will I see a benefit over cheaper ones in my area? 

23 hours ago, Elp said:

It's likely you'll go full mono fairly quickly, the difference in sharpness/detail is minute but it's noticeable as you're using all the pixels per filter bandpass. The moon also having a habit of being out on clear nights will mean you'll likely use the mono more also (o3 is difficult next to the moon, ha is fine). I find I tend to use the OSC to supplement the mono or at times when I want to capture RGB "quickly" (mono is technically faster).

Been putting it off for years now. But now my permanent setup has been working well for a few years in happier moving over to mini

2 hours ago, Elp said:

You can do that. Or take mono lum to sharpen up the LRGB OSC data. Unless your setup is fully automated for quick captures the EFW is an unnecessary expense, just use a manual filter drawer, you'll find you still have to take hours of data for a clean and less noisy image so image one bandpass per session.

It's all automated at the moment, permanent setup. Was thinking of using the mono during the full moon and the OSC for other times until I decide if I want to go full mono. 

3 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Yep, should be no problem, but may depend on which stacker you use. I know PI can register images with different image scales, not sure about any others.

I use PI

Ok, considering dipping my toe into mono. If I was to buy a 533 mono with maybe an Ha filter to start, could I easily integrate that into some colour data from my 294 or is there a better option. Really not keen on jumping full in with a set of filters and a filter wheel just yet or maybe could stretch to a filter wheel, not sure. 

On 28/08/2023 at 13:17, Jonny_H said:

Thanks Gary,

I made the mistake of "Googling" and there seems to be a lot of people in the "you absolutely must get 2" filters with the 2600MM" camp.  It seems to be down to apparent bad vignetting, but I'm not convinced it is that bad.

As you say a fair number of people use 36mm with no issues at all....but some of the comments have seeded a tad of doubt!

Regards,

Jonny

Are you sure the 2" argument isn't for the OSC version as the OSC filters tend to be 1.25" and 2" and nothing in between so would make sense 

On 07/08/2023 at 16:36, Gary Clayton said:

I can only suggest that you keep trying, there are loads of tutorials on YouTube for processing narrow band data with an OSC, using both the HOO and Foraxx palettes. It tuck me a while and now I will have to start over again with mono imaging.

Had a play with PaulyAstros tutorials and came up with this. But definitely going to take some re-learning.

4 hours ago, Gary Clayton said:

NGC6888 and the Soap Bubble nebula, 50 x 5 minute subs with an 5nm HA/OIII OSC filter and first light with my new Altair Hypercam 26MM, shame it's having to go back to Altair for cleaning.

SM90 at it's native focal length with the 1:1 flattener.

Can barely see the Bubble in my effort a few posts up. I do like the data I'm getting with the dualband filter but my ability to process it is really letting it down. 

16 hours ago, alcol620 said:

Thanks Anthony   Argon purge?

Yeah, I tig weld at home so always got argon on hand. I made a little enclosure, filled with argon and reassembled the camera in the argon environment. 

Yeah, definitely frost. I cured mine, after much hair pulling, by doing an argon purge on the chamber. That was last summer and been fine since. I was getting the issue even when I slow cooled. 

21 hours ago, Adam J said:

The riccardi is not as harsh and a better balanced reducer. 

Adam

Think I've got my backfocus as good as I can get and tilt is pretty good too but still a little distortion in subs but seems to clean up ok after stacking. Wondering If a better flattener is an option or maybe just throwing money at a problem that isn't really there. 

2 minutes ago, Elp said:

The x0.65 is quite aggressive, you might find you'll never get a flat field with it at the edges as I still struggle with the 183 sensor size but I normally crop, and with singular targets if you crop you won't even see the edges. The actual unit is nice and weighty. I still use it quite often though due to the speed at f3.8 and the 234mm FL it gives me with the z61. The normal flattener gives me f5.9 and 370mm FL, so it's quite versatile in offering you framing options.

I used it for this, you'll see the odd shaped stars in it:

 

Probably not worth it then with a 4/3 or cropped sensor. If i'd have to crop too much you lose the benefit. I thought the flattening might be better than the stock. 

Anyone here got any experience with one of these? Are they a worthwhile upgrade over a stock manufacturer reducer? 

55 minutes ago, malc-c said:

According to SVBony's website their cameras have native support in PHD2, and on the PHD2 website the current version of 2.6.11 states  "Updated camera support: Svbony, Touptek, ZWO ASI"  - This version was released February 2022.....  Would have thought 18 months would have been enough time to have ironed out any bugs.

I have just installed PHD2 on the PC as I too have a SV205 camera.  The camera installed on windows 10 with out the need of additional drivers.  Running PHD2 for the first time I went through the wizard, selecting SVBony Camera from the list of supported cameras.  I was then asked if the camera was connected and PHD2 would then obtain the pixel size etc. I confirmed it was... I was then presented with a pop up stating that PHD2 could not connect to the camera, but could manually add in the pixel size etc later.

However, when selecting the camera it fails

 

No error in device manager - 

At present I don't have any other software to try with this camera, and this is my main PC rather than the one in the observatory.   But this does indeed confirm that despite that 18 months since announcing SVBony camera's were supported in PHD2, this particular camera isn't.

No issues with Win11 either, auto detected it with no installed drivers. 

I haven't played much more with it, been ill this week with flu and only just managed to set a session going last night before i slipped back into a nice sweaty fever. I bought an sv165 guide scope on prime day to go with it. Wanted to try a more minimal rig on my pier by losing the st80 on the side-by-side setup. 

Worst case I'll use it for cloud monitoring. 

Think this is my first time imaging the Crescent, always seem to skip over this. Anyway, a little process but still struggling with the dual-narrowband workflow. 

5 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Worked in SharpCap in Long Exposure mode ?

Or was it in Video mode, which is different to the way used in PHD2 ?

Michael

Didn't check that. What was odd was that other than SC, no other app even saw the camera being connected. 

Anyone have any idea why my new sv205 is happy to work with sharpcap but not phd2 or Nina? Installed both driver versions from the svbony site. Sharpcap is ok. Nina shows the option for the svbony205 but won't connect and phd2 shows the option but says not present. And yes, I'm only trying to connect to one app at a time. 

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

I've used 3DPrint to produce some items and was happy with them.  They have a minimum order value of £50, which for me was OK as the items were small, so I got 20 off (servo motor mount for model railway point control).

The guide scope only cost me £47. Lol 

This is the part I want printed. https://grabcad.com/library/sv-bony-30mm-f4-guide-scope-shade-1

22 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

Looks like your shield should be quite small and postage will be the main cost.
If you will not find anyone locally, - drop me a line.

Cool. Thank you. 

Yeah it is only little. Just like the idea of something a little more refined than the loo roll I was going to use. 

Want sure where to post this but as it's for a scope I thought here. 

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced 3d printing service? Just bought an sv165 guide scope and the narrowband channel made a little dew shield design available and I'd like to get it printed.