Adreneline

This image is the result of a collaborative project over the last 16 weeks with Lee ( @geeklee ). The annotation reveals a number of dso targets including galaxies, planetary nebula, and reflection nebula. We combined images from our respective sets of equipment ((Samyang 135mm + ASI183MM and RedCat 51 + ASI1600MM) plus (Samyang 135mm + ASI183MM and RedCat 51 + Atik460ex)). In total we collected: 1890 mins of Ha, 1600 mins of OIII 600 mins of SII covering the six panes of the mosaic - that’s a total of 69 hours or 2.875 days imaging time. The mosaic was pre-processed and assembled in AstroPixelProcessor and processed in PixInsight. The benefit of the collaboration goes far beyond just collecting the data. We have shared our experiences, positive and negative, on data collection, data evaluation, data processing and image critique. It is fair to say we have both benefitted from the experience far more than we anticipated at the outset. As always C&C are welcome. Adrian & Lee

Wow! That is amazing Jody. I love the detail you’ve managed to reveal. Thanks for sharing. Adrian

The "hodge podge" approach has worked wonders! I'm a big fan of dusty brown images - great colour scheme. Adrian

I sometimes find that tapping the download icon again and restarting the download sorts the problem. Good luck - mine downloaded and installed on an 11 just fine - and the iPad.

Love the colour scheme - I've always believed space was a dusty place.

I agree with all the points raised by @almcl especially re. flats. I put your tif file into PixInsight and did a rough and ready STF stretch which revealed the uneven background - was there any high cloud around maybe? I then used lots of incremental stretches in PI and cropped the image to reveal this. There is colour there but it's difficult to pull it out for some reason. HTH Adrian

How about the very first thread in this topic area?

Looking good Steve - a profitable rainy day. Adrian

Hi Isa, Not sure I can help but it seems a little strange that AV mode does not produce a usable flat for you. I have found it works very well with my Canon cameras. Can you provide a little more detail as to how you are taking your flats? Are you using a light panel/box? It would also be interesting to know what software you use. I use BackYardEoS with my Canon to collect the images and calibration frames. Very nice image of Orion; I have had to go right down to 30s to reveal the core details. Adrian

Wow! Excellent image and a great, concise description. Thanks for sharing. Adrian

Hi Jody. I prefer the second one because I feel it reveals more structure and has more 'depth' to the image giving a sense of 3D - not planar. My personal view is it interesting to experiment with colours to reveal detail and structure - one thing PixInsight and PixelMath lets you do with relative ease. Thanks for sharing. Adrian

This might be worth a read I also use SCNR in HP images to remove magenta by first inverting the image, applying SCNR green, and then re-inverting the image. HTH

This is of interest to me. I have also noticed the way Topaz works since the update and was speculating with a fellow SGL'er that some 'under the bonnet' changes had been made to the Low Light option. I use it at no more than 10% noise reduction and even at that low level there is a difference. I rarely if ever use the Sharpen option - that is nearly always set to zero. I also use Dfine2 and have noticed no changes at all over numerous updates over the past 4+ years.

I really like the detail you've captured in the core region. Very nice. Adrian

I love the widefield view and the way you have captured all the IFN and dusty stuff - really very nice. On my screen the background has a slightly blue mottled appearance. I looked at the histogram in PI and they don't seem to be quite aligned; I'm sure it is something easily fixed in GIMP - not that I know how! Adrian HTH

And if you have your MasterDark and MasterFlat loaded you can select to view the image as raw or calibrated.

I view them in APP! Just double click on the first .fit file once you've loaded them into APP and step through and view each one in turn. Right click and APP gives you the option to Remove from the stack or Delete from the stack.

Good question! The ASIair has a huge database of objects and as I said above you can always input the exact position using coordinates, e.g. RA center: 20h 59' 10" DEC center: +60° 38' 55". I've done a few mosaics where the best pane centres did not coincide with a nice star/object on which to centre. Putting coordinates in worked really well and you can always pick those coordinates up off any planetarium program. Good luck with the ASIair. I have two (ASIair-Pro with a RedCat+ASI1600MM-Pro+ZWO-EFW+ZWO-EAF and ASIair with Samyang 135mm+ASI183MM-Pro) and would not trade them for anything. Adrian

Hi, I use an ASIair and an ASIair-Pro with SkySafari on an iPad and they work really well together. First thing to appreciate perhaps is that the ASIair does not need SkySafari at all. You can instruct the ASIair to slew the mount to a given target, say M31 or IC1396 or even an angular position in the sky, and it will slew the mount to that point, plate solve and re-sync as needed until the imaging scope is pointing exactly at the designated target. The better your setup PA the the better the first slew to target and the quicker the mount will be on target. However, that said, using SkySafari helps you see the intended FoV for your particular equipment configuration. Providing SkySafari (on the iPad) is connected to the same network as the ASIair the two will sync together. You can select a target in SkySafari, say IC1805, and slew the mount. You can then take a test image in ASIair (using Luminance - maybe 5s) and plate solve and select 'Sync Mount'. Go back into SF and re-centre and you should be spot on target. You can double check by taking a second 5s image and plate solving and re-sync'ing the mount once more. I rarely use the ASIair without SF - they are a marriage made in heaven for me. I hope this makes sense. Please ask if you need more clarification or screen shots and I'll try and sort something for you. Good luck. Adrian

Welcome. Enjoy the journey! Adrian

I use it with care. I use the Low Light mode and generally set Enhance Sharpness to zero and Remove Noise to <15. I also find it works a treat on terrestial photography, again used with care - it is easy to overdo it.

Hi. Very interesting! I mainly image with ZWO cameras and an ASIair but I want to do some imaging with my 6" RC and a Canon M6 MkII using BackYardEoS - I need to get guiding working with my CEM25-EC mount but to date I have been beset by problems. I will definitely give it a go at the first opportunity and let you know. Adrian

Interesting. I noticed when using PHD2 to create a dark library and BPM with my ASI120MM-mini and my ASI290MM-mini that PHD2 kept losing connection with the camera(s), more so with the longer (>3 s) exposure times. I rarely use a PC with my setup but when I do I have experienced loss of connection problems with the guide camera.

I don't use StarSense - I use a PoleMaster with an iOptron CEM25-EC. The PoleMaster doesn't communicate with the mount at all - it doesn't need to. It allows you, with the help of a PC running the QHY software, to accurately align the mount. The mount doesn't need to be switched on at all. In my case I then power-up the mount and the ASIair and I'm good to go. I still slew to a star and platesolve a couple of times with the ASIair but the slews are usually very close first time and very little correction is needed. Hope that makes sense. As an aside, if you have SharpCap, then you can use the PA routine in that software and it will happily connect to your PoleMaster camera.

The MC is colour.