WestCoastCannuck

Well, I got a night in.     Seeing dodgy.  My full disc efforts underwhelming....  and most of my high rez, but I like this one.    Best 400 of 10,000 frames.   Vixen VMC200L at prime with 610nm Longpass filter.    A bit of a different look for me in the processing.    Processed with wavelets in Astra Image and some other tweaks.

Clear Skies!

Mike

Comments and Criticism on processing greatly appreciated. 

Looking really good Neil!   Will be great to see what it can do in good seeing!!!

Mike

Very nice!   And sweet scope.   The TEC 140 is my dream "big" refractor.....  given I know that will never happen I bought the next best thing in 140mm with the same low manageable weight...  an APM 140 doublet.   I love the APM but still hope for a look through a TEC 140 one day. 

Clear skies

Mike

"Right" for what we do is pretty subjective.   😆   But it looks good to me.  Good contrast and natural.  Some would push the darks a bit more....  but it looks just fine as you have shared.  Nice work!

Thanks everybody!   Was most satisfying to turn up a little gold in my fishing through older stuff.   By the look of the weather, I shall have much more opportunity to do more.    The time is not at all a write off....   redoing things at leisure lets us experiment and learn new things.

@ Neil....  thanks my friend!   A rarity here in my processing choices actually - was unable to get Deconvolution working on this file to my satisfaction.   As you know, for virtually ALL my full disc singles and mosaics I use Deconvolution.   For this file though, 90% of the sharpening was with wavelets in Astra Image, then a very light deconvolution pass after, with a final light edge sharpening in Lightroom.

Clear skies everyone!!

Mike

I don't remember the last time I imaged.    Since October, nothing but clouds and rain, rain, rain.

I have gone back to this one a couple times.....  but this time, I think I got it right.   For one....  I figured out that I was shooting with more MAG than I thought.   I redid all the sorting, stacking, stitching and processing.    I see perhaps the most details I have ever got in a mosaic.  Please look for your favourite hard to see features...  many are there!  

Full WAY oversampled....    APM 140 F7 @ F16.8, 520nm, 183MM camera.  4 panels.  150 of 2000 each panel.  60 MP

And this one is reduced to the critical sampling for my  scope, camera and filter used.  (F11.3)

Hope some of you are getting clear skies.

Very best

Mike

4 hours ago, Trevor N said:

Really like the smoothness of that image Mike. Clever processing. Trevor 

Thanks Trevor!   Hope you are doing well!

Mike

23 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

Like velvet. But highly detailed. Such a great combination

Thanks Neil!  Hoping to get something from the mosaic attempts...  but not likely.   I have the time now before next possible phases so will likely go over the data again this weekend.     Cheers!

Mike

I did a couple mosaics.....  don't look like much so far.    Seeing was poor, but shooting a single clip in IR at prime with the 140 yielded a nice enough result. 

Really nice Neil!    Love to see what these tiny apertures can produce.  :)))

Nice!  Yeah I love my little grab and go.  Finally got tripod and mount for it this weekend.    I was set up for hirez on nearly the same phase...  but likely will only post the prime 140 shot.  It's nice...  don't think my other efforts show any more really.  23%

Mike

On my 4K monitor, the 90% looks stupendous.   Congrats Neil!   A fabulously productive night!

Mike

Outstanding Neil!  You sure you were not on a mountain top in France?  lol.   The full size stands up well.  Clavius is fabulous.   The first two views are pretty special I think.   Super clean and great contrasts and details.

 I continue to get skunked by the weather.   Hoping for tomorrow and/or Sunday early AM.

Cheers

Mike

Epic!  And setting the bar pretty high!  😀

Not having new data, I am working on my Processing Skillz.   While looking for stuff to redo, I realized I had never posted this mosaic at full size - only a reduced version due to some stacking issues.   I re-did it, and the full size is good now.   Was a great night.  Hope I get another soon.

This is the 140APM maxed out and critically sampled with my ZWO 183MM camera and 520nm narrowband filter.

Hope some enjoy!

Mike

Outstanding Neil!!!   More was captured than a "fair bit".   In this so-so seeing you are still getting more than I ever have.  lol   Really liking the processing. 

Socked in now since my last stuff.....  supposed to be a clearing in early AM tomorrow.  Fingers crossed....   

Mike

An outstanding artistic work!  Takes some skills most of us don't have (myself included).   Print it....  hang it on your wall...  SELL it! 

Mike

21 hours ago, Alkaid said:

The mosaic is one of the finest and sharpest I've seen - hats off Sir!

Thanks much Steve!!   

3 hours ago, PembrokeSteve said:

Hi Mike,

I always have great difficulty with noise reduction.  (ie) applying it to good effect, without losing the sharpness.
So a lot of the time unless the seeing was really good , I end up with grainy images,  much like what 400 ASA 35mm film would give you.
On my lunar, like the images a have posted here,  I typically shoot about 1,350 frames and stack 20% of them in AS3. 

I only have the Freeware Neat Image, which does not always give a good results and only in the JPEG format.
I also have Affinity Photo Noise Reduction and of course I regularly use  Gaussian Blur,  but again, I hate the way "de-noising"  robs my images of sharpness.
I suppose I will have to spend some money and invest in something effective like Topaz De-Noise. 
Would you suggest I shoot more frames?

Regards,

Steve

Hi Steve.  I think you are stacking enough...  though personally I usually stack about 300-400 of 3000 frames from my 183mm which has the same pixel size as the 178 .  At f12 you are a bit  oversampled and perhaps pushing the files a bit hard with gain and sharpening.   You could try a reducer....  or perhaps a softer processing and reduce the pic size a bit...  say 80% original.   This all if you don't find NR working for you.  Or leave as is to show max detail.   It's all fun messing with different ways of doing things.  😀

8 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Quality as always Sounds like you had a great time. Setup the 10 last night. clouds came, pulled it all back in lol. Fun times. If you need to keep fit

I know all about the wasted workout.  haha.  We have similar climates.   I had a fabulous time.  Seeing was wobbly, but lots of sharp moments and luckily not too wobbly for AS!3 to find all the matching bits!   AFter running PIPP while sleeping for a quality cull, I then ran every (smaller) file through PIPP again and sorted with FOV.    I think I must always do this frankly.   My overworked mount bounces around more than most I am sure.  I spent a fair bit of time viewing actually...... snapped a pic of setup truly a great night for viewing.   Was fabulous.  The eyepieces on my binos had first light, I just got them in the post that day.    Gave a great full disc view on the APM.

18 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Definately working. I have Astra on here waiting for payment. Might be interesting to run my best so far this year through it. The Orion 245 mosaic see what comes out. Just to jog my  memory can you remember what post on here you did the astra walkthrough. I can go through them, but if you remembered the section. BTW got 32" 4k monitor here now. 8GB of extra HDD space. Handy

You will enjoy the monitor....  but it will mess with your head for a while for sharpening.  lol   No, I don't recall, but I am sure we can figure it out!  My copy iof Astra s old now...  I should check and see if anything new is worth upgrading!

Very nice!  Colour a bit off with that odd green cast.  (could be my monitor  lol)  I would probably like it better in B and W.   Good start with new gear! 

Mike

Low in the sky is challenging for sure!  Good details and nice views!   Some noise.  Might want to try a little NR?   How many images stacked?

Mike

Was an epic weekend for me and the moon.  Managed two great nights of observing and imaging.   Clouds moved in last night...  but can't have everything.

On this night I setup about midnight with the moon about 30 degrees, and closed up shop about 3AM - luna still not at meridian yet.  Views were absolutely stunning through my binos on the 140 and single eyeball views on both the 200mm and 140.    Was shooting through a light mist, but seeing was supporting close efforts.    Spent more time just viewing before closing up shop.

First up, my full disc single panel shot with APM140 and 183MM camera.   I expect the 140 will get more of a workout imaging wise again in the future, but I am still getting my HiRez skillz fine tuned with the Vixen....  so its getting the bulk of my imaging time right now.   Really enjoying going for the max I can do!

After a couple clips like the one above,  I spent the rest of my imaging time with the Vixen and 290MM camera.    All the following images were shot with a Vixen VMC200L, a Seibert Optics 1.5X Telecentric barlow, a Baader 610nm red narrowband and ZWO ASI 290MM  camera.  Clips were all 10,000 frames, the files pre-sorted while I slept in PIPP and the best 520 frames saved.   I then stacked 50%, 40%, 30% and 20% of those in AutoStakkert!3.   I went with processing the 40% stacks.    Wavelets and deconvolution in Astra Image.  This next image is a terminator mosaic of 8 panels.    

These next ones are other single captures that show off features and details perhaps better than the mosaic because I could fine tune processing to the area.

Hope you enjoyed!   I sure enjoyed doing all this work.   The viewing was even better!

Clear skies!!

6 hours ago, PembrokeSteve said:

Hi Mike,

Stunning Images, and I am mega impressed by your VC200L images !

Your work seems to have gone to a new level !

Regards

Steve

Thanks so much Steve!  Still getting my Hi Rez skillz sorted....  but getting there!

5 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Mosaics are very sharp Mike. looking very tight. Not sure if its the sharpening, the quality of the scope. the seeing. or all 3. But they look a bit tighter than mine. With the refractors. Think i will buy Astra and look at this processing. Starting to become convinced. the deconvolution. might be doing a finer job maybe. The vixen shots also look quite fine. 

Thanks Neil!   I still use the tried and true for me on the full disc stuff.    I just like the results better from Astra deconvolution than other things I have tried.   For the close in work, I am still using Astra Image....  but now do a combination of wavelets and light deconvolution...  I hope its working... seems so!