jjosefsen

I'm no expert, but I imagine one should strive to do this every time, for exactly the reasons you mention? It seems like less than ideal to stack the stacks.

Thank you, you are also under 1 sec total, looks like that is the goal then. ☺ I see you are running shorter exposures as well, gotta try that. Hoping for a hole in the clouds once my boy is tucked in, but doesnt look good.

I did not know about that no. Forecast for tomorrow says scattered clouds but no rain, so might just do some testing tomorrow, as it probably won't be good enough for proper imaging.

It's the deconvolution process! - my masking is not good enough. Was pretty much just confirmed by @alacantin another post.

Thank you for that detailed explanation Mikey, you are a star! I will definitely try the shorter exposures, see if more frequent guiding input has an effect. As for eqmod - I only have the deluxe edition with motors and upgraded handset, not the synscan model. ? So I don't have a direct pc to mount connection, just an st4 port. I read somewhere too, that the non-synscan motors are lower powered, which would explain the 6v power instead of 12v. Maybe this impacts guiding. I already balance east heavy, but haven't tried reducing DEC backlash via. Balancing.. Something to look at... Will try to fiddle more with settings along the lines of your settings, but I suspect that each eq3 mount is a bit of a different beast due to the less than desirable build quality. ? Now I have a reference point which was what I was really hoping for. My image scale / sampling rate is 1,94"/pixel - does this equate to me wanting for RMS smaller than 2" for "good enough" guiding??

Could some of you, using PHD2 for guiding, post some of your settings and what RMS values you get? Im trying to get a sense of what I should aim for with my settings and resulting guide graph. While my subs currently look pretty darn good (compared to unguided), I do have pretty heavy fluctuations in the graph. Included us a couple of guidelog graphs, would appreciate if anyone had some tips on improving EQ3 guiding. I have done the whole strip, clean and regrease on the RA axis - haven't done the DEC yet. Thanks

hehe I am - so much to learn in this hobby.

Yeah like I said - I need to get better at star size reduction - causing me all kinds of problems :/ Had to go a little ham fisted with the noise reduction as it was a little low in the skye and of course not a lot of images to go with.

Thanks.. I could always bump up saturation, but yeah star color seems to be lost in this one. Any ideas?

Tinkered with my short 7x4min stack of M42 from a couple of weeks ago, too bad i didn't get more data, but battery died on laptop. Processing is getting better I think, need to learn how to better reduce star sizes and fix oversaturated stars (Arcsinhstretch) next. As always - comments and tips welcome.

Oh I did not know that, thank you!

@JemC Thanks, looks good. Unfortunately I don't have PS, only PixInsight. I think I figured it out though, I added the green back into it in my linear phase, due to an incorrect placed step. As someone mentioned earlier. I will be redoing this image at some point, I just hope for more data to add to it soon. but thanks again, I'm still quite pleased with it, by far the best image I have captured so far. ?

Pretty much what I usually do, until I started to mess around with LF. I did try arcsintretch, but could not get it to work. It's like nothing is really stretched even at max settings. But it's probably me not understanding how to do it, will try and find some tutorials on it.

What?! Ok I'll stop moaning about my 2 hours in one night. ? Why did it take so long?

I would love to have gotten more data, but my view of the sky is quite narrow, limiting me to shooting only the western half, so I get on it quite late..

My process is highly experimental at this stage ? 1. Yes I actually did linear fit for my dslr images, for some reason the color channels are in no way aligned, and I found this process to help bring out more variable star color, other wise my images have a distinct blue tint. Even without a filter.. https://jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/linearfit/ 2. That's a good point, I will have a look at experimenting with that. So many different approaches to processing, it's hard to find "the right way" and I probably have to find "my way" instead. But any tips is highly appreciated.?

I tweaked it a little, and I think it looks better now, not so green.

Yep it's PixInsight. Yeah maybe it is a little green, could be fixed fairly easy I should think. ☺️

Here is my M33 from last night. 27x4 min for a total integration time of 108 minutes. My processing is still very raw - im definitely comming back to this data for a pass where i reduce star size before i start noise reduction. One thing im quite please with is how I managed to heavily reduce the chromatic background noise my DSLR creates, even when dithering quite aggressively. I did experiment a lot with the initial color calibration/correction. In this image i used BackGroundNeutralization -> DynamicBackgroundExtraction -> LinearFit -> ChannelCombination -> SCNR:Green -> ColorCalibration Other examples i did without LinearFit, with DBE first, DBE last, etc. But this seemed to give the best result to my eyes.

Actually it was fairly easy to get going, but I'm an IT guy, so im used to all that tech stuff, on the other hand if something goes wrong I might be in trouble, as there are a lot of things you can change in PHD2. But man is it cable hell! Already had one episode where I managed to the ST-4 cable clenched between the RA clutch handle and the RA axis, that didn't work too well. I also keep forgetting to set the correct guide rate on the handset after framing, not to mention an episode last night where I accidentally switched to lunar tracking on the handset! The number of things one needs to remember to do during a session is certainly starting to add up, but it's all worth it! Stacking M33 from last night, already it seems I have a problem with the flats from the night :/

Oh my bad, didn't see it was the syn scan model, thinking of my own.. The rest still applies I suppose. ?

Keep in mind it runs on 6v and not 12v, so some kind of converter is necessary. My experience with the EQ3 is that it is not a quality mount. Sturdy and capable - yes, but it needs to be tamed! At 520mm focal length i had about 40-60% retention rate unguided with 45sec subs. Maybe a startracker is the better choice for dslr and lens work..?

Did a some processing on my little stack of the double cluster, 6x3mins at ISO 200. This was my first go with guiding, and after spending most of the night getting everything working I had a little time to try and grab some light on this beatiful pair of globulars. All in all it was a great night where I conquered a lot of the gear troubles I have been having lately. Polar Align with SharpCap - What a breeze it is to get good PA now! Guiding with PHD2 - Fairly easy to get working if im honest, but im sure it can be improved massively yet. Dithering with Backyard Nikon and PHD2 - Not 100% sure my settings are correct, but I think I'm aiming for a 15px dither. Before I had about a 60% retention rate on 45sec subs (and they weren't great!), now I have 100% retention rate on the 4min subs I am taking of M33 as I type this. Guiding certainly solves a lot of problems! I love it!

Been first lighting my guiding setup tonight, and in general testing things. I can now use sharp cap for PA, what a change that was, so easy! Managed to get byn and phd2 working with dither and guiding. Getting any real data was secondary, but also hard because patches of clouds kept rolling in and wrecking the guiding. I did manage to grab about 30 minutes worth of 3 minute subs on the double cluster. At first glance they looked better than my usual unguided 45 second subs. ? will check tomorrow and post a stack.

Here is my Evostar 80ED ds-Pro and my semi DIY powerbox. Might not be terribly fancy, but I love it!