jjosefsen

3 hours ago, Xplode said:

Can you see any of it on your raw images?

No I can't. At least not in a normal stretch.

Hi,

I'm working with some recent data of a new(ish) camera, and my Ha data is pretty good, but the oiii has these strange artifacts around the borders.

If I use any kind of local normalization then it pretty much ruins most of the image, as you can see below..

First the Ha:

Oiii with local normalization:

oiii local normalization map, see how it fits with the artifacts:

Oiii without any local normalization:

These edge artifacts, could they be related to a bad filter or is it a processing artifact, has anyone seen anything similar?

I am using Astro Pixel Processor for calibration and stacking.. Im kind of stumped on this one, and I am going to yank out the Oiii filter this weekend to have a looksie.

There is a user created video of NINA here:

4 hours ago, niccoc1603 said:

interesting, any focusing aid like Bathinov grabber?

how do I shoot single frames?

Mosaic planning possible?

There is a bahtinov tool yes.

Single frames can be captured in the imaging tab.

You can plan mosaics in the framing tab.

21 hours ago, blinky said:

 

The rest is somewhere on youtube, gain, offset, etc.

Here:

This is great, well done and thanks for sharung.

How is Grant comming along with this scope?

It looks like it is made by GSO, so I assume it has the same crayford focuser as the other GSO 6" RC's out there?

Hi Rob,

Happy N.I.N.A. user here..

Have you had a look at the documentation here?

https://nighttime-imaging.eu/docs/documentation/tabs/

I know a fella named David Harvey has made some videos about N.I.N.A., but I cannot for the life of me find them again..

Edit: Found it!

Mitch Arsenault a.k.a. Astro Dude is also comming out with a video soon, so you could have an eye on his youtube page for the video.

There is also the dedicated Discord server, where a bunch of users and contributors hang out, you should be able to get help there as well.

Hope you get on with it.

Seeing as this is a new product and possibly driver, could you try to check it with the ascom conformity checker..

https://ascom-standards.org/Developer/Conformance.htm

It is suprising how many suppliers mess up the drivers..

42 minutes ago, Matzi said:

The only thing that keeps me away from buying these triband filters is the fact most of them have a very broad band of Ha and especially OIII. The OPT's Quad filter is 4nm Ha, SII and OIII, but waaaaay to expensive!

The STC Asto Duo-Narrowband is 10nm Ha and OIII, so comparing the specs and price, and of course the results, the STC just seems to be the best of the value. BUT I must admit, with these duo/tri and quad filters, you can't really control the amount of Ha/OIII coming through, some targets emit much more Ha, and some OIII, and right now I have a Baader 7nm Ha, and a 8.5nm OIII, which kinda allows me to do more data on Ha, or OIII seperately, depending on the target.

But I was really facinated about the idea about capturing both Ha/OIII at the same time, only having to stack once, and process that one. Also it comes out "color" which I think is kinda cool, but I still believe you get a lot more detail from shooting seperately.

The resolution will always be better in mono.

But I must say that I am quite impressed with the results that @StaceStar has been getting with her filter. If I hadn't already gone down the mono route,  I think I might have gone down this particular rabbit hole too.

The Needle in RGB

A beautiful edge on spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, around 38,5 million LY from earth.

Investigations with the Spitzer IR telescope suggests that the galaxy may actually be a barred spiral galaxy with an inner ring as well.

6 hours ago, Rainer said:

Hi,

I image at 2424 mm or sometimes up to 3203 mm focal length and make exposures of up to 1800 seconds as my main targets are the Arp Galaxies.

Rainer

Aaah Arp Galaxies make for some very interresting targets.

I have the book: "The Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies" - quite interresting.

6 hours ago, Rainer said:

Hi,

No, that is an Urban myth. Honestly I do not know from where this comes that people think encoders are for unguided imaging.

Question: Without Feedback how does an encoder know if it is pointing and maintaining the desired object in the center ¿? It does not ... Only by having a guide camera and fixing the whole Shishkebab with it then it will stay in the center ot whichever position you want to ahve your object.

Encoders just kill the Periodic Error but do not help you with a bad Polar Alignment nor Atmospheric refraction.

Mechanically we have reached a limit in tolerances and a worm and worm gear will always have a periodic error.

I have two CEM 120EC2 and before that I never reached the performance I have now and yes I do guide but I do guide with a cadence of 15 seconds and not 1 or 2 maybe 3 seconds.

I correct for bad Polar Alignment and perhaps Atmospheric refraction. iOptron says they have implemented in the algorythm a atmospheric refraction compensation.

IMHO = In My Humble Opinion

and yes it was worth to spend US $ 3,000.00 more for each mount. Instead of US $ 3.998.00 I paid US $ 6.998,00 for each mount and got a carrying capacity of 52 kg (without counterweights)

Rainer

I've just seen this claimed on this forum before, but was never quite sure as I don't have any hands-on experience, hence the question.

But i suppose what you say makes sense, particularly as you are imaging at such great focal lengths.

42 minutes ago, Icesheet said:

Would you pay double the price to do so though? Do you think that would justify the extra performance?

It depends what your needs are I guess.. And how much you like to fiddle with your mount.

I've had my EQ6 for a year and already had to adjust RA/DEC backlash once to get good guiding again.  Now i get 0.5 - 0.8 RMS routinely and I am quite happy.

From what I read the iOptrons use springloaded worms, which should reduce backlash significantly.

I image at 520mm FL with around 5-6 minute subs being the absolute maximum, so I don't need perfect guiding, right now.. If I wan't to get something with a longer focal length, I might find it difficult to get good enough guiding.

Sometimes it really does make sense to buy once feel the sting once, instead of maybe getting the cheaper option, only to have to upgrade a year or two later.

Edit: I forgot to mention that my EQ6 has pretty bad pointing accuracy due to a significant amount of dec backlash.

It is not a problem for me as i use platesolving and software that will make sure that it automatically gets the scope pointing where it needs to be, even if it takes a couple of tries..

31 minutes ago, Rainer said:

I am iOptron biased 🤓

With that beast only a CEM 60. Moment arm not weight is here important. CEM 40 is too small for that even if it could carry it 40 lbs ~ 18kg ...

And if the budget allows it a CEM 60EC 🥰

Rainer

Aren't the encoders only really useful if he intends to image unguided?

I think those £900 could be put to better use..

Edit: I would add that I would trade my EQ6 Pro for a CEM60 any day of the week..

https://nighttime-imaging.eu/

Free..

Nice! I was looking at one of those last year, but could not find a european dealer..

Does the focuser have a builtin rotator?

Can you recommend anthing for knocking down FL that and speeding it up a bit, if one was so inclined?

A dark filter would be handy if you are using the gear remotely and need a new set of darks..

It's a lovely cluster. If I may critique a little.. I think the blues are a bit too cyan, and you have some blocky looking stars.. Maybe try drizzling it. I don't know what your resolution was here..?
 

Either way I'm quite jealous that you can image right now, too bright up here this time if year. 🙂

1 hour ago, Matzi said:

I did hear about Altair Astro producing some too, but I've searched for them without any luck?

 

I'm having a bit of a hard time seeing a big difference between the quality in the images, but considering the Optolong L-enhance is 4x as cheap as the OPT, you probably get most value for the money there?

The Optolong L-enhance is what 12-13nm of Ha, Hb and OIII, while the OPT Triad is 4 nm Ha, OIII, 5nm Hb? So it should have some difference in detail there?

As for the red color dominating the images, well it's quite simple, most nebulae consist mostly of Hydrogen Alpha, and it's of the red color, but HOO and even processing in SHO is possible, I've seen a couple of SHO images from these filters as well.

 

But I agree Trevor Jones is not the most "trusted" critiq out there.

Yeah I realise Ha is the most dominant type of gas in most nebulae.

But I was looking at an HOO image of M17 (mono sensor) the other day, and compare that to Trevor's M17, shot with OSC through the multi band pass filter.

There was much more blue in the mono image. But like you I have seen some pretty good SHO / HOO simulations made with OSC and these filters.

Astrobackyard.com has a review of the Optolong L-eNhance filter.

Trevor is perhaps not the most critical reviewer of products out there, but maybe the video can answer some of your questions.

Many of the images I see with these kinds of filters are predominantly red, and usually not much else, which is a shame really.

But it might be down to how you process the data from these filters, here is an example from Tommy Lim who does product testing for Optolong (I think..!):

All in all I find it very interresting, especially as time is such a limit for me.. Capturing everything in one go is very tempting.

There is a lot of talk about these sattelites on twitter right now, particularly among astrophotographers..

12000 of these suckers in orbit does sound quite unnerving, but I will reserve judgement until we see them in their final orbits.

Thanks for sharing!

10 hours ago, Waynescave said:

Thanks. I'll only be adding a filter wheel at the moment and maybe a reducer/Flattener in future. Just wanted to be sure I'd be okay with 31mm filters in efw mini without vignetting.. On my 840 esprit120ed at f7, should be OK? Right? 🤔

At f7 probably not a problem.. But i don't know about after reducer is added.. It might be a problem, and if you have to get new fw and filters it will drive the price up.

1 hour ago, Waynescave said:

Hi there, just wondering how you've been getting on with the Altair 1600 mono cooled cam? 

Thinking of getting this camera too but concerned about back focus... 

Also, what do you measure to and from if one doesn't use a Flattener or reducer?...or do you have to have one in the train? I've been fine with my t3i dslr camera up to now... 📸😅

Cheers

Hi,

It has been a bit of a ride to be honest..

I have had some problems with calibration, but due to lack of astrodarkness here, I have had very limited chances to acquire new data.

I do believe I have the calibration problems under control now, so looking forward to late summer / autumn so I can start imaging again.

There is some random noise that I just can't figure out, and due to it's random nature the only way I can see to get rid of it is by swamping it with enough signal and then dithering, something I would do regardless.

The backfocus has not been an issue yet, but I have a quite slow system @F6.4 and I think it will be a problem when going faster with 1.25" filters.

I haven't done enough testing yet, I've had two sessions with it - one with a full moon and one with around 60% illuminated moon and some hih thin clouds.

Little update here..

I got a new laptop for work recently after the dock died or my old one.. So decided to try and test the camera on said laptop instead of my older imaging laptop..

Look at the "read noise" that I was getting on the left side.. Pretty much gone on the new laptop!!

Same settings, same cables - haven't even touched the camera between these shots.

So... Researching to see if there is something I can do to clean that noisy USB connection up, or if I need to look at another imaging laptop..

I even tested it on my "old" work laptop and it had the same issue as my imaging laptop, so I concluded it wasn't computer related..