Mr Green

Evening All, In a bad habit of sharing my images on this thread, if there's somewhere else I should be doing it, please feel free to give me a telling off and direction as to where I should do it. (Perhaps there's a thread for beginners to post on). I managed a couple of hours on Bodes Galaxy after a failed attempt on the Witch Head which I think is a no go from my bortle 7 garden. I struggled with this one mainly because I had an awful gradient that I think I tackled pretty well. Hope someone appreciates the image and as always, I'm open to constructive criticism 🙂

Thanks for doing this with my data, this looks great!!

Not a bad idea!! I just used the L-extreme filter for this image. I'll get an Sii/Oii filter at some point soon and hopefully have better results.

I've messed about trying to edit scripts in Siril and didn't have much luck. I'll no doubt have another crack at it though.

I'll have another image to process tomorrow hopefully as currently imaging the Tadpole Nebula although a little on the small side. Definitely not a bad shout to run the images through Siril for green noise reduction.

Had some clear sky last night for the first time in a month and this is what I got. Tried hubble palette but struggled and this is the result. Struggled to fix the gradient but relatively pleased.

Going back to my question with regards to achieving hubble palette with the Optolong L-extreme, I'm now tempted by the below instead of the Optolong Sii 6.5nm as I'll also get more Oiii data. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/askar-filters/askar-2-colour-magic-c2-duo-band-siioiii-filter.html Any thoughts are welcome.

Happy New Year and thanks for the reply to my thread. Keeping it simple is definitely what I've been doing so far with regards to registration and stacking. I've used Deepsky stacker for all of my images so far and have only used Siril for initial stretching, background extraction & minor colour calibration before using Photoshop. Moving forward, I planned on processing stacked images entirely in Photoshop. Blue channel always seems to be the noisiest therefore thought that using a stacked image with the Sii filter might create a better final image along with the ability to pull out more colours. Maybe I'm trying to run before I can walk, just wanted to know if my idea had any logic to it I guess.

Flats definitely work without bias or dark flats for me with regards to removing dust spots and vignetting... Maybe I'll try my next target with dark flats as suggested and have another crack at using scripts in siril. Still want to know people's thoughts on whether the sii optolong filter is worth using with the l-extreme....

I think the reason why I struggled with scripts was that I don't take bias frames with the 2600mc pro, I've read in a few places that at most, you only really need flats & darks. Siril seems to demand bias frames for the scripts to work and the other scripts that I found online that can be manually added to siril also require bias frames. The askar Oii/Sii is a good shout but if the optolong sii 6.5nb would do just as gooda job, it'd save me a fair chunk of cash to go towards something else. Will see if anyone has used this filter and can confirm I guess.

I've not been able to get my head around scripts (via siril) so thought my best bet was to use 3 separate images in photoshop for each colour channel. I almost went for the Askar colourmagic filter but went with the L-extreme instead which is frustrating. Is the Sii filter I highlighted not worth it?

Hi All, It's been 3 weeks with literally no clear skies where I am which is depressing although used the time to read up and practice on image processing therefore time hasn't been completely wasted. While I still have tilt issues after spending roughly 8 hours over 3 separate nights at the beginning of the month messing around with the tilt plate on my camera, I've now acquired the SkyWatcher Flattener/Reducer made specifically for the 72ED therefore hoping this will provide an improvement over the StellaMira Flattener I have been using. I'm also in the process of adding Astrodymium Rotating Tilt Adjusters via Flo that I hope will be easier to use than the tilt plate on the 2600mc pro. while Ive been practicing image processing, ive been really wanting to have a crack at hubble palette and was wondering the best way to achieve this. I have the Optolong L-Pro & L-extreme filters and was wondering if it was worth getting the below Sii filter. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/optolong-filters/optolong-65nm-sii-narrowband-deep-sky-imaging-filter.html My thinking is to use the subs from the L-extreme in red & green channels and Sii in the blue channel when processing via photoshop but wanted to know if this would be worth while or not. Perhaps the L-pro could work and save me some money? any feedback would be much appreciated as always. Jon

Thanks all for the help and support, it's much appreciated. I've spent way more than I should have done the past month therefore won't be buying anymore kit for a while. I think I'll take the advice of cropping images for now and do my best to focus before taking any images. I was half tempted to mess with the screws on the tilt plate and keep a mental note as to what I've done so that I can undo any mistakes..... what's the worst that can happen as my images are naff anyway.

I've had a set of spacer rings arrive today. There's 0.5mm, 0.8mm & 1mm in the set. Will adding one or two of these help do you think? I really don't want to mess with the tilt plate on the camera as I'd have no idea what I am doing and will only make things worse.

Had a response from FLO and turns out that I do indeed have sensor tilt which is pretty bad luck as fixing the issue is way beyond my limited skill set. I had a couple of evenings on the Iris Nebula this week and the images stacked fine but the tilt makes the stars look dreadful regardless of whether I am focused and guiding is running smoothly. Is sensor tilt really that common or is it worth sending the camera back and ordering another one?

Hopefully I'll get the tilt issue sorted. Going to send a couple of images to Alex at Flo to inspect but I am not sure what will come after that. Think tonight and possibly tomorrow are the last clear nights at least for the next couple of weeks which is frustrating when having issues to address. I'm guessing I'll need to purchase more kit and that's not happening until after Xmas. Enjoy your night out! Cheers, Jon

I'll try a different star when I next setup. I used Capella as it seemed to be the only star that would show the defraction spike with the Bahtinov mask, especially with the L-extreme filter. Thought I was making good progress earlier in the week but feeling a bit deflated now haha.

Hey Elp, Yes I am using the ASIAIR focusing routine along with the Bahtinov mask and I always use Capella as it's the brightest star visible from where I setup. Thank you for trusting that I focus with any filters being used, I assumed from the outset that this would be the correct way to focus. I've spoken with Alex at FLO and he's asked me to take a series of images rotating the camera to determine if its the sensor that's the issue therefore will be trying to do that later. Below is a screenshot taken with my phone from ASIair plus which shows that there must be tilt somewhere.

I do indeed have a Bahtinov mask and use it as part of my setup routine so that's incredibly odd but at least I now know why I had such an issue and so thanks so much for checking. Tilt is a new one for me so will have a read up as to what that is. I'm currently taking subs on the Iris nebula and tomorrow is supposed to be a clear night as well. Hopefully the images I get tonight and tomorrow will be better although the mentioned tilt might still be an issue that needs addressing. Thanks again, really appreciate the help.

Frames 1, 13 & 15 are the worst scoring frames and number 11 is the highest scoring frame. Star detection is between 3 & 9 according to DSS. Light_IC1396_300.0s_Bin1_20231127-202935_0001.fit Light_IC1396_300.0s_Bin1_20231127-214046_0013.fit Light_IC1396_300.0s_Bin1_20231127-215119_0015.fit Light_IC1396_300.0s_Bin1_20231127-212220_0011.fit

With regards to the stars, I'd say its mainly in the corners and this can be seen in the heart nebula picture posted on this thread. I don't think it could have been tracking issues as I had less than 1 arc minute of error in both dec & ra. I'll attach a few of the subs when I can get in front of my computer. Might not be tonight though. Clear skies tonight hopefully.

I've definitely had an issue with egg shaped stars since starting out but I felt as though these images were my best so far. I'll maybe order a set of spacers and add a mm or two to the image train and see if that sorts the issue with the stars. This is the first time DSS has refused to stack for me.... very odd.

So I managed to get a couple of hours on the Elephant Trunk nebula last night and thought that this would be a good target to practice the hubble palette with. I took 5 minute subs at gain 100 with the L-Extreme as I did with the heart nebula, went into DSS to stack my images.... and hit an issue I've not had yet. Star detection was between 4 & 9 stars with the detection slider all the way down to 2% therefore couldn't stack my images. Have to say I was a bit gutted! Is this a common problem with this target when using the L-Extreme filter and would I need to raise the gain or exposure.... or both to have success? Honestly no idea where I went wrong as the individual subs looked good and I was perfectly focused and tracking was also on point.....

Appreciate the video link, I think I watched this last night and will be trying hubble again when I get the time. I think I might need to use some different settings in DSS as well.

Thanks Olly, very helpful of you to go to the length you've gone with viewing the histogram. It's my first proper image and will hopefully improve my processing skills (or lack of) with practice. 👍