david_taurus83

Yes, just leave it so. It should already have saved a file anyway. You can balance colour afterwards

2 minutes ago, Anthony1979 said:

Do i leave this as it is now and just save

Yes

1 minute ago, Anthony1979 said:

I use GIMP 2.10

Does it have a method to deal with gradients? Unless you are imaging from a pristine dark sky location and your optics are spotless then you will nearly always have some sort of gradient to sort out. Have you had a look at any of the dedicated astro softwares?

Looks great to me!

What software are you using to process after it's been stacked in DSS?

The flats dont match the lights if this is the set that I had a play with. So they can cause all sorts of issues, gradients etc

If you've not done it for almost a year, I think a polar alignment check and fresh PHD calibration should be on the to do list.

I have a small 32mm guidescope. It produced fat but also dim stars. I added a cheap ZWO ir/uv filter to the 120 nosepiece and it tightened up the stars nicely.

3 hours ago, AntHart said:

Didn’t even realise this existed!! Literally 5 mins from my house...great shout 😁

Hi Ant, I'm a member. The fortnightly meetings have been postponed until things start getting back to normal, whenever that will be!

2 hours ago, AntHart said:

Don’t suppose you have any further specs or info on the model you use do you? Sounds like just the type of thing I’m after.

Cheers

This one. It was cheaper in the sales. It had given me zero issues since I bought it. Its setup to auto log on and connect to the home wifi first, my phones hotspot second (for use in the field). Needs a 12v supply and the plug is 5.5 x 2.5

24 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Where do you change the bit level at?

Theres a little settings icon beside the connect camera button. If you select one of the Ascom ASI camera options you can control the gain and offset etc. If you select the proper ZWO native driver it only gives you the option to select either 8 bit mode or 16 bit mode. I believe I had selected 8 bit when I first set it up, hence it was giving me poor SNR stars.

I think I have sorted this now. Camera was set as 8 bit mode. Changed to 16 bit and now the SNR is around 80/90 on the guide star. Also slightly defocused the guide scope and tidied up the trailing cables a bit. Guiding much better this evening.

Side by side it looks better to me also. Odd as I usually trust the colour sampler tool to tell me the channels are well aligned. I backed off the red to 23 and kept green and blue at 30.

Better?

Whole image looks red or the galaxies? I have a mild deuteranomaly so red/green isn't my strong point.

Theres 10 hours in this! 10 hours of slightly out of focus at that! When I finally seen the stack I could tell the stars were out of focus. Deconvolution can only do so much. This was taken with no flattener either so star shapes are not great. I've spent a day processing and no matter what I do the galaxy turns out either pink or purple?!

Canon 6D 300 x 120s subs at ISO1600

Altair Starwave 102EDR at native f7

IDAS D2 filter

Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop

I dont have an Intel NUC but I do have a mini PC at the mount. Bought off Amazon before Christmas in their sale, I first bought one with an Intel Celeron processor for about £100. It was ok to start up and run everything but it struggled a bit with platesolving. It also got warm due to having no fan. I returned it and tried another more expensive one with an i3 processor, and 250gb SSD and you can add a 2.5" drive to extend it. Runs W10 pro and I control it via VNC viewer with either my phone tablet. Its loaded with APT, NINA, Sharpcap, Stellarium, CdC, Pixinsight! Works like a charm. Was £250 iirc

Hi Anthony, I had a play with those stacks myself in Pixinsight and Photoshop. The flat looks fine, its well exposed and picks up all the dust spots. The uncalibrated light stack looks ok as well but for some reason there are streaks where the worst dust spots are. Also a horizontal band near the top that looks like the edge of a frame. Did you move the camera at all during the capture? The flat shows donuts where the dust is. If the dust was on the camera sensor they usually stay put even if you move the camera but as they are streaked on the image I reckon they are on the secondary mirror. That said, its a fine effort and a lot better than my first attempt at M101 with a newt. I've debayered and over stretched the flat so you can see the dust donuts and I've removed the gradient in Photoshop and brightened the background of M101 so you can see the streaks made by the dust donuts.

1 minute ago, Anthony1979 said:

I can deal with the flats problem that will be my next question....its mainly where has this nasty colour come from

The flats can affect the colour balance.

Flats with a DSLR are difficult and something I'm grappling with myself. If I could clean my sensor of all dust spots I'd try and image without flats.

1 hour ago, merlin100 said:

I couldn't resist temptation any longer, so I ordered another BST StarGuider EP from Auntie FLO...  It's the 3.2mm ED version.  I really like the 8mm one, so I thought "what the hell" and ordered another BST... 

I can see it being used for lunar observing, when conditions permit.  

I think my next BST after that will be the 25mm, even though I'm aware of it's shortcomings, etc.  I'm looking forward to having the full range, eventually.

The 8mm is my favourite as well.

2 minutes ago, miguel87 said:

There is a whole host of people online modifying their 200p just so a dslr will reach focus.

The stock focuser left very little room for inward focus. So some people modify the tube by moving the mirror up so the focal plane reaches the camera sensor. Others, like myself, fitted a lower focuser. I've never used the PDS focuser like you have so I cant comment on it.

I think the reason your not getting the answer on the barlow question is because it's not really 'the done thing' . By increasing the focal length to 2000mm you are really going to struggle to frame and image anything. Even 1m is quite demanding. But of course, it's entirely your choice what you do with your own kit and fair play if you can get some nice pictures. People commenting saying try the t adapter are only trying to help and make things easier for you.

15 minutes ago, miguel87 said:

Fitted the dual speed Crayford myself.

People saying I dont need a barlow I need a T ring to EOS or something. Why would I buy something I dont have instead of using a barlow that I do have?

Just wanted to know out of my 2 options, not buying any extras, is it better to use whole barlow or half barlow.

Sorry just trying to simplify things 

Because your doubling the focal length and effectively making it f10. What are you trying to take pictures of?

18 minutes ago, miguel87 said:

Ok people,

Fact 1, you CANNOT focus a 200p with a camera attached because the physical length of the focusser is wrong. Therefore,

Fact 2, I HAVE to use my barlow and I know it works perfectly fine and I have a few good photos. The way I think of it is that the barlow reaches down the focusser and grabs the image to bring it all the way up to the camera sensor.

I just wondered if anybody would recommend having the WHOLE barlow attached and having it slide onto the camera nose piece just like it would a normal eyepiece OR take just the little screw off lens from the barlow and thread it directly into the camera's nose piece thread.

I'll take your word for it as it's your scope! I had the old blue tube and I had to fit a low profile focuser for my 600D.

A bit confused though, is it the 200p in your profile photo? The one with the dual speed focuser? I thought that these only came on the 200PDS or have you fitted it yourself?

The stock focuser is too tall for the camera to focus at the prime length of 1000mm. You need to move the mirror up the tube or fit a low profile focuser.

By using the barlow you are trying to take an image at 2000mm which will be very difficult.