smr

I've used Topaz DeNoise (with great results) on some of my wildlife photography but haven't used the other programs.

I'm not sure on the translation of some of those - what does background extraction and neutralisation mean in PS ? My normal process is crop the image first, then run gradxterminator, I usually run HLVG later on in the processing as I've realised if you do it to begin with it can remove detail or colours, then I do linear stretches, curve adjustments. I did have the demo version of StarXterminator which is great and I think I'll have to buy as it really allows you to pull out the nebulosity without affecting the stars. My scope is the Z73 f/5.9

What kind of sorcery is this!! Wow!

Very nice editing though, colours look great, which stack is that with? It is actually looking much better than what I managed with my DSLR (to be fair it was an unmodified DSLR) but as you say quite noisy but there's detail there.. I suppose ultimately it's about stacking many more subs to pull more data with a smoother and cleaner image. Moon wise, this was on the 4th and 5th of Jan last week and the Moon is 70 percent tonight, so last week it really wouldn't have been an issue. I would say my sky conditions are Bortle 5/6, I live on the very outskirts of a village so to the North it's relatively dark (a good Bortle 5) as it's farms and countryside for miles until the next village - no houses or light pollution, the other direction to the South is the centre of the village, so the Horsehead is low in the sky and in this direction, and more Bortle 6 I would say.

Am I really losing a lot of data by using 16bit TIFFs instead of 32bit? I just had a look to see if PS does support 32bit and saved a stack as 32bit but you can't use curve adjustments so clearly it doesn't. The thing is all of my action tool sets and my experience and knowledge is in Photoshop. I wouldn't mind giving PixInSight a try but I'd need a new computer first. When you say binning the data do you mean binning 2x2 in Astrophotography Tool?

Not heard of this? I use Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop. I think PS only supports editing in 16 bit ?

I've just started imaging the Horsehead, Bortle 5/6 without filter, 180 second subs.

Would it be beneficial to go for longer subs than 3 minutes? I think I've read somewhere that as long as the data isn't clipping and off the LHS of the histogram then there's really no benefit with the IMX571 sensor doing longer 5 or 10 minute subs?

I may make a video tonight of my setup and post it on here so you can see what I'm powering and what would be suitable, for me, maybe that would be easier.

Yeah as I said I have no idea how to power all of my gear and that battery was just a suggestion but I realise from your post that it isn't suitable - this is really the point of the post - I'm trying to ascertain what exactly I do need. It's really no use to say to me buy a 12v battery, as I have no idea exactly what 12v battery to get so links to actual suitable products would be more helpful.

Does this help? On ZWO website for the 2600MC Pro.. Camera Power consumption: 1.15A at 5V Cooler Power consumption: 12V at 3A Max

Hi, Looks like we may have a couple of clear nights here in the Midlands. I'm imaging the Horsehead and wondering whether, with the 70-80 percent Moon, to image with my L-enhance filter or not. I did image with the filter on to begin with and realised that everything is red, when there's quite a few other colours in this region of space, yellow and blue etc. So I then started imaging without the filter and got another 3 hours. With the Moon at 80 percent though, I'm wondering if I should carry on imaging without the filter, or with it on, I'd rather try and get the natural RGB colours without the filter but I'm wondering if the Moon glow will wash out the nebulosity? Camera is 2600MC Pro.

I'm really not into DIY electrical/battery stuff so I'd have to buy a product off the shelf.

Not sure, how would I know that?

3 minute subs

That's what I'm getting, it just doesn't look much different to my 6 hours with an unmodified DSLR. I would have thought I'd be able to get a more detailed and cleaner image with my 2600MC Pro. I have actually just converted it to black and white and can see quite a bit more detail but it's very noisy.

I cannot understand why I'm getting an underwhelming stack on my Horsehead project. I've got 6 hours in total - 3 hours with my L-enhance filter and 3 hours without after I realised that the stack with the filter resulted in a completely red nebulosity - blocking the other colours in this region of Space. I have three stacks in total, one 6 hour stack combining both filter and non-filter stacks, and two seperate stacks 3 hours each - filter and non filter. Just applying simple stretches to reveal what's there and how much I can stretch (linearly) before too much noise is introduced, well they're all pretty underwhelming. I'm in a Bortle 5/6 zone and my Camera is the 2600MC Pro. I'm seeing other posts on astronomy groups with 2 hours, OSC and same Bortle, and much more detail than I'm able to pull out. My stacking method and the data : For the first imaging session with the l enhance filter on, I didn't take any flats, and applied no calibration frames other than some dark frames (these dark frames were taken 28th Feb 2021 - could it be that I need to take new dark frames?) - the dark frames match the length of the subs (180 seconds) For the second stack, I removed the filter for a full RGB image, which is how I'm going to keep adding the data, and took another 3 hours - this time with flats and flat darks, and the darks applied. Adding all of the data results in a stack of 6 hours which looks very noisy even though I'm not stretching it that much, and there's no where near the nebulosity I am seeing in other images with less than half of this imaging time. If anyone can shed any light as to why, or if you could look at the stacks if you want to see why I'd really appreciate it. Horsehead 5h57m 119Lights.TIF Horsehead Gain 100 Offset 50 No Filter 2h51m 57lights Darks and Flats and Flat Darks.TIF 3h6m 62 Lights only Darks applied Gain 100 Offset 50.TIF

Hi, This year, for the first time, I'd really like to try some dark sky imaging, to drive off to a remote location under Bortle 2/3 skies and do some imaging. The thing is I have no idea how I can power my gear so I'm after some advice. The equipment I have and how I power it at the moment - ZWO 2600MC Pro HEQ5 Pro ZWO EAF Laptop (Stellarium, APT, PHD2 for image acquisition) To power all 4 of these in my garden, I have an RCD unit plugged into a socket in my house, which I run an extension lead from into a dri-box on a table near the mount, in the dri-box I have a 4 way socket extension to which I plug in all of the devices, so they're all mains powered. How can I power all of the equipment with no mains supply, what would you recommend as a power bank? I've been looking at this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jackery-Portable-Explorer-Generator-Outdoors/dp/B08RNPYLQW/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?adgrpid=63487147130&gclid=Cj0KCQiAw9qOBhC-ARIsAG-rdn6dsGz4T8uwTI70LNxSGrUNEnldHHcfLGMkQ3ex7wii36vTYkNwbDAaApwPEALw_wcB&hvadid=338642543415&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1006867&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=13930289927739403768&hvtargid=kwd-476674996960&hydadcr=5113_1827864&keywords=jackery+portable+power+station&qid=1641512338&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExME0xVzJEUTZOSTdVJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzI5MTcxMlBGSktTVzNNODBGSCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTUzMTExMkxTTzZHM0g5NUdFMSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU= Would I be able to plug my RCD unit into this, (if needed?) and run everything from the 4 way socket extension from the plug socket on the Jackery, would it be enough to power everything properly? Thanks for any help!

I've just come across this methodology of processing, to preserve star colour etc. http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/Processing/Colour_Preserving_Stretch/colour_preserving_stretch.html I process everything in Photoshop, where in the processing work flow should I implement this? At the moment I open the image in PS, and do some initial linear stretches to reveal some stars, and then separate the stars from the nebulosity. I'm not sure at which point I should apply the arcsinh stretching methods.

For me it has been a huge leap between an unmodded or uncooled DSLR and a cooled OSC imo, especially one of the modern OSCs such as the 2600MC Pro. This was 2019 with my DSLR, unmodded though, 16 hours And 2021 with my 2600MC Pro, 5 hours

Thank you very much Richard.

Thank you very much Martin

I've had another go at processing this and it's completely different really from the last iteration, I was hoping to get 10-20 hours on it but will have to wait until next year. I think this Summer was very cloudy indeed. Seems like we've had more clear nights in the past few days than the entire Summer here. Acquisition HEQ5 Pro Rowan Belt Modded German Equatorial Mount William Optics Zenithstar 73 Refractor - 420mm f/5.9 ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro Cooled Camera - Minus 10 Degrees Celcius ZWO 120MM Mini Guide Camera Altair Starwave 50mm Guidescope ZWO EAF Focuser L-eNhance Dual Narrowband Filter Stellarium Plate Solving PHD2 Guiding Software with multi-star guiding and Astrophotography Tool Data 5 Hours and 25 Minutes x 180 second Exposures Gain 100 - Offset 50 Calibrated with Dark Frames Bortle 5/6

Thanks for the replies guys. I seem to have a problem with flats... I'm using a cheap led panel from Amazon dimmed all the way down with a target ADU of 32757. When running flats aid wizard the ADU can't be met unless I use a minimum exposure time of 0.2 seconds - 1/5th of a second! I have read on CN that the 2600 likes flats of around 3 seconds. I calibrated with the flats anyhow and theyve made the stacked image much worse in that it looks like the data has been clipped. How do I achieve longer flat length if my led panel is dimmed as much as can be?

I've edited this with more star colour.