Hughsie

You should be happy. It’s a lovely capture.

Received nothing here Ron.

I use MultiscaleLinearTransform before the stretch then tweak with TGDVnoise after the stretch. Shawn has a great YouTube video showing him using both. Intriguing that he used the Linear Mask option in MLT rather than generate a separate mask from the image. I’ve tried this method several times on old and new data and it works well.

I think that is beautiful.

Always nice to see your images Mr Kinch, what ever the format may be. Thank you for sharing.

Clearly the dew shield is the perfect size so by the process of elimination the scope is too big. Scope meets angle grinder. Problem solved. ps it does look cosy in that dew shield!

Boom. Lovely shot. When I worked on my same image I ended up in one place . Now I’m revisiting again and I’m seeing all different colours. Thats art for you.

I have something similar but the brightness is adjustable. Point the scope straight up. As you have no brightness adjustment it’s a bit of trial and error with sheets of paper or a white t-shirt (handkerchiefs or something similar also help) over the front of the scope and between the light panel. Aim for a stretched histogram between 30/50% from the left hand side.

Messier 1, Crab Nebula. I have been photographing this supernova remnant during the clear nights available to me in January. This image is based on the Hubble Palette and uses Sulphur, Oxygen and Hydrogen filters (Sii/Oiii/Ha) to create this pseudo colour picture. Each image of which there are 85 is made up of 5 minute exposures; Sii 25 x 5 mins (Baader 8nm 1.25”) Ha 30 x 5 mins (Baader 7nm 1.25”) Oiii 30 x 5 mins (Baader 8.5nm 1.25”) Sii/Ha (Gain 139 Offset 21); Oiii (Gain 75 Offset 15) These images were then calibrated and stacked using the software, Pixinsight. Time to move on to another target now though I will be returning to M1 next year to capture some more data.

Tried the EAF with a WO Z61 and WO Z103. Couldn’t attach it so sent it back to FLO. Whilst I have no experience with your scope to honestly answer the question I can say that in the end I went for the Sesto Senso. Bit more expensive but the mechanical attachment works on my scopes......once you have centered everything up 😊

I have looked at this four times today and I will keep on looking at this wonderful image. Love it.

I thought the emblem would be a tree so as to fit in with their new uniforms. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51174445

Returned to M1 over the night of 18/19th January and then again on 20th to capture this small target in Ha, Oiii and Sii. The processing seems to take longer than the imaging what with work in the way so having calibrated the light frames, star aligned and stacked the Ha subs in Pixinsight , I couldn’t resist a sneaky look at what the Ha subs looked like. There is a reflection occurring on the brighter stars and I don’t know if lowering the gain will help with that. Welcome peoples thoughts. Also the background is too dark but I was in a rush to get it done. 40 x 5 mins at gain 139, offset 21 using Zwo Asi1600mm Pro and Baader 7nm Ha filter. Captured using a William Optics Z103 and SGP. Hoping to get the Sulphur and Oxygen combined with the Ha over the weekend so long as Mrs H jobs list doesn’t get any longer. Thank you for checking in. John

Hi Brian, had some clear nights up the road from you. Great shot and looking forward to the further tweaks. John

I have spent the last hour debating whether to share my fortune/misfortune, stupidity/moment of inspiration or..... oh hell lets just call it what it is, I am an idiot. This time last year I purchased a William Optics Z103 and the William Optics 0.8x reducer Flat 6AII. I was happily imaging with my WO Z61 for the early part of the year then, in the Summer, I decided to get into the Z103 and 'learn' how to use that. Armed with the Flat 6AII and the ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cooled I made the following adjustments to the reducer as per the WO instructions below of 4.6mm and locked the reducer down. So as you can see this boy is on a roll. I went as far as purchasing a digital caliper to really make sure that I had the 4.6mm distance dialed in then but please, be under no illusion, I was REALLY making sure I was at 4.6mm checking and re-checking the distance. Then I had to get the back-focus right and according to the next diagram from WO, I needed a distance of 59mm. I was using a filter wheel with 2mm thick filter so I added a further 0.6mm in to the back-focus as well. Easy right, I've got my digital calipers, instructions and an air of invincibility having spent weeks getting my 4.6mm distance sorted. Game day approached, the BBC Weather app and Clear Outside were for once saying the same thing, Clear Skies. I have my new scope, new reducer perfectly set up and my new ASI1600mm camera. I AM READY. First picture.....rugby ball stars in the corner...eh? Second picture, same outcome. Purchased an adjustable spacer. Arrived a week later. Game day 2. Rugby ball shaped stars. I adjust the adjustable spacer. No effect. In or out, I have oblong stars. Game day 3. I just carry on taking images, all posted here and cropping like crazy and in between sessions measuring and remeasuring the spacing. That was all over the Summer. On Monday this week I emailed William Optics explaining my dilemma. They responded the next day with a solution. This evening I implemented said solution and now I have lovely round stars in the corners of my images. So the moral of this story is this..... WHEN THE INSTRUCTIONS CALL FOR A 4.6MM SPACING ON THE REDUCER, REMEMBER YOU ARE NOT USING A DSLR CAMERA! I am going to grab a cold towel for my head and a beer. John

Just need to dial in the back focus so shouldn’t take too long. Then I can get ready for the wind, rain and snow at the end of the month 🙄

Thanks Brian. Might be able to sneak out for 2 hours on Friday before it clouds over just to finish off the testing. Appreciate your comments and always enjoy your images. John

Hi Rod. I have just migrated across from Astrophotography Tool (APT) to Sequence Generator Pro (SGP)so don’t have any hands on experience with MaximDL. What I can say is when I originally got the ASI1600mm I downloaded the ascom driver from the site I mentioned above and used the Ascom driver in APT. Like you I was scratching my head as to how to change the offset. Then I moved to SGP and faced the same issue. I was then watching on YouTube a video posted on Chucks Astrophotography channel and he mentioned he was also having a similar issue and someone suggested he download the ZWO native driver and use this to ‘talk’ to the acquisition software and he was then able to change the offset. Im no rocket scientist and share the concerns you have raised about changing drivers and uninstalling old ones so I just downloaded the native driver and told SGP to use this instead and it worked. As the driver is from ZWO I can’t imagine it will cause issues with the ASI1600mm but I can’t answer as to whether MaximDL will communicate with it. Perhaps your question posted in the software section of the forum might generate some useful info about this and the issues you are facing with your camera 🤔

Hi Rod, the image is a crop due to the fact that I haven’t got my spacing on back focus dialled in yet. In regard to the offset, I use the native zwo driver for the camera. This allows you to go into each sequence in SGPro, select the gear icon then the event settings where I can then set gain and offset. Helps as I use different gain/offsets for narrowband filters. Here is the link https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/software-drivers the top drivers are native (as described on the site) and allow the offset to be changed, the camera drivers further down for the 1600 are ascom which don’t let you change the offset. John

Same here Peter, I live in a dip so at the moment the Sun hardly clears the trees or my neighbours house as you can see from the image.

The last time I was able to get outside and image was in September 2019. A combination of illness and bad weather managed to scupper any chance of getting the telescope out. In the meantime, I threw myself into learning Sequence Generator Pro and automating my gear so that I can control all aspects (other than dragging it out into the garden from the garage) from the comfort of indoors. The main purpose for last night was to test run SGP, acquire the step sizes for my motor focuser and then to test run a short image session to ensure the image sequencing, plate solving and guiding all came together. The bad news is the clouds managed to spoil any serious imaging and the Moon was at 62% illumination. The good news was my H-alpha filter was in the filter wheel and Messier 1 was ideally placed. The attached image is made up of 30 minutes of integration time (my shortest so far!); Lights 6 x 5 mins Flats 25 Dark Flats 25 Darks 25 Equipment William Optics Z103ED ZWO ASI1600mm Cooled Pro Baader 7nm H-alpha filter SkyWatcher NEQ6R-Pro Sequence Generato Pro Exposure Gain 139, Offset 21 I will certainly be revisiting Messier 1 in the near future. John

I favour the pastel like colours to a nebulous object which you have here rather than the ‘in your face’ alternative. Lovely image and great detail in the core. Thank you for sharing. John

I first came across the term ‘Solargraphy’ on this forum and was directed to website dedicated to the art of Solargraphy. This is a basic photographic method of recording the path of the Sun as the year progresses. This image commenced on 22 June 2019, the day after the Summer Solstice when the Sun was at its highest altitude in the noon day sky and finished on 22 December 2019, the Winter Solstice when the Sun is at its lowest point at noon. The silhouette of the neighbouring properties can also be made out in the picture. Using a basic pinhole camera I was able to record every clear day the track of the Sun across the southern sky, each day the Sun’s altitude was getting slightly lower. Whilst the camera is basic, the main challenge is to avoid water damage and as you can see from the image some rain has managed to find its way inside. However, the pinhole camera is cheap to make with the following purchases made via Amazon; 100 cable ties £5.49 20 35mm plastic film canisters £8.88 100 sheets of Ilford Multigrade 4 glossy photographic paper £25.98 The remaining items were already in the house (drill bit, tinfoil, electrical and duct tape). Given the potential for disaster I made two pinhole camera’s and one of them provided this image, the other was washed out due to rain water getting in. Making more than one camera certainly improves the chances of success. The camera's themselves were attached with cable ties to the down pipe of the guttering and facing South. Anyone wishing to learn more about Solargraphy and how to construct the pinhole camera should check out Tarja Trygg's website http://www.solargraphy.com/index.php .

As an emission nebula I would have just stuck with the Ha filter and not worried too much with the CLS capturing rgb. CLS may not have done you many favours here. Overall a great image for a first try with short subs. Keep going and don’t forget calibration frames as well as they will help with the noise.

Just slid the image into view on my iPhone and my first thought was ‘Wow’. Great image.