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Posts posted by teoria_del_big_bang
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11 minutes ago, DanLXIX said:
At the moment for deep sky stuff I'm using DSS, Photoshop and Lightroom - mainly because I already have the Adobe apps. I find the process in PS OK but fiddly and I thought I'd take a look at PI because I'd heard a lot about its power.
Like I say I can't really comment on PS even though I have it I have not used it so much but I do know there are so many great images around processed almost exclusively in PS that I doubt PI would do better.
Again not 100% certain but I would think the same quality image can be produced in either PI or PS, and probably other programs too, and some things will probably be easier to do in one program than the other.
I think many of the better images are often produced using both PI and PS and they will use one program to do some things and the other for other things because it is easier in those particular programs.
Maybe there are the odd aspect that is really only easily achieved in one but I guess depends on what level you want to take the processing to.And as I say I do really like PI, just wish I could also get to grips with PS, maybe one day 🙂
Steve
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25 minutes ago, DanLXIX said:
That's good to know. I'm still not sure if it's the right thing for me. I need to put more time in on it but the trial clock is ticking.
I know what you mean and @alacant is right in that there are other packages are out there some cheaper than PI and some free and it depends what you find easiest that does all you want to do.
4 minutes ago, alacant said:What feature of PI do you need? There are many excellent astro processing packages available and all of them are either free or have free trials.
I gladly allowed my PI trial to expire,)
I often think that some times you can get too bogged down in processing and it can then get tedious and almost put you off AstroPhotography altogether because the processing is harder and takes longer than the imaging.
I am still on the learning curve and my data is not like some of the data used for images on here but often some of my better images are where I have done it relatively quickly and done very little to it.Often, even in my short time in the hobby, I find myself trying and trying for days on end to get a result like all the other great images I see on SGL and elsewhere but in the end just have to admit my data is just lacking and I will not make a silk purse out of it. But still unless really bad do my best and get some sort of image and then next season I can have a go at same target and either add to the existing data or start again and that way monitor how I am improving in actually getting the data and processing.
Others on SGL are an absolute Wizard / Wizardess with processing and can often bring your what seems poor data to life that you could not manage - and I am in awe of them, really.
Anyway back to the PI side of it, I actually found I loved PI but in the trial time did not have time to asses it properly so I think I emailed them and asked for a second trial period and got it and after that bought it.
Now many either just do not like PI or some hate it and maybe it is just the way they do things in it.
I think because I had not really used any other processing software except Nebulocity (which is a great bit of software but fairly basic) I just took to it.
But later I also got Photoshop because others say this does some things PI cannot do and also many just use this almost exclusively and try as I can I cannot get to grips with how this works and again probably because I am so used to PI - I don't know.So i f you want to try a bit more you could email them and ask but do not get bogged down with it, I think a lot depends on the level you think you are, if not too far into astrophotography then I think it is good to get some images under your belt and not take too long in the processing, thing is to enjoy it and if it is taking hours to get a result no better than you had then can get frustrating.
So long as you keep all your data (except the bad stuff maybe) then you can always go back to it and have another go, maybe with some different software.Steve
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Looking at your first post I think there will be nobody on SGL that cannot relate to similar evenings on more than one occasion.
I am still fairly new to all this having now done AP for nearly 3 years (I think) and now can setup my gear (which all lives in garage so no permanent setup) in about 10 to 20 mins and that's not rushing, as it took a bit to sink into my brain but rushing does nothing to help you get imaging at all - quite the opposite. But it certainly was not like that in the beginning.
Regarding PA with Polemaster or Sharpcap I cannot say for sure but probably both will give similar accuracy and both fine so whatever you find easiest.
If you get round to using your RPi with EKOS they also have a very good PA tool in there now as well and I have tested it and gives exact same results as my Polemaster, I have aligned with Polemaster then run the EKOS tool and the results were the same and also aligned with ekos and checked with Polemaster.Personally I still fine Polemaster slightly quicker but not much in it and maybe because I have used Polemaster for a couple of years I am just used to it, maybe now if I were starting out I would not pay out the extra money for it and use the EKOS tool.
I have never used Sharpcap but assume it uses a similar method to EKOS.And the Down-pipe solution of @M40 as a quick and easy solution seems a great idea. I normally setup on my patio which is as solid as a rock but there again not perfect after a warm day as heat rising from the paving slabs does affect viewing, so in some ways having the tripod on grass is better, but ideally flat, I think a slope is not ideal, but then most of us have to cope with what we have at hand, certainly to begin with till we can build some sort of stable permanent platform.
But all in all sounds like you have all the right ideas actually it just takes time to implement them and for them to become natural.
Some nights, especially when conditions are maybe not perfect (a few clouds about, or hazy, or full moon and not using NB filters) then it helps I think to maybe forget getting usable images (as often they will be poor anyway under those circumstances) and just practice things, maybe run some guiding assistant in PHD2 to improve guiding, or practice auto focusing (if you are using a program that has that facility), or try a different program, such as EKOS / KStars, NINA, or APT and so on, there are many to try and some have really good helpful tools in there, and sometimes you just get on with one easier than the others, so rather than waste precious good imaging time on those poorer nights when maybe you think its not worth it but if a reasonable amount of stars are out and not too obscured have a practice - it will pay dividends in the end. 🙂Just keep calm and carry on as they say.
Steve
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10 hours ago, scotty38 said:
Hi Steve I tried a similar process but when I got to the LRGB combo I got stuck with some error message. How do you use that process when the RGB channels are already combined? I guess I'm missing something obvious....
Well no in a way not obvious, but also not difficult.
I combine RGB using "ChannelCombination", I guess like you have done.
Then I do a bit of stretching of both the RGB combined image and the Lum image to get them to similar intensities, in actual fact this data is so good it probably does not need that but mine normally do.
Then depending on your processing techniques and preferences you may want to do some further processing of the RGB and Lum seperately before combining them.
Then to combine the Lum and RGB images using LRGBCombination.
But heres the "not so obvious" trick,, only select L and deselect RGB, then select your Lum image in the drop down box and then drag the triangle in the lower left of the LRGBCombination process and drop it on your RGB image and it will combine them both. You may want to do some testing with the " Chrominance Noise Reduction" selected and deselected. Sometimes I think it helps and sometimes makes things worse, I often try both on two duplicate RGB images and see the results.
One further tip is I would duplicate the RGB image first so you have a copy because when you combine them it does not creste a new copy but updates the RGB image. As well as being able to keep a RGB only copy you can also compare them and see what adding the Lum has done.
I do assume that you can combine the RGB using this LRGBCombination process by only selecting RGB and not selecting L and then I assume it acts exactly the same as the ChannelCombination process but actually never done it that way.
And I am very much learning my processing methods so this may not be the perfect way to do it but it is how I did it.
Steve
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Some Great processing so far with some nice data.
My 1st attempt all in PI.
Dynamic crop of LRGB
RGB Combo
DBE on Lum
ColorCalibration
HistogramTransformation RGB
HistogramTransformation Lum
HDRMultiscaleTransform
LRGB Combo
SCNR
HistogramTransformation LRGB
Then a bit of tweaking in CurvesTransformation to deepen the blue colour.Steve
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No worries glad its up and running and I hope it improves the connection reliability.
Steve
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Ah I see Stuart has replied before I powered my RPi up.
I will add what I can and see if it helps.
If you right click on your WiFi icon and then select Edit Connections you can check things are set up correctly there.
I will show you mine in case it helps. I have forced mine to be a static IP address so I know what to connect to each time if using Teamviewer or whatever remote connection program.If you select "Connection Information" instead of "Edit Connection" then you should see information about your Astroberry hotspot and hopefully a secondary connection that is your usb dongle
I think one thing I missed to begin with was making sure in Wi-Fi tab of the settings that wlan1 is selected which should be your USB dongle.
Steve
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6 minutes ago, trailer said:
Looking for a bit of help with this dongle if I may. I have installed the drivers and it is coming up as wlan1 - typing 'iw dev' gives this correctly. I have created the network option similar to the one with the in built wifi device apart from choosing the wi-fi device as wlan1 as opposed to wlan0. However, it will not connect to any wi-fi, with 100 priority and even if I disable the in built wi-fi. I'm obviously doing something wrong but I can't figure out what it is. Grateful for any assistance please!! (RPi4 - Astroberry)
A while since I did this but I am sure I can get you working.
I am also on Stellarmate but I do not think too much difference between them and if I cannot help I am sure @Stuart1971 can as he helped me with mine.
Let me power it up and see what I can do 🙂Steve
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Can you give us some more info on your setup ?
Sounds to me you are using PHD2 selected in EKOS is that right, or is it the EKOS internal guider ?
Can you post a guide log of a good night where the RMS is 0.5 to 0.7 RMS and a night it goes wild and maybe some screen shots of the guide graph.
Steve
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On 12/04/2021 at 15:25, teoria_del_big_bang said:
Yes this is a great book (or rather 2 books as there is the book about mastering PI taking you through the various processes and some of the scripts and a second book that explains what all the parameters in the processes are.
Now whether the author will keep updating the PDF's in future I am not sure, so far I have received a few updates from him via email but probably more to correct grammar and typos as I doubt that much was added to PI in the timescale.
The author is very reproachable and very quick to answer emails so if you did think of buying the PDF's then you could email him first and I would think he would answer your question.I have both the hard copy and PDF's but in all honesty the books hardly get used and usually just have the PDFs open on computer when using PI.
If the author does intend to keep them updated then that is a real bonus but I never really expected it as it would be hard when not in control of the software to keep a manual on it totally up to date, but he may also intend on revisions at various intervals that may get updated and also available on PDF, so actually as it is an interesting question I will email him myself.
I think all in all it will be difficult as even in the 3 years or so I have been using it I have made some Word documents using screen prints of what I did during processing and when I use them now on many I notice some parameters that were there have gone, others have appeared and things like algorithms that can be selected to do various process can get added to.
Now I can only assume these enhance the capabilities of PI but do make it a nightmare to keep any manual up to date unless it is the software writers themselves doing this and it is one aspect of PI that is sadly lacking in my opinion.Steve
Just in case you are still interested in a soft copy of this book I have contacted the author and he intends to do regular updates if things do change in Pixinsight - which is good.
Below is the email I received:
Hi Steve,
Apologies for the delay getting back to you! Yes, there will be updates to the PDF every few months... It's getting to the point that an update is already needed (new PixelMath interface, new WBPP, including Starnet, etc) but I'll probably wait for the next update. Everyone gets notified when an update is released, and there's no charge for it (maybe in the future there's a small charge if the upgrade is significant, but not something I'm considering at the moment).
Thanks!
Rogelio
Steve
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Some great images 🙂
Steve
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9 hours ago, Adreneline said:
It seems odd the Little Rosette gets a name but NGC7822 is left out in the cold.
Yes, I thought exactly the same.
8 hours ago, Sunshine said:It seems more like a brontosaurus head.
I did think dinosaur at first but thought it was a bit of a mouthful, but yes I do agree.
7 hours ago, geordie85 said:I always thought this was the skull nebula. Rotate it 90 degrees clockwise
Yes I can see that too 🙂 but that's the name of NGC246 I think.
Steve
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Great Image Adrian 🙂
At the right rotation I see a dogs head in this.
Steve
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9 minutes ago, wsteel33 said:
Better range?. When I get the wifi dongle i think I will switch back.
Ah okay, well yes if the 2.4 GHz works without interference then yes supposed to be better for range and 2.4 better for speed I think but just the fact the RPi is not switching channels will probably help.
Steve
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1 minute ago, wsteel33 said:
Thanks.. I was thinking of putting a RPi on each of my two mounts and letting them live there rather than moving them with the scopes.
I think I will do this and I can see how this would help stability of the signal if the RPi isn't moving 👍
I have mine on the mount leg.
I have a Pegasus PPBA (not cheap mind) on the scope to connect all the gear USB's to and also the dew bands and then it just needs a 12V power cable going up to the scope and one USB 3 cable coming back to the RPi on the mount leg. The mount USB also goes directly back to the RPi.
Works like a dream and only 2 cables to loop round for movement of the scope, so setup real easy just put scope on mount and plug in 2 cables, switch RPi on and were away.Also good ide not to have RPi on scope with that WiFi dongle it has a fair size aeriel.
Steve
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1 minute ago, wsteel33 said:
Thanks.. I have done this and forced 2.4GHz, I think it has helped.👍
Is there a reason you went for the 2.4 Ghz and not 5 GHz ?
I think the 5Hz is less prone to interference form the USB ports (I think)
Steve
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I couldn't agree more with the above comments, it simply stunning and beautiful.
Steve
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31 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:
You might want to check for a browser hijack
sound most likely
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Works fine for me too.
Have you tried clearing your cache and history then try again ?
Steve
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Another thing that may interest some RPi users is that I read that a lot of people had issues with power due to the USB C connector being continuously plugged in and out the connections become loose or deformed.
So I bought one of these that is permanently plugged into RPi and so if something wears it is the socket on this lead and not the RPi and so can be replaced.
Now this might be an old fault that is now cured on new RPi's I am not sure but I did it just in case.
Steve
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1 hour ago, Richie092 said:
I have that case Steve. How do you set the fan to come over a certain temp?
If not already done install the software.
Open terminal of Raspberry Pi, install the driver by the following command
curl https://download.argon40.com/argon1.sh | bashThen the following command
argonone-config #configure driverYou can then press 2 and adjust the fan speeds fan speeds for 3 different cpu temperatures (55, 60 and 65 C)., even turn fan off, for these temperatures.
If you press 3 instead you can select your own temperatures and fan speeds.
Steve
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Just now, Richie092 said:
I have that case Steve. How do you set the fan to come over a certain temp?
Let me have a look, I remember doing it but forgot - I will get back to you 🙂
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3 minutes ago, Tablelands Astro said:
I have also marked the surface of my "viewing area" and will laser engrave some stainless plates and attach these to the concrete to act as guides for "exact" mount locating going forward.
That's a great idea, I have marked mine with a marker pen but have to keep re-doing them to stop them disappearing but your idea is much better 🙂
Steve
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That's a really good first image, just think what you have done there, capturing some photons that set off travelling some 12 million years ago, it always amazes me 🙂
Steve
QHY don't just do amateur cameras
in Discussions - Cameras
Posted
I was worried then I noticed that it was Euros and not GBP so actually under £54,000 so means I can afford the bigger NB filters as well - I Wish 🙂
Steve