f33n3y

Had the same problem. Removing unused mapped network drive fixed it for me too, thanks! 

Hi everyone,

I've started working on a basic console application (.NET core) that I can run when guiding that sends me a notification via Slack to alert me to star loss events from PHD2.

I'm aware some products like Sequence Generator Pro have notification capabilities already but thought it would be fun to have a go at making something myself.

Has anyone else developed software or performed any cool automation to help with their astrophotography? It would be great to see what others have made!

Cheers

Hi everyone,

Here is the Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992/5), part of a large supernova remnant found in the constellation of Cygnus. You are looking at the wispy leftovers of a star 20 times more massive than our sun which exploded some 8000 years ago.

Equipment:
- Sky-Watcher 200PDS telescope
- HEQ5 Pro mount
- ZWO ASI1600MM camera for capture
- ZWO filter wheel, Ha and Oiii filters
- ZWO 120MM camera for autoguiding
- ZWO finder-guider guidescope
- Artesky flats box

Acquisition:
- 6th September 2019 from my garden in Glasgow, Scotland.
- 50x120sec with Ha filter, unity gain
- 50x120sec with Oiii filter, unity gain
- 20 flats each filter and 20 darks
- Controlled using Sequence Generator Pro

Processing:
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- PixInsight dynamic crop, dynamic background extraction, pixelmath (to produce bicolour HOO image), colour calibration, SCNR, histogram transformation, curved transformation, star mask and star reduction, TGV denoise
- Final denoise with Topaz Denoise and some touch ups in Lightroom.

Future improvements:
- More time on the target (less clouds).
- Addition of comma corrector to my imaging train.
- Create mosaic of the wider Veil nebula area.
- Improve PixInsight processing workflow.

More shots:
https://www.instagram.com/glasgowastro

Hi everyone,

I'm having real trouble processing my Saturn data. Being based in Glasgow, most of my problems are likely due to the poor seeing and how low Saturn is in the sky. However, I still feel I should be able to draw more detail out the Cassini division, reduce the noise and reveal the coloured bands a bit better.

I've stacked some 2min vids in Autostakkert and have attached the best stack below (I've included sharpened and unsharpened - which one should be used in Registax??). I've also attached my best attempt at processing this data so far.

Is anyone able to have a go at improving on the below or share their own workflows/tutorials?  Any help would be much appreciated!

Equipment: ASI290MC, 2x barlow, SW 200PDS, HEQ5Pro

Sat_033911_pipp_g6_ap9.tif Sat_033911_pipp_g6_ap9_conv.tif Sat_033911_pipp_g6_ap9_conv.tif

On 28/04/2019 at 10:31, david_taurus83 said:

Here's one of my stretched Ha flats. You should try to take your flats again and increase the ADU. Theres a good chance the dust hasn't moved. I cleaned mine with a lens cleaning kit and a little blower.

Would the below light box be suitable for taking flats with the 200PDS?

HUION A3 Size Super Bright LED Tracing Light Box with Adjustable Brightness Function https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DNPCZVG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_iPs0Cb2DAZ8H9

9 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

Here's one of my stretched Ha flats. You should try to take your flats again and increase the ADU. Theres a good chance the dust hasn't moved. I cleaned mine with a lens cleaning kit and a little blower.

Thanks, that's great! I've long detached the imaging train since imaging the above targets but hopefully by achieving focus again and retaking the flats I might be able to salvage the Lum data a bit

10 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi

I've had similar problems with my flats recently but the defects only show with very strong stretching of the stacked image. I've tried making synthetic flats and using ABE in Pixinsight but there doesn't seem to be way of fixing the problem after the fact. I think the trouble may lie with the flats being slightly under exposed (relative to my lights which tend to be 'exposed to the right' because of skyglow) so will try making flats using longer exposures. Other than that, it could be something peculiar to Glasgow ha ha.

Louise

 

Good to hear that someone else is having a similar issue (in Glasgow too haha). All comments so far seem to suggest poor flats so think that'll be the first thing I try and sort before trying a clean of filters and chamber window.

Does anyone have any examples of a good master flat taken with the 1600mm they just so I can see how it appears?

Also, it looks like some of the circles line up between the lum and blue subs so it doesn't look to be dust on the filters. Perhaps it is dust on the cover of the ASI1600mm sensor cover?

4 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

There are several issues with this master flat.

1. 16 bit format - if you can, use 32bit data for your calibration

2. Extremely low ADU values in your master flat. Mean value is only ~100. You want your flats to be around 40000 (in 0-65535 range), or 2/3-3/4 of histogram. You need longer flat exposures for this.

How many flats did you stack? Do at least couple of dozen of them if not more.

3. Master flat shows no dust shadows what so ever, so I'm guessing something went wrong with shooting of flats. Since you mentioned removing scope from the mount and shooting flats in the morning, only thing that I can think of that would create such clean looking master flat would be - you forgot to use the same filter? Or possibly moved focus position when you packed scope away for the night (even if you left your camera attached)?

You need to leave focus position in the right place - like when you took your lights. If you racked in focuser - that would further move dust out of focus (dust shadows are just unfocused dust particles and distance to focal plane determines diameter of rings / doughnuts - if you rack in your focuser you will move them further away from focus plane and make circles large enough not to be registered on sensor at all).

Thanks for this! Before I even think about cleaning the filters I think I'll really need to study flats more as I've clearly not done them right at all

1. Didn't know about using 32 bit flats, I will keep this in mind

2. I did use the flats wizard in Sequence Generator Pro but I must have had the mean ADU value set faaaaar to low!

I took 40 flats with each filter

3. I'm pretty certain I used the same filter (all controllled by SGP) and kept the focuser locked. Sounds to me like the exosure time and ADUs for the flats was my biggest issue, especially seeing as there is no evidence of dust shadows on the master flat.

I think I may invest in a light box/panel so I can take flats asap after the lights and will have a play with SGPs flats wizard in the daytime and see if I can produce a master flat which is showing up dust.

4 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Hm, I was almost sure that you did not do flat correction.

What does your master flat look like? Same patterns as these? It might be the case of shifted dust, but I think that would be limited in impact - maybe just few specs shifted. As is it looks like no flats applied at all - a lot of particles all over the place. 

There could also be the case of flats under correction - if your master flat has dark patterns in exactly the same place and still leaves those in calibrated light subs - it can be due to under correction. 

I've attached my master flat TIF and also a jpg of the lum master flat stretched with STF in Pixinsight. Just appears to be very grainy which doesn't seem right ?

MasterFlat_ISO0.tif

@vlaiv Yes, I took flats with each filter using the white tshirt method at dawn and also dark flats. I can't leave my scope out overnight so I took it off the mount but kept the camera attached. I was hoping this would be good enough but from what I've read it's best to take the flats immediately after the lights for them to have any real effect.

@david_taurus83 Hmm, sounds like i'll need to give the filters a good clean ? What do you recommend for cleaning them? I was always hesitant to wipe them with anything in case I scratched them but at the moment my lum subs are practically unusable so I think I'll have to!

Hi all,

I'm a newbie to mono imaging and am having trouble with circular/ring shapes in my subs. The circles are particularly pronounced after stacking my Lum subs but also appear in blue stacks. At the moment, this is making my lum subs unusable and I'm only just managing to put together RGB images.

I'm using an ZWO ASI1600mm with ZWO filter wheel and filters (36mm unmounted).

The attached TIF (LumStack.TIF) is 10x150sec of Lum subs stacked in DSS. The circles aren't very pronounced at this stage but after DBE and STF (see second SunflowerLum.jpg) the circles are very clear to see.

I've also attached a stack of Lum data on Bode's galaxy which shows the same issue.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing these?

Thanks in advance

LumStack.TIF