Manners2020

I've never heard of astropixel before. I'll have a look at that. Thx.

That is useful actually. I've oo'd and arghed for a long time over paying for a software and the subscription has put me off ps, the price has put me off pix. Startools I have tried but it was ever so slow on my laptop. I did try a German one once but I forget the name, it was pretty decent but I dont recall any option for English so I was winging it more so than I normally do. I think I'll wait until I need to replace the laptop and try startools again. 60 Canadian is more than reasonable in my oppinion. Thanks for the input everyone. I'm going to post a wider view of the trifid now which for the 12 minutes or so that was spent capturing it I'm pretty pleased with... but for the sky. Is this type of sky colour even fixable with more suitable editing software or is this just the short amount of exposure , skyglow and my lack of understanding of histograms ect?

Right. Photoshop is something I've been flirting with the idea of actually.

I'll have a look at that. Does it need as much computing power as startools?

No, just gimp so far.

The darks and flats were in there. Probably not enough though and my flats were ones I used from a week before. I wasn't convinced they were doing a good job. Heres a question about flats actually. ... so the focus is supposed to be the same as the lights but does that mean actual focus or the distance of the image train being in the exact position to the corrector plate as the lights.. you know with focus shifting slightly and the rest of it?

That's the plan but it will have to be a different time of year. It was literally inches above my neighbors roof. I always get a much harder sky colour tobdeal with when I'm shooting to close to houses. Thanks though , that's the most detail I've ever had from that one.

Whirlpool, trifid and eagle. Rare night with a visible sky last night. All three were 72×10 seconds exposures with 20 dark and 20 light frames. First time I've seen these two nebulas so I was thrilled to catch them. 9.25 nexstar evolution @f 6.3 with an asi294 mc.

These are rough and rushed but ive been having some sharpcap issues of late. I've only been getting a few exposures before stacking going south. Re installed it now and it looks updated and ive watched a couple of vids and learned a few things about the histogram. Hopefully I'll be having another crack at these soon. M104 was the most I've managed at about 9 minutes worth of 20 second exposures, thec rest were just a few exposures each. No darks or flats on any due to my issues. Nexstar evolution 9.25 @6.3 with an asi294 mc. I would say processed but it was more of a butchering in gimp and snapseed.

I love these wide field shots.?

I like pc expess for noise reduction and snap seed for the levels. I've still a lot to learn with gimp.

This image is why I didn't bother initially. I thought I'd never get rid of all that red.

Think this is my favourite so far. 28x30 sec exposures live stacked on sharpcap. I cant remember if I used darks for this as I've just found the data I did a bit ago that I thought was useless at the time. Wo72mm megrez, asi294, nexstar evolution mount, 0.8 reducer. Tweaked in gimp , snap seed and pc express.

Cheers jim, I've flirted with the idea of an eq mount from time to time but I really like the ease of my set up and where I can set it up. I dont think I'll ever bother to be honest. If I decide in the future I want to spend a couple more k on equipment I think I'd rather spend it on one of those rasa 8's than a mount. That's my dream scope right now. And yes the camera's are amazing right now, it'll be interesting to see what's out there in a few years.

Cheated a bit on this . I used a healing tool for the core in free photo shop app on android. It was blinding. 28 30 second exposures , 20 darks and flats. Wo72mm megrez, asi294mc, nexstar evolution mount . Stacked and stretched in sharpcap, tweaked in gimp and photoshop express.

Bloody hell that dob. Thanks for the info. I'll maybe make a mock one up out of card and see what the clearance might be.

Oh and this eaa tool, is that to put out there or strictly for your own use?

Thanks , I was just wondering mainly about clearance. The mount I have is the evolution mount. I can only get about 63° with the sct when the camera is on ect, which is good enough for me. I'm guessing the Newt is quite a lot heavier to the rear which would allow me to push it forward quite a bit without it being too much front heavy? I've searched high and low online for a picture of my mount with a newt on and cant find one.

Are you still active on here Martin? I see this is from a good fee years back but I've often wondered about the quattro on an alt/alz mount. Wouldn't mind picking your brains if you're still here.

That's the only time I've seen colour in one of my galaxy's.

Oh yes, I should give startools another try. I followed a almost three hour tutorial twice but without calibration files.

Is that with startools?

Thanks for that image, also glad to hear about the focus .

Just a quick one on the histogram. I've been adjusting exposure and gain until sharpcap gives me a green ok. The image for the flats is always a pale muggy brown . Should I maybe not be paying too much attention to the ok and more on the actual histogram?

I have wondered if my flats have been doing anything to be honest. I've been doing them with a t shirt and white light on a tablet straight after my darks which I've been doing straight after focussing. I've been doing it that way because I've convinced myself the focus would be out if I left it until the next day eith the change in temp. The darks I can see what good they are doing but I wouldn't recognize if my flats were or not . I'll try what you suggest with the paper and sky next time. And I've just had a thought. If my focus tube is in the exact position but focus is off due to temp change , would that still count as the same focus for the flats? Also would you mind posting that pic of my image you tweaked, I'd live to see the colour in it. Thx for the pointers.