Magnum

you dont mention what equipment you are using, camera & scope etc? Lee

Feel like ive just watched the astronomy version of Richard Hammond from Top Gear, not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing lol Lee

Sorry for confusing you Olly, as you are a one off anyway 😛 Lee

Excellent image as always Olly. Ive got about 12 hours worth of data on this from a week ago, but only got around to processing and posting the Lum so far. Lee

Mine isn’t isolated either just a massive slab of concrete. I can pull myself up off the floor by grabbing the pier and my guiding graph doesn’t move LOL. I agree it can be overrated. It’s usually just 1 person in a home observatory anyway, not loads of people as with a public obs. And I know I’m not going to be jumping around in there when imaging, so I didn’t worry about it. Lee

Another thing I noticed to do with the human eye and perception. If I post an image on FB and have the browser using the full screen, im seeing my image as postcard size preview surrounded by a screen of white, this makes my image look totally black, but once I click the image to get the full size version then it looks grey as it should do. Obviously human perception of contrast at play. but how many people dont click the image to make it full size LOL Lee

ok thats good then so im only about 3-4 counts below that, I will try 23 next time.

Thats interesting Olly, do you mean the noise characteristics of the Sony chips are not appealing when left too bright compared to the Kodak sensor data. I think ive noticed that with my 2 Atik cameras, although the Kodak chip in the 383 looks worse in 1 sub, but once stacked seems to show a finer more even grain. I think Sara found the same with her QSI CCD when she had the sensor changed from Sony to Kodak. Lee

Thanks Olly, its good to have a 2nd opinion. I measured the background in the one I posted to be about 19-20. ive seen you say 30 in the past I think. I will go read that thread. cheers Lee

Olly do you think I stretch my images enough? I don't like them too overdone like a lot I see on FB, but at the same time ive had comments that im not stretching the faint bits enough, and or my background is too dark. I always make sure I leave a gap so im definitely not clipping, and am not a fan of light grey backgrounds, So I always send my final image to my iPad before posting, as iPads are known to have the best factory calibration of any screens, and is what the majority of people view things on these days, so seems the best chance of knowing how others will see them. Obviously laptops and desktop monitors are a total minefield as some maybe calibrated totally wrong. when ive posted images on the light side, then seen how they look on some laptops they seem to magnify any noise in the image, then on SGL ive noticed anything I post on here ends up looking a tad darker with slight posterisation. Am I worrying about it too much, or have you had similar thoughts? Lee

It works better with Narrowband to be honest as that doesn't let light pollution gradients in, but as I use my CLS filter as Lum any gradient is very slight, and have the Idas LP2 in front of the RGB filters so they are protected too. I did have to work a bit harder on this than with narrowband. I have Bortel 5 Sky so not great for trying to capture faint stuff in LRGB, im much happier doing Narrowband. Lee

Thanks Olly, No flats. I just run each stack through Maxims Flatten Background process, use the complex 8th order, then click 20 or more points around the image. that sorts any minor vignetting or gradients. as for Dust bunnies, I find as im really fussy about not allowing dust onto the filters and cover glass of the camera when assembling it all, they stay clean as everything is permanently sealed unless I swap cams etc, then the Rocket blower gets used before putting back together. Lee

Spent the last 3 clear nights collecting photons on this target, was loosing it below my west wall by 1am each night so took longer than expected. The Hickson 44 / Arp316 Galaxy group in Leo. Captured with the dual Rig, Luminance in 1 scope and colour in the 2nd scope. Total of 14 hours of data ( 7hrs in each ). The 4 main galaxies are all different catagories , we have an elliptical, a spiral, a Barred Spiral and an Irregular, plus a multitude of faint background galaxies. Mount EQ8 Pro Telescopes: Meade 127mm F7.5 Triplet refractor : Altair 102mm F7 Triplet refractor Camera: Atik 460EX mono CCD, Atik 383L plus CCD. Guider: OAG plus SX Lodestar CCD. Software: All done in MaximDL & Photoshop. Exposures: 14 hrs worth of 6 min subs. Calibration: NONE

really nice

Ive tweaked it a tad to give more punch

Thanks Olly, Lee

Captured the Needle Galaxy NGC4565 and many friends on Saturday night. When it comes to galaxies this is one of the Jewels of the sky. I captured this with 2 scopes and cameras simultaneously to save time. The Luminance was taken with the Meade Series 500 F7.5 Triplet 25 x 5 mins and the RGB was taken with the Altair 102 F7 Triplet. 26 x 5 mins. so about 4hrs total exposure so far.Have included a plate solve of some of the brighter companions but if you look just off the bottom right tip of the main galaxy there are a whole bunch of tiny ones .

That is the same model from the start of this thread just a different brand. Lee

Captured this data of the California Nebula about a week ago, 12 x 10 mins in Ha with my Atik383L+ & Nikon180mm F2.8 stopped down to F4. Guided, captured, stacked & DDP in MaximDL, processed in PhotoshopCS5. My normal Olly inspired No Darks only Bias.

Have been trying out various camera lens over the last month and Ive just purchased a Nikkor 180mm F2.8 ED lens circa 1986 and spent last night giving it first light on the stars, besides a little tilt in 2 corners im quite pleased with it so far. First image IC 1848 the Soul Nebula: 10 x 10 min Ha subs with the lens stopped down to f4 & my Atik460 CCD, guided, captured, stacked and DDP in MaximDL, final processing in Photoshop. Bottom left you can see part of the heart nebula, decided against trying to fit them both in the frame, as I have the larger Atik383 to do a better composition of both next time. 2nd image Quick Horsehead from last night . Please forgive that its a little noisy, was the best I could do with only 4 subs before it passed behind a tree, I would normally wait until I get some more data, but not looking likely now as the moon will be near Orion for the next week then it will be getting lost into twighlight. I always like to try new equipment on this target as the bright star Alnitak is a real test of camera and optics, though it means ive posted about 6 versions of the horsehead this year LOL each with different combination of gear. I purchased this lens due to the lovely 18 point refraction spikes it gives on stars due to the 9 Nikkor straight aperture blades, I must say im very happy how it handled this test. Exp details: 4 x 10 mins with the Nikon 180mm f2.8 ED AF set at f4, with the Atik460 CCD, guided, captured, stacked & DDP in MaximDL, processed in Photoshop. cropped a lot off the bottom edge to help the composition.

Working well, lee

Yes it is, simply click on your advert to view it, then just press the edit button next to the quote button at lower left of your add. Lee

ok im using the Atik EFW1 which only has t2 threads, but is nice and thin at 20mm and pretty light.

Can I ask which adapters you have bought? I presume you are getting a 1.5mm thin Nikon - m42 adapter then a m42 - t2, though most of those on eBay are the wrong way round, we need female m42 - male t2, the only one I found was 6mm thick so would be touch and go wether i could achieve focus. One thing that may help is m42 can be forced with little effort into T2 threads, obviously we wouldn't want to do this with our filter wheel or camera, but we could permanently screw a thin t2 spacer onto the m42 threads, the only things that risk damage are the t spacer and the Nikon - m42 adapter both of which only cost a few pounds. ive tried it on adapters I have here and they go on with little effort at all.

That will be tricky, there isnt much back-focus to work with, I decided to just go with the geoptic adapter which has 1.25” filter holder built in and manually swap the filters if needed. you will have 5-6mm to play with.