carastro

I have just done another talk on Monday to a huge U3A audience (over 200 people). I was told a lot of the photographic group had turned up too. I did my usual talk which included what, and how to create images. I think one or two people dropped off to sleep, or glazed over, but the majority seemed to find it very interesting. At the end I took a stacked image (old Horsehead DSLR image) and live processed it. I got some very interesting questions afterwards, and one person turned out to have done a bit of AP himself. I got another booking on the back of it for a Probus group. If you would be interested I might have a PDF copy of my talk somewhere I could e mail to you for ideas, I sent it to some-one else asking a similar question, assuming I can find it. Carole

Very nice first NB image, I do like the use of the RGB for the stars as well. Well done. Carole

Similar to what I do Vlaiv, but I don't know of any Lab component in PS, only lab anything I know is lab colour, but I am sure that si completely different. Carole

I'd be interested to hear what others do here too. I have tried it a few times and only take short colour exposures for RGB stars i.e. 150 binned x 2. However I don't consistently have success in adding them to the NB image. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I register the images and then select and feather the stars on the RGB and then paste them onto the NB image and then use layers. This is when it only sometimes works, as I have used blend mode lighten when it has worked. If I don't use a blend mode then it doesn't work very well as the stars look artificial. Carole

Absolutely amazing result from an 11 year old, you should enter it into the Insight Astrophotographer of the Year in the children's category. Carole

Yes I do mention simple ways of imaging too. Carole

Generally photographic groups, and U3A and similar. Carole

I regularly do talks on Astrophotography, and do it with Powerpoint. I normally start at the beginning and say what kit is needed and why, and what happens if you don't use an Equatorial mount etc. Then I have a prepared number of stacked images showing the improvement the more that are stacked. starting with a single sub, then 2, 4,8, 16 stacked, and then show the whole image 50% single sub and 50% 16 subs stacked showing the huge difference. That always brings some Oohs and Aahs. An example of an image processed without flats, then the stretched flat for that image showing the dust and vignetting, and then the image with flats applied. More oohs and aahs. I show how to focus with a Bahtinov mask, and topwards the end of the talk I show a few of my images and how long they took in exposure. HTH Carole

Graham, I have Teamviewer 11, you are welcome to try Straton out remotely on my computer. I can't see anything in the menus for doing anything except removing stars. Carole

Doesn't sound like it. Straton doesn't save the stars (not to my knowledge anyway), you would need to keep a copy with stars and then copy and paste them back yourself when you are ready to. Carole

It certainly gets rid of the stars. Maybe the very brightest ones need a bit if cloning out afterwards. Carole

I posted another link in the above post. Carole

I have Straton and it seems to work well, not that I use it all that often. Did a bit of googling and found another website for it. https://order.shareit.com/product?vendorid=200042742&productid=300568169

Well that was a lovely result in the end, even if the capture was a real pain. Carole

Stunning. Carole

Great you are getting your Mojo back Gina, we look forward to seeing your results. After such a long break expect to make mistakes, we all have a tendency to do that even after a shortish break, stupid stuff usually. I love your home made motorised focusser. Carole

My 5 favourites for 2018 NGC2170 - imaged over 2 astro camps in East Sussex Total of 9 hours 25mins Atik460EX/ED80 or WOZS71 Atik428EX/WOZS71 or ED80 Cocoon Nebula IC5146 Dual Rig Grand Total 5h 40m Astro camp East Sussex dual rig WOZS71/Atik314L + FR x 0.8 & ED80/Atik460EX + FR x 0.8 NGC6914 - Astro camp East Sussex Dual Rig (as above) total 4hours 20mins HaLRGB M82 Cigar Galaxy - Astro camp East Sussex Skywatcher 130PDS & Atik460EX, HEQ5 Luminance: 2 1/4 hours RGB 3 x 150 secs binned (each), Ha 3 x 900secs M16 Eagle Nebula - Astro camp East Sussex SW 130PDS, Atik460EX and HEQ5 SHO Hubb;e Palette 1 hour 20 mins

Great Lunar eclipse image. Carole

Great to hear. I was told a good 2 years ago that I was developing cataracts. My recent appointment said they had got worse though I am totally unaware of them, but I will need operations in the future and like the last poster was told that my astronomy hobby would get them done sooner than normal. I am however going to wait until I start to notice the problem myself. Meanwhile I have been told it can affect my colour perception, so I rely on my astro friends to tell me if my images are too saturated. Carole

Well I finally got my 130PDS out again after not being able to use it since the middle of the summer as it got badly out of collimation and I just couldn't fix it. 3 people tried to help at an Astro camp in October, but it still wasn't right. Continued to try myself, but ended up taking it to RolandKol who kindly managed to sort it out for me. This was the test image a few nights ago. and a 2nd version with RGB stars added.

Can't really add much to what has been said, except you say you did the dark away from the scope with a cap on the EFW, so it's not light leak from the secondary. I must admit I do tend to do my darks when it is dark to avoid any chance of light leak. I used to get light leak with a manual filterwheel, but yours is EFW so should be enclosed and leak proof. But my primary leaks light so I do them in the dark. Carole

The Syntrek version of the HEQ5 comes with a dumb handset which I tried to use once and gave up and never used it since. I did not bother to buy the Synscan version with the GOTO handset as I already had one with my NEQ6 (My HEQ5 was bought initially for taking to astro camps). I presume this is the version you are referring to which is around £100 cheaper. I think it would be extremely difficult to image without a GOTO mount as it would be pretty impossible to find your targets. OK< you might be able to manage such things as Orion nebula and Pleiades as you suggest because they are easy to find. The majority of DSOs are too faint to identify until a long exposure it taken. I am not quite sure what you are hoping to achieve/avoid by not buying a GOTO version. The mount will track without the GOTO handset, but trying to slew around the sky will be difficult. Carole

It was discussed and announced on UKAI for quite a few weeks before it closed. I guess if you didn't go onto the website during that time you would have missed it. Carole

That's the best description for it, I never knew how to describe it before. I shall try to remember that. Carole

I was also a UKAI members and there were quite a few of us who declined to go onto FB, think most of them have come over here or were already members here anyway. I have tried FB for a few groups and it's just impossible to keep track of posts/threads once any time has passed, or try to find an old one, and I don't like the small images you get on there either, although I think that might have improved since I last used FB for an astro forum. Each to his own but I think they already had a FB group and found there was more activity on there than on the website, so when the website renewal came up they just decided to close it. Too much advertising and rubbish on FB for my liking. Carole