carastro

Bit late to the party here. But I was told to add a type of grease to the bolts, I can't remember the name of it right now, but I know it has the name of the metal in the title. I think I know where it is and will look it up once I can get out to the observatory. After adding this grease I found my bolts on my NEQ6 (that I used to own), would turn more easily. Just looked up metals, and I think it might have been copper grease, but will confirm later. Carole

This thread is an interesting read for any-one likely to have cataracts operated on in the near future. I have to have this done in a few years time I am told, but on a recent eye visit I was told I have narrow angles in my eyes, this is the corners where there is a natural drainage channel for the fluid in the eye. I was referred to Ophthalmology and I am going to have to have eye surgery to make a hole in my Iris's to provide extra drainage (Laser Iridotomy). If I don't get this done it could lead to glaucoma. The one thing that was reassuring from my Ophthalmology examination, was the gel put in my eyes, I didn't realise this was to numb them, and while I was being examined, I thought, "hang on a bit, he's got a dirty great plunger thing stuck right on my eye (that he was looking through) and I can't really feel it". I asked about it afterwards, and he said yes, I would not have been able to tolerate it without the gel. So this at least has given me some reassurance that the numbing gel does actually work. Must chase up my "being put on the waiting list" for this as it is being done at Kings College Hospital, and I was seen at Lewisham. Must check that my referral has gone through OK. Carole

Wow that's a big leap forwards. Your next steps should be to increase the image length by guiding, (not necessarily on this target which is fairly bright), and to get learning to do Flats, darks and bias. They and in particular the flats will improve your images no end, and make processing easier. Carole

Wait a while, he's not properly moved in yet. Lol and neither have the spiders. I have to vacuum up all the dead spiders a couple of times a year. Guess they get in via the small gap between the dome and walls. Carole

Really excellent job. Carole

Wow, looking very professional. Carole

I am glad things are better, but is "manageable" good enough? Perhaps you could upload a stacked image (unprocessed) and let us have a "go" at it to see whether it is in fact "good enough". Fingers crossed it will be. We have all been there ourselves so we know what it is like, and benefited from other people's experience. Carole

I am pretty sure I read somewhere that to long as you tick a Canon camera of some sort it will be OK. I never had my camera listed when I used to use one and DSS and just ticked the closest match and was always OK. Carole

It looks like a grid pattern to me ? wrong bayer matrix. Did you select the correct camera in DSS. It's in the settings Options Raw/Fits box near the bottom. Carole

Is there a demo anywhere. Don't want to abandon Artemis until/unless convinced I will like it. Love Artemis. Carole

Ah, missed this reply, and just messaged you. Will need your e Mail address Gina, can you PM it to me. Carole

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