Wyvernp

Just had a browse of your website @x6gas beautiful collection of pictures! I especially liked M27 exquisite detail, with I had the focal length to do those. Well I do but the 8se is not the easiest scope to focus.

Well, there's still plenty to learn that's for sure!

1 minute ago, x6gas said:

Yeah not much to see in narrowband AFAIK but a stunning object and you've done a lovely job of capturing and processing it.

I thought as much as I've just been trying to google a narrowband version of it and can't find a thing. Thank you, that appreciated. Especially as its a bit all the gear and no idea here at the moment 😛 

Definitely lots of dust! Not sure about the Ha though.

1 minute ago, happy-kat said:

It's a lovely looking object with surrounding interest.

It's got to be one of my favourite objects to go for in RGB. Actually come to think of it I don't think I've ever seen a hubble palette  version.

After 6h total integration time, filter wheel issues here's my final Iris Nebula for now.

Oh my! that is a tremendous image, and great detail in the dust! What was your total integration time?

Yeah I think I'm at the end of my limited expertise. Hopefully someone more experienced will be able to chime in.

32 minutes ago, groberts said:

Thanks for your kind words Wyvern.  I've been very happy with the WO GT81 - though always thinking about something bigger, I'm put off by increased difficulties given our weather / limited imaging time and various other problems at my location.  Hopefully one day I'll be able to establish an dedicated observatory and move on to something more ambitious.  My images are all manual focus partly to keep it simple though I do own an electronic autofocuser - these things tend to sit in a cupboard for a couple of years and then possibly get used!

It's always great to see what others are achieving with similar equipment, Its lust such a shame I only managed to cobble my gear together just as there is very little darkness.

I'd also love an imaging scope with a bit more focal length for galaxies and planetary nebulae.

Oh of course! Not much sleep last night. 

This sounds like the cause of the issue, https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?threads/variant-todouble-invalid-conversion-from-bytevector-type.13914/ 

As you suspected it was to do with the fits files. It looks like someone on that thread managed to do a conversion and fixed the issue.

Quote

I found that I could do a batch conversion from fits to xisf and star alignment would work.  I just take my lrgb masters and apply the conversion from fits to xisf.

What I did probably wasn't a fair test as it was the same image. I'm also baffled about the second alignment.

1 hour ago, groberts said:

We need to set one of these light frames as the reference image so that all the others are aligned in respect to it. From the small list box that says View at the top of StarAlignment, select File instead, then click the downward arrow button to the right of it. Select one of your calibrated, cosmetically corrected and weighting-optimised (and Debayered, if applicable) light frames. It is generally recommended you choose the image that has the highest optimised weighting (SSWEIGHT) as this will act as the best reference, especially if FWHM and Eccentricity were included in the optimised weighting calculation. As aforementioned in the previous section, do make sure this reference is free from satellite tracks and star blooming. 

Ahh I must have missed that, it is indeed correct. But I am also unsure why they ask to realign.

Just as a quick test I duplicated that image a couple of times and tried to do a staralignment and it succeeded, Could you post a screenshot of your alignment settings, that may help.

Just took a look at your site and you have taken some beautiful images! Do you focus manually or do you use an autofocuser?

Hi Graham, no problem at all. I'm still learning it myself so have been through similar pains. I can really recommend Chris Woodhouse's videos on pixinsight They've really helped me. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEd4A5H8HcV8ybp96WRGmsA

So to address your questions 

You could go through the restack process and save as xisf although you should still be able to staralign on fits files as that is the starting point with the raw subs from your camera, If you want to share your stacked files I'd happily have a play with them to see if I can get them working and I'll share the setting I use if I succeed.

I'd go ahead and skip step 1 and continue with the tutorial.

Cheers,

Wyvern

It actually looks like we have almost identical imaging setups so I look forward to see what you've captured.

I’ve just had a brief read of the previous section on image integration and I believe that in the tutorial it does not say to align all yours stacks to a single frame like we suggest here and thus requiring an additional alignment after the stacks are created. You should be able to skip this step as your stars will already be aligned. 
 

As for file format, I always keep the xisf file for reprocessing in PI as it holds additional metadata. And will only export to tif/fit for further processing in photoshop. 

Did you use a single sub to align all of the stacks? if so you should not need to run alignment again and can just combine the channels.

If not at a guess i'd untick "generate drizzle data"

Also, which camera would depend on the scope you use with it to make sure you are not too over/under sampled.

16 minutes ago, groberts said:

Thanks but I'm still confused.

I currently have LRGB subs calibrated, corrected and weighted in PI.

In the next step, Star Alignment, do I either:

(A) Put all the aforesaid LRGB subs into Star Alignment + choose one of the best subs as a reference and run? or

(B) Put only each separate set of wavelength subs e.g. Red and then run + then move onto to the next wavelength and do the same again?    

Logically + experience with DSS suggests that all the subs are processed in Star Alignment with reference to a 'best sub', whichever wavelength that might be i.e. Case A? 

   

 

A. is the way I do it

Choose best sub and align all the wavelengths to that sub. Then you can just combine the wavelengths with no need to do any alignment again.

The way I do it is to use one of my subs (say the first red sub) as the alignment sub for each of the L, R, G and B integrations. That means that all of the subs will align with that one.

Morning, 

I came across an strange issue last night, I set the soul nebula as a target in SGP and issued a slew command. The strange thing was before the target was reached EQmod reported that the mount had hit it's meridian limits, if this is the case should it not slew the other direction. The mount was parked fairly accurately at 90, 0 before slewing. Has anyone seen this before?

Cheers,

Wyvern

edit. Tonight I will try and slew using the hand controller to see whether the issue occurs in this scenario. 

Here's my data, feel free to have a play if you wish.

Blue.fit Green.fit Red.fit

Thanks! I don't think it will be my final version. The stars from the blue filter are slightly more bloated than the others, I'm still learning how to process so I'll do some research on how to account for that. Also waiting on an adaptor to reduce my backfocus.

Here is what I've come up with after a couple more hours of data.

Yep! I'll share some data once I gather a bit more. Although it's still not great as the stars at the corners are rubbish due to the backfocus being wrong and I haven't received my new adaptors yet.

Well I managed to get some data last night, it definitely needs more...and a bit more love in processing but a huge improvement in terms of colour.

Just sorted it, it was using the wrong ascom driver... totally my bad I had loaded the usb one when I needed to be using the one for a direct link with the camera. Thanks all for your help and apologies for wasting your time.. On the plus side I now have all the luminence subs I'll ever need!

Just now, MarkAR said:

Does the filter motor run do you hear nothing ?

If it runs it might just be out of alignment and not engaging the wheel.

So when I power up the rig the motor rotates through the filters so mechanically it is functional. The filters are aligned but theres something wrong with the communication between SGP and the wheel. Trouble shooting now.