Budgie1

4 hours ago, wimvb said:

That's a very nice set of images.

Regarding LRGB imaging with a classic ccd camera, the general idea is to shoot RGB binned x2 to help get the noise and total integration time down. L at bin 1 with something like double the integration time of RGB to get the detail. This is different from LRGB CMOS imaging, where there isn't as much benefit from binning the RGB, and everything is captured at the same bin level. In your case, you captured 1 hour R, 1 hour G, 30 mins B, and 1 hour L. If you captured everythung at the same bin level, you could try combining the 4 masters into a composite synthetic L in order to get the noise down. Just use image integration with weight 1 and no pixel rejection. Then process the RGB master for maximized colour, and the L for maximized detail before LRGB combination.

Thanks Wim,

I knew about making the luminance about double the RGB, but not about using bin 2x2 for teh RGB, so everything was captured at bin 1x1. But now I know for next time.

I had a go with the synthetic Lum and trying to boost the RGB. There's a green hue right of centre but it looks a little better. 

This was my first LRGB image, so I learn a little each time.

Since getting an Atik 428EX camera & SHO filters from a fellow SGL member + filter wheel and LRGB filters to go with it, I haven't had many clear nights to work with. So practice with the mono setup has been limited.

I started with an SHO image of the centre of the Heart Nebula, so I decided my second project would be a broadband target and chose M33. I started this on the 15th December and managed a good set of Luminance subs (20x 180s), then the 25th December I got 20x 180s Red filter and 4x 180s Green. On the 31st December I managed another 9x 180s Green, with 4 more on the 17th January and finally finished the project on the 18th Jan with 3 more green and 10x blue. None of the nights was perfect, with passing clouds or thin high cloud, but this is what I ended up with and I may add more blue data to it, just even things up.

It's alright, but I'm not overly impressed.

Next was NGC7635, The Bubble Nebula, where I went back to SHO and managed to get three hours in total over a couple of nights.

I'm still working on this one but I'm pleased with what I've got to date.

Finally, IC434, The Horsehead. Now that I have the observatory to image from, it's also meant that I get a better view of Orion at this time of year. Before I was lucky to get a couple of hours between trees on the South side of the garden. With the pier in the observatory, the scope is higher and slightly further West, so I get about 3.5 hours per night now.

Sadly, I've only managed 50 minutes of Ha data so far, but I went ahead and processed it anyway.

These were all using the Atik 428EX connected to a Sky Watcher 80ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR on the HEQ5. Stacked & processed in PI.

C's & C's welcomed, as always.

SH2-136 The Ghost Nebula.

Taken over two nights, 18th October & 13th November 2022.

A total of 5h 30m of 180s exposures with Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR and ASI294MC Pro set to -10°C, gain 200 & offset 30.

Processing with PI.

ENS Optical is a good link to keep hold of for second hand astro kit. They currently have a HEQ5 in stock for £850 delivered or £800 if you collect it.

You can make your own, either out of something like card or using a 3D printer.

If you Google "bahtinov mask generator" there are a lot of resources available, including video tutorials and the Bahtinov Mask generator will allow you to produce a mask to your own size specifications.  

1 hour ago, Lee_P said:

 

Ooh interesting, I generally run a bit of NXT fairly early on. My logic is to try and squash the noise before stretching. Stretching noise is bad, right? But you two only run NXT at the very end? Maybe I need to give that approach a go.

I used to de-noise right before the stretch but I found that the later processes introduced a little more noise into the image, so it really needed another de-noise later on. So, before BXT came out, I started leaving the de-noise process until last and that removed all the noise I wanted. NXT just makes the process easier.

54 minutes ago, tomato said:

I currently run SPCC at the start, then BXT, NXT is not used until the end of processing.

+1 for the above approach.

I run BTX right before the stretch and NTX after everything else, so that it takes care of any noise introduced by processes after the stretch.

This is sort of a final/New Year update because most of the fettling has been done and now it's just the odd tweak that I'm doing.

I'd been threatening for months to get the hinged weather boards on the rear wall of the roof and I finally got around to this in November. These stop any driving wind or rain from entering the obsy, while still allowing the rear of the roof to clear the wall, so here's the weather boards in the closed & open positions.

With the expansion of the wood during the winter months, I was getting issues with the rear of the roof catching on the aluminium runners, so I raised the roof another 10mm. This allows enough clearance over the runners, back wall and the scope when it's in the Park position.

For safety on cold frosty nights, I've installed some anti-slip decking strips in front of the door. These work really well and I have no slips during the ice & snow in December.

I think that's about it. I've decided not to install mains power into the obsy, the current extension lead from the house is working well and saves the expense of getting a Sparky to install it. I've been using it, when the skies are clear, and currently have the SkyWatcher 80ED DS Pro on the mount with my newly acquired Atik 428EX & filter wheel, my first exploration into Mono imaging.

The obsy is a great asset when it comes to setup times and I'm not so worried if I only get an hour or two of imaging in an evening because I haven't spent 3/4 of an hour setting up. I hope this has been a useful and interesting thread and I hope it helps others in the future. Finally, here's the obsy in use today and thanks for reading the thread.  

I've recently got a couple of pairs of Horizon Heritage Workwear socks for general use. Thick & very warm, 65% wool.

I was out in the obsy the other night in -3°C. I had a pair of these & Crocs on my feet, no problem with the cold.

Is the USB hub a powered hub or just plus into the laptop with no extra power connection? Sometimes the cable between the unpowered USB hub & the laptop can be a bit too long and won't supply enough power to run the camera. A poor quality unpowered USB hub with a shorter cable can also do the same thing if there's too much demand on it's 5v power supply.

You could also try downloading ZWO's ASI Studio software to get the connection established and to prove it works.

3 hours ago, astrohike said:

By 'second hand market', I assume eBay? Is there a preference to second hand markets for AP equipment?

Edit: Spelling.

Sadly eBay is more like a new market these days and even the second hand items are at "New" prices or more.

I got some of the items from another member of SGL and the rest came from ENS Optical, who specialise in second hand astro & photography equipment.

I have both Mono & OSC and use both, the mono I've only had a couple of months so I'm still getting used to it. From what I've done to date, the mono doesn't really use up that much more time when imaging, even though you need to capture with the different filters (SHO or LRGB), because each filter needs less integration time as it's using the whole sensor.

You've sort of limited yourself to a ZWO camera if you want use the ASIAir, if you didn't have this then I would have recommended looking at the older CCD cameras as these quite cheap at the moment, but still very good quality. The setup I've got is an Atik 428EX mono camera, Atik EFW2 filter wheel, Baader narrow band filters and ZWO LRGB filters. I bought everything on the second hand market and it cost me less than £750! So, that may be an option to save a little money.   

3 hours ago, Chefgage said:

The issue I see though is exposing for a couple of seconds is going to give me a very hight adu value though isn't it??

For my flats I use a Samsung Tablet with an app called Ligthbox, which is dimmable. Then I put a white t-shirt between the scope & the tablet to dim the light, adding layers of t-shirt until I get the ADU & exposure time I'm looking for.  

It's also worth mentioning that some of the Altair cameras have TEC (set point) cooling and others just have a fan which pulls air past the sensor. The fan cooled models are cheaper and do cool the sensor, but have no way of cooling to a specific temperature below ambient. 

Here's an example:

Hypercam 294C PRO (Fan Cooled)

Hypercam 294C PRO TEC

So make sure you get the one you need and don't just look at the price.

1 hour ago, Gumminess8083 said:

Is starting from the home position really that important?

I initially set my home position with my mount perfectly aligned, pointing the scope straight forward (I did this like a couple of months ago).

Now, whenever I bring my scope outside, I don't really bother pointing my scope forward perfectly. I just start it wherever it is, usually pretty close to home position but not perfectly, polar align, and then platesolve, which usually fixes any error I could have made and properly recognizes the scop position relative to the home position.

Is this procedure wrong? 'Cause so far it hasn't caused me any problems

There's nothing wrong with your procedure because you use platesolving to find your position and that accounts for any errors. If you weren't using platesolving and relied on the handset to do a 3-star alignment for the Go-To function, then an accurate home position is more critical because it gives the mount a known starting position. This in turn will mean the alignment process is more accurate from the start, as long as you remember to return the mount to the Home Position before turning it off after a session.

I have a Home Position and a Park Position set on my mount because I have to have the scope as low as possible to be able to close the obsy roof. So normally I start from the Park Position, slew to target and platesolve. That works fine for me, and I don't have to PA every night because it's a permanent setup.  

Have you checked you have the correct latitude & longitude and date/time on the handset? Remembering the date is mm/dd/yyyy format.  

StarTools might have been worth including for processing software.  

Before I moved into my Obsy over the summer, I used to setup every night in the garden and follow the same routine.

1. Level the mount - some say this isn't that important, but I like to start with it as close to level as I can get it.
2. Balance the mount with everything on it which I intend to use that night, including all cables, guidescope & cameras.
3. Start from the Home Position - I notice you say you put it roughly in the Home Position, this can start you off with a built-in error which you'll carry through the whole alignment routine. So set your Home Position as accurately as possible (see this video for assistance) and put marks on the mount with a Sharpie so it's easy to find the Home Position again. 
4. I also use APT but I assume the 3-point PA routine is going to be similar on both. Before APT had the PA routine, I used SharpCap to obtain PA.
5. Once Polar Aligned, I choose my target and slew to it, then use APT's Plate Solving to accurately locate the target. Once on the target, I don't need to do this again unless I have to do a meridian flip.
6. After the session has finished, I make sure to return the mount to the Home Position again before switching off, so the mount knows where it's pointing when I next switch it on.

I used to use a 15m USB3 active extension cable from my laptop to a powered hub on the mount. The cable comes with a 240v power supply but having the powered USB hub at one end and the laptop at the other meant I didn't need the PSU for the cable. It would give fast USB3 speeds over the 15m length with no drop-outs. 

I later swapped the USB hub for Pegasus Pocket Power Box Advance and used the same 15m extension without any issues.

Simple answer is: No.

The standard EQ5 (EQ5 Deluxe) is a manual mount, it doesn't have any motors to drive the axis, although these can be retro-fitted.

The EQ5 Pro has stepper motors and a control handset. This is compatible with the ASIAir but will need either a USB cable to plug the handset into the ASIAir or the EQDIR cable to replace the handset.

The ASI294MC Pro (cooled version) is a nice camera with a sensitive sensor. It has a reputation for having an issue with the calibration frames, as has already been posted, which means you may be able to pick up a second hand camera for a lot less than you may think.

Regarding the "issue", I did have some problems to start off with but only when using the L-eXtreme filter. For broadband imaging I use just a UV/IR cut filter with a gain of 120 and offset 30. With the L-eXterme filter I use a gain 200 and offset 30.

In both cases the camera is set to run at -10°C and when taking the flats I aim for 26,000 ADU and exposure of 2-4 seconds. I also use flat-darks, to calibrate the flats, and don't use Bias frames, just darks.

2 hours ago, geeklee said:

Thanks for sharing Martin.  I didn't run BlurX very hard (I feel the one above is quite strong - nothing wrong with that).

I did have a little trouble with colour though, so it's quite subdued on that front.  Hopefully complements your images above 👍

 

It was my first play with BlurXT, so I may have gone a little hard with it, and maybe not at the right time as well.

I found there was a fair bit of green once the SHO was combined, but once that was removed with SCNR then the colours were okay and increased nicely with Curves Saturation. I think the subtle colours in yours brings out the background dust better then in my second image. 👍

1 hour ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I hadn't noticed this new script but sounds interesting.
Does BlurXTerminator basically use deconvolution then but it does all the hard work for you ?
Deconvolution is one process that I really struggle with and it tales me ages to get good results that don't look odd.

Steve
 

It's a bit like using Topaz Sharpen AI but it seems to do a better job and doesn't add detail which isn't there originally. There's a thread running about it with an Adam Block video looking at the script.

9 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

I bought BlurX last night and haven't received the activation code email yet. I did get one signing me up to the updates email list but nothing else. 

I emailed Russ and he resent my licence details, so BlurXTerminator is now installed in PI and working.

Here's my first comparison using it:

I tried a re-process of this one and used the new BlurXTerminator script for PI.

I think you'll agree this version is sooooooo much better, the colours are now correct for SHO and the detail is much more enhanced.