Budgie1

I do have comparison images between Photoshop CS3 and Pixinsight. When I started back into astrophotography, I already had PS CS3 so I stacked in DSS and post-process in PS. When I knew I was going to stick with the hobby I started looking for software which would allow me to do a better job with the post-processing than I was happy with in PS. I went for the trial version of PI and followed some tutorials (I found this one very handy! ) and this is one of the first images I processed in PI, it's NGC7000 taken with a standard Canon EOS 2000D attached to a Evostar 100ED DS Pro. First is the best I managed to get with PS and my PI version below and they both used the same DSS stacked image. I should add the disclaimer that; some on here have far better skills with the likes of GIMP & PS than I do and can produce some spectacular images with those. I use PI because that's what allows me to get the best out my image data. HTH.

Having now used both laptop and the ZWO ASIAir, I would advise using the ASIAir Pro or Plus. This has everything built into it and only requires attaching to the mount with a 12v power supply. It will connect to your DSLR, & mount, it will suggest targets, take you to them, plate solve and then run an imaging plan on that target. The only thing you need to download is the ASIAir App on a phone or tablet. With the ASIAir Plus, the WiFi is better than the Pro version, so you can setup and monitor the progress from indoors. If you want to progress and start guiding at a later date, the ASIAir supports this as well. The only drawback is that it will only support ZWO astro cameras plus Canon & Nikon DSLRs. I notice from your signature that you have a GPCAM 178C, which it won't support.

Take your time with the stretch and do it in increments, maybe even switch between Levels & Curves. I'm happy to put it through PI again, if you want. Been cloudy up here so don't have any of my own data to process.

Have you looked at the EQ5 Pro, it's lighter than the HEQ5 and still has a 6.5kg payload for imaging. Much easier to handle if you have to carry the mount outside to setup. It may not have the guiding accuracy of the HEQ5 but it's still very useful. I started off with the EQ5 and then got the HEQ5 last year. I now use the EQ5 for my smaller setup with a DSLR and Samyang 135mm F2 but when it was my only mount I had my Evostar 100ED DS Pro on it with a DSLR and guide scope.

I used to use a Canon EOS 450D with the Canon 18-55mm EFS lens on a standard tripod for the Aurora when I lived in the Western Isles. I normally shot ISO 800 or 1600 and varied the exposure to the strength of the Aurora from 10-30 seconds using Bulb and a manual remote shutter release. You really want as wider FOV as you can because they're normally spread out across the sky. The longer the exposure the more colour you'll get (reds & purples) but you give up some of the detail. These are two images from one of the best shows I saw in the Western Isles on 25th October 2011. They are both with the lens set to 18mm and 800 ISO, the first is a 30s exposure and second is 45s, but the stars are starting to trail. And yes, the red was visible to the naked eye that night, the only time I've ever see it in 16 years living up there. Have a great time and I hope you get to see a good display, it's some experience!

If it's just the darks that you're concerned about, have you tried stacking your 300s Ha subs both with & without Darks to see what the difference is? I stopped using Darks with my DSLR and only calibrate with Flats, Dark-Flats & Bias frames because I couldn't see any difference in the final stack. That saves either taking the Darks during or at the end of a session or have to build a library for all temperatures. I don't know how this would work when using an Ha filter on a DSLR, but may be worth an experiment, just to see?

If it's any consolation, I imaged the same targets on 3rd January. I managed to get 22 x 4min exposures at ISO800 before it got cloudy. This is with a modified EOS 1300D attached to the Samyang 135mm F2 lens, set to F2.8. So, even from my Bortle 2 location, it needs more integration time without the Moon.

Well, to bring a bit of enthusiasm back for you, here's my effort from last year with ASI294MC Pro.

What I don't know is whether the ATP uses the un-stretched or histogram stretched version of the image for plate solving. Your log says it couldn't find enough stars and you said above that the image taken when using GoTo++ was black, like a dark frame. Did you apply a histogram stretch to this image to see if there were stars in it or whether it was just a black image? If there were stars with the stretch then increasing the gain setting is faster & more effective than increasing the exposure time. One other thing; when you were doing this plate solving, was there a LP or narrowband filter in the imaging train? If so, it would make the image darker then with just a UV/IR cut filter.

Okay, so on the top image you have the exposure set to 20s with gain 100. This will be the settings for the image when you hit the "Shoot" button. This image is being plate solved with no issues? Normally I would increase the gain on my ASI294MC Pro to 300 for plate solving with an exposure of 10s. This give a nice bright image for plate solving and then I put it back to Unity Gain of 120 in the imaging plan. In the Point Craft settings, you don't have a default exposure set, so it should default to the same settings you have on the Camera page (20s @ 100 Gain), but I wonder if it is. Unfortunately the log you posted doesn't show an image taken during the GoTo++ phase, so we can't see what exposure has been used. It may be worth adding something in there, like 10 or 20s, then that will always be used by Point Craft, no matter what you have set in the Bulb setting on the Camera tab. I can't see anything else obvious at this stage, but I would try increasing the gain when plate solving.

Can you post a screenshot of your Camera Tab settings and the Point Craft Settings window? This sounds more like a setting issue than a hardware/software problem, so seeing what settings you're using may identify where to look.

It'll get you going but it lacks a bit of detail.

It would be nice if there was some sort of manual for the App! 🤣😂

First off, check the exposure setting in Point Craft. Open Point Craft > Settings > about half way down the window "Default PointCraft Exposure (s)". This setting is what APT will use during the GoTo++ part of plate solving. I think the gain is taken from the Camera tab gain setting. Also in the setting window, check that you don't have the box marked "Use PS2 for Near Solving" selected. I also have the "Solve un-stretched DSLR images" selected in my settings but I don't know if this will have any effect.

WB is normally White Balance, so maybe White Balance (Red Channel) & White Balance (Blue Channel)? I've not tried the video mode with my ASIAir Plus yet, so can really help further.

The ZWO diagram for the ASI533MC & the ASI183MC Pro says it's 6.5mm from the sensor to the front face of the camera. You may be thinking of the 17.5mm distance normally quoted when the 11mm spacer is fitted but on the OP's setup he has the EFW fitted directly to the camera. So I was working on 6.5mm + 20mm for EFW + 16.5mm spacer + 11mm spacer = 54mm from the rear of the reducer/flattener lens to the sensor. Then make up the remaining 1mm with the spacer washers which normally come with the camera or EFW. Maybe the back focus on the Evostar 72ED is different to the 80ED & 100ED I have?

#3 for ASTAP. 👍 I had a few plate solving failures when I only had PS2 and ASPS installed. Added ASTAP, it's really fast and I haven't had a failure since.

So, for the back focus (going on your photo) you have 6.5mm from the front of the sensor to front face on the camera, the EFW is 20mm and you've added the 16.5mm spacer = 43mm back spacing. If you add the 11mm spacer in front of the EFW and use the thin round spacers to get your extra 1mm then you'll be on the required 55mm. With the EFW, if you're using 1.25" filters then this does need to be as close to the sensor as possible, otherwise you start getting vignetting. For daytime exposures, reduce the gain down, as you only want to get a rough focus then use gain zero, and reduce the exposure times down to the 1 or 2 seconds, maybe even shorter. When you start imaging at night, you'll need to check the focus again because it can change with the ambient temperature. So, if you're focusing manually, I would recommend a Bahtinov Focus Mask to make life much easier.

You may also want to drop the gain back a bit. I normally use a gain of 120 with my ASI294MC Pro.

In the Topaz suit there are three programs; Gigapixel is basically an all-in-one which will clean the noise & sharpen the image. Then there's DeNoise & Sharpen, which do what they say. On all of these you can use the AI or manual settings to get the level of effects you want. Sometimes Gigapixel will do a good job on an image, others need the individual software, so it's down to personal taste, as it is with the other processing software. As I said above, you do have to be careful with it because it can introduce detail which isn't there if you're heavy handed with the corrections, especially when Sharpening. It also applies the corrections to the whole image, so you need to check the whole image and not just the part you're zoomed in on. I haven't looked into whether you can use masks with it yet. I've tried not to let it add detail to the filamentary lanes in any of the images I've done because that's not what I want. I do feel it does a good job at sharpening detail which is slightly blurred or out of focus. I also only use Topaz on starless images because it does effect the stars.

The star removal was done in PI but using StarXTerminator, instead of StarNet. I happen to still have the starless images on my PC so here is the original starless image after processing and then after putting it through Topaz Ai Gigapixel. Topaz is a game changer for cleaning up images in a quick an easy way, but you do have to be careful that you don't over do it because it can add detail that isn't there. Can you do it with other software? I expect so, but this makes it an quick and easy process.

It's all in there, you just need to tease it out. When I started back into AP in mid-2020, I was processing my images in PS CS3 because I had it on my PC already. Then I started looking for something better suited to AP and got the triallicence for PI, watched a load of tutorials and started the learning curve. I was really surprised at the results I got quite early on, when re-processing images I'd done previously in PS, so I bought the full version of PI. Sure it can be a difficult program to learn and I'm no where near compitant with it yet, there's so much too it, but there's good tutorials and plenty of people to help on here. The route I took was to learn the processing side of the software first, it's only been the last few months that I've started using the stacking side. I know it's also not the cheapest software for AP but I figured that, if I'm spending the best part of £2k on a mount and camera, the least I can do is get software made to produce the best quality results from my images. Everyone has thier favourate processing software, mine's PI, but as long as you're happy with the results you can produce then I think that's what counts.

I took your 5h57m stack and put it through my normal workflow in PI. After stretching, I removed the stars and processed the background & nebula separate to the stars, then put the background through Topaz AI Gigapixel to further reduce the noise and sharpen, before adding the slightly reduced stars back into the image. Here's the results.

Yep, I get the same thing until I close APT and then the CDC window closes on its own.

You can see my Master Dark from the ASI294MC Pro in THIS THREAD. Converting to PNG from FIT has made it look cleaner than it actually is, but it shows what you're looking for. The Master Dark is 20 x 300s at 120 gain and cooled to -10°C.