Horwig

Haven't tried M33 since late 2015, I had another go at the end of this November, but had a problem with my filter wheel not positioning repeatedly, so flats not working. I decided eventually that it was worth trying to salvage something from it, probably because it's my only image this year, damn cloud cover. Here it is, cropped very hard to get rid of the horrible gradients: ZWO ASI6200MM, 40cm f3.6 Newt, 150 minutes L, 30 minutes each RGB, all 5 minute subs, and 100 minutes Ha in 20 minute subs PI with BlurXterminator2, (naturally), finished in photoshop The outer regions are very noisy, probably 150 minutes L is not enough, but applying Noise Xterminator gave a patchy effect Huw

Left a message for Terry, who came straight back! That's what I call customer care. I'll copy the answer here for reference, somebody else might find it useful. Hello Huw, This can be due to several things, so it could be a bit difficult to pin down. The most likely cause is a slow loss of magnet strength on the carousel - this will tend to happen after a long period since manufacture. First, check that the bearing screws are all firm and that the central axle screw is tight. If these look good, please try loosening the two nuts that hold down the PC board and insert a strip of thin card under the long straight edge of the board. A strip of cereal box is about the right thickness. Once the nuts are screwed down, see if the packing has helped. If the card doesn't fix it, then it might be best to send it to us for checking and updating. Best regards, Terry Card strip added, simple engineering fix, moves the magnetised screws closer to the sensors of the pcb, very neat. Huw

Thanks both, yes SX have been good over the years, I managed to bust the USB connection to the board many years ago, and the replacement board was very reasonable. Not sure if it's a direction issue, I do have SGP set on 'both directions', but I have 'rotate through events' set. Some subs were correct, some not, and on different filters. Yes a mail to SX is in order Huw

I've had my SX usb wheel for well over ten years, and this is the first time I've seen this fault, over a few days, the wheel would occasionally not position the filter accurately, and then my flats would not line up, here's a stretched master light: I've since stripped out the wheel and tried it on the bench: no problem found, it behaved impeccably (naturally!). Has anybody ever had their wheel behave similarly? Huw

Any recommendations? What do people use? I've just installed the AuroraWatch Uk app on my phone, seems ok Huw

Just goes to show, Olly is the master at processing, I agree that the rework is a tad more saturated, but what is interesting is the use of HDRMultiscaleTransform in PI, whilst it helps with bringing out dust lanes, it's lost that really smooth transition between the galaxy's outer reaches and the background of space. Ho hum, I need more practice.

I've been meaning to go back and have another look at the Andromeda Galaxy I imaged from Olly's place in France in 2015, I was wondering how it would look with the advances in processing software that the years have produced. I hadn't kept the linear luminance, so this is processed from the stretched but otherwise un-processed Luminance, the original LHaRGB was used as colour data. Here's the original and the rework The original was processed by Olly in all kinds of software The new version was processed in PI and Photoshop, with use of Russel Croman's 'X' plugins in both. At this size, I'll admit there's not much difference, the magic is in 100% crops, it's worth expanding these to full screen to see the detail pop Original Rework The original had large doses of local contrast enhance to bring out detail, in the rework, after BlurXTerminator, no sharpening was applied, but a pass with NoiseXTerminator smoothed everything out. Now if only I had some clear skies to get new data to process Huw

Big improvement, layer masking in Photoshop is definitely the way to go with astro. I'd be lost without it. Nice one, M78 is on my to do list. Huw

Thanks, I think you've hit the nail on the head with my problems with processing. What's supposed to be the true star of the image, the IFN or the galaxies? Did my usual search online for similar images, and came away perplexed with how to proceed. This was the latest in a long line of attempts. If I'me honest, the galaxies are too blue compared to their balance in the IFN wide, but the blue was their colour in the PI processed and calibrated narrow angle image, so I assume it was fairly representative. Colour calibration of the wide was done on the whole image, and the galaxies came out a dirty yellow, but the IFN came out fairly neutral. So the composite is a compromise. Here's the old image: And here it is again with three years of practice on Pi, and Mr Croman's magic applied same data, just persuaded a bit 180 minutes L, in 5 minute subs, RGB, 20 minutes each in 2 minute subs, bin x2, Ha, 3 hours in 30 minute subs

Imaged Feb 13th, but only now sort of happy with the processing. I've been trying to make it 'pop', but having difficulty, I might have pushed the colour too far. Anyway, details, Reduced FSQ106 with ZWO6200mono. 230 minutes L in 10 minute subs, 40 minutes each RGB in 5 minute subs The main galaxies are a re-process of old data, FSQ106 with QSI6120, so slightly higher sampling processed in Pi and PS, with a good dose of Russel Croman thrown in for good measure Huw

Thanks both. I've only had the ZWO two years, and two very bad years for imaging, constant cloud cover. Just four usable imaging runs in the whole period. My previous camera was an SX model, and that dewed up something terrible, the whole of the centre of the image was a soft pudding of defocus, the problem on the ZWO is much more subtle, a barely discernible patch, and I can't really tell if it's on the slip cover or the window, but it's tiny, no more than 3 or 4 mm dia. The camera is connected to either a reduced refractor, a Newtonian with corrector, or a stills lens, in all cases the air within the filter wheel is the greatest volume, I used to run the SX with a desiccator within the filter wheel. I was under the impression that the rate of cooling was influencing the creation of dew, hence slowing down the cooling was the way to go, but maybe I was wrong. I remember watching that youtube lecture, and good it was too. The noise from the ZWO is minimal, haven't measured it, but a single sub looks as good as some stacks I've had from the SX. Maybe reducing the cooling is the way to go. Now if only I had some clear skies to experiment under. Huw

Interestingly, yes antidew is on, obviously it does not cope well with 80% cooling from an ambient 20C Huw

Grovelling apologies, yes, a far from stupid question! Patterning happened when cooling approached about 80%, and then a small spot of condensation was visible on the cover, switching cooling off removed the patterning in a few seconds. I have cooling set to -10c in one minute, changed this to two minutes, but the cooling still reaches 80+%. Naturally, this is indoors, outside I doubt it will run as hard, ergo, clean lights, compromised flats. Thanks again. Huw

Dis-connected the camera, left it to warm up for a while, and guess what, patterning is back. Camera is powered off battery, supply is reading 12.5V at 1.5 Amps, nothing else connected. Reckon I'll raise this with FLO, let's see if they have had heard of anything similar Huw

Don't think so, camera was indoors. Just tried it again now, same problem, powered down, re-connected and powered back up, problem has gone. Hate faults like this, prefer it to work or fail entirely, not some intermittent fault Huw

This is a stretched 100% crop of the centre of a one second exposure flat frame, and its fixed pattern on all the flats captured in this session, lights captured the day before are fine, am going to investigate more, but anybody come across anything similar? Huw

Predictable as ever, here's my version of the Pleiades Imaged 12 to 14th Dec 2022 6 hours L , two hours each RGB Reduced FSQ106 with ZWO 6200MM SGP, Pi, (BlurXterminator), PS, and a lot of luck. Thanks for looking Huw

Here's my attempt, some years old by now, but still working faultlessly, even after sitting idle for VERY long periods

Thanks, yes, it's been a long time since I last imaged anything. Colour difference I think is down to my inconsistent processing, the original looked just too blue when I went back to it, here's a further re-work with BXT applied, also tried GHS to stretch the data, I usually just stretch by eye in photoshop. This is a full size file, not reduced as the original was. Not sure of the stretch, it looked too flat, just like masked stretch does (that's my opinion, others will no doubt disagree), so I've tweeked it by eye, some feedback would be appreciated. H

I've just come across BlurXTerminator today, I'm blown away with what it can do to an image captured in pants seeing. I shot a widefield M45 over three nights mid Dec, and was relatively proud ,within limits, of the result. Truth is, I'd have been proud of any result after having more than a year of no imaging. Ran the linear master L and RGB through BlutXT this afternoon, and ran the resulting images through Photoshop, as per my normal workflow. Here's a 100% crop of both versions, I'll let you guess which is which. Guess it's going to be a late xmas present to myself.

The stuff you learn in a few hours, started playing with Russell Croman's BlurXterminator this afternoon - what a cracking piece of software! The nights I imaged M45 had pants seeing, and I had to hit the luminance hard with local contrast enhance to get any nebulosity at all to stand out. Just a quick play with the same data, but using BlurXTerminator gave amazing results, the image below is a 100% crop of new and old processing, I'll let you guess which is which. Are they even of the same star target?

No, I'm not posting early! This is my ONLY image of 2022, work and weather have conspired against me all year. This was captured over three nights, 12th to the 14th of Dec 2022 Six hours L, Two hours each RGB ZWO 6200MM through reduced FGQ106, mounted on AZ-EQ6 This is a half sized image, helps smooth out noise. I find myself having to re-learn with every image, 2021 saw me only achieve one image as well. Huw

Finally saw the green flash tonight! Was watching the sunset over the sea to our west, and just before the sun slipped under, lifted my binoculars (I know, I know!) just in time to see the top limb turn an iridescent green for maybe two or three seconds. What a sight, wish I'd have had a video camera rolling. Huw

Here's my scope and mount, a fork mounted 400mm f3.6 imaging Newt The dome used to be home-made as well, but is was sh*t! It's now a second hand Pulsar. Huw

I'm with Nigella on price-point, last year I realised my home made fibreglass on ply dome was shot, and on the same day I decided it was not worth saving, Pulsar had a well used 2.7 m dome advertised for £1500. Naturally, I was not going to pass on it, so here it is installed. And one year later, not a drop of moisture has entered: Don't lose heart, good used Pulsar domes do come up fairly regularly, why not drop them a mail or phone call to enquire of any possible up-coming domes. Personally, after ten years of trying to keep my home made dome watertight, I'm asking the inevitable question, why didn't I look for a used dome earlier, in materials alone, my effort was not that short of £1500. Automation-wise, the older type domes have the motor mounted in the rotating dome, but not a major issue, I've a LesveDome controlled motor with a 'virtualhere' wifi/usb controlling it from the obsy PC. Huw