Newforestgimp

Hi All, I've had love hate relationship with NINA so far, I love the concept and the front end, but I cant seem to get it to work seamlessly which is of course the whole point. I had some issues last night with APT and out of frustration i thought i would try NINA again and to my surprise it worked amazingly, made it through the problematic platesolving and slewing/centering step that i could not get beyond before only to then stall at PHD2 guiding !!!! NINA fired up PHD2, started the looping, chose a star, started its calibration, west step east step etc, but PHD2 would then continually say "Waiting for devices, Stopping" and select a new star and repeat that loop ad-infinitum. So i stopped NINA started PHD2 manually, and it picked a star, calibrated first time no issues, and started guiding, so i restarted the NINA Sequence minus all the automation as a glorified intervalometer. I dont believe in coincidences so NINA must be causing some comms issue I believe. Anybody else had this and got over it ? I'm thinking some timeout variable somewhere needs changing ?

Thank you, I look forward to the output with interest.... My Light panel has arrived since posting this, only used once so trying to figure out the best exposure settings as AV mode on the canon seems to be producing a horizontal dark band at the top of the frame. I think Pixinsight is probably the only one i havent tried 🙂 & not sure i want to I didnt want to enjoy it and leave myself trapped in spending a lot of money, Photoshop is annoying as they want subscription and the demo version is so short. I'm currently trying Afinity Photo demo and APP. Processing Software tried so far... DSS - No Fuss Works Well - Keeper SIRIL - Bit of upfront organising but stacking is excellent via scripts, post processing less so. - Keeper SEQUATOR - SO FAST !!! - keeper GIMP - Tricky but fully featured and free - keeper (because its free) Astro Pixel Processor - Superb, lengthy but simple stack procedure, some good tools for basic post processing. - keeper NEBULOSITY - Very good but too lengthy for me - wont purchase STARTOOLS - Never got anything decent out of it - wont purchase AFINITY PHOTO - Too early to tell but looks promising - cheap enough to buy anyway Any others I should try ? 😂

I have the built in bhatinov on the WO ZS61, and I’ve been using Remote Desktop into APT live view on laptop from my phone for focusing at the scope, maybe I should try using a tablet to give myself a bigger screen. Also I’m not sure on the backfocus, I’m using an adjustable William optics flat 61a but with addition of 2” light pollution filter, I’m actually considering removing the filter as it was only a cheap one to experiment with. WO recommend 12.9mm on the flattener adjuster for DSLR if memory serves and somebody on here recommend bumping that up to 13.7 with the filter in place which I did ? hopefully the light panel will arrive soon...

Perfect, and thank you for taking time out to have a go, it has given me some confidence I’m on the right track and need to get better quality data capture IN, easier better processing OUT. What I’m hoping is that given decent data what I’m doing in Gimp is actually ok. I have had a few successes with much brighter targets. as for Blurred I’m for the first time in my life, being just the right side of 50, I find my 20/20 vision is letting go at a rapid pace and focussing has become a “challenge” shall we say, my brain gives up, is it focussed ? It is focussed in my glasses ? But not when I take them off ? Is it focussed just for me and a mess for everybody else 😂 so much so I’m at that crossroads of what gear to get next and should it be an auto-focuser 😂 instead of Astro camera. Yes star masks !! That is something I need to learn properly, I’ve been trying reducing stars by using ‘colour select - grow - feather- value propagate’ in Gimp, it works to a degree but must learn proper masking to remove them as you have done.

Grab a couple of apps to help, I use these all the time (noob myself)... Photopils - will tell you based on your camera and lens what exposure you can use without any trailing or barely noticeable trailing. It does a lot more besides. SkyView - To plan what will be where in the sky and it’s track across the sky. Not used Ekos, I use APT, but clunky but gives the control I want. Or Backyard EOS but you need to pay for that. keep going...

I’m actually chugging away on my first Andromeda attempt from few months back, will be interesting to see if I make a better job of it.

sorry for delay replying I’ve had my head in Astro Pixel Processor demo. sorry no flats, I’ve struggled to capture flats that don’t do more harm than good but I have ordered a light panel as suggested in a previous reply to hopefully remedy that. Do they make processing an easier experience ? interested to hear the rationale for not using dark files ?

I find the PS you tube tutorials easier to follow but hard to translate into Gimp and the guys teaching all seem to refer back to PS “like you would do in PS” well I’ve never used PS so pointless, and I’m reluctant to sign up to a monthly subscription for PS, I’m considering Afinity Photo as it’s a one off payment but it looks worryingly like gimp. tried startools can’t for the life of me get anything worthwhile out of it, easy workflow in theory. had some successes with SIRIL, love the stacking scripts & photometry colour balance (when it works). recently tried sequator fab stacking and it made the best M42 stack for me and REALLY fast. Will be a keeper for sure. nebulosity is labour intensive but could well be one for future when my data is better and I know more about what I’m doing. so as I say I tend to default to DSS & gimp. APP seems to be the gold standard but boy it’s expensive, might have a look at demo version.

Thank you, I will definitely check these out, it would be nice to get the full set of calibration frames 👍👍

Nice One, Thankyou. Interested to know what you both thought about the data when processing it ? did you have thoughts like WTAF is this ? or about the same as you're used to processing ? etc, be brutal, I dont want to spend years trying to process stuff that Trevor AstroBackyard wouldn't be able to get anything from 🤦‍♂️

Had another play and its too vivid, don't like it, no subtlety.

I hear you ! im thinking I might need to get something like APP or PS. There seems to be a lot of tutorials with Photoshop and the ones I’ve watched for gimp always seem to compare with what you do in PS.

Nice one & Thanks for taking the time to have a go, yours does seem to pop a bit more than my efforts but I see you have the same lens cast/vignetting to the right of the DSO, out of interest what PP software are you using ? I’ve tried flats but I need a better method than what I’m doing as I seem to get dark banding at the top of the image and not consistent enough and they have made processing worse, so until I can get consistent “flat” frames I put up with the artefacts. I did try using iPad at the weekend but blinking screen kept changing when the scope/T-shirt touched it !!!!

Hey no worries, I appreciate you taking time out to take a look, will be interesting to see what you make of it, Yes all stacked using DSS, i actually deleted all the attempts to clear space because I wasn't happy with them, I can see the Nebula is there but I dont have the skills to bring it out. Either way if anyone can get something half decent out of the data I know its my Post Processing i need to focus on or if everyone says the data is awful i can then focus on improving the acquisition. My suspicion is both need a lot of work.

The Lights should be there now..... Thanks for taking a look.

Damn it ! let me see what went wrong.....

Hi All, I'm still very new to this and enjoying the challenge & feel like I'm doing things correctly I'm framing fine, plate solving assisted, guiding seems to be going fine so on paper things should be improving but something that is consistently causing me doubts and questions is the post processing, I'm currently trying various flavours of stacking and post processing and tend to default to DSS and GIMP but the results are variable to say the least and I find GIMP is not very intuitive. I wonder if there is anyone out there that fancies a challenge to see what they can do with the data I've collected ? I'm at the point of wondering if my captured input data is shocking or my post processing is shocking (probably both), I'm hoping that maybe someone can say "your input data is awful because XYZ" The data below was collected under a bright moon on an unmodified 1300d DSLR, 3min guided exposures at ISO800 and I basically couldn't get anything out of it 😞 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dsncqroqz2snxd3/AAB56eKYB-h8kAcahdRrjz-1a?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wse6k0hcgsfmm4j/AAAX_0qB1nQmlYWrEgSwOwoLa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4lztkz9d0zauekg/AAC6Ar_nUtKIcdVmlpjKTwioa?dl=0

Hi All, Here’s a question that I suspect won’t have a straightforward single answer so thought I’d pose it in the lounge... If you could only have ONE filter for an image train using a non modified DSLR, which would it be ?

Hi All, Can anyone confirm if I need to adjust the default William Optics recommended 12.9mm Flat 61A DSLR spacing when adding a 2" screw in filter into the train ?

Yeah I’m now looking at power box and rpi4, I think although not a one box it’s more flexible and can swap out the rpi4 for laptop or replace with rpi5 etc and leave the power box in situ. im a little concerned with the Astroberry set up, I assume you flash the micro sd that comes with the rpi or do I need a blank off the shelf micro sd ?

That could well be the one 👍

Stellarmate does look good but it looks like it doesn’t do the power management bit ? Still need separate power supplies for the gear , need someone to come up with an asiair pro that isn’t tied, a Pegasus Pro if you will.

Cheers ill take a look at stellarmate 👍

Thanks, So hypothetically if I have a Pegasus Power Box and Astroberry on RPi could i plug in the astroberry to the PPB via usb in same way I would a laptop for example ? The issue I have with the ASIAIR PRO is exactly as you state its a great box but cant be used with anything other than ZWO or as a simple hub when you dont want to use the ZWO app. Looking for a solution so I can use phone/tablet out and about and laptop at home without re-cabling each time, not sure if that makes sense ?

I can see the appeal of both, I like the ability to power and control via the pegasus & laptop combo but is there anyway if out in middle of nowhere i can use pegasus without Laptop ? & likewise when at home i like using the laptop to control everything. Would I be looking at somekind of Pegasus/raspberry pi/laptop combo ?