powerlord

You need hardly any for stars - if you look at the tadpoles ones I posted this week, I only had 8 minutes and they came out good. and it's easy now with stuff like starXterminator, you just run it on your NB run it on your stars, and then get the stars themselves back however you do that with your edit software (affinity photo for me so its just a subtract later on starless onto of original, merge as new layer - gives you stars) - then you can add or screen them onto the starless. I've found it really makes a difference, especially in HSO palette, maybe less so in HSO. Like you I put it off, but mainly because I shoot during the night from my bed, so it would have meant getting up to remove filter which wasn't gonna happen, and doing it later on when I was shooting filterless usually meant I'd moved the camera orientation in the meantime and again it was a pain. With the wheel now, I'm just making it a regular part of my NB - either starting with 20 mins of 60 sec subs for stars, or sometimes doing it in the middle of imaging where the sky is at it's darkest. stu

Definately glad I can have a go after seeing your results here. And it only takes a few mins to do. I get the feeling that shooting Sii, might end up with me taking more Oiii overall than I'd do usually too - so you get the benefit of that too - when before you'd feel you had enough Ha, and 'were not getting your money worth' out your imaging time to shoot more Ha/Oiii data. But maybe that's just me. Are you using a filter wheel or manual changing just now ? It was the main reason I build by StuEFW thing - so I can do this (and RGB for stars) all automatically without it costing me a fortune in 2" ZWO EFWs. stu p.s. worth imaging some RGB stars to just finish that piccy off ? Definately worth it I think ?

Looking good Lee. Nice detail in the ostrich. I got a D2 yesterday to pair with my L-ultimate. Not tried it yet. How did you treat the Oiii ? Though I see little actual visible benefit over just using the Green channel, I've been integrating the green and blue channels from my L-ultimate data to give my Oiii. So my plan was to do the same, but now integrate the 4 channels I'll caputre (G/B from L-ultimate, G/B from D2) into one Oiii stack. Are you doing the same ?

Say hello to Mount Stu Observatory mkII.. Next thing digging, then the hardcore, concrete, yada yada.. Doesn't seem such a big task if I take em one at a time. I want it to be complete by end of Feb. P. S. if anyone has a pier they don't want please message me.

Been waiting patiently for FLO stock to arrive to fulfill my order for this. Full HSO OSC imaging (with my L-ULTIMATE ha/oiii) is now an option!

I'll need to rake out some, but I though I was getting good sharp stars even with my FF 6D with mine - it was only when I added a filter (L-ultimate) in the mix that things go south - 6d or asi2600. However, thats 1 or 2 stops in, I don't think I've ever shot fully wide open.

I use my 300pds on my EQ6 - works fine 🙂 It is a bit fun and games mounting I admit and did take me a while to work out a technique of lifting it onto the EQ6 and getting it into the dovetail and tightening at the right balance by myself. As another option, have you considered a C9.25 ? I have one as well as the 300pds. With the 6.3 reducer/flattener on the C9.25 you have 1300mm and tbh I find the quality I get is pretty much the same as with the 300pds. Sure the PDS is a bit quicker at F4.9 vs F6.3 but as you say, it (or even the tiny(!) 250pds is a beast compared to an RC8 or C925. And of course SCTs are a doddle to collimate too, so there's that. stu

Well.. said I'd post tomorrow, but just carried on and processed tonight. This is data shot last night with my 80ED (500mm) with L-ultimate. I also shot same target with the redcat, and got RGB data for the stars for that too. So here, I used the RGB stars from the redcat. Otherwise, it's last nights data, plus data from 2 sessions in december - total of 14 hours of 10 mins subs for the NB. And, as noted on my other post - 8 mins of rgb stars. Again, in a natural palette.

This is one I think looks better in a natural palette - mostly data from last night (L-ultimate and RGB stars), with some extra NB data from december. All together about 8 hours of 10 min subs for NB, and er.. only 8 mins of 2 min subs for RGB as it was really cloudly last night when I took the RGB, so had to trash most of it. All the the redcat and asi2600. Leaving all the stars in on this one hides too much of those fine filaments, so I've been a bit selective with how I've treated the stars - leaving the bright ones in, and the star cluster, and blending them in more where they won't hid the nebulosity detail, while keeping them fainter in the top left where all those filaments are. I shot the tadpoles in a bit more closeup last night as well with my 80ED (500mm), so will post that one tomorrow when I've processed it. stu

Er... just looking at the dates above, it would appear that I am younger than I thought - I've been doing this TWO years now - not three. So 335 targets in two years - nearly one every 2 days. who says you can't image in UK weather ! stu

seems like no light leakage - basically its all incased in my 3d printed cover really - and the original manual one is all metal and pretty solid - only place light could get in is the open bit for you to move wheel, and that's where my mechanism and cover is - which fitstight all the way around it. position repeatability is perfect really - as in video. It 'syncs' on switch on to position 1, and every time it passes position 1, so it's never more than a few filter movements away from another sync, and it can go all the way around either way and not be out anyway, but if it is, my code and hall sensor sorts it.

I couldn't decide between the as shot widefield or a crop - so here is both. Redcat, asi2600 and no filters. 1 hour of data as that's all I get in a night. 120 sec subs

I don't mind sharing hw build. Or electronics. But I don't think it would be right to share code - it's one thing me making a few zwo compatible filter wheels for myself - it's quite another if I make how ive done it public I think? I mean, I've done nothing wrong - reverse engineering is as old as engineering, but still once its public its a few steps before some (other) Chinese manufacturer uses it to make a commercial filter wheel compatible with zwo, and I don't think I want to be responsible for that. But, hw and electronics, I will share. If all you want to do is automate it via a Web interface ir something, or if you want to make an ascom driver, that should get you going I think?

Just an update that it was tested in anger for the first time last night. I used it with one filter (L-ultimate), so I could shoot NB data, then flip to an empty position and shoot RGB data. That way, I shot flame and tadpoles in both NB and RGB, and shot some M42 in RGB. All from my bed. So pretty chuffed it all worked without a single hitch - my asiair flipping between the positions as required by the plan I put together. When my duo sii/oiii 6nm filter arrives, that can be added, allowing me to do full HSO/RGB with my OSC 2600s. So now one is working, I have another manual EFW arrived from aliexpress and will just put together a second one - really easy now all the hard work has been done. So 2 compatible EFWs for a total cost of about 110 quid vs 650 odd. not bad even if I say so myself 🙂 stu

First light for 2023, AND first light for stuEFW*. At the mo, stuEFW being used just to flip between no filters and l-ultimate for rgb stars and at the mo, some moon video. But once my askar sii/oiii filter arrives it'll ebable me to do full hso/rgb with my asi2600 easily. Stu *:

Here's some 135mm Heart and Soul I took a few weeks back with my L-ultimate and asi2600. As I say, backfocus clearly off as starts other than centre, terrrible. So as requested by @ollypenrice here's some blurX results. starter was a linear stack, but pre cropped and background flattened in APP. Firstly here is with a basic stretch only: Next is BlurX with defaults (0.25 sharpen), followed by basic stretch: And lastly, BlurX with max 0.5 sharpen, followed by basic stretch: I'll let folk download, and zoom in and compare themselves.

anyone can do a poll - feel free. I just chose what I thought were probably the most popular - I could be wrong. stu

I think it should do Olly - it certainly worked with my Altair 80ED - which has rubbish stars other than the centre unflattened. and after blurX - is pretty decent. I'll take out some SY data and see if it works with it - as I get similar rubbish stars around sides with SY - even shot down a few stops as never worked out exact back focus yet.

Nope, that is the regular insurance. Avivaplus is a separate product described in the last paragraph. I. E. It does not have the restriction of the normal product. This is again confirmed in the policy wording.

on the insurance topic, just checked mycover. for others on avivas avivaplus product its good news - cover is unlimited up to full contents value (100k) https://www.aviva.co.uk/faq/answer/home-insurance/3033/

I use battery blink cameras. Though left unattended, I'm in house. Any movement and I'm alerted instantly as are the intruders. That's all u can do IMHO. If they still steal em, so be it that's what house insurance is for.. Though I do need to check it's covered tbh.

Id have thought that one is a slave rather than a host if it works the way it's been described. Put u can get wee USB hub rat tails. Plug one into one of your usbs, the give u more. Just make sure u only plug low data stuff on same hub together (e.g. Mount, eaf)

thanks, i did try that. ive since been chucking lots more images at it. nebula wise, seems pretty hit and miss, but nothing like the difference i see on galaxies. itll be interesting trying it on say galaxy images with my c925 without 6.3 reducer when i take some... see what magic it can do there

updated image to remove red noise and crop a bit

Just very noisy star extraction. But I'll have q go at cleanijng it up - thought it wasn't really noticeable.