powerlord

thankyou! I've no idea why you did what you did from the defaults, but following the same steps then doing some colour, etc I managed to get something better than out of affinity. I clearly need to watch more tutorials on startools. perhaps it's worth buying after all - I'll play with it more. here's what I managed to arrive at from the SIRL one. The one from the asi air for some reason startools seems to think is black and white if i choose linear/dslr, and chosing linear gives weird colours. but the SIRL one works fine as linear/dslr... not sure whats happening there.

OK ill have a go with it first with this pic. Everytime I've tried with previous stacked images and following those steps I end up with something resembling an acid trip.

Any chance you could just write a quick how to steps below ?

i use affinity photo - you've done a better job than me then - I'll give it another go. Startools! - everytime I've tried that (following the tutorials) I just get junk out. hmm.. I must be doing something wrong. I even watched SGRs talk with Ivo Jager and followed his steps.

thanks. yeh mucky - but I swear it looks clean to me. I did actually dither there for the first time, so probably no loss that darks don't work for some reason. and Sirl was set with clipping algorithm. Are those my fits processed ?? if so - how did you get those results! - you even pulled some colour out. looks amazing! Is this the dark expensive art of PixelInsight ? or something poor mortals can aspire to ?? stu

Maybe useful info for others - So, low res, big bloated stars - Neither DSS or APP was having any of it for star registration, so stacking was a no go. IF I was going to get anywhere, I needed to be able to stack outside of asiair pro. So finally I re-read Siril tutorials to try to get to grips with another astro program designed by people seemingly without ever using another piece of software written in the last 30 years. Well.. what do you know - Siril stacks it no problems. All 300 frames. Result is pretty much identical to the asiair (which to be fair does a really good job, but at the time I had no calibration frames, so it was just stacked without them). I can't in all honestly say that the result is any different in Sirl though even with bias and flats. Weirdly when I tried to add the dark master (which DSS had produced), though it pre-processed ok, the result was that it had removed nearly every piece of data from the image leaving only a few tiny stars. After fannying around for hours, I finally traced this to the dark. Remove the dark, and just use bias and flats and it was fine. Whether this is an issue with my dark master, an issue with Sirl, or an issue with the operator's failure to grasp the finer details of a program written for aliens I'm not sure - but that's as far as I got. For interest, and as they are tiny anyway, here is the stacked fit raw from asiair (not calib frames), and the stacked fit from sirl (+bias+flat) Note: ASIAIR stack is the lot - including about 50 at the end in daylight. Sirl is just the 300 that were good. It's clear tonight, so need to decide if I have another go with same setup, no UHC, or go back to the DSLR (maybe add barlow?) and try with that - again without UHC.. as looking at my DSLR attempts I think there's more detail there if I'm honest. OR.. I make the jump and finally setup the 200p now it's collimated.. but tbh I don't think it's gonna even make the 80+ degrees I'd need for M51 without hitting the tripod... ASIAIR Stack350_Light_M51_30.0s_Bin1.fit SIRL_Light_M51_30.0s_Bin1_stacked.fit

Thanks, I'd like to, but can't stack anything unless I can get stacking/registration working ☹️. Cant even use the calibration frames I took

These are all so good. Pretty disappointed how last night's turned out. Was hoping for better. Shot with ED72 and asi224. couldn't really get any colour data out. I had a UHC filter on, maybe that didn't help. Or I need to get my finger out and sort out the 200p. I did a live stack in asiair, which was as well as can't get APP or DSS to align (don't detect stars). 300x10 seconds

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have a look at my post: If all you need is 12v it's really simple. the cheapest way (assuming you want to avoid massive lead acid battery), is as large a 4s lipo as you can afford from hobbyking. A mains lipo charger (to mains charge it), and regulated 12v output DC to DC converter (the one I used (10 amp 12v out) runs on 24v, and will work down to 15v = 3.75v per cell, which is still a fair bit of charge, but tbh it will keep cells working a long time and saves you worrying about discharging too much (if you used 5s, even at dangerously flat 3v it is pushing out 15v). https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07P9Q3TB8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 If all that scares you, another option is a lifepo4 lead acid replacement battery - these are for light replacement of car//bike batteries and charge via standard car charger but they are not cheap.

Pfft - you can prove anything with facts* Seriously all good - thanks vlaiv, thanks alacant et al. As a beginner, it's not immediately obvious which are facts, which are theories, which are opinions. There is a vast range of experience here, and I'm using it as a 'validation' really of stuff I find on the internet - like any involved hobby it's not black and white. For example, I recently got back into Vinyl a bit, and you read some articles - and unless you spend 1000 quid on a turntable, and store your records in a humidity controlled safe, it will sound rubbish and you wasting your time. Clearly that may be true for that poor unfortunate individual who can tell the minute (arguably imaginary.. cough... my electronics degree raising it's head there) difference between 2 types of speaker wire... For the rest of us, we compromise - I got a 1990s sony deck and a new decent stylus, 1980 sony amp, and a pair of wharfdale speakers, and some second hand records off ebay - and it sounds pretty decent to me. and guess what - I'm the only one that matters. Another example is when I took up paramotoring. I had no interest at the time in paragliding (I do now and fly unpowered often), I just wanted to go straight into powered flight. Some experts would swear blind you should not do that without the grounding of unpowered flight. Others were fine with it. That's still the case today. With astro it seems similar, some will want to delve deep into the theory - that's the bit they enjoy. Others will get their kicks in other areas I suppose. I agree to a level, I want to understand what I'm doing (that's why I'm here, asking questions to learn), but also.. to use a physics analogy - sometimes the statement 'light travels in straight lines' suffices. Sometimes 'light is a wave' is all you need to tell kids. Later, they can learn about curving spacetime, and the duality of light. Vlaiv offers his vast depth of knowledge on here, and I'm very grateful for him answering many of my numpty questions - and some of it I understood, and some went in one ear and out the rest - as it's (apologies Vlaiv) definately often in the spacetime/duality league**. As a beginner, and I fully accept everyone is different, sometimes I just want to know enough to be dangerous. Once I get more experience I learn more about why what I was doing worked and what it was for. That way, at least for me, I keep learning with what is interesting to me, and don't get bogged down with deep theory - I am interested in that.. eventually.. but tell me 'light is a wave' for now. 🙂 *stewart lee **I'm actually re-reading some of his responses to my early questions back in Jan/Feb for example and they make much more sense to me now, with a few months more experience and reading under my belt - again, thanks Vlaiv.

thanks. yes, I couldn't get rid of the red bias very well. especially at the bottom. and I'm not sure howe much of the nebula in the top right is real vs noise/banding. I think I shot it all with liveview on - before I knew better. At the end of the day I only took 30 lights at 60 seconds iso1600, so there really wasn't much to play with.

Took this back in mid-march, but I didn't really know how to process it after stacking very well. I post my original attempt, and my new one. This time I went back to raws, and used affinity to stack, and process. Using the affinity tutorials on the website. There's some banding which was also in the flats, but I definately feel the result is a heck of a lot better than my first attempt with the data. original processing attempt: today's attempt:

So, I've made a more sophisticated and permanent version of my first attempt : This has a solid aluminium box, 3 x USBs (each can output 2a), 2 outputs for DLSRs (8.2v), and 4 x 12v outputs - which can total 10amps. And an on/off switch. It's internally fused. It is powered by a 24-26vv supply - basically because I'm using it portably with my electric bike battery packs (which are 52v and can be rewired on the fly to 26v). Or with a 24v mains PSU (I use a 6amp one). Therefore when at home, and I've finished fitting the weatherproof power sockets at the end of the garden I can plug the PSU into one, and power the whole setup that way. And when I'm away in the motorhome, I can simply plug one of the electric bike batteries in. Those batteries are between 6-800Watt hours, so will run the setup for 3 or 4 nights for 2 complete setups (2 mounts, ASIAIR, wifi extender, 2 main cameras, 2 guide cameras, dew heaters and a laptop). Job's a good un. 😉

ah. thanks - good to know. still, concensus (well nearly) seems to be don't bother - just use bias + flat. So that'll do for me frankly. I ain't a pixel peeper - as Lazy Geek on youtube would say.

I do find the ASIAIR routine a bit onerous. I'm hoping with a bit of experience to note a correlation between what it's trying to achieve and the liveview in the DSLR - then I can use the liveview (maybe if I check the polaris position first, then note where the clock face is on the screen, etc.. draw it on with a marker..) . The lack of real time feedback is the main issue with ASIAIR imho. You're setting maybe 5 second exposure, then it has to download it over USB2, then another couple of seconds to process the raw and display it. not quite sure if that includes your change or not, so you wait for it to refresh again, then repeat again and again and again. oh you've went by it.. so back we go again... arggggg. synscan was soooo much easier with liveview and 'centre it in the view' buisness. I may end up using syncscan do PA first, then start ASIAIR, but that would be admitting defeat! stu

as i say - turtles all the way down. 🤪

I have to disagree with you there - as you say yourself in the final sentence. Once it's PAed it is, fair enough - but PAing is hard enough in ASIAIR without me having to worry about ALT offset changing when I change the AZ offset. The closer I can get it before I start, the quicker my PAing will be - especially as my old EQ5 is a bit rough with ALT in the first place. It's a heck of a lot easier if the two can be corrected independently imho. Standing there for 20+ mins fannying around trying to get it PAed is not my idea of fun. Anything that can make that quicker I'd gladly do. However, see above - the glaringly obvious sitting the phone on the tray will be my goto next time - embarresssed I never thought og that - I'll been trying to sit in on a square corner of the mount... sheesh. stu

you know I'm happy to admit when I've missed the obvious - I have never thought of just sticking it on the tray!

Hi chaps, Before I set off on another project - I want to check if something exists for this first. Problem : levelling the tripod. We all know how important it is, but we are expected to do this with great accuracy using a small bubble of air in a plastic blob of water. This seems kinda primitive to me. The solution: a small oled screen device which can be permanently attached to the tripod (now I grant you we are getting into a turtles all the way down problem here.. what levels the level.. however lets ignore that for now), and shows you visually degrees out, plus dot digital bubble. it can use an extremely accurate accelerometer to do this. total cost will be about 15 quid - esp32 dev board with battery and oled screen, accelerometer. and some noddy code to show it all graphically in an easy to see at night view. I've looked around and can't see anything that does this. and trying to use a mobile phone is tricky because no flat surface on most mounts. Now, of course a simple solution is a 'flat' deck fixed to the mount to put mobile phone on, and just use that. But where's the fun in that ? So - before I get hacking - has this been done before ?

In case useful to folk - I'm doing up the garden at the mo, and will be installing power sockets to end of garden where my 'observation deck' is. I got one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08W5FS751/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 its a bit bright tbh, but I liked the look and it will be about 6 feet from the deck. Anyway, I got some plastic 'lens repair tape' for broken car taillights, and opened it up, and packed as many layers as I had tape on top of it. and it works really well as a red light. I'll have a handy switch up there and might add a remote so easy to flip on and off when I need it. Getting sick of red head torches and the like.

I did it! took it all to bit, flocked the lot, cleaned the mirrors, put it all back together and laser aligned it. I don't think the laser is exactly wonderful as if I rotate the thing in the 1.25 holder the laser goes from centre, to 1/2 outside edge.. but rolling it on a bit of glass and it seems steady... so who knows. it's a heck of a lot better probably than it was though - at first the laser was hitting about 3" out from the centre of the primary! never mind the return path.

thanks - good info there. I assume you also use flats though ? if nothing else, to minimise dust/lens marks, etc?

huh. so you just shoot lights, and point DSS at your bias master as a dark ? and that works well for you I assume. Might give that a try then. stu

So, searching the net this seems to be controvertial at the time. Has opinion solidified one way or the other ? I'm referring to Clarkvisions in depth test and review of the original 6d (which I have) btw, not my own opinion - I'm just wondering if it's true not, as clearly it would save me a load of hassle and time... https://clarkvision.com/reviews/evaluation-canon-6d/index.html Specifically the summary paragraph: " The constant dark level with long exposure time indicates the camera has on-sensor dark current suppression. This, however, does not suppress noise from dark current. But it results in a uniformly dark level that needs no post processing correction. No long exposure dark frames are needed when making long exposures if recording raw." It does sort of tie in with what I was finding when I forgot and didn't have time to take darks - I even reprocessed an old shot or two without them to see if there was any difference, and then wondered what I was doing wrong when I couldn't see any. Note: do read the article - he's not talking about not using darks if you turn on long exposure noise reduction and/or high ISO speed NR. He's saying with those off, there's no point in taking darks - since whatever thermal dark current noise is there at the temperature - is random so you ain't getting rid of it - and the camera does the rest. Also, fascinating the difference in thermal noise with temperature. Really brings it out why folk use cooled CCDs! Look at those 1C pics !