LaurenceT

22 minutes ago, carastro said:

If you are using automatic actions, then separate layers will disappear as part of the action.  If you are doing the processes yourself you create you new layer and can then work on it.  I find if I use any automatic action (I rarely do) that you can't step back in the history, so you need to make a duplicate copy if you think you might want to step backwards.

You may find my Photoshop YouTube Tutorials helpful.

https://sites.google.com/view/astrophotography-carole-pope/video-tutorials?authuser=0

Carole  

Brilliant, thanks. I'll have a look at those videos.

2 minutes ago, wornish said:

The History window tab is designed to solve your problem.  Can show it by selecting it from the top menu Window - History

If you have it open it shows a new entry after every adjustment you do.  The bottom one is the latest. To go back to the previous state simply click on the history step above.  You can go back as many steps as you want.  A lot astronomy actions do many individual steps so they add quite a few entries in the history list.

Thanks for that Dave.

27 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

What I do before using any of the action sets is create a new layer first. Then perform the action required and if I don't like the outcome I just delete the new layer I created before the action. 

There's a way in the history tab but I can't remember so I just do the new layer thing above. 

Lee 

Excellent Lee, I'll try that 👍

I've decided to bite the bullet and learn Photoshop after having jogged along for years being happy with Lightroom for my wildlife photography. I'm starting a free YouTube course but at the same time learning how to use the Astronomy Tools Action Set with Photoshop. I notice on the YouTube videos I've followed (Astroexploring and Astroaddict) that when an action is performed a new layer appears, but when I do it the new layer appears for a brief half second and then disappears. I find this frustrating because it means I can't undo an action if I don't like the results.

Be grateful for some advice. 

10 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Try it now you are fully tight and submit the result here. If you still have that in the corner then try adding 1mm of backspacing. 

Will do, thanks Adam and @PadrePeace for your help.

13 minutes ago, PadrePeace said:

This article explains Coma which is what this looks like. 
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/photographylife.com/what-is-coma/amp

 

Is your scope new?

I bought it used .

Edit: I've just checked the scope and the reducer wasn't absolutely screwed into the scope, there could have been a centimetre or slightly more of rotation 🙄

14 minutes ago, PadrePeace said:

Back focus is different to the focus you achieve using a bahtinov. What AdamJ is seeing is the comet shaped stars flying outwards in each corner.

So is there a mismatch between the scope and the flattener/reducer?

2 minutes ago, PadrePeace said:

That’s bang on 55mm.

That's what I thought. I don't know if it's relevant to back focus but I got a perfect pattern on a bahtinov mask on Vega.

Perhaps there's something wrong with the scope?

48 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Well one thing we would need to fix next before any further assessment is your back spacing as you don't have enough. Are you measuring 55mm from the back of the corrector or from the back of the extender that is matched to the corrector, it should be the latter. 

All in all a good first image though. 

Adam 

Thanks for the reply Adam, much appreciated. This is the setup I'm using:

3 minutes ago, PadrePeace said:

Seems that red/blue star fringing  you had in the first image has gone completely here. Have you done anything to achieve that or was it a conversion anomaly?

It would seem that the fringing only appeared after my attempt at further processing!

2 hours ago, Adam J said:

I see the image as being 1000 X 1000 ish but it should be 3000x3000pixels from a IMX533. It's hard to assess stars on a resized image. 

Image after processing and stretching in APP, exported to Dxo Photolab just for conversion to JPG. This is full size:

1 hour ago, Adam J said:

I see the image as being 1000 X 1000 ish but it should be 3000x3000pixels from a IMX533. It's hard to assess stars on a resized image. 

I understand, thanks, I will have to work out where in the  process it got reduced.

10 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Is that a full resolution image? Hard to see but it looks like you have red on one side of the star and blue on the other? 

Sorry for the newbie reply but how would I display a full resolution image, I've done so much processing of it?

Just had first light with this little scope, being an absolute novice I've had a bit of a fiddle with the post processing and I'm still unsure about the best software route to get rid of some blue haloing around the larger stars. I'd like some criticism in general about the image to help get me on my way.

California Nebula,150x60 sec lights, no calibration frames, unguided, asi533mc pro, Asiair Pro, Skywatcher Az GTi in EQ mode. Processed in APP, DXo Photolab, Lightroom and Topaz.

26 minutes ago, Spile said:

I create target lists for DSOs and binaries in SkySafari that display in the main screen.

I'll have a go at that.

For the previous two nights I've set up under clear skies at about 1900 and started imaging only to shut up shop half an hour later due to clouds. Last night was no different but when we took the hound into the garden at 2330 there was a lovely clear sky. My wife, fed up with my moaning obviously, insisted I had another go so I set up and decided on the Elephants Trunk. All seemed to be going well looking at my Ipad while watching a Netflix film  when suddenly I realised I was imaging my trees instead!

Quick re-adjustment of target and I found the California Nebula and started imaging, it was now 0130 and it went well until I wrapped it up at about 1530 and went to bed.

Askar FMA 180, Az GTi mount in EQ mode, Asiair Pro, asi533mc pro.

100x60 second lights, unguided, no calibration frames. Astro Pixel Processor, Dxo Photolab3, Topaz and finally a bit of Lightroom. My astrophotography and processing are in their infancy!

I've found a solution which works for me with my beginners knowledge of astronomy. I open Stellarium and on the left I select "Sky and Viewing options window".

I then select "DSO" and then "select labels and markers".

I then select those options which I find useful ;

Use outlines for big deep sky objects

use proportional hints

use additional names of DSO.

Under the SSO tab I select "show solar system objects"

I can now see at a glance what my targets may be for a given time or date.

I'll now see if I can find a similar work around in SkySafari. Thanks for all the replies, at the very least I've been able to understand the various options in Stellarium and now maybe SkySafari.

I'm new to imaging, only really started this year. I am using an Asiair and have SkySafari and Stellarium installed on my laptop for reference purposes.

What I'm really after is a way to see all the available targets of a particular type in my area for that night on a single screen while indoors planning my session.

I am obviously able to use SkySafari for instance to select a target from a list and see its position and movement but that's only giving me one target at a time. 

Perhaps I'm asking for the impossible but I'd appreciate some comments.

1 hour ago, StevieDvd said:

The Asiair & Asiair Pro run on Raspberry Pi - the Pro has an add-on board with the power outlets & 12v input etc. The OS is on and loaded from the sd-card

The core of these use the INDILIB base  which has standard and optional libraries for cameras, mounts, focuser motors, filter wheels etc.  ZWO have limited the libraries they include and don't provide an option to add/use 3rd party ones - hence the ZWO only setup.

A new set of libs to control the ZWO add-on board indi-asi-power has been developed which can be used in Astroberry & Stellarmate

Stellarmate & Asiair have mobile apps, Astoberry uses a vnc web client. 

ZWO have limited their app so the user cannot add 3rd party and they only list available ZWO in the selections where allowed. Except for some DSLR and mounts, they would not sell if only ZWO mounts were allowed.

But on Astroberry/Stellarmate they access the indi-lib panels and select equipment from the full list of available drivers/libs.

INDI is not restricted to Astroberry/Stellarmate & Asiair. I have a VM of Ubuntu Mate I am trying on my Win 11 PC and can run Ekos/Kstars and access the same INDI libs and setup panels for any supported INDI equipment - just startd so have not worked out exactly what I want it to do. But I could of course load Ubuntu as the prime OS on a laptop/min-pc and have full access to Ekos/Kstar/Indi as well.

Does that answer the question okay?

Steve

 

 

Thanks

25 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

One other thing to note is that the Asiair Pro with its built in power outlets can still be used with Astroberry or Stellarmate (and usig those power ports) so the ZWO gear lock-in can be overcome. Not quite as true with the Asiair Plus as that uses internal memory for the OS not an sd-card.

And even for non Asiair converts the ZWO cameras, focus motors etc are a good buy.

 

How does the integration of the astroberry/stellarmate with the Asiair work?

50 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Ill go against the grain here and recommend a mini-pc instead of an ASIAIR. You can do everything with a mini-pc that you can do with an Asiair, but not vice versa. With an Asiair you are forever locked to either DSLRs or ZWO astrocameras, locking you away from buying astrocameras from other brands that are hundreds of pounds cheaper but do the same thing.

Since you dont already have any ZWO products choosing the Asiair would be foolish. If you had, it would make a lot more sense.

His DSLR is compatible with the Asiair as is his other gear and he's talking about getting an Asi guide camera.

12 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

The ASIair polar alignment is easy to use and put simply works just fine.  The question I would have is whether it works with the Nikon D600?  It works by using plate solving on repeated downloaded images from the camera as the mount is adjusted to obtain polar alignment. I’d really want to make sure it will do this with the DSLR you own.

As with all recommendations for the ASIair, it needs to come with the rider that it only works with ZWO cameras and some DSLRs. 

The Nikon D600 has been officially tested by ZWO.

Sorry, missed the post by @SmokeyJoe

I moved from Astroberry to Asiair and it was the best decision I've made in my astrophotography journey. 

The power question is an interesting one, I have been using this in my search for an ultra portable setup:

Celestron 6.1 Ah Powertank Lithium LT | First Light Optics

Many people would criticize this as being inadequate to power an Asiair but I use it to power the Asiair only, my mount and the camera are powered by smaller Talentcell units (Amazon). I have run this happily for 2 hours but of course many imagers would need something running for much longer.  The capacity of the Celestron unit is 73.3 Wh which is inside the the FAA rules:

Pack Safe – Batteries, lithium (faa.gov)

 "Lithium ion (rechargeable) batteries are limited to a rating of 100 watt hours (Wh) per battery. " I don't know what the rules would be in taking more than one battery on board.

1 hour ago, SzabiB said:

I started to regret to buy this mount. 

At the beginning everything was fine, than trouble arrived. 

Last night it went absolutely crazy.

- done the alignment and the mount just started to move suddenly and pointing random places (for example South Pole... which one was obviously under me)

- than during other try of aligning , started to spin 360-s on the Alt axis 

- clicking got super loud and when I managed to set it up and tried to track Jupiter, it was very shaky and gave zero good views (the whole mount shakes with every click)

- the last stunt was when I was trying to observe Mars, flipped itself perfectly 180 degrees on the Az axis and pointed in my face (the machines are coming for us....) than cut out

 

Everything is up to date and it runs from an Anker PowerHouse so deffo no firmware or power issue. 

It was -1 degrees outside, but I guess the mount should handle this kind of temperature with no problem.

Any suggestion? (I purchased it a month ago, so emailed FLO about it this morning)

That's certainly bizarre behaviour, have you updated the firmware to the latest version?

I'd be grateful if someone could help a non-engineer with this. I have the same setup and on checking mine the gap is obvious. It doesn't seem to affect performance but is there a risk of damage to the EAF?