Bluemoonjim

I feel your pain. I have been trying to image the Squid and in just over 2 months have managed 26hours of data. I can now just about make out the outline but I reckon on needing at least another 20-30 hrs before I can say I’ve got it. Target is now dropping lower in the sky each evening so even if the weather should miraculously start to cooperate it’s going to be awhile before I can complete the project. AP is a frustrating business here in the UK for sure

NGC 2237 – Rosette Nebula 50 x 60s OSC camera using Optolong dual band L-eXtreme Scope: Altair Astro Starwave 102mm ED-R + Flattener Camera : Altair Hypercam 269c Tec Mount: Exos2 PMC8 Dates : 24.02.24 Processed DSS, PixInsight, Photoshop Managed to grab this with just 50 x 60sec exposure on a rare clear sky between the almost constant cloud cover. I was surprised at how much detail was captured for such a short session and 60 second subs. Rather than going with my usual settings I decided to let SharpCaps' smart histogram do the calculations. I have been looking at a mono camera setup but with this almost constantly bad weather we seem to be having I can't imagine doubling (trebling) up on the hours of data to achieve a result so I think I will stay with the osc camera for now.

Welcome to SGL Vince.

IC 1396 – Elephant's Trunk Nebula 127 x 180s (6.35 hrs) OSC camera using Optolong dual band L-eXtreme Scope: Altair Astro Starwave 102mm ED-R + Flattener Camera : Altair Hypercam 269c Tec Mount: Exos2 PMC8 Dates : 16/17/18.01.24 Processed DSS, PixInsight, Photoshop

First class

That is a very fine image

Epson Photo R2000 Not produced anymore but frequently on ebay for good price Superb print quality and take roll feed

One could be forgiven for thinking they are the same image I think your images sum up the tribulations of astrophotography. We can drive our selves mad with fretting about incremental changes and lose sight of the magic of viewing what is out there. The pursuit of perfection with imperfect means. Lovely image, well done

I'm sure this would have been picked up by someone if it is actually out there. I think this must be some kind of optical glitch either in my image train or in the capture software. Very strange. This needs some investigation. Maybe a firefly in my 'scope

I will post image asap. I'm actually still imaging. So will be able to show before and after

The streak did not come from the star but created the star...so to speak. As though there was some kind of collision

It's getting brighter. Anyone else witnessing this?

I may be opening myself to ridicule here but I think I have just witnessed something amazing. I have been trying to image the Squid Nebula this evening and just saw an image of streak of light and then becoming a bright star. Which is still there. Has anyone else seen this or am I completely deluded and seeing some sort of optical illusion?

Amazing detail in the Crescent Nebula . Beautiful colour throughout makes for a stunning image. Well done!

DSS does have settings for drizzle not sure about the local normalisation.

I posted the above before seeing your comprehensive response Oddsocks. Thanks

Thanks for the pointer to Adam Block’s videos, I’m checking them out. Maybe there is a greater range of processes that take place in WPBB and also, I am only using OSC camera. My main area of concern though is that when I fed WPBB some five and half hours worth of lights plus calibration frames it took about three hours to complete and produced an extra 125gb (GB!) of files on my drive. The same frames took about 25 minutes in DSS and produced just one extra tiff file for the final image, a considerable difference. My machine is a pretty capable latest generation i7, 16gb ram, ssd and external storage but if I’m going to be producing hundreds of gigabytes of data for a few hours of data every time it now feels inadequate.

As a graphic designer, I used Photoshop for best part of 30 years so when I took up AP a couple of years ago it was natural that I would use it for my processing and, up until now, I have resisted getting involved with the ‘steep learning curve’ that many users talk of when taking on PixInsight. However, a few days ago I took the plunge and purchased PixInsight and thanks to some excellent YouTube tutorials and a lot of playing around I can already see why PI is the program of choice for many astrophotographers and I am now a happy convert but… the WPBB script for stacking seems unnecessarily complicated and takes for ever times longer than Deep Sky Stacker to achieve what appear to be similar results. Am I missing something here? Is there an advantage to using the WPBB script rather than DSS. Once the DSS tiff is identified in PI there seems be no difference from a WPBB produced stack when processing.(?)

ED72 'scope to start with is an excellent choice but then again so is an ED80. The mount is where the greatest investment needs to be, go for the best you can afford you won't regret it.

Have to say, there are some inspiring images on here. Amazing!

Hi Chris FWIW my solution with a similar setup to yours has been mini PC at the mount connected by 50mtr ethernet cable (cat 6) to laptop in my study. Has been super reliable and fast. My experience with long USB cables, powered or passive, with or without hubs, USB2 or 3 was a pain in the backside. Despite what some manufacturers may say, once you get out beyond 5 mtrs data transfer becomes very 'fragile' and usb connections are too easy to interrupt by even the slightest movement of any connected component.

Don't think it's a fault with your camera, I use an AltairAstro 269c Pro Tec camera and have had similar results when I have stretched too little data too far. Though I'm sure there are other people on SGL who can give you other reasons and a more technical explanation of why.

Thanks for reply Onnikinen. My trips to dark sky usually involve a couple of nights away, hence the 12hr minimum. I don't usually shoot more than 5 or 6 hours (if I'm lucky) in one imaging session, more often around 4 hours, so I figured 12hr reserve would cover the two nights and some.