peonic

I'd start here....

A pair of bubbles from last night. One traditionally processed, the other following PaulyManAstro's Foraxx Palette tutorial from YouTube. 60x300s, 533MC Pro, Optolong L-Enhance William Optics FLT-91 EQ6R Pro Bortle 5 Skies Data attached if anyone would like a poke around - as usual, the only way I learn is by people telling me what's not right, so comments and criticism greatly appreciated! Chris masterLight_BIN-1_3008x3008_EXPOSURE-300.00s_FILTER-NoFilter_RGB.xisf

Probably not the best idea to try and create a mosaic when I'm still waiting for a flattener/reducer to arrive for my FLT-91 - don't go pixel-peeping this one as there are some very oddly shaped stars in the joins 4 Panel mosaic, 4x15x300s ZWO 533MC Pro, Optolong L-Enhance William Optics FLT-91 EQ6R Pro Bortle 5 skies Comments and suggestions very much welcome. Chris

You should see what happened when I used Drizzle....... 🙄 Perk of working in IT and having access to silly amounts of storage!

Give it a shot, if you're using NINA it's surprisingly easy to setup. Literally tell it how many panels you want, adjust the framing as required and off you go! The files can end up getting quite big, however! Chris

Had a bit of a play with both the FORAXX palette and doing this as a drizzle integration. Not one for the purist I think, but I thought it ended up kinda pretty!

Ok don't laugh.... Superstition won't let me use unity gain because I don't like even numbers. This is at gain 101. I know. I'm not normal 🤣

Ooh, that's done a nice job, and it's not something I've used in PS before - is it a pain to use, or just a "run it on the default settings" kind of tool? Chris

On backorder with FLO - hopefully shouldn't be too much longer before I get to spend nights obsessing over backspacing rather than RMS error

First night out with my WO FLT-91. Thought I'd start with something broadband - which in hindsight probably wasn't the best idea with an 80% moon, but hey-ho. Couple of teething problems with cable management, but everything went relatively smoothly. The step up in build quality from my beloved little ED80 is huge - but it's going to take some work for me to get the best out of this beastie. Very much looking forward to adding the flattener/reducer when FLO get the stock! 53x300s WO FLT-91, EQ6R 533MC Pro / ZWO IR Cut filter Stacked and processed in PixInsight FITS attached if anyone wants to have a play and do a better job of the processing masterLight_BIN-1_3008x3008_EXPOSURE-300.00s_FILTER-NoFilter_RGB.fit

New toy! Guranteed clouds for at least 3 months now - but this thing is GORGEOUS. (FLT-91) Such a nicely engineered bit of kit compared to my previous SkyWatcher stuff. Thanks FLO!

This is my first attempt at a mosaic. I was impressed with how easy NINA made the initial data acquisition. I was less impressed with my first attempts at stitching it all together! I had seen some tutorials that said that AstroPixelProcessor would pretty work automagically to stitch things together - but my experience led to a frustrating seam that I couldn't get rid off no matter what I tried. I eventually found a tutorial for PixInsight's Photometric Mosaic script and this did a MUCH better job. 4 panel mosaic - each panel is 15x300s subs Skywatcher ED80 HEQ5 533MC Pro L-Enhance filter, Bortle 5 sky I've processed this fairly simply - PCC, StarXterminator, NoiseXterminator, EZ SoftStretch, SNCR and then some curves adjustment. Raw FITS attached if anyone wants to have a poke and see what they can get out - and as usual, given this is only my 6th image since getting back into imaging this year - any tips, tricks, pointers would be hugely appreciated. Chris Heart - IC1805 - ED80.533MC.LEnhance - UNPROCESSED.fit

Answering my own question here: There's a great demonstration of the Photometric Mosaic Script on the Astro Imaging Channel on YouTube that sorted this right out - and without too much messing around either!

Does anyone use APP for stictching mosaics together? I took a 4 panel of the Heart nebula last night - used NINA to generate the sequence - everything appeared to shoot OK. I followed a tutorial on the APP site for building the mosaic, and I've had an issue where the bottom 2 panels won't allign correctly in the middle (vertically) - but everything else seems to line up OK. It's annoying, because I was rather please with the rest of the result! Attached is the final image (reduced x.7) and a crop of the affected issue. Has anyone seen this before? Not sure if it's a data issue, or a "me not knowing how to use APP correctly" issue. Chris

Stunning. Certainly something for a newcomer like me to aspire to!

The quality really shows there Ian! Out of interest, what do you push the gain to when using the Optolong filter? I tend to keep my 533 at unity unless i'm framing or focusing. Chris

Whole raft of issues conspired against me (the worst of which being I fell alseep on the sofa whilst cuddling the cat and didn't notice a PHD failure that meant I wasn't guiding for well over 2½ hours!). Also managed to fail to re-acquire the target after a meridian flip (missed a setting in NINA, it was my first time using it!) Finally managed to lose guiding completely due to lack of a dew tape for my guidescope, so gave up at 2:30am. So what I was hoping was going to be 3 to 4 hours of data turned into 65 minutes - but it still shows improvement on my previous attempts so I'm going to post it and ask for more pointers! 13x300s ZWO ASI533MC Pro Optolong L-Enhance ED80/HEQ5 Captured with NINA, rough process in PI and Photoshop. Comments, critique and tips hugely appreciated! Chris

Cheers Scotty - I've got another dovetail on order - think I'll try with mounting on top first, then shell out for a huge losmandy plate if I can't get it to where I want with just a long Skywatcher dovetail. Cheers, Chris

Managed to grab just over 2½ hours of data on this last night - my first outing since late June. A pretty smooth night considering the PHD based frustrations of previous evenings - I was treated to some bright Persieds and a visit from a local hedgehog. SW ED80, HEQ5 Pro, Optolong L-Extreme, 533MC Pro 29x300s

My setup is a bit of a mess - cable spagehetti everywhere! Whilst it hasn't happened yet - I do worry about cable snags. I'm running a mini PC and PegasusAstro mini power box - currently both are velcro'd to the side of my mount. Ideally, I'd like to try and get these items both mounted above or below the scope, and then utilise short cables to try and tidy everything and limit the number of cables that need to run down the mount as much as possible. I've seen a couple of YouTuber's using what look to be "equipment boxes" made out of dovetail plates, that provide a nice place to store electronics under the scope - but I can't find the required parts online (maybe I'm just not using the right search terms!). Anyone done anything awesome to make their cables look pretty? Chris

Cheers bud. I was thinking about getting the .85 flattener/reducer and that lead me to ponder how I'd connect it with the filter in the mix! I'll give it a try next time the clouds clear off! Chris

Hi Guys, Quick question about imaging train setups. I currently have an ASI-533MC pro, which requires some extension tubes to achieve focus in my SW ED80. I've been connecting it as Camera > Extension Tubes > 1.25" Nosepiece Adapter > Filter (either IR Cut or L-Extreme) > Scope Is this an OK way to do things, or do I need to get the filter closer to the sensor? Any advice? Chris

Cheers Martin - you've pulled loads of extra detail out there! I need to work on my processing skills more!

@Budgie1 Was it just a straight (albeit brutal) histogram stretch you did to illustate the flats issue? Have re-built the image with a now-debayered master flat, so hopefully it's worked this time (new .fit attached). masterLight_BIN-1_3008x3008_EXPOSURE-180.00s_FILTER-NoFilter_RGB_(1).fit

Thanks Budgie! I just loaded the master flat into PixInsight to check, and it appears to have the bayer-matrix pattern over it! I'll go have a poke around at the docs on the WBPP script and see if I can suss out what's up! Thanks for looking - super useful yet again! Chris