Guiding conversion project for 200p and EQ5

[Quatermass]

Hooray! About time hey. Now your almost there just need a clear night. Alchol and worm gears sounds like the ideal evening past time

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[stan26]

I plan to spend the rest of the evening doing an SGL special of drinking copious amounts of wine while fiddling with my worm gears.

Ahh, one of my favourite ways to spend a cloudy evening. Grab a bottle, a glass, some sort of astronomical device to tweak, Log on to SGL....sorted...

[badgers]

My first ever guided sub!

Admittedly the framing is off, and my laptop ran out of power and stopped guiding after 2 minutes and its hazy with awful seeing......

My PHD graph looks like switzerlerand too...

But it's a start

Big thanks to Quatermass, Stan and Gonzo for helping me getting started on this road! I'm bitten by the bug now.

[Quatermass]

Hey Badger if I had a glass of wine I would invite you Stan and all round mine for a celebration! Well done mate its a great feeling when you get your first result isn't it. I had endless nights of cloud rain and fog to contend with before I finally got some where so dont feel bad. I was half way through my first guided image and the clouds were just waiting to steal the moment from me but I got there in the end. All you need to do know is get used to PHDs little ways and tweak a few setting and you will be flying.

That a lovely image even if the weathers not helping imagine how that's going to look when you stack a load of 5 minute subs! Really pleased for you mate and well done.

Tomorrow I am going to mod my Canon 350d got myself a soldering iron phillips screwdriver set and scalpel blades to cut my wrists with when it all goes horribly wrong..only joking sure it will be fine. Famous last words

[badgers]

Thanks QM,

I'm terrified to open up my 40D, that thing cost me a fortune when I bought it.

Tempted to buy a camera body just for astro.

I almost gave up and went in when my initial push on the guide button failed after 10 seconds.... The star vanished, I was beginning to fiddle with gain, brightness and focus when I realised a stonking great cloud was rolling over...

Lots of work to do sorting out my gears and getting organised... Going to make myself a Bahtinov mask and get some power out to the balcony.

Need to get organised planning targets that work with my restricted viewing and working out how many darks/lights/bias to go for.

I can't wait

[Quatermass]

Take your time the stars are not going anywhere. I made a Bahtinov Mask there dead easy to make. As for dark light and bias I normally find if your doing 60 subs then 40 darks lights and bias goes well. Also its a good idea to take a load and keep them as masters so you dont have to keep doing them every time. So long as there taken with the temp about the same as the next night you image you should be ok.

[Quatermass]

This is how I take my flats a white tshirt stretched over the end of my scope held on with bungie strap and a 24led torch positioned in front hanging off an old sea fishing tripod a wooden pole would do the same job.

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[pixueto]

This is how I take my flats a white tshirt stretched over the end of my scope held on with bungie strap and a 24led torch positioned in front hanging off an old sea fishing tripod a wooden pole would do the same job.

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Hi QM, I'm still trying to figure out how to take flats. Do you set the camera to aperture mode AV or do you keep it in manual? If it is in manual, what exposition time shoud I use for the subs?

Thank you very much as always for you help.

[Quatermass]

Hi Pix

I take my main shots as normal in manual then not altering anything at all just put the t shirt or pillow case over the end of the scope with the led torch about 2 feet away illuminating the sheet or shirt and take the same amount of subs all over again. Its best not to have too bright an led torch if its to bright they dont work as well your aiming at a dull white image for your flats. Bias offsets are just with the cap on and 30 shots at a very fast shutter speed.

I modded my canon today taking the red light blocking filter out and Im now imaging the Rosette Nebula again so I can compare it with last nights image. Had a quick look at a one minute sub and the difference is amazing!

Will post tonight's modded image and last nights unmodded image on here when I am done later tonight.

QM

Edited February 24, 2012 by Quatermass

[pixueto]

was it very difficult to mod? Are you going to upload a thred to teach us how to do it?

[Quatermass]

It wasnt easy but it wasnt hard just takes about 5 hours to do and is very delicate fiddly work with small ribbon cables to fix in and out un awkward places.

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[pixueto]

It wasnt easy but it wasnt hard just takes about 5 hours to do and is very delicate fiddly work with small ribbon cables to fix in and out un awkward places.

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5 hours?!!!! You just put me off. I'm too clumsy for hat kind of thing:icon_confused:

[Quatermass]

Well if you take your time an plod through it then its not too bad at all really but you do need to get prepared for it. Big table good lighting good screw driver scalpel and tweezers magnetic tool for picking up small screws. Believe me I am really rubbish at this sort of thing and I did so if I can do it any one can.

[stan26]

5 Hours !!

Crikeys!! Was that like ....Remove....one.....screw...pop it in the bag...RIGHT time for a cuppa. Remove...second...screw......flick the kettle on luv!.....pop that in that bag....

Stan

Edited February 24, 2012 by stan26

[Quatermass]

Yep that was about what it was like but boy oh boy was it worth it take a look at my results here..:D:D:Dhttp://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-deep-sky/177410-rosette-after-modding-my-canon-350-today.html#post2173849

[badgers]

Congrats on modding your camera QM.

Can you do a before/after kind of shot ? I'd love to see how much of a difference it makes on an object you've been shooting recently.

I managed my first proper set of Lights and Darks last night on M45, but no flats unfortunately. 10 Lights and 6 Darks of 300 seconds each. I shot about 30 bias frames too.

M42 might have been an easier target, I don't know... But I only have an hour available on M42 before it hides behind a building for the rest of the evening.

I had a play in DSS with photoshop on levels and curves, using the advice on your blog.

I've definitely got 'eggy' stars from sub-optimal guiding and a poorly balanced setup.

But I also seem to have some kind of streaks of red, green, or blue. It looks like hot pixels or something, not sure if this was DSS screwing something up with bias frames or darks : (

The raw subs looked ok, it only happened upon stacking as far as I can see.

Going to try the Nebulosity trial tonight.

Any ideas ?

Edited February 25, 2012 by badgers

[Quatermass]

Hi Badger

I think the processing stage is the most important one to be honest as you can fix many problems with it. With you above image it looks like a careful use of the curves tool will sort a lot of that out for you and also be sure to fully understand the use of hide all layer masks as they are brilliant for sorting stuff out. Yes they look like hot pixels you have there so if you take say 30 one minutes shots at 800 ISO then also take 20 darks and flats at the same settings it makes a big difference.

I only use PS for my processing after putting everything through deep sky stacker but my routine is to first do levels then curves taking a lot of time with the curves adjusting only small amounts of the curve at a time. Next I duplicate the image and using curves boost the colors to my liking. I then merge that down and duplicate again. I then press ctrl shift and u to turn the image into a gray scale image and change the blending mode to soft light. Next I reduce the opacity of it to about 60% and apply a hide all layer mask. Having done that I then selectively apply the changes with soft brush and make sure the flow is not to great so it only applying it gently.

Ok, next is to merge that down and duplicate again. Bring up curves and boost what ever color I think needs boosting using the rgb section of the curve tool. After I have boosted say the red or green I then apply another hide all layer mask and again selectively put the colours where I want them to be boosted. That done merge down again.

Next I duplicate the image again apply noise reduction inverted layers mask then lastly a gentle unsharp mask to finish off.

That is pretty much all covered in my tutorials but tends to be my standard work flow practise helps as well.

If you send me the stacked .tiff image that you stacked I will have go at it for you.

Eggy stars can be fixed by reducing them a bit and be careful with your curves processing stage as that can make them more eggy if your not watching.

Hope that helps you out a bit.

Lovely image my favourite the 7 sisters looks like diamonds in the sky.

Before and after modding on the Rosette nebula all images were unguided as my laptop is being repaired short 1 minute subs 60x60 sec or 30x60 sec

And the Horse head done the same night along with Orion but only 20 one minute subs for Orion Nebula.

Edited February 25, 2012 by Quatermass

[badgers]

Wow QM,

I'm blown away by those images, the camera mod is working a treat.

Your unguided ones are beautiful. I think if I get a chance tonight I'll try more shorter subs with and without guiding.

Clouds won't be so bad tonight, I've got a lot of work to do learning the processing dark arts.

The DSS output tif is here:

http://www.ebi.ac.uk/~aje/dist/m45.zip

If you get a chance to give it a look over that would be great, if not no worries. I'm keen to see what can be done.

[Quatermass]

Thanks Badger

I will give your image a process on photo shop later I am baby sitting at the moment. If your out tonight try some unguided images of the Rosette or Horse head yourself. I take a few quick shots and move it around to frame things up a bit then get started. Just having the timer set to take 30 one minute shots at an ISO of 800 then go in for a cup of tea for half an hour. Come back and do it again. Then when I have sixty shots I put the cap on and take 30 more and lastly a t shirt on the end with the led and 30 more for my lights. That should give you some good data to work with. Taking 30 darks and flats will really help.

But I do have a good dark sky in the south.

Hope you have a good night

QM

[Quatermass]

Just down loaded the stacked image it looks very good the stars are nice and sharp I think its just the right application of curves. This months Sky at Night mag has a great article on processing your images if you want to grab a copy. Looking forward to having a crack at your image when I get home.

[badgers]

Thanks QM, I'm going to spend the evening doing some tutorials.

I now officially owe you Jaffa Cakes.

[Quatermass]

I love jaffa cakes

[Quatermass]

The DSS output tif is here:

http://www.ebi.ac.uk/~aje/dist/m45.zip

If you get a chance to give it a look over that would be great, if not no worries. I'm keen to see what can be done.

Hi Badger

I spent some time this morning on your .tiff file there was quite a few hot pixels in there more darks and flats will fix that and you need more subs to get any more detail out but it was not too bad. I used curves mainly with hide all layer masks and colour boosts with curves applied with hide all layer masks to get this final image hope you like it.

QM

[eddy]

Jumping on here and i do apologise, im looking into doing this ST4 mod to on the Dual Axis kit.

My main concern is killing the handset, what is the likely-hood of this happening? lol and where can i get a replacement handset should this happen?

Many thanks

[badgers]

Hi Badger

I spent some time this morning on your .tiff file there was quite a few hot pixels in there more darks and flats will fix that and you need more subs to get any more detail out but it was not too bad. I used curves mainly with hide all layer masks and colour boosts with curves applied with hide all layer masks to get this final image hope you like it.

QM

Thanks QM, thats fantastic, its far nicer, its not overcooked, the detail of the nebula is still there and the stars are lovely and sharp.

I bow to your skills!

I'm going to keep working until I can produce something similar. I've been trying PixInsight and its hard work, but already doing a better job than DSS with my hot pixels.