The "No EQ" DSO Challenge!

[The Admiral]

38 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

Hi,

I have followed the ST's guide I posted above and used it to wavelet sharpen (SHARP module) the nebulosity in my Heart and Soul image. It does look different on my monitor but interested what anyone else can see regarding a better image.

It appears (here) brighter and more detail within the nebulosity plus the stars look brighter.

Cheers,
Steve

That's a really worthwhile improvement.

Ian

[The Admiral]

1 hour ago, SteveNickolls said:

This morning I've stumbled over this reference for StarTools concerning processing stars and background independently in the HEAL module, could prove very valuable-http://forum.startools.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=244 

Will give it a workout later today.

Cheers,
Steve

I've just had a quick look at this and I must say there is a dramatic improvement to the nebula in his example. Well spotted Steve! I'll need to have a go some time. It does seem that ST can offer an awful lot, if only you know how to use all of its features!

Ian

[Filroden]

Here goes: my first LRGB image using 30 second subs on the ZWO ASI1600MM at -20C with a gain of 300. Processed in PixInsight.

[SteveNickolls]

That's very good going Ken, the nebulosity is very evident.

Best Regards,
Steve

[SteveNickolls]

1 hour ago, The Admiral said:

I've just had a quick look at this and I must say there is a dramatic improvement to the nebula in his example. Well spotted Steve! I'll need to have a go some time. It does seem that ST can offer an awful lot, if only you know how to use all of its features!

Ian

Yes, there's much, much more to be used and teased out in StarTools. I've not used the HEAL module before but it will certainly be incorporated into the mix. BTW I followed Ivo's guide after importing my last TIFF back into ST's I didn't go through the whole processing route. Should mean we all have a lot of back catalogue images just itching for reprocessing in HEAL so ideal when we keep getting these clouded out nights.

Cheers,
Steve

[Filroden]

12 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

That's very good going Ken, the nebulosity is very evident.

Best Regards,
Steve

I'm as pleased as punch with it. Definitely my best shot so far and it's only 30 x 30s of L and 10 x 30s for each of RGB. Can't wait for another clear night where I can get longer on a target.

[happy-kat]

I just want to add that Steve to me that is a super image we shouldn't also lose sight that this is a star travel refractor and the processing has removed any obvious CA, your improvements in processing are leaps and bounds forward I have much to catch up with.

[SteveNickolls]

42 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I just want to add that Steve to me that is a super image we shouldn't also lose sight that this is a star travel refractor and the processing has removed any obvious CA, your improvements in processing are leaps and bounds forward I have much to catch up with.

Thanks for your very kind comments. I must in fairness admit that the Heart and Soul Nebulae image was taken with my Canon Camera piggybacked on the Startravel so the CA of the telescope doublet wouldn't have been an issue.

Cheers,
Steve

[Nigel G]

Steve, that's fabulous I love it. Got to start saving ☺

I'm just about to remove the infared filter in my camera, got clear sky's tonight and it's Friday.  Hope it goes well otherwise I'll be observing. 

Nige. 

[SteveNickolls]

21 minutes ago, Nigel G said:

Steve, that's fabulous I love it. Got to start saving ☺

I'm just about to remove the infared filter in my camera, got clear sky's tonight and it's Friday.  Hope it goes well otherwise I'll be observing. 

Nige. 

Thanks Nige, I wish I had the capability to remove a IR filter from a DSLR, it would worry me what all the left over screws were meant for :-) Good luck with your mod. Hmmm, there's mostly cloud up here but things look promising Sunday night so my fingers will be crossed.

Enjoy imaging tonight.

Cheers,
Steve

[Herzy]

I recently bought an AT72ED. It fits in my SLT mount holster and is pretty light so it should do well. I have an EQ mount, but the thing is so heavy and I get fed up with taking it out to a dark site (I have to separate it into many pieces and wrap them all in blankets), so being able to use the alt/az, which is much lighter, will be nice. 

As for CA on the scope, it's not that bad. It's an ED doublet refractor (not fully apochromatic). I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting to get into refractor astrophotography on an altaz mount.

---

Just a short review incase someone reading this thread was thinking about getting a refractor.

Edited September 30, 2016 by Herzy

[SteveNickolls]

17 minutes ago, Herzy said:

I recently bought an AT72ED. It fits in my SLT mount holster and is pretty light so it should do well. I have an EQ mount, but the thing is so heavy and I get fed up with taking it out to a dark site (I have to separate it into many pieces and wrap them all in blankets), so being able to use the alt/az, which is much lighter, will be nice. 

As for CA on the scope, it's not that bad. It's an ED doublet refractor (not fully apochromatic). I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting to get into refractor astrophotography on an altaz mount.

---

Just a short review incase someone reading this thread was thinking about getting a refractor.

Hi Herzy,

Thanks for this post. I sometimes muse over getting a 'better' telescope to replace my achromat 102mm Startravel if just to remove the purple halo around brighter stars in my images. StarTools does a good job of altering the colour so my discontent has not been sufficient to make me move towards a replacement. I will be interested then to see how your 72mm ED doublet performs for you and good look with your future imaging. Alt-Az gear generally has the edge being lighter and more transportable.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Herzy]

8 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

Hi Herzy,

Thanks for this post. I sometimes muse over getting a 'better' telescope to replace my achromat 102mm Startravel if just to remove the purple halo around brighter stars in my images. StarTools does a good job of altering the colour so my discontent has not been sufficient to make me move towards a replacement. I will be interested then to see how your 72mm ED doublet performs for you and good look with your future imaging. Alt-Az gear generally has the edge being lighter and more transportable.

Cheers,
Steve

 

I haven't been able to test out star tools yet because our family is moving houses and everything is packed up. Is it easy to remove halos? The AT72ED gives slight blue halos on bright stars (generally only 3-4 pixels wide) that might annoy me if I was shooting something like the Pleiades with lots of bright stars. Could you go into more detail on how you manage to tame the halos? 

Edited September 30, 2016 by Herzy

[The Admiral]

I couldn't resist using the processing strategy in Steve's link, on my Heart Nebula image. I've got some way to go, but it seems to show a lot of promise. For a start, I can reduce the visual impact of the star field. Here's a comparison, first using the standard, less aggressive processing in Lightroom (which I haven't previously posted in this thread, though I did in my Gallery), and second, with the refined technique. As I say, early days. There's a bit of a stacking issue in the bottom LH corner that I should have cropped out in the second version, and sorry about the different sizes. Anyway, enough to get a preliminary handle on the way it works.

Ian

[SteveNickolls]

Wow Ian,

That is absolutely gorgeous, the colours are brilliant and the image has a glass like quality-very well done. Splendid. Will see if the main monitor shows even better detail (I'm on the tiny Hudl right now).

Cheers,

Steve

[Nigel G]

Well filter removed, camera back together,  no screws left or lost, just going to turn it on and see if it works, I'm scared ☺don't want to turn it on!

Nige. 

[SteveNickolls]

1 minute ago, Nigel G said:

Well filter removed, camera back together,  no screws left or lost, just going to turn it on and see if it works, I'm scared ☺don't want to turn it on!

 

Nige. 

Blimy, Nige you do work quick. You aren't a surgeon by any chance? The big knife looks too large unless you stir your mug of tea with it :-)

Double dare you to turn the camera on!

 

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Filroden]

1 hour ago, The Admiral said:

I couldn't resist using the processing strategy in Steve's link, on my Heart Nebula image. I've got some way to go, but it seems to show a lot of promise. For a start, I can reduce the visual impact of the star field. Here's a comparison, first using the standard, less aggressive processing in Lightroom (which I haven't previously posted in this thread, though I did in my Gallery), and second, with the refined technique. As I say, early days. There's a bit of a stacking issue in the bottom LH corner that I should have cropped out in the second version, and sorry about the different sizes. Anyway, enough to get a preliminary handle on the way it works.

Ian

That's a lovely image. The reduced stars really makes the nebula pop. You've really captured some lovely detail in there.

[Filroden]

Well, my aborted attempt at IC1848 really was a mess. I didn't process the 30 minutes of data I collected without cooling but I've just run the 15 mins of lum and 5 mins each of RGB (all 30s subs) through PixInsight to see what I achieved. It rejected some of the frames (mainly in from the already minimal RGB). I ran out of time on this object as it got too high in the sky and my filter wheel was getting perilously close to the mount.

It's not pretty. There's some serious star trailing going on which I think is down to me letting PixInsight manage frame selection. I also had to heavily crop it (it was badly framed to begin with). Nonetheless, given this is effectively on 15 minutes of lum and colour data, it's not far behind what I captured with nearly 2 hours of a DSLR  I think this is a target I need to revisit next year once it's returned to lower altitudes (or I start doing early mornings rather than late nights).

I'm really glad I swapped to M45 for 30 minutes after this!

 

[SteveNickolls]

1 hour ago, Herzy said:

I haven't been able to test out star tools yet because our family is moving houses and everything is packed up. Is it easy to remove halos? The AT72ED gives slight blue halos on bright stars (generally only 3-4 pixels wide) that might annoy me if I was shooting something like the Pleiades with lots of bright stars. Could you go into more detail on how you manage to tame the halos? 

Hi Herzy,

When I have an image with stars with blue/purple halos in StarTools I usually do this after the COLOR module. You need to click on mask and there use the lasso tool to circle all the stars you want to treat. I then take the mask into the FILTER module and select the option for 'fringe killer'. You need to select a good star with a nice purple halo and click a few times on the purple, after several clicks the colour is removed (you can compare using 'before' and 'after'). When you are happy with the result 'keep' the image. I usually then proceed into the LIFE module. There is a manual with all the modules etc. obtainable from here-http://download.startools.org/StarTools Manual V1_3_5 Unofficial.pdf that will go into more detail for you on this and other aspects of the software. As you see from this thread on SGL were discovering new things every day!

Good luck with the house move and with your new telescope and using StarTools.

Best Regards,
Steve

 

[SteveNickolls]

Hi Ken,

I wouldn't be disheartened with what you have achieved, you have learned a lot about your gear and it shows a great deal of promise.

Cheers,

Steve

[Stub Mandrel]

No news from Nige, I hope he hasn't dropped a clanger...

[Filroden]

He's hopefully seeing red right now!

[happy-kat]

Ian that newly tried processing approach has made your image well extrordinary, such a difference with the cleaner back drop for the main event the nebula.

More cloud here so I am just window watching you all with your changes of gear and advancements.

[Nigel G]

Hmm, somethings gone wrong , might need a new camera ? I'm seeing red but only in frustration.