planetaries from last night

[nytecam]

Been a lean August/September due to poor weather but OK last night.

Here's old summer favourites in M57 [60s] and M27 [80s] in 20s subs - more fainter stuff soon. Use Meade 30cm f3.27 SCT+ SX Lodestar-Cx2 with darks/flats. Gx IC1296 just recorded NW of M57 in 'hexagram" asterism ;-)

Nytecam

[Pete Presland]

A couple of very nicely imaged objects very well captured. I am no processing expert, but some of the stars do look a little bit off with a blue colour fringe around them.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice stuff

[Carl Reade]

Nice bit of imaging and processing what method do you use?

[JamesF]

A couple of very nicely imaged objects very well captured. I am no processing expert, but some of the stars do look a little bit off with a blue colour fringe around them.

Some of that might be down to using the SCT at f/3.3.  I'd guess that the field is only well-corrected over quite a small area.

There's an interesting feature in the second one.  About a third of the way from the Ring to the top right corner is a very faint grey fuzzy.  It's barely above the background noise.  I reckon it's probably galaxy IC1296.

James

[JamesF]

Yup, just looked it up and I'm certain it's IC1296.  It's apparently magnitude 15, so not entirely surprising it's very faint.

James

[orion25]

Beautiful images, nytecam. Love rings and dumbbells, haha. How fortunate to capture IC1296 as well

Great post,

Reggie

[RobertI]

Lovely detail captured in the ring. Presumably using the SX Lodestar s/w? The colours are superb.

Rob

[Carl Reade]

When you get a chance if you get the time nytecam can you show us a video of your live stuff. That would be great

[laudropb]

Very nice images. Thanks for posting.

[Carl Reade]

Some of that might be down to using the SCT at f/3.3.  I'd guess that the field is only well-corrected over quite a small area.

There's an interesting feature in the second one.  About a third of the way from the Ring to the top right corner is a very faint grey fuzzy.  It's barely above the background noise.  I reckon it's probably galaxy IC1296.

James

Sorry James but that photo has been processed like an unknown branded burger. As soon as I hear the mention of darks, flats and sub's then you need to look where you are posting.

This is for live or near live not photos.

[JamesF]

Sorry James but that photo has been processed like an unknown branded burger. As soon as I hear the mention of darks, flats and sub's then you need to look where you are posting.

This is for live or near live not photos.

And if this is a saved image from a video astronomy app that does real-time stacking, dark subtraction and real-time colour processing?

James

[Carl Reade]

That's real from a LN300 on a SW 150p f5 LIVE with real wind and yes I could make it look a lot better and post a still.

[Carl Reade]

Here's another from the same setup as you can see live or in as live as possible mode same setup no photos. My point is this is real. £50 camera on a simple telescope on screen in seconds. Yes its a bit noisey but I am not an imager. This is real not photo posting after processing.

There appears to be muddy waters in here

[shirva]

loving your work carl,and have to agree it's far nicer seeing live capture video in here than captured images stacked ,tweaked and photoshopped,for new members just starting to look at video astronomy this is what we should be posting,,nice cheap tracking mount or a goto system and a fifty quid camera plugged into a twenty quid usb grabber,,,,,,, well done carl,,,,,,,

now we can move on from this and show more advanced cameras and capture techniques and software , myself personally I would like to see the video capture then an image processed from that capture as a comparison to an astrophotography image. we all like images and most will keep to show off our skills and why not.

may be a discussion with sgl admin to make sub caagories for live video and a more advanced catagory,video astronomy technology is moving very fast just now and we need to keep up in all aspects.

davy

[Martin Meredith]

Carl, there is more than one way to enjoy this hobby. If you're happy with the quality of the images you're getting then why is that not enough for you?

Some of us are doing things differently -- and largely thanks to Maurice for pioneering this style of near real-time observing and resisting constant attacks over the years for doing so.

There is space on this forum for all these techniques. Live and let live.

Martin

[JamesF]

I don't get the hostility here.

I have haven't asked nytecam how his images were produced and before people start casting nasturtiums or making unfounded judgements I think it would be polite and considerate to do so and wait for his response.

There is every possibility that what he has posted is a single unmodified frame saved from and composed in an application such as Lodestar LIve/Starlight Live which will do real-time stacking, dark subtraction and colour processing.  I honestly don't know.  There's plenty of evidence that "video" astronomy is moving in that direction at the moment.  Several cameras have been announced in recent months for specifically that kind of purpose and the impression I have is that there's a lot of interest in it.

Sure, it may not be quite the same as "traditional" video astronomy, but denying that it should be posted here is like denying that new-fangled internal combustion engines aren't really engines and that steam is the only true source of mechanical motive power.  It's the future.  You'll see it happening more and more.  There's plenty of room for both.

James

[JamesF]

Now, to return to the original question of the colour fringing around the stars.  Looking particularly at the first image it seems to me that whilst the stars in the centre of the field are fairly round there's increasing distortion of the star shapes the further they are from the centre.

My first reaction looking at the fact that the OP used a large SCT at f/3.3 is that the shapes are due to the curvature of the field produced by the focal reducer meaning that the image is not correctly rendered or focused across the entire area of the camera sensor.

I'd be interested to hear if the OP concurs with that assumption, or whether he thinks it might be due to some other cause.

James

[shirva]

martin, i think you missed carls point,its imaging thats being posted,not video ,im not having a dig at anyone but until lodestar live doing its processing to change the camera from a guide camera to a video camera via software.the images have all been modified far beyond live or near live viewing,s i said maybe there should be a sub forum to divide ... live/near live video capture from images captured from video stacked and processed ,, and in my opinion,,that would make them images and not a single frame capture from a live/near live video capture.

the forum title as it is says video astronomy ,what some are doing is streatching the forum from video to imaging,there was a sense of jubilation when the admin gave us our own slot in sgl, video astronomy,as i said maybe a discusssion should be started in a civilised manner to discuss where members and admin see this section in sgl grows.

[Pete Presland]

Wow and there was me thinking it was just a couple images of different deep sky objects!

I guess we just used to seeing images on here, excuse my ignorance are these not stacked then?

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[nytecam]

Hi Guys - thanks for the generally positive response. Yes - I'm using the basic SX s/w that came with the camera and most settings are done auto like darks/flat/contrast stretch so all finished in a few seconds eg a fraction of the typical exposure time. Some blue bloat from FR @ f/3.27 but I can live with it.

Carl's remarks remind me of a photo-film class I attended decades ago where the lecturer remarked that his client complained his pix were too good! His response was "what do you want me to do - kick the tripod?". Must remember that Carl on the next session;-) BTW - gave up astro-video decades ago - too many wires, mess and technically inferior.

Back on track - here's the remaining Lodestar DSO grabs from the session eg

NGC 7076=Abell 75 = PNG101.8+8.7 [90s]

- inordinately faint PNe m[P]17.0 with central m18.0 star clearly recorded ! Field goes down to m19.1 [Wikisky].

NGC 6926 [5s] - very bright pretty blue PNe

NGC 6826 [20s] - pretty open cluster

Enjoy

Nytecam

[JamesF]

Wow and there was me thinking it was just a couple images of different deep sky objects!

I guess we just used to seeing images on here, excuse my ignorance are these not stacked then?

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

I think they must be, but the "workflow" for want of a better word, is somewhat different from that of traditional astroimaging and more akin to video astronomy cameras that stack frames "in the camera".

James

[JamesF]

I'm not familiar with the SX software.  Purely out of intellectual curiosity, is it stacking images?

James

[shirva]

the posts from carl are live video,,,, camera to computer,,the camera used has the ability to do longer exposure via the sense up mode or intregration.. depending on the camera setting it can go from live view to near live if it has been set up in sense up mode to do x2 to x1024 on the ln300.

[Macavity]

As long as folk "clearly show their workings" -- All grist for the mill.

And even if they don't, I don't feel anyone is being seriously misled...

Video astronomy is an area where we use a *variety* of techniques?

In the beginning, there were only (fairly noisy) 8-bit cameras. For me,

it has always been irresistible to subtract a (modest) dark frame...

Risking repetition, my talk at a local Astro meeting was well received.

A few "classical imagers" & visual astronomers immediately headed

outside? lol. But returned (It was quite a COLD night!) And some said:

"Wow, that's really interesting"! I wish I could do more outreach... 

But I'm still a "70's student" at heart:  "Do your own thing" (Man)?