Thoughts on which imaging rigs to concentrate on

[Gina]

With no darks and biases collected at the time for those flats and only the exposure to go by with no gain info I decided to take some darks and flats now making a guess at a suitable gain so set it at 10 (1dB).  Whether darks and biases are actually necessary to calibrate the flats I'm not really sure but I think that's what I've read.

[Gina]

I've got a problem with PixInsight   Blink is not working properly.  Instead of histogram stretching the image to make it easier to diagnose, it's making things worse.  Here I have a light sub opened in Blink and the exact same sub opened normally in an unaltered PI window.

Edited November 8, 2016 by Gina
Overwriting duplicate posts

[Gina]

I've also posted about this in the Software forum as it's a general problem with PixInsight software.

Edited November 8, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

Now downloading the biases and darks I captured this afternoon to go with the flats collected earlier.

I think I may have solved the riddle of Blink - need to do some more reading...

Edited November 8, 2016 by Gina
Overwriting duplicate post

[Gina]

Put the mini PC box out in the observatory on the pier and powered it up from the mains with supplied PSU (I'll run it of the obsy main DC supply later).  Tried the WiFi but it was a bit intermittent so connected the Cat 6 cable and running wired - that works fine.  Then I tried the astro stuff.  Found I'd forgotten to install CdC so I did that and it runs.  Runs and displays the sky chart but couldn't get it to connect to the mount either directly directly or via POTH Hub   I checked in Device Manager and found the USB to serial adapter on Com 4.  Put that in the ASCOM settings but no joy.

Then I tried SharpCap and tried to connect to the ASI1600MM-Cool but it didn't find the camera

I wonder if this is a Windows 10 problem.  Have to say I'm finding Win 10 more disagreeable than other versions

[RayD]

22 minutes ago, Gina said:

Put the mini PC box out in the observatory on the pier and powered it up from the mains with supplied PSU (I'll run it of the obsy main DC supply later).  Tried the WiFi but it was a bit intermittent so connected the Cat 6 cable and running wired - that works fine.  Then I tried the astro stuff.  Found I'd forgotten to install CdC so I did that and it runs.  Runs and displays the sky chart but couldn't get it to connect to the mount either directly directly or via POTH Hub   I checked in Device Manager and found the USB to serial adapter on Com 4.  Put that in the ASCOM settings but no joy.

Then I tried SharpCap and tried to connect to the ASI1600MM-Cool but it didn't find the camera

I wonder if this is a Windows 10 problem.  Have to say I'm finding Win 10 more disagreeable than other versions

Whilst the PC is on and running try unplugging the mount and camera and plugging them back in to different USB ports, this will reload the drivers, and will pick up a new COM port which you can then find again in Device Manager.

I feel your pain.

[Gina]

Well, I've brought the box back indoors but what I'm going to do with it I don't know!  But the bin men have just been and there's a nice empty dustbin waiting for rubbish!!!!

[Gina]

I have the NEQ6 in the living room and could try connecting to that.  I also have an ASI185MC which I could connect and download and install the driver for that for testing.  Don't feel like it ATM though so I'm going to run PixInsight and do some data processing.  At least I have my Win 7 laptop working for astro imaging.

[Gina]

Have now processed the Cygnus Loop Ha and OIII subs from 2016-10-10 - 113 Ha and 178 OIII and here are the results of integrating these sets of subs.  On checking my data I have just realised that there are more OIII subs captured on 2016-10-11 together with some SII subs.  I guess I should therefore add the OIII subs to the ones of the previous night and run BPP again on the whole collection of OIII subs

 

[Gina]

Data processing OIII Cygnus Loop subs again, this time with 252 of them   This is going to take a while!

[Gina]

I don't think I shall need to take and more OIII subs   And the Ha data looks pretty good too   Next I'll process the SII subs which are much weaker and were taken with 120s exposure but first I'll check if I've got a matching set of darks.

[Gina]

No, I don't seem to have a 120s master dark so I'll capture a set - if the temperature will go low enough.

[Gina]

No problem getting down to -30°C   So now capturing 100 darks of 120s gain of 440 and -30°C to calibrate the 120s SII subs going back to 11th October.

[Gina]

BPP proceeding nicely - one sub rejected leaving 251 that it's now integrating.

[Gina]

Finished.  Here's the result, rotated and cropped plus histogram stretched in Photoshop.  I'm not sure this is any better than the 178 sub integration.  251 OIII subs of 60s gain 440 and -30°C.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

Just realised I've been using the wrong calibration files - the master bias and dark had a gain of 501 and the lights I've just processed had a gain of 440 - 6db different.  I wonder if this makes a difference.  I guess I had better take some new biases and darks at that gain.  I can do that this evening while there's no clear sky.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

On 08/11/2016 at 15:53, tekkydave said:

I would be wary of using a database - it will probably just increase the overhead and frustration (do you need any more  ).

A simple method of using appropriately named directories and filenames should give you enough flexibility. A database will only add value if your application can store/retrieve details directly into it. Even then it has to keep sync with the physical files which will be on a separate filesystem (storing huge images in the database is not a good idea).

 

I'm afraid I missed this post when you posted it Dave   But I agree with you - a suitable directory structure would be a good way of organising the master calibration files., or at least the bias and dark.

I guess top level will be gain then temperature and exposure. 

[Filroden]

5 minutes ago, Gina said:

I'm afraid I missed this post when you posted it Dave   But I agree with you - a suitable directory structure would be a good way of organising the master calibration files., or at least the bias and dark.

I guess top level will be gain then temperature and exposure. 

I don't think you need subfolders for master calibration files. Just include the gain, temp and exposures in the file name and they will sort themselves within a single folder. I can't imagine you'll have hundreds of master bias and dark calibration files.

[Gina]

That's true.  Good point

[russellhq]

I wonder if there is the need to run the planetarium software on the mini pc? Seems like a lot of resource just to tell the scope where to point.

6 hours ago, Gina said:

Put the mini PC box out in the observatory on the pier and powered it up from the mains with supplied PSU (I'll run it of the obsy main DC supply later).  Tried the WiFi but it was a bit intermittent so connected the Cat 6 cable and running wired - that works fine.  Then I tried the astro stuff.  Found I'd forgotten to install CdC so I did that and it runs.  Runs and displays the sky chart but couldn't get it to connect to the mount either directly directly or via POTH Hub   I checked in Device Manager and found the USB to serial adapter on Com 4.  Put that in the ASCOM settings but no joy.

Then I tried SharpCap and tried to connect to the ASI1600MM-Cool but it didn't find the camera

I wonder if this is a Windows 10 problem.  Have to say I'm finding Win 10 more disagreeable than other versions

 

[Gina]

I don't think CdC uses much in the way of resources.  But I'm planning to use the Raspberry Pi just running the INDI server to drive the mount with the planetarium software (KStars) on the client machine - a desktop PC indoors.

[Gina]

Just had a look outside and the sky has cleared   So which DSO to image...

[ChrisLX200]

4 minutes ago, Gina said:

Just had a look outside and the sky has cleared   So which DSO to image...

I think you could safely hold your breath until the clouds arrive - I've looked at Sat24   Nothing but cloud and rain here so I'm taking new sets of Darks and Flats...

ChrisH

 

[Gina]

You're probably right.  If only we could get reliable weather forecasts...

[Gina]

I'll continue taking darks to fill my gaps and not get worked up about losing an hour or two of imaging time