Thoughts on which imaging rigs to concentrate on

[Gina]

Sure will!!

[wimvb]

In response to your needs, Gina, Pleiades Software have released an upgrade for PixInsight. It now makes better use of multiple core processors, speeding up the stacking process. But I found out that it also sucks all the power out if other software that is running. So you need a dedicated computer for PI. No more surfing or playing minesweeper while PI runs BPP.

Happy new year,

Edited December 29, 2016 by wimvb

[Gina]

Just applied a wodge of updates to PI.  I don't play Minesweeper or other games but surfing - yes.  I wouldn't have thought surfing eg. here, would use much in the way of system resources.  Or is it that PI takes over and stops other processes from working?  The stacking process could certainly do with speeding up. 

I have already found that PI (or my Linux machine) can't handle too many hundreds of images at a time and I have to split the data up into lumps of 200 subs for Blink, for example.  Processing time seems mainly dependent on CPU speed or memory size and HD speed doesn't seem to affect it - SSD doesn't seem any better than HD.

Happy New Year to you too

[Gina]

Have now downloaded 670 subs and looked at the last one and it's fine   Still continuing but I can now divide these up into manageable lots and look at them with Blink but lunch calls first

[Gina]

Seem to have about 900 subs before the object dropped below the horizon (or trees).

[Gina]

Put all my OIII subs through Blink to reject any poor ones and dump those after Orion went out of sight leaving "888 items, totalling 29.1 GB".  Took matching flats today or at least I thought I did but PI says they're Ha!   Just have to hope it doesn't make much difference.   Now feeding the first 300 or so OIII lights plus flats and master bias and dark, through BPP.

I am hoping to repeat the operation with a slightly wider FOV though with shorter FL lens so that I can get M78 in the frame.  Hoping the 105mm lens will do it - next lens is 55mm or 45mm which is a big difference.  The 55mm is f1.8 at full aperture and this doesn't seem to work very well, maybe because the Astrodon filters only work well down to around f3.  Stopping down will give diffraction spikes from the iris.

[Gina]

Here is the integration of 310 OIII subs of Orion's Sword.  Screenshot of histogram stretched PixInsight image.  The calibration isn't working right with a background gradient lightening towards the bottom.  Can be taken out with DBE I expect but shouldn't happen.

[Gina]

Clear night sky and imaging the IC405, IC410 and Simeis 147 area in Ha - 2m subs with gain of 600 and -30C.  No dew shield yet so just hoping...

[Gina]

Wants a bit more FOV to get IC405 and Simeis 147 in the frame.  Here is a much stretched 120s sub with IC405 and 410 in the lower right corner and Simeis 147 just about showing in the top left.

[Gina]

I think if I just get IC410 and Simeis 147 in frame and don't bother about IC405 I might just get all of Simeis 147 in.

[Gina]

Yes, this is it - histogram stretched in PixInsight. 

[Gina]

A lens focal length of around 90mm would be nice for this.  My next one down id 55mm with nearly twice the FOV.  Looks like I should try zoom lenses.  Maybe I'll print some mountings and focus gears for one or two of my zoom lenses.  Downside is the extra exposure required with the smaller aperture.

[Gina]

Had a thought...  Somewhere I have a Jupiter brand lens of somewhere near that focal length.  Have to see if I can find it.  Found a Jupiter 9 85mm f2 lens on ebay that looks just like my lens as I remember it - wonder if it is

Here another image with the 105mm f2.8 lens.  This is full resolution in PNG format without any histogram stretching.  I think this lens is even better quality than the 135mm.

[Gina]

Here an integration of 68 Ha subs of 120s calibrated with master bias and master dark but no flat as I haven't taken any yet with this setup.  It needs a lot more data.  Histogram stretched in GIMP.  Full resolution.

[Gina]

Had to pack up.  Very hard frost with a couple of mm of frost on everything that didn't have any heating!  And yes, the lens was dewed up.  I wiped it off but almost immediately it came back.  The stars are remarkably clear and bright but I wasn't ready and that's that!  Maybe I'll be better prepared for next month's clear night

[Gina]

122 subs passed the Blink test - not too bad.  I'll be taking some flats today to go with them (if everything isn't frozen up!!).

[Davey-T]

122 subs, sounds good,  I haven't checked mine yet, hopefully I've got something to show for staying up until 3.30am, frost was pretty bad here, had to give the rig a blast of the hair drier a couple of times and the patio was like a skating rink, humidity was around 99% so not surprising.

Dave

 

[Gina]

A quick BPP in PixInsight using an old master flat.  Screenshot of PI after histogram stretching.  This really needs a lot more data - Simeis 147 is very faint.  Amp glow is showing quite badly so, for some reason, my darks aren't doing all they should do.  Wonder if I should take more subs (I use 80).

[Gina]

Now 3D printing a dew shield for the 105mm lens.

[Gina]

Following advice from IanL about PixInsight, I have a new integrated image of Simeis 147 with IC410, with better amp glow subtraction.  Needs cropping to remove registration borders.  This is a screenshot of PI with STF histogram stretch.  A dose of DBE would help too but the main thing required is a lot more data.

[Filroden]

3 minutes ago, Gina said:

Following advice from IanL about PixInsight, I have a new integrated image of Simeis 147 with IC410, with better amp glow subtraction.  Needs cropping to remove registration borders.  This is a screenshot of PI with STF histogram stretch.  A dose of DBE would help too but the main thing required is a lot more data.

That's a much cleaner image (registration and background aside). Once it is cropped and DBE applied I think it will look a lot better though it's going to be fun stretching this to maintain contrast in IC410 whilst bringing out Simeis 147.

[Gina]

Cropped and with DBE but I think the DBE could be better.  Curves applied to help bring out Simeis 147 and reduce IC410.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2017 by Gina

[Gina]

Must get back to some data processing now that I have some more experience/knowledge of PixInsight.  What with the new software and the new camera and imaging setup, this is a great learning experience

[Gina]

With both Clear Outside and the BBC Weather Forecast showing cloud for tonight I am not prepared for imaging but a look outside shows a lovely clear sky!!  Oh for a good weather forecast!!!  Clear Outside even forecasts rain in an hour or two.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Gina

[Gina]

Thinking about what I would like to image next time we get some clear night sky, and from seeing a widefield image of Orion, encourages me to get my 28mm lens out again and give Orion the FOV I used for Cygnus a little while back.  It seems this winter imaging is going to be mainly experimenting with the ASI1600MM-Cool and various camera lenses rather than concentrating on a few objects in depth - currently there just isn't enough clear sky time to do all I would like.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Gina