Thoughts on which imaging rigs to concentrate on

[Gina]

Astrodon 3nm Ha filter has arrived in the post this morning and no more clear skies for the next week!!   Oh well, I could do with some early nights

[Gina]

I think I'll get the Starlight Xpress filter wheel with OAG as I'm almost bound to need longer exposures for faint DSOs.

[Gina]

I've downloaded ASCOM 6.2 and run the installer.  I gave a choice of repairing the current software or uninstalling so I chose repair and it did its stuff and reported repair successful   So when it stops raining I'll take the laptop back out and see if it will connect to the mount.

[Gina]

Rain has stopped and I've taken the laptop out to the observatory and tried connecting to the mount again - still the same problem so I'll try a complete uninstall and re-install and see if that works.

[Gina]

Uninstalled ASCOM and reinstalled it and after a bit of setting up the mount is connected and working   Everything else seems to be working too   The forecast for tonight has improved and showing some clear sky so I should be able to do something   I guess I should dismantle the rig, take the lid off the filter wheel and swap the Ha filter for my nice new 3nm Ha   Or is this tempting fate???!!!

[Gina]

I've swapped Ha filters   Easier than I thought - loosened the mount dovetail screws so that I could lift the lens end and unscrew the lens and two adapters out of the FW.  This gave nice clear access to the filter in use so I just unscrewed one and replaced it with the other, then screwed the lens assembly back in and fitted the 3D printed dovetail mounting back into the mount and tightened up the screws.  Left all cables connected except the feed to the focus motor.  Everything working after the filter change

Now just waiting for the remaining cloud to clear and darkness   Then to decide which DSO to image - don't feel like setting up PoleMaster tonight though I do have the camera attached to the EQ8 - with a rubber band - it's quite secure   I was going to see if the Andromeda Galaxy is available but now I also have a new, narrower Ha filter to try.   Decisions, decisions...

[Gina]

Decided to try out the 3nm Ha filter on the NAN and Pelican.  Having problems with APT but it seems to be working better now having closed other software.  I had another go at trying to get APT to save image data to drive D:  I could set it to that but then it wouldn't save at all so went back to C: and continually moving files from C: to D: then downloading from D: to indoor desktop and deleting files from D:  I need to find another capture software with similar facilities.  Preferable that will run on Linux.

Having another problem - my desktop copy of Photoshop has ceased to work.  Tried rebooting but no joy so I shall have to get PixInsight installed on the incoming new desktop before I can do any more processing!  Fortunately, the new desktop is due to arrive tomorrow.

[Gina]

Still clear   Collected 100 odd 3nm Ha subs of NAN&Pelican and now collecting 50 subs each of RGB on M31.  Had to reduce gain from 500 to 250 and exposure from 30s to 15s to prevent white-out in the middle of the galaxy.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

Finished for the night - closed up outside leaving camera to warm up and laptop to desktop link running downloading files.

[Demonperformer]

I am amazed (impressed) by the data you are collecting through your Hα filter with 30s (and now 15s!) exposures. I realise you are using f/2.5, but that is still only about 6x faster than an f/6 scope, and people are always talking about needing 20-30 min exposures, not 3m ones. Is this down to the sensitivity of the camera?

[Gina]

I think it must be.  The 15s was for RGB.  But yes 30s for Hα   I am absolutely amazed by this camera - I'm sure it's more sensitive than the Atik 460EX mono CCD camera.  The phrase "I don't believe it!" comes to mind but in a nice way  

[Gina]

The new desktop has already arrived - just after 9am in fact   I've unpacked it and examined it and it looks good.  Next job is to install Linux Mint on it but I need to wake up first - rather sleepy after a late night/morning   Another great session last night though.  I think that's it for several days now though going by the weather forecast.

[Gina]

The PC came with a USB WiFi dongle which does 300Mbps with MIMO.  Once I get the new PC working I might take the Win 7 desktop out to the obsy to use for imaging instead of the laptop which is struggling with HD size and plug the WiFi dongle into that.  If it really will do 300Mbps it will be much better than I'm getting from the laptop.  OTOH I might get RPi 3 working before I need to do that.

[Demonperformer]

I've been having a look at the ASI camera specs, and that is one serious piece of kit. It seems to replace everything from a planetary webcam to a DSLR, in one cooled-ccd package, all at a price that is about 70% of the atik-460.

You must let us know what the catch is when you find it ...

[Gina]

I certainly will   But it just continues to amaze me!

Here's one 30s Light sub of the NAN & Pelican from last night with the Astrodon 3nm Ha filter.  Just histogram stretched and resized in Ps - which has come back to life   That doesn't mean I'm not going over to Linux and PI.  May use both - I have an idea involving an SSD that could rejuvenate the Win 7 desktop.

 

[Gina]

Now running 112 subs like the above into DSS for stacking.

[RichLD]

37 minutes ago, Gina said:

Now running 112 subs like the above into DSS for stacking.

Following with interest and very much looking forward to seeing the results 

[Gina]

Coming up now

I wasn't watching how many of the 112 subs it actually stacked but I would think 56.  Image opened in Ps, histogram stretched and curves played with to bring up the faint stuff.  I think this could do with a bit longer exposure as it's losing the very faint stuff.  OTOH I could increase the exposure as the noise is below the threshold running at -25°C. 

The 3nm filter is very impressive - very small stars

Edited September 1, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

The gain for the above was 500 and I think the maximum is 600.  I'm not even using darks and although noise is showing in individual subs it doesn't show after stacking.  So for the next session with the Ha I'll up the gain to 600 and see how it goes. 

[RichLD]

Amazing stuff for the length of the subs through such a narrow filter! Lovely tight stars as well given that you are running the lens at a wide aperture. I would imagine pushing the exposure length to around 300s per sub would catch most of the faint stuff - I have to go to a minimum of 1200s with my QHY9 and that's with a 7nm filter!

Can't believe how sensitive that chip is!

[SilverAstro]

14 hours ago, Gina said:

Decided to try out the 3nm Ha filter on the NAN and Pelican.

I'm quite tired out just reading you ! At this rate you are going to have to take on an assistant (or three!) ( (s)he could be using the other Ha filter on one of your other rigs )

How did you get on with / finish up on that Cygnus Loop marathon ? It is a beautiful object, not so 'in yer face' as the NAN ? !

@>"running at -25°C."  All the impressive sensitivity etc aside -  I'm am still amazed that these things can run at that sort of temp without turning into a block of ice !!

Watching with enormous interest , , ,

 

 

[Gina]

I have captured sets of Ha, OIII and SII but not yet processed them.  That was the 5nm Ha filter.  I'll probably repeat the Ha with the 3nm filter when I get the chance.

I've got a lot of data to process so plenty to do while the weather prevents imaging apart for many other things

Edited September 1, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

Got the new desktop PC working   I used the small TV I've been using with the RPi 3 as monitor and connected by HDMI since the new PC has that.  Works fine   Connected the supplied keyboard and mouse and plugged the Linux mint + Ubuntu USB stick into the third front USB and powered up. 

The USB stick was recognised for booting and I booted up into Mint.  Then ran the installation option choosing "Other" which allowed setting up partitions. Next I set up partitions for / (root), swapfile, and /home for the rest.  I limited the root and swapfile to <250GB so that I can migrate those to an SSD when I get it.  The installation insisted on a swapfile so I made it 17MB - just a bit bigger than the RAM.  Continued to install the system on the root partition and in a couple of minutes it was done

Edited September 1, 2016 by Gina

[SilverAstro]

19 minutes ago, Gina said:

I have captured sets of Ha, OIII and SII but not yet processed them.  That was the 5nm Ha filter.  I'll probably repeat the Ha with the 3nm filter when I get the chance.

I've got a lot of data to process so plenty to do while the weather prevents imaging apart for many other things

Yes I remember, that will make for an interesting comparison.

Good job you are not (yet) into solar ! , , lots of sun data out there today as well 

[Gina]

I've done white solar in the past but can't say I found sunspots terribly exciting.  I have thought of going over to Ha but I have too much on already - maybe next year

This new camera has turned my thoughts on imaging rigs upside down   I'm far from sure that a triple 460EX imaging rig would do any better than one ZWO and filter wheel.  I might try a triple rig on the EQ8 and ZWO on NEQ6 but that's some way into the future.  Needs the second observatory built etc.  ATM I'm already having trouble handling the enormous amount of data this ZWO camera is generating

Edited September 1, 2016 by Gina