Thoughts on which imaging rigs to concentrate on

[Gina]

One future possibility might be to sell off the 460EX cameras and buy more ASI1600MM-Cool ones but not yet...

Edited September 2, 2016 by Gina
typo

[Gina]

I have just installed PixInsight on the new machine and now doing updates.  Got a strange error after updating but running PI again and all seems well - don't know if the updates installed or not but if it works I'll be happy

I think the next thing might be to read some tutorials

[Gina]

Now downloading TeamViewer for Linux.  It's what I've used as a cross-platform app but is it the best?

[SilverAstro]

1 hour ago, Gina said:

 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. 

Hmmm, but what about 460EX   3 x ASI1600 and then , , oh you  got there before me    hmmm, how does one quote two posts when the second one you want is on a different page , , , 

[Gina]

I forget...

[Gina]

I have downloaded TeamViewer and extracted but nowhere can I find how you install it.  No readme and nothing on the web site   Maybe I need to look up general Linux stuff as it's a .deb file and I think I've installed these before but can't remember.

[Gina]

It's covered in Linux Mint info

[Gina]

Too simple really   I was trying to be too clever - I unpacked the deb file, which was wrong.  It's simply a matter of right clicking the packet (xxx.deb file) and choosing "gdebi installer" that installs the software "simples!!" 

TeamViewer 11 is now up and running on the new PC and I'm transferring a 100+ subs from Win PC to Mint PC (using wired connection).  Using the Win7 PC as client and Mint as server didn't work so I did it the other way round.  Neither machine will be "headless" so it doesn't matter.  Win7 is running TeamViewer 10.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

The data transfer is taking rather a long time so I checked the line speed and found it to be 100Mbps.  Tracked down the problem to the BT Home Hub which has only one gigabit port   The other three are 10/100 only so I've ordered an Ethernet switch so that I can get gigabit data transfer between wired computers.  The one I'm getting has been tested with the BT Home Hub as it appears many Ethernet switches won't work with it.

[Gina]

"Ma bwain hurts Bwian"... bee reading PixInsight tutorials   Can't have DSS throwing out half my data for no apparent reason though.  Read tutorials on that too and I'm not much wiser!

[Demonperformer]

That's the problem with a lot of the literature that is produced - it assumes a certain level of expertise before you start. Which is probably why I end up asking so many "dumb" questions on SGL.

[Gina]

Been carefully going through all the settings in DSS and have at last found why it was only using 50% of subs for stacking - found the setting and it was set to 50% so I've set it to 95% and trying again.

A bit later...  Yes - that was it   It's stacking 47 out of 50 green subs for M31 which is 95%.  Maybe I could set it higher eg. 98% would throw out the worst sub of 50 or the worst 2 of 100 etc.

[Gina]

I'm thinking I may use both desktop PCs for astro image processing and other purposes.  I will evaluate PixInsight during my 45 day trial period and see if I get to like it - I like the idea of scripted batch processing to do the mundane tasks such as registering and stacking but I'll have to see how it goes with further processing.  There's software other than Photoshop that is Windows only - I think SketchUp is only Windows and Mac and I need that for designing my 3D prints.

I'm thinking an SSD drive in the Win 7 desktop could transform it.  Not only in speeding up software but for a swap-file that is almost as fast as RAM of which there's only 4GB.  If I got a big enough one I could store files there temporarily for faster access.

[SilverAstro]

23 minutes ago, Gina said:

have at last found why

I am sooooo pleased to hear that !

It was giving me nightmares thinking of all those luvverly subs going awol, now I can get on with the rest of my life LOL ! 

 

[Gina]

Thank you   Did have PixInsight as a fallback option though - if I can get it to work

[Gina]

109 of 112 30s Ha 3nm subs of NAN & Pelican stacked in DSS and histogram stretched in Ps curves to carefully bring out as much faint nebulosity while keeping the whites from saturating.  Resized to half size - 2328px wide and saved in PNG format.  This resizing is a compromise between full frame which takes at least 5m to upload and 1200px which is the standard display size here.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

With the amount of Ha nebulosity in this region I feel I would like to go for an even wider FOV.  I might go for a 55mm f1.8 Asahi Super Takumar lens.  That would give around 17° FOV in width rather than 7°.  That certainly won't want guiding   Particularly if it works alright at full aperture.

[Gina]

Processing Cygnus Loop subs.  Here are the stacked and histogram stretched images from 49 x 5nm Ha , 94 x 3nm OIII and 98 x 5nm SII though the Ha is not stretched - it's just as stacked.  Images cropped and resized etc.

[Gina]

Some clear sky last night but also lots of passing cloud so I don't know what I got until I look at the subs.  I set up for taking 30s lights of the Cygnus Loop with the 3nm Ha filter but at first it was too cloudy so I took a pile of bias frames followed by darks.  Part way through the darks I noticed a break in the clouds so took the cap off the lens and replaced the dew shield and set up for Lights.  Took quite a lot but then saw that the sky had clouded over so stopped and went back to darks.  Closed the roof and flap, put the cap on the lens and set up for 100 darks and went to bed about 2am leaving it running.

This morning I'm transferring data from obsy laptop to desktop indoors.  How awaiting delivery of hardware upgrades including SSDs etc.

[Gina]

Transferred the Lights and been through them just in FITS Liberator but there doesn't seem to be much, if anything, there.  Now transferring all the darks - seems I captured 200 of them which is probably overkill.  Once I've got the darks indoors I'll run DSS on all I got last night and see if there's any sign of the Cygnus Loop.  At least I shall have stacked darks and bias frames so next time I'll not need to do that again for next time - assuming I use the same settings.  These are at -25°C and gain of 600 - the maximum.  With this much gain I shall need bias and dark frames.

Edited September 3, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

Very little there - DSS chose just 25 out of 85 Lights and this is the results of histogram stretching in Photoshop.  I'm playing with PixInsight and getting familiar with calibrating, registering and stacking in that.  I'll try this lot in PI and see if the result is any different.

[Demonperformer]

Given your results using the 5nm filter, this must surely be down to the conditions and not the filter (or, worse still, the camera!)?

[Gina]

Definitely the conditions - most frames were total cloud!  I'm quite surprised there's anything there TBH.

[Gina]

I was hoping to post the preprocessed image I have in PixInsight but it's in XSIF format and I can't find anything other than PI that will read it.  I imagine there's an export option in PI but I haven't found it yet.

[Gina]

Found it would save in various formats in Save As so I saved in FITS, transferred to Win PC, converted to TIFF and resized resized in Ps.  No other processing.