My First Livestack - M1

[Buzzard75]

I FINALLY had a chance to get outside with some clear weather, my scope and my camera. It's the first time I've used my dob in six months. I've just been so busy and the skies have not cooperated. I recently purchased a ZWO ASI178MC so I could do a little solar imaging and thought I might also try my hand at some livestacking. I was concerned that since it was a dob that field rotation would be a problem. Turned out it wasn't so bad after all. I do have a few issues, which I'm sure everyone will note, but I've got a lot more learning to do and I couldn't be more pleased with my first effort. I used my ASI camera with a 0.5x focal reducer in my 12" dob running SharpCap. I've included both the stretched photo from SharpCap and my post processed version of the FITS file. Even my version could use some work. I'm sure I could sit and play with it all day and come up with a whole bunch of different versions, but it's not terrible for 20 minutes of integration using 20-second exposures and 10 minutes spent doing some really basic adjustments.

[Demonperformer]

Really good first go with the live-stacking.

Did you just use the automatic stretch values, or did you play with the histogram? I have found that the automatic values get me in the ball-park, but significant improvements can made with a bit of fiddling - you can alway return to the auto values if you don't like the result. I find it gives me something to do while the system is doing all the capturing. Live-stacking has saved me so much space on my drive.

[Paul73]

????????

Fist go! What a result!

I’m assuming that the Dob is driven?

[Buzzard75]

5 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Really good first go with the live-stacking.

Did you just use the automatic stretch values, or did you play with the histogram? I have found that the automatic values get me in the ball-park, but significant improvements can made with a bit of fiddling - you can alway return to the auto values if you don't like the result. I find it gives me something to do while the system is doing all the capturing. Live-stacking has saved me so much space on my drive.

Thanks! I played with the whites, blacks and mids and the auto colour based on histogram button, but that was about it. This was my first session and I honestly wasn't even sure it was going to work. That was really my main goal, just to see if I could. I burned through my PC battery in about two hours hunting down another target so I didn't get a lot of time to play with it and really learn it.

 

4 hours ago, Paul73 said:

????????

Fist go! What a result!

I’m assuming that the Dob is driven?

Yep! It's an Orion XX12g with GoTo. It tracks well enough, I think. You can see in the SharpCap frame on the right and bottom edge all the frames and how far it moved.