M31 - First play with new toys

[matthasboldlygone]

With so many new bits I was happy to get anything at all. All the features of the ASIAir worked well, handy focus tool, sync with mount, go-to and plate solve, guiding. Only had a short time before the dew landed, I'm waiting for dew straps. Cyan stars don't look right?

SW Evostar 100ed + 0.85 reducer
ASI294 MC Pro - not cooled this time, ambient was 11 - 8c
ASIAir Pro
HEQ5 Pro
Lights - 80 x 30 seconds - 40 minutes
Darks, Bias, Flats - none
Pixinsight stack and fiddles

[matthasboldlygone]

Tried again last night, all the same settings but 90 x 1 minute subs this time, and bin2 just to reduce file size for my old laptop. Wish I could get it all in frame, not keen on the cropped view..

 

[ultranova]

Congrats getting on with the AsiAir, 

All appears to be working well, your second take on M31 looks

a tad green to me, unless its my monitor, also, make sure you take dark 

frames, and flats if you haven't,  i can see the censor read noise top right,, i get it on my 294pro.

apart from that a very nice take on M31,

well done

Paul

 

 

[matthasboldlygone]

I was hoping the thing in the top right was a big blue star

Agree with the green, didn't see it till you said. Having another go processing it with some darks tonight.

[matthasboldlygone]

Tried mixing from both nights, added some dark frames but they didn't seem to do much. About 2 hours total and another processing session ... not sure if they're getting better or worse

[ollypenrice]

20 hours ago, matthasboldlygone said:

Tried mixing from both nights, added some dark frames but they didn't seem to do much. About 2 hours total and another processing session ... not sure if they're getting better or worse

You're getting there! Green-Magenta lie on one colour axis and now we're seeing a swing a little too far away from green towards magenta. Just dial that back a bit and you'll have it. Good dust lanes!

Olly

[matthasboldlygone]

 

Added another hour of 60 seconds, 3 hours total, tried dithering on the asiair, seemed to work but needed some tweaking to get the settle time reasonable. Added quite a bit of time doing it every 60 seconds.

Yet another processing session..

Time to plan a mosaic I think, 4 tile should get it all in nicely.

 

[DaveS]

Are you taking separate Darks for each sub length? With both 30 sec and 60 sec subs you will need to stack each separately with their own Darks and combine them later.

Also, I've found that using Bias and Dark together with CMOS can stuff up the calibration.

Calibrate with Flats, Dark Flats and Darks for lights, but no Bias.

[DaveS]

You'll also need to match your Dark frame temperature to the light frame temp.

[matthasboldlygone]

38 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Flats, Dark Flats and Darks for lights, but no Bias.

Sounds like a coffee order 

No darks or anything else at the moment, camera wasn't cooled so temp varied 6-11c. Working my way up one feature at a time.

Next time hopefully cooled camera with no calibration. Interesting to see what the difference will be.