Which programs should I be using and which frames?

[PESKYWAABBIT]

I have now upgraded from a DSLR to a dedicated ASI1600MM with filter wheel. L, R, G, B, SII, Ha and OIII.

What imaging program would you guys recommend to start using, I used to use Backyard Eos but that's now out of the question.

What frame types would I be needing for each filter/sub?

Light, flat, dark and bias frames for each of the above filters?

What combination of filters should I be using? Should it just be L, R, G and B together in one stacked image. Or L, SII, Ha, and OIII in a stacked image? What are the rules?  

Any help is much appreciated and cannot wait to step up using a dedicated camera

 

[scotty38]

I would suggest NINA for imaging but I am biased even though it is brilliant.

Frames you will need are:

Lights (obviously)

Darks

Flats

Flat Darks OR Bias

 

Filters will depend on the target your're imaging. What do you fancy?

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 hour ago, PESKYWAABBIT said:

Light, flat, dark and bias frames for each of the above filters?

For the ASI1600 camera I would forget the Bias frames, I was always told the camera was unstable at very short exposures and after asking about this several times the consensus seemed to be not to use them.
But lights, of course, Flats yes, and darks at same exposure, gain. offset and temperature as the lights to calibrate the lights and also darks to calibrate the flats.

I always used Gain 139, offset 30 and -20 C for this camera, but this may not necessarily be the only (or even best) option but what I used after advice from this forum.

1 hour ago, PESKYWAABBIT said:

What combination of filters should I be using? Should it just be L, R, G and B together in one stacked image. Or L, SII, Ha, and OIII in a stacked image? What are the rules?  

In theory there are no hard and fast rules but generally depends very much on the target.
Some are best to use LRGB, but these can be greatly affected by light pollution and often get tricky with near full moon especially if target is close to the moon.
Most galaxies are best with LRGB or some people also add Ha as well.
Some have strong Ha, or OII and SII emissions, and so the NB filters come into their own.
Often there are strong Ha but very little OIII or SII and so you might do RGB and Ha and use the Ha in the Luminance or even part as Luminance and part added to the red channel.

It's a bit of a "horses for courses" thing and not always easy to get your head around (I am still trying). I find to begin with a good way is to search for images of the intended target and look at what others are doing, you are lucky in that you have a very popular camera and many of the images you find will be taken with the same camera.

I would pick a relatively easy target, like Orion, Horsehead, they seem to be very popular targets at moment but read up as much as you can, no point taking  lots of images with wrong filters and getting very little data so always do some test shots and stretch them to see what is there before taking several hours of data.

And I have just started to use NINA and if you have a windows Laptop, or computer of some description, then you cannot do much better than to use NINA,

I am still very much learning so this is just what I have learned, many with more knowledge may give better advice 🙂 

Steve

Edited February 4, 2022 by teoria_del_big_bang

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Another vote for NINA (it's fantastic). In terms of frames, then lights (obviously), darks, flats, and flat darks.

Filter choice depends very much on the target. Galaxies and reflection nebulae generally lrgb only, although some galaxies can benefit from some ha blended in also.

Emission nebulae can look nice in lrgb as well, even better in hargb or halrgb if you're looking to retain natural colouring.

The hubble palette (or other narrowband palettes, such as hoo) work very nicely on emission nebulae too, but at that point you're in the realm of false colour imaging. 

Generally speaking, you wouldn't mix hso and lrgb, but if the target has a particularly strong source of oiii and/or sii then blending those into lrgb can look nice (but tricky to get right).

Play around, find out what you like and what works on the sorts of targets you like to shoot.