Eastern Veil

[Iem1]

Hey folks

I was out last night tinkering with back focus trying to resolve some star issues, I think I made progress there.

4 second exposure:

 

Versus a 3 minute long exposure:

 

The stars are definitely not perfect and need work, but they are better than last time and going in the right direction. Now I need to figure out where I am going wrong with guiding as all of my 3 minute exposures showed a bit of trailing, even in the center. 

That said, I managed a little bit of data on the eastern part of the veil nebula. Not the best image as I was mainly trying to troubleshoot my imaging, perfect conditions last night but there was some sort of event being help for star gazing, so a bit of time lost due to cars and head torches, but was great to see so many people under the stars!

x27 3 minute exposures

 

I desperately need to improve my processing skills too  found this fairly tough, maintaining the integrity of the subject while reintroducing the (Chunky!) stars. It has lost its sharpness a bit, the starless image was pretty sharp!

Here is the original untouched stacked Tif if anyone would like to have a go, it helps a lot to see how others tackle a process.

result.tif

[AstroNebulee]

Your stars look pretty good to me on my phone, nice job. I'll hope to have a go at processing your data over the weekend, looking like my clear skies are going to vanish again. Was hoping to get out with the scope last night as it looked very steady clear skies but next door had a garden party late into the night, bbq smoke, chimenera smoke, garden lights blazing so that put paid to anything. The only way I looked at is there will be other clear nights. 

Lee 

Edited August 26, 2022 by AstroNebulee
addition

[AstroMuni]

2 hours ago, Iem1 said:

x27 3 minute exposures

Thats a great image. I like it 🙂 and would be proud to have taken that. I have downloaded your final image as posted above (not the tif) and tweaked it in Preview tool on Mac

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by AstroMuni

[Steve143]

I was out last night for the first time with the ASI533MC Pro and captured the Eastern Veil too. I still have some back focus issues to iron out but generally pleased with my first image using this camera. This was 10x 180s exposures and no calibration files.  

[Iem1]

4 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Your stars look pretty good to me on my phone, nice job. I'll hope to have a go at processing your data over the weekend, looking like my clear skies are going to vanish again. Was hoping to get out with the scope last night as it looked very steady clear skies but next door had a garden party late into the night, bbq smoke, chimenera smoke, garden lights blazing so that put paid to anything. The only way I looked at is there will be other clear nights. 

Lee 

It's getting there! Trying to up the quality of my images. Think I did well on managing focus last night. Next on the list is a dedicated mono camera set up and possibly auto focus! Really really enjoying using the ASI. Though I am questioning the validity of the PA it says I achieve as even 30 second subs show trail, and with the PA showing as it does a 30 second should be pin point stars at 430mm. Another query to explore.

Nothing worse than when all the conditions look set to align for something mundane to put a stop to it

and thank you, I look forward to seeing the outcome of your processing!

2 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

Thats a great image. I like it 🙂 and would be proud to have taken that. I have downloaded your final image as posted above (not the tif) and tweaked it in Preview tool on Mac

 

Already significantly better! good job! Mine lacks a bit of punch, I am conscious of it being a short toal integration with a dslr...keeping noise down as much as possible.

[Elp]

There's a chance if you should be expecting no star trails at 30s and you know your PA is good and the star trails are uniform across the whole FOV then your sidereal guide rate is not correct, so your mount isn't moving the RA quick enough.

[AstroNebulee]

I agree with Elp here, I too think the sidereal rate is not enough to keep up with the stars. I have the asiair pro and find pa is brilliant and bang on for my az gti mount. 

Lee

[AstroNebulee]

Well I've had a quick dirty process of it, not entirely happy but goes to show what's there.  Lots of blotchiness and colour slightly suspect, I did use siril photometric colour (I'm not the best proceeser but getting there) Processed in Siril, then starnett++2 and photoshop.

I take it was just light frames and no calibration frames with this? I had to crop it in a lot as there was vignetting out the outside but as you say you were just testing the back spacing which I think is just about there and I would like my backspacing that nice haha. There is a bit of the vignetting I didn't crop out in the top left but its only rough. Nice amount of data you captured

Hoping to give it another go this weekend and spend longer on it, only a 15 min process. 

 

Cheers

 

Lee

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by AstroNebulee
addition

[alacant]

9 hours ago, Iem1 said:

x27 3 minute exposures

Hi

Love it. Great result for such a short time.

Superb star field showing loadsa structure and nice colour in the nebula. Well done.

 

[Iem1]

Thank you guys!

Some great processes there! I did actually take flats (and bias as standard) but the way I currently image they are sometimes no good. I take all my kit to and from dark sky sites, the EQ6 R Pro is a heavy bit of kit + everything else. So I setup everything and dismantle everything each time I image EXCEPT the actual imaging train (now).

I used to do the same with the scope/flattener/camera but recently I have made the effort to leave that assembled and carry it to and from the sites as I am trying to minimise exposure to dust etc

So at the moment I take flats using my laptop when I get in, of course, taking the scope out of the cold and into a warm car + the vibrations has the potential to change orientation etc ..I need to purchase a tablet in order to run the AAP and use as a uniform light source so I can take my flats out in the field properly, with correct orientation and temperature (and hence focus) to up my calibration game.

Typically speaking, Siril's background extraction is enough to cover my poor flat frames, but not always! 

I will check sidereal rate later if/when I go out. I thought it was correct but you never know! I am also still aware I am not balanced in DEC still, so that might be an issue. Although, I am barely hitting 5KG/20KG for weight capacity, so I'd have thought a bit of imbalance in DEC would have been manageable, but that could also be a point of inaccuracy.

I do love using the AAP though, fantastic bit of kit. 

One question, do I still need to set my EQ6 R to home position now that the AAP does plate solving? I still do it with my spirit level, but just wondering if that is still a necessary step now I do not use the hand controller? 

 

Cheers guys, appreciate all the feedback and time

[Iem1]

Second question

I have been debating the lowering setting that dictates how stable guiding must return to after dithering in order to continue imaging, its still at a default of 2". I usually sit below 1" total error, on a "bad" night i may hover around 1.00" - 1.40" total error.

Is this a factor perhaps? If imaging starts at 2.00" total error could this be introducing a bit of trail into the images perhaps? Should I decrease it and hence wait longer for everything to stabilise?

my guiding window for the Eastern veil session;

 

I also need to get a dew heater for the guide scope I think, this night was the first night the stars were barely visible...maybe high altitude clouds, but I think it was dew.

This was my PA when i started:

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by Iem1

[AstroNebulee]

Have you got an old phone that you can run your AAP software on as that's what I use and plenty big enough and can fit on your pocket less to take with you. As you know it's best to do the flats before you pack up for the night to minimise the reasons you say and I use a cheap tracing panel from amazon and made a foam box that just fits over my scope, bang off my flats and dark flats quickly at the end. 

I leave my scope and imaging train all together as you do to minimise any dust and unesessary faff too. 

I do find that balancing is key to good imaging and I believe now I've balanced my set up to within an inch of its life my guiding is so much more stable and solid. 

Regarding the home position after a session I put back to home position with my AAP then on the next session do pa then send back to home then goto target and plate solve and automatically centre. As I've said above this is what I do and what works for me rightly or wrongly. 

Lee 

Edited August 27, 2022 by AstroNebulee

[Iem1]

1 hour ago, AstroNebulee said:

Have you got an old phone that you can run your AAP software on as that's what I use and plenty big enough and can fit on your pocket less to take with you. As you know it's best to do the flats before you pack up for the night to minimise the reasons you say and I use a cheap tracing panel from amazon and made a foam box that just fits over my scope, bang off my flats and dark flats quickly at the end. 

I leave my scope and imaging train all together as you do to minimise any dust and unesessary faff too. 

I do find that balancing is key to good imaging and I believe now I've balanced my set up to within an inch of its life my guiding is so much more stable and solid. 

Regarding the home position after a session I put back to home position with my AAP then on the next session do pa then send back to home then goto target and plate solve and automatically centre. As I've said above this is what I do and what works for me rightly or wrongly. 

Lee 

I currently use my phone to run the app, but I like the idea of a dedicated tablet for AP. Could also double as a uniform flat panel, at the moment I use an open word document on my laptop.. the logistics are less than ideal to say the least

the guiding it self is generally stable. I think the fact that the imaging equipment is so light compared to what could be it goes a long way to countering the imbalance in DEC (at least I hope!)

One thing I have been thinking about (in regards to achieving pin point stars and getting rid of that minute trailing) is perhaps the DSLR it self, the shutter mechanism adding movement? Perhaps I am just approaching the limits of my equipments capabilities.

I am reading some conflicting information about calibration steps for my set up with some suggesting ~8000 ms and some suggesting ~400 ms. Its hard to determine what I need to be looking out for.

Does anyone have any links to some articles that discuss in depth how guiding works and how the settings of the AAP influence its performance? Looking for material online but struggling.

[AstroNebulee]

I've found this site very informative, worth a look and some good advice here. 

https://eastwindastro.blogspot.com/?m=1

Lee

[Iem1]

43 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

I've found this site very informative, worth a look and some good advice here. 

https://eastwindastro.blogspot.com/?m=1

Lee

This is a great site and exactly what I'm after! Trying to wrap my head around the aggression explanation, but the ADU exposure guide is a great point and I'm going to implement it tonight.

Since I have had the AAP and my auto guiding set up I am absolutely guilty of neglecting correct exposure in favour of long exposures 

It's like..

..take long exposures. 

Edited August 27, 2022 by Iem1