Pacman Test

[Rodd]

After having some sort of a poer issue, I decided to test the mount (mostly the mount) and the Pacman was suitably placed.  I noticed that the mount had stopped guiding and a yellow lkight was on--yellow lights on AP mounts means a power surge or some electrical issue.  I thought maybe the connector was loose and when I tried to tighten in I felt the unmistakable tingle of current.  Not good.  I also felt a very slight current coming from my computer.  The two systems are connected to the same power supply, but the computer via a power strip and the mount via a regulated power converter.  Strange.  Then it dawned on me--The 12 guage extension cord I use to connect to house current is missing the ground prong.  It hasn't been an issue but the extreme heat abnd humidity may have been too much.  I replaced the cord and the current issue went away.  However, when I plugged in the new cord to house current there was a sizable spark.  Nothing was turned on--so its wierd.  Perhaps a charge built up that was unabkle to be grounded.  After this, everything worked until the yellow light came on again--this time it was the central pin in the connector reqauired spreading--which has to be done periodically.  It worked, until the yellow light came on yet again!  This time it was becuase I failed to tighten the connector.  Can we please be done?!  After that, red lights till dawn (red light is good).  By then, M27 was gone, but I did not want to waste clear skies.  I decided to test the system on the Pacman, and here is the result.  Seeing was forecasted to be 4/5, but guiding fluctuations revealed it wasn't--maybe 3/5 or 2/5/5 at best.

My goal with Pacman is to avhieve 3 star separation in the central cluster, which I did not achieve here.  Maybe on a night of good seeing it will be possible.

C11Edge with .7x reducer and ASI 1600, Bin 2, 26 300 sec Ha subs

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Rodd

[peter shah]

Ooo nice FOV....lovely detail Rodd

[Rodd]

24 minutes ago, peter shah said:

Ooo nice FOV....lovely detail Rodd

Thanks Peter. I do wish I had a 6200 series camera for this scope. If I did, I probably would not be so eager to switch if out

[peter shah]

7 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Thanks Peter. I do wish I had a 6200 series camera for this scope. If I did, I probably would not be so eager to switch if out

Nah this is the perfect FOV in my opinion....I'm actually capturing almost the identical field as this atm

[Rodd]

18 minutes ago, peter shah said:

Nah this is the perfect FOV in my opinion....I'm actually capturing almost the identical field as this atm

Maybe for the pac man and galaxies.  But for most extended targets, it is quite limiting. 

[Rodd]

4 hours ago, peter shah said:

Nah this is the perfect FOV in my opinion....I'm actually capturing almost the identical field as this atm

Couldn

t resist.  I registered FSQ 106 and .6x reducer data to this data and created a HaSHO image.  Not too bad for 318mm data and 1960 mm data.  Of course, it helps immensely that the Ha is the C11 data!

[windjammer]

That is lovely. I am a complete sucker for those shades of blue.  Is there a short version of the processing details ?

Simon

[Rodd]

2 hours ago, windjammer said:

That is lovely. I am a complete sucker for those shades of blue.  Is there a short version of the processing details ?

Simon

There was a lot of pre processing for this dud to the wildly different focal lengths and quality.  The RC tools came in handy.  I r Ed moved the stars from the OIII and SII prior to combination and used the Ha stars.  After this, it was a straight forward HaSHO image (I used the Ha as luminance).  I used the histogram to equalize the palette and scnr green ( a pixinsight tool) to remove green to get the blue you like.  
 

I think C11 OIII snd SII will improve the depth and help with softness.  

[windjammer]

Thanks for the info - an interesting trick to use the stars from only one filter. I never thought of that !

I have to say I use the same tools as you, but never get that kind of colour balance out of SCNR - does the Ha as a luminance layer make much of a difference ?

[Rodd]

9 minutes ago, windjammer said:

Thanks for the info - an interesting trick to use the stars from only one filter. I never thought of that !

I have to say I use the same tools as you, but never get that kind of colour balance out of SCNR - does the Ha as a luminance layer make much of a difference ?

Yes, in narrowband images the Ha as a luminance takes it to another level.  I have found this is not the case for bicolor images, like the veil or thor’s helmet.  But for SHO images it cleans up the image and excentuates the detail.