Trying to get enthusiasm back after a hiatus due to Yorkshire weather re-processing old data

[teoria_del_big_bang]

This year has not been great for me with very little imaging activity mostly due to weather. I think the last time my rig was out was February.
I did have two months working in China that stopped any imaging in March / April but since then a bad back and mostly the weather has just made it very difficult to get any further data so far this year. 
I have had the rig out several time on what CO says will be clear nights but on all of them the seeing has been poor due to the humidity and has ended up at least having partial cloud making any meaninful imaging almost impossible.
Having looked at how much money is tied up in equipment and how often it gets used I did contemplate selling up altogether as it all seemed so frustrating. I think I would have packed it all in if not for SGL, and how much I enjoy being a part of it, so I am now trying to get my enthusiasn back fully, and as weather still not great I have started revisiting old data that originally yielded poor final images and making sure my eqipment is ready to go and all software updates installed.
This is some SHO data from 2021 that my original processing gave very poor results. Hopefully my processing skills have improved to some extent but after saying that it is funny how not processing for several months makes you a but rusty and takes a bit to get back into it.
Originally processed in a hubble pallete, yielding a rather insipid result, I tried using the Foraxx pallete script in PI and I think this one looks better for me like this. I processed this fairly simply not spending lots of time on it using some PI processes not available on the original attempt.

This was my original image:

Here's hoping for some clear nights soon, and thank-you SGL members for keeping me going 🙂 .

Steve

Edited October 21, 2023 by teoria_del_big_bang

[wimvb]

Looks very good to me.

PM me if you want some more data to process. I think we've had more luck with the weather than you.

[Ouroboros]

That’s an amazing difference and improvement @teoria_del_big_bang isn’t it?   Like you I’ve only recently realised how useful it is to return to previously processed data.  Not only does it help keep my skills fresh but also I’ve picked up new techniques in the mean time and there have often been technical improvements to the software. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

54 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

That’s an amazing difference and improvement @teoria_del_big_bang isn’t it?   Like you I’ve only recently realised how useful it is to return to previously processed data.  Not only does it help keep my skills fresh but also I’ve picked up new techniques in the mean time and there have often been technical improvements to the software. 

Yes I was suprised what a difference it was and can't pin it all on me improving over a couple of years, but hopefuly some of it is.
For me a lot has been the RC-Astro suite of products, especially BlurXT and Noise XT and learning to seperate the stars eary on and process them seperately. I realy struggled with sharpening and noise reduction in early says even though the tools were there. I know that BlurXT especialy gets some critisism from many about being cheating but if thats what it takes then I will cheat 🙂 .
 

Steve

[teoria_del_big_bang]

4 hours ago, wimvb said:

Looks very good to me.

PM me if you want some more data to process. I think we've had more luck with the weather than you.

Cheers I will take you up on that at some stage 🙂 

Steve

[sinbad40]

I know how you feel.  around 2010, I was having issues with my back, which didn't help dragging a 10" lx90 out, aligning and then watching the cloud come back in.  I decided to sell everything and call it a day.  spent a number of years just doing visual with bino's and a spotting scope i use for archery.  Last year i decide to start again, but a lot smaller, i even put a pier in with a cover so i could leave it out, so i can now manage a quick setup in 5 mins which has helped with the weather pain we seem to have this year.

Defo a big improvement from the old image, but i would be chuffed with either at the min.  Fingers crossed we get better weather soon. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

2 hours ago, sinbad40 said:

I know how you feel.  around 2010, I was having issues with my back, which didn't help dragging a 10" lx90 out, aligning and then watching the cloud come back in.  I decided to sell everything and call it a day.  spent a number of years just doing visual with bino's and a spotting scope i use for archery.  Last year i decide to start again, but a lot smaller, i even put a pier in with a cover so i could leave it out, so i can now manage a quick setup in 5 mins which has helped with the weather pain we seem to have this year.

Defo a big improvement from the old image, but i would be chuffed with either at the min.  Fingers crossed we get better weather soon. 

Yes any data is good data at moment.
I too need to do something similar to yourself as I have a heavy I-Optron Tri pier to carry out and need a permanant pier. I just keep putting it off because with kids moving out we have been moving and downsizing for past 5 years but with covid and trying to find something suitable we are still here 😂

Part of finding somewhere suitable is trying to find a backyard or garden with pleanty of sky to view and at least low LP but so damned hard to find these days without iving out in stick in an expensive self detached.

Steve

Edited October 21, 2023 by teoria_del_big_bang

[sinbad40]

24 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Yes any data is good data at moment.
I too need to do something similar to yourself as I have a heavy I-Optron Tri pier to carry out and need a permanant pier. I just keep putting it off because with kids moving out we have been moving and downsizing for past 5 years but with covid and trying to find something suitable we are still here 😂

Part of finding somewhere suitable is trying to find a backyard or garden with pleanty of sky to view and at least low LP but so damned hard to find these days without iving out in stick in an expensive self detached.

Steve

Ha, we made the mistake of not down sizing when our eldest moved out as we wanted the youngest to finish uni and get settled in a job etc.  Now the youngest is looking for a job, and the eldest has split from his girlfriend and had to move back in after 4 years    But as we were thinking of something smaller, it allowed me to buy a pier that can be unbolted and moved, so something good came out of it

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

14 minutes ago, sinbad40 said:

Ha, we made the mistake of not down sizing when our eldest moved out as we wanted the youngest to finish uni and get settled in a job etc.  Now the youngest is looking for a job, and the eldest has split from his girlfriend and had to move back in after 4 years    But as we were thinking of something smaller, it allowed me to buy a pier that can be unbolted and moved, so something good came out of it

 

TBH my daughter is still with us but part way through a self build with her boyfriend (in a pretty dark area on outskirts of town so maybe a possible obsy build 🙂 ) but she is planning to be in it sometime next year so that was also a reason for not rushing but our thoughts were to then move to a much smaller place so they can't come back (joking of course 😉)

Steve

Edited October 21, 2023 by teoria_del_big_bang

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

18 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

a pretty dark area on outskirts of town

From what I have seen of Skipton (son and wife live in Cononley) the dark outskirts are a developers dreamscape. How long will the dark last? We moved to the centre of Pateley and I realised many years ago the potential folly of buying next to an open field on the edge of a town only to see the wonderful view transition into a housing estate, and they seem to be getting bigger all the time.

[Elp]

I can empathise. Just updated my equipment list and it doesn't make for good reading, especially as it's just sitting around. Haven't done much this year as the weather has been so inconsistently awful more so than normal.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

10 minutes ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

From what I have seen of Skipton (son and wife live in Cononley) the dark outskirts are a developers dreamscape. How long will the dark last? We moved to the centre of Pateley and I realised many years ago the potential folly of buying next to an open field on the edge of a town only to see the wonderful view transition into a housing estate, and they seem to be getting bigger all the time.

Yes you are right, I already live on what was the outskirts of town when we bought it 23 years ago (otley side of skipton) and now there are estates to the south albeit a reasonable distance away, and to the east of us, but thankfully the other side of a railway embankment so that does minimise the effect, but apart from that it is lke so may other threads on here even the houses that were here have new residents that all seem to think they are not safe without 1000 W floodlights to light up their back garden, some not even on PIRs but on all noght.
It really make imaging more amd more difficult but I am still in a darker area than so many have to cope with and they still manage some great images.

The area my daughter is building on is farmland that is in the boyfriends family and still some distance beyond the edge of town but it has taken knocking on 3 years to get plans approved and they are very restricted, and yes eventually developers will encroach but should take a few years and I bet they are all two story boxes all looking the same with 1M between them without all the resrictions my daughter has had to cope with and fight against.

Steve

Edited October 21, 2023 by teoria_del_big_bang

[sinbad40]

Its very true, Before moving further west to get a house with my now wife many years ago, I lived in a village, until a lot of the surrounding land was sold to developers who built a big housing estate, followed by another housing estate, took a chunk of the green land and added a lot of light, to what was a reasonable place even between Bolton and Manchester being in a valley, the dark was swamped.

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

1 hour ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I bet they are all two story boxes all looking the same

When I moved here 35 years ago, the estate on the entry road from the A59 was in progress, and its satellite are still growing I see. It is the epitome of dull cloned boxes, and yet some developments can manage a better standard of architecture so it can be done. When first here, I could see the milky way when I got home from work, and that with a light right outside the house. Now everywhere has bright lights, farms dotted across the hills, the school, the memorial Hall, the Health Centre and the biggest culprit is the AONB offices, a body that boasts about the dark skies nearby and the need to protect them! As nobody actually works in the AONB office overnight they are oblivious. Fortunately a half hour drive gets me to the centre of moorland that is as far as is possible distant from any significant town, truly impressive darkness.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

3 minutes ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

 Fortunately a half hour drive gets me to the centre of moorland that is as far as is possible distant from any significant town, truly impressive darkness.

And this is another posibility for me to getter better data if I just get myself a suitable rig. I already have the scope with the WO73 that I think will suffice and if I keep the ZWO1600 so definitely something to think about. Still need the weather to play ball though 🤣  

I know a lot of my issues is probably myself not pushing myself to use every possible clear night but again I know that is due to my heavy rig with no permanant pier as I tend to wait till there is a definite clear night instead of grabbing a couple of hours here and there where ever possible. So a move of house for me even somewhere half decent will probably be good for me at my age will probably be my last move, at least for sometime if not for good, so no more putting off at least a permanant pier maybe a rudimentry obsy so this reasoning is another thing that keeps me going.

Steve

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

13 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

a move of house

That is a very expensive option just for improving astro time, hopefully there would be other benefits too. I'm visual only so I am not so impacted. Your other idea, a more mobile setup sounds sensible if you can get out towards the dales away from the bigger cities. Malham direction would be good I imagine. A permanent obsy is the ultimate dream for all astro hobbyists, even me and all I use these days are my big binos attached to my self made motorised binochair. I'm making a bigger version right now - based on a small trailer, but I'd swap that option for a concrete base in a heartbeat.

PS Although I'm not an imager and have never had that interest, what you posted at the top is amazing so I can see the attraction. It's quite astonishing what is within the reach of amateur AP these days, if only the weather and LP permits.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Mr H in Yorkshire

[teoria_del_big_bang]

10 minutes ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

That is a very expensive option just for improving astro time, hopefully there would be other benefits too. 

Ha yes it sounds it but the move is not just to get better skies, although if I could persuade the wife to do so it might 🤣, but is just down-sizing from a big 4 bedroom to something more manageable as the kids are grown up and moved out (well Son moved several years ago and daughter moving soon) so it should work out that financially we are better off.
Because the move has sort of been on the cards for some years I have put off a building a permanent pier where I am currently, although maybe I should have just done it as we have been potentially moving for something like 4 years.

Steve

Edited October 22, 2023 by teoria_del_big_bang

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

28 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

but is just down-sizing from a big 4 bedroom to something more manageable as the kids are grown up and moved out

Yes, the down sizing question is vexing. We live in a sizeable Victorian villa, although it is all stairs and very costly to heat, I have an 'indoors' shed, essential for me as I love making and fixing stuff, it's a large cellar room and storage space, the bane of new builds, is huge. It made a wonderful family home but our children have left and now have families of their own. We have (though my daughter would not admit it) co-parented her two boys from babyhood and it has been wonderful experience, the boys stay over regularly and love Pateley for its own qualities and my Skipton son and family like to stay over too. As for Christmas, there was nearly a riot when we floated the idea of not bothering too much a while back, the family do love traditions it seems. The older boy is on the brink of teendom and may lose interest, in which case the younger one, who has always been only one step behind in development irrespective of age, may too.

However we absolutely love where we are and would be very hard put to find something as suitable so we have decided we are wedded to this house till we go out feet first. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

19 minutes ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

However we absolutely love where we are and would be very hard put to find something as suitable so we have decided we are wedded to this house till we go out feet first. 

Yes I can really understand that, and to be honest we have tentatively looked for another house since my Son left but we have the same sort of feeling that nowhere we have seen compares to our current house, and as we intend to downsize we have to realise it never will, despite probably not having the love for where we are the same way you have (don't get me wrong we really like it here but love is probably too strong) we are struggling to find somewhere to move to.
One big issue is my huge garage, that has never housed a car, but it full of astro gear, fishing gear, 3D printers and paraphernalia, and I really don't know what else, the contents of the garage alone would fill a normal 2 bedroom house 🙂 . 

But also I did make an attempt to retire a few years back, approaching 60, but that lasted a month and work asked me to come back, and as I loved my work I just couldn't say no and so now work part time, However, 3 years later I have to sometime make the break and that sort of leads to a sort of what is maybe not a mid-life crisis, I mean I am not suddenly going to but a motorbike and pass my bike test as so many of my mates did in their late 40's early 50's, but I do have ideas floating about that you sort of feel are "if I don't do it now then I never will" sort of plans, and again money gained from the downsize would fund one of these ideas, if I ever get on with it.

Not sure how showing a couple of re-hashed images lead to moaning about LP and explaining my pending retirement, amazing how threads develop, but in a way all the points are linked as is so many things in our lives 🤣

Trouble is that despite all my plans and thoughts about what we want to do time just seems to trickle through our fingers and before you know it several years have gone by any you are no further forward, as I age time seems to change exponentially. 

I guess 2024 should be decision time, move and fund one of our dreams AND build a permanent pier or obsy, OR stay put and still build the pier or obsy 🙂 

Steve

[DaveS]

I did the big move for dark skies nearly 5 years ago, moving from a 1930s two bedroom bungalow in Ruislip with horrid orange sky to my (Hopefully) forever home, an 1849 stone 3 bedroom semi (Though I have about 2/3 of the property) in a dark area of Dorset and built an obsy. On a good night in late summer I can see the milky way glittering down to the horizon.

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

2 hours ago, DaveS said:

On a good night in late summer I can see the milky way glittering down to the horizon.

I remember a trip to Durdle Door as a late teen, the sky was so dazzling with stars that I couldn't even recognise the obvious constellations. I don't think I have ever seen better.

[Roy Foreman]

I can so relate to the comments being made in this thread. Lack of decent weather,  ever growing urban sprawl and light pollution, health problems etc.  Two rounds of covid has reduced me to about an hours worth of energy each day !  When you spend 30 to 40 minutes setting up only to have clouds roll in it is so depressing.  Anything to reduce this time can help.  I have an EQ6 permanently set up on its tripod and polar aligned. All I have to do is mount the scope and electrics.  Covered in a good quality tarpaulin it has been outside for years and still going strong. Every little helps as they say.

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

2 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I did make an attempt to retire a few years back,

I agree with so many points you have made, so no leather trousers and ponytail for you!

I opted for redundancy at about 56, I really enjoyed the work but the management idiocy and nonsense was really depressing me. At that age I knew I was too specialised (forensic scientist) and unemployable, so I became a handy-man around the area. I never realised how much difficulty people had to find someone to do small jobs, it was crazy, within months I was putting in whole bathrooms, there is a fortune to be made in this line. I try to be retired but I have a bunch of regulars, mainly old ladies, who I do mates rates for, it's very satisfying.

Re actually retiring, my experience was that it was a bit worrying at first, but the sense of relief from little things (e.g. a twenty mile commute through all seasons), doing the bidding of people who hadn't a clue about my subject, etc was tremendous. It really felt wonderful. Some people have a real issue retiring, especially if their sense of identity is tied to their work role but for anyone with an alternative to work and outside interests, it's just the greatest!  When you make the break I hope it all works out. 

Cheers

[DaveS]

i went to boarding school in Dorset , late '60s-early '70s and remember nights so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, and so many stars that even familiar constellations were lost in the sea of stars. Must have been Bortle 1-2

Edited October 22, 2023 by DaveS
Can't type caps!

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

38 minutes ago, DaveS said:

late '60s-early '70s

I'm talking about the same era, went camping with some mates late 70's (nearly fell of the cliff after a couple of glasses of cider, that stuff is so anaesthetic I'm sure it would have been a painless death) I have never been so dazzled and lost. Absolutely unforgettable. I have a friend went to Namibia a while back and she said the same.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Mr H in Yorkshire