[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by DavidU

Nice to see you over here David.

Originally Posted by codemonkey

Very nice, M&T! Looks very sharp.

As a software developer, I'm super impressed by the fact that you guys have written all your own software. That's awesome.

I did notice that some stars seemed to be RGB, others NB and was a bit confused before I read your description.

I saw a method of creating synthetic RGB stars from NB data... if I recall correctly it's just using:

R = H
G = H * 0.65 + O * 0.35
B = O

I used it on this image and think it worked really well there. Then again, sounds like you guys have RGB data anyway, so I suppose it's a moot point here!

I'm sure many will be philosophically opposed to such practices, but I'm a heathen, what can I say?

Thanks muchly Lee. We'll try your SHO to RGB method. Easy!

Originally Posted by codemonkey

Am I right that you're imaging at about 0.4"/px? Is the image downsampled, or cropped (or both?)?


I certainly feel your pain regarding backlash / static friction. Even the Mach 1 has a small amount of backlash (I've seen Roland say 250-500ms) which can make Declination guiding challenging at times. I'm imaging at 0.5"/px so small amounts of backlash that wouldn't bother lots of people become problematic for me. High res encoders and/or backlash-free designs sound more attractive every day... unfortunately the current economic situation makes such things decidedly less attractive.

We're at about 0.55 sec arc/pixel. Not cropped, not downsampled. It is a mini-mosaic with about 90% frame overlap, hence the slightly wider field. We do what one might call giga-dithering, big programmed random movements between frames, which helps remove all sorts of artifacts.

Originally Posted by Atmos

It has come up really well MnT, from the soft waves on the left to the stark contrasty shock front on the right.
I do find that purple squiggle/lightning fascinating, I've seen it in other images (remember it from your last one too) but it looks more defined here than in other renditions so I imagine that the good seeing helps

Thanks heaps Colin. We'd love to hear a professional verdict on that "lightning bolt".

Best,
MnT