You know what I've worked out.....this astro game (for me) is 95% fixing issues and 5% fun.
I haven't posted a pic for a while because I have been battling image tilt, which I now think I've solved.......although I was plagued with dew while taking this. Oh the joys!
The is about an hour of data in 3 min subs, some of which was looking through a dew haze on the lens.
Ray's advice sorted my tilt out Ben.....he said take it back to basics and start a rebuild of your equipment one piece at a time checking for tilt with each piece of equipment as it is added.
Mine came down to a dodgy 'as new' coma corrector purchased from a fellow ISS'er.......just goes to show, buyer beware.
I even purchased an adjustable tilt corrector to try and fix up my issues, but it was a chromatic tilt issue so that didn't help - basically a lens in my system wasn't square in its housing so it refracted light across my sensor
Hopefully now you'll have 95% fun and 5% fixing issues, the issues will never go away, so let's concentrate on maintaining the fun! Nice shot Jon, good to see you posting shots again, it's been a while. The Triffid is always pleasing to look at and you've captured it well.
Keep 'em coming.
Hi Jon
I know what you are saying☺
Inteligence is often rated on the ability to solve problems so I say we are all a very inteligent bunch.
The key is not to let the problems get in the way of the fun.
My plan A is to get pole align and auto guiding working and so often something prevents me doing so...but I just go for 30 seconds and if real bad go less again☺
The other night my plan c was the one that gave me a result...not what I set out to do but I took advantage of the 30 minutes that were cloud free.
Last night was like being under water but I did not let it worry me..you should have seen what came up when I started to focus..it was depressing so much so I was going to give up...but no.
I like your image I think you did very well...look at goes right not what goes wrong☺.
Alex
I'm glad you fixed up your tilt issues Jon.
Nice image, although the sky is too black for my taste. I suggest you
lighten the background and see which you prefer. Also the blue nebulosity is
quite a lot more extensive than shown in your image, like a collar right around it,
so I'm guessing the black clipping has diminished it.
raymo
Last edited by raymo; 12-06-2018 at 11:36 AM.
Reason: more text
Hi Raymo I wish you had posted the blue collar thing earlier than this post as my daughter and I spent ages trying to get rid of it last night and finally gave up☺
When the lappy finishes stacking which may be never given the bank up I have I will reprocess and leave the blue☺
You gotta laugh I cant wait to tell her��
Alex
Cheers Anthony.......still need to get you up so you can check this guiding setup out so we can start spending your money on some stuff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xelasnave
Hi Raymo I wish you had posted the blue collar thing earlier than this post as my daughter and I spent ages trying to get rid of it last night and finally gave up☺
When the lappy finishes stacking which may be never given the bank up I have I will reprocess and leave the blue☺
You gotta laugh I cant wait to tell her��
Alex
Now that's funny
Quote:
Originally Posted by kosborn
Nice image. I would never have guessed you had dew problems! Very nice detail in the dust lanes.
Kevin
Originally I had 2 hours of data, this is all I could salvage......I've since gone 'boy scout' and set up a dew busting solution you could brew beer with using a few cut up electrical cords, a dimmer light switch, some shrink wrap and a beer brewers keg warmer (told you that you could brew beer with it!). I'm too scared to put it at it's hottest setting because I think it'll melt down.......at 75% the plastic sheath on keg warmer started smoking......It works great at about 30% of full power. Cost - $30
Quote:
Originally Posted by raymo
I'm glad you fixed up your tilt issues Jon.
Nice image, although the sky is too black for my taste. I suggest you
lighten the background and see which you prefer. Also the blue nebulosity is
quite a lot more extensive than shown in your image, like a collar right around it,
so I'm guessing the black clipping has diminished it.
raymo
I'll give it a crack tonite......your advice has helped so far so why stop taking it now!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mickoid
Hopefully now you'll have 95% fun and 5% fixing issues, the issues will never go away, so let's concentrate on maintaining the fun! Nice shot Jon, good to see you posting shots again, it's been a while. The Triffid is always pleasing to look at and you've captured it well.
Keep 'em coming.
I think it is time I smash out a looooong exposure on something Mick, I've been playing (and failing most of the time) on short 30m-60m shots. I've set a personal goal to try and get 10 hours on something over multiple nights in the next month.....still trying to work out a target though......maybe Triffids next door neighbor, Lagoon.
Mate, the thought is tempting but my conscience says beware!
I'm only just starting to feel comfortable with my setup and have yet to try out my coma corrector but the thought of guiding.....well tell me is the grass greener?
Good to hear you've sorted out your setup, you can now move full steam ahead!
Mate, the thought is tempting but my conscience says beware!
I'm only just starting to feel comfortable with my setup and have yet to try out my coma corrector but the thought of guiding.....well tell me is the grass greener?
Good to hear you've sorted out your setup, you can now move full steam ahead!
Grass is a little longer....but it’s definately greener.
Ask yourself, what’s the one common denominator with the top 25% of pictures on IIS?
Answer is guiding.
Refractor, reflector, Cassegrain, coma correctors, cooled cameras or whatever.........the common theme is guided subs. Our goal is photons on sensor. Guiding allows you to do that more effeciantly than not guiding
Hahahaha,
That salesman pitch could sell ice to the Eskimos Imme.
So when do I see a test run before I sign up...
Mate if you can tame my heavy Newt then I'll be a convert, although you are right, it is somewhat my destiny, but I must see it to believe it.
Might have to take you up on that over the school holidays coming up....
Hahahaha,
That salesman pitch could sell ice to the Eskimos Imme.
So when do I see a test run before I sign up...
Mate if you can tame my heavy Newt then I'll be a convert, although you are right, it is somewhat my destiny, but I must see it to believe it.
Might have to take you up on that over the school holidays coming up....
Why me Imme, why
What does the scope weigh? Add another 1-1.5kg to your current weight for guiding gear.
My total rig currently weighs 14.5kg and it’s on a neq6 pro. Wind can be an issue but you face that anyway....if anything the guiding will help correct wind tracking issues.
Welcome to come and check out what I have running anytime.
Not that I'm advocating it, but it is amazing what can be achieved
without guiding, just have a look at Cometcatcher's latest effort
in the deep space section of this forum.
I manually guided for over 40yrs in the days of film, but entering
the digital age as a 70+yr old computer near illiterate, I couldn't get
my head around all this whizbang stuff, so stuck with unguided, and
no flats or biases, just enabled in camera noise reduction, and used
JPEGS, and have managed to get a number of images published in S&T.
raymo
Not that I'm advocating it, but it is amazing what can be achieved
without guiding, just have a look at Cometcatcher's latest effort
in the deep space section of this forum.
I manually guided for over 40yrs in the days of film, but entering
the digital age as a 70+yr old computer near illiterate, I couldn't get
my head around all this whizbang stuff, so stuck with unguided, and
no flats or biases, just enabled in camera noise reduction, and used
JPEGS, and have managed to get a number of images published in S&T.
raymo
I’m not arguing with you at all Ray......many pics much better than I could ever hope for that are unguided.
Guess I’m saying it just makes things easier.
One less thing to worry about (then again, maybe one more thing to worry about!)
The last line of your post is spot on; by the way, if you look at Cometcatcher's
image, make sure you look at the Astrobin versions, especially the most recent of the two.
raymo
P.S. Don't put yourself down, aim for the stars,[no pun intended].
Last edited by raymo; 12-06-2018 at 07:10 PM.
Reason: more text
Encouraged by some of the comments on this post I've been spending a bit of time burying my head in Startools to develop my skill/knowledge of what it can do.
So here's a reworked image....same data as the first pic......just much more time 'tweaking'.
I'm by no means an expert but think I have made a definite step forward in presentation of the final image. It has probably been over-cooked a little but hey, that's why I'm still in the beginner forum!
Imme,
Heaps more detail extracted here, plenty of nebulosity showing now where it wasn’t so much initially and some more definition in the ha region. The black point has been reduced too giving a more subtle space look and the star colours are coming through. I liked the blue in the first image though, but just goes to show that you can achieve different results each time. The background is a little mottled and that comes from the “life” module. I think it enhances too much in some instances.
But overall significant improvements can be seen for sure.
Anth
PS I could surely use a few tips myself with startools there are so many options I think it’s a matter of selecting the more appropriate ones for each image.