This horsehead aint no thoroughbred

[Lee]

Would probably be off to the knackers!

Gave the horsehead a go last night, since it was finally clear at new moon (how long did that take?).... Since I haven't got guiding happening as yet, this one is about 33 one minute subs with the ED80 (f/7.5) and DSI Pro II (luminance only). Processed with Autostar-IP (worst software ever :rofl:) and Photoshop-CS2 :thumbsup: with FITS-liberator.
Had to clone out a few massive dust spots too (how does dust get on the inside of the objective?), since haven't gotten to the flats learning curve yet! So if you spot what you think is a new SN, it's probably my "processing" :D

[spearo]

Hi Lee,
wll done mate. Is that a cropped shot? I wonder if you would be able to get a bit more exposure time, even unguided, with a great mount like the G11. Would really brighten the image up and enhance contrast if you could get 2 minute exposures i think.
keep it up mate you're doing good
frank

[Garyh]

good going Lee, pitty about that dust..check your DSI ccd sensor for dust or a filter if you are using one...usually 90% spots are from a dirty sensor..
Cheers Gary

[Lee]

Frank - cheers..... intend on pushing the times about now.... not really intending on much guiding until I get my observatory built after we buy a house (soon) takes too long to set up as it is!

Gary - thanks - dust! I noticed some on the inside of the objective, the CCD looks clean from what I can see though? Damn spots aren't that visible until you start stretching the thing.... then BANG!!$&%% there they are, lucky there wasn't one across the equine!

[Lee]

No crop - DSI II Pro and Ed-80 at f/7.5 full frame. :)

[spearo]

thanks
cant wait to see your efforts with longer times. If your experiences are anything like mine when I wasnt autoguiding, you might get a few shots that show trailing and then a few that are spot on. I'd say just progressively increase exposure time after shooting about 8 or 12 shots at one exposure time to make sure you've covered the worm rotation completely and see how far you can push it and still manage to collect a couple of non-trailing ones.

Not sure if this is the best way to do it but that's what I was doing. And obviously check that the balancing is spot on for the orientation of the scope towards the target, with a bit more weight on the rising side etc all stuff you know already i'm sure

cant wait to see what you can get out of that G11
cheers
frank

[sheeny]

Good work, Lee, but it looks like your appaloosa has lost it's spots!;) I'm not up to catching horse heads yet...

Al.

[iceman]

Man look at that dust! :)

Great shot!

[Lee]

You didn't see the rest of it! The biggest piece of dust (actually at the size it was it would be called a chunk of dirt) was of course dead centre of field, cloned it away, you can see a less noisy looking patch where I zapped it......

[spacezebra]

Excellent image - definitely no nag.

Cheers Petra

[Ric]

Great image Lee, I know what you mean about Autostar-IP, I stopped using it and went to Maxim after about a month, I just couldn't seem to get any sort of result with it and the manual as well is a bit lacking in substance.

cheers

[atalas]

Great start Lee with such short subs .

[Lee]

I've worked out how to do a basic align and combine, then I use FITS-liberator, going to check out Iris next, but as I'm a mac-phile I try and do as much with my good computer as possible.... please someone port a great astroimage processor to Mac! :prey:
AS-IP is truely woeful, looks like something the government would have made up!

[Ric]

Wasn't that the theme of an X-Files episode, killer government software. If not it should be :D

"Trust no-one" :scared3:

Sorry Lee, I dont use a Mac I cant help you with the software side of things, But I would be sure that there is someone in the group that will be able to help. You cant be the only Mac user in the whole group that images.

cheers

[Octane]

Lee,

Nicely captured.

How are you finding the G-11? Mine's on its way.

Regards,
Humayun

[Lee]

Cheers, G-11 going nicely - can't wait to build my observatory though, getting tired of the same setup learning curve every session!

Initially I was a bit cheesed (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=13027), but got over it....

[fringe_dweller]

Extremely unlikely to happen now that all the new macs are of the dual boot mac/xp-vista persuasion - no serious developer in their right mind would waste their time and money, and anyway, they all committed hara-kiri at the time when it was announced and at the last OS 10 upgrade, when some older vital code/language? was changed, and not for the first time, all swearing to come back from the grave to get Steve :scared:

Nice horsey mate! :thumbsup:

[Lee]

Progs like parallels look promising, also looks like a way to invite spyware and virii and all that other crud into my pristine machine..... would much prefer some nice unix code to do some image processing.....

[fringe_dweller]

yes, but i read on the macastronomer yahoo list there are problems still, with usb connectivity an some other stuff i think? EDIT plus i dont like the idea of partitioning harddrives anyway - that has always been one of the beauties of the mac, no partitioning necessary, its not likely ya gonna lose anything in a crash, as you know.
EDIT: there is an aussie guy working on a non-programmer/user friendly stacking/astro proggy but he seems to have gone quiet lately :(
I just gave up and bought a s/h pc laptop a while ago anywayz, dont seem to use it too much tho only for dvd shrink and other naughty bootleg stuff ie burning divx avi's like that so far :lol: better pull my finger out spose

[[1ponders]]

Good onya for giving it a go Lee. Get the hard ones out of the road first :thumbsup: ;)

I know what you mean about setting the G11 up each night. She's a hell job that's for sure :lol: What's your process? Do you have circles marked on the concrete to reposition the legs? I find if I can get the legs as close as possible to the previous setup then using K3CCDTools to drift align now only takes me about half an hour to set up for at least 1-2 min unguided.

Do you have anything in the way of a guidescope at all?

[Lee]

I set up on grass. So I have spray painted the leg positions on the grass! Put the tripod down, check for basic leveling, then balance scope and hook up cables. Make a model, I'm usually about a degree or so off in azimuth, and fairly close altitude (<10min usually).
Then I drift align until there is no movement at the meridian for at least 5 minutes.
After this the numbers have been reading single figures..... this all takes at least an hour - first night or two, it took all night.... :whistle:

I've just discovered that after making a model I can tell Gemini to point directly at the meridian/equator intersection for azimuth adjustment.... just key in the appropriate RA and Dec 0 and drift away.... I find elevation doesn't need adjustment, which is good, because stars low down in east/west here are hard to find, let alone drift with!

We are buying a house this month, and a roll-off-roof obs is very high on the list! Happy days ahead! :D :D :D :D

No guidescope as yet though.

[jase]

Well done Lee. Long exposures will definitely see some improvements.

[[1ponders]]

If you are getting no drift for that long there must be some other reason you can't take unguided exposures for longer. What's your periodic error like? Have you thought of putting a couple of small pads down for the legs, so they don't settle into the turf and soil during the night?

[Lee]

Not so much that I can't take them - just haven't really pushed it yet.... with the weather being so bad of late I've only had it outside maybe 8 times. Periodic error - no idea!
Will definitely bump it to 2 minute subs next outing though.....