Eta Carina Mosaic

[Paulyman]

Managed my first successful attempt at a mosaic last night. BYEOS, Astrotortilla and CdC etc are nice but I really want one program to do it all , including auto focus, so I'm migrating to SGP. SGP worked like a champ last night, I quickly setup a 2 panel mosaic and away it went plate solving and auto focus and all!

2 panels x 6 x 600s at iso1600 on the 1200D with 12nm Ha filter
WO Star 71
HEQ5 PRO
SGP

Quick and dirty processing in PI since I only had an hour of data for each panel.

As a proof of concept I'm happy with the transition. I couldn't reliably get auto focus to work, but it did okay. Will need to play some more to find the right step size, once that is done I'll be fairly automated.

[Karlzburg]

How good is SGP for mosaics, I've recently migrated to it. Once you figure the settings it's great.

[Paulyman]

Yeah it was brilliant, the whole thing was just so seamless. Once I have auto focus dialed in I'll be super happy.

[Karlzburg]

Set and forget, even the merdian flip it had to do went without a hitch. Worked so much better than APT. I'm contemplating goiing down the road of PI.

[Paulyman]

PI is awesome, I do recommend Warren Kellers book Inside PixInsight and the noise reduction tutorial by Jon Rista if you do, makes it so much easier to work with

[Mickoid]

Yes, the focus is a bit out but once you've worked out how to fix that, you're onto a winner. Good to see you experimenting Paul. Trying different techniques and solving the hiccups along the way! Nice shot you managed there too. Is your 1200d full spectrum modified?

[Paulyman]

Thanks Mick. I think I found a step size that gave me a fairly repeatable V curve last night and focus looked good in the test shots. But as seems to be the case in AP gremlins crept in elsewhere last night. The mount just wouldn’t behave and PHD just couldn’t seem to control it. After 3 hours of frustration I opened it up and noticed the DEC belt had slipped a bit. Rather than take it all down and fix it I attempted to move the belt in situ while parked... snap! Of course a dumb idea while under tension but I was tired and frustrated. So now I have to wait for a new belt from Rowan, I ordered an extra this time. The joys of cheap Chinese mounts.

[xelasnave]

Excellent image.
Such an interesting region.
I am doing a major stack of data on this region.
I have selected some data with insanely high scores ...like one score is 200000 I have never had scores like that for data so I am waiting another hour for this lot to stack and see what heaps of high score data produces...might of been scoring rain drops☺
Alex