cjr
15-11-2020, 05:11 PM
Hey all,
As some of you know i am trying out startools as was recommended by everyone. I had a go at an old Orion Nebula dataset that i had from earlier this year when i began imaging.
Its not the best data but its been good to process. This was before having the EQ6R-Pro and when i had an eq5 that i retrofitted with steppers and a homemade controller/ascom driver to do the guiding. Its abilities were OK but very lacking in terms of DEC guiding! So i really pushed the mount by doing 360 exposures on this one.
I have really just followed the startools tutorial in terms of processing workflow but just made some adjustments to suit. I've definitely got a whole lot to learn on the program but to sign off on a "first try" here it is.
Anyway here are the details. I acquired this in Jan so my records might not be perfect.
Equipment
Equipment list is as follows
Skywatcher EQ5 (diy - stepper motors added and controller built with ascom driver)
Skywatcher 130P
Nikon D5600 (I've removed the stock IR Filter)
ZWO IR Cut Filter
Baader Coma Corrector
Guiding I'm using a Skywatcher 9x50 finder scope that i made up a sensor housing for with an IMX291 sensor
Acquisition
Capture details were as follows (Using BackyardNikon)
33 x Light Frames 360 seconds @ 200 ISO
45 x Light Frames 30 seconds @ 200 ISO
50 x Light Frames 15 seconds @ 200 ISO
I used a BIAS and FLAT stack on this one, unsure of exposure time for the flats. probably around 1/10. No Dark frames on this by the looks of it, i really need to get onto doing it more often, i can see a whole lot of Fixed Pattern noise :eyepop:
Stacking
I have used DSS to stack the images.
Processing
Gimp
It was a while ago but i would've done my normal routine as below. I also put the three stacks in and blended the layers together to form the HDR for the core.
Post stacking I put the image into gimp, cropped & scaled it. Stretched the levels > white balanced the levels > did a star reduction by fuzzy selecting the stars and using the value propagate function > performed some curve adjustments > removed gradients > added a little bit of saturation > final white balance tweaks.
StarTools
I have just followed the startools tutorial workflow found here. https://www.startools.org/links--tutorials/tutorial-videos/a-simple-processing-workflow
I have only used the 360 second stack on this one and used the HDR function in startools to bring out the core. Also i have no idea how to deal with the diffraction spikes or whatever they are in the image so for now they remain :lol:
Cheers hope you all have some clear weather this week with the moon away for a few days.
As some of you know i am trying out startools as was recommended by everyone. I had a go at an old Orion Nebula dataset that i had from earlier this year when i began imaging.
Its not the best data but its been good to process. This was before having the EQ6R-Pro and when i had an eq5 that i retrofitted with steppers and a homemade controller/ascom driver to do the guiding. Its abilities were OK but very lacking in terms of DEC guiding! So i really pushed the mount by doing 360 exposures on this one.
I have really just followed the startools tutorial in terms of processing workflow but just made some adjustments to suit. I've definitely got a whole lot to learn on the program but to sign off on a "first try" here it is.
Anyway here are the details. I acquired this in Jan so my records might not be perfect.
Equipment
Equipment list is as follows
Skywatcher EQ5 (diy - stepper motors added and controller built with ascom driver)
Skywatcher 130P
Nikon D5600 (I've removed the stock IR Filter)
ZWO IR Cut Filter
Baader Coma Corrector
Guiding I'm using a Skywatcher 9x50 finder scope that i made up a sensor housing for with an IMX291 sensor
Acquisition
Capture details were as follows (Using BackyardNikon)
33 x Light Frames 360 seconds @ 200 ISO
45 x Light Frames 30 seconds @ 200 ISO
50 x Light Frames 15 seconds @ 200 ISO
I used a BIAS and FLAT stack on this one, unsure of exposure time for the flats. probably around 1/10. No Dark frames on this by the looks of it, i really need to get onto doing it more often, i can see a whole lot of Fixed Pattern noise :eyepop:
Stacking
I have used DSS to stack the images.
Processing
Gimp
It was a while ago but i would've done my normal routine as below. I also put the three stacks in and blended the layers together to form the HDR for the core.
Post stacking I put the image into gimp, cropped & scaled it. Stretched the levels > white balanced the levels > did a star reduction by fuzzy selecting the stars and using the value propagate function > performed some curve adjustments > removed gradients > added a little bit of saturation > final white balance tweaks.
StarTools
I have just followed the startools tutorial workflow found here. https://www.startools.org/links--tutorials/tutorial-videos/a-simple-processing-workflow
I have only used the 360 second stack on this one and used the HDR function in startools to bring out the core. Also i have no idea how to deal with the diffraction spikes or whatever they are in the image so for now they remain :lol:
Cheers hope you all have some clear weather this week with the moon away for a few days.