GSO10"RC 1st Light

[telecasterguru]

Well, I was imaging with the 10" RC, G11 and the Canon 5D MarkII for the first time last weekend and let me say the G11 is an absolute pleasure to work with and it tracks beautifully (although I found aligning the camera to be somewhat difficult and frustrating).

The processing of the data though has left me less than impressed.

I have tried nebulosity, DSS, CCD stack, Iris and have pulled my hair out at not being able to get any of them to give me a decent result.

What I have ended up doing is converting the CR2 files to .dng files and processing in DSS which for some reason will not combine and align all files so the best I can do at the moment is here for all to make comment.
Nebulosity gave me a massive file that I could not find a way to resize, CCD stack would not calibrate the images as the calibration tool was greyed out and I could not find a way to ungrey it. Processing RAW files in DSS only gave me a very small sliver of the left had of the image. Iris would only take me so far and then spit me out.

I have tried to use darks, flats and bias frames but have been spectacularly unsuccessful.

I have not done any PS editing of this image yet.

What I have put up here is 7 minutes of data which is the best I have been able to get procesed so far. This is actually 5 x 300second light frames which when processed tells me I have only 7 minutes of data in 1 frame. I am very frustrated by the processing or lack of it. Please if anyone has some suggestions I am more than happy to hear them. The files are so large I am not sure anything wants to touch them or if anyone knows of a software that will work I am more than happy to purchase it. Failing this I will be going to a 8300 chip CCD.

Firstly there is obviously some light leakage on the left. This probably means flocking the tube.

Also there is some star drag on the left. This may be the focuser.

Anyway, sorry for the lack of a truly decent image but I will keep perservering and hopefully be able to put up something a bit better shortly.

Frank

[gbeal]

Hang in there Frank. Lots to improve on, but you know that anyway.
Why the 5D? You already had it I suppose? The massive files will be part and parcel with the size of the chip. You "could" work with JPEGs for a while if necessary, but really you will only be forestalling the inevitable.
I used DSS a few times and really it should be bread and butter for these files, so operator error somewhere.
Keep trying. Lucky you.
Gary

[Octane]

If you don't mind sending me the files on a disc or a USB key, I'd be happy to have a play around with them for you.

H

[telecasterguru]

Gary,

I tried to use my modified 350D on Saturday night first, as I have never used it either. I was using a remote shutter release and on the second image the camera seemed to jam for some reason and just kept saying busy and would not do anything else.

I even turned it off and it still just kept blinking busy. This went on for around 30 minutes before I finally took the battery out. That stopped it.

So that is why I used the 5D. Never had any of these problems with the 1000D.

Frank

[Paul Haese]

Ahhh welcome to the club Frank.

Ok couple of points.

The things you are calling light leakage are in fact star flares which are totally normal for RC scopes, whether you paid 3k or 50k you still get them. Even my scope with flocking on the baffle still gets them. Positioning your CCD better helps reduce this problem.

The camera is not square to the line and needs some sorting out with the stars. Also just check to make sure your scope is well collimated and I mean well collimated. Even the slightest smidge out can create stars like that.

As for processing well you need to go a bit deeper with an RC than what you have been. 5 minutes is really not enough time. I would use Images plus for processing these files. It is written for DSLR and works a treat. I am sure you camera is supported by the program.

Keep at it, nothing comes easily and when you get good images then you will look back at this and laugh.

[Paul Haese]

PS Frank, the focus on this shot is not the best either. Time to get a bahtinov mask for focusing the image.

[telecasterguru]

Paul,

Thanks for the advice and I will definitely look at images plus.

With the focus I did use a Bahtinov mask and the test shots were showing spot on. I then locked the focuser which of course makes me think the focuser is not 100%.

I know that I have a long way to go and am up for the challenge.

The only way is up.

Frank

[multiweb]

New gear new challenges. Of course there are a lot of things to fix in that shot. Just take them out one at the time. The rig shows real promise. :thumbsup: I'd start with sorting out the field/tilt. You've got good guiding so that's sorted out. Then worry about what you're going to use to process last. IMO CCDStack is king with CCDs. I used to shoot with a Pentax and had to convert to DNG too which is a bit of a pain. Move to a CCD. Makes your life easier in the long run. There's a OSC QHY8 for sale right now.