The small mistakes you make - the path to ngc5128

[h0ughy]

I feel like a dill. I was in a rush last night and I did check the focus of the setup before I imaged – just forgot to remove the focus mask. As a result I took an hours worth of “focus mask stars of southern Pleiades”. I had a feeling something wasn’t right, but only went up to initially move the dome – but then stopped the imaging run to check the front of the scope - DER!!! Then I swapped the positioning as Cent A was coming out of the light pea soup over Newcastle. I then started to image it and then took 53 x 3minute shots of it. Yet to process anything but I am looking forward to my first NGC5128!!!

[sheeny]

:lol: been there, done that, have the tee shirt...

Al.

[troypiggo]

+1 :(

[Paul Haese]

Not to worry David, looks like your focus was slightly out anyway. Take a look at the bahtinov stars. Your centre spike is just slightly to the right of center. Then if you take a look at the centaurus A image you will see slight black dots on the edge of the field.

When I use the mask I look at it at around 200% just so I get the focus really nailed.

[jjjnettie]

:rofl:
Are getting in practice for Astrofest Dave???
If you want to beat the champ, you also have to capture in Medium Jpeg.:poke:

[h0ughy]

gee not much in it:shrug: the focus waqs entirely from back of camera on 350D - havent got the PC fixed up yet. As for the other stuff it was as i said - raw unprocessed files

[toryglen-boy]

thats a good effort mate, that last image is really quite good !!

kudos

;)

[h0ughy]

:rofl: no one beats ponders Et Al

[h0ughy]

there has been no effort as the image is unprocessed, but thanks

[Hagar]

Bahtinof Grabber suggests you are off focus by 0.5 pixel. Not to bad but you should be able to get closer than that. A small shift in temp may change it further.

I think we have all done this simple mistake.:rofl: I did 3 hours worth one night.

[h0ughy]

Well there is room for heaps of improvement ;)– here is a very rough and noisy (very much pushed) image. Took all of lunch to stack – this was 3 minutes worth trying to get something to look at.

I must get the PC going;):lol:

[michaellxv]

Well now I know what you guys are looking at when you talk about a focus mask :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

repro - trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear LOL

[h0ughy]

glad you got something from this mess:thumbsup:

[multiweb]

:eyepop:That's a real cool shot IMO. The soft edges are only a slight field curvature which can be corrected but the center is pin sharp. Saw you bathinov shot and that was spot on too. Then I read Paul H.'s comment about focus being a bit off and I sadly realised that I had been kidding myself all this time: I'll never be able to focus. :sadeyes: ;)

[allan gould]

Really nice, round, 0.5 pixel out of focus stars Dave :D
You did turn 5128 into one with the lot.
Looking at the original shot, your processing really did a great job.
Allan

[michaellxv]

Maybe we should ask Paul to volunteer a shot with one perfectly focussed for comparison.

[toryglen-boy]

fella, i meant the framing, guiding, and focus

all good


:thumbsup: