Don't be a hater :)

[LewisM]

First real image in 2 years

Only 80 minutes total (16 x 5min guided subs), Esprit 80ED and an OSC.

Night was FRAUGHT with issues - mainly MaxIM NOT loading a single camera driver, so had to use CCDOps, then PHD2 simply refused to start guiding (used PHD1 without a hitch). Mount (Vixen GPD) performed flawlessly, and all the other hardware worked "out of the storage box".

It's 80 minutes...it's noisier than a flock of cockatoos and crows fighting, taken from my home which is very near Canberra Airport (you could hear the LP filter screaming in agony!). It was merely my final get-back-in-the-saddle before embarking on the imaging road ahead practice run to see if everything talked.

I was SUPPOSED to go to the Dark Site tonight, but family commitments saw me not doing that, so settled for suburbia...

I still haven't paid my Astrobin fines (or is that fees?), so here it is in it's noisy glory, further degraded (is that possible?) with JPEG stuff and forum scaling.

70% crop of Me Mate added [http://www.astrobin.com/full/304474/0/?nc=user]

OK, reprocessed - gone for more "traditional" balance (I hope...): http://www.astrobin.com/full/304474/B/?nc=user

Another repro: http://www.astrobin.com/full/304474/C/?nc=user

[JA]

It's all good - lovely vista. Rock it out. No haters here. ...

Best
JA

[LewisM]

Better?

[JA]

Hi Lewis
I much prefer the first image. The second one is a little veiled by reduced contrast and or a slightly more grainy/less black background. The 1st one I think it would be great to see any comparison if you also do this at your dark site.

Best
JA

[DaveNZ (Dave)]

Nice detail and composition with the cluster down below and the nebula on the left.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Welcome back!
All good, the image has potential to be very nice - just needs lots more data

[atalas]

Hate to say It....is good

[Atmos (Colin)]

Prefer the first one but it's nice Lewis. It is a Tak though no matter how you've dressed it up

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by atalas

Hate to say It....is good

Hmmmm.


Hmmmmmmm.


Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

In other words, I am currently lost for a smart-arse reply

(started re-watching your vids this morning to try to balance the mess out, so you should feel honoured )

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by Atmos

Prefer the first one but it's nice Lewis. It is a Tak though no matter how you've dressed it up

It's a Takky-watcher

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

I like the first one more as well. A good start Lewis

[traveller (Bo)]

Good to see you catching photons again Lewis.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

A very pleasing result despite the nail-biting frustrations. Great to see you back in the saddle.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Quite nice Lewis.

[RickS (Rick)]

Good to see you having a go again, Lewis

[LewisM]

That's a thinly veiled response Rick (understandable too lol - I should send you the subs and see what Mr. PixInSight can do with them )

[gregbradley]

From your writeup I expected something terrible but its quite respectable.

Equipment quibbles are common. I often have to debug something when starting up that is a permanent setup. All this stuff, cabling, software, computers opens the door for conflict. Fortunately a few things work routinely like rebooting the computer, turning things off and then back on, checking cables etc.

Driver issues can be frustrating though. Some almost refuse to install.

Greg.

[LewisM]

Got it all going again, but ONLY after running as admin. Weird. It kept asking for my licence too...but once run permanently as Admin, it remembers the lic details and loads the drivers. Never had that with the old Win 7 setup, only on 10 (it's the old MaIM 5 - might have 10 issues)

[LewisM]

Anxious to get the darned auto-focus kit...taking it's time - I can see the mis-focus in my stars and it looks like I am not wearing my glasses lol

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Best image of the Lagoon taken near Canberra airport, that I have ever seen

Mike