Inspired by Jase's mosaic presentation at AAIC 2011, as well as Rogelio's demonstration of PixInsight, I thought I would try and start to process some data that I've captured over the last month or so.
This composition is my second "proper" image ever taken with my SBIG CCD, and, the very first time I've ever indulged in a mosaic. I believe in diving into the deep end and learning how to swim.
Presented here is a rough-as-guts work in progress, consisting of six panels of luminance frames, totaling about 11 hours of data thus far. The goal is to capture a 4x2 mosaic, giving 8 panels and approximately 70 hours of exposure in total. I'm not sure if I will reach that goal this season, but, you can rest assured I'm trying to get out to dark skies every chance I get.
I am very pleased with my messing about with PixInsight over the last two days. It is a mammoth bit of software and its power is seen through pretty much every operation that you ask it to perform. I look forward to getting to grips with its minutiae that will hopefully allow me to create pleasing images.
Note: the panel in the bottom right sticks out like a sore thumb as it has less data than the other panels.
SBIG STL-11000M, Takahashi FSQ-106N 530mm at f/5
bin 1x1 -30 degrees
Looking really nice so far Humayun. I would have expected PI to do better than that with the matching for the bottom right panel - did you have "frame adaption" turned on?
Really cool H... this is going to be specky when finished for sure.
Man you are a glutten for punishment...!!
But you're out and enjoying your nice setup, that's the main thing
You'll be waiting for the weather then you'll be waiting for the object again..
Speaking of weather, haven't seen the sun in my region, let alone any stars for over a week now..... typical, have a few things to iron out and can't get out there... god I hate that! aahh God u listening
Good luck mate, hope you're having better luck than me!
Look forward to the finished article... then there's the colour
Hi H, if "well begun is half done", then this is going to be an outstanding image
I started a similar mosaic last year with the 300 EDIF (2x3 farames, including a wider area of course) and ended up in missing some color subframes here and there so now don't have all pieces of the mosaic (in particular about colors) to complete the big frame. Postponed to 201x when the 300 ED will be back on the mount
I also started another mammouth mosaic this year of the same area with the TEC . It ended out that several subframes were trailed because of the problem reported in my recent ngc6188 post. Luckly the OTA is ok now and mounted so I hope to collect some more light and at least complete half of the mosaic originally planned
I have also purchased Pixinsight recently and I am experimenting with it these days. I would be very interested in sharing your experience using this program, in particular about mosaics..
Maaate! Excellent work indeed H. You're well on your way to completing this project. Time to nail some chrominance data. I'm guessing you've now realised why in the presentation I have a few slides on data acquisition and planning as shooting RGB with a mono camera and filters, you need to step up the acquisition efficiency. Keep focus.
Note: the panel in the bottom right sticks out like a sore thumb as it has less data than the other panels.
May I suggest a couple of things?
First, you may want to try the PixInsight's GradientsMergeMosaic tool developed by Georg Viehoever. More info, including how to download it (scroll down to Juan Conejero's second post) here: http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=3211.0
I haven't tried that module yet, but it might be worth a try, and I will definitely be trying it for my next mosaic whenever that happens. It looks like Georg is definitely heading in the right direction with this module so as to make seamless mosaics a fairly easy task in PixInsight. If the "frame adaptation" option in StarAlignment was a great help, a tool allowing us to automatically correct for any other "deficiencies" is most certainly welcome!
The second approach is what I've done in the past sometimes, which, basically involves using the mask generated by StarAlignment and then run a DBE on the image with the mask activated, with a fair amount of samples around the conflicting areas. The DBE, in theory, would "soften" any brightness differences between the two frames, but because the mask is active, it would only be applied to one of the panes. This technique may require some practice with DBE, adjusting some of its parameters as well as placing/moving/deleting samples in a trial-and-error scenario, but in the end I've managed to get the job done many times - ok cross that "many" out.... some times :-)
In any case, having more/less data in a pane will always be problematic, because then, you're not just trying to get a linear fit between the two panes, but the different SNR may also become problematic (which may in fact confuse the linear fit done by the "frame adaptation" option). In that situation, you might just have to resort to continue processing with a non-linear stretch, and then make visual adjustments manually with the masks created by StarAlignment until things "look" right.
Good on you Humayun. Will be watching with interest how this one comes together. Thanks for putting it out there for all to see at such an early stage too. Another inspiring image for all us wannabes.
aahh God u listening
. It ended out that several subframes were trailed because of the problem reported in my recent ngc6188 post. Luckly the OTA is ok now and mounted so I hope to collect some more light and at least complete half of the mosaic originally planned 
