My ST7 was never quite complete, until it met...

[rogerg (Roger)]

... a CFW8

My new (second hand new) CFW8 arrived from the US today. All looks to function great - keen to try it out now. Bought through AstroMart.

Not looking forward to another steep learning curve! Or guiding on faint stars through a blue filter.... but, I will soon see how hard it all is.

I am REALLY looking forward to imaging fields of many mag 18+ galaxies and seeing what colour they turn out

Might try a few boring mag 15 and brighter objects too..

Roger.

[gbeal]

Snap Rog, me too. Plus I went big time and got an ST8, hence the crud weather. Maybe we could compare notes?
Gary

[rogerg (Roger)]

Ahh, congratulations... ST8 would be nice

Comparing notes will be good. About all I have to say at this early stage, is put the filter wheel in around the right way - I put it in upside down first off, which mean the sensor didn't hit the position markers so the wheel kept spinning and spinning and spinning.....

We've had bad weather for 3 - 4 weeks now, so even though I have a new piece of astro equipment, the probability is that it surely has to break soon and become clear...

Roger.

[gbeal]

I am in two minds about putting the CFW on permenantly, as it adds weight/bulk to an already heavy item. In the interim I will Ha image, and when the bugs for RGB gets bad enough, then probably mount it as a one piece unit.
What software etc are you using/looking to use?

[rogerg (Roger)]

CCDSoft is what I've always used for my ST7 work up until now, so I am expecting to continue using it. I haven't seen anything in it specifically about processing LRGB files as distinct from just a single set of files but I expect it will all be the same (they all still need to be reduced and aligned the same). Once everything is reduced and aligned I am expecting I'll use photoshop to paste the appropriate files in ot the appropriate colour channels. I'm not sure if there's an easier way.

For processing the only problem I've had with CCDSoft is that it doesn't do Curves, and my version of photoshop can't open .FIT files. So I have to mess around quite a bit to get the images as I want them in PhotoShop. For this reason I recently downloaded a trial of MaximDL which appears to be better in that respect but I haven't got a good handle on it's Curves stuff - can't get the results I find it easy to achieve in PhotoShop. So the Jury is still out on that one, I have about 20 days left on that trial.

CCDSoft does handle using the CFW8 so that side shouldn't be a problem.

Actually thinking about it, I definitely will be continuing to use CCDSoft for taking the images because it works well with CCDCommander - I'm not sure if others like MaximDL work with CCDCommander..

Roger.

[Dennis]

Hey Guys,

It sure sounds like you are going to have some fun. Wow, Gary, an ST8 eh! Phew!

I didn't end up getting the CFW8 and then went in search for one locally which also fell through, so I'm now looking at a True Technology motorized filter wheel which will also double up for use with the DMK 21AF04 - it's nice to be able to use an expensive piece of kit with more than one sensor.

I look forward to seeing some nice, colourful DSO’s, both from across the Pond and across this great Continent.

Cheers

Dennis

[rogerg (Roger)]

Dennis - I'm looking forward to seeing your results with your ST7. It's hard to judge how good one's photo's are unless there is a comparison, having a comparison between our two will be very beneficial to us I expect.

What filters will you have in your filter wheel? The ones in mine are actually an Astronomik LRGB filter set, not the standard SBIG ones.

Interesting that you steered away from the CFW8 - sounds like good reasoning considering you plan to use it with the other camera. I expect when I stop using the ST7 I'll sell the CFW8 with it (years away at this stage). And I typically leave the one camera on the scope most of the time. So am not too worried about that. Different situation.

Roger.

[Dennis]

Hi Roger

I think I'll go the Astronomik route too - they are IR coated and parfocal from what I understand. It's going to be quite a learning curve I reckon; more sub frames, more stacking, etc. The night’s just ‘aint long enough eh?

Cheers

Dennis

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

Originally Posted by rogerg

We've had bad weather for 3 - 4 weeks now, so even though I have a new piece of astro equipment, the probability is that it surely has to break soon and become clear...

Oooh Roger, did you forget it's Deep Sky Section this Sat? darn...

[jase (Jason)]

Don't let the bad weather stop you...
Start building up your dark and flat image library. Don't waste a perfectly good nights imaging capturing lights.

[rogerg (Roger)]

To my understanding I still only take one set of dark frames, and in fact can continue to use my old dark frames. During dark frames the shutter is closed so filter or no filter it doesn't matter.

Flat frames I would need to re-do because the image train has changed so the FOV etc has changed.

But ... I won't do that for now.. currently have my back neighbour machining up a pice of equipment that's going to change my image train length yet again, so will wait.... (a 2" tube to put my focal reducer optics inside).

Roger.

[gbeal]

Rog/Dennis.
good to have a few of you guys to check with, when the shots don't happen like you thought they would.
Rog, the reading I have seen on CCDSoft indicates that RGB merging will indeed be part of the software, just as it is with Maxim DL. (and AstroArt).
If you get stuck I can read some more.
FITS in Photoshop? I use a downloaded version of FITS Liberator, a NASA program I think, Google and see. It allows my version (CS2) to open the FITS files that AstroArt produced, but haven't tried it yet with the ST8. If I recall correctly though SBIG have their own file system, as well as FITS etc, so it will be back to school for me.

[gbeal]

Roger.
In CCDSoft, use the Image/Colour/Combine Colour. If you get stuck let me know and I'll read some more.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Thanks Garry.

Over the weekend I managed a few colour frames in between the clouds and played around with CCDSoft's facilities for handling them - the main thing I need right now is more exposures - I don't have enough to get a reasonable feel for the colour processing stuff. It looks like the CCDSoft stuff will be good though.

Re photoshop & FITS ... I think the main problem is I have PS v5.05 - if I had CS2 or something I think it'd be quite easy.

It's anoying that CCDSoft can't export to 16bit TIF files, or perform curve operations on a FIT file, either would solve my problem without me having to fork out the cash for a PS upgrade

Roger.

[gbeal]

Rog,
yep, if I recall right, the ability to do 16 bit started at about CS. Can you save the files as TIFFs instead of FITs, as P/S should be able to handle TIFFs.
I am thinking to avoid the colour headaches for a while and stick with luminance, and maybe Ha imaging.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Yeap, my PS 5 can handle TIFF's, but only 8 and 16 bit tif's, where as CCDSoft will only export as 8 or 48 bit TIFF's! So that leaves me stuck using 8 bit TIFF's, which simply don't have the depth needed for CCD images... it makes me laugh

Roger.

[gbeal]

Laugh? I suppose that is about all we can do then. Maybe time to go a newer version of P/Shop?

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Roger, check out www.astroshed.com. Eddie has a number of versions of a shareware fits plugin. One of them should suit your older PS. http://www.astroshed.com/software.html

[rogerg (Roger)]

Paul, that looks ideal! excellent! Yet again I postpone the purchase of a new PS upgrade

Gary... yeap, sometimes all you can do is laugh. And yes, upgrade required, but I keep putting it off...

Roger.