Yes, Merry Christmas Peter and all the 10 Chainers.
I'd love to get up sometime over the next week if weather behaves Peter. Very hard to call though - almost a day to day thing. Fingers crossed.
Hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Christmas and New Year! I'll be working next week, but I could probably have a late start one day if the weather is kind
At least I've had enough clear sky this week to get FocusMax working with my Atlas and grab a couple of bright targets from home.
I have a whacking great 3G booster antenna up here that I could very easily plonk onto the side of the shed for anyone with a mobile with an external antenna jack. Some do. Both my Samsungs do but my el-cheapo Virgin doesn't. I find that both Telstra and Virgin get fair reception without it but 6 bars with.
SIng out if you want me to put it up somewhere for your use. (That doesn't sound very nice does it?)
I'm on a TPG $10/month plan and I think that's via Optus.
I was able to phone home last time I was there although signal was pretty weak.
It's easier on the batteries if you turn it off
Peter,
Here's a sample of gradient removal from those tools I was looking at.
1st is the gradient, 2nd is two passes with annies actions and 3rd is gradient xtermnator. Notice xterminator left a black ring around that central star.
The gradients are from light pollution, that triplet shot is flat fielded.
The eternal flame at the refinery did that but I also get similar in NB subs when the moon is close.
The way the weather is, I need to fix them instead of tossing them
I'm with optus (Virgin) Geoff and was surprised to see quite a few bars at Peter's last time. Didn't actually use the phone mind you.
Yep - ditto for me geoff - they must have put up a new tower somewhere in the last year or so, because there was no reception there at all when I first started going a couple of years ago. Now I get not only phone, but decent 3G signal also.
Peter,
Here's a sample of gradient removal from those tools I was looking at.
1st is the gradient, 2nd is two passes with annies actions and 3rd is gradient xtermnator. Notice xterminator left a black ring around that central star.
Robin,
I did a quick DBE (DynamicBackgroundExtraction) in PixInsight. It is one of my favourite tools Pics below are your original, the DBE processed version and a slightly stretched version of the background that DBE removed. That's a very colourful and complex gradient!
Cheers Rick, That background looks very much like a median filtered and blurred image out of PS, attached. If you layer it as difference you get this result, although this example is a bit heavy handed and I've found that way a bit iffy when you use it on nebula. This gradient xterminator seems to be a pretty good all rounder for what I need. A lot of those annie's astro actions don't seem to work real well and the gradient tool won't work on gray scale, but for $10 just now, they where worth a look and there are a few NB tools coming for it. The CN croud seem to like them.
OK. Thinking caps on please. We need a name for this edifice. Current suggestions include:
Star Bar (a little prosaic);
Far Queue BarNGrill(a little risque);
Tatooine Hilton (for Star Wars fans);
The winning entry earns the right to paint the necessary signage.
Pics below are your original, the DBE processed version and a slightly stretched version of the background that DBE removed. That's a very colourful and complex gradient!
