TheSkySearchers

Sadly Astropheric wasn't tellin' the truth last night. Said 0 clouds and Average transparency and seeing! Nope!!! High thins sent me to bed early for a change. I did manage 5 180 second shot with the ASI533/8" Quattro before the guiding indicated the movement of stuff movin' in.

Images were captured using APT, Stacked and a minor tweek in APP before saving for processing with PI. This also is the first time I've adjusted a stacked image in APP, I also saved a un-touched stack. I like the result of the APP tweek, the un-touched stack proved troublesome in PI!

I will go back to this DSO, first, it is my sweet spot for my scope/guiding (.76 pixels Total RMS) and is East sky for our short early summer nights. Worth the effort IMO.

It isn't much yet, but here it is, 15 minutes of on target data.

Projects like this one are hard on my old brain. Looking at images taken with the same camera as mine, and taking note of if filters where used have led me to a couple conclusions. Red is awful easy to capture (at least compared to an non-modified DSLR). However the Red (I assume HA) is mostly too dark a Red for my liking. PI should help with that right?!?! The second thing is given a good scope or a light bucket (large scope) the chip will produce a star way beyond what one would imagine! Is it possible to have too many stars in a image!!!

LOL Well is does IF you know where to find that tool within the program. I flirted trying to manipulate the Color Saturation tool before. Finally found out what I was doing incorrectly *chose this word as males tend not to pronounce the word "Wrong'). I think I have a handle on this procedure now! MAYBE!!!!

Round 2, same stack as image 1.

OhNo wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 11:22 pm Projects like this one are hard on my old brain. Looking at images taken with the same camera as mine, and taking note of if filters where used have led me to a couple conclusions. Red is awful easy to capture (at least compared to an non-modified DSLR). However the Red (I assume HA) is mostly too dark a Red for my liking. PI should help with that right?!?! The second thing is given a good scope or a light bucket (large scope) the chip will produce a star way beyond what one would imagine! Is it possible to have too many stars in a image!!!

LOL Well is does IF you know where to find that tool within the program. I flirted trying to manipulate the Color Saturation tool before. Finally found out what I was doing incorrectly *chose this word as males tend not to pronounce the word "Wrong'). I think I have a handle on this procedure now! MAYBE!!!!

More time on target will definitely help. I found a duoband filter really helped along with 4 hours of time on target. The workflow with the narrowband filter really threw me using a OSC. I was using an "incorrect workflow". I finally found a StarTools workflow that processed it correctly, but here's what I got after my first run. YIKES. This hobby does teach you to be persistent.
Here's a link to the final

download/file.php?id=12046&mode=view

"Persistent" is one word for it!


























'

I added another 16 180 second images to the previous data for a total of 21 images in the stack. processed in PI but the added data wasn't great. Between less than average seeing and playing peek-a-boo with the clouds if felt like work gathering the data. I salvaged the center of the image (the Nebula( by cropping it hard. Here is the result.
This has become an experiment so to speak. See how much data it takes before the improvements stop! No where to go but up, right!!!!

More data is definitely helping (it always does). You get an "E" for Effort for sure. The nebula is starting to peak out past the stars.

Yes you can have too many stars in an image. Sometimes the stars overwhelm the target you are really interested in. There are techniques for helping to control the stars. NB imaging definitely helps to control the stars. So will a filter like one of the Duo-Narrowband filters that pass two narrow bands of light (to capture the Ha and O3 emissions from nebulae) while blocking most of the broadband light. Just FYI.

Steve

Starless
Filters with my set-up is nearly impossible. I would need to replace the over priced CC with a different over priced one.....

Too bad.

Nice job on the starless version. You could use processing to "reduce" the stars a bit, then, put them back. Not saying to do it on this image, but, just a technique that can sometimes be useful.

Steve

Yeah that last image was a quick run through of StarNet. I tried your method in PI but I couldn't get it to work. Pulling the image apart and tuning the foreground , then the background is in my wheelhouse. I learned just enough Pixel Math to be able to do that much...

I wanted to see how much nebulosity, dust or noise was in the image stack at this stage of processing.

I do have some good news though, first time in 2 years I am shooting to the West!!!! The new scope house has that going for it!!!!!

Very nice! Great job!

This is a difficult target Brent. More integration time and excellent seeing are your friends with this one.

Sky hasn't been very friendly lately!!! My work flow in Pi from when I was using my DSLR has been mostly used to process the CMOS data. The retailer where I got the ASI533 sent me his work flow. Sadly his flow is not making things better. Not that it is not going to work for me, it sure made for a bunch of research on the components of it! I probably need to work on both acquisition and post processing, at this point I'd just be happy to know what a good looking one was of one or the other!

I played last night mostly to the West and South. The West became cloud filled from the NW, Lower in the South a bit below my altitude threshold yielded some interesting things. I was concerned with one set of data. Yup I screwed up. Left the laptop screen open when I headed to the house.

This is my quick workflow for the 533 in PixInsight for lights. I think it has worked quite well for me and will only improve when I used calibrated data. I am saving that for the 1600MM. I am going on memory for each of the processes, so they may not be exact.

Load the FITS files over ethernet from the Pi4
Blink and SubframeSelector to remove the bad lights.
Debayer
StarAlignment
ImageIntegration
ABE
STF
HistogramTransformation
CurveTransformation
Convert to linear and export as 16bit TIFF to Lightroom
Import to LightRoom and edit to get something I can live with.

Thanks Steve. In the past I've judged a program by a few criteria. If it's not friendly to learn, and if it can't do the whole job with it the further back in the "I like it file" it goes. I have a changed my stacking regiment. I notice you stated "Star Align". You and I seem to be able to get away with that as the imaging (or one of) cameras we use induce very little noise. So going the full blown PI stacking technique with Darks, Flats and Bias would do little anyway.

This morning I was playing with last nights data. The tool of choice these days is APP (Astro Pixel Processor) WHile still kickin' the tires on it it sure seems to do fine job. But as an experiment I ran the same images through DSS and APP. Opened both in PI and processed each stack side by side. With the settings I used, the DSS stack ended up with a grid matrix in the image (Zoomed in), APP clean image.

My guess is in the end it takes time, patience and stamina (persistence) and experimentation to be any good at this game. In my old bones I just know I'm heading for one of those "Ah Ha" moments.

Don't use bias frames on CMOS cameras!!! That is from ZWO employee and the many comments from others in their Facebook group.

I've missed an entire week of clear skies in Ohio and went to Florida. Now that I am returning tomorrow, it will rain all week.

Keep plugging along with PixInsight. I don't use the others apps you mentioned as I have a Mac(s). While I have a Asus i7 laptop, I prefer the Raspberry Pi solution the best as I can do everything via ethernet or Wifi.

Thanks for making that point Steve. Few people in AP have the same Rigs (Scope, Mount, Cameras, Computers..... and so much more). Even "like" equipment performs differently! ie. the gain you use on your 533 and what I use. Guess getting used to your system is a big part of the finished product (image).