Hi, the weather has not helped at all since setting up the new gear with wind just about every night and a lot of cloud. So when it’s windy there is no point in comparing results. I did have one clear still night a couple of days ago and the results were pretty pleasing. With the 174mm guide scope I could regularly get sub .5 RA and sub .25 Dec but as the OAG is at 1280mm = 7X the low 1s on each is actually better, the results look a lot better and with dithering on the old set up it could take

@@KJRitch I had a still night last night, patchy cloud and a very bright and high moon. So got about an hour of guiding in and the result was about .7 RA .3 Dec and total between .7 best and 1.0 worst over that time and bounced back from a dither in a few seconds. With the bright moon it was still not ideal guiding conditions. How does that compare with your system?

Thanks, they are all quite recent as I have only had the 2600 for a few weeks and mostly new versions of each shot. In mid Summer here about 10:30 to 11:00 is the best I can do as I am at 42’ south but at the moment 6:00 to 6:30 is quit possible. No filter as they have gone missing in the post, so all natural colours the Swan is just one hour 20 x 3min I think but the Lagoon was a 2 panel mosaic set up in the ASIair each 20 x 3 min with a 25% overlap but due to the poor quality of the stars in the corners of the frame I decided to also use an earlier centred shot which I think was 30 x 2min but each stacked separately then combined in the panorama section of Affinity. It did a pretty good job as the middle of the shot effectively had 3 hours of integration where as the ends only an hour each. There was a bit I was able to crop out which helped. The three shots were across the nebula stacked on the vertical plane and then rotated 90’. The files are just under 50meg which is why I have switched to 3min subs to keep the volume of data down a bit for processing. I use a MacBook Pro with an M1pro chip so it has plenty of grunt. When I bought the HEQ5 I looked into the Roman belt but decided to see how well it tracked first and so far I am pretty happy. I plan on moving to an OAG soon with the 174MM that will free up the guide scope for my camera and lenses as well as letting me use either the 2600 or 533 as the main camera. I feel that I can still improve both the focus and alignment of the guide scope and that should improve the guiding performance. I have temporarily given up on dithering as it takes ages to settle and the guiding (average error) is much bigger at even at 3 min subs, I was using 60 or 120sec the settle time can be over 30 seconds and never recovers to the undisturbed <2”. The extra coverage of the 2600 over the 533 is what I like most as if I had rotated the camera 90’ the whole Lagoon would fit in one shot, not the Orion or Rosette and the Carina is a different thing all together. Even the galaxy shots look nice with a bit more space around to be able to crop and extra dynamic range plus for RU-vid at 16:9 cropping from 3:2 is a lot easier than 1:1.

@@AstroSoundscape Thanks, Not using an OAG as I also have a sensational camera lens 200mm f2.8 with a Tele extender to 280 f4.0 and a 400mm 6.3 so made up a rig to mount on the HEQ5 pro and use the guide scope Saxon 170 with the 533 to find and centre images then change it over to guiding. That way I have the C8 for tight work and the camera G9M2 for wide stuff, also some very wide lenses for Milky Way etc that go on a smaller rig. The ASIair plus is reporting 1281mm with the 6.3 reducer so I guess my back focus is about as good as I can get as there seems to be a 4-6x factor when you change the back focus as well as it being in reverse. But still getting dodgy stars in the corners of the frame so might need re collimating or as you say using the Celestron reducer is the problem. I was hoping to use the 533 with the camera lenses but of course all the lenses are focus by wire with OIS and no power when connected to an Astro camera.

@@KJRitch Hi again, that was the wind and I was deleting the wrecked shots as they came through but the one on screen was ok most of the rest were no good. One advantage of 60 sec subs is if it is windy you still get a few keepers. I have been trying 180 sec subs and they are fine with no wind but too exposed if there is wind. Also with guiding without dithering I can sit well within 2” on the graph but with dithering it takes ages to settle and never quite gets in the groove. I might try every 2 or 3 at 180 sec and see how that goes. As far as affinity goes I like the colour preserving stretch but often the colours in the sky are too hard to remove. So mostly use the live stretch and take out the green cast with added red and blue do extra stretching then tone compression and contrast, back to live tone stretch contrast adjust to balance the colour then reduce background luminosity then star reduction and either enhance structure or enhance nebula structure and finish off with band pass sharpening (try one and if no good undo and try the next). I finish off exporting the tiff and clean it up in photos with luminosity colour curves enhance structure etc to taste. Don’t forget to delete the two adjustments made by default after the end stack before the first stretch. Another good macro after reduce background luminosity can be enhance DSO luminosity. I rarely now use the remove background filter. Good luck we are having a run of clear nights so got some good stuff last night and might get more tonight. Sent from my iPad On 6 Jul 2024, at 12:04 AM, RU-vid <noreply@youtube.com> wrote:

I used my Fireworks data and found the Color Preserving Tone Stretch worked well but Live Tone Stretch didn't show any galaxy structure. I opened it up from the Layers list and How do you remove the green cast? What do you mean "added red and blue". Did you play around with the formulas in Live Tone Stretch, Live Procedural Texture dialog? Those formulas make no sense to me.

@@KJRitch Yes live tone stretch is just a start you need to tweak each individual adjustment to get a good result, the benefit is it is all non destructive and no need to flatten the layers and lock anything in. Just hit the disclosure triangle and it drops down several sections, just have a play around and see what they do. It appears the 2600 always has a green cast that I need to remove.

@@zanelindsay1267 It happened on a Sunday afternoon and I remember thinking “they won’t be able to fix that in a day.” But over two years! even the bailey bridge took months to make. A massive disruption cutting the city in half.

Yes indeed some very slow trips to work for the next few months until the ferries were sorted out and eventually the temporary bridge up stream. I have a video on that as well, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-31ARuSu4ByE.htmlsi=dpDVnWgHj5kNw369

Hi, so far any flats I have tried make it worse, over correcting. The guide scope is stated as 900mm but ASI reports it as 700mm the shots were taken on the C8 with 6.3 reducer so 1280mm. I have an IR cut filter and Optolong L extreme on the way so that will be interesting. The thing I need most is some clear nights to get more time actually using the gear, the back focus is right now, I think, so getting the guiding settings right and perhaps tweaking the columation and of course trying new things when processing.

Hi again, as I said in the video the weather has not been very helpful so most sessions have been a failure due to cloud, others only a few shots as there were only small gaps in the clouds but it allowed me to eventually get the back focus right and prove the guiding works. The bloke at the telescope shop advised that a colour camera is not ideal as a guide camera so I wasn’t expecting too much. However so far it seems to pick up the stars quite quickly and start guiding, finds them again after a cloud and seems to guide in the under 2” range. I suspect the backlash in the mount may be the biggest cause. Have taken 1min and 2min subs without issue, but with the patchy sky reverted to 60sec subs as that way I got more between the clouds. Also I have changed my processing as (and it was probably mostly the full moon) had vignetting and a big central hot spot. Tried using flats but so far that over compensates and I end up with a dark centre and bright ring around the edge. Have resorted to just stacking and then “live stretch” in affinity as it allows me to work out the green tinge that seems to be inherent to this camera. There is probably a bit of colimation to sort out. With the G9M2 and 533 I had no issue with background extraction buy with the gradient on the new camera I can’t get it to work yet. I am hoping that once the moon is gone , and cloud, I might get some clean shots to process and I will try longer exposures say 3 min for a start.

From memory used the “Normalised” stretch macro as the retain colour was too much colour, I reworked it as the initial try was over sharpened and had noise/grain, no filter though that is on the list. Processed from go to whoa in Affinity including the stitch which is of the stacked individual panels which after stacking are Tiffs and as I said I did a minimal stretch to assist Affinity find some detail to line up in the mosaic. All my images end up in Photos on the Mac and I do a final tweak there. The pixel size is identical to the 533 and that came up as ideal in the calculator so it should be ok. Probably mid next week by the time I get it so just set up the 533 on the guide scope for my G9m2 as a test for when the 2600 arrives.

Do you set the 533 to Bin 1 or 2”

@@KJRitch Yes Bin1 for everything so far, at 3008 x 3008 after having 5776 x 4336 I am not keen to reduce resolution one bit.

I've been playing around with Affinity Photos 2.5.2 and I have to tell you I'm having a difficult time. I've download the macros but havin't starting using them yet, deciding to learn more manual methods in case a macro doesn't work and I need to manual adjust the image. Stacking is easy but often the background color has a shade of magenta. I discovered how to use Levels to sync the colors and using samples in the Info tab to monitor if I clip my stretches. I work on color balance early in the process and then use Curves to stretch and I can get my target, M101, to show up but compared to Siril the I can't get the same colors to come to come out.

@@KJRitch No harm in trying the macros and compare with the manual result. Have you been removing the background? That usually removes noise, tint and or gradient from the background in one step.

Hi “K” No guiding yet that will be the next purchase probably, as I have purchased most of this stuff in the last 6 months a bit at a time. Started with the HEQ5Pro mount and a second hand C6 with my Lumix GH6 and then G9M2. Next was the C8 and soon the ASIair Plus the Dew ring heater and dew cover and ASI533 camera. Followed by the focuser and special mount for the C8. So with no guiding I am doing 30 or 60 second exposures but to my surprise the mount on its own seems to be fine for at least an hour or so before it needs re centering. With the 6.3 reducer it is running on 1286mm so pretty tight framing. Nearly all single shots I did the mosaic Carina one by eye with the G9 and it worked out well, as I have only had two sessions with the new gear not had a successful mosaic yet as cloud and perhaps poor focus stopped the plate solve part way through. Once I can work out the best overlap and have everything working will try mosaics on things like the lagoon and eagle nebula. No filter yet either as we have pretty clear sky here but it is on the radar. Love my little dog he is on my lap asleep as I type this, delayed getting another dog when Charle died but glad I didn’t wait too long as Teddy is a perfect little companion. Clear sky’s Steve

You’re a lot further along than me. I haven’t tried mosaics.I wish I got the HEQ5 instead of the AVX. I have an ASIAir and it has some issues with the AVX. Switched over to NINA. Guiding is being difficult with the AVX using PHD2. I’ve settled down to PPec algorithm for RA. My AVX has a lot of DEC baclklash. I spent the day adjusting the worm gear and motor gears of the DEC axis. Sometimes I get to take images instead of piddling around with NINA, plate solving issues, PHD2. Don’t forget to add Teddy to some of your future videos. Thanks.

@@KJRitch Managed a 9 panel mosaic last night (that worked and became a pano) but with a full moon the result was not much good but proved the system worked. Did a couple of live stacks of about 150 x 30 seconds and the tracking was adiquite, quite happy with them. I need to get some Teddy stuff up on line.

I guess the panels are imaged in ASIAIR. What do you use to process them to a pano after moving them off the ASIAir? Mosaics are one way of getting around the higher focal length. Maybe when M31 is up at a reasonable hour later in August I'll be ready to try a mosaic with my C8. Cheaper than purchasing Hyperstar.

@@KJRitch I initially did a mosaic by eye six panels from memory with the G9m2 and that worked beautifully. That was from jpegs each 25MP which is easier to assemble as you can see the image. With the ASIair it is from Fits and after stacking there is still not much to see until after Affinity Photo does its thing to assemble the Pano. Affinity also does the stacking and final stretching etc. To equal just one shot from the G9 I need almost 3 x 2 with a 25% overlap. So I plan on using the camera lenses 200, 280 and 400 for wide shots. It all worked beautifully last night except for the clouds wind and Moon but the system did a great job.

Thank you, only been able to use it twice so far (weather) on the C8 it has a tiny field of view so I will need to do a few mosaics and still use my camera lenses for wider images. I am pretty impressed with the Centauris A shot which is hopefully a sign of things to come.

Gracias! 😊

It was one day and night back to clouds again at the moment.

Thanks!

Thanks, just waiting for the weather to allow me to capture more images.

It is just a Celestron Astro Fi6 (a six inch Schmidt-Cassegrain) on an Alt-Az mount using a Lumix GH6 straight and with a 2x Barlow. The seeing was pretty poor but as my first capture with this set up it was ok. I will use 25fps on the planets next time as 50 pushed the ISO too high.

Of course, I made a mistake in shooting at 50fps so the ISO was too high will try again once the weather co operates. Also the atmosphere was pretty disturbed so hopefully can get a more settled night soon.

Hi Simon they are Silvereye no gap between silver and eye tiny little things but they kept an eye on me and were not scared of me or the camera which often scares birds away.

I am sure she is an interesting vessel to sail, not a lot of room below decks. Please you had a good visit to Hobart.

Yes great to see it back and the city packed, it is Hobart Regatta and yesterday it was also the market so people everywhere.

The time frame is right but I don’t think so more likely a local Politician of TANFL official.

Midway Point Tasmania, yes Australia.

Michael Miller my guess is mostly weekends it took from August 16th when the old bridge was towed away until December 23 when it was opened so a fair bit of time but I guess he must have had time off for the moving of the steel temporary section and towing away the old bridge. No RDOs in those days.

Wow!