TheSkySearchers

I was pretty busy last night. I'm currently off work with a shoulder problem so babysitting my rig until 6:30 AM was no problem.
By the time M51 cleared my giant pine tree it was getting late. I chased it to the meridian and (being scared of the automated flip)
stopped, parked the scope and shot darks and bias frames. By the time I was done with that, a simple goto++ with APT put me right
back on target on the other side of the meridian. I chased it until 6:30 AM. I wound up getting 80 X 180" light frames of which I had
to discard 10. Some due to planes and satellites and a few with weird tracking errors. I was left with 70. 3.5 hours of data.

Despite some stacking issues (still working that out) I was able to produce this!

My big take away is this: More data is better. This was so easy to process. Very few adjustments required.

Thanks for looking!

Larry

Wow thats a great wide view image, theres a few things of interest in there. Thanks very much for sharing it with us. I'd be very pleased to see something like that appear on my screen one day. Phill

Very NIce Larry. I love the detail and color!

Very nice image Larry!

I know that you were excited to see that image developing in your processing software!

Nice work!

Larry,

Very nice image. Great processing to pull the colors out.

I live just east of you and was up until 2:30. Unfortunately, I had to go to work on Monday. Couldn't push on until 6:30.

Mike

mbocca wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 12:08 pm Larry,

Very nice image. Great processing to pull the colors out.

I live just east of you and was up until 2:30. Unfortunately, I had to go to work on Monday. Couldn't push on until 6:30.

Mike

Thanks Mike!
What I found out was more good data leads to WAY easier processing. I didn't have to do much at all. StarTools is a fantastic tool!
I really struggled with processing. I thought I just sucked at it and had a ton to learn but after running this image through StarTools
it required very little.

Unfortunately, I'm currently off work with a shoulder injury so that's what allowed me to keep at it until 6:30. I composed an inaging
plan that would end 5 minutes before the meridian then laid down and set an alarm for approx that time. I then parked the scope
and shot my darks (approx 1 hour) and then got back on target and chased it west until 6:30.

I was going to quit after the darks but it was so clear and I didn't have to work so... Why not?

Larry

Awesome! Well done, Larry!

Great work Larry. I love the colors and contrast.

Great work Larry, if this is the Orion Astrograph it is very impressive (under your tutelage). I was looking at this as a potential imagine set up, and this has piqued my interest - thanks!

Very nice, Larry. It is a wonderful thing to get lots of time on target when it comes to processing. You did a really fine job all around!

Hope the shoulder gets better soon!

Bob

Yep the astrographs are a great tool in that price range.

Nicely done on the processing, indeed usually less is more

Always struck by the reddish / orange tint of this object. Nicely done.

Thanks Bob!
I have a feeling work may interfere with the whole "time on target" thing...

Larry

Larry 1969 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 1:40 pm Thanks Bob!
I have a feeling work may interfere with the whole "time on target" thing...

Larry

I hear you on that work issue. If you can get up the courage to try the APT auto flip maybe you can just set up some night and go to bed. I have tried it and it works great for my setup!

Bob

Wow, nice image. One day I hope to be in your League.

Yes. I need to set that up. I think when it warms up here I'm going to set it up and pick a target that's close to the meridian
so I can be out there when it does it just in case I need to press the panic button...

Larry

Great image Larry - thanks for the share.

babysitting my rig until 6:30 AM was no problem.

So glad I have my image capture setup more or less fully automated. Only thing I have to do is get up early to put the covers on before I go to work

SGP has been a god send and the perfect tool for my 'lifestyle'.

UlteriorModem wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:11 pm

babysitting my rig until 6:30 AM was no problem.

So glad I have my image capture setup more or less fully automated. Only thing I have to do is get up early to put the covers on before I go to work

SGP has been a god send and the perfect tool for my 'lifestyle'.

I'm pretty much fully automated as well. I need to get my mini PC mounted and work out some cable management before I fully trust everything.
I'm using APT but I understand SGP does nicely as well. The one thing I may never trust is the weather man...

Larry

I haven't gotten caught off guard as yet by the weather, or rather by un expected rain.

If the forecast or clear skys show clouding over in the morning hours I wont even usually set up.

SGP once configured can do it all. Center targets, do meridian flips when necessary, autofocus, it can recover automagically from an event like a cloud passing, or a lost guide star, and even park at the end of the run or a canceled sequence. It takes a lot of configuration but once done it is a marvel!

The most difficult part is to know when to start and end a target. I can get on average about 2 hours on each target as they rise out of the trees to the east and set in the trees to the west. Some targets I can get almost 4 hours on. So I usually end up with 4 or 5 targets each night. A typical run is around 12 hours worth.

I hope to be able to get 12 hours on a target one day! I have to work on keeping the camera / scope orientation the same between sessions.
I like to collimate each time I set up and that requires me to remove the camera. If I could consistently repeat that orientation I could use
data from multiple sessions. Until then I'm staying up late...

Larry