Been a while since I've really been on here. I'll spare the details
About 3 weeks ago, my Windows 10 PC decided it was high time to give me a BSD (Blue Screen of Death). That's always fun. I had another drive with Windows 10 loaded, but this was made on Oct 3rd, 2018 onto an 80GB SATA laptop drive. How many days is it going to take to update??
I had a blank 160GB drive, so I went upstairs to my wife's PC and downloaded Linux Mint 20.2 onto a USB stick. I've played with Linux since the late '90's, starting with Mandriva.
This new version is great, and to make a long story short, I finally managed to get PIPP working with this release. Probably not so much the release, but there's a front end for WINE called PlayOnLinux that makes it easy to install Windows programs on Linux. The problem I had previously was with MSDotNet40, which PIPP needs to run. I was finally able to install it with PlayOnLinux this time around.
I've been running this for again, about three weeks, and not a single glitch. And I have to say, everything is so much faster, from startup to processing images. The only issue I have is I can't run PS2020. But, there is always Oracle's VirtualBox
From PlayOnLinux, I run PIPP, AS3, Paint Shop Pro 9, and ImPPG. ImPPG has a Ubuntu install, but I prefer the Win64 version; it does a better job with your presets.
I'm no Linux expert, but I do know how to use the terminal (
This is my current desktop; I like dark themes...
Last night was fairly clear, albeit 20F (-6C), so I thought to take out my 1961 Tasco 12TE 60mm. I won't go into detail here; this is a post I made about it.
This scope is older than yours truly, I'm only 56... I used the focuser from my early '70's Sears 6331. That scope is a little "soft" objective-wise, but I made it so it could take 1.25 parts instead of .965. The outer tube that hold the drawtube on these scopes had an OD of 1.25", so with some plastic, hose clamps and the barrel from an old stock Celestron lens in the middle, my old Tasco now comes to focus with both my camera and my KK Ortho's, and the stock focuser from it is safe from me
I can again post more detail as to how I did this if anyone cares, but not tonight.
Alrighty, so this the end result. I stacked the 10 images I took at ISO 100 at 1/250th sec with my Canon EOS 550D (T2i) with the Tasco. I then processed them with AS3 and took the "sharpened" image.
I did run it through ImPPG; not happy. Too much "ringing" around the edge. I tried to sharpen it with what I have, but it just enhanced the halo on the bottom. Bah.... So here it is, basically unprocessed:
Not bad; a clearer night might work better, plus a full Moon is harder to process than the Sun, from my experience. The Sun has the same level of brightness throughout.
To make a comparison, I went and got my C80-HD; the last of the Celestron 80mm's that had Vixen optics. Used the same camera settings, same processing parameters, and no sharpening. Towa glass can't compare to Vixen, but I'm happy with my old Tasco.
And that was my night. Started at 10PM and wrapped it up around 11. Monday comes early
Have a good night all, and all the best!
