How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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STEVE333 United States of America
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How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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Post by STEVE333 »


This short tutorial is intended to show CMOS camera users HOW to calibrate their data. I'll be using the new PixInsight WBPP script for convenience, but, the approach could be used without the WBPP script if desired. I won't be explaining WHY different options or check boxes are used because that information is contained in the wonderful tutorial on WBPP by Adam Block (link below). However, because Adam's 10-part tutorial is well over 3 hours long, I thought a short how-to version specifically for CMOS users would be useful.



Up until recently I had been using a DSLR camera and was very familiar with how to calibrate the RAW images. When I tried to apply the same calibration approach to my new ASI1600MM Pro (CMOS) camera images the results were not very good. After going through Adam's complete tutorial it was clear why my calibrations weren't working, and, more importantly, it was clear how to properly calibrate my new data. The proper new approach is explained below. I will be assuming that no Master Calibration files (MasterDark, etc.) are available.

1) When the WBPP script is first opened it will look similar to the screen shot below. For this image the Bias tab along the top has been selected.

Image

Notice the Global Options box toward the lower right hand corner. The checked boxes are the proper ones for my ASI1600MM Pro camera. Make sure the Optimize dark frames box is NOT checked.

2) Bias Frames. NO BIAS FRAMES ARE USED FOR CMOS SENSORS!!

3) Click on the Lights tab along the top and then click on the Add Lights button along the bottom. Navigate to where the Light frames are located. Select the light frames and click on the Open button. The selected frames will show up in the WBPP display. Navigate to the next group of Light frames and add them. Continue until all Light frames have been added. The screen shot below shows that the R, G, and B Light frames have all been added. Notice that the frames have been grouped by filter type. WBPP does the grouping automatically assuming the Fits Headers have the required information.

Image

The Output Directory box in the lower right hand corner is a required entry. Navigate to and select the location where you want the WBPP results to be stored.

There are three other boxes that I have checked on the Lights tab.
a) Generate subframe weights:: checking this box will weight each image according to the image quality. See Adam's tutorials for a full explanation of this choice.
Because I normally allow WBPP to Register the calibrated images and then Integrate them:
b) Use best frame as reference for registration: The "highest quality" image is used as the reference for registering all images. If this box isn't checked then you need to go to the Registration Reference Image box and navigate to and select the image to be used as the reference.
c) Checking the Apply box in the Image Integration section will integrate the frames after they are registered. Each channel will be integrated separately.

4) Click on the Flats tab along the top and then click on the Add Flats button along the bottom. Navigate to where the Flat frames are located. Select the Flat frames and click on the Open button. The selected frames will show up in the WBPP display. Navigate to the next group of Flat frames and add them. Continue until all Flat frames have been added. The screen shot below shows that the R, G, and B Flat frames have all been added. Notice that the frames have been grouped by filter type (R, G, B), and, each filter type has a different exposure time (0.09, 0.12 and 0.20 sec).

Image

5) Click on the Darks tab along the top and then click on the Add Darks button along the bottom. For this tutorial all of the Light frames used an exposure time of 150 sec, so, navigate to where the 150 sec Dark frames are located. Select the Dark frames and click on the Open button. The selected frames will show up in the WBPP display. If the Light frames for the different channels had different exposure times, then, there would need to be matching dark frames for each exposure. You should not "optimize" dark frames to match different exposure times for CMOS sensors!

6) Flat Darks. Flat Darks are just Dark frames but with an exposure that exactly matches the Flat frames. Because Flat frames for different filters will generally have different exposure times there will generally be a different set of Flat Dark frames for each set of Flats.

The screen shot below shows the 150 sec Darks for the Light frames and three separate groups of Flat Darks (one for R, G and B filters).

Image

7) Once all the files are added to WBPP click the Diagnostics button along the bottom. A screen like the one below will be displayed.

Image

If anything is missing or if there are any warnings they will show up here. Click OK, fix any real problems and try the Diagnostics button again.

In this case we don't want any Bias frames, so, no problem. Just click on OK.

8) Click on the Run button. When the Diagnostics window pops up again, click on Continue and wait until WBPP finishes and the window below pops up.

Image

This window contains a brief summary of all that was accomplished by the pre-processing. I don't normally read all this.

9) Navigate to the designated Output Directory and you should see four folders as shown below.

Image

Opening the Master folder you should see something like what is shown below.

Image

For our tutorial it created Master Flat Darks for the R/G/B filters as well as a Master Dark for the 150 sec exposure Light frames. It also created Master Flats for the R/G/B filters. And finally, it created Master integrated images for the R/G/B filters. It should be noted that the Master integrated images are all registered to one another.

Below is a comparison of a single uncalibrated Light frame of data with the same frame after it has been calibrated with Dark and Flat frames. The calibration was carried out using WBPP as described above. The Dark frames removed the amp glow and the Flats did a nice job of making the entire FOV uniform.

Image

Hope this helps.

Steve
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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Post by STEVE333 »


Addendum: In step (4) when the Flats tab is selected, make sure to check the Calibrate with flat darks check box.
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#3

Post by umasscrew39 »


Excellent tutorial, Steve. I just started using this and compared it to the manual process that I have been using a couple of years. Personally, I think one should do the manual process for a while as it helps you understand how it works and learn the pitfalls if your settings are wrong. Because I had done that, the WBPP made perfect sense and was easy to use. Also, for a CMOS OSC, one needs to remember to check the CFA Images box or nothing comes out in color.
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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umasscrew39 wrote: Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:22 am Excellent tutorial, Steve. I just started using this and compared it to the manual process that I have been using a couple of years. Personally, I think one should do the manual process for a while as it helps you understand how it works and learn the pitfalls if your settings are wrong. Because I had done that, the WBPP made perfect sense and was easy to use. Also, for a CMOS OSC, one needs to remember to check the CFA Images box or nothing comes out in color.

Hi Bruce - Thanks.

I too used to do all the manual process for a few years when I was using my DSLR. It definitely helps to understand what is going on "inside" the WBPP script, and, helps to decide whick options to use. When I recently switched to NB imaging the number of files multiplied rapidly and it became a bit overwhelming (separate Lights for each NB filter, separate Flats for each filter, possibly different Darks for each filter, etc.). At my age going to WBPP was a matter of sanity!! :confusion-helpsign: For NB it has the added advantage of Registering all of the NB final stacked images which is very convenient and definitely saves time.

Thanks for mentioning the CFA check box. I wasn't aware of that.

Cheers,
Steve
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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Is there anything in the WBPP script that is different from the normal image integration? In other words, if I select "evaluate noise" is that any different from the weighting? It does appear that way. Also it seems it automatically selects the rejection algorithm, whereas I prefer to decide which one to use - how does it decide which rejection algorithm to use? # of images? Yes to that as well. The weighting option seems unique to the WBPP script unless one includes the weights from the subframe selector process (so it's similar to that but with some defaults).

Presumably what the best frame it has decided is stored somewhere so I can use it for the other filters? Since I use the same frame from Ha data for the O3 and S2 data but I could create a master light of all the data and then register the individual filters separately to produce the individual filter master lights. I started doing some LSHO work before like that. Alternate I presume it won't create three lights for three filters?

I used to use the BPP script at first but now I prefer to do it manually. I do the calibration and then subframe selection to see what the distributions of values are and where the outliers are, etc. and use it to select the target frame for registration. I have my own command line script to select from these if I need to so I just need the data. But if the data passes my minimal thresholds I leave it all in and let PI sort it out. So far it has done a tremendous job of it. Just like I like to stay out in the night sky each day for an hour or so I image, I like to check all this stuff as it runs through the process (at least for now).

I guess the only way to know which is better is to use the WBPP script and see if it gives me a different enough result to matter. If it did, it'd be the weighting that made the difference.
Tubes: Celestron 9.25" 235mm f/10 XLT EdgeHD SCT; Meade ETX 80mm f/5 achromat; Coronado SolarMax II 60mm f/6.6 Hα <0.7Å BF10 solar; Stellarvue 70mm f/6 triplet apochromat; Obsession UC18 457mm f/4.2 with Argo Navis & ServoCAT; Takahashi FS128 5" f/8.1 and FC100DF 4" f/7.4 fluorite doublet apochromats. Mounts: AVX; LXD75; Paramount MyT. Eyepieces: 2" Tele Vue Ethos 4.7/13/21mm, Paracorr, 2,4x Powermate; Stellarvue 0.8x, Takahashi 0.7x, 0.66x reducer/corrector. Cameras: ZWO ASI120MC-S; Lodestar X2c; X2m; Canon T7i; QHY163M; QHY247C; QHY294M-Pro. Filters: 1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3 and S2; Chroma LRGB.
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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Post by STEVE333 »


Hi Ram - Thanks for the response.

The main reason for preparing this tutorial was to show how to calibrate a CMOS sensor.
1) Don't use Bias frames.
2) Calibrate Flats using Flat Darks having exactly the same duration as the corresponding Flats (no Bias frames)
3) Calibrate Light frames using Flats and Dark frames only (no Bias frames).

I'm not familiar with BPP so I can't help with any comparison there. The tutorial by Adam Block describes most of the options in WBPP thoroughly, so, I won't go into that either.

I now use WBPP because it save so much tedious bookkeeping and it never forgets a step. It produces a separate MasterLight for each set of Lights, and, the MasterLight frames are all registered to one another.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

Steve
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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Thanks Steve. Never mind my previous post - it turns out you can choose the registration reference and it's a checkbox for auto selection. I didn't see this before!

Nonetheless I'm trying it out to see if it produces a better image with a single set of 278 lights I just integrated.

--Ram
Tubes: Celestron 9.25" 235mm f/10 XLT EdgeHD SCT; Meade ETX 80mm f/5 achromat; Coronado SolarMax II 60mm f/6.6 Hα <0.7Å BF10 solar; Stellarvue 70mm f/6 triplet apochromat; Obsession UC18 457mm f/4.2 with Argo Navis & ServoCAT; Takahashi FS128 5" f/8.1 and FC100DF 4" f/7.4 fluorite doublet apochromats. Mounts: AVX; LXD75; Paramount MyT. Eyepieces: 2" Tele Vue Ethos 4.7/13/21mm, Paracorr, 2,4x Powermate; Stellarvue 0.8x, Takahashi 0.7x, 0.66x reducer/corrector. Cameras: ZWO ASI120MC-S; Lodestar X2c; X2m; Canon T7i; QHY163M; QHY247C; QHY294M-Pro. Filters: 1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3 and S2; Chroma LRGB.
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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ram wrote: Thu Jun 18, 2020 11:11 pm Thanks Steve. Never mind my previous post - it turns out you can choose the registration reference and it's a checkbox for auto selection. I didn't see this before!

Nonetheless I'm trying it out to see if it produces a better image with a single set of 278 lights I just integrated.

--Ram

Quite honestly, the main reason I decided to try WBPP was because of the large number of different files that need to be stored/retrieved when doing Narrowband imaging. With separate Lights for each filter (2 or three filters) and separate Flats and Flat Darks for each filter the number of files grows quickly. WBPP was a way to load all of these files into one place and it sorts the files, processes them, and creates registered calibrated output files automatically. I don't have to worry about missing a step or wondering where I put the calibrated or registered files.

Quite a load off my mind. When I do a nights capture, I open WBPP, load the appropriate MasterDarks and MasterFlats. Then, when the nights captures are complete I just load the captured images into WBPP, start it running, then go bring the imaging equipment back into the house. By the time I have everything back in the house the stacked image (or images if multiple filters were used) are already done! I can take a quick look at the stacked image(s) then head to bed. Pretty cool.

Steve
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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Post by ram »


Just FYI, the WBPP is very similar to BPP except for the weighting part. I used to do exactly as you did - get BPP going so I could "see" a stacked capture quickly right away and it was my goto for producing the master light but I got comfortable with waiting. I normally don't do flats so that's one less source of confusion for me (especially keeping tracking of which flat is what for which target must be a nightmare).

I did a compare of my O3 manual capture (23 hours) and the WBPP for all intents produces a near identical image. It MAY have slightly better contrast but it's hard to tell. It couldn't register two frames that the normal version could. I will try it again on the Ha image I posted and see if that holds up. Just running the S2 now.

But thanks for pointing us to it - the weighting looks good but somehow PI image integration must be doing that via its "noise evaluation" which is what I use. I'll let you know if the contrast bit holds up for Ha also.

--Ram
Tubes: Celestron 9.25" 235mm f/10 XLT EdgeHD SCT; Meade ETX 80mm f/5 achromat; Coronado SolarMax II 60mm f/6.6 Hα <0.7Å BF10 solar; Stellarvue 70mm f/6 triplet apochromat; Obsession UC18 457mm f/4.2 with Argo Navis & ServoCAT; Takahashi FS128 5" f/8.1 and FC100DF 4" f/7.4 fluorite doublet apochromats. Mounts: AVX; LXD75; Paramount MyT. Eyepieces: 2" Tele Vue Ethos 4.7/13/21mm, Paracorr, 2,4x Powermate; Stellarvue 0.8x, Takahashi 0.7x, 0.66x reducer/corrector. Cameras: ZWO ASI120MC-S; Lodestar X2c; X2m; Canon T7i; QHY163M; QHY247C; QHY294M-Pro. Filters: 1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3 and S2; Chroma LRGB.
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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ram wrote: Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:05 am Just FYI, the WBPP is very similar to BPP except for the weighting part. I used to do exactly as you did - get BPP going so I could "see" a stacked capture quickly right away and it was my goto for producing the master light but I got comfortable with waiting. I normally don't do flats so that's one less source of confusion for me (especially keeping tracking of which flat is what for which target must be a nightmare).

I did a compare of my O3 manual capture (23 hours) and the WBPP for all intents produces a near identical image. It MAY have slightly better contrast but it's hard to tell. It couldn't register two frames that the normal version could. I will try it again on the Ha image I posted and see if that holds up. Just running the S2 now.

But thanks for pointing us to it - the weighting looks good but somehow PI image integration must be doing that via its "noise evaluation" which is what I use. I'll let you know if the contrast bit holds up for Ha also.

--Ram

Thanks for the feedback Ram. Good to hear that you get essentially equivalent results with your normal calibration approach or the WBPP approach. Sometimes I never get any feedback on tutorials. Nice to know somebody is looking.

Just FYI, I don't rotate my camera setup, so, the same MasterFlats (one for Ha, one for Sii and one for Oiii) work for all my images. It would be a nightmare if I needed new Flats for every image.

Steve
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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Definitely - I used pretty much the exact same settings you have on there except I chose to register to a single image I had selected as "best" since I use five criteria (FWHM, Eccentricy, SNRWeight, Median, and Stars) to rate the best. My image is in the top 20 (out of 500+) for ALL of these criteria. Other than that, it was just as you posted it. Even left the "auto" for the integration. (My guess is that it selected the GESD test since it seems highly superior.

So I can confirm, there is a very slight improved contrast in the two master lights I've created with WBPP (the script is the one with the improved contrast). I also figured out why this occurs - the WBPP star registration isn't as robust as the normal one (at least the default parametres) so it tends to exclude images whereas manual PI calibrates/registers/integrates everything in this set. In the O3 case, it stacked 275/278 frames and in Ha 252/263 frames. In these cases it didn't cause any issues except improvement because there was so much data (at least any difference in actual signal would be due to larger changes than just a handful of images) but

I'm repeating for S2 now. Of course I could've been smarter and done them together but I wanted to do just one to compare and then the next and then I thought why not a full set.

I will process with both and see what turns out. But I have to say, PI is a wonder and it just seems to get better with each version. This is not an easy set to handle and the WBPP handles it with ease, because I took images from both fall and now, half the images are upside down and don't readily stack up as normally most of my images do that are taken in multiple days in a row. So this is part of the reason the registration fails and I should perhaps check the option for handling this properly.

Thanks Steve!

--Ram
Tubes: Celestron 9.25" 235mm f/10 XLT EdgeHD SCT; Meade ETX 80mm f/5 achromat; Coronado SolarMax II 60mm f/6.6 Hα <0.7Å BF10 solar; Stellarvue 70mm f/6 triplet apochromat; Obsession UC18 457mm f/4.2 with Argo Navis & ServoCAT; Takahashi FS128 5" f/8.1 and FC100DF 4" f/7.4 fluorite doublet apochromats. Mounts: AVX; LXD75; Paramount MyT. Eyepieces: 2" Tele Vue Ethos 4.7/13/21mm, Paracorr, 2,4x Powermate; Stellarvue 0.8x, Takahashi 0.7x, 0.66x reducer/corrector. Cameras: ZWO ASI120MC-S; Lodestar X2c; X2m; Canon T7i; QHY163M; QHY247C; QHY294M-Pro. Filters: 1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3 and S2; Chroma LRGB.
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

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ram wrote: Fri Jun 19, 2020 7:51 am Definitely - I used pretty much the exact same settings you have on there except I chose to register to a single image I had selected as "best" since I use five criteria (FWHM, Eccentricy, SNRWeight, Median, and Stars) to rate the best. My image is in the top 20 (out of 500+) for ALL of these criteria. Other than that, it was just as you posted it. Even left the "auto" for the integration. (My guess is that it selected the GESD test since it seems highly superior.

So I can confirm, there is a very slight improved contrast in the two master lights I've created with WBPP (the script is the one with the improved contrast). I also figured out why this occurs - the WBPP star registration isn't as robust as the normal one (at least the default parametres) so it tends to exclude images whereas manual PI calibrates/registers/integrates everything in this set. In the O3 case, it stacked 275/278 frames and in Ha 252/263 frames. In these cases it didn't cause any issues except improvement because there was so much data (at least any difference in actual signal would be due to larger changes than just a handful of images) but

I'm repeating for S2 now. Of course I could've been smarter and done them together but I wanted to do just one to compare and then the next and then I thought why not a full set.

I will process with both and see what turns out. But I have to say, PI is a wonder and it just seems to get better with each version. This is not an easy set to handle and the WBPP handles it with ease, because I took images from both fall and now, half the images are upside down and don't readily stack up as normally most of my images do that are taken in multiple days in a row. So this is part of the reason the registration fails and I should perhaps check the option for handling this properly.

Thanks Steve!

--Ram
That's great news Ram. I'm so glad it is working for you too. Best of success with adding the Sii. PI is indeed a wonder.

Steve
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#13

Post by ram »


Okay, so with S2 the Auto-Stretch wasn't as good but manually they both seem to be equivalent. The AS makes it look like a photo negative. I've had this problem before when my master black wasn't calibrated properly (created using SharpCap---I then started doing my Master Black using PI). This is NOT what I did here: I took the advice of WBPP and gave it my individual black frames which I pulled out from an archival drive (I'm using blacks captured last fall, just before I stopped imaging). And I did check - the master black created by WBPP is darker than the individual light frames but perhaps there were some with clouds that caused this - I had very noisy data sets throughout.

So overall the conclusion seems to be that both methods are equivalent for all practical purposes even in medium difficult cases. I also did O3 NGC7380 quickly last night (I will redo manually today). (I wish I had a microfocusser already for the FC100DF - at its native FL of 7.4 I'm struggling with the stock Tak focusser getting the focus since I can't turn the knob so finely.)

--Ram
Tubes: Celestron 9.25" 235mm f/10 XLT EdgeHD SCT; Meade ETX 80mm f/5 achromat; Coronado SolarMax II 60mm f/6.6 Hα <0.7Å BF10 solar; Stellarvue 70mm f/6 triplet apochromat; Obsession UC18 457mm f/4.2 with Argo Navis & ServoCAT; Takahashi FS128 5" f/8.1 and FC100DF 4" f/7.4 fluorite doublet apochromats. Mounts: AVX; LXD75; Paramount MyT. Eyepieces: 2" Tele Vue Ethos 4.7/13/21mm, Paracorr, 2,4x Powermate; Stellarvue 0.8x, Takahashi 0.7x, 0.66x reducer/corrector. Cameras: ZWO ASI120MC-S; Lodestar X2c; X2m; Canon T7i; QHY163M; QHY247C; QHY294M-Pro. Filters: 1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3 and S2; Chroma LRGB.
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#14

Post by STEVE333 »


Glad to hear that your continued investigation is still encouraging.

I'm also using MasteRDark and MasterFlat calibration frames. With this CMOS sensor I'm not sure how long they will be valid. Right now they are only about a week old, so, not worried yet.

I remember the "touchy focus" problem. I recently purchased a Moonlight Stepper Motor for focusing my scope. I really love it, and, it saves me many trips from inside the house out to the end of the driveway to "tweak" the focus, then back into the house to the monitor to see it the tweak worked. If not, back out to the end of the driveway, and, well you get the point.

Steve.
Steve King: Light Pollution (Bortle 5)
Telescope + Mount + Guiding: W.O. Star71-ii + iOptron CEM40 EC + Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider
Camera: ASI 1600MM Pro + EFW Filter Wheel + Chroma 3nm Siii, Ha, Oiii + ZWO LRGB Filters
Software: PHD2; APT; PixInsight ***** My AP website: www.steveking.pictures
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#15

Post by ram »


I'm now integrating all 725 images for my sh2-132. I found the SHO combination to be a bit "thin" even though I know the data is there so I need to go back to the LVA tutorials and do a lot more work (I just did a linear combine of the resulting lights from WBPP and then did a AS of the SHO image).

Anyways, on the focus tangent (sorry) yeah, I've had a Moonlight Stepper Motor for years - it came with my FS128 but I've never used it. It requires taking apart the focusser and putting the motor in its place and I was uncomfortable with that (both the focusser and motor came to me broken - whoever shipped the FS128 didn't care enough to pack that area safely so it must've gotten banged up). Anyways, Wayne at Starlight fixed it for me and the microfocusser works great and the motor with remote control (wired) seems to work too but like I said I'd have to remove the manual focus to make this work or at least take my current focusser apart.

Also this wouldn't work on the FC100DF since that's already on the FS128 (the microfocusser which I assume is a necessary component for the stepper motor - it couldn't connect directly to the stock Tak focusser - we need both, the microfocusser and stepper in order to get the fine focussing automation to work, no?). So I ordered a microfocusser just for the FC100DF and along with the Bahtinov mask I think I should be good but I could hook the stepper if I wanted to later assuming it still works (no reason why not, even if it's an older model). I enjoy being out under the night sky as little as I do it. I even saw some weird lights last night (likely plovers? flying in a straight line but what it was it was lit up in oval shapes just before dawn)!

--Ram
Tubes: Celestron 9.25" 235mm f/10 XLT EdgeHD SCT; Meade ETX 80mm f/5 achromat; Coronado SolarMax II 60mm f/6.6 Hα <0.7Å BF10 solar; Stellarvue 70mm f/6 triplet apochromat; Obsession UC18 457mm f/4.2 with Argo Navis & ServoCAT; Takahashi FS128 5" f/8.1 and FC100DF 4" f/7.4 fluorite doublet apochromats. Mounts: AVX; LXD75; Paramount MyT. Eyepieces: 2" Tele Vue Ethos 4.7/13/21mm, Paracorr, 2,4x Powermate; Stellarvue 0.8x, Takahashi 0.7x, 0.66x reducer/corrector. Cameras: ZWO ASI120MC-S; Lodestar X2c; X2m; Canon T7i; QHY163M; QHY247C; QHY294M-Pro. Filters: 1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha, 3nm O3 and S2; Chroma LRGB.
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#16

Post by STEVE333 »


ram wrote: Fri Jun 19, 2020 10:10 pm I'm now integrating all 725 images for my sh2-132. I found the SHO combination to be a bit "thin" even though I know the data is there so I need to go back to the LVA tutorials and do a lot more work (I just did a linear combine of the resulting lights from WBPP and then did a AS of the SHO image).

Anyways, on the focus tangent (sorry) yeah, I've had a Moonlight Stepper Motor for years - it came with my FS128 but I've never used it. It requires taking apart the focusser and putting the motor in its place and I was uncomfortable with that (both the focusser and motor came to me broken - whoever shipped the FS128 didn't care enough to pack that area safely so it must've gotten banged up). Anyways, Wayne at Starlight fixed it for me and the microfocusser works great and the motor with remote control (wired) seems to work too but like I said I'd have to remove the manual focus to make this work or at least take my current focusser apart.

Also this wouldn't work on the FC100DF since that's already on the FS128 (the microfocusser which I assume is a necessary component for the stepper motor - it couldn't connect directly to the stock Tak focusser - we need both, the microfocusser and stepper in order to get the fine focussing automation to work, no?). So I ordered a microfocusser just for the FC100DF and along with the Bahtinov mask I think I should be good but I could hook the stepper if I wanted to later assuming it still works (no reason why not, even if it's an older model). I enjoy being out under the night sky as little as I do it. I even saw some weird lights last night (likely plovers? flying in a straight line but what it was it was lit up in oval shapes just before dawn)!

--Ram

You are gathering some serious amount of data Ram! Look forward to seeing the results.

I called Moonlight and talked directly with Ron at Moonlight and he explained to me what options I had. For my telescope the stepper motor connected directly to the Coarse Focus side of the telescope. I actually installed it myself using their instructions. The stepper motor came with a bracket that attached to existing holes in my telescope tube. I removed the coarse focus knob and then attached the motor to the exposed "focusing shaft" and the telescope tube using the bracket. Didn't take long at all, and, has been working flawlessly for a month or so now.

Hope you get your focussing problems resolved soon.

Cheers,
Steve
Steve King: Light Pollution (Bortle 5)
Telescope + Mount + Guiding: W.O. Star71-ii + iOptron CEM40 EC + Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider
Camera: ASI 1600MM Pro + EFW Filter Wheel + Chroma 3nm Siii, Ha, Oiii + ZWO LRGB Filters
Software: PHD2; APT; PixInsight ***** My AP website: www.steveking.pictures
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#17

Post by starfield »


Steve, finally got my narrowband filters and decided to take the PI plunge. My experience trying to manage all these file sets was hurting my brain using DSS. I've been scouring net trying to find a nice simple summary to get started and it was sitting here on this forum!

This is really helpful. Thanks for pulling this together.
Scopes: Esprit 100, 12.5" Telekit Dob
Camera: 294 MC Pro, 224 mc, 2600mm
Guiding: ZWO 290 mini on 120mm guide scope
Mounts: EQ6R-Pro, EQ Platform.
Filters: Optolong L-Pro & L-Enhance, Chroma 36mm LRGB, 5nm HA, 3nm OIII, 3nm SII.
Software: SharpCap, SGP, StarTools 1.7, Photoshop, Pixinsight
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#18

Post by STEVE333 »


You're welcome, and, glad it helped. I really appreciated how it handles/sorts all the files. The generated masters are all aligned to one another also which saves time and confusion.

I hope it works for you as well as it does for me.

In the end all thanks goes to Adam Block for his great tutorials and to the authors of the WBPP script!

Steve
Steve King: Light Pollution (Bortle 5)
Telescope + Mount + Guiding: W.O. Star71-ii + iOptron CEM40 EC + Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider
Camera: ASI 1600MM Pro + EFW Filter Wheel + Chroma 3nm Siii, Ha, Oiii + ZWO LRGB Filters
Software: PHD2; APT; PixInsight ***** My AP website: www.steveking.pictures
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#19

Post by AstroBee »


Hi Steve, I just ran across this older post because I only recently started using PixInsight so I read everything with great interest. I also subscribed to Adam's Fundamentals course and I'm slowly making my way through it. In post #14 above you mentioned you just started using a new MasterDark and MasterFlat. Adam talks about how long he thinks MasterDarks with a stable CMOS can be used in one of his videos and he said a max of 4-6months. I've got to the point where I build a new MasterDark library every November and May because here in the desert where our summer evenings rarely ever get below 100°, I can only cool my sensor to 0°. So in May I build a set of MasterDarks at 0° and then in Mid-November I build a new set at -10°. I hope that's ok and would like to hear your opinion. 2600mm Pro BTW.
I think last year when I was using the 1600mm you ran some test for me???
Greg M.~ "Ad Astra per Aspera"
Scopes: Celestron EdgeHD14", Explore Scientific ED152CF & ED127 APO's, StellarVue SV70T, Classic Orange-Tube C-8, Lunt 80mm Ha double-stack solar scope.
Mounts: Astro-Physics Mach One, iOptron CEM70EC Mount, iOptron ZEQ25 Mount.
Cameras: ZWO ASI2600mm Pro, ZWO 2600MC Pro, ZWO ASI1600mm
Filters: 36mm Chroma LRGB & 3nm Ha, OIII, SII, L-Pro, L-eXtreme
Eyepieces: 27mm TeleVue Panoptic, 4mm TeleVue Radian, Explore Scientific 82° 30mm, 6.7mm , Baader 13mm Hyperion, Explore Scientific 70° 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, Meade 8.8mm UWA
Software: N.I.N.A., SharpCapPro, PixInsight, PhotoShop CC, Phd2, Stellarium
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Re: How to Calibrate a CMOS Camera with PixInsight's WBPP Script

#20

Post by STEVE333 »


Hi "AB" - I'm still using my 1600MM. I created my MasterDark in June 2020 and am still using the same MasterDark and it seems to be working OK. Maybe a more critical eye like Adam's would see some problems but they seem to still be working for me. However, I will probably take a new set of Darks sometime soon.

Congratulations on your 2600mm Pro. That looks like a sweet camera.

Steve
Steve King: Light Pollution (Bortle 5)
Telescope + Mount + Guiding: W.O. Star71-ii + iOptron CEM40 EC + Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider
Camera: ASI 1600MM Pro + EFW Filter Wheel + Chroma 3nm Siii, Ha, Oiii + ZWO LRGB Filters
Software: PHD2; APT; PixInsight ***** My AP website: www.steveking.pictures
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