chris_g wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:31 am
@Jockinireland one more question if you don't mind. Since the FOV that I want to capture is bigger than my rig will accomodate, I thought a mosaic would be a option. I scanned some posts and saw that you've done some. How do you calculate the coordinates for each panel? I saw there was The Sky and SGP that had mosaic planners but I was hoping for free.
I am ambitious if anything!
Thanks again Jim for your help...
You use
APT and you have Stellariun right? If you have them set up to talk to each other then it's fairly easy. Using the "occular" you have already defined for your set up, position your
fov then capture the coordinates for that in
APT in Objects - To do -Add new - Catch. Reposition the
fov in Stellarium with at least 10% overlap, - I tend to make it more than that - then put that in to Todo. Once the co-ords are in there it's easy to move the scope to position. You can even set up a script to automatically run the initial capture, move using
goto++ then start the second set.
The only fiddly bit is the rotation angle. If you have changed the frame angle on Stellarium then you need to manually change the angle of your camera in you scope to be the same. I do that using platesolving, show in stellarium, adjust angle, repeat. It can be a bit painfull if your angle is really critical but it works.
You are certainly moving ahead pretty quickly, the faint dust images are tricky to capture and very difficult to process and mosaics add another layer of complexity. But nothing wrong with ambition so long as you are ready to deal with it if it does not go as well as hoped for.
For the dust processing take look at this, complicated but effective.
http://www.astronomersdoitinthedark.com ... torial.php
He uses photoshop and "ImagesPlus" which is available free here
http://www.mlunsold.com/ILOrdering.html
On building mosaics, I'm not sure how easy that is in photoshop. When you are ready to get some astro specific processing software look at
Astro Pixel processor. I find it does a MUCH better job at stacking than
DSS, it has first rate gradient removal, a fabulous mosaic capability, brilliant colour calibration and excellent preset stretches. It will get you to about 90% of the way then you can move to photoshop to finish.
Hope that helps
David
Scope: Skywatcher Evostar 80ED (SW 0.85 FR/FF) on a SW NEQ6Pro
Guiding; SW Evoguide 50ED, ASI 120mm mini
Meade 8" LX200 GPS on wedge (Guided with a cheapo 50mm guidescope and a ZWO ASI 120mm mini)
Sharpstar 61EDPH II (with dedicated 0.8 reducer) with wiliam Optics 32mm uniguide
Camera: ASI2600MC pro. QHY 163M with ZWO 7nm NB filters, Canon EOS700D astro mod
Secondary mount: Skywatcher StarAdventurer
My Astrobin
https://www.astrobin.com/users/mackiedlm/