Finally New Data Coming In!

[Mike Lewis]

So apologies for posting something at such a preliminary level, but I am very excited to be able to be collecting my own astro data once again, and wanted to post SOMETHING, anything, even if it is still at more of a 'how the sausage is made' level than the finished image.

I have had an idea to image the CA Nebula with my current setup for a while now, as it has been years since my original effort back in 2015, using a different, well, everything (mount, camera, scope, etc...) That version was OK, but I wanted something deeper and more detailed, and especially in narowband. With my current refractor and camera that means a mosaic to get the entire structure in. I was able to have my friend rotate my camera on my remote setup for me to align for a 2 panel mosaic, and I am now off on data collection.

This is a screen capture of 2 rough stacks (small number of frames, only darks subtraction, hand alignment of the 2 by crude window overlap) just to see how the project is going to come together. this is the Hα channel - I did not see any signal in OIII so this will be an Hα/SII bicolor mix, a first for me. I will also add in RGB data just for the stars as I always do with NB. This is just a start, but I am pretty stoked at the potential. And the coolest part is I am taking data as I type this, while babysitting my system over my remote VPN link. Pretty fun...

ML

 

[Ben Egbert]

You are having too much fun

 

[JimFox]

How cool Mike! That’s great to see as I think it’s been over 6 months since you last were able to capture any Astro data. You are lucky to be sitting in your warm easy chair capturing data, I am out here in the rapidly cooling off night in Joshua Tree capturing my own Astro Data. I am jealous! For me I have to still do it the hard way. Tonight I believe the Rosette is my target. With a 50% moon, I need a brighter target.

With a mosaic, do you stitch the unprocessed stacks first? And then you can edit it as a whole image?

 

[chuckp]

Mike it's nice to see your shots coming in again.

 

[Mike Lewis]

How cool Mike! That’s great to see as I think it’s been over 6 months since you last were able to capture any Astro data. You are lucky to be sitting in your warm easy chair capturing data, I am out here in the rapidly cooling off night in Joshua Tree capturing my own Astro Data. I am jealous! For me I have to still do it the hard way. Tonight I believe the Rosette is my target. With a 50% moon, I need a brighter target.

With a mosaic, do you stitch the unprocessed stacks first? And then you can edit it as a whole image?

Jim,

No, you treat the mosaic panels as separate images for all of the initial post processing, and then stitch the composites together after all that preprocessing is done. Or at least that is what I did last time, with decent results. I am not much of an expert on making mosaics, as I have only 1 under my belt so far. That 1st one was easier, as the area stitched together came in a relatively uninteresting port of the image. In this case, it will be right through the middle of the nebula. So I am expecting for things to be a little more difficult to totally match up. We will see...

ML

 

[Mike Lewis]

Mike it's nice to see your shots coming in again.

Chuck,

Thanks, it is very nice to be back getting some new data again for sure.

ML

 

[JimFox]

Jim,

No, you treat the mosaic panels as separate images for all of the initial post processing, and then stitch the composites together after all that preprocessing is done. Or at least that is what I did last time, with decent results. I am not much of an expert on making mosaics, as I have only 1 under my belt so far. That 1st one was easier, as the area stitched together came in a relatively uninteresting port of the image. In this case, it will be right through the middle of the nebula. So I am expecting for things to be a little more difficult to totally match up. We will see...

ML

My problem doing it that way is that even though I have a pretty consistent workflow none of mine look the same way twice. But you use Pixinsight, so you could just batch up the formulas and run it on both stacks?

 

[Mike Lewis]

My problem doing it that way is that even though I have a pretty consistent workflow none of mine look the same way twice. But you use Pixinsight, so you could just batch up the formulas and run it on both stacks?

Well yes up to a point. But it is the post processing after the batch pre-processing steps that has the most to do with how something looks in my opinion, and that part is not something that I batch process. So it can be a challenge to match the look. We will see how this comes out., but I expect that part could be the most challenging part.

ML