Zorlac’s Blog

I have just moved my site over to a new domain (rather than freeloading off Peonic any further ). If you would update your bookmarks and any RSS feeds to point at my new site, that would be great!

Steve’s Astro ( http://www.steves-astro.com/ )

I wouldnt have even mentioned it to be honest, but I have been contacted by quite a few people recently with regard to my site, so I thought it would only be polite to tell every about the move… I never knew I had so many visitors!

This will be the last post in the blog on this site, all future posts will be on the new site

Had a couple of evenings out in the last week, both weere cut short by clouds, but it gave me a chance to try the Hyperstar system with Ha imaging, and also started using flats for the first time. No details on these images because they were both just a test.

First up was M42. It has some strange gradients that I couldnt get rid of, probably from the next door neighbour’s bathroom light streaming into the front of the OTA. Oh well..

Next up, IC1396 on an INCREDIBLY windy/blustery night. The autoguiding was getting incredibly upset. And I also forgot to check collimation on the Hyperstar, and sadly it was a long way out. Despite all that, I did get some reasonable data, and also I took some flats for the first time. The diference was incredible. All the odd gradients I have fought against just disappeared.

OK, I promise I wont fiddle with this one anymore, honest!

(Click on image for larger version)

After the excitement had worn off from my first light, I had the chance to take a closer look at the images the Hyperstar had spat out. One thing that stood out was that the stars were always big and blobby, and detract from the DSO itself. After trying various different ways to reduce the star sizes (without much result!), it was a comment from Noel Carboni on another forum said that triggered a little lateral thinking. Up until now I have always processed my images as one, but if I wanted to reduce the star sizes, I needs to work on the stars as a seperate entity. I had a play with this idea quickly last night, and the results from those briefs tests showed some real promise.

As such, I have just spent my lunchbreak reworking my original image from scratch. Compare this image to the one posted two messages below:

(Click on image for the HUGE version)

Personally I like this version much better. The stars are still there, but far less obtrusive.

More Hyperstar goodliness!

OTA: NS8GPS @ f/2 (Hyperstar v3)
Guiding: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + DSI-C + PHD
RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 15 x 240s, CLS filter
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker (2x drizzle)
Post Process: ImagesPlus (2×2 bin) + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools

No bigger image on this one, I need more subs to get better detail (and less noise) before I let you loose on the full size image

First light with the new Hyperstar system… and WHAT A FIRST LIGHT… I defy you to not look at this with your jaw open, saying “WOW!”, considering this was only an hours worth of subs.

OTA: NS8GPS @ f/2 (Hyperstar v3)
Guiding: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + DSI-C + PHD
RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 20 x 180s, CLS filter
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker (2x drizzle)
Post Process: ImagesPlus (2×2 bin) + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools

This image goes out to Greg Parker / Cybermystic for all his help with my questions

(Clickon the image for the HUGE version)

Managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of RGB imaging lastnight between cloud banks. I had nearly forgotten which end of the scope to look through…

Just a first-pass quick mosaic of Heart and Soul, with RGB and Ha data. On closer inspection, I`m not 100% happy with this, still some odd gradients in it, some colour shift in the stars, and a mismatched background colour, but its good enough for now. Maybe I`ll come back to it later.

OTA: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + 0.8 FR/FF
Guiding: NS8GPS @ f/10 + DSI-C + PHD
RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 10 x 900s + 8 x 900s, CLS filter
Ha Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 2 x (8 x 900s), Astronomik Ha 13nm
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools

(Click on image for larger version)

Well, as the chances of me getting any images this week looked particularly slim, I decided it was time to have a decent play with blending Ha data into RGB. I`ve done this a few times over the last few weeks, but never realy been happy with the results. Also, processing it on the 1Gb laptop wasnt helping much, I was spending more time waiting for PSCS to stop swapping than actually doing anything useful. So, I have just spent 90 minutes or so playing with the following data to create my first Ha blended image that I`m happy with.

I do note that the difference between my laptop screen and my desktop screen is quite large, but as most of the images I see from others look better on my laptop, thats the one I use for the final colour balance and stuff. Apologies if this image looks far too “overly red” or far too “washed out salmon pink” on your screen.

OTA: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + 0.8 FR/FF
Guiding: NS8GPS @ f/10 + DSI-C + PHD
RGB Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 10 x 900s, CLS filter
Ha Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL,8 x 900s, Astronomik Ha 13nm
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools (Ha as ~60% luminance, Ha/Red = 80%/20%)

Note: The RGB data for this is slightly flawed, due to the fact that my imaging train wasnt perfectly aligned (doh!)… the RGB stars on the left of the image are larger than on the right.

(Click on image for larger version)

OK, that was the coldest, frostiest night I`ve had to endure yet…

The horizon was very murky, but the zenith was very clear and steady… just a shame about the moon illuminating everything. Time to break out the Hydrogen Alpha filter again.

OTA: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + 0.8 FR/FF
Guiding: NS8GPS @ f/10 + DSI-C + PHD
Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 10 x 900s, Astronomik Ha 13nm
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: MaximDL + ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools
Note: I forgot to take bias frames… doh!

Not sure which version I like best… the slightly softer whispy one (first), or the more contrasty version (second)

(Click on the image for a larger version)

(Click on the image for a larger version)

Been after the other “half” of this for a while now (Had a few self generated problems that havent helped much )

OTA: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + 0.8 FR/FF
Guiding: NS8GPS @ f/10 + DSI-C + PHD
Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 2 images, each being made up of 10 x 900s taken 17 days apart, Astronomik Ha 13nm
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Post Process: MaximDL + ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools

(Click on the image for the larger version)