Topics

1

Image Processing Challenges / M78 issues Data Included

« on: 2013 February 14 15:55:41 »

I have been having issues processing M78.  I am getting a weird looking circle at the top of the frame.  Is it faint nebulosity? is it stray light? Bad Flats? I am not sure.  My flats are fresh just took them last night in the exact same orientation as the lights.  I have included the Master calibration frames that were created in PI 1.8 (latest build).  I am using the BatchPreprocessing script and going by Harry's wonderful video.  I am getting the following error before is begins registering:

ImageWindow.Set(): Invalid argument type.

Details of the image are located here:


M78-18x300s_ISO1600-1hr30m by AstroJeff, on Flickr

And here is the data: http://sdrv.ms/12kHrtg

GL and HF

Thanks
Jeff

2

General / Using fake Luminance with DSLR

« on: 2013 February 04 12:57:32 »

Scott Rosen has a nice video on how to do this with a DSLR and I am wondering if this is possible with PI?

http://www.astronomersdoitinthedark.com/dslr_llrgb_tutorial.php

3

General / Removing or Lessening Star Trails

« on: 2013 January 16 14:17:45 »

I have PI 1.8, crashes a lot in Color Saturation but thats a different issue.  I find myself using CS6 a lot more because of the plethora of tools in PI I have no idea what each does. 

What I want to do is fix minor trailing in my image, all I need to do is shift it 1 or 2 pixels, how do I accomplish this in PI?  Or what tool in PI do I play with?  My guess is starmask to start but I am lost from there.  Maybe something in MT?

This is the image in question:


M35_ISO1600_40x120s_1hr20m by AstroJeff, on Flickr

Thanks,
Jeff

4

General / Stacking Flats

« on: 2013 January 14 16:05:52 »

I only want to stack flats as I just took a bunch yesterday to update my collection but I don't see an option in PI Batch Processing that would allow me to only stack flats. 

I used DSS before and I am trying to teach myself how to use the BP script but it is not exactly user friendly.

Any pointers would be appreciated

Jeff

5

General / HDR Composition of M42

« on: 2012 November 11 17:50:47 »

I took 20x10s for the core and stars, 10x120 for main nebula and 13x300 for the fainter nebula, when I Follow Harry's video tutorial he mentioned to use shorter exposures to fix the cored stars.  I thought 10s exposures would work but no matter what setting I use the stars are cored.

Is there something I can do?

6

General / Boosting Ha without Ha Filter

« on: 2012 June 06 13:32:19 »

I know it sounds crazy but with a modded XSi/450D modded full spectrum, is there a way to make the Ha regions/knots in galaxies appear more red?  I have watched Harry's video but it sounds like you need a H-Alpha filter to capture that.

Can you just simply split the channels and boost the red channel without blowing out the background and making it look unnatural?

7

General / Missing batchProcessing

« on: 2012 May 21 23:50:16 »

I uninstalled and reinstalled and when I was told there were 17 updates I looked specifically for BatchProcessing and when I go to scrip in PI, there is a batchprocessing but the script is not there.

Am I missing something?

8

Tips & Tricks / Working on images of the Moon

« on: 2012 February 15 18:32:43 »

I know I am still new and all but I am wondering if there are any tutorials on working with images of the moon?  I can do basic things but it would be extremely helpful and useful if I can use PixInsight to work on lunar images or planets?  Not stacking and capturing just processing.  Would save money in buying other software as well

Thanks
Jeff

9

Gallery / M42, First Attempt

« on: 2011 March 22 15:43:20 »

Object: M42
Camera: Unmodified Canon Rebel T1i
Scope: Orion 8" F4 Astrograph
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Coma Corrector: MPCC
Subs: 20
ISO: 800
Stacking: DSS
Processing: Pixinsight

This is my first real attempt, 1 Day past Full Moon. I can see outer bands of M42 but I can't bring any detail to it. I didn't take any darks (which I know will help next time) this was only a test to see how well I am polar aligned and to see how well my new mount tracks. I only did a 2 star, then 1 calibration star, then all star. I know if would have been better to add 2 more calibration stars, but I only had limited time. I can see I am off a bit in Dec and Ra, but its better than manually tracking

Over all I am very impressed! Pixinsight is proving to be a valuable asset since I just purchased it I am using it more now and is getting a lot easier.

Before:


M42-BeforeProcess by AstroJeff, on Flickr

After:


M42_StackTest-Pixinsight-2 by AstroJeff, on Flickr

Enjoy Everyone,

Jeff

10

General Discussion / Saving...

« on: 2011 March 22 00:25:52 »

I am processing my first image and when I try to save the finished product it doesn't save it as I see it on the screen, its like it is saving an unprocessed image, even if I use Tiff.  The only way I can show the image as I see it on the screen is to take a screenshot of my desktop.  Am I missing something?

Thanks
Jeff

11

General Discussion / Just Purchased, Can't wait to use it.

« on: 2011 March 14 23:28:48 »

Hello Everyone I just wanted to introduce myself.  My name is Jeff and I am from Halifax, NS Canada and I just bought Pixinsight after using the trial for a few months.  I grew up with this hobby primarily as a solo visual observer, with over 20 years of visual observing under my belt I wanted to see if AP would be an interest and sure enough it is!  I started with a Neximage taking pics of the moon and planets and Comets (Holmes).  I wanted more, I wanted to take wide field.  I used mainly a point and shoot Canon SD750 taking many exposures of 15 seconds each and attempting to stack them.  There is alot of noise with a point and shoot. 

I now want to start taking serious images of DSOs of all types.  I was always intrigued by it and I asked for a Canon Rebel EOS T1i (500D).  Started taking wide-field shots of Orion, Pleiades, Auriga with ok results.  The star-trailing really annoyed me even on short exposures.  I then begged for an Orion F4 8" Astrograph for Christmas and I actually got it, thanks to my wife.  I had an old EQ5 I used to try it out visually.  A member of the Halifax RASC (thanks Blair) lent me a T Adapter and I tried it out with my 12" Skywatcher Collapsible Dob.  It was absolutely STUNNED at the quality I could pick up with a Dob that wasn't tracking the stars.  Yeah there was massive star trails but there was color in M42!  I hooked up my Orion to the EQ5 one cold night to try M42 again, I was again amazed at the quality from an unguided/undriven mount, but that wasn't enough! It was too heavy for my little EQ5 and I asked for Gift cards to Atlantic Photo Supply in Halifax to get a Celestron CGEM and a Celestron Nexguide and I just picked that up on the weekend and played a bit with setup as it has been cloudy for weeks it seems.  Thankfully I will be able to "hopefully" try on All Star Align tomorrow night for a bit to familiarize myself with the new mount then I will need to try out the ADM guidescope package, when I get an aluminum drill bit.

I can't wait to get started in this AP hobby and I can't wait to share it all with the community.

- Jeff

PS.. I received the download link with my Username and a password thats all ---------------------.  So I can't download it needless to say.  Do I have to highlight specific -'s to reveal the hidden password?