Introduction and Thank you!

[Dutchy]

Hi all,

My name is Bart, as the name states i'm Dutch. I have the pleasure to photograph the Dutch clouded area's
Since three months i am also addicted to PI and astronomy. For a few weeks i have been reading the forums and doing basically every tutorial on this forum.
Thank you for all the information on this board, the tutorials are crystal clear, however it is still hard to filter when to use what in the PI-desktop (not a program as respected Mr. Harry says ). Especially most of the data processed on this board is high signal to noise, and a given fact is that i am already glad when i can accumulate 1hr of clear skies in the Netherlands. I am a 36 year old ADHD dental professional and entrepreneur (without the money )

My background is Dental engineering and CAD-CAM dentistry, a bad marriage and a severe case of sleep deprivation let me wonder in the woods last year August/Sept. after a fight with the wife. Angry as I was I threw my 7D in the grass (chicken-shit as was to break it i still wanted to throw something ) after picking up the camera, i noticed i had taken a picture of the milky way..... And thus my adventure began.

In the months following it evolved in a addiction like no other, but i think you all know what i mean, looking at the weather forecasts, constantly looking up. (well at least i walk with my head up high ).

I have some good skills in PS, and some other pixel modifying (to quote the forum here) programs. When i ran into PI through a a relationship of mine. I started using it last December and bought the commercial license.

Now after a lot of trial and error I collected the guts to post an image, i will include the original image as well, and i hope i could get some advice.
Since i come from a DSLR direction i choose for an APO, opposed to the other types of telescopes.

My current (second hand) set-up is

Hardware:

Celestron GCEM Mount

imaging:
W/O Megrez 72ED APO Doublet
Canon 7D for imaging, stripped from its IR-cut filter replaced by a Baader-clear filter
W/O Flatfieldner-reducer 0.7x
Lumicor Deepsky filter

guidescope:
Celestron-cheepo something refractor
Atik-16IC

I guide through Carte DU ciel with PHD, through either the ST4 port or the RS232 port on the  hand control of my mount.
I use the standard Canon software to capture in Bulb mode.

I used DSS, PS and some other little enhancement programs.
These are the first pictures i completely did with PI, from start to finish.

Please feel free to comment, i am not content with the images yet. But the detail fetishist i am will have to deal for now with this, because i think with my current knowledge and data sets acquired this is close to the max achievable.

The first one is a picture of M42:

10x 60sec iso 200 10x dark 21x flat 21xbias
8x 120sec iso 200
10x 90sec iso 400
4x 300sec iso 200
NOTE: i noticed i changed color of two trapezium stars in the core, normally i would alter this in PS.

The second picture is of NGC 2246 the Rosette Nebula.

10x 300sec subs 10x dark 21xflat 21xbias

The process i followed is:
step 1:BatchPP,
step2:BN-CBR-ABE-DBE-PSF-Deconvolution

followed by random
ATW-ACDR-ATW-HT-SNCR-HDWR

I ended with dark structure enhancement and back ground enhancement.


Thank you for reading my post.
Sincerely,

Bart Verdonk

M42 download link M42
https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/26274b02215e2bea57d6ce5f3f8da57f20130326115514/cccb2707fbc661da68d84d471a0c60ce20130326115514/aee60f

NCG 2246 downloadlink
https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/b3f304a35487a6b5c25d8aa7dfd9cdb120130326122643/6923c4

[Dutchy]

To bad i really had hoped with some of "the force" of you almighty PI-masters. But still not to late feel free tom comment .
In the meanwhile i didnt sit still, since PI is more addictive as crack-cocaine i am hooked now too.

This is my improvement on M42.
(note a couple of stars have an over saturated core, i will fix this in PS.)

Please comment on my question above, i choose this software not because it was easy, but because of its renowned backing force on the forum, and the close contact with the developers/creators.

Thanks,

Bart

[Peter]

Hi Duchy, see from the date of this post no one has welcomed you to the forum, so after such a long time let me be the first to welcome you and compliment you on the images. I also live in a cloudy area of North West England which is an area of which I am not proud of, of standing as the wettest part of Europe. It's world famous for its dampness and I believe even the SBIG camera manufacturers are aware of the problems we have. Apparently their circuit boards need replacing at least every 12 months because of our climate. Anyway, welcome and glad you came to this wonderful hobby despite the tortuous route 

[Harry page]

Hi

Sorry for not seeing this when posted , Hope you have moved on in your learning 

and I hope you are enjoying Pixinsight

regard's

Harry