SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I'm pretty limited in what I can do with this, as you can see in my jpeg.
So if anybody would like to do some stretching and bending, I'd appreciate your help.

I decided to try going long again last night, and chose Andromeda as it seemed to be favorably deep in the North-East sky.
I've finally got Sharpcap working to get excellent Polar Alignment, and after building a model (Losmandy speak for an Alignment) I come in very close to a bullseye with Stellarium.
Anyhow, I decided to suck the light out of Andromeda to get some of the rust off after the events of the past month or so.

First, the longest tiff file. Then my meager attempts to draw it out.
I think there is a lot more than I'm drawing out.

Andromeda Galaxy 1800 10s 18,000 seconds

(Download)

My meager attempts. jpeg

(Download)

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi Sonny
I stretched the image a bit and you can see more dust lanes however it looks like there is a dust spot causing a dark circle and some noise on the top and bottom of the frame. A flat field should help remove the dark circle created by the dust and some dark frames could also help with the noise at the top and bottom. In any case see what you think of the stretched image.

(Download)

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Looks good.
That dust spot has been bugging me for a while. Guess I need to dismantle things and do some light housecleaning.
Since I'm getting into this pretty far now, I suppose I need to see about some processing programs. Adobe Elements 12 isn't going to cut the mustard anymore. It was OK back when I was 12....
Normally I've been cropping away the noise, but it's getting pretty embarrassing now.

I do like being able to do these long runs now.

Thanks Ballard!

Marc G Loc: East Grinstead, West Sussex, England

Nice image Sonny, great to see you out under the stars again :)
Good processing by Ballard too.

You most definitely have a dust mode somewhere in the optical train, most likely on the sensor.
From experience i have found cleaning sensors a right royal pain in the butt lol
Mine & millions of others prefer the method of shooting flats.
Flats not only rid dust modes but general help with overall flattness across the whole image.
Flats are relatively easy too
A simple tablet (IPad / galaxy tab) set to white screen placed over the OTA
Adjust exposure so histo is 40-50%
Fire off as many subs as you like.
Dark flats are also really helpful when it comes to noise & amp glow.
same method as above but with OTA hood on.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi Sonny
I hope your wife is doing well after the hip replacement surgery, I saw your post in the Elephant trunk Nebula discussion.

For some simple image stretching Deep Sky Stacker works well, is free and easy to use, I recommend this if you haven't tried it yet. Pixinsight is a great program, with all sorts of fantastic features for deep sky processing. I used it for my comet pictures, it allowed me to subtract out the comet from the stars and then to stack the comet and stars separately, then recombine the stacked stars and comet so both the comet and the stars had no trailing. The down sides of pixinsight are that it cost a fair amount (I actually ended up spending a lot more on PC upgrades to get it to work well than the program itself) and it has a fairly steep learning curve but well worth it if you have the time.

comet image using Pixinsight features
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-656332-1.html

I used deep sky stacker for this image of the North American Nebula
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-599872-1.html

Then later reprocessed it with the Pixinsight.
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-620263-1.html

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Gloriosky!

So tonight is supposed to be a poopy sky.
So I brought in the HD tripod, and set my Chunks together with the intention of getting to the bottom of my dirty laundry.
I removed my Infinity camera and Lo and Behold, there upon the glass covering the sensor was a few spectacles of doo-dah happily nested. Tiny little turds of dust (or something).
I grabbed the canned air and blasted those little boogers outta there. Pristine again!
Then I went over my filter wheel and spruced it up, too.

Of course finding out if I actually got the little boogers will have to wait. But anything visible is too much.
I'm glad I >might< have fixed it.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Good to see you out and about! Your stars look great, looks like you are getting things nailed down.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Long time, no hear.
Hope you are getting around better.

I added binoculars to the tools, and today a parallelogram showed up.
I'm always getting into trouble...

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Yes getting better, thx.

Have you had the chance to use the parallelogram? Was wondering how well they worked. Using binoculars are so hard on the neck.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Yes, a bit yesterday afternoon. But my skies were not friendly last night, hit and miss it seems.
I was trying it out and saw some big guy running a distant ridge near me. But didn't do any night viewing.
I got it to do some casual observing when the telescope is busy on a subject. But of course, the new gear curse just had to show up on the same day....

It's a tiny bit tight from being brand new. But working well.
Heavy, 53 pounds shipping weight. So I handful to move around, but not too bad. Feels and works substantially.
You can sit in a chair, snuggle in on a subject, and study it without holding, or touching the heavy binoculars.
Many recommend a zero gravity chair. Of course, I threw one out a short time ago.

But that's why I headed this way. Busy up the imaging rig, then go looking around. And to share, if anybody wants to take a gander.
When we go to the Colorado River, I can try viewing some terrestrial heavenly bodies, too.
Betty sez the day I stop lookin is the day she'll start worrying.
But it's a quick way to get a view of the galaxies and planets. My telescope is better for the DSO I intended it for. Not solar system objects.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣