SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Wanted to hang this here to show a friend online.
Narrowband filters HA7nm, SII, OIII, Dark, and Bias frames used.
No processing other than to crop.

As always, feel free to download and process if you'd like. Just a jpg file.

(Download)

BassmanBruce Loc: Middle of the Mitten

Wow, very nicely done.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Thank You, Bruce!

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Exactly the view I'd like to see through an eyepiece. Now I don't have to drag out my telescope.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Nicely done! Waiting for the color version...

bwa

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Thank You!
I did crop it slightly, but nothing else. As imaged and then stacked HA7nm, SII, OIII, Darks and Bias.
Put it together and that's what I got, Bibitty, Bobity, Boo.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Me too. But not holding my breath.
Haven't figured that part out yet.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Nice capture of the Wizard nebula. Are you going to combine the narrow band shots using the Hubble pallet?

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I'd like to but haven't gotten there yet.
I guess I'm going to be forced to buy a program to make my red, green, and blue images series' colored.
I am enjoying the narrow band images (HA, SII, OIII) I'm getting, although monaural B&W and Grey scale. I like how fine the detail is.
I've considered going back to a Color camera, like I used to use. But haven't.
If I get any interference like planes or Musk Trains, I delete those images before stacking.

I have my hardware performing great now. And NINA running the entire operation with me just watching. I choose an area, or a star in an area that is central to what I'd like to capture, and bring is coordinates into NINA's sequencer as my target. Save it as what it is and kick it off.
Last night my meridian flip failed, but when I went out to see what was going on my sky had turned to glowing fog due to the light pollution I have. So I parked the telescope and put everything away.
Sigh! There will be better nights.

But my present stumbling block is how to insert the color channels. And I think my programs I'm using are my problem. Got to bite the bullet and get modern.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

If you stack each filter as a separate B&W image you can combine them with freeware programs like GIMP
https://remoteastrophotography.com/2020/03/using-gimp-to-combine-three-mono-images-into-one-rgb
I tried it and it seems a bit awkward since you have open each file as a layer and then colorize each one and before blending them but it works. (Note: you can adjust the intensity for each color and its brightness but make sure that the bright areas are not to bright when colorizing or you get a lot of white in the image once you blend the layers). I think picture window pro version 7 is free now that they have version 8 out and I found it much easier to use for combining 3 B&W images to make a color image as you don't need to first colorize them with the Transformation->Gray->Combine_Channels tool. I like the pixinsight method best as it allows you to play pick a luminance layer (but it cost money).
I recently gave a talk to the "Nevada County Astronomers club" on using a monochromatic astro camera over zoom and it was recorded and can be watched on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3dQhwbVjEQ

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Thank You Ballard! I'm watching the Youtube and trying to digest it.

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

Sonny , looking good how long are you taking your narrowband? I found through trial and error that atmospheric conditions play a big part in how far I can take the subs and each channel is different. I can't catch a break , I have a bone spur on my right leg that has been causing me severe pain and I can't put any wait on my leg .

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi SonnyE
If you have any questions let me know. I did fumble a few of my sentences while giving the talk.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I'm sorry to hear about your bone spur(s) holding you back. I know the pain, I had a bone spur in a shoulder once. Very painful when it would hang up. Now it is Arthritis, but Turmeric has helped a lot with that.
My bone spur finally wore down to the point it isn't debilitating like it was. It still is there, just not the sharp agonizing pop it once was.

I'm currently doing 300 second (5 minute) subs for each channel (HA7nm, SII, OIII), 30 second DARKS, and .001 second BIAS'. And all at 20 images per filter. A random number that has worked.
When I bought my ASI 1600MM I got the Pro model which came with the EFW (Electronic Filter Wheel), a set of filters, LRGB, HA7nm, SII, OIII. My hope was that by getting the set all at once, they might be better matched for focus. And when I tested them they are so close there is no appreciable difference (or offset). (About 7 points from the lowest to the highest. Scores: 905 to 911)
Still, I have my NINA set to refocus every time it changes a filter, and also after each dither (currently dither after 5 images). So it runs a HDR refocus every 5 images.
When I was starting out, I was running my dithers at every 3 images. But it was wasting time, in my opinion, doing too many functions per filter. So I moved my dithering out to 5 images I'm using now.

Why? A legitimate question!

Basically, because I am a very visual learner. If I can't see a result, I work towards getting something I can see.
I use, and have used, Stellarium as my planetary program to decide on an object to image. I was delighted when I learned I could find a star or object in Stellarium, then bring that object or star into NINA as the pinpoint for NINA to solve for. So far it has been pretty amazing to me. Because I go into the Imaging part of NINA and then I can zoom in or out on the current image it has taken. (My visual needs fulfilled.) The better I can see it, the better I can tell if I'm going in the right direction or not. Or if I've overshot my hopeful result.
This same self-taught method applies to to the LRGB filters. But generally they don't offer anywhere near the clarity or definition the Narrowband filters do.

In fact, of all 7 filters, the HA7nm offers the best definition. Craig Fair helped me to learn about the HA7nm filter way back when I was struggling with my Orion camera, which turned out to be horrible. But the HA7nm is a king of filters to bring out reds and sharp images, in my experiences.

I guess my desire to "get it right in the camera", combined with "if I can't see it, I need to tweak it", is what steers me along even still.
Back when I was struggling with everything, and with my first and sub-standard equipment, I had to find ways to make things work. Guiding was one of the early goals, and long exposures were the only way to get something I could see with my crappy camera. But those trials taught me more than I ever knew at the time.

When my friend loaned me an Infinity OSC camera, I got instantly good pictures. Because my guiding was nailed, and my Polar Alignment was better than I thought. But I didn't know because my Orion camera was so poor.
When I finally decided to get the ASI 1600MM, I expected to set myself back because I would have to figure out how to colorize the LRGB images.
But it still eludes me how to flip that switch and get the coloring.

But I'm watching Ballard's talk and think I will find what it is I'm missing. I'm so close, but will find that switch to see a color appear soon.
The narrowband images tell me I have the ducks in a row. I just have to herd them through the channel and colors will magically appear.
It's like a foreign language. I have to take the instruction, and turn it into what I'm working with. It can't be that hard. But I can be that dumb.

OK, back to the struggle.

I hope you can get back out there soon.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I'm finding multiple places I will fine tune my madness with this method.
I didn't realize I should do my adjustment frames (Darks, Bias, Flats) with the certian filters. My "shortcuts" are most likely stumbling blocks.
It's a great video.
I vill be boch. Got errands to do.