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Carina
Apr 26, 2017 13:08:30 GMT
Post by howie1 on Apr 26, 2017 13:08:30 GMT
Mucked about last night up here in dark skies about 1km from town of Clermont in central Queensland Australia. I am going to try guiding while up here but last night there were clouds coming from the East ... so picked a clear target and simply mucked about unguided. Here's three shots of Carina. The first was iso400 single 90 seconds and then the second is iso800 single 90 seconds and last one iso800 single 60 secs. Skywatcher 200p f/5 newt, HEQ5 PRO with Rowan belt drive, modded Canon 650d, bootcamped macbook 13", Canon EOS Utilities and AstroToaster. Saved from Toaster as tifs and converted to jpg in order to load into the forum. I can't tell that much difference between the two iso800 ones. Matter of fact perhaps I stretched the 60 sec one slightly ore than the 90 sec one. The iso400 one didnt amplify as much so may be slightly less noisy (or am I just imagining that) but has less nebulosity cloudiness. Interesting.
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Carina
Apr 26, 2017 14:10:20 GMT
Post by Dragon Man on Apr 26, 2017 14:10:20 GMT
Good work Howie. I have them all open at the same time and flicking between them all, and my favourite is the last one: 800s 60x1. It looks cleaner, the nebula looks better, and the stars seems more realistic. Also I think the contrast is better
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Carina
Apr 26, 2017 18:00:27 GMT
Post by Rick in NWArk on Apr 26, 2017 18:00:27 GMT
I have to agree with Ken, but they are all excellent.
The area around that town looks like it gets very enviable dark skies!
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Carina
Apr 26, 2017 19:11:58 GMT
Post by fondofchips on Apr 26, 2017 19:11:58 GMT
Nice pictures Howie.
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Carina
Apr 27, 2017 0:22:44 GMT
Post by ChrisV on Apr 27, 2017 0:22:44 GMT
Really nice Howie. I like the is0400. Nice detail and the background is really dark
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Carina
Apr 27, 2017 1:16:19 GMT
Post by howie1 on Apr 27, 2017 1:16:19 GMT
Thanks for comments guys. I was surprised 90 sec unguided worked so well! My PA must have been good. I have my SSAG and PHD2 ready to go for tonight. Yes Rick. Dark skies are far better than Brisbane where I live. But Clermont town is actually a green zone. The saving grace is that by 9pm most folk were turning off lights (being a small farming town)! By 10pm when I took those shots it was dark enough to look up to see that there were clouds around which later turned to rain. Three jpegs below are firstly the satellite shot as of 10:30am today showing the BIG cloud band which kinda ruined the astro the other night has moved offshore, and right now it looks like the small cover overhead today may be gone by tonight. Second one shows Clermonts location and darksitefinders categorisation of Clermont as a green zone. Third shows where I setup right on the concrete drive in the townhouse complex where I am staying.
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Carina
Apr 27, 2017 3:32:41 GMT
Post by ChrisV on Apr 27, 2017 3:32:41 GMT
Wow, that's way up Central QLD.
Your 90sec subs look really good. You can see the faintest of star oblonging (or whatever its called) which seems pretty damn good for a 1000mm focal length. I find if I'm really, really well polar aligned I can go to 2min, but that's at a focal length of under 500mm on my refractor.
I'm hopefully going up to the Blue Mountains this Saturday for a bit of dark site action, as Alex from IIS has organised a site up there. Trouble is, the weather looks a bit iffy, its a 2hr drive, and Sydney is playing in the football semifinal !
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Carina
Apr 27, 2017 5:49:11 GMT
Post by howie1 on Apr 27, 2017 5:49:11 GMT
It's always the way ... someone finds a dark skies site and either its full Moon, or cloudy, or one of the many sports we're all interested in has something going on. We really need davy's idea for a bunch of us to get fully remote operated observatories all round the globe so we can do EAA anytime. I'm all the way up Clermont and hasnt been a totally cloud free night yet. Those pesky clouds from the satellite this morning has gotten worse not better! Its nearly 4pm and about 70% cloud cover outside. Its high and thin but totally going to bugger up tonights activities unless some front blows through.
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Carina
Apr 27, 2017 7:05:00 GMT
Post by Dragon Man on Apr 27, 2017 7:05:00 GMT
I know exactly what you mean Howie. It's still raining down here! Forecast for the next 7 days is . . . you guessed it . . . rain
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Carina
Apr 27, 2017 7:28:49 GMT
via mobile
Post by davy on Apr 27, 2017 7:28:49 GMT
Great images Howie,, weather out my way seems to clear a bit during the week then weekend is a no go,,lots of cloud cover. Made a slow start to clearing junk out site for astronomy shed but as I say weather dependent,, there is a sale for a metal 8 x 6 shed but waste of time getting it just now till ground prepared. Astronomy live is close to beta testing if anyone interested ,, message sander. And remote viewing would be a step closer
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Posts: 0
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Carina
Apr 27, 2017 23:25:56 GMT
Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 23:25:56 GMT
Love those stars!!
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Post by howie1 on Apr 29, 2017 11:57:02 GMT
Took a short 4 min 35 sec desktop capture the other night showing capture and EAA live stretch done with Photo Gallery instead of Astrotoaster. Single ISO800 sixty second shot. The vid shows the slew to the target, and details for how I grabbed the shot using EOS Utilities, as well as the colour adjustments in detail. Once you get used to the workflow, you can do the whole thing in 90 secs or less. An interesting way to do EAA. Doesnt stack, but fine if you do single shots. May try it out when I start guiding doing longer single shots. Anyway, its posted up for those who are interested in adding another weapon to the arsenel for EAA ... EG use Toaster to save a stacked tif file, and then tweak a bit further with a few simple Photo Gallery adjustments. The denoise slider is particularly useful IMO.
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Carina
Apr 29, 2017 13:04:24 GMT
Post by ChrisV on Apr 29, 2017 13:04:24 GMT
Clouds have come over so watching your videos instead. Nice ! Do you reckon Photo Gallery does a nicer processing job than astrotoaster ?
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Carina
Apr 29, 2017 22:29:12 GMT
Post by howie1 on Apr 29, 2017 22:29:12 GMT
Undecided Chris ... Photo Gallery is simple to use and has the de-noiser. But doesn't stack. I think whether to use it or not might boil down to being just another tool to remember when doing outreach, or doing EAA and finding it tough to tweak the image in toaster? Dunno really I suppose? Will have to use it for a while to see.
The bright stuff I've used it on, it does a fantastic job though.
Cheers H
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