Another Soul - badly framed

[fmeireso]

Since The Soul seems popular these days here is an impression.

Sadly it is badly framed. I am having issues with APT and stretching the image. Even subs of 3 minutes do not let show much..
I consider this still a test of the color astro cam. I could not see the Soul but assumed somehow according to some stars i had to turn 90 degrees my cam. For whatever reason i did not got that far, and i thought i only had half of the object . This conclusion only came when i had over an hour of data..I let it be, because weather prediction only gave 2 hours of clear night. It was wrong...when i stopped at 01:00 hr it still was crystal clear..

This is a HOO rendering. Splitted the channels manually and processed. Only 2:48 hr of data with the ASKAR FRA 500. This is only dualband data, no pure color stack available. But i wanted some OIII blue in the image...

Still all things considered a promising picturre. But i will have to redo the whole thing. At least now i can orient the object on the stars in the image. Still have to figure out how to proceed in APT. This is a problem i did not encounter whith my DSLR, strangely

SoulGimp2STGimp3_2 (Large).jpg (416.2 KiB) Viewed 15139 times

[decay]

I think this already came out nice, taking into account it’s been only about three hours of light!

Too bad that framing went wrong Do you use plate solving with APT? I switched from APT to KStars / EKOS with my new mount so I don’t know how it works with APT. If the center of the solved target does not meet my needs I would try to solve a suitable star as center of the frame. As for rotation I have marked my camera/field flattener and the focuser with a permanent marker for 0 degrees and 90 degrees. In Stellarium I configured my sensor and scope parameters and so I can preview the framing. 0 and 90 degrees (roughly) has been sufficient for me so far. AFAIK only NINA supports rotation for framing.

I’m not sure, what do you mean with “Splitted the channels manually and processed.”? Processed with ST only or beforehand like discussed in Ron’s three-image-thread? If ST only, there’s no need to split them manually, I guess … Have you followed Ron’s thread and Stefan’s Heart&Soul thread? Maybe you can participate for the processing of your own data of this target? I have to admit, some of the discussed things are over my head and sometimes I even do not understand the problem

Best regards, Dietmar.

[fmeireso]

Thanks Dietmar,

Yes i use plate solving, and you would expect the object would be centered , would'nt you? Well i did not. but The soul has multiple references. IC 1848, Sharpless 2-199, Westerhout 5 ...

I noticed in CDC using Ic 1848 which is actually more the cluster in the nebulae , it does not centered the nebulae. However using Sharpless 2-199 does the thrick, well that is in CDC, but not in APT.

But the real trouble was i just could not see it, not even stretched a 3 minutes subs...so i got confused, and desoriented, i only rotated my camera because i assumed the object stood out verticaly not horizontaly. And left it as it was, since i only expected hardly 2 hours of clear sky. Afterwards i noticed i had more Soul then expected and the nigth stayed clear also...

Another Belgian user pointed out afterwards there is a stretch factor you can set in APT, a value between 0 and 1. Default is 0,15. I noticed that a 0,4 i got some results so this will be for next time to test out. If you can see it then you can set your centerpoint as you want it to be in APT and the mount will sync to those coordinates.

But yes, for only 2:48 hours i got quite some nebulosity, surprisingly...

[fmeireso]

I’m not sure, what do you mean with “Splitted the channels manually and processed.”? Processed with ST only or beforehand like discussed in Ron’s three-image-thread? If ST only, there’s no need to split them manually, I guess … Have you followed Ron’s thread and Stefan’s Heart&Soul thread? Maybe you can participate for the processing of your own data of this target? I have to admit, some of the discussed things are over my head and sometimes I even do not understand the problem

Best regards, Dietmar.

Well is just made 2 files for HOO, a red one and a blue/green one. You can do this in ST allthough i know in the compose there is bicolor mode. If it does exactly thesame i really don't know, i tried it and got not the result i wanted so i tried the 'old fashion' way as Ivo told me once long time ago in a much older version of ST.

[fmeireso]

And for me also, many things are over my head...lately i tried a couple of things in PI...it just did not work out. Too complicated, or it needs at least way more time to study. I am not always prepared to do this..

Still i am learning step by step,and well it is a hobby...there is nothing that 'MUST' be done...

But for me processing remains the biggest challenge, it is not easy.

[dx_ron]

That really is nice, even if not quite all of the Soul made it into the picture. I'd be really interested in hearing more about how you did the processing, because I have never been able to get ST to produce those nice blues with my duoband data.

As for framing - can you input a target just as RA/Dec coordinates? That is usually how I do it in Ekos for frame-filling targets, rather than trusting that Ekos and I agree on where is the center of a designated object. I frame as I want it in Stellarium and write down the coordinates (just make sure both Stellarium and your telescope are using the same epoch - I made the mistake of mixing JNow and J2000 before, and was mighty confused about why my images didn't have the target).

For rotation, when APT plate-solves does it report the Position Angle? (for Dietmar - Ekos does report that in the Align tab)

[fmeireso]

Yes i can input the coordinates manualy in APT, allthough with plate solving this seems really absolete. About reporting the angle...i don't really now. It always shows a circle with an arrow in it. I just checked, but the arrow is 90° degrees off according the object in the image..
Strange the arrow icon is not explained in the APT manual...

As for the HOO blue/red. Well, i admit , i can't get it out of Startools either. I process HOO and then afterwards i manipulate the colors in GIMP. Playing around with them i am able to pull some blue out..at least in this case as the Soul afaik contains quite alot of OIII. It must be in the picture cause i seem able to pull blue out well there where some blue is...that is really all i can say about it.
Below another exemple, allthough i find the blue/red a bit unnatural but this is just an exemple. I start in Startools by making a red ha channel tif file and a blue/green channel tif file. In compose i load then the ha red in the red channel of course and the green/blue tiff file both in green and blue channel.

SoulGimpST2 (Large).jpg (498.94 KiB) Viewed 15048 times

[decay]

For rotation, when APT plate-solves does it report the Position Angle? (for Dietmar - Ekos does report that in the Align tab)

Thanks for pointing out, Ron!

[decay]

But the real trouble was i just could not see it, not even stretched a 3 minutes subs...so i got confused, and desoriented, i only rotated my camera because i assumed the object stood out verticaly not horizontaly. And left it as it was, since i only expected hardly 2 hours of clear sky. Afterwards i noticed i had more Soul then expected and the nigth stayed clear also...

Oh yes, Freddy, I know that feeling just to well. Being tired, it's dark and often cold outside and sometimes too much all at once. Only practice can help to mitigate this. But I'm sure it will and next time this problem is history for you.

[decay]

But for me processing remains the biggest challenge, it is not easy.

Using ST this should not be the case IMHO. I would suggest to use the documented basic workflows, and most times it will turn out fine. (No special pre- or postprocessing etc..) (Yes, this object may be special because of the distribution of Ha/OIII which may lead to an unappealing appearance with default processing. But it already looks nice, doesn't it?) In case of problems people here will always help. If you don't want to share your data sets in public, you of course can share and ask someone via PM ...