Search found 132 matches

by mark.m
Wed Feb 28, 2024 9:54 am
Forum: Galileo's Gabfest
Topic: Ioptron good service
Replies: 2
Views: 29858

Re: Ioptron good service

It's always great to hear about success stories like this. I've personally had wonderful experiences with the mount manufacturer 10Micron. I sent them a description of an intermittent startup problem with my mount on a Friday afternoon, and by Monday afternoon they had released a new firmware versio...
by mark.m
Mon Feb 26, 2024 3:24 pm
Forum: The Imager's Studio
Topic: IC 361 Open Cluster
Replies: 4
Views: 42926

Re: IC 361 Open Cluster

I had a recent experience with cables that froze. Literally. I had purchased some inexpensive USB cables on Amazon, and when the temperature went down into the teens the cheap insulation became brittle and started flaking off whenever I slewed the telescope, causing the cables to flex. Lesson learne...
by mark.m
Sun Feb 25, 2024 7:05 pm
Forum: The Imager's Studio
Topic: NGC7000 new proccesing versions
Replies: 4
Views: 42982

Re: NGC7000 new proccesing versions

I like both of them! I'm a "star guy" and like anything with lots of stars. How do you combine the Ha with the traditional RGB images? Do you map the Ha to a red color (as the eye would see it), or do you use one of the "wonky" palettes like Hubble uses? (I think they often map H...
by mark.m
Sun Jan 14, 2024 8:43 pm
Forum: Galileo's Gabfest
Topic: A Method of Categorizing Double Stars
Replies: 4
Views: 43482

Re: A Method of Categorizing Double Stars

Tony: Fascinating! Your selection criteria sorts stars into three "candidate" categories. Is there a way to promote a star from "candidate" status to "confirmed"? (For example, if a pair has been observed through half a complete orbit, it should be possible to promote i...
by mark.m
Thu Jan 04, 2024 10:59 am
Forum: The Imager's Studio
Topic: IC 342
Replies: 3
Views: 23874

Re: IC 342

Pete: Nice job on a really challenging target... Your experience with moonlight and other sky background glow is strongly confirming my own experience that getting good flats can be really hard. Further, it's difficult to "debug" the process of making and applying flats, so that when the r...
by mark.m
Tue Jan 02, 2024 2:59 pm
Forum: Galileo's Gabfest
Topic: Happy New Year
Replies: 2
Views: 29697

Re: Happy New Year

Mike:
That's a great list! Thanks for posting.
- Mark
by mark.m
Sun Dec 31, 2023 6:55 pm
Forum: Galileo's Gabfest
Topic: Happy New Year
Replies: 2
Views: 29697

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, everybody!

May we enjoy clear, steady skies this year.
May climate change bring us cloudless nights, instead of fog and drizzle.
May the wildfires be small, smokeless affairs this year.
And may we all enjoy perfect skies for the upcoming eclipse...

Happy holidays!
- Mark
by mark.m
Fri Dec 22, 2023 7:53 pm
Forum: The Imager's Studio
Topic: IC 1318 - Skunked Again
Replies: 2
Views: 3411

Re: IC 1318 - Skunked Again

Pete: I'm confused by the rotation thing. In both the first image and in the rotated image, the corner that has the high background light level is the corner of the image with the bright star. So, in terms of the sky, it's the same part of the sky, not the same part of the camera? When you rotated t...
by mark.m
Tue Dec 19, 2023 4:19 pm
Forum: The Imager's Studio
Topic: M 31
Replies: 2
Views: 15388

Re: M 31

Pete:
That's a great image! There's a lot more structure visible than in your old image. The color balance is also better. It's interesting how your attention to stray light is improving these images...

- Mark
by mark.m
Thu Dec 07, 2023 8:17 pm
Forum: The Imager's Studio
Topic: Analysis of imaging by moonlight
Replies: 2
Views: 2225

Re: Analysis of imaging by moonlight

Pete: At the AAVSO annual meeting last month, Dr. Arne Henden and I got into a discussion about the complexities of flat field images. By the end of that conversation, we both agreed that analysis of what's going on in a flat was beyond the capability of either of us. That says a lot about the chall...