Ultimate space simulation software

 
A-L-E-X
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11 Jan 2021 23:00

It's amazing Mid!  How close to the ground do you estimate it got before evaporating (or maybe some small pieces may have made it to the ground)?
I think this one gave meteorites on the ground.  So far it looks like dark flight began pretty much straight over an infrasound station (one of two in Norway).  An analysis of the videos gave me a point just 3 km away.  Now, that wont happen again in several centuries.
infrasound station....now that's interesting!  what kind of research do they do there, Mid?
 
vlad01
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12 Jan 2021 01:05

Just did a crash course on Pixinsight and managed to finally get an image.

Much better SNR using that compared to DSS. I did a little editing to boost the colours and contrast but tried to keep it more natural compared to the above pic which was done in DSS.

Neb1.PNG
Vlad, there are a couple of other programs I'd like for you to try and let me know which one you like more (they are all free),  Besides DSS, check out Sequator and SiRiL.
I like Sequator for high SNR also, but DSS is unbeatable for removing hot pixels when you dont take dark frames (which I dont.)  SiRiL is supposed to be the best (for freeware anyway) but it has so many options I haven't started tackling it yet.  

Vlad are you using TEC (thermo electric cooling)?
Yes the camera has built in TEC cooler.

Pixinsight resulted in several times at least better SNR that I could ever achieve in DSS.  PI is a very complex but powerful bit of software, well worth it.

We did another session but this time we did 4 min exposures but unfortunately high level cloud ruined 10 out of the 20 exposures.  Still I managed to get something nice out of the 10, still double the exposure of the 2 min ones the first night using the new camera. We also did 10 dark frames.

Also I nailed the focus, so good I was getting low 3s for the HFR on the center stars and the main star's diffraction spikes is now infinite in length.


What we want to improve is obviously more exposures but also get a field flattener and also take some flat exposures to help get rid of the vignetting.

Any site I can chuck up the TIFF file for this?  resizing a tiny PNG just doesn't do this image justice.
Neb2.PNG
 
A-L-E-X
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Astrophotography

12 Jan 2021 01:17

Check out Astrobin!  I've been uploading images there, it says it takes TIFF
 
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midtskogen
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12 Jan 2021 07:53

infrasound station....now that's interesting!  what kind of research do they do there, Mid?
I think the main objective with infrasound stations (I think there are two in Norway) is to be part of a global network of stations that monitor the nuclear test ban treaty.  However, the data collected might have other uses, like for meteors, and possibly also atmospheric modelling.
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
 
vlad01
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13 Jan 2021 22:11

I reprocessed the same lot of images again in Pixinsight but a completely different way based on another tutorial I found and it got rid of the fogginess in the middle from the vignetting effect.

Much better but it's more apparent it needs much more light and dark frames as the fog was sort of covering up the lack of usable data.

Still it's great to be able to improve on what I already got.
neb3.jpg
 
A-L-E-X
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14 Jan 2021 01:00

Vlad I think there's a way to eliminate hot pixels without having to take darks.  You should have that option in PI.....I used it in DSS and it was effective in removing them.
 
vlad01
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14 Jan 2021 01:26

I don't have any hot pixels though, barely have any in the raw files as it's a cooled camera.  I need more data to fill in the missing pixels, hence why it's still grainy.  10 lights is not enough, need about 30-40 I reckon, or more would be even better.  The darks and bias help improve the SNR.

But I think a field flattener is more important at this stage than spending heaps of time on a compromised optical train.



I just checked a bunch of darks, no pixel is the same, the noise is random between each frame so I don't see any hot pixels.  Only thing I see the same between each darks is the horizontal banding.   I did see a few streaks in some, assuming background radiation? 
 
A-L-E-X
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15 Jan 2021 23:50

field flattener.....you mean something like my f6.3 Celestron reducer/corrector?  This works well with my SCT, you should look into obtaining one.

I get some little streaks in mine also, was thinking it was cosmic rays lol.
 
vlad01
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16 Jan 2021 06:07

Yes, corrector. Celestron ones are cheaper but don't fit the skywatcher ones, they are unfortunately a few 100 more in price.

Could be anything, cosmic rays, natural radioactive isotopes in the air or the materials in the camera itself or the nearby parts of the telescope.

I tried this once with an old phone camera and a alpha source and there was speckles and streaks all over the live video when placing the source on the camera.   CCD/CMOS sensors make great radiation detectors.
 
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17 Jan 2021 01:25

 
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19 Jan 2021 02:52

Yes, corrector. Celestron ones are cheaper but don't fit the skywatcher ones, they are unfortunately a few 100 more in price.

Could be anything, cosmic rays, natural radioactive isotopes in the air or the materials in the camera itself or the nearby parts of the telescope.

I tried this once with an old phone camera and a alpha source and there was speckles and streaks all over the live video when placing the source on the camera.   CCD/CMOS sensors make great radiation detectors.
Hey Vlad could you try Sequator for me and see how it compares to PI?  I actually like Sequator a lot more than DSS, it's much quicker in processing files and has a nice star enhance feature!
 
vlad01
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23 Jan 2021 21:27

Yet again clouds ruined the night, only 7 lights on this one but the pic still turned out ok. The moon was out too.  Also we discovered the security camera IR lights were right on the scope and the dark frames turned out like garbage as the IR was somehow getting through the tube cover, so I reused the darks from a previous session which happen to have the exact same settings and temp.

Still not bad for all the setbacks.
neb6.JPG
 
vlad01
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25 Jan 2021 06:27

Friend took 18 lights at 4 min of Thor's Helmet.  So I gave a shot at processing it.   So many stars! over 5000 of them were detected by PI.

neb7.JPG
 
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midtskogen
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26 Jan 2021 06:12

[youtube]mpVakcIaNHY[/youtube]
A nice display of aurora from one of our meteor cameras last night.  True speed.
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vlad01
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17 Mar 2021 20:41

I think this one is good enough for my liking and I shall call it done.   86 pics at 2 min each, 20 darks at 2 min, all cooled to -15c and we also got a coma corrector so the image improved dramatically,  HFRs from high 5s to low 3s.

Also nice seeing how the rejection works in pixinsight. Fair few satellites on there.
86x2.JPG
rejection.JPG

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