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Geof Lewis
A belated Happy New Year to everyone.
I've had a good start to the year, bagging a couple of targets, one new to me and one that I haven't imaged since my urban light polluted DSLR days several years ago, before I relocated to my current much more rural location
I realise that since Mike Unsold stopped developing and supporting ImagesPlus that it probably has has a dwindling customer base, so I thought I share these recent (2022) images in part to show what can still be done with it. Certainly, as discussed on another thread the camera control software, IPCC, is now very long in the tooth and won't support many of the more recent Canon and Nikon DSLR, but the IP astrophotography processing suite itself has rich functionality and is still very capable, provided that you are able to capture, or convert images to a readable FIT, or uncompressed TIFF format. For what is now a 'free to download' product, IMHO it is an excellent offering.
The first image is an HaRGB image of Sh2-173 (Phantom of the Opera Nebula) in Cassiopeia. The image comprises just under 5hrs Ha, together with just over 1hr each RGB, captured with my QSI583wsg-5 mono CCD camera, through my 4" TSAPO100Q, over a couple on nights in the first week of the New Year.
The 2nd image, captured over 2 nights last week, is my first return to IC405 (Flaming Star Nebula) in Auriga for several years. It's a tight squeeze in the FOV of my 4" APO/QSI rig, so I concentrated on the business end of the nebula, losing some of the nebula's tail. This is also an HaRGB image with a similar amount of RGB data as Sh2-173 and just over 3hrs Ha, using the same rig as for Sh2-173.
Both images were almost exclusively processed using Images Plus, with IP's Feature Mask tool employed for split star and nebula processing. I opted to retain most of the busy star fields, with very litte star reduction, as I like what the rich, colourful star fields bring to the images overall, something which I recognise can be a matter of personal preference.
Thanks for looking, I hope that you enjoy them. Critique/comments always welcome.
Best regards,
Geof
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Happy New to you also. ever
I don't encourage DSLR's for astro imaging anymore after Canon screwed me out of a 5D.
Joe
On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 10:42 AM Geof Lewis < geoflewis@...> wrote: A belated Happy New Year to everyone.
I've had a good start to the year, bagging a couple of targets, one new to me and one that I haven't imaged since my urban light polluted DSLR days several years ago, before I relocated to my current much more rural location
I realise that since Mike Unsold stopped developing and supporting ImagesPlus that it probably has has a dwindling customer base, so I thought I share these recent (2022) images in part to show what can still be done with it. Certainly, as discussed on another thread the camera control software, IPCC, is now very long in the tooth and won't support many of the more recent Canon and Nikon DSLR, but the IP astrophotography processing suite itself has rich functionality and is still very capable, provided that you are able to capture, or convert images to a readable FIT, or uncompressed TIFF format. For what is now a 'free to download' product, IMHO it is an excellent offering.
The first image is an HaRGB image of Sh2-173 (Phantom of the Opera Nebula) in Cassiopeia. The image comprises just under 5hrs Ha, together with just over 1hr each RGB, captured with my QSI583wsg-5 mono CCD camera, through my 4" TSAPO100Q, over a couple on nights in the first week of the New Year.
The 2nd image, captured over 2 nights last week, is my first return to IC405 (Flaming Star Nebula) in Auriga for several years. It's a tight squeeze in the FOV of my 4" APO/QSI rig, so I concentrated on the business end of the nebula, losing some of the nebula's tail. This is also an HaRGB image with a similar amount of RGB data as Sh2-173 and just over 3hrs Ha, using the same rig as for Sh2-173.
Both images were almost exclusively processed using Images Plus, with IP's Feature Mask tool employed for split star and nebula processing. I opted to retain most of the busy star fields, with very litte star reduction, as I like what the rich, colourful star fields bring to the images overall, something which I recognise can be a matter of personal preference.
Thanks for looking, I hope that you enjoy them. Critique/comments always welcome.
Best regards,
Geof
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Geof Lewis
Thanks Joe,
I rarely use a DSLR for astro, but it does come in handy for very wide field of view targets, when I'm using a 35mm lens on my grab and go Star Adventurer mount. I then capture to the camera's SD card using an intervalometer rather than using dedicated capture
software. I also found that IPCC no longer controlled my Nikon camera under Win10.....
Cheers,
Geof
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: ImagesPlus@groups.io <ImagesPlus@groups.io> on behalf of Joseph Rome <romejoseph9@...>
Sent: 10 January 2022 17:29
To: ImagesPlus@groups.io <ImagesPlus@groups.io>
Subject: Re: [ImagesPlus] A good start to 2022....
Happy New to you also. ever
I don't encourage DSLR's for astro imaging anymore after Canon screwed me out of a 5D.
Joe
On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 10:42 AM Geof Lewis < geoflewis@...> wrote:
A belated Happy New Year to everyone.
I've had a good start to the year, bagging a couple of targets, one new to me and one that I haven't imaged since my urban light polluted DSLR days several years ago, before I relocated to my current much more rural location
I realise that since Mike Unsold stopped developing and supporting ImagesPlus that it probably has has a dwindling customer base, so I thought I share these recent (2022) images in part to show what can still be done with it. Certainly, as discussed on another
thread the camera control software, IPCC, is now very long in the tooth and won't support many of the more recent Canon and Nikon DSLR, but the IP astrophotography processing suite itself has rich functionality and is still very capable, provided that you
are able to capture, or convert images to a readable FIT, or uncompressed TIFF format. For what is now a 'free to download' product, IMHO it is an excellent offering.
The first image is an HaRGB image of Sh2-173 (Phantom of the Opera Nebula) in
Cassiopeia. The image comprises just under 5hrs Ha, together with just over 1hr each RGB, captured with my QSI583wsg-5 mono CCD camera, through my 4" TSAPO100Q, over a couple on nights in the first week of the New Year.
The 2nd image, captured over 2 nights last week, is my first return to IC405 (Flaming Star Nebula) in Auriga for several years. It's a tight squeeze in the FOV of my 4" APO/QSI rig, so I concentrated on the business end of the nebula, losing some of the
nebula's tail. This is also an HaRGB image with a similar amount of RGB data as Sh2-173 and just over 3hrs Ha, using the same rig as for Sh2-173.
Both images were almost exclusively processed using Images Plus, with IP's Feature Mask tool employed for split star and nebula processing. I opted to retain most of the busy star fields, with very litte star reduction, as I like what the rich, colourful
star fields bring to the images overall, something which I recognise can be a matter of personal preference.
Thanks for looking, I hope that you enjoy them. Critique/comments always welcome.
Best regards,
Geof
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Both images are really good, Geof. I continue to use IP imaging process and camera control, but supplement it with both an older Photoshop and more recently with Topaz Denise AI. Still using a Canon 60Da.
Chuck Sterling
A belated Happy New Year to everyone.
I've had a good start to the year, bagging a couple of targets, one new to me and one that I haven't imaged since my urban light polluted DSLR days several years ago, before I relocated to my current much more rural location
I realise that since Mike Unsold stopped developing and supporting ImagesPlus that it probably has has a dwindling customer base, so I thought I share these recent (2022) images in part to show what can still be done with it. Certainly, as discussed on another thread the camera control software, IPCC, is now very long in the tooth and won't support many of the more recent Canon and Nikon DSLR, but the IP astrophotography processing suite itself has rich functionality and is still very capable, provided that you are able to capture, or convert images to a readable FIT, or uncompressed TIFF format. For what is now a 'free to download' product, IMHO it is an excellent offering.
The first image is an HaRGB image of Sh2-173 (Phantom of the Opera Nebula) in Cassiopeia. The image comprises just under 5hrs Ha, together with just over 1hr each RGB, captured with my QSI583wsg-5 mono CCD camera, through my 4" TSAPO100Q, over a couple on nights in the first week of the New Year.
The 2nd image, captured over 2 nights last week, is my first return to IC405 (Flaming Star Nebula) in Auriga for several years. It's a tight squeeze in the FOV of my 4" APO/QSI rig, so I concentrated on the business end of the nebula, losing some of the nebula's tail. This is also an HaRGB image with a similar amount of RGB data as Sh2-173 and just over 3hrs Ha, using the same rig as for Sh2-173.
Both images were almost exclusively processed using Images Plus, with IP's Feature Mask tool employed for split star and nebula processing. I opted to retain most of the busy star fields, with very litte star reduction, as I like what the rich, colourful star fields bring to the images overall, something which I recognise can be a matter of personal preference.
Thanks for looking, I hope that you enjoy them. Critique/comments always welcome.
Best regards,
Geof
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Geof Lewis
Hi Chuck,
I appreciate the generous feedback, thank you.
I too use an old CS2 version of PS for some post processing tweaks, though increasingly I've moved over to Affinity Photo, which has richer toolset than CS2, whilst still allowing me to use some old favourite plugins, e.g. GradX, HLVG, plus the more recent
release by Russel Croman of StarX plugin for star removal, though I still mainly use the Feature Mask tool for this, as I did with both these images. I also use Topaz Denoise for some of my processing, but find that it requires a really gentle touch, or it
can quickly ruin an image.
IPCC was an excellent tool, but I stopped using it mainly because it lacked the functionality of SGP for observatory control, plate solving, etc., which made capture sequences much easier to automate.
Best regards,
Geof
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: ImagesPlus@groups.io <ImagesPlus@groups.io> on behalf of Chuck Sterling <csterlin88001@...>
Sent: 10 January 2022 23:27
To: ImagesPlus@groups.io <ImagesPlus@groups.io>
Subject: Re: [ImagesPlus] A good start to 2022....
Both images are really good, Geof.
I continue to use IP imaging process and camera control, but supplement it with both an older Photoshop and more recently with Topaz Denise AI. Still using a Canon 60Da.
Chuck Sterling
A belated Happy New Year to everyone.
I've had a good start to the year, bagging a couple of targets, one new to me and one that I haven't imaged since my urban light polluted DSLR days several years ago, before I relocated to my current much more rural location
I realise that since Mike Unsold stopped developing and supporting ImagesPlus that it probably has has a dwindling customer base, so I thought I share these recent (2022) images in part to show what can still be done with it. Certainly, as discussed on another
thread the camera control software, IPCC, is now very long in the tooth and won't support many of the more recent Canon and Nikon DSLR, but the IP astrophotography processing suite itself has rich functionality and is still very capable, provided that you
are able to capture, or convert images to a readable FIT, or uncompressed TIFF format. For what is now a 'free to download' product, IMHO it is an excellent offering.
The first image is an HaRGB image of Sh2-173 (Phantom of the Opera Nebula) in
Cassiopeia. The image comprises just under 5hrs Ha, together with just over 1hr each RGB, captured with my QSI583wsg-5 mono CCD camera, through my 4" TSAPO100Q, over a couple on nights in the first week of the New Year.
The 2nd image, captured over 2 nights last week, is my first return to IC405 (Flaming Star Nebula) in Auriga for several years. It's a tight squeeze in the FOV of my 4" APO/QSI rig, so I concentrated on the business end of the nebula, losing some of the
nebula's tail. This is also an HaRGB image with a similar amount of RGB data as Sh2-173 and just over 3hrs Ha, using the same rig as for Sh2-173.
Both images were almost exclusively processed using Images Plus, with IP's Feature Mask tool employed for split star and nebula processing. I opted to retain most of the busy star fields, with very litte star reduction, as I like what the rich, colourful
star fields bring to the images overall, something which I recognise can be a matter of personal preference.
Thanks for looking, I hope that you enjoy them. Critique/comments always welcome.
Best regards,
Geof
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