WOW that's a STUNNING image! Care to share more info about it? How many subs of what length and filter (I suppose Ha and OIII and possibly SII as well judging by the colour palette). How did you process it?


Thanks, Wouter

thanks - looking
24 HA - 34 OIII and 31 SII ZWO NB filters.
scope is ES 6" APO cf with OAG and lodestar as guide camera.
Camera was 1600mm (old one). I'm NEW to this (started in May 2017) but I'm a retired studio owner/photographer.
All subs were 300 seconds. I think these were 139 again
combined in PI. I'm not much for including flats or darks - I rarely do. Let me go look. brb
no I don't think I used any. I shot about 50 subs each, but deleted those that weren't up to spec.

Process is align in PI then I typically use the easy "batch" preprocess script. After a combine, I do a histo transform and curves. Save as .tif
I then bring it into my old friend photoshop for color adjustments, levels sharpening. This is my fav shot (also my last shot) before the clouds
covered me up here in Michigan.

I have horrible skies - (orange/red) so NB is the norm here. I did do a M42 recently with a one shot color. But has to be moonless.

my other shots: www.flickr.com/photos/158199519@N08/
My old studio work www.houseofphotography.com

WOW
I am also a latecomer to this field, had my trusty TAL200K for years, but only in retirement I find the time to finally play...

can Lightroom or PS-Elements do what your trusty old friend PS does? it seems that the learning curve for Raspberry Pi and EKOS and Platesoleve and PI and such is plenty steep, and the PS interface never came easy to me...

great shot, wonderful focus and what is the left of your screenshots showing?

Nice observatory that you have there, and especially beautiful pictures of these deep sky nebulae and galaxies.

Mike
Yes I always had much interest. Never time until I retired from work - then retired from racing catamarans.
Yes LR and ELEMENTS can - because I don't do complex things in pshop. I do basic things which are covered in all the utilities. Typically color balance and I do like SELECTIVE COLOR
it lets you pick "a color" and adjust the values of just that color. Like to pull cyan out of whites - select white and reduce cyan (or magenta). depending on need.
Background red/muddy? select blacks and reduce red.
Of course I had to use PS in my studio work once everything went digital. So I have a good gasp on the basic necessities. (being an artist helps too).

left screenshot? You mean in the dome? On left is a IP power hub. I can turn on or off anything in the dome via IP address to the hub. (from anywhere in teh world).
Then I have two power supplies. One set to 12v for accessories and cameras. The other at 15v for the Mount. And to the left of that is a mesh router. I want to see the lights/connections
from the camera because I operate only remotely. (I don't ever shoot from in the dome). RARELY.
At present I'm trying to convert to Linux and INDI (both new to me) I've had some stuggles but now all is fairly good - EXCEPT I can't grasp the floating com ports
or how to make them static. So sometimes everything connects, other times mount won't connect. I don't know how many com ports I have? or how to address them in linux.
I had hobby scopes as a teen, I had a 8" meade LX200 in my 30's. RARELY USED was film back then and I never really got alignment. Though the one time I guessed at it. I was shocked
then the ring nebula appeared in center of my view. I did mostly visual. NOW I do only imagining. I've never had a eye piece in any of the scopes I've owned in the last 3 years.

Use the INdI serial port manager to sort your floating COM ports...simples..

funny how the same nutcases aggregate in this hobby. I am a sailor but I never liked the self righting ability of a turtled cat. I still have and rebuilt and sail a Vancouver25, sturdy displacement type. maybe you also flew at one time?

Thanks for the LR/PS hints. just downloaded affinity photo and seem to like it better than PS. likely will keep LR as catalog and quick-fixer ...

Screenshorts: (just left it misspelled, thought it was that spell checker did not complain about that) I was talking about the computer screens you showed, figured it out, the weather station! sweet...

I have the Raspberry Pi "Astroberry" running my equipment, and I am actually surprised how smooth that goes. Retina iMac does a good job and I don't need to worry about floating COM ports. not ready (yet) to run a session when I am not right there, but also running everything from inside...

I certainly will continue to check you site out...

Thanks

Michael

ASTROED
"Use the INdI serial port manager to sort your floating COM ports...simples.. "

I've clicked on it many times and NOTHING = (

I then saw it used on a video on the stellarmate. I wondered if I had to purchase the stellarmate SD card to get that function?

There is no self righting (or is that the joke?) I worked my way through the ranks, H16, 18 18SX (17 was in there too) then a couple Tigers - then I went C-class - then foiling A-class then found it was lonely being solo and sold out. About 15 years total.
If my wife would have enjoyed it - I'd still be doing it.

Flew what? cats? foils yes - planes? well sort of. A friend is a pilot in Seattle and he's let me fly his plane all over that area. I say I'm a armchair pilot. I use to have a really nice simulator here at home with all the levers and switches... I like to reinvent myself every 10 years or so.
LOTS of scuba diving as well (serious deep wreck stuff, filming etc). Played guitars until my memory turned to mush. = ( Owned operated a photo studio for 30 years. Retired with my wife at 50. Now I play.

No the button in Ekos does not work yet...
Hmmm, maybe it’s just SM then, if so I did not know that..
stellarmate.com/support.html?view=kb&kbartid=3