SharpCap Forums

An other cool clear Friday night in NE Georgia, USA. This was a really windy outing. During the day we had sustained 20+ MPH winds with gusts in the mid 30s. During the imaging session wind was 10 MPH or less with some gusts in the 20s but the mount and PHD2 were able to compensate.

With the windy conditions I wasn't expecting very much so slewed to a big bright object, M42, that would fill the frame. Initial capture looked promising so continued to capture more of the edges then slewed to the running man to with plenty of frame overlap.

The images were all live stacked then edited in Photoshop for crop, additional white balance, tweaking the stretch and adjusting levels to attempt to get the background close for all the panels. Panels then combined in Microsoft Image Composite Editor.

Captured live on NSN. Even made a quick mosaic with the images as they were saved from live stacking. Amazing what a good CMOS astronomy camera and SharpCap can do!

Equipment:
RC 6 with Astro-Physics CCDT67 reducer. This steps down from f/9 1370 mm to f/6.7 1032 mm
IDAS D1 LPS filter
ZWO ASI294 MC Pro -10c
exposures 15 seconds at 300 gain 10 brightness 2 panels M42 / M43
exposures 30 seconds at 300 gain 10 brightness NGC 1977
Using master flat and dark
SharpCap v3.2.6232 64 Bit Live Stacking
iOptron CEM60 mount
Stellarvue 50mm Guide Scope with ZWO ASI290 MM guide camera + PHD2


Thanks, Chris

M42 M43 NGC1977 3 panel mosaic by Black Wikkett, on Flickr
NGC1977 PS Edit Stack_72frames_2160s_WithDisplayStretch by Black Wikkett, on Flickr
M42 P2 PS Edit Stack_66frames_990s_WithDisplayStretch by Black Wikkett, on Flickr
M42 P1 PS Edit Stack_61frames_915s_WithDisplayStretch by Black Wikkett, on Flickr

Chris

Good effort in windy conditions. A clever bit of processing to enable seem-less stitching of the 15s and 30s stacks.

Dave

Thanks Dave. Captured while broadcasting to NSN and then took the raw images from SC live stack and show everyone one how to use Microsoft ICE (image composite editor) Many were blown away how easy this process was and the results produced.

-Chris

A brave man indeed Chris. ICE is stunningly simple, my most ambitious a 16-panel lunar image
https://www.astrobin.com/full/343145/B/ ... page=3&nc=

Dave

Nice image Chris of Orion and Dave nice lunar image, I have a plan to have ago at a mosaic of the Markarian's Chain area if we ever see the sky again and get more than one clear night.

Cheers
Nick

Thanks Nick

All though I've not used it in my latest mosaics since i used my MK 1 eyeball. EQMOSAIC worked well for me in the past. It's a little finicky but once get a the hang of it works well. I used it to move the mount with the correct overlap then plate solved to confirm.

Here's the link to their page. http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/mosaic/

-Chris

Hi Chris,
I have moved away from EQMOD and now use GSS to control the mount but will just use Stellarium to set the overlaps up as I intend to do it using just the flattener rather than putting in the reducer to get more detail in the objects as it then gives me 1 arc second per pixel although it is only about 1.3 per pixel with the reducer in.

Cheers
Nick

Nick,
EQMOSAIC is totally separate from EQMOD. It's a stand alone app. I use it with my iOptron mount and Stellarium. I believe it's made by the same group that created EQMOD. Hence the name and interface similarities.

-Chris

Chris,
Nice! Any chance there's recording of that night's broadcast that I can access? I'm interested in learning more about making simple mosaics.
Don

donstim wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:40 pm Chris,
Nice! Any chance there's recording of that night's broadcast that I can access? I'm interested in learning more about making simple mosaics.
Don

Sorry no these broadcasts are not recorded. If you're ever on my broadcast I'll be happy to show you how I make them. Just ask on voice or in the chat. I've been asked a few times to make tutorial videos but usually just show folks over at NSN how I go about it. If the demand is there I can attempt to make a video.
-Chris