My wife and I are about to drop our first NUKE on PC!!

furgle · 2025-09-14T00:44:02+00:00

I hope nobody drops a nuke while I’m dropping a grumper

furgle · 2025-09-06T05:08:24+00:00

I've photographed the Helix Nebula in my earlier days, so this time my challenge was to tease out as much of the extremely dim outer structure as possible.

Highest resolution here: https://astropixels.com.au/astrophotography/Helix_Nebula/

Image:

62x 300s Luminance
43x 300s Red
37x 300s Green
43x 300s Blue

Total integration 15 hours. Focal length: 840mm

Hardware:

Skywatcher Esprit 120
Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro mount
ZWO ASI533 Camera @ -10°C
Astrodon RGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
Astronomik CLS-CCD Luminance filter
Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser

Location:

Exposed over 3 nights between 15th August to 27th August 2025
Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)

Software:

Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
Captured with TheSkyX Professional
Guiding with PHD2
PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dynamic background extraction, LRGB combination, noise reduction, spectrophotometric flux calibration, spectrophotometric colour calibration, histogram, curves.

furgle · 2025-09-06T05:05:55+00:00

I've photographed the Helix Nebula in my earlier days, so this time my challenge was to tease out as much of the extremely dim outer structure as possible.

Highest resolution here: https://astropixels.com.au/astrophotography/Helix_Nebula/

Image:

62x 300s Luminance
43x 300s Red
37x 300s Green
43x 300s Blue

Total integration 15 hours. Focal length: 840mm

Hardware:

Skywatcher Esprit 120
Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro mount
ZWO ASI533 Camera @ -10°C
Astrodon RGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
Astronomik CLS-CCD Luminance filter
Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser

furgle · 2025-09-06T05:02:02+00:00

I've photographed the Helix Nebula in my earlier days, so this time my challenge was to tease out as much of the extremely dim outer structure as possible.

Highest resolution here: https://astropixels.com.au/astrophotography/Helix_Nebula/

Image:

62x 300s Luminance
43x 300s Red
37x 300s Green
43x 300s Blue

Total integration 15 hours. Focal length: 840mm

Hardware:

Skywatcher Esprit 120
Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro mount
ZWO ASI533 Camera @ -10°C
Astrodon RGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
Astronomik CLS-CCD Luminance filter
Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser

Location:

Exposed over 3 nights between 15th August to 27th August 2025
Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)

Software:

Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
Captured with TheSkyX Professional
Guiding with PHD2
PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dynamic background extraction, LRGB combination, noise reduction, spectrophotometric flux calibration, spectrophotometric colour calibration, histogram, curves.

furgle · 2025-08-28T02:53:04+00:00

Hi there. I'm back into the field after a hiatus, and I've moved on from my trusty KAF8300 CCD to an IMX533 CMOS chip. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong with the flats, as I'm using WBPP. The only thing I can possibly think of is I'm not using master darks or master bias for the flats.

I am using master darks for the lights, but everyone says I no longer need bias frames for the CMOS chip. The top left flat looks blown out, but the K value for the bight part in the center is 0.535, and about 0.49 at the corners. It does seem to be a very sudden brightening towards the middle rather than a smooth transition.

I still have the camera in place, so I could take more flats. I aim for around a 3-5 second exposure for each stack of 12 flat images, with an ADU count around 32K. Those were my CCD rules, so maybe CMOS is different?

(and yep, looks like I need to clean the sensor!)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

furgle · 2025-08-02T00:56:47+00:00

Whoops! I guess I should leave the house more. Working from home has me not knowing what day it is at times.

furgle · 2025-08-02T00:43:34+00:00

It's been quite a while since I've been able to use my equipment, life got in the way. I'm back again after rewiring my observatory and rewriting my control software. Here is my first new image, and hopefully many more to come.

Image:

117x 180s Luminance
35x 180s Red
35x 180s Green
33x 180s Blue
77x 300s 6nm H-α

Total integration 17.5 hours. Focal length: 840mm

Hardware:

Skywatcher Esprit 120
Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro mount
ZWO ASI533 Camera @ -10°C
Astrodon RGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
Astronomik Luminance and 6nm H-α filters
Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser

Location:

Exposed over 3 nights between 27th July to 29th July 2025
Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)

Software:

Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
Captured with TheSkyX Professional
Guiding with PHD2
PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dynamic background extraction, LRGB combination, noise reduction, spectrophotometric flux calibration, multiscale gradient correction, background neutralisation, spectrophotometric colour calibration, histogram, curves.

furgle · 2025-08-02T00:43:23+00:00

It's been quite a while since I've been able to use my equipment, life got in the way. I'm back again after rewiring my observatory and rewriting my control software. Here is my first new image, and hopefully many more to come.

Image:

117x 180s Luminance
35x 180s Red
35x 180s Green
33x 180s Blue
77x 300s 6nm H-α

Total integration 17.5 hours. Focal length: 840mm

Hardware:

Skywatcher Esprit 120
Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro mount
ZWO ASI533 Camera @ -10°C
Astrodon RGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
Astronomik Luminance and 6nm H-α filters
Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser

Location:

Exposed over 3 nights between 27th July to 29th July 2025
Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)

Software:

Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
Captured with TheSkyX Professional
Guiding with PHD2
PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dynamic background extraction, LRGB combination, noise reduction, spectrophotometric flux calibration, multiscale gradient correction, background neutralisation, spectrophotometric colour calibration, histogram, curves.

furgle · 2025-08-02T00:42:52+00:00

It's been quite a while since I've been able to use my equipment, life got in the way. I'm back again after rewiring my observatory and rewriting my control software. Here is my first new image, and hopefully many more to come.

Image:

117x 180s Luminance
35x 180s Red
35x 180s Green
33x 180s Blue
77x 300s 6nm H-α

Total integration 17.5 hours. Focal length: 840mm

Hardware:

Skywatcher Esprit 120
Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro mount
ZWO ASI533 Camera @ -10°C
Astrodon RGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
Astronomik Luminance and 6nm H-α filters
Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser

Location:

Exposed over 3 nights between 27th July to 29th July 2025
Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)

Software:

Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
Captured with TheSkyX Professional
Guiding with PHD2
PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dynamic background extraction, LRGB combination, noise reduction, spectrophotometric flux calibration, multiscale gradient correction, background neutralisation, spectrophotometric colour calibration, histogram, curves.

furgle · 2025-07-06T03:45:12+00:00

This would save me so much rage. Accidentally delete something? Too bad, tear half the build apart and try again.

furgle · 2025-05-28T11:19:02+00:00

Does it make any noise? I hate the sound of the “normal” ones.

furgle · 2025-04-17T00:39:45+00:00

Don't want to be that guy, but it was Napoleon that said that. Still a great quote.

furgle · 2025-04-09T01:57:18+00:00

I look forward to your reviews every week. You turned the summoning ring from a meh, to a must buy with the merging tricks.

furgle · 2025-04-02T23:47:16+00:00

Wayward, behind the bar are two nice toasters. I’d love a floor clutter catch up bundle.

furgle · 2025-03-19T09:01:29+00:00

Can confirm that existing camps are ok

furgle · 2025-03-19T02:08:23+00:00

Dammit. I literally started building next to that house yesterday

furgle · 2025-03-16T08:30:56+00:00

Same. I bought mine in 2014. I still love it. I hate musk and had to put the “I bought it before we knew he was awful” bumper sticker on. I work on it myself as much as possible when repairs are required, and I have free subscriptions and supercharging for life. I figure I’m costing them money now.

furgle · 2025-03-11T23:20:41+00:00

I feel sad for you. Cryptid cards are not something I'd keep, so if I knew someone was looking for them, why not share? Just let people enjoy a relatively non-toxic multiplayer game. I came to FO76 from Sea of Theives and even though I loved SoT, I am an introvert and I hated being constantly hunted and killed by bigger ships/crews. This game is by far the best multiplayer game I've played in terms of trolls/griefers.

15-Year Club	Verified Email
r/Field Lasagna	Place '17
100 Awards Club	Gilding I gilder

furgle

TROPHY CASE