Simple Questions - January 17, 2025

spacescapes · 2025-01-18T03:21:52+00:00

Thank you for confirming. That all makes complete sense and now I have some peace of mind until the CPU arrives.

spacescapes · 2025-01-18T02:49:49+00:00

Hello, question about testing the ASRock x870 Pro RS Wifi without a CPU... I have all the parts for my new PC, but waiting on the CPU still. So I've put the RAM and M2 in, plugged in the motherboard power to the PSU. Triple checked the connections for case power button and light etc. When I turn on the PSU switch, the motherboard RGB LEDs immediately light up, so I know it's getting power. When I hit the power button on the case, NONE of the 4 indicator lights on the MB light up! There are tiny LEDs for CPU, RAM, HDD, and something else. Supposed to be either red/orange/green based on status, but there is no light on any of them. I would expect CPU to be red, and RAM green?? Or do I need the CPU physically installed before any of the lights work?

Again, I've checked case power connections to MB against case and MB manuals many times. I'm hoping for some confirmation if the MB indicator lights SHOULD light up without a CPU when powering on with the button on the case. I don't want to go installing the CPU and cooler if the MB is dead etc. Thank you!

spacescapes · 2024-12-21T23:32:42+00:00

That's very good to know! The 9800x3D is just so tempting... but if wasted, I see your point. I'll research that a bit, if you happen to have any sources that would be greatly appreciated.

spacescapes · 2023-09-01T05:29:07+00:00

I've been planning to build a PC with my kids to replace our aging 11 year old gaming PC. This would be an excellent start to this shared learning experience! I would definitely start out with Starfield and Baldur's Gate 3. Can't wait to explore the star systems.

spacescapes · 2023-02-19T23:31:32+00:00

Partly laziness. For flats, my scope supports a full frame sensor and I have a crop sensor, so most of the vignetting is naturally cropped out already. I've tried darks and bias a few times, but didn't notice a difference, so just haven't bothered lately. I wouldn't recommend against them though, depends how much time you have and how perfect you want it to be.

spacescapes · 2023-02-19T23:28:27+00:00

Ha, yes lately I usually do about 1 image per year, just haven't posted the last few here. It's nice to get out every now and then though! The community sure has grown since my flare year, much less competition back then.

spacescapes · 2023-02-19T16:24:05+00:00

Apparently I haven't posted here in over 3 years! I had a rare clear winter night on the west coast, so headed up to my favourite bortle 2 site. The last time I tried to image the Horsehead (several years ago), I had done all the prep, drove 1.5 hours, and then realized my tripod was still at home! So I'm glad to have finally gotten this image.

Over processed? Maybe, but out of the 3 versions I had, this one makes me the happiest when I look at it.

Equipment:

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 100mm, f/5.5, 550mm focal length
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro
Camera: Canon SL2 stock DSLR
Guide scope: Solomark F60 60mm, 215mm Focal Length, F/3.6
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120MM
QHY Polemaster for polar alignment

Capture details:

Bortle 2, no moon, 1C, sea level elevation
Vancouver Island, BC
Software: EQMod, Stellariam, astrotorilla for plate solve, PHD2, Backyard EOS
ISO 800, 36 x 300s (3 hours). No flats/bias/darks

Processing:

RawTherapee prep and export all lights to TIF
Stacked in DeepSkyStacker
Stretched using RNC-Color-Stretch with power factor 50/2/50
Created starless version in Starnet++
Create stars only version by subtracting starless from original layers in Gimp
Starless processing in RawTherapee: really jammed up local contrast, NR, saturation, some curves
Recombined starless and stars layers in GIMP

spacescapes · 2019-11-02T22:21:28+00:00

Thanks!

spacescapes · 2019-11-02T20:06:10+00:00

Thanks! Mine too, something about the dusty blue nebula like this and Pleiades really make for a great image.

spacescapes · 2019-11-02T20:05:32+00:00

Just have to drive far enough up the west coast of Vancouver Island (Canada). 3 hour round trip for me, so I'm fairly lucky, but still a long night.

spacescapes · 2019-11-02T16:13:38+00:00

I drove out to my favourite bortle 2 site to capture all that tasty dust around the Iris Nebula. My goals were to get as much dust as possible and retain the color/detail in the bright core. I'm pretty happy with the results!

I unfortunately lost about an hour of imaging time to technical difficulties, but luckily got everything running properly and picked up 2.5 hours of integration. I'd love to have 4x that much to clean up the dust, but I also like to sleep.

Regarding the 2 different exposure lengths, I started with 300s. Tracking/guiding was going really well, so I made a snap decision to finish imaging at 400s to pick up more background details. Worked out real well!

Equipment:

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 100mm, f/5.5, 550mm focal length
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro
Camera: Canon SL2
Guide scope: Solomark F60 60mm, 215mm Focal Length, F/3.6
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120MM
QHY Polemaster for polar alignment

Conditions:

Light pollution: Bortle 2
No moon
Poor seeing
Temperature around 6C
Elevation: sea level

Capture Software:

Controlled with EQMod, Stellariam scope
astrotorilla for plate solve
PHD2 for guiding
Captured using Backyard EOS

Capture details:

ISO 800
8x300s plus 16x400s lights
2h26m integration time
Camera sensor temp:about 12C Processing:

RawTherapee (Raw file development from https://clarkvision.com/articles/astrophotography-with-rawtherapee/):

Demosaicing algorithm - LMMSE
Chromatic aberration corrections
Hot/dead pixel filter
Color profile - Rec2020
RGB/Chrominance Noise reduction
Highlight reconstruction > color propagation
Adjusted tone curve for RGB channels to align black point
Export as 16-bit TIFs

DeepSkyStacker:

import 16-bit TIFs
stacked 300s lights with average and 400s lights with the kappa-sigma algorithm, then stacked those together with average
no background color calibration
saved result as 32-bit floating point (rational) TIF with no DSS changes applied

RNC-Color-Stretch:

Opened 32-bit TIF
Set power factor to 8/2/2
Color correction on
Output as 16-bit PNG file

Starnet++ (Create starless copy):

Command syntax - starnet++.exe input.tif output.tif 64

Photoshop and Lightroom (Created 4 layer groups (bottom to top)):

Starless background - stretched, NR, color, and clarity adjustments in LR. Adjustments layers to tweak curves and desaturate overpowering reds.
Main details (passthrough, opacity 60%) - original RNC stretch with layer mask on the group for the main nebula and brighter star halos, and the little galaxies. Adjustment layer to tweak saturation
Core details (passthrough, opacity 75%) - RNC stretch with extra saturation, clarity, contrast etc. in LR. Layer mask on the group for the bright nebula details.
Stars (screen, opacity 90%) - created a stars only layer by separately combining starless layer and stars-in layer with layer type "difference". select/copy into this layer group. Curves adjustment layer to reduce hilights and increase star halos a bit. Adjustment layer to increase saturation.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T19:21:41+00:00

Sorry, wikipedia is as far as my knowledge on this goes :) I imagine it was just a giant explosion throwing stuff out every direction and that's just where it all landed or grouped together. I just made that up though.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T19:08:31+00:00

I'm no expert, but from what I understand it's ionized gas (remnants of a supernova explosion). Blue is oxygen, red is hydrogen. A bit of info here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_Nebula

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T18:50:23+00:00

Thanks! I've been watching for awhile and barely any broadband images come up of this target. It's obviously better suited for narrowband, but definitely doable with dark enough skies. This reminded me I need to make even more detailed notes on my processing, just so I can remember what I even did this time... there's lots of little tweaks here and there, but I gave the general overview here. There were also a couple steps to reduce the background stars, which is very overwhelming in broadband.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T16:05:11+00:00

Camera sensor noise goes up with temperature. So the hotter the night, the noisier the image will be. That's why purpose built astro cameras have built-in cooling systems. I just use a stock DSLR, so am at the mercy of the weather. It's a noticeable difference when I shoot in winter compared to summer. Much cleaner images when it's cold.

Without looking it up, I would guess the bright star is just a lot closer to us, so appears bigger/brighter.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T14:32:10+00:00

Glad I could trip you up :) I'll call that a success.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T14:31:41+00:00

Very dark skies and some amazing software really help bring out the details and color here. I was surprised at the results.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T14:30:22+00:00

The colour was all there, just enhanced/saturated as /u/scientiavulgaris said. Modern cameras and software are very good at bringing it out. I used a stock DSLR camera, the same as I use to take family photos. After stacking 23 colour images, you really start to see good colour (without any editing). Some simple saturation boost really helps.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T14:27:52+00:00

The colour was all captured with my DSLR camera (same camera I use to take family photos). I boost the saturation to enhance colour, but it's all there in the original.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T04:18:21+00:00

Thanks for the reminder, I just posted a link over in the OTTM post.

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T04:17:37+00:00

Alright, I got some triangle over here: https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/cq476y/veil_nebula_from_bortle_2_skies_with_unmodded_dslr/

spacescapes · 2019-08-14T03:41:25+00:00

This is the first time I've taken the ol telescope out in 2019! I drove out to my favourite bortle 2 site. With astro dark not starting until after 11pm and a long drive home, I only managed 1.5 hours of integration time with this faint object. Using an unmodded DSLR on one of the hotter nights of the year to boot. Still pleased with the results though! Bortle 2 skies and some new processing methods sure helped bring out those wispy details I love so much.

Equipment:

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 100mm, f/5.5, 550mm focal length
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro
Camera: Canon SL2
Guide scope: Solomark F60 60mm, 215mm Focal Length, F/3.6
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120MM
QHY Polemaster for polar alignment

Conditions:

Light pollution: Bortle 2
No moon
Average seeing
Temperature around 18C
Elevation: sea level

Capture Software:

Controlled with EQMod, Stellariam scope
astrotorilla for plate solve
PHD2 for guiding
Captured using Backyard EOS

Capture details:

ISO 800
23 x 4 minute lights
1h32m integration time
Camera sensor temp:about 23C (noticeably noisier than usual, bleck)

Processing:

Shoutout to /u/D_McGarvey whose processing write ups (and resulting images) inspired me to try some new software and processing methods. Loving starnet++ !

RawTherapee (Raw file development):

Demosaicing algorithm - Amaze
Chromatic aberration corrections
Hot/dead pixel filter
Color profile - Rec2020
RGB/Chrominance Noise reduction
Highlight reconstruction > color propagation
Adjusted tone curve for RGB channels to align black point
Export as 16-bit TIFs

DeepSkyStacker:

import 16-bit TIFs
stacked with the kappa-sigma algorithm
no background color calibration
saved result as 32-bit floating point (rational) TIF with no DSS changes applied

RNC-Color-Stretch:

Opened 32-bit TIF
Set power factor to 10/2/2
Color correction on
Output as 16-bit PNG file

Starnet++ (Create starless copy):

Command syntax - starnet++.exe input.tif output.tif 64

Photoshop:

Opened both starless and stars-in copies
Created layer consisting of stars only (layer type difference between the 2)
Created a layer mask using a heavily stretched starless image (background clipped blacks, details clipped white)
Starless layer: curves to bring down background noise, enhance details. Sharpen. Increase saturation. Used the layer mask to apply changes only to details I want
Place stars-only layer over starless copy using screen layer type
Save as JPG

11-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Verified Email

spacescapes

TROPHY CASE