7 replies to this topic

[rjkrejci]

I had upgraded to a Full Frame camera with the intent to sell my APSC one.   Well, one thing let to another...
 
I noticed the APSC field of view with the WO Redcat 91 was similar to the Full Frame field of view with the Askar APO 140 x0.8.   Both have awesome optics, so even the WO Redcat can resolve a great deal in good seeing.    Knowing that color information requires less resolution than Luminance, I set up a side-by-side setup with the Cat91/ASI2600 taking RGB images and the APO 140/Player One Zeuss Full Frame taking Luminance.    I also put them both to work during a moon-filled day last week to take Ha images on both scopes overnight.   The result was I was able to capture over 24 hours worth of data over only 2 nights!
 
Setting up NINA to do simultaneous imaging was pretty straightforward with the Synchronize plug-in, especially since I've been imaging unguided.  Mainly just used Synchronized Dithers.   And they both kept in sync all night.
 
Pixinsight was surprising in how seamlessly it handled data at different scaling and resolutions.    I just loaded up all the Biases, Flats and Lights from both scopes/cameras, manually defined the  reference image to be a sharp frame from the Full Frame/API 140 data set and let-er rip, including a 2x Drizzle.   It re-sized the Cat/APSC images to match the APO/FF ones and everything went through without an issue, including autocrop.    The only thing I ran into was that the 2 scopes had slightly different distortions causing stars to mis-align in various parts of the frame.  I used PI's StarAlignment tool with Two-dimensional Surface Splines and aligned/registered the masters from the Cat to the Luminange master from the APO and everything then went together seamlessly.
 
I plan on staying dual with many targets.  In fact, I can step to wider field with the Cat91 Full Frame and SQA55 APSC in dual in a similar way
 
Here's a zoomed in version

 
And here's a link to the wide field on Astrobin, showing some IFN in the area as well.

[alvarete]

Wonderfull

[pyrasanth]

I had upgraded to a Full Frame camera with the intent to sell my APSC one.   Well, one thing let to another...
 
I noticed the APSC field of view with the WO Redcat 91 was similar to the Full Frame field of view with the Askar APO 140 x0.8.   Both have awesome optics, so even the WO Redcat can resolve a great deal in good seeing.    Knowing that color information requires less resolution than Luminance, I set up a side-by-side setup with the Cat91/ASI2600 taking RGB images and the APO 140/Player One Zeuss Full Frame taking Luminance.    I also put them both to work during a moon-filled day last week to take Ha images on both scopes overnight.   The result was I was able to capture over 24 hours worth of data over only 2 nights!
 
Setting up NINA to do simultaneous imaging was pretty straightforward with the Synchronize plug-in, especially since I've been imaging unguided.  Mainly just used Synchronized Dithers.   And they both kept in sync all night.
 
Pixinsight was surprising in how seamlessly it handled data at different scaling and resolutions.    I just loaded up all the Biases, Flats and Lights from both scopes/cameras, manually defined the  reference image to be a sharp frame from the Full Frame/API 140 data set and let-er rip, including a 2x Drizzle.   It re-sized the Cat/APSC images to match the APO/FF ones and everything went through without an issue, including autocrop.    The only thing I ran into was that the 2 scopes had slightly different distortions causing stars to mis-align in various parts of the frame.  I used PI's StarAlignment tool with Two-dimensional Surface Splines and aligned/registered the masters from the Cat to the Luminange master from the APO and everything then went together seamlessly.
 
I plan on staying dual with many targets.  In fact, I can step to wider field with the Cat91 Full Frame and SQA55 APSC in dual in a similar way
 
Here's a zoomed in version
M51_proc1 zoom_small.jpg
 
And here's a link to the wide field on Astrobin, showing some IFN in the area as well.

A great image. I've adopted this practice using the RASA 11 and the Altair 115 APO on different mounts. The RASA takes the OSC data and the refractor the L data but I sometimes do the reverse. I have a rotator on the Altair to align the sub frames between the 2 systems.

[rjkrejci]

A great image. I've adopted this practice using the RASA 11 and the Altair 115 APO on different mounts. The RASA takes the OSC data and the refractor the L data but I sometimes do the reverse. I have a rotator on the Altair to align the sub frames between the 2 systems.

Nice!   I guess it was a pleasant surprise to me that Pixinsight was so good at integrating different focal lengths and camera resolutions.    I have one rotator and another on the way, so I should be able to change targets in the middle of the night and get the rotation aligned.
 

[Pompey Monkey]

That's lovely!

I also appreciate the very modest noise reduction in the background. It looks very natural

[rjkrejci]

That's lovely!

I also appreciate the very modest noise reduction in the background. It looks very natural

Thanks!  I'm a junkie for the super dim stars and galaxies and find too much noise reduction wipes them out.   Same with removing and replacing stars with SXT where you can loose the very small dim stars.   I mainly just used curves in Photoshop to bring out the dim stuff and not blowing out the bright areas.   Minimal masking.

[Pompey Monkey]

Thanks!  I'm a junkie for the super dim stars and galaxies and find too much noise reduction wipes them out.   Same with removing and replacing stars with SXT where you can loose the very small dim stars.   I mainly just used curves in Photoshop to bring out the dim stuff and not blowing out the bright areas.   Minimal masking.

M51 is the sideshow.

[Mert]

That's a wonderful image, very good processing!