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Old December 20th 09, 12:10 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Anthony Ayiomamitis[_1_]
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Default An Incredibly Rich Star Field in Canis Major

On 19 Δεκ, 19:48, Davoud wrote:
Anthony Ayiomamitis:

Can I trouble you for your thoughts on the Starfish? I am looking for
a guider and I would love to get your thoughts. Other options include
Lodestar, LVI as well as standard webcams.


I love it! I have the uncooled version because I'm not interested in
using it for anything but guiding. It has great sensitivity and it
offers guiding that is about as simple as auto-guiding can be. Mac OS
or Windows, just connect the camera to USB and to the mount's guider
port. Use PHD. Calibration is unbelievably quick and easy. For the
first time since I have been imaging auto-guiding is a rather trivial
matter for me.

The area is indeed quite rich and which is obvious with your result.
There is a tint of blue in the central portion - is this due to
reflection nebulosity or due to a lack of flats?


Lack of flats. In lieu of flats I used the Dynamic Background
Extraction routine in Pixinsight. The dark blue did not escape my
notice, but it didn't bother me, either. I figured that only the creme
de la creme of astrophotographers would be likely to notice and I was
right :-)

Davoud

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm


David,

Thanks for the feedback. I will check it out. My interest is also
strictly for guiding and nothing else. I considered getting a cheap
ST-7 but the weight may lead to flexure and in contrast to other
solutions which are much lighter. I hope the Starfish allows for guide
exposures around 4-5 seconds so that one does chase the seeing.

With respect to your result, check out the colour balance in Photoshop
and especially the first option for shadows and by slightly reducing
the blue and being careful not to clip the histograms. You may also
need an ever slight adjustment for the midtones (blue once again).
Finally, make sure the box for "Preserve Luminosity" is checked off.

Anthony.