u/Dull-Bat8117

This is the picture taken with my new ToupTek ATR533C. So far, I am really happy with that camera. I have only used a stock DSLR before, so the upgrade was drastic. I wanted to do 300s exposures, but it was almost full moon so I decided to do 180s ones instead. Right now, I am happy that I did that, because probably I did my polar alignment inaccurately and even on the 180s exposures I can see star trails. The original picture was Ha dominant so I decided to try to process it in false color.

This was my first time trying to process something in false color and I think it turned out beatufully. I am still learning so any advice is appreciated.

Equipment:

• ToupTek ATR533C (gain 101, offset 40, cooled to -10)
• Askar FMA180 Pro
• iOptron skyguider pro
• sv220 7nm Ha OIII dual narrowband filter
• ToupTek GPM462M guide camera
• SvBony 30mm f/4 guide scope
• Mele Quieter 4C

Acquisition:

• 60 x 180s lights
• 50 darks
• 50 flats
• 50 dark flats
• Bortle 5, almost full moon

Software:

• NINA
• PHD2
• Siril

Processing in Siril:

• Stacked in Sirilic which created monochromatic images of Ha and OIII
• Processed Ha and OIII separately using Graxpert background extraction and Cosmic clarity sharpening
• Pixel math to create one colorful image (R=Ha, G=0.6Ha+0.4OIII, B=OIII)
• Starnet star removal
• Modified arcsinh transform with even weighted luminance
• Generalised hyperbolic transform
• Black point to reduce background
• Syqon prism denoising
• Star recomposition

This is the first light of my new ToupTek ATR533C. I switched from a stock Canon EOS 250D and I wanted to see how big the improvement was, so I decided to choose this target, because it's also the last one I did with the Canon.

Immediately, I saw I was getting so much more Ha signal than with the Canon. Also, I really liked the fact that I could make my dark frames later in the day and didn't have to lose time at night.

Overall, I am really happy with the picture, considering it's my first attempt with an astrocamera and it was taken under the full moon. However, I think I could do better with the processing - I will probably come back to this data again later. The one thing I would try to do better is the star processing as they have weird color probably due to the dual narrowband filter.

Equipment:

• ToupTek ATR533C (gain 101, offset 40, cooled to -10)
• Askar FMA180 Pro
• iOptron skyguider pro
• sv220 7nm Ha OIII dual narrowband filter
• ToupTek GPM462M guide camera
• SvBony 30mm f/4 guide scope
• Mele Quieter 4C

Acquisition:

• 40 x 300s lights
• 50 darks
• 50 flats
• 50 dark flats
• Bortle 5, full moon
• Software:
• NINA
• PHD2
• Deep Sky Stacker
• Siril

Processing in Siril:

• Spectrophotometric color calibration
• SyQon starless star removal
• Generalised hyperbolic transform
• Background extraction - I saw gradient in the background caused by the moon
• SyQon prism denoising
• Star recomposition

This is the last picture taken with my stock Canon eos 250D before switching to TouTek ATR533C. It was taken on April 25 from Czech republic. Overall, I am really happy with the result. The one thing I would like to do is try to extract the OIII signal and create a fake HOO palette, which I think would look even better.

I am still learning so any advice is apprectiated.

Equipment:

• Stock Canon EOS
• Askar FMA180 Pro
• IOptron skyguider pro
• SvBony sv220 7nm Ha+OIII dual narrowband filter
• ToupTek GPM462M guide camera
• SvBony 30 mm f/4 guide scope
• Mele Quieter 4C mini pc

Acquisition:

• 52 × 300s lights - 4 hours 20 minutes total integration time
• darks
• flats
• biases
• Dithered between every frame
• Bortle 5

Software:

• NINA
• PHD2
• Deep Sky Stacker
• Siril

Processing in Siril:

• Graxpert background extraction
• Cosmic clarity
• Starnet star removal
• Generalised hyperbolic transform
• Syqon prism denoising
• Starnet star recomposition