My name is Goetz. As a youngster in the early 80ies I have been an enthusiatic amateur astronomer. At that time astrophotography was something really complicated for people with a lot of money and a lot of time, so not for me. I then went on with a career as a professional astronomer and got into image processing in radio astronomy for many years. In 1997 I decided to make a big career change. Since then I am happily working as an expert for computer science, computer networks and IT security.
Only this year with the Corona virus I decided that I might as well give astrophotography another chance. I am extremely exited what is possible now. I bought a Takahashi Epsilon 130D in October and will built my own little observatory next year.
One important aspect of astrophotography is the software and computing hardware. I am linux enthusiast and I am unwilling to buy and use Windows. I also find it unappealing to use an expensive laptop outside in potentially freezing and wet conditions. So I luckily found the ASIAir pro, which makes controlling the telescope with all hardware and the process of taking pictures very simple. With a wifi long range connection I set up I can see the images coming in and the guiding status of the telescope from a tablet sitting besides the cosy fireplace at home.
I read about pixinsight, bought a demo licence and worked through various tutorials. As a linux user I also found siril for image processing. In comparison I found that I can achieve the same results with siril in 10 minutes which takes me 2 hours in pixinsight. Agreed, with pixinsight you can tune your images and find and learn many things about your images and astroprocessing in general. However, what sense does it make to tune your image for hours when in the end you dont see any difference to the untuned image ? As you can see from these lines I am a bit at odds with pixinsight. Just today I found the good old saoimage, which is a powerful tool to work with fits images. It looks like saoimage will be a good companion to have a very deep look into my data should it be necessary.
Working with my Tak Epsilon turns out to be challanging in a good way. I am still not happy with the shape of the stars in the corners of the image, which might be because I am a perfectionist ? Getting focus, backfocus, collimation right and getting rid of any tilts, i.e. understanding and mastering my Espilon, is what consumes a lot of my time and energy right now.
I am exited to be here at Astrobin to share thoughts and experience with all of you.
Only this year with the Corona virus I decided that I might as well give astrophotography another chance. I am extremely exited what is possible now. I bought a Takahashi Epsilon 130D in October and will built my own little observatory next year.
One important aspect of astrophotography is the software and computing hardware. I am linux enthusiast and I am unwilling to buy and use Windows. I also find it unappealing to use an expensive laptop outside in potentially freezing and wet conditions. So I luckily found the ASIAir pro, which makes controlling the telescope with all hardware and the process of taking pictures very simple. With a wifi long range connection I set up I can see the images coming in and the guiding status of the telescope from a tablet sitting besides the cosy fireplace at home.
I read about pixinsight, bought a demo licence and worked through various tutorials. As a linux user I also found siril for image processing. In comparison I found that I can achieve the same results with siril in 10 minutes which takes me 2 hours in pixinsight. Agreed, with pixinsight you can tune your images and find and learn many things about your images and astroprocessing in general. However, what sense does it make to tune your image for hours when in the end you dont see any difference to the untuned image ? As you can see from these lines I am a bit at odds with pixinsight. Just today I found the good old saoimage, which is a powerful tool to work with fits images. It looks like saoimage will be a good companion to have a very deep look into my data should it be necessary.
Working with my Tak Epsilon turns out to be challanging in a good way. I am still not happy with the shape of the stars in the corners of the image, which might be because I am a perfectionist ? Getting focus, backfocus, collimation right and getting rid of any tilts, i.e. understanding and mastering my Espilon, is what consumes a lot of my time and energy right now.
I am exited to be here at Astrobin to share thoughts and experience with all of you.
