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Diffraction spikes
I integrated 1275 frames using the fast track guide and was really blown away by the result, but it has diffraction spikes around the brightest stars. They look reminiscent of the way a child would draw the sun…all the way around the star. I don’t mind them, they actually look neat to me. But when I try blurx they get all wonky like spokes.
I use a 10” dob on an equatorial platform and have the standard cross shaped spider vanes. While making these captures over two nights I left the camera in the focuser and never rotated it. I did introduce rotation by resetting the platform several times. While registering the frames I did notice 3 groups- 0° from the reference, 31°, and 65°. The spikes in the image look pretty symmetrical, but I do count 3 sets of spikes. I’ve only stacked in DSS until recently and this is the only time I’ve seen more than the cross shaped spikes on my stars. In your opinion, is this from the spider vanes and rotation? And what would be the best way to proceed? Thank you.
I use a 10” dob on an equatorial platform and have the standard cross shaped spider vanes. While making these captures over two nights I left the camera in the focuser and never rotated it. I did introduce rotation by resetting the platform several times. While registering the frames I did notice 3 groups- 0° from the reference, 31°, and 65°. The spikes in the image look pretty symmetrical, but I do count 3 sets of spikes. I’ve only stacked in DSS until recently and this is the only time I’ve seen more than the cross shaped spikes on my stars. In your opinion, is this from the spider vanes and rotation? And what would be the best way to proceed? Thank you.
Comments
BTW I usually only stack 100-200 images max at one time, and usually in DSS, but have discovered PI has a much better integration result. Your suggestion does make sense, and this was an experiment to see how how a 10 yo 4 core laptop would handle a kitchen sink being thrown at it. PI seems very solid and never gave any errors and the poor laptop survived. The integration process was by far the longest part so far. It only took a little more than 12 hrs per channel and took 470 Gb of disk space (raw data excluded).
As far as the quality of images are concerned, I’m genuinely mystified, and at the same time delighted. This isn’t the first time I’ve been told this. I have no reference to compare to as this is my first experience with any telescope. Actually less than a year, I took delivery of this scope at the end of January this year, had someone on CN build me the eq platform a month later. I picked up a used 294mc pro in May, and have been perfecting my method of capturing ever since.
Disclaimer: The driveway that I plop this crude setup on happens to be on a volcanic island smack in the middle of the pacific in bortle 2 skies.
As for fast image integration, I don’t have that yet. I’m in the process of getting a new pc built. The day after my trial of PI expired, I purchased PI. The version is 1.8.9-1. It works fine, albeit slowly, being just my old laptop that I use for captures. But the day after my purchase, PI came out with the 1.8.9-2 version, which after installation would freeze at the splash screen and not load any modules. So far, everything I’ve watched in your videos has been totally relevant to the last version. Hopefully my new pc will be done soon and I will be able to fully benefit from your coarse study, as well as the newest features of the latest version of PI.
Aloha