Hello all,

Thanks to Elmiko and Michael F for the "swarm of bees" reference in the title.

I was able to sneak away during this new moon and get a couple of hours integration with the Coma cluster of galaxies.

The huge number of galaxies in this region of the sky is fascinating - without the clutter of the milky way, a very good look into deep space is possible.

This imaging session was a kind of test for my mount. Two different variables were tackled, including a new set of main bearings for RA and DEC on the NEQ6 to reduce the problematic stiction and thereby help with balance. I also reduced the preload on the new bearings by more than half. It made balancing so much easier.

The second variable was to allow the computer to plate solve with an unspecified focal length, which provided a surprise eg, rather than the calculated 1422 mm FL with the C8 reduced by 0.7, the actual number was 1482 mm, which will have a slight impact on my backfocus. New information to me!

Last -> I ran a test beta version of software for the ASIair pro on-board raspberry Pi (1.6). I liked it because it enables multi-star guiding, which provided stability to my guiding. For this session I averaged .07 " RMS which is the best I have found for this combination.

Its a lot of variables to test simultaneously but it worked out.

I am tempted to remove the reducer on this rig and shoot for a 2 meter FL.

Thanks for looking.

++++++++++++

FINAL VERSION F

Processing notes (mainly so that I don't forget them)

APP

- Incorporated dark flats to stack for calibration.

- for registration, used dynamic distortion correction

- for integration, used average integration with star shape settings (>20 frames, smallest stars).

- adaptive rejection filter

- light pollution correction with boxed corners fixed the vignetting

Pixinsight

- EZ soft stretch script on linear fits file from APP

- SCNR

- Photometric Colour Calibration using preexisting data

- Background neutralization

- FWHMEccentricity

- Colour Saturation - a small lift in saturation

- save in XISF (32 bit floats)

- save in .tif (16 bit for website)

Advantages

- no cropping as the vignetting is corrected

- better colour control

-slightly sharper stars