Heart and Soul HSO

[Dmack1]

During the unrelenting cloud that was November last year I bought some time on Telescope Live. I then used that time on their Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 and FLI PL16083 set up (SPA-3) based in Spain. Now, it is not cheap and I found that my purchase, which included some extra credits from special offers, was going to get me about 2 hours imaging time on this set up. And, frankly, I did not really think that was going to be enough to get something decent - with my 80ED and 700D set up at that time I needed to be getting +4 hrs before I could say it was looking reasonable.

Anyway, I used Stellarium to work out the FOV and then set up the imaging request. At which point all my Irish Clouds went off to Spain for their holidays so it was several weeks before all the subs were taken. By that time I had started getting my own data so the Telescope Live data languished on my HD until this week when I finally got around to processing it. The result is below.

I have quite mixed feelings about the whole exercise. Firstly the final result is, I think, fairly good, at least as good as I could have expected from the set up I had at the time (if you disregard my cack handed processing its probably better). At only 2 hours total I think it is remarkably clean. Although I had to crop out a chunk of dead sky at the bottom because of lines that had not calibrated out. So I guess thats a pretty reasonable result.

But here's the thing, I cant shift the feeling that its NOT MY IMAGE. I look at it compared to one of my own images which is certainly not as good or clean but which was the result of a sleepless night, in and out of the cold back yard fighting with APT and PHD2 and focus and Dew and honestly I have much much more satisfaction and sense of achievement from that not so good image.

So it was a good experience but I'm not sure its something I'd rush to do again. But ask me again when I have had 2 full months of clouds 😂

Really interested to hear others thoughts on using these types of paid remote services.

Telescope Live SPA-3, 10X 240s each of Ha , Oiii, Sii, Processed as HSO (SHO looked just awfulI) in Pixinsight and finished in Photoshop.

 

 

[Bob-c]

Good processing , .... but i know all the data what i have is all mine, good and bad.

 

Bob.

[Carastro]

Nice result, but to be honest, I would never use one until I got too past it to do the capturing myself - I just don't feel any satisfaction from processing data I can't call my own.

 

Carole 

 

 

[Gina]

I agree Carole.  Lovely image - very bright - maybe a little too bright for my liking but that's. just my personal feeling.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Gina
Typos

[peter shah]

Love the framing ...perhaps a little heavy on the localised contrast.... The location in Spain is just stunning, lovely dark skies.

[Jabberwocky]

A Cracking image! 

I know what others say about obtaining remote data and I can see their point. Data gathering is all part of the art and skill. However having some remote data gives you the opportunity to gather data for targets that are not visible from your location and in my case gather data from much clearer skies than the UK offers. I'd love to be able to site my scope in a remote location halfway up a mountain in some exotic location, but my wallet won't let me. Remote scopes give us the chance to do something that would simply not be financially viable normally. For me the issue comes is when people use remote data and try to pass it off as something else or use other peoples data without crediting them. You may not have gathered the data yourself, but you selected the target and processed it from the ground up. You also appreciate and understand the process involved in obtaining the data in the first place. Enjoy it and keep up the good work.

[Padraic M]

I did similar last October when I bought some credits, really just to try out a new location and some cracking gear. SPA 3 too in my case. Thanks to the weather, I finally got my results last week.

I'm finding it quite hard to process - I'm not using PI so I'm wondering if it's geared to PI processing in some way. For instance, I can't get DSS to stack all of the frames. Regardless of which frame I use as reference, at least two perfectly good frames are omitted each time. I've also got to crop extensively to remove edge artifacts.

 

Since I placed the order, I've had time to think about the notion of remote imaging services, and to be honest I have lost interest in it as a concept. It's not for me, while it may be perfect for others. I'm also not particularly impressed with their new commercial model (which came into play just after I bought credits and ordered data), and while I was waiting for my data I was miffed to see that free downloads of data which may (or may not) have been based on my paid-for order were being offered to other subscribers. The new commercial model is obviously based on the fact that there is more demand for data than their equipment (and the weather) can deliver, so rather than investing in new kit, they are offering more 'reuse' of existing data. The smart subscriber will now sign up for an entry-level subscription, and wait for data to become available. This brings you even farther away from the source of the data, as you don't get to select the target, scope, fov, filters etc. You are effectively just downloading data on popular targets to process yourself.  

 

So this all means that I really don't feel like investing the time and effort in sorting out the problems I have in processing my new data. I'd much prefer to take some of my own less-than-perfect data and spend the hours working on that. The bottom line may be that I actually prefer the idea of setting up outside and capturing DSOs than processing them. I started AP in the first place to capture what I saw through the eyepiece.

 

[Dmack1]

+1 to everything @Padraic Msays above. I too don't like their new commercial model. while I did download some of the "one click" and "pro data-sets" I have yet to bother processing any of them and I'm not sure i will. you see lots of images in their gallery done with the same data and I find that leaves me less enthusiastic.

[Gina]

I agree!

[MartinS]

For me, 50% of the pleasure I derive from this hobby is founded in the hands on equipment and design aspects that contribute to the acquisition, track and capture of data.  I don’t believe a remote facility would give me as much satisfaction.