Chasing Comet C2013/A1 - Frame&Focus and Planetary (and even Framing Mask)

[s3igell]

This weekend I made an effort to image the departing Comet C2013/A1 "Siding Spring" in the early evening twilight.

It was visible, but I had a heck-of-a-time imaging it (not BYE's fault).

 

I tried using Frame&Focus Star-HD mode in order to bring out the first hints of A1 from the general twilight "noise".  The Edge Detection seemed promising, but I found that any Stacking value pushed the overall image to near-clipping brightness.  I couldn't seem to correct this via adjustment of the Brightness or Gamma settings as both are "positive value"-only sliders, meaning that I couldn't reduce either value to help "normalize" the Display brightness.  (I failed to consider using "Invert" - I wonder if that would have allowed for successful control of the Image Brightness while Star-HD Stacking.)  I wasn't successful at spotting the Comet until twilight had darkened the Western Horizon sufficiently to increase the low Contrast between Sky and Comet.

 

I used 5x Zoom in Planetary mode for some moderately successful imaging, but found it a bit tricky to Move and Lock the 5x FOV due to Gloved Fingers on a MousePad (without working Mouse Buttons).  Perhaps providing an alphanumeric KeyPress as a backup might be a useful suggestion.  As well, is there a way to Re-Center and Lock the 5x FOV via KeyPress ??

 

I also had a bit of challenge, as I needed to relocate my Camera and Tripod in the middle of Imaging A1, as a later arriving vehicle pulled into the parking spot which eclipsed my view of the Comet and I needed to quickly re-frame (actually re-find) it from an adjusted location.  I had captured a Preview JPG, which I'd thought to use with the Mask Framing feature.  I ran into difficulty as the Mask Framing is only available in Image Capture, and the delays while awaiting the Download to view each Position Adjustment ate deeply into the remaining time before the Comet disappeared below the Horizon.  I did re-acquire the Comet by flipping between a Preview-mode view of that previous JPG and the Frame&Focus Mode for LiveView.

Is it possible for Mask Framing to be made available in Frame&Focus ??  (Probably not, if calculating the "Transparency" is necessary for every LiveView frame...)  I realize that most Mask Framing us done with longer exposures, but quite often the Target Framing Field includes one or more Bright Stars which readily show up in the "Exposure Emulated" LiveView of Frame&Focus.  And Framing could be so much quicker without needing to await the Download of even just the "L-Fine" JPGs produced as Previews (which also then end up "littering" the FilmStrip and the HDD).

 

There is a minor TYPO on the Star-HD Toolbar:  "Logarihtm"

[admin]

I guess I could give it a try, but I suspect applying the transparency to every live view frame is simply going to pin the cpu <_>

[s3igell]

That's what I thought might have been part of your justification for implementing an otherwise "Framing-related" Function into the Image Capture Mode instead...

(In fact, I seem to remember that we explored this thread of discussion a bit back in the Yahoo Group days, but couldn't dredge it up...)