Pulling out my hair!! (Image editing and more mount noise)

After I'd posted my Saturn pic on the Stargazers Lounge, one of the kind gents on there kindly improved the image dramatically. I asked how the hell he'd managed to do what he had done. He replied with a list of tasks in Photoshop, that to be honest looked a lot like double dutch to me. Still, thought I, nothing ventured and all that.

So when I had some time last night, I sat down at the 'puter, fired up photoshop elements and loaded the image. So far so good. Right thought I, firstly ... let's see, hmm the burn tool. Where on earth is that ? So I looked an searched for a while. Tried the help. Searched on Google. Eventually I found it (thanks to google) buried under another tool in the tool panel. Turns out this has nothing to do with a blowtorch and in fact has a little hand for an icon. Still, onwards. I selected the burn tool, and clicked on the image. This certainly got rid of the noise around the edge, and half the image.

Damn, thought I and reverted back to the original file. I tried again. I managed to burn away all the noisy bits around the edge. Aha, maybe if I reduce the intensity of the burn, I thought, I could do the same across the surface. Hmm, worth a go. It got rid of the noisy bits, and left interesting streaks all across the image. Revert!!! Tried again. removed all the bits around the edge, then left it alone. I figured I'd done enough damage with the burn tool, and time to move onto the next tool on the list. Despeckle. This was easy. I dragged the despeckle tool onto the image. It did it's stuff. I wish I knew what it had done, because I couldn't really see much difference. Oh well.

Moving on. Gaussian blur. I know that's here somewhere... Eventually I found it, hoping it would work in the same way as despeckle, I dragged the tool to the image. So far so good, then disaster, Gaussian blur popped up a new tool input box and was asking me what I wanted it to do. Oh no!!!. Thought I, I'm scuppered now. Ah well, in for a penny in for a pound, I started moving the sliders up and down to see what they would do. After operating the sliders like a monkey conducting a symphony orchestra (which is probably quite an apt analogy here) I was no closer to figuring out the best settings, other than a certain range seemed to make things a little better prior to the image disappearing in a cloud of yellow mist.

I figured I'd best start over again, as I couldn't get any better, and I was just making things worse. Needless to say this went on for over an hour until frustration got the better of me. I just closed elements and aborted all changes. My little picture would have to do as is for now, and I'd try again another day. So I had a drink instead. This I could manage easily without all the aggravation and no need for a burn tool. I'll chalk this one up to experience, and next time I won't make all the same mistakes, I'm bound to make different ones instead and I might have a drink to start with, help focus the faculties.

As for the mount. The Supatrak has been withdrawn. I have no way to mount my scope on the AZ3 using the normal suggested method of the tube rings, not that I have any anyway, and would need me to put together something to make it work. The EQ2 may or may not be sold, the current owner is waiting to hear from someone else before he can let me know. So, I've moved target completely. I'm now looking at an Astro Engineeering AC562 AZTech on a wooden tripod. It's cheaper than a new AZ3 (which I'd have to spend more money on to make my scope fit), and only a little more expensive than a second hand AZ3 after I'd bought the bits to allow my scope to fit. And I wouldn't need to buy anymore bits for it (A bonus!!)