Gina

Yes, could be.

It's rather small for this FOV. This is a single 30s sub.

Sky's cleared - Simeis 147 is still down in the trees so I'm capturing something else as a test. The California Nebula (NGC 1499).

I see. Set up my all sky cam ready for dark to see when/if the clouds go away - no sign yet - I think it could be 8 or 9pm but we'll see... The grey area is solid cloud the rest is very dark nimbus.

I guess wideband would be fine for finding stars and if you know the location of the DSO with respect to a star (or stars) within the field then this would be a perfectly viable method Thank you I don't seem to be thinking straight ATM! I could simply swap out the Ha filter for a WB one for finding using the current rig. EQASCOM Alignment Clear as mud

I guess I need to do a three star alignment of the mount then it should be right. Do you know, I've never done that - relied on AstroTortilla in the past. Should be simple enough As for comparing cameras, I still have the Astrodon 5nm Ha filter which should give an idea when looking at a hydrogen rich nebula. I don't need a matching lens exactly - a faster lens stopped down would do. eg. I could use a 55mm f1.8 lens on the Atik with 135mm f2.5 on the ZWO. When opened up to f1.8 it could act as an electronic finder if the Atik camera is sensitive enough and will work at around an exposure of a minute or two.

Was that a zoom lens? My memory isn't what it was... A zoom lens would be good if it had a decent aperture. Trouble is they usually have a rather small aperture. I have a Vivitar zoom lens from way back when I had a Pentax Spotmatic SLR film camera. Quite a decent lens actually as I recall, so might give it a go for imaging. 35-105mm focal length and f3.5. Something to look into later. Maybe two stepper motors for control - one for focus and the other for zoom - that would be a nice versatile imaging rig Before that I have Simeis 147 to capture more Ha and I'd like more OIII for IC405/410 I think. Not sure about SII. But I will have to find Simeis 147 first I could do with a wider field finder camera but it would have to be at least as sensitive as the ASI1600. A nice setup would be to have two ASI1600MM-Cool cameras with different FL lenses Guess I should sell one of my 460EXs to pay for another 1600 Of course, I'm assuming the 1600 is the more sensitive as seems the case but is it really? I need to find out! Only sure way would be to have both set up to look at the same area of night sky at the same time with matching filters and lenses of same aperture. I have two of some of the lenses but not filters.

Yes, give it a try - nothing to lose. Maybe it will sit at infinity focus if not controlled which is what you want, though you'd have to find another way of focussing it.

Clear skies forecast for tonight - after that it looks dire. I want more Ha for Simeis 147 - not sure whether to bother with OIII or SII as there seems to be very little image to capture in those wavelengths - probably better to go for other objects. Simeis 147 is in a clear direction almost down to the horizon so I should be able to start imaging soon after it rises in the east. Lots of atmosphere to see through though. Just have to play it by err... eye!

Been designing the 3D printed parts for the 45mm lens. Mounting bracket and focussing gear.

I like the idea of "Gina's corner" Never written a blog "Imaging-tips/tricks and techniques" sounds like a possibility

When I get what I consider appropriate images I do post them in the Imaging Deep Sky forum. Otherwise I don't know where else to post this stuff.

I have adapters to connect this big lens to the ZWO filter wheel with T2 thread so all it will need is 3D printed mounting bracket and focus segment gear.

I can't stand this - every time I go to post what I've written it disappears!!! I'll try a bit at a time... It might be me - I'm tired from a run of late nights. After IC405/410, Simeis 147 and maybe a linking frame, there are things that would want a wider FOV. As I've said before I'm keen to capture Barnard's Loop in Orion and most appropriate for this is the 45mm f2.8 medium format camera lens as this screenshot of CdC shows.

Still plenty of data on other DSOs to process but I think I feel like a change...

BPP finished - simply saved in PixInsight as PNG. Not as many subs as the Ha but here it is. Nothing like as clean as the Ha but might add to the Ha to give a reasonable colour result. OTOH more OIII subs would probably help. Forecast no good for tonight but tomorrow looks like it might be clear.

Flats capture finished and checked with Blink and now onto BPP for the full works on the OIII lights for IC405/IC410. Almost nothing in IC406 but good in IC410 (Tadpoles).

OIII subs captured and run through Blink - 186 passed - just over 3 hours of data Now taking OIII flats to go with them.

Now capturing OIII 60s subs for IC405 and IC410. Seeing is excellent tonight - about 1 or 2 pixels. IC410 is also known as the Tadpoles.

Trying to locate the gap between IC405 and Simeis147...

Home now after after a social evening out Just opened to obs roof - luckily it wasn't frozen up - hard frost here and a plethora of stars out

Max gain seems to work well Of course this is with over 4 hours of integrated data but I have to say I'm very pleased with this result - I didn't expect to be able to post just a pre-processed image - I normally need to tweek it a bit.

BPP has finished at last so here is the result simply saved in PNG format with no post processing. 259 60s Ha subs g600 -30C. New calibration data.

BPP still going...

300 bias, 80 60s dark, 30 flat frames captured and checked with Blink - 5 darks rejected. Now using that lot to calibrate 259 60s Ha subs of IV405 the Flaming Star Nebula and integrate in BPP.