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Nice Alan - Certainly can be seen from the UK (just) - my effort on same earlier this year: Mixed process APP + PI

I think you need to alter your windows display theme under control panel to set backgrounds and text colours.

https://www.nightskydan.com/optolong-l-enhance-filter-review/ or Trevor on Astrobackyard…

Any feedback on the dual narrow-band with faster f2 systems? Just found this: https://www.nightskydan.com/optolong-l-enhance-filter-review/

Superb Olly - a favourite with me any day... 👍

Nailed it - Brilliant Rodd 👍

Rodd, Looking at the Iris and walking away and back again (my) thoughts tend to feel that the core is superb the background is great it's the dust to me that feels awkward. The core stands on it's won no problem, but the dust merges with the background and gets lost. Lift the dusty areas a little, and I mean 'a little' so the whole Iris is lifted away from the background... Francis

Superb image

I have the standard version not the EC. As I use a guider either smaller scope or OAG I didn't see the point of the EC model.

Alan, Your 12 Volt cable plugs into the side of the mount by the on/off switch. When you turn it on the red light shows. I don't know what cable(s) you have. If you look at the CEM60 pdf manual page 9 there is a 12 volt power input (2.5 x 5.5) just below the polar axis scope eyepiece. Also on page 19 - Step 7 connecting cables, there's a photo of a switched (on/off) 12 volt input (the one I use). Manual: http://www.ioptron.us/Manual/7200_CEM60_Manual.pdf Francis

PHD2 screens...

Alan, Have you loaded the ascom driver and iOptron's Commander software (https://www.ioptron.com/product-p/7200.htm )as the CEM60 doesn't run under EQMod - that's for Synter? mounts. If you've loaded the Commander and ascom drivers for the CEM60 then PHD2 will 'see' the mount. Open PHD2 Click the USB symbol (bottom left) this opens a connect equipment screen Camera: Set your guide camera here Mount: Set your mount here - the down arrow in the box will show all your options - look for iOptron ASCOM Driver for Mount Then either click Connect all or the camera and mount connect separately Then click - Close That should allow you to begin seeing images on screen. **When you click on the USB symbol right at the top of PHD's screen is a box named Equipment Profile. Here you can enter the details of your guidescope and camera. Click on the manage profiles and you will find a wizard routine there to help you through the settings.

Great imaging Brian. There's just a hint of green coming through in the central background area would be my only comment. Great start - keep em coming.

Venus passes through M45: 2nd, 3rd and 4th April 2020. Will be low in the west late evening.

I don't think so too even both sides of the 'flash'. My guess is a rotating satellite brightening and fading.

On my second run of the APP trial, I like being able to load all the files in their respective slots and go through the stages to integration. After integration with APP I find further processing awkward with results looking quite 'muddy' with lack lustre colour. What I do find now is that I'm using APP to the integration stage saving that image and then continuing to work forward with PI. I've had problems with PI and amp glow from my ASI294MC Pro, with PI there always seems a slight residual amp glow as the image is stretched. APP however using the same file sets removes the amp glow completely. with nothing showing in subsequent processing. Need to read and watch the videos that are beginning to appear on APP. I'm trialling this with an CMOS/OSC camera so probably need a different routine to CCD/Mono users? Attached is an APP/PI processing combination. 30 lights, darks, dark-flats, flats and bias frames used. Francis

I tried adding a mask and desaturating the background due to uneven casts. Should have tried some noise reduction whilst I had the mask in place.

@Dinglem Thanks. I've not been happy with the IC1396 image so I've tried a new combination (for me) using APP to process the image subs to integration then process in PI for colour and levels...

I've been using the camera now for a few weeks initially under the brighter summer skies and now under darkening autumnal skies. Time to put a few thoughts together. Firstly: My skies are classified as Bortle 4 though I have made no attempt to clarify that - just taken the value from FLO's Clear Outside I tend at present to image using an Altair Wave Series 115 EDT-APO refractor with a 1x Planostar Field flattener and a Baader UV/IR cut filter 1.25" on an iOptron CEM60 Standard mount. I use a TS 80mm guidescope piggybacked on the 115 with an ASI120mm camera as the guide camera. I have a home built RoR observatory and the mount is fitted to an iOptron Tri-pier. I tend also to run the camera at -20°C and capture via SG Pro (3.0.1.####) with Gain set to 122 and offset at 30. Processing is usually via PixInsight (Ripley 1.8.##) with the occasional tweak in Photoshop CS3 Extended. APP may be added at some stage. Thoughts: This has been a diversion for me away from a mono CCD based imaging rig (SX 825 mono + RGB & Ha filters) and DSLR camera bodies (Nikon 800E OSC and D5100 mono converted) in to the CMOS OSC sphere. It appears (to me) much faster (density build up) than I expected. Initially I kept subs shorter with more of them to build an image. Under the brighter summer skies that worked well. However as the skies have darkened with autumn approaching I found colour saturation in individual subs much increased by lengthening my sub exposures. Earlier I used 2 and 3 minute subs under the brighter skies. Now I'm settling into using 5 and 10 minute subs, using the same gain and offset settings. I find the camera handles colour well, it seems quite well balanced with the usual green excess removal during processing using PI's SCNR (I set the slider to 20% and make multiple adjustments rather than leaving it at 100% and one hit...). Initially frightened by the look of the dark frames with their spiked fans spreading across the frame. This is the one area that I've found awkward in that the dark frames have to be carefully matched to the light frames and when processed they should not be optimised as this seems to cause the spikes. I've found processing in PI more difficult in respect of amp glow removal. Astro Pixel Processor (APP) seems to deal with the amp glow much better but I've never been able to get what I feel is good colour from APP. I've only used it for a single trial period but at present don't feel inclined to spend money on it. Flat, flat/darks and bias frames are easy to procure and apply. Noise is low, whether single subs or after stacking. I do dither frames so that will suppress background noise but I've found little need to hit images with PI's TGVDenoise or other noise reduction routines. I'm more than happy with the camera. Perhaps I'm lazy and found the routine of RGB filtering a chore against the relative ease an OSC offers. There are differences though: Colour with the 294MC Pro OSC is softer, pastel like almost, against a mono/RGB set-up, but it responds well to level and saturation adjustments during processing. Looking forward now to the longer darker nights of winter and the arrival of a RASA 8 to put the 294MC Pro on to... A few recent images from the camera scope combination. Francis 30/09/2019.

Added more subs to an existing image: Details to follow (need to tot up all the subs...)

Dusty area in IC1396 29-09-2019 Details: Subs: 6x 600s, 8x 300s Camera: ASI294MC Pro (cooled to -20°C) Scope: AA 115EDT-APO + 1x planostar FF Mount: iOptron CEM 60 Standard Captured via SG Pro Process: PI (wrong flat master used) - resized in PS

Teckie bits: 75 mins on each (15x 5 min subs). Pleased with the Bubble & Co (NGC7635) but not sure about the Pelican (IC5070). Not sure also that NGC7358 is the bright object in the top right of the bubble frame - someone will shoot me on that one I'm sure! Details: Mount CEM60 Scope AA 115 EDT-APO + Planostar 1x FF, guiding 80mm TS guidescope + ASI120mm. Imaging camera: ASI294MC Pro - cooled to -20°C. Flats, darks ans bias applied via PI's Batch Pre-process. Further tweaked with saturation and curve transformations +++ (flats are a little strong and have lightened the corners)

75 mins on each in 5 min subs. Pleased with the Bubble & Co (NGC7635) but not sure about the Pelican (IC5070). Not sure also that NGC7358 is the bright object in the top right of the bubble frame - someone will shoot me on that one I'm sure! Details: Mount CEM60 Scope AA 115 EDT-APO + Planostar 1x FF, guiding 80mm TS guidescope + ASI120mm. Imaging camera: ASI294MC Pro - cooled to -20°C. Flats, darks ans bias applied via PI's Batch Pre-process. Further tweaked with saturation and curve transformations +++ (flats are a little strong and have lightened the corners)

Then keep swapping it back to use on something else - easier to use a male/male adapter.

Ideally it needs a short male to male adapter so the filter can be inserted the correct way round as the female side of the filter should face the sky...