cfpendock

I use expandable nylon braid. And I have a lot of cables - this is a detail of the scope end, and the cables running from the scope: Chris

I regularly image at 2800mm using a deforked CPC1100 Edge. I mount it on an Takahashi EM200 mount which works a treat. As you say, it is good for very small targets. But I don't use a reducer - crazy price. I do however, use a large pixel camera - Atik 4000, and I always bin 2x2 (and even 3x3 sometimes for RGB). This gives a tad over 1"PP which is about the max for my sky. My only complaint is that the stars always look a bit bloated. Chris

Some very nice detail in there. Chris

I prefer the first. You seem to have lost a some of the very faint stuff in the second, and there seems to be more colour noise. Sorry, it's easy to criticise....... Chris

Well, I am very impressed with the level of detail. That Esprit 150 seems to be rather a good scope. More time should let you improve the colour and perhaps give even more detail. Chris

That's a really nice image. M104 is always too low for me - sheds, trees etc. Nevertheless, despite the low angle and high FL, this a a very good job with plenty of star colour. Well done! Chris

Nice. Chris

I like these kind of images, and this one is a cracker......as usual from this source....especially for a one nighter. Just an observation (from my screen) - some of the smaller stars seem very red to me, something I have sometimes noticed on my own longer FL images. Is it due to pulling out star colour during processing? Or they they really this red? I would be interested to know the field of view (arc minutes) of the top (full field image). Only one other comment: why stop at only two TEC 140s? Surely four would enable RLGB to be shot all at once, and imagine the fun for aligning and setting up the mount........ Chris

Sometimes known as the Little Sombrero, this edge-on galaxy is rather small - around 5.5 x 2.3 arcmins. Really this effort should be described as work in progress, but with the appalling sky we have had so far this season, I thought I'd better process what I have anyway. In any case any further data would have to wait until next winter as it is now getting too low. Scope is CPC1100 Edge at 2800mm focal length, with Atik 4000 camera. Around one hour each of LRGB, five minute exposures. Chris

Hello Gav. I have just stumbled across this post and found it very interesting. Certainly some of your problems have been experienced by myself using my CPC1100 Edge which is pretty similar to your set up - albeit with less exotic filters.... I have found two things: 1. Most of my problems disappeared when I fitted a motorised focuser onto the visual back, so the mirror was effectively always locked in one position, focus being achieved by moving the camera assembly in or out rather than moving the mirror. Probably there are good optical reasons why this is not correct, but it works for me. 2. I have never been able to obtain the crispness of stars using the CPC rather than my Tak refractor - allowing for difference in focal length. The stars from the CPC always seem to have a certain "softness". Chris

And I especially like the big screen. But it does look a bit tidy... Chris

For the forum "Getting started with imaging", this is fantastic, with amazing star colours and a very nice looking and nicely framed image indeed. But in my view, perhaps the star colour is a tad over saturated? Chris

That is exceptionally nice. What scope / camera did you use? Chris

Pretty amazing for such a short imaging time. Chris

I may not be alone here. Living almost in the geographic centre of one of the more advanced countries in the world, the best we can manage is 2MB/sec (on a good day). To download 10 MB can take a very long time. For this reason it is rare that I am able to look at the full resolution of posted images. Chris