cfpendock

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

Well, I suppose it could. I am always very careful about getting the balance slightly off so I am generally guiding in only one direction, mostly because I suspect that with the weight of the C11 + bits then I am close to the weight limit for the mount. Otherwise I don't think that just bad guiding would lead to the shapes which you have. I presume collimation is OK? Not tilt I suppose? I use Fat-tail Richardson-Lucy deconvolution plugin for Maxim: https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/images/deconv/deconv_MaximDLnew.html . It needs a lot of experimenting to get right, but when it works, it works.... And I only use it very sparingly, and only on those bits of the image I think need it. It can sharpen up the stars nicely, without giving them hard edges, but as I said, it takes some time to get right. Chris

Just seen this, Gav. Nice one! I also like to use long focal lengths (my deforked CPC1100) to get shots of far away stuff. I also hit 0.55sec/pixel using my old Atik 4000, so I usually bin the subs. So I know it's not easy, especially to avoid the softness of the stars. And I have the benefit of using my EM200 mount which gives around 0.4 secs RMS. But I do use some very slight deconvolution (as NigeB suggested above) to try to tighten the stars. You say that the softness is not due to the scope. Well, looking very carefully at your full image, there seems to be a problem with some of your stars. They seem to be elongated, especially in the top left. This should not be due to tracking which should surely give round (but bigger) stars - especially given the relatively long sub times? Also there seems to be some colour mis-alignment on some of the stars, as well as some misshapen stars. Is the OAG well clear of the light path? I think that the long total time was well spent - you have remarkably little noise in the main galaxy, and I think that the image is very well processed. Chris

Oh yes. That's good. Chris

I have seen many really good images of this in narrowband using various palettes, but always I prefer just the Ha. Excellent result! Especially considering the moon. I think you have justified the Astrodon filter.... Chris

Yes, nice field of view. Chris

That is good. I am very tempted to get a reducer for my C11 but the price seems very high. None on the second hand market that I've seen. But this M51 certainly shows it's potential. Chris

That TEC combined with the Atik 460 certainly does the job. Not to mention the expertise of the operators and the processing of course.... Chris

I certainly find that re-focusing interferes with guiding, so usually turn off guiding during re-focussing. Otherwise I need at least 2 minutes for the guiding to settle back down. But I've never had a problem losing the guide star. I don't use SGP, I use MaxPilote, but I think it does much the same thing. Chris

The reason I said adequate is that I think the field will not be completely flat - for that you need an Edge which is very expensive. However, depending on the field of view of the camera, this may not be a problem - in any case it would only affect stars and other objects closer to the edge of the image, e.g. if you imaged several galaxies within one field of view. For planets you will not be so interested in the stars and so I think that this should be less important. You need to compare the image size with the image circle of the scope for whatever camera you will be using. Just my opinion...... Chris

Should do the job adequately for planets and smaller galaxies, depending on the camera - I presume you will be using a video camera for the planets and something else for the galaxies which can be rather faint and hence require relatively long exposure times. The price seems to be very good indeed. Chris