alan potts

I am a little surprised how good this 183mc is at these tight crop type shots on this reduced 115mm APO which is normally 805mm. I have to say after buying it i was seeing a few on site that didn't really seem to like the camera, maybe even Zwo didn't as we now have a sort of replacement model. Amp glow often criticised but with darks I don't see a problem in my images,. I think I will put the 183 back on tonight and have another go at Thor's Helmet with the same scope as M42 above. The very small pixels 2.4um just work at 635mm with .79 reducer in the mix. Thor's head gear looked rather lost with the 071 so looks clear again later for the night.. Alan

Your all so very kind, just think I hit the right buttons processing this time, tried a few of my own moves in PS on this one. To go back to David's statement, stick with what you know, Dave has given me loads of help and at times kept me going. He is right though this scope really out preforms my others, and after owning it for 10 years and even dropping on concrete once, I sort of love it. It's not that though the other scopes can give good results and I will keep banging my head against the wall and maybe one day i will be as good as some of you are, there are some class imaging acts on SGL. Alan

Had a couple of goes at this this year and got miserable results due to poor focus and poor technique with the Borg and poor guiding on a night that actually looked good. I had a similar night last night and after having a think. Many members have helped me no end. I decided to spend time and line up the guide camera, which was a fair distance out. Then did a re calibration, things seemed better after this. I just don't know how this guide scope keeps moving, seem well bolted down. So M42 with the 183mc 16x 3mins with darks at a modest minus 5 and no flats. Taken at 635mm on the 115mm APO, the ghosting that I was getting last year when using this reducer seems to have gone, never did find out what it was. I only masked the core and didn't bother with the twin exposure method. Advice always welcome, Alan

I only use a Paracorr coma corrector in my large Dob and know nothing about their use with AP. You talk of vignetting, I had this fairly bad on my ZWO 071 used with a Borg EDII 77mm which is 330mm F/L. One of my biggest helper tells me Flats will remove this but the flat I had taken were of no use, I am still to get round to re-doing them. Basically they were too over exposed to be of use. May be worth having a look at yours or posting one for the more experienced to view. Your doing very well for one week, I spent the first two weeks trying to get guiding to work, I now have 5 cables, only one worked, mount fault I think.. There is so much to go wrong. Alan

Both very nice images. Alan

Very nice image Steve, I did this the other week, sadly though it sits over the house where there always seems to be heat rising and smoke from the wood burner. Alan

Very nice image Nicola, keep at it, coma is annoying but can be dealt with at a price. Alan

Lovely shots Gina, love the B&W version. Alan

Lovely shot Peter, so small most of these PN's Alan

You may well be correct but this post is from 2014, why bother, I am sure Roger just made a simple mistake. Alan

Stunning and so so different from what we normally see posted, great work!! Alan

I am sure you are absolutely correct about lots of data making processing easier, I have sort of found that out myself using PS when I have just got 1 hour and other times when I have 3 hours. I think once I am a bit more into AP and sort of done a year I will add to various targets and re-process them, I never dump data unless it's rubbish. Alan

I have had a week without a clear evening but tonight looks set fine, UK had had terrible weather from what I see and read. Alan

Always a pleasure to look at your work Gorann. Alan

I feel that's very nice, one can see the shape of the fish. Maybe another day exposure will help bring it out better, some of these Sharpless objects are very faint. Alan

I am sure your going to add to this , very nice start. Is it me Steve or are the stars slightly off their normal perfect, I had this the other night with the wind. Something I rarely have a problem with here, damn annoying. Alan

Superb shot Gav, 31 hours, that more than 10 times what I spend on an image, may well account why I'm not in your class. Alan

Never seen it so large without a big image crop. I will have to explore the 2x2 binning ability of my 183mc on my 805mm APO and maybe on my 190mm M/N . Hope you manage to find the colour parts somewhere. This is not in the best place for me at the moment as it is over my fairly large house from the obsey, so heat rising will not help or the smoke from the wood burner heating system. Alan

Nice report Stu, clear here too but too windy, that in itself is strange, not something we get often. Alan

I was going to say exactly the same as Martin, except instead of exquisite I was going to use superb. Great image and very well done. Alan

A lovely shot on the original, I feel you got a bit over saturated towards the end of the posts. Says he that always gets carried away with the colour controls. Alan

I just find that this problem is somewhat ironic, a camera designed to work better below zero freezing up by all accounts. I have the camera in the boiler room which is a very dry 25-27 degrees to dry out the insides that people suggested may be damp. What is next I wonder CO poisoning. Alan

I just feel that way sometimes, it is just one thing after another. I dare say though most are my fault no matter how much money I throw at the hobby there is always something new to annoy me. I too was fairly pleased with the general data ignoring the melted area. Alan

I took 14 subs and it was there in all of the ones I checked which was only about 4 but I am sure that was a cross section of what they were all like. It was also on those I checked from the night before, though not as bad. Alan

Yes I do, I am always aware of the outside temperature and warm it back to about 2-3 degrees from outside, of late that's been plus 12, and minus 5, all in the same week. Start temp the other night was 22c. Alan