CraigT82

Very nice details, loads to see

Nice image👍

Great detail there and a really nice looking image, especially for a single capture

Very nice shots, well done. I have struggled recently as I think the hot days and earlier imaging time don't go well together. Best results for me were with imaging at 2-3am when the ground had cooled off

Nice shots, have you tried combining the IR with the colour as a luminance channel?

Very nice catch, sods law with the cameras

Fantastic set Neil, the Saturn is a real beaut too. Top work 👍

You may be ok, give it a try, it will just look like a dim star in the finder, so you will need to compare the view through the finder with a star chart to identify the planet. With the 224c you could try a longer IR pass filter like the 850nm or 742nm and it should work quite well, if you have one of those. Failing that just go ahead and use the standard UV/IR cut. Good luck!

I found a good 60mm finder, well aligned to the main OTA, essential in locating the the ice giants in my light polluted skies. Goto will get you close but it won't get the camera on the chip. Once you're in the right neighborhood use the finder to spot the planet then guide the main scope to it using the hand controller. As for the capture, very high gain and short as possible exposures. Even if the histogram is only at 20% that will do as long as you keep the exposures short get loads and loads of frames. The image will look terribly noisy and dim on the screen but don't worry about that. Focusing on the planet will be tough so focus on a star first. Capture for at least 15 mins or even 30 mins if you can. You won't get any surface details so rotation isn't an issue like it is with Jupiter. As for filters, near IR longpass filters work well. The Baader 610nm longpass and 685nm longpass are good when used with a mono camera. The usual method is to spend a good while capturing the mono NIR data which will become your main image (I.e. luminance channel), and then get some shorter colour captures just to add the colour to it. Or you could scrap the colour captures and just false colourise it in post processing. The 3x barlow will give you f/30 which is pretty high. Not sure what camera you have? Maybe if you unscrewed the lens cell from the barlow (if poss) and put it on the nose of the camera it will give you less amplification and a better SNR.

I think the point is the mirror may flop a little when you change focus direction. So if you moved focus inwards, then collimated, then move focus outwards the slight flop in the mirror changing direction may throw the collimation off. Some SCTs are bad for this and some hardly have any flop at all. Aftermarket Crayford focuser solves the issue, if it's there.

Can you do a spiral search with the ASIair? You can do it with eqmod and it's a godsend for finding planets at high focal lengths.

You can get a meteor lens for your guide camera which will allow you to view the secondary. As long as no part of the lens is wider than the 1.25" section of the camera you're good to go. I have this one from modern astronomy. https://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/accessories/qhy-accessories/meteor-lens-for-qhy5-ii-series-cameras/ You will need to ensure what whichever lens you buy (there are a few different ones) has a thread that is compatible with your camera.

I think drilling a new focuser hole would be possible but I wouldn't advise it, as you would be weakening the tube at a fairly critical section... Under the weight of the imaging train you may get a lot of flex in the OTA. The 1mm sheet steel of the SW tubes is not exactly known for it's great stiffness anyway so putting another big hole there is not a great idea in my opinion. Better to do as Phil suggested and move the mirror up the tube and utilise a larger secondary with the original focuser hole. This can be done (I think) by simply removing the mirror cell from the tube, chopping off 35mm or whatever you need coming off (jigsaw with parallel guide should do), drilling new screw holes in the tube and reattaching the cell?

Nice work plenty of details to see in both

This is interesting, I don't think this applies to firecapture. I have done some tests and ran off two undebayered (RAW 8 bit) captures with different WB settings and the two outputs do have different colour casts when debayered afterwards, so it looks like the WB settings in firecapture do come through to the recorded data. Are you using firecapture or something else to capture your data?

Very nice Neil, definitely worth getting out that's a very pleasing image

Wow! That really is world class Tristan.

What I did was bring up a colour calibration chart on my phone screen and point the camera at it, then tweaked those white balance values until the colours the camera was outputting were as close as possible to the colours on the phone screen. Theoretically now everything I shoot with this camera with these settings should be close as I can get it to the true colour, with no colour cast other than the murky cast imbued by our atmosphere.

Thanks all. Winjupos certainly saved the day with this one. The individual stacked tiffs look horrid when sharpened but derotating and stacking them all together really made the difference. Thanks Neil. Yes I think it's possible to spot images done with the 462c they have a certain feel to them. Can't quite put my finger on what that is but it's probably something to do with the large overlap between the colours of the bayer when compared to other cameras like the 224c. I think that 'calibrating' the camera using a colour chart has really helped with the colour balance for this one, barely needed adjusting at all in post process, just a slight tweak to reduce the murkishness effect of our atmosphere. These are the white balance settings I'm using in FC...

That's a real beaut Neil, very well done

Nice work 👍

Very nice Geof, feels good to see the gas giants creeping back up higher in the sky

Captured after Saturn on the 26th (my last topic). Seeing was average but very variable. Nearly junked this data after reviewing the sharpened stacks but decided to go ahead and derotate them and it's turned out quite pleasing although lacking in outright detail. This image comprises 14x 90s captures between 11.20pm and 11.44pm. Best 10% were stacked. SW300p Newt and QHY462C, with APM 2.7x barlow and ZWO ADC. Firecapture>AS3>Astrosurface>Winjupos>Gimp Thanks for looking

That's a superb mosaic Neil. Sharp and detailed and not a hint of any artifacts anywhere. Really nice work 👍

Fantastic Neil, can't wait to see what you can do with the Orion once you've got back into the swing of it