tooth_dr

Another image from Birr (where the big telescope lives):

No problem, the back focus distance is 76mm with this flattener so there is a bit more wiggle room. I never do visual so I never thought about the potential for needing accessories. All I know is that it really does deliver very nice tight stars across at lease APS-C sized sensor.

I was going to suggest an APM LZOS 105. It is just within your budget, but I'm not sure when they will be available again. 105mm APO Telescope - APM Telescopes 105/650 APO Refractor (astrograph.net)

I got a reply from Dunsink Observatory in Dublin via Nemetode Meteor Group, and they also recorded the same event, albeit through the clouds. It was NNW for them and SSW for me, so it looks like the meteor passed between us. I find that fascinating.

@Xiga thats a great animation, just shows you whats possible with the star removal. I've an image very like the first one and would never ever have thought to remove the stars and find just like that.

Sunday morning 4:34am - looks like a nice terminal flash?

Thanks Ciarán. This data was taken prior to collimating the scope with the ocal. Just have a wee bit of spacing to correct now.

I have been doing this with my dual rig of LZOS 105mm, with mono and OSC IMX571 cameras, and as stated above, the mono is just better. The colour is absolutely great, but mono Ha with a 3nm filter is a different league. I also shoot ha/oiii with a dual band filter on my OSC when the moons out and again, the NB data isnt as good as the mono camera, especially the Oiii, but that will be influenced by the band pass.

Hi David Thanks for your message. I’ve just been busy with everything, work, family, etc, but all 100% 👍🏻 I’ve not stopped gathering data, just processing! I’ve amassed some 200+ hours of exposure on my PC just waiting to be processed, but I find it so hard with the overwhelming amount of ways to do it now that I barely know where to start. Included in the list is about 700 subs on the Leo triplet and a nine panel Markarians chain mosaic 😩

Cheers. Bit noisy but can’t be expecting much more from the data.

A tight crop of the cocoon nebula through my SW 250px with the 2600MC. Only managed 40 minutes of RGB data in 120s and 180s subs, along with about 6 hours of Ha data via the NBZ filter as the moon was too big to continue RGB capture. I used the Ha to enhance the nebula via a layer mask. I would guess I still am a bit lost in terms of where I want to be with my processing, but I’m really planning on getting into it this season all being well. CS Adam.

Absolutely stunning image, puts the cocoon in a whole different perspective. Also I didn’t realise how much dust there was!! There is quite a bit of blue reflection around the cocoon which is nice. Yes this is a really fine image 👌🏻

Beautiful. Makes me want to get the Tak 180 out.

Easily solved - move max amount, close programe, reopen and move again. It remember the last position but also resets movement to zero

I used my flats panel for light.

You can see in my photos that in the 250px the camera was hard to see, but in the epsilon the red camera body was easily visible. I'd suggest a brighter light source or increased the exposure. You should at least be able to see the little square in the middle. But I'm using a Newt so this may not be accurate for the SCT.

Cheers Stuart, that is encouraging and sums it up well 👍🏻

50% is always the obvious solution when I'm stuck too! That final version is poster stuff, absolute belter of an image, perhaps the best I've seen of the bubble.

This is why I own a copy of PI but haven’t used it. It looks amazing but my head can’t round it even to get started

Target ADU in your flats can make a difference.

You can say that again 😊

Certainly from my experience, F2.8 is still very much a fussy place to be imaging at. The Epsilon is very well built thought, but at expense of being heavy. Richard had great success with his ed130 out of the box, but I haven’t seen much from the 160 so I don’t know about it but presumably it’s ok.

The detail is incredible, can only dream of getting a decent long focal length image like this one day! For me the top one is a little soft and the bottom one a little hard, but if I was going by my own preference, top one for me.

Took the Takahashi Epsilon off the shelf and had a go at collimating it this afternoon too. The secondary mirror needed lowered a few mm, something I would never have worked out without the software. Proof of pudding will be how it performs, and it'll be with a full frame Nikon if I ever get around to it.

I have both myself, but the leak is with a ZWO.