DaveS

Depends on what you mean by "better". The pixel size is the same, so are (At least to a first approximation) the other specs, DR, FW etc. The main difference is the sensor size, which will run you into other questions over filter size (50mm unmounted) and whether your 'scope will cover the 43mm image circle with enough to spare for vignetting and edge aberrations.

And now I'm done with this until I can get better data, probably next year now. This is the latest process using a more extreme DDP in AA7 than I would normally use, lots of masked stretches, colour work in Affinity, and masked denoise and unsharp mask in AA7.

Dark sky makes more of a difference than any kind of filter. When I moved from SQI 18.25 (-ish) London to 21.66 Dorset the difference was spectacular, galaxies suddenly became doable and worthwhile.

All LRGB will cut IR / UV except the weird IDAS type 4 which in addition to having red sensitivity in the deep blue (To mimic the eye's violet response) has multiple IR bands, so needing an IR block for normal LRGB imaging, but can be used for IR imaging. The main differences look to be overlap or gaps between the bands, and how far into the blue / UV the blue filter extends.

There are also different grades of sensor. There's the Grade 1 and Grade 2 CCD sensors, which can add a fair old hike in cost, see also This page on the Astrograph site.

I pulled the TIFF into Affinity, went into Channel Mixer, Mode CMYK, Magents, and reduced the Magenta slider. Possibly I could have gone a bit further but I was concerned about increasing the green too much.

Ah, I thought it involved PI. It might be a cheat method, but it worked, so that's OK by me.

Ah yes, much better. I could see that some stars were still a bit magenta, but was worried about pushing it too far and bringing too much green in. What method did you use?

Thanks Mark. There is a touch of trailing in RA which I need to get rid of. May try Goran's layer method in GIMP. Looking at my files, this was over 11 nights.

Superb image, and as Mark says, very well framed.

Yep, another cracker. You've managed to hold the detail in that black spear / trident thing without it blocking up, something I've struggled with in the past.

This is 12 hours [OIII], 9 hours [SII] (Need more), and 4 hours H-alpha which is very strong here. All in 10 min subs over many nights after M27 got too low. 130 f/7 apo, Astrodon 3nm, ASI 1600, encoder guided on DDM60. Stacking in AstroArt 7, initial stretch in GIMP, back into AA7 for RGB synthesis, cropping and gradient reduction, then into Affinity Photo for channel mixer to get rid of the excessive magenta (Still a bit there), selective colour, noise reduction and clarity. JPEG export in AA7. C&C welcome, as usual.

Haha, yep, I didn't know they existed either until I looked on the Wickes site. I couldn't have done the job without them, struggled mightily with packing blocks (Timber offcuts) and door wedges but couldn't get it aligned well enough. The air wedges solved the problem in about 10 mins. It also showed up all the out-of-true bits, so the door swings open, but at least it closes and can be locked, which was the main thing. Took time out to clear up with dustpan-and-brush and vac, as the floor was a mess, with sawdust on various beams as well. Doing a lot of the little fiddly jobs that seem to take longer than the big jobs of construction. Now waiting on Chroma to deliver some filters to @FLO, so they can be delivered here. Don't want to put the camera on until I've loaded the filter wheel. Then I can get the 'scope balanced and start on the technical stuff of PA and modeling. Just hope the collimation isn't too far out. Now off to install the UPS and an Ethernet hub.

A quick update. After much heaving and grunting, plus loads of words that would get me banned if repeated here, I finally got the obsy door hung and the closing edge chamfered. Also managed to sink the hole for the strike plate, so the door can now be closed and locked, making the obsy at least nominally secure, in that someone would have to force the door in order to nick anything. No photos, as this is an open forum. I had to order a couple of air wedges from Wickes in order to support the door as the floor is several cm below the bottom of the sole-plate.

OK, I've been bashing my head against this to the point that my eyes ache and my head hurts. So here are the three unstretched but calibrated and aligned stacks. There are alignment edges but can't crop them off without messing up the other processes in AstroArt 9 Hours H.tif 9 Hours N.tif 9 Hours O.tif Replaced the 32 bit(?) FITS with 16 bit TIFFS which should open reliably If you have any success could you post here for comparison, thanks.

And a second NHO combination using the pre-stretched TIFFs Gradient Reduction after cropping, White Balance, DDP, Histo Stretch, Colour Balance and Unsharp Mask Still a bit meh

Here we go, for @Laurin Dave 9 Hours H, linear stretch in GIMP 9 Hours N, linear stretch And 9 Hours O, linear stretch Faugh, the JPEGS uploaded here look nothing like they do in the GIMP window, but I hope they show that the outer wings are nearly all [OIII], with just a bit og [NII].

Thanks Olly. I'll come back to it in a bit. I originally had a rather yellowish background, in trying to take it out I may have gone too far.

Thanks guys. Those outer lobes are surprisingly feint. Unfortunately M27 is now starting to get very low after a reasonable imaging session, so may have to revisit this next year, depending on what I have rigged up. Really needed to have started in August to get a long run. I think I will revisit the processing after a break to give myself a fresh perspective.

This is 9 hours each on [NII], HII. and [OIII] captured over multiple nights in in varying combinations. 130mm f/7 triplet apo, ASI1600MM cool, 3nm Astrodon filters. Processing in AstroArt 7, GIMP and Affinity Photo. Combined as N>red, H>green, O>blue immediately after stacking, then levels in GIMP, Selective Colour in Affinity Photo then back to GIMP for titivating. Although there are 27 hours here the data is a bit miffy, due to some being captured in Nautical Dark, and with M27 very low in the sky towards the end of the night, leading to gradients all over the place. The sky clarity has been suboptimal too. I've pushed this a bit more than I should I think to pull out the outer halo, which should be stronger with this much data. Will park this as far as data capture is concerned, but will revisit the processing.

I'm not sure I can be specific as it was in a private email exchange with a supplier I've bought a lot of very expensive kit from in the past, I was enquiring about technicalities. The information was that QHY were ready to go but there was a delay from Sony in providing the sensors.

I think those holes are where the QHY OAG bolts on. QHY do make telescope adaptors, but I haven't seen them in the dealers. Who did you get it from? maybe drop them an email.

Time for some more photos. Been installing the roof automation. The motor And the control box. There are two mains leads, one connected directly, the other through a UPS. When there is a power cut the software will park the 'scope and shut the roof. And a shot through the door of the whole interior.

How about getting Fabio or Martino from MSB software to give us a presentation on AstroArt and what it can do. I'm thinking it's being overlooked in the rush to new "Flavour of the month" processing software.

My head was still spinning when I went to bed. This wasn't so much a walk through as a gallop through. I suppose if you already knew your way around PI it made sense, but left me reeling. We need a PI 101 for dummies, taking it slowly with repeats