DaveS

Good question, to which I don't know the answer. But if ZWO and QHY are similar in price then something has to give to get the Altair verion £350 lower.

OK, I joined the meeting, but my head still hurts. Not sure PI is for me, looks too complicated.

Got the first 10 min sub of M27 in Ha. A bit noisy due to still being in Nautical Dark.

Set up ready to go. CO says 88%+ cloud eyeball says 90%+ clear.

All being well I'll be there, as I want to see more about PI.

Convergent evolution and form following function will result in most cameras looking similar from the outside.

Had a look around on the QHY site. Some seriously serious cameras there. Never mind Sony sensors in their amateur level cameras, they are also using E2V sensors like the FLI Kepler cameras. In any case I think I may hold fire until I see whether Atik manage to bring an IMX 571 camera to market, and whether SX have anything coming up. My finances also dictate prudence.

Ah, the budget question, lol. There is, of course, the FLI Kepler 4040, but maybe not for us mere mortals. For myself I think a 28mm square (Like the old 126 format. Remember it?) sensor with 4 micron pixels hits my sweet spot, and could be binned 2x2 for 8 microns.

No streetlights in my village, or the one up the road. In fact I think the nearest are something like 4-5 miles away. Unfortunately there are a lot of them (Bridport).

Nothing doing yesterday, or today but tomorrow and Monday are looking promising. Fortunately I no longer have to set up each night, but do need to uncover and power up the 'scope.

OK, fair do.

You didn't have a telephone or power cable running across the frame did you?

It might not be applicable to the latest CMOS cameras, but I've found using Bias as well as Dark frames messed up the calibration, leading to imperfect removal of the amp-glow. I *think* it's because the Dark frame already contains the Bias signal, but I may be wrong. This was with the ASI 1600 amd 183 MMC cameras. I ended up using Dark, Flat and Dark Flat frames. YMMV.

Thinking about the 455 sensors, they can be binned 3x3 to give you effective pixels that are in excess of 10 um, while till having a respectable resolution.

Something to consider when thinking about these new CMOS cameras, it's not just the cost of the camera, or even the filters, you may need to factor in the cost of a new computer, and storage.

Wow! Wotalota dust! Not used to seeing M45 surrounded like that, really brings home what a dusty part of the spiral arm this is.

Slapped a coat e of Creocote on the beams this morning, had roof open most of the day for ventilation. Been doing some fiddly jobs around the 'scope and now feel confident enough to leave the TG cover off. May try to get the door hung if my back is up to it tomorrow. Waiting on the Chroma filters before putting the camera on.

Yep, if you can wait until Feb the QHY 268M should be released, that will give a similar plate scale to the 1600 with significantly higher QE and Full Well Depth.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Astrograph as a dealer. The amount of kit I've bought from Rupert over the last few years would amount to quite a nice car. We had quite an email discussion over cameras recently, and he made the point that QHY are NOT ZWO! They are more akin to the likes of FLI or Apogee. in the level of kit the make

Finally managed to get somewhere on a long standing project, to image M27 in NHO This is something of a first pass, consisting of 3 hours each [NII], HII and [OIII] in 10 min subs with the 130 triplet and ASI 1600. Stacking and RGB synthesis followed by DDP, a few rounds of Histo Stretch followed by a touch of Unsharp Mask in AstroArt 7 This has had a moderate crop to remove alignment edges. Need a lot more data, as the outer shells are only just visible. Looking at the distribution of lines, I think as much again [OIII] and [NII] will bring out the outer structure.

Another photo. The beam runs the length of the roof rail, doing two jobs, providing a secure anchorage for the toggle as well as providing a barrier to rain being blown under the roof. It will need a coat of Creocote as it hasn't been tanalised. The other three are pretty much the same.

Yes, though I go to Astrograph for my high-end stuff.

That's a VERY good Soul Nebula by the way, love the colours.

What flattener are you using? Some don't have a very big image circle so could run into problems with the ASP-C sensors. Spacing will also be more critical. For my money I'd be looking at QHY rather than ZWO, just better quality. Check their website, look to have more in common with the likes of FLI and Apogee rather than ZWO. How about the to-be-released QHY 268 MONO? Expected Feb now due to delays at the Sony plant.

I found This on the QHY site, which you are welcome to rubbish as advertising puff.