DaveS

OK, the Nexstar Evolution is an alt-az, thich means you will get field rotation with exposures more than 30 sec or so unless you have it on a wedge. Given the 1500mm FL you'll also run into oversampling with the ASI533 unless you also bung a reducer in the light path. The targets you want to image will all need long exposures so a wedge will be vital.

I could sell all my kit and be happy with just my eyes and a pair of bins. The expensive kit just lets me see / do more things.

What telescope will you be using, and what targets are you interested in? At the mo This camera looks good value, and has no amp-glow which plagues a lot of CMOS cameras, or This has a larger sensor and bigger pixels but does have amp-glow which will need calibrating out. Beyond this they get beyond your budget.

Focus wasn't helped by focusing on Luminance, which is a Baader filter, then imaging through ZWO which are a different thickness. Dur...

@haitch Yes, it's just skimming the southern horizon. I can't get this from my back garden, I had to park the tripod out in the road at the front, sheltered behind my car where I have a very low horizon. Fortunately, not only are there no street lights here, the next lot looking south are in France, 300km away. @carastro This was tracked, not guided which is the next thing to look at, while trying to keep the costs down. I have an old QHY5-II and PHD2 on my lappy. May add a 30mm finder-guider from Astro Essentials and a multi-way shoe. @tooth_dr Thanks. I've not tried 60s with the SA and 180 before. I have tried 120 sec (I think) at 35mm, and maybe 60 sec at 90. My last trial was 30 sec exposures with the 180 and my Fuji XT-1, which came out well. May try more 30 sec subs, possibly at a higher gain. I don't want to spend too much on this, but I am considering an ASIAir Pro for mount / camera control, but it's money! May also buy a new guide camera.

This was a short run to try out my mobile wide-field rig. Leitz 180mm f/3.4 Apo-Telyt-R on ASI 183 at -20C with 5 pos wheel, ZWO RGB and Baader L and H-alpha filters on Star Adventurer (Dark Frame optimised) 20 mins each RGB in 60 sec subs, and 10 mins H-alpha (Before a tree got in the way), calibrated with Darks only. Given Trichromy and DDP. H-alpha added to the Red channel. Finally binned 2x2 for upload here Problems: Star trailing, I thought I had the PA on, obviously not. Focus / Blue Bloat, looks like I need to focus each filter separately at f/3.4, plus more care with the Bahtinov Mask. Thought it was spot on, but very slightly off. Will have another go, maybe tonight.

Yes, all the very best to you and your wife Vlad, get well soon.

They are, yes. I put a layer of Creocoat on while waiting for more screws to arrive for the rest of the cladding. Now run myself out of T&G, dur.. so waiting again.

Yes, at the mo I see nothing to tempt me away from AA7. I'm sure APP is good software, but the presentation was all about the new comet stacking.

I'm afraid to say I was hoping for a showcase of the post processing. As things stand I haven't seen anything to make me switch from AstroArt 7, and I think I tried a demo version of APP as well as Star Tools and PI. Also tried Maxim DL for processing. So far AA7 wins for me, while PI just did my head in.

In my 11 years here I've only notched up a little ove 8.5k posts so not very chatty, posting more frequently now the "anybody Playing" thread popped up I try not to think how much I've spent on astronomy, though I think it's about £450-460k and counting if you include moving hose for a dark site.

That's a blast from my past. Had pretty much all "doc" Smith at one point. Sad or what?

I think the 10 Micron mounts need a complex weather station setup for air mass / refraction data. Only ASA can do encoder guiding without needing a weather station as they do a local model for the specific run. The ASA mount can dither while encoder guiding.

I must have been missing something along the way, as the last time I tried stacking my RAF files I got a series of Error messages, and the resultant stack was monochrome. Meanwhile, here is a slight tweak in Selective Colour Not sure it's made a huge amount of difference.

Thanks Francis. I may pull a 16 bit TIFF back into Affinity to see what I can do in Channel Mixer.

Thanks Gina.

A stack of 19 x 30 sec frames (Would have been 20 but for a passing car) from the front drive of my house, looking due south. Fuji XT1, Leitz 180mm f/3.4 Apo-Telt-R at ISO 3200 on Star Adventurer. Converted to 16 bit TIFF in Affinity Photo, Sigma Stacked in AstroArt 7, then Gradient Removal, White Balance and DDP

What is this thing "eyepiece"? lol.

I think I shall revisit this target later in the year when I can capture data under full astro dark. Although I have 3 nm filters, and have 21.66 skies, under nautical dark I think the [OIII] especially will be degraded.

Agree with the above. Been here 11 years now but it was already a major forum then, and has grown since. the forum has been a big part of my journey back into astronomy, and the bankruptcy that results from imaging!

Yes, watched it for about the third time on iPlayer, only the other night, and yes, the pathos of "Wal" staying behind at his observatory while the others went on, and the caption at the end announcing his passing.

This is the HSO given a brutal treatment, to the point at which the FPN is showing. DDP and Histo Stretch before RGB assembly, then a gradient removal after cropping followed by white balance and colour balance then another round of histogram stretch. This probably counts as a crime against data. Looking carefully at the FITS on my monitor I can see a hint of a blue tain coming down from the blue star I cut in half top centre. Need more data. "Same again sir?" "Ta, I don't mind if I do"

I was trying to see the shock front but ran into noise problems. I need *more* data This is the [OIII] on its own given a brutal stretch I *think* I have just caught one tail of it just coming down from the star top centre, but the bow shock propper is well out of frame. It didn't help that I had an annoying alignment edge right on the top of the frame.

Thanks Olly. Yes, I've taken on board your advice and will be having another look at the data.

Many thanks for the feedback and pointers Olly. I'll go back and have another good look at the data, while keeping a close eye on the black point.