Tommohawk

OK thanks for that Neil. Yes it would certainly help if there were some simple objective test that could be done - then I'd know exactly what was what. I read up on mirror testing and it all looked a bit of a black art!

Great, thanks Neil that's really helpful. My set-up seems essentially similar to yours - alas, the results are not! Your capture and processing skills are first class, but even allowing for this I'm pretty sure something in my kit isn't right. My Omegon 385Velox camera has 3.8 micron pixels but I'm using a X5 powermate (at about 4X) so similar image scale. The camera has a built in IR filter, and I've tried adding an external one which - not surprisingly - makes no difference. Scope is a modified SW 250PDS. Capturing at 5ms same as you. My conclusion is that to a great extent it's down to the primary mirror. Yours is 1/10 PV, and I'm guessing you had a more standard type thing previously - do you feel the high spec mirror makes a big difference? I also wonder whether the performance drops off as it cools. This would seem counter intuitive, but last night I was getting really dodgy stars toward the end of the evening. Dont want to hijack the thread, but wonder if anyone has a view on that? I'm going to set up tonight with my "work-horse" PDS200 which has always given great results in the past, albeit with mono. That should give some insight re the mirror issue.

For me, the processing seems spot on - nice detail, not clunky. I'm trying to figure out your processing - so hope you could field a few questions! Is that straight RGB with IR block? Or did you use a LUM layer - seem to recall you use an IR685 on occasion? Also I'd be interested to know what exposure and capture software you're using. And is that a 2.25 Barlow? TBH I've done quite a lot of mono planetary n the past, but I'm having a bit of a fight with my current OSC set-up and trying to glean whatever info I can!

Looks like you're on the right lines! TBH I don't do much denoise with planetary - what have you done prior? I can see Autostakkert lurking there - just wondering how many frames you took etc ?

Another lovely result Neil - nice job!

Thanks for the "Elephant heads-up" guys..... looks like there is more than one elephant lurking there!

Thanks. Your image is great... a bit more subtle than mine I guess - makes mine look a bit overcooked!

Thanks Stu. TBH perfectly honest I've never quite figured out where the elephant actually is in this image! Maybe I just don't have much imagination! Thankyou! Yes the first image is the later one with more data. I know Hubble palette isn't to everyone's taste, but I agree that it makes the best use of the data even though it's false colour.

Hi and thanks for the nice comments and likes! I have now added another slightly longer nights worth of data, so 36 x 300s subs per channel. It's allowed a much better data stretch though TBH the data for this target is pretty good didn't really need much of a stretch. More a case of toning it down! I still don't have the star colours done in BB, but there was pretty full moon throughout this so not a good time for BB. Hopefully can do sometime soon. I've added the new image at the top and left the old one for comparison.

Hi all. On a roll with SHO at the moment, and this target positioned nicely for a sensible start time - once I'd done some serious tweaks to the meridian limit (2 hours past the meridian.... and about 2mm before mount collision!) Quite please given such a short integration - I'll try for some more tonight and also get some BB star colour. Well, that's the plan anyhow! Processed this the same as my other NB but somehow the colours don't look quite right? Happy for comment criticism! HEQ5 SW200PDS ASI1600 cool ZWO NB filters (newer series) NINA, APP, PS. 15 x 300s subs each filter, -20C

Lovely mono image - shows this wispy target nicely!

That looks good to me, especially given the conditions and short integration. That said, personally I think the colour maybe could be recalibrated a bit - but all a bit subjective!

Thats very nice - and I like the way the colours worked out. Nice mix!

Very kind! Colour is all a bit subjective but as you say false colour is, well.... false! Hopefully if the moon pushes off soon I can get some BB for the stars. And thanks for the other likes!

Hi all. A few nice - but short! - nights 8th-10th July, although the usual selection of gremlins to keep me on my toes... I'll spare you the details! The moon was out (about 70-90%) which doesn't seem to cause too many problems in NB, especially being quite low and actually below my southerly horizon. Some troublesome gradients which vary night by night especially in the OIII. I think I have it fairly well sorted, though OIII always seems a bit sparse with my set-up for some reason. One of my most pleasing results to date - especially give the street lights and outdoor garden lighting which folk seem so fond of these days. Ideally I'd sort the star colours in BB - if there's another clear night I might give that a go. Whilst reading up on this target I discovered it has a Herbig-Haro object (H555) which is just discernible at the top of the lower right pillar. I attempted to sharpen this, but gave up as the data doesn't really support it - so its as is. The colours look about right I think - maybe a bit strong - but after selective colour layers and a bit of stretching I ended up having to reduce saturation by 30% to tone it down a bit! Maybe a tad green in places, but no surprise with all that Ha. I added 20% Ha to the SII and 40% to the OIII to balance things up a bit before combining. 57Cyg had a biggish halo - but I fixed that by cropping it!. 56 Cyg halo isnt too bad... I think! Do let me know what you think, thanks for looking. The trusty SW200P with SWCC (0.9x) ASI1600 cool, ZWO NB filters (newer series) 52 x Ha, 46 x OIII, 49 x SII all @300sec @-20 C. Captured in NINA, processed in APP with star reduction. Combined and processed in PS.

Very nice images! No objection to false colour, but cosmetically I prefer the first one FWIW.

Yeah really nice - I like that!

FWIW I think that's a very nice image, especially Wim's version. I'd agree that 600sec subs seems excessive, but the data doesn't seem to have suffered/clipped as a result - it looks great. Also I guess any PN will be tough at that scale.

It's an 8 amp supply so there's about 100W frying power but I agree that conducting anything like that through condensation seems unlikely. I don't think the short was within the splitter - as wulfrun said it looks closer to the very tip. It wasn't plugged in to anything though... it was exposed. I've just been looking again at the this and although the tip is basically concealed, its just possible for the plug tip to contact the metal work on the mount, so I think that's what must have happened.

When I first started using a 12V splitter cable for the camera cooler, mount supply and dew heaters, I pondered long and hard whether to fuse the supply end at 8 amps, or each individual cable at 2 amps. I solved the problem by doing neither - what could possibly go wrong? And I've used it like this for the past 4 -5 years. Last night I left the rig running (to capture IC5070 which is still work in progress but coming along nicely) but when I checked it at 5a.m. I noticed it had run to the mount limit nicely, and the imaging run had completed.... but I couldn't park the mount, and tons of error messages. Closer inspection showed one of the cables had pretty well fried. Oddly, it was a cable that wasn't being used and the plug was hanging downward.... so I'm pretty sure condensation must have dripped down the cable to the exposed live plug, and bridged the outer and inner conductors. In fact I can see the insulator in the plug has got heat damaged So what's all this about dew being pure water and therefore non-ionic and non-conducting??? Fortunately none of the kit seems to have suffered - apart from the cable of course! Anyhow, the take home message is get some fuses in there, and cover any exposed connectors. I've become increasingly complacent about this and the warm weather lulls one into a false sense of security.

Wonderful images - Saturn is very sharp given how low it is. Out of curiosity are you using an ADC?

Thanks for your kind comments Carole! The main issue I had with this, particularly the OIII, was sorting the gradients, especially as there was a full moon. Astropixel processor worked well for this, but only when processing as separate mono images and combining in PS. APP didn't do a good job at all when working in RGB (SHO)t Yes I did 2 rounds of noise reduction, which isn't ideal, but when viewed at 100% it's pretty grainy otherwise. I did try some selective sharpening but again at 100% it looked a bit nasty. Of course we often don't view at 100% so maybe I could get away with it.

Thanks Wim. I haven't added up the weight exactly but it's 20kg give or take - not bad given the max payload for imaging is usually given as about 11Kg. TBH the guiding is as pretty much as good as any of my other lighter setups - but it's too risky. If the RA clutch slips it could be expensive!! The Quattro will go up for sale I think - I really only did this to check it's collimated OK and give a prospective buyer some idea of what it can do. Thanks for that Craig. Agree about the Losmandy plate, although the mating face of the SW scope ring isn't really wide enough to take full advantage of the Losmandy bar. The ADM mount and guidescope are rock solid but there must be some flex in the imaging scope. The stars are a bit eggy for sure - star reduction helps with this, but there must be some loss in detail overall. I've never worked with an OAG, although I know they seem to be favoured. My imaging setups vary a lot and some are very short so an OAG may be problematic. I find it easier to just use the same guide scope for all on the dual mount - but some compromises for sure.

Hi Carole - not sure why that is. I can see on my phone and PC, and looks like others can. Something funny with your phone download maybe? PS I'm still fighting with my Dark Shark... and losing!

My Quattro has been out of action for a while cos I borrowed the mirror for a project but I've just reassembled and collimated it and needed to test it out. I've not done much with it cos I only have an HEQ5 - I did one session previously unguided with mixed results. So just for a laugh I put the Quattro on my ADM dual mount with 60mm guidescope - and all the weights I own. It was still pretty top heavy and main risk is if the RA clutch slips, gravity will spin it round and do some damage. So I was extra careful! Discovered this target quite by chance - I wanted to do the pillars in Eagle but it's too low and obstructed by houses. NGC6820 has similar gas pillar features, and is a similar distance at 6000 ly. The main issue (there is always something!) on this target, which I did over 4 nights from 12th June, was that NINA seemed to stop part way through each run. After night #2 I figured out it was stopping on filter changes which it never used to do. Short version is that I allocate a target for each filter run (yes I know that's weird) and turns out with the latest version of NINA you need to enable "start guiding" for each target. Seems odd, but there you go. So unfortunately only a limited number of subs - plus it was full moon, and one night was windy, and one night I had lots of what I can only assume was thermal distortion - astigmatic looking stars in one corner. Collimation was still fine. Anyhow - guiding was mostly impossibly good, apart from the windy night, at around 0.75" arcsec - at least that's what was reported. The other odd thing is that the standard Skywatcher 0.9 coma corrector appeared to work fine - -which is peculiar because when I tried it before at F4 it seemed poor. Another mystery. So - Quattro 10 with SW CC giving F3.6, ASI1600 cool, NINA, Astro Pixel Processor including star reducer, quite a bit of PS, cropped and rotated 90 deg CCW. About 75 Ha, and 60 OIII and SII all at 180secs, gain 300. Some funny stars, and a bit noisy but pretty good overall. And let's here it for the HEQ5! Hope you like it - grateful for any any comments