tomato

That's interesting. Would the software binning be smart enough to offset the green bias in the matrix I wonder?

If you bin a CMOS OSC camera I know that will mess up the Bayer matrix and you will lose the colour data, but would it produce an acceptable monochrome luminance image? The individual pixels would have different sensitivities but wouldn’t this get evened out by the software binning?

For small targets I use Esprit 150s and ASI 178 cmos cameras binned 2x2 to image at 0.94 arcsec per pixel, which is usually a bit optimistic for my seeing. I must try the Starnet processing technique to see if I can get tighter stars. At the ripe old age of 63 I regularly lift the scopes on and off open tube rings in the confines of a Pulsar dome, to date with no drama.🤞

I use the IDAS NBZ dual band filter with my OSC camera, and can confirm the data works fine with Luke’s workflow.👍

I'm still imaging, and against all sensible advice still imaging galaxies, albeit bright ones. This is a WIP on M63, using the 2 hours of Nautical darkness still available from my location. By the time the moon gets out of the way to continue this one, the nights will be getting longer!

With the back focus I have available with a QHY 268c, I use a home made version of the Artesky item, as I only need to hold one filter per session.

Wonderful image, IMHO any mosaic project from the UK is quite an undertaking, and you have done a great job with this one. It must be tempting though to carry on and create a full rectangular FOV?

For future reference t might still be worth asking the question on the Sitech forum, the folks at Sidereal Technology always seem keen to help out with user issues.

I can only repeat what has already been said, the detail on your image is incredible.👏

Ok thanks, so if I have it correct, the shroud is a tube of material with no join down the side which can be opened or closed up? I guess that makes sense if there are a couple of rigid hoops sewn into it.

Hi Luke, Inspired by the first result I put some salmon pink data from the Heart Nebula through your version 2 tutorial. I can safely say this is the most processing I have ever done in PI, albeit religiously following your script. Please excuse the dodgy blue band at the top, I was too idle aligning the camera on successive nights, and the star shapes are nothing to write home about either, but the end result does please me more than my original.👍

+1 for asking the question on the Sitech forum, all queries seem to get a timely response. I have found warnings on the net not to connect a guide cam to the aux port on Celestron mounts, there are separate labelled autoguider and hand pad ports on the Sitech II controller but no aux port. Unfortunately I can’t see from the manual if these ports have the same connections. In the Sitech manual on the Mk 1 controller schematic, the aux port pinouts are again unfortunately not specified.

That’s a nice capture but might I suggest that you may have black clipped the data given the sharp cut offs on the nebula regions and how uniformly black the background is. My own preference is to leave the stars in, but taking them out certainly makes you scrutinise the nebula features.

I seem to recall that in SGP if you use the mosaic planner, it platesolves the first panel and tells you how much to rotate the camera. This process is repeated until the camera angle comes within the pre-defined tolerance angle. A powered rotator would be nice but I do have a finite Astro spend budget. To keep things simple I always use the mosaic planner that is part of the imaging imaging software that is controlling the rig.

Thanks John, They are ASI 178 cameras, retrofitted with a Peltier cooler, heat sink and fan. These maintain the sensors at around 3 deg C, which just makes calibration, particularly the darks, a bit more consistent.

Hi Luke, Thanks for your tutorial, I had a measly one hour of of data on the Elephant's Trunk region, captured with a RASA8 and QHY268 OSC using the IDAS NBX filter and got a 50 shades of salmon pink image. Following your mk 1 tutorial I have managed to get something a bit more Hubblesque. It needs more work as the dark regions have lost detail but thanks for taking the time to make the video share it.

Hi Neil, The Sitech software is indeed a wonder to behold, especially if you attempt to read the manual from cover to cover like I did, but you don’t have to get in deep to get the best out of your Mesu. In the early days I used to centre a reference star from the list in the software and perform an ‘offset Init’, checking that the scope was on the correct side of the pier as the software stated, and I was ready to go. These days I connect the mount to NINA, and platesolve to sync the mount, which is lightning quick.

Thanks Goran. Astro darkness disappeared a few weeks ago from my location and the nautical darkness window is barely 2 hours now. Nevertheless, I resolved to keep imaging, and have been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the data, not top notch for sure, both worth processing to a final image. I got some data on M63 last night, and the individual subs don’t look too bad so will take that one to completion. At this rate I will get through to the summer solstice and come out the other side.😊

There are historic and recent accounts of Lucas Mesu’s excellent after sales service on the Sitech forum, so I guess folks will have to make their own minds up. What is not in doubt however, is the performance of the mount itself, so if that’s what you want and your budget isn’t open ended, your choices are somewhat limited. I was fortunate to be able to purchase mine through Modern Astronomy, which was entirely painless, and the mount has to date given 7 years of excellent service.

Take a look at the video of EP12 on the StarGazine forum on here, it is a presentation on APP by it’s creator Mabula Haverkamp, it focuses on APP’s comet image processing capability, but it will give you a good insight into it’s features. Personally, I think it does an excellent job for calibration and stacking, and you can use it to for onward processing, but I note you already have PS for this. There is a free trial if you want to try it out.

In the early days I tried bolting a wooden base to the mount to transport it in the back of the car. Not large enough as it turned out because when negotiating a tight roundabout it toppled over. Fortunately there were soft bags in the vicinity so no harm done. However, I learnt my lesson and acquired a large flight case to ensure safe storage and transport thereafter.

All I got was a few snaps on my IPhone. The Sun looks like one of the stars in the corners of my RASA FOV.😉

There is a big strip of clear sky currently to the West of Ireland, don't think it will make Shropshire in time.

Blame the G7 for going on their holidays.

Despite the light sky, I think the background could be better, so tried Startools with that end in mind and also attempting to get a bit more detail in the dust lane. On balance I think I prefer this version.