tomato

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.

This is NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy, captured over 3 nights in the (for me) rapidly dwindling Nautical darkness. Thanks to a suggestion from @wimvb, I have raised the black level to diminish the blotchy background somewhat, compared to my version entered in the galaxy competition. Me being too hasty as usual. Lots of tiny background galaxies in this region of the sky. Captured with the dual Esprit 150/ASI 178 rig on a Mesu mk 1 mount, guiding at 0.4-0.5 arcsec total RMS, imaging at 0.94 arcsec per pixel. L 51 x 3 mins RGB 15 x 3 mins each, 4.8 hrs total integration. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, AP and GIMP. Thanks for looking

Hi Simon, Welcome to SGL. I don't think there are many imagers with Planewave instruments based in the UK, but 8" and 10" RCs are quite popular and there a few Orion Optics ODK 14 owners on the forum. I image small galaxies with Esprit 150 APOs,/ASI 178 cameras binned 2x2 so I'm at 0.94 arcsec/pixel, and that is frankly me being optimistic from my location in damp Shropshire. Steve

I thought my contributions were over with the twilit skies but had a go at NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy, over the last few nights. Captured with the dual Esprit 150/ASI 178 rig on a Mesu mk 1 mount, guiding at 0.4-0.5 arcsec total RMS, imaging at 0.94 arcsec per pixel. L 51 x 3 mins RGB 15 x 3 mins each, 4.8 hrs total integration. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, AP and GIMP.

I think it is pretty darn good for 2.5 hrs integration and an absence of astro darkness.

The scope is the cheap bit, you then need to buy a mountain to stick it it on.

Dare I say it, the base and Alt/Az adjusters look very similar to the Mesu Mk1... I feel for the folks who put their faith (and money) in the Trident mount if it has now disappeared from the website.😕

Interesting mod and intriguing post title. I had visions you had somehow used software to integrate your Telrad to the scope which had then come under cyberattack, lol.

Telescopius (previously known as Deep Sky Browser) is useful, you can filter objects by type, magnitude and importantly size. There is a FOV facility so you can see how well your chosen object will look on your sensor/scope combination. I try to plan my targets but frequently get frustrated by areas of cloud that refuse to budge from my chosen area of sky, so pick another target at short notice using Stellarium.

I have only ever executed the dither command from the capture software e.g. NINA or SGP, and I would agree that this makes sense as you don’t want to execute a dither while you are capturing a sub exposure.

Yeah, IMHO a much bigger issue for stargazers near this facility than Starlink satellites.

It switches the retro fitted Peltier cooler to control the sensor temp at set point, usually +3 deg C.

Here is my and @Tomatobro’s dual Esprit 150 rig, no prizes for cable management.

I’m considering one of these two to try my hand at visual observing from my Bortle 5 location or a proper dark site. The all metal construction and visual aesthetics of the ES scope appeal to me more but at the end of the day ease of use and optical quality are what really count. Would I be right in saying the mirror quality is likely to be very similar as they are both manufactured in China or am I wide of the mark on that one? Any thoughts/experiences would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the comments, I do intend to add some more data in collaboration with @Tomatobro, when M27 climbs a bit higher in the sky. I thought the original attachment was a bit pink on my iPad so have had another go at the processing: