tomato

Battling clouds for me usually means you get some imaging time but not what I planned. So for example a planned 3 hour session on a dual rig would give me 3 hours L on the one scope and an hour each of RGB. But if the clouds roll in after 2 hrs, you have 2 hrs L, 1 hr each R & G but no B. A dual OSC rig would have collected 4 hrs of RGB and you can do something with this data the next day.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. If you want the absolute best quality data to process (and you have plenty of access to the quality of sky needed for the kit to perform at it's best), and you have the budget, go mono and filters. If, like me, you are battling the clouds constantly, and you actually want to finish some half decent images to share and enjoy, go OSC.

Thanks for this, I might need some for my Risingcam IMX571, when it finally arrives…

I guess the instrumentation on the receiving end of the scope is fairly tried and tested technology, as is putting it in the desired orbit, but having it all deploy and accurately align, that must be ground breaking stuff. Let's hope nothing get's stuck. I think on the website it is described as 30 days of terror.

Still aiming for a December launch, so I understand. A Christmas mission, just like Apollo 8. With $10 billion at stake and no hope of a service/repair mission, then extreme caution is understandable.

That’s really nice, another OSC set up performing well. I suppose your FOV could just do with being a little bit larger to frame it nicely, or how about a 4 panel mosaic?

Indeed, a single RASA8/2600 panel will do it justice if carefully centred like your example, unlike the Veil or Spaghetti Nebula.

Great capture, this is new one for me, will give it a try before the RASA comes off the mount.

Oh, and based on the fits header entries, APP reported a camera gain of 90 on the M27 subs. In StarTools I just follow the elements from left to right on the tool panel on the left hand side, I didn't move the default settings a lot except for the Wipe tool (had to increase the aggressiveness) and the second auto dev where I altered the parameters to achieve a balance between background brightness and areas of maximum exposure. ST runs lightning quick on my machine so I can see what effect the changes make within a few seconds, so its easy to home in on an optimum setting. If you want help on the optimum workflow Ivo Jager, the creator of StarTools, has taken SGL member's data set and provides you with a detailed workflow after applying his considerable skill. It certainly put me on the right track towards improving my processing with the package. Once you have sorted the capture issues identified, I would PM him with some data if, (like me) you like the way the software works.

I took your M27 data through Astro Pixel Processor, it successfully analysed all 36 subs. I took the best 18 and it registered, normalised and stacked these, with no errors. I took this stack through the StarTools default workflow and used the star shrink and repair tools to improve the star shapes. I would say the biggest areas for improvement is scope collimation and focus, and taking calibration frames, that will make the image a whole lot sharper and remove the bunnies from the background.👍

Crikey, sparks will fly if this gets out…😉

Did a quick Google and found this: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19720004116/downloads/19720004116.pdf The visual filamentary structures may be in the same region as described in the paper, I’m struggling to interpret the accompanying illustration, but it looks like a plausible explanation.

Here are a couple of images captured last night of the region around Sadr. The widefield view is 14x10 mins of 7nm Ha with the SY135 lens and Moravian G2-8300 CCD, the closer view is 56x3 mins with the RASA8/QHY268c/NBZ combination. Colour was not really an option with the moon so bright so I converted the monotone OSC image to B&W. My knack for bad framing continues, I notice I have managed to chop through the Crescent Nebula on the Samyang framing. In B&W these hydrogen clouds remind me of the watery ones we have to contend with on Earth. Does anybody have any information on the filament structure that is visible in the lower left of the RASA image, it doesn't appear to be visible anywhere else in the FOV?

Fair enough, I did introduce the FES words, albeit in praise of what had gone before. Glad the SGL community sorted the green Veil out.

I thought the FES thread might have had a beginning, a middle and an end, like this one, but it looks like it will run and run. I agree with some other posters that the weather might have something to do with it.

This is SGL at it’s best, I preferred reading this thread to 500 pages on the Flat Earth Society.

Along with Startools about the best ~£30 I have spent on processing software.

For sure the real high end kit is still astronomically expensive, but decent entry level kit has to be cheaper now in relative terms than it was 40 years ago.

I think it is all a matter of degrees. One of the key debates ongoing is how close a state of the art OSC CMOS is to mono and LRGB. I don’t think moving from a mono CCD to a CMOS mono would be as big a leap as the move from uncooled DSLR to cooled CCD. The mono KAF8300 with filters is still capable of producing excellent images, it hasn’t suddenly dipped in performance just because the next generation of CMOS sensors has arrived. It may just need a bit more effort than the CMOS equivalent, and the longer exposures make more demands on the mount, but if you are on a limited budget then I would rejoice at the great deals that can be had on used CCD cameras. The technology on optical sensors is moving along, so I don’t think it will be long before there is another new, improved CMOS camera in the mix.

This is one I have, does a great job in a 2.2m Pulsar dome, takes the humidity down from 99% to <70% in about 15 mins at the end of a session, ambient temp <5 deg C at the start. https://www.dehumidifiersuk.com/eco-air-dd122fw-simple-7-litre-low-temperature-desiccant-dehumidifier.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAs92MBhAXEiwAXTi25yvWbxm3AN3DekvC7XirN_x-IKLsEQoXjlL0JVz7Yypp11Tf8nIZphoCykMQAvD_BwE

Great image, not captured with a RASA! On the subject of the long neck, if they couldn’t lift it up due to blood circulation restrictions, why did it evolve? When I was at school the theory was these giants spent a lot of time in the water to help support their massive bulk, so maybe they did use it to graze weed growing under the surface. Amazing what topics come up for discussion on this forum.

Sadly I think the prices stem from the core hardware, and I can’t see that coming down anytime soon.

If you polar align regularly then only warpage within a session would be a problem, it’s exposed and outside all the time so I can’t see rapid changes occurring.

TBH, cutting a thread half an inch long by hand shouldn’t be a problem. Even if it wasn’t 100% square on the end the bar would still be totally functional.

Maybe @Tomatobro will comment on this, as he has a lot more experience than me of working with these different materials, but I would suggest given the relatively undemanding duty, whichever is easier to cut the thread,. Do you have to thread it just enough to screw the bar into the mount?