tomato

CO wide of the mark for Shropshire tonight. Got a couple of hours in already under iffy conditions but looking at SAT 24 conditions could improve for an hour or two at least. The clear spell has caught me on the hop, I didn’t charge the dome battery as I wasn’t expecting any imaging time for about a week and I don’t think it will have enough power to close the shutter at the end of the session if I leave it unattended. Lesson learnt.

Agreed, the near live view you can achieve with CMOS cameras is a big advantage if you are initially way off focus.

Hmm, looks like the RASA/268c will stay in front of the SY135/8300 no matter how many hours I manage to collect…

Put some sheets of printer paper over the screen to dim it, I need a couple to get the histogram where it needs to be when using the NINA flats wizard with my QHY 268c with flat exposures around 1-2 seconds. The only problem I have is I perch the panel on top of the dewshield on the RASA which cuts off fresh air circulation to the camera, so the sensor temperature rises very quickly.

After being highly impressed with @clarkpm4242's image posted earlier, and faced with the current weather forecast of having no prospect of being able to add any more integration time to my frankly ridiculous existing 72 mins on this subject, I thought I would process it anyway and post it as a comparison, given that it was captured with the same set up. To my amazement, the Squid is just discernible, although I have pushed the processing in favour of the OIII channel. On the subject of OSC vs mono, on the same rig I have a Samyang 135 F2 lens coupled to a KAF 8300 mono CCD. In the same session I got an hour of Ha and just 10 mins of OIII before the clouds rolled in. Needless to say there is no trace of the Squid in that image. Not a fair comparison instrument wise I know, but first strike to the OSC in at least capturing something of this ghostly cephalopod.

Isn’t this one just about levels of technology? You could argue that anything beyond the naked Mk1 eyeball is “cheating”, even correcting spectacles is a technological advancement although a rather old one. And who is to say you have to stick to your own local patch of sky? Is flying out to Atacama “cheating”, I don’t think so. Maybe what causes the debate is optical telescopes have been around a long time and until relatively recently, to view in real time, that was all we had. Not any more, I would have an NV eyepiece in an instant if visual was my main interest, to me it’s just another tool in the box. However, they will have to get a lot cheaper for me to get one, I’m already deep into the money pit called imaging.😉

That’s a great result. I had the same setup on this target last night, but with only 72 mins in the can, I still have a long way to go…

We have had a few since moving to Shropshire, but all during the day. I have a battery box charged and waiting just in case.

A fine example of the Big Fish, and not captured with an IMX571 CMOS sensor!👍

Another amazing image. It makes me wonder if any patch of sky would reveal objects of interest if you have the right kit and conditions, but of course the Hubble Deep Field has answered that one. Even so, your RASA/2600 set up is doing a fine job even without the HST’s advantages.

Well, no replies so far except for @kirkster501, thanks Steve, so I have to conclude that either: 1. Very few imagers here on SGL have actually given this a try, quite possible given the cost, or: 2. For whatever reason imagers are reluctant to share their experiences publicly, although I have not been PM’ed either. Maybe this is a delicate subject, if so apologies for raising it. FYI I have done my best to compare imaging costs for some popular sites, there is quite a range, but a reasonable amount of imaging time that you control can be had for around £75 per month. Without a reasonable amount of feedback on actual user experiences I’ll think I will delay a decision, probably spend the cash on another camera that will keep the dust cap on under UK cloudy skies.😏

Nice image, I like the 2001:A Space Odyssey monolith portrait orientation.

Totally agree, swapping filters in a session has an engineered solution (wheel or drawer), but cameras is a whole different ball game. Rotating turret anyone? Imagine the size of the focuser to carry that!

I’m definitely no PI expert, but I have found I get better results using the Curves Transformation on a Starnet separated image rather than the Histogram Transformation tool.

Yes, see my post higher up, but a dual CMOS set up is the way to though, if you have the budget.

I have been doing exactly that on my dual refractor rig, capturing L with a KAF8300 CCD and a 0.77 focal reducer, and RGB with a QHY268 OSC, this arrangement gives almost the same FOV. It works, but I’m inclined to agree with Goran, I think the Lum data would be better with a mono version of the CMOS camera. Based on a study of the Astro classifieds, the window has closed now I think, on selling on the CCD at a reasonable price to help fund another CMOS camera, so I’ll hang on to it for now. It will probably go in my Museum of Imaging Artefacts, alongside my SBIG ST4 guide camera, which incidentally, originally cost as much as a decent present day CMOS camera.☺️

It is an intriguing trail on your image. One November I had some aerial firework bursts that were so powerful the detonations were detectable on my PHD guide graph.

I can have 6” refractors on the mount, or an 8” RASA, depending on what I want to image. For small galaxies I’m imaging at 0.94” per pixel so I use the OAG, the RASA set up is more forgiving on guiding, where I use a guidescope. The RA corrections are on the same direction, both sides of the meridian, always to slow the RA speed down. @Tomatobro is making an electronic device to measure the forces required to move the mount and I will use this to improve the balance before implementing any tick count changes. Balancing a dual set up with a RASA on one side and a Samyang 135 on the other presents quite a challenge.

If you want a super (charged) nova of the 4 wheeled variety, I think this tops the rally car.

This thread will run and run, here are a couple of mine:

If you decide to put your Mesu up for sale to buy a couple more CMOS cameras and a cheap and cheerful mount to go with them, I don’t think it will be on the classifieds for long…

It’s a valid comment on the mount with the latest CMOS cameras but I wouldn’t go to the extreme and throw all your budget at the camera and scope at the expense of the mount. If your mount isn’t rated for the load you are putting on it, you will be throwing a lot of your subs away, even with short exposure CMOS imaging.

Just on the lens flexing issue, I went the budget option and purchased a SY135 with the Sony mount. The bespoke adapter is attached to the lens body by 3 original tiny screws and they could not cope with a Moravian G2-8300 hanging off it. A separate bracket was made that picks up off the lens clamp, this has eliminated flexing at this point.

I don’t think Patrick could have done the laconic pose on the rocky outcrop staring out into the sunset, Brian Cox has mastered that one.

Yes, I thought the Mesu was quite tolerant to imperfect balancing, but maybe not so forgiving when the payload is pushed. @Tomatobro is looking at ways of measuring the loads on the mount to achieve a more precise balance. With an OAG I have had guiding at around 0.5” RMS, but again with RA corrections all in the same direction, this is after using the Guiding Assistant settings in PHD.