PeterCPC

Hello and welcome.

How about this:

OFFSET

Offset refers to the DC component of a video or image signal, and effectively sets the black level of the image. The black level is the pixel level (in electrons, or volts) which corresponds to a pixel value of zero. This is often used with a histogram to ensure the full use of the camera bit-depth, effectively raising signal-to-noise. Pushing non-black pixels to zero lightens the image, although it gives no improvement in the data. By increasing the black level, offset is used as a simple machine vision image processing technique for brightening and effectively creating a threshold (setting all pixels below a certain value to zero to highlight features) for blob detection.

Evri are not in my good books. I bought something which was sent by Evri - it eventually came 18 days after it should have arrived. By this time I had bought another (scanner) elsewhere so I sold the one Evri brought on E Bay and they lost it. How can you lose a package as big as a flat bed scanner? Something else we bought came via Evri and it was 6 days late. They are hopeless. I have never had any issues with RM until the strikes.

Hello and welcome.

No it's just business as usual 😟 Every year is like this now.

With BYE as suggested above you can actually zoom in by 5X or 10X - the only caveat is I am not sure about your camera but a free trial would prove it.

Basically one with a USB3 connection and best if it had a SSD rather than HD. As best as you can afford. Most imaging software will work with Windows 10 without any issues.

1 minute ago, ollypenrice said:

That one looks much better. Who sells these?

Olly

I got mine direct from Astrodymium - they are in Canada.

That's not good. I got the Astrodymium system and am quite impressed with it - no slippage. https://astrodymium.com/

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome.

This is the sort of view that you will get without the flip mirror.

Hello and welcome.

https://www.otelescope.com/files/ An alternative is APT https://www.astrophotography.app/  which is free but I can't tell you if it would be as useful for zooming in because I have never used my Canon with APT.

Best of luck with it all.

8 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

I actually started out with using the 8 inch reflector for planetary, but I have decided to use the refractors instead, because  I'm assuming it'll be easier framing them in post processing ? In the 8 incher, I'm finding it very hard to "zoom in" enough ? even with my SVBONY EP Projector fitted with a 9mm planetary EP ? The planets are STILL small in the final image ? I read yesterday that I should be using F20, up to F30 if the conditions allow, and my refractors are naturally longer FL's than my big f5 reflector. Obviously I'm a novice in imaging so please bare with me if I sound stupid!? LOL

Wes

I would not use EP projection for planetary. You would be much better off using a Barlow lens. When I do planetary with my C8 I use a 2.5 televue barlow, a flip mirror and the ASI224 camera. It can be challenging finding the planet sometimes to get it centred but the flip mirror is invaluable in this respect. I don't know what camera you are using but you can get Canons to zoom in using Backyard EOS.

4 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

Ok thanks Peter! I have 3 options...200/1000 Newt. reflector. 80/900 Achromatic Refractor. 90/910 Achro Refractor. I will be using my 8 inch Newt., it's F5 so fairly fast optics for DSO's. I use the Refractors for planetary. Thanks Peter! I really appreciate your advice and comments! Clear Skies!

Wes

Interesting. I would have thought that the Reflector being the biggest would be for planetary and the refractors for DSOs.

5 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

Oh right ? Wow I wasn't expecting that Peter!? LOL. May I ask what telescope and camera you used it with please ? I can send it back and exchange for something else, if you, as a very capable and experienced imager, suggested I did so ? 

I would not presume to advise you to do that - my sky conditions are different to you and equipment. I use an Esprit 100 and an ED80 Evostar.

I suggest that you try what you have and come to your own conclusions.

4 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

totally off subject here sorry Peter! But I just been looking through some of your Astro images via the link on your comments and I was blown away! Especially your Horsehead nebula shot! Just stunning! I'm TRILLIONS of miles from getting to that level but my goodness I will get there eventually! LOL. I just bought my first decent imaging filter, after using a cheap ( £25'ish ) Light Pollution Filter. The results with said cheap LPF are really impressive for personally, it allowed me to increase my sub-exposures from 10-20 secs to 1 minute before LP and SG starts to really wash out the subs. The new filter is the Optolong L-Extreme Dual-Band Imaging Filter. What are your totally honest thoughts on this filter as a first proper one for an imaging novice please Peter ? For information, I'm planning to use it with my OSC DSLR Camera, with an F5 200/1000 Newt. Reflector on my HEQ5 mount. 

Thank you for your kind words. I actually tried the L-extreme filter but I did not like the results that I got (maybe just me). For LP I use an IDAS D2 which I am much happier with.

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome.