Lee_P

Amazing image! It would be interesting to see what you could produce with the same kit and integration time from your usual Bortle 8 site -- that would make for a fascinating side-by-side comparison.

Yep, the speed does vary as you explain. I've added a line to the review to hopefully make that clearer. Thanks

Haha, it's definitely tongue in cheek, but I see your point that the humour could be lost in translation! I've removed that line now. Re: wireless range, good point, I'll add a bit about that. To save you the trouble of re-reading the review, ZWO state that the wireless range is 20 metres. My Plus is 15 metres from my router, through two brick walls and glass conservatory doors, and it's been ok so far.

Hi SGLers, I've had one of the new ASIAIR Plus units for a couple of days now, and have written a review: http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2021/09/18/review-asiair-plus/ If you don't want to click through then the executive summary is that it's great, but not really a necessary upgrade if you've already got a Pro.

I'm glad that thread is still of use! I used it as the basis for an article about tips to obtain long integration times: http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2021/06/14/how-to-get-long-integration-times/

480 x 120 seconds, so 16 hours total for that shot. More info: http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2021/06/10/the-elephants-trunk-nebula/

+1 for L-eXtreme. I've got lots of examples here, all from Bortle 8: http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/gallery/ This is my fave so far:

OSC plus a dual-band filter can work very well even from a city centre. I've made a whole website about just that; you may find this article in particular useful: http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2021/06/12/osc-vs-mono-from-a-city/ 100% agree, and that's very well phrased too 😁

Haha, I see the Pelican Nebula as an elephant too! With a big trunk reaching down to the ground.

Presenting my latest imaging project, The Cygnus Loop: It's 15 hours of integration using an Askar FRA400 telescope, 2600MC-Pro camera, and Optolong L-eXtreme filter. All from Bristol city centre. More details here: http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2021/09/11/the-cygnus-loop/ Note: the framing was really tight, so I expanded the canvas size in Photoshop and cloned in more stars around the edge to give it a bit of breathing room. Can you spot the xenomorph? Scroll down for the answer... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nice shot! In case it's useful for a comparison, here's my shot of the same target using very similar kit, complete with PixInsight steps: http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2021/07/29/example-processing-workflow/

Very helpful, thanks!

Hi Sketchers, I'm involved in a project helping youth groups to do simple stargazing. As part of this I'd like to have them using binoculars to search for bright DSOs -- I don't have a final list yet but it'll be about a dozen of the usual suspects, M31, M45, Double Cluster, etc, covering every season. I'd like to give the participants realistic expectations of what they're looking for, so am searching for sketches that show binocular views of these objects. I've done some Googling and came across this site which is good, but the views are telescopic, and there's no info about usage rights. The images would need to be supplied as digital files. Can anyone here help point me in the direction of a source of images that may be suitable? Thanks in advance! -Lee

Great image, looks really crisp.

I've actually written an article about that: http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2021/06/14/how-to-get-long-integration-times/ The short of it is that you do get diminishing returns, but you can keep going for quite a while and still see tangible improvements. The exact figures will depend on your kit and sky conditions. I aim for 16 - 24 hours of integration time per target.

Thanks for writing this up, it looks like a very capable telescope.

It keeps getting better! Have you cropped in at all? I can see a thin pink line at the bottom and right, which may be a stacking artifact. The edges of the frame also look a little bright, might be an issue with ABE / DBE. It's a bit unusual though, I kinda like the effect 😃

Welcome to SGL

Oooh, nice! Good definition in the dust clouds. SGL's @Luke Newbould has made a great video about processing OSC + L-eXteme data to be like the Hubble Palette. If it's useful to you, my attempt at the Elephant's Trunk Nebula using his technique is here, and here are notes on the workflow.

Now I'll never see this as anything else 😂

Bravo!

There's some good detail in there! It looks quite purple / pink, it might be worth adjusting the colours slightly? Unless that's the look you're going for A longer integration time would help to reduce noise levels too. It's a good shot though, and as a fellow city-imager I appreciate the added challenges that brings 😅

Great pic, good job!

I just came across these neat sites where you can change various setting and sliders to learn how Hubble (and by extension other astroimaging set-ups) work. http://stephenwilkins.co.uk/HubbleLegacy/observatories.html http://stephenwilkins.co.uk/HubbleLegacy/colouring.html

Hi and welcome! I'm also in the South-West 😃