Lee_P

Ha, tricky question! I believe the short answer is that £1000+ of dedicated astro camera kit certainly can make a big difference and help take your imaging to the next level. You could think of it this way: do you currently think you're being held back by the camera you have? If it's limiting you then that's a point in favour of getting a dedicated astrocam. Or, if you think there's still room for your skills to develop with your Canon, maybe stick with that a bit longer?

I've written about upgrades, and some may give you more bang for your buck than a dedicated astrocam.  

Edit: an additional thought is that FLO currently have a Summer sale on ZWO cameras...

My kit (in signature below) is heavier than yours but my mount (similar to HEQ5) handles it with no problems. If you see yourself sticking with your current 'scope and camera for a while, I'd go HEQ5. It's smaller, lighter, and more portable than an EQ6-R. Just my opinion of course 😛

Nice pic! I think you're a little below the actual Pelican Nebula though:

Here's a photo I've taken of the Pelican Nebula. NGC 6997 is marked on both, so there's overlap.

Welcome! Those are some great images, you've picked up good skills really quickly 😃

On 29/07/2021 at 21:07, tooth_dr said:

Well worth it, looks fantastic 

On 29/07/2021 at 22:36, symmetal said:

Excellent result with lots of fine structural details. 😊

Alan

20 hours ago, astro mick said:

This is very good indeed.

Mick.

Thanks! Now I just need some clear skies to start a new imaging project 😁

Points for effort!

This was a six-week project, capturing just a few hours of data every clear night. Totalled 26 hours in the end though, which I was happy with!

More info is here if anyone is interested   http://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2021/07/29/the-pelican-nebula/

@paul mc c Congrats! I'm sure you'll be happy with your choice.

40 hours well spent!

That's great. I really like the texture in the background nebulosity, and the detail in the Crescent itself is impressive. Bravo!

They're both valid options. Which do you think you'd find more fun to use?

Always good to see images taken through challenging city skies! I like the different palettes too -- I find the first most aesthetically pleasing, but the third seems to have a bit more detail, to my eyes at least.

You could have told me that was a Hubble picture and I'd have believed you 🤣

Impressive work! That mosaic is quite something.

Wow, good shot especially given the short integration time! The background looks a bit dark on my screen -- might be worth shifting the black point along a bit to avoid clipping? 

Thanks for sharing, it's a treat to see an unusual view of such an iconic and much-imaged DSO!

In case it's useful, I've just made a website all about OSC from a city. Link is in my signature below.

Ah, looks like this is actually discussed at the beginning of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kyGA91uoIA

I'm trying the new Normalize Scale Gradient for the first time. It's v1.3. I kept all settings as default. When I reached the Integration stage, about half of the images in my stack had been set to red crosses rather than green ticks. Any idea what's going on with that? It seems like it's trying to exclude a huge amount of data from the final stack. I ran all the subs through Blink and SubFrameSelector in advance and already weeded out the chaff, so I'm surprised that's the case. Any help about this issue would be appreciated, along with any general tips about how to best use Normalize Scale Gradient 😁

I briefly had a ZS73 as an upgrade to my 80ED. The ZS73 was definitely in a different league, so I guess that would also be the case when comparing it to a 72ED. I had backfocus issues with my ZS73 though, so returned it as faulty. I bought an Askar FRA400 instead -- a bit beyond your stated budget, but you don't need to buy a flatterer for it. 

Hello and welcome!

8 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

How do you guys stop the braided lines fraying. I bought a load of it but ended up ditching it as the frayed ends didn’t look great. 

Melt the ends with a match flame.

The best advice I ever heard was "the best telescope is the one you'll use the most".

Braided sleeve and Velcro ties for me, too.

I take one set of flats per object that I'm imaging, and can spend more than a month's worth of clear nights on that object. Seems to work ok and is nice and simple! (I am OSC though, so don't have lots of filters).