AbsolutelyN

Looks great, like the hint of blue. Nice to hear you're getting some clear skies. Eventually cleared here last night but not until 2 or 3am - too late for me.

Unfortunately sky didn't clear until after Jupiter and Saturn were below horizon did manage this before clouds roll back in a couple of hours later. This image needs more exposure really as quite noisy - lots of noise reduction applied. 3.8 hours with RASA and 2600MC - 5 mins subs. https://www.astrobin.com/vtrhgu/

Thanks, much appreciated. Think we had a lucky brief clear corridor, rain to both north and south

Thanks Adrian, just pleased to get a clear sky if only for a few hours. Colour camera makes a big difference to productivity, I was using rgb filters and mono and kept ending up with just one or two channels then cloud for a month making it hard to ever complete a pic.

The second camera still has the banding but it's more like yours - you have to dig really deep to find it. Just tried stacking this M45 image with no flats and no darks and you can't see the banding even with a strong DBE. Previous camera it would have been obvious banding. So although I think all the cameras have it to some extent the first copy I got had it particularly bad. Glad I managed to return it and exchange cameras.

Thanks Craig, fast scopes pays off with this weather. Love the new solar setup.

Don't go with the 18-135 or 18-55 lenses. Get a prime lens of fixed focal length and fast aperture (f/2.8 or 1.8 etc). The Samyang 135 is perfect but if out of budget there are some good cheap canon lenses that will do much better than the zooms and are brilliant for general photography too. https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-lenses/used-canon-fit-lenses/canon-ef-50mm-f-1-8-stm/ https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-lenses/used-canon-fit-lenses/canon-ef-85mm-f-1-8-usm/

Thanks Olly - if I was ever to make the RASA dual I think I'd just mount it separately - much simpler and have option of imaging different targets at the same time.

I bought a ZWO 2" EOS filter draw and have had no issues with it at all. Really impressed with it actually, much better than other ZWO EOS adapters I've tried. I've got a 200mm 2.8 lens mounted on it and have had no issues with tilt or anything and the lens is just attached to the adaptor with no other support. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-filter-drawer-for-canon-eos-lenses.html

Brilliant, hope it does the job. Certainly looks a lot more precise than the Celestron one with it's soft foam backing! You'd think Celestron themselves might bring out some kind of advanced version of the adaptor making some of this stuff easier.

No ... I only use filters for narrowband. To me they just block out light. Can’t speak for worse light pollution than bortle 5 though.

Thanks - a 2600MC in such capable hands will be quite something, look forward to seeing the results. Only issue I had with it was weird banding but it calibrates out with flats. This has no calibration other than flats. I returned the first - second camera still has it but doesn't seem to be as prominent

Thanks .... I think it's just the sheer light grasp of the RASA. It's a light bucket. Was starting to wonder if it was worth it as never seems to get any use but when you can pull in so much light makes it possible to take images with only a few hours break in clouds which is really nice. I had a 1600mm shooting with a 200mm at about f/3.5 at same time and didn't get anywhere close to the rasa. Your 450 can do - just needs more exposure time but that's hard to come by in the UK.

Yes I'd love to be-able to rotate camera for framing but dare not touch it as currently have reasonable stars. Will have to try that Artesky adaptor at some point.

Finally had a break in the clouds for a couple of hours last night. Managed 3 hours on M45 before clouds swooped back in. Taken with RASA 8 and 2600MC, 96x 2 mins subs. https://www.astrobin.com/n8regq/0/

Can confirm the focus holds very well indeed. Set mine up and focused 2 days ago but clouds rolled in so covered the scope but left it setup. Finally cleared and stopped raining last night and started imaging without refocussing as focus was still as good as I could get it. Also played with idea of dual rasas but uk weather so hopeless currently having second thoughts about spending more on something that only gets occasional use. Fantastic images by the way!

It was unexpectedly clear here too, none of my weather apps said it would be clear. Also skipped as didn't notice till late on.

I thought the price was quite good. Looked at a few options for a reducer on Esprit 100 last year and they were in region of double this price and needed various adapters. Never got one as was too expensive and felt risky regarding not knowing if backspacing would be spot on and how good stars would be.

Nice. Any idea if there will be version for the Esprit 100 and 80 scopes?

again please let us know how the new adapter performs, almost bought one a few months ago but no stock. I got my best stars with 1600mm with starizona filter adapter and a baader 0.3 metal spacer

Let us know how it goes. I always felt it was centring and getting precise back focus causing star sharp Issues but I guess that was all I could control. Hope it works.

That's absolutely fascinating thanks - love your rendition of the image too.

Again that's the rasa, it's tricky to get good stars with 4/3 sensor, never mind aps-c. It was just a test shot so I've not yet spent time trying to tweak the back focus and centre camera and doubt I'll ever get it perfect. How camera attaches is not great - each time you remove or rotate the camera it ends up in a different position and impossible to centre it perfectly. With my 1600mm I spent hours getting it as good as possible and then dared never touch it again ...

That's great, you've done a great job there, prefer it to my version. That file had no flats - it's taken on a rasa 8 so it does not fully cover the chip size. Cropping corners is to be expected. The banding is manageable but I'm not sure it should be so visible in the first place. Thanks for taking the time to have a crack at it.

Just been digging in the stacked M31 image and flat in PS and I can't find any banding at all. However I can see it in the Esprit 80 flat I took this morning in PS. So I think it is actually in the file and DBE is just bringing it out much stronger. Looking like nothing wrong with camera though and I just need to alter my workflow to work around it.