astro mick

Cool vid,and very interesting.thanks for posting.

Exerllent. Mick.

Had a run of some clear nights,but hampered by the full Moon so Nebulae was,nt really an option. This is 2hrs on M82 taken with my 102mm at F7 and an old Atik 314E mono camera.(really old) Took flats and some bias. I also tried M81 but not yet looked at the Data. M82 is just a RGB image,with no Ha added. Mick.

Lovely. My dogs used to lye outside the observatory door all the time i was in.Nearly tripped over them once or twice. I had them at seperate times,but great companions. Looking Freya,i,m sure she is the Matriarch.😁

What a lovely dog,and your image aint half bad too. What is your dog called. Mick.

Good point Louis.Thanks. Mick.

Thanks Craig,thats exactly what i wanted.

Hi Guys. If you stopped down a 102mm F7 scope to 80mm,i believe this will increase the Focal length/F Ratio. Is there a formula to work our what the new F/L will be. Mick.

Lovely set of images. Mick.

Well done.Nice capture ideed. Mick.

Yes Ian it has been modded.I would definately refocus between Filters as you say,but this is,nt a big deal if you do plate solving.(Say on a bright star). Or you could perhaps invest in the new dual band Filters that have hit the market. Mick.

Thanks Guys. Even the stars through the Omni were nice and tight.It may not be as effective with RGB Filters,but as many Nebulae display Ha,it could be a cost effective way. Below is the stacked and stretched image of the Achro H-Alpha data. Mick.

Just seeing what i could acheive with this type of set-up. I used a canon 1100D coupled to an Omni 102 achromat F9.8 reduced to F7.7 to capture 36 300 secs at ISO 800. The RGB for the stars was taken through my ED 102 at F7. I took a set of darks,although because of these cold nights the camera kept at a cool 11 degrees. The end result is,nt bad,but obviously not as sharp as a full APO would deliver. The DSLR for the Nebulae was fitted with an Astronomik Ha clip Filter,theirfore allowing the Achromat to used. So you could image at a lot lower budget,if shoot in Narrowband. Cheers. Mick.

Very impressive.

I think for single exposures,they are amazing.I think it all depends on what you want for an image.To take deep clean and critical detail,then yes you would need a cooled ccd or cmos camera. But in saying that over the years i have had many cooled ccd cameras,mainly small chip,but still very expensive.I have walked away from processing happy but not estatic.But overall satisfied. You can work with what you,ve got,or you can keep upgrading at massive cost.Also you really have to master the art of processing,because if you dont or cant then the camera cant deliver(well it can but you cant. If i lived in sunnier skies and more clear nights,then perhaps things would be different. I think in one of the Astro magazines this month,their was a lovely image,but i think it was a total of 90hrs+. Anyway,i will give it ago,if not then back to a ccd. Mick.

Whats more tooth,i,m going to try use an old 102mm achro for narrowband subs.(Then i can run 2 DSLR,s simultaneously) I think the corona jab yesterday has a strange effect on me.

If it works for you tooth,then great.It did work for me for a long time,and i may well go back on what i have written here. But i must admit if i was, say lucky enough to buy a new car i would definately want to use it more than twice a month.(LOL)

Hi Guys. Over the years i have had several ccd cameras,and just recently invested in a very expensive ZWO cmos which i did not like at all,and the vendor kindly allowed me to return it. I started to peruse the web sites for my next camera,and also dicussed the matter with my wife,when she came out with(why are you spending all that money on something you may only be able to use maybe twice a month if your lucky). I tried to explain thats what we imagers do,but she had brought up a valid point.I got the cmos at the end of November 2020,and from then until early Feb i had one really clear night,but was hammpered by the moon,and maybe two partial,where i was soon clouded out,so abandoned. Here i was again looking to spend thousands of pounds on something i may use maybe if your very lucky three nights a month (that is being excetionally lucky here in Northern England.) It just becomes a dust gather. As i type this, the weather is its usual Grey/damp and misarable self,with no clear nights in sight. So i,m going to keep my Thousand or so pounds and get out my old DSLR.(It can take quite nice pictures). I like imaging,but i,m never going to win an APOD as my processing skills are nil or next to nil. So thats my current plan,and i will see how it goes.Now back to the weather forecast. Mick.

Ha yes,maybe so. Trouble is when to stop,before i make a mess of it(LOL) Mick.

Hi. I managed to get 60 minutes on these Galaxies a few nights back.Taken with my ED 102mm scope and a Canon 1100D camera. The exposures were just one minute each at ISO 400. This is a cropped version of the wider FOV. Calibrated with Darks only. cheers. Mick.

I will hopefully use my Canon 1000D moded with an L-Enhance filter.

PM,d.

Hi. The scope is an Altair Astro 102mm Triplet at F7. Good for Galaxies as you say,but too small a chip for Nebulae.I will try use my Canon 1000D modded for these. Mick. I have not yet commited to anything yet,so if someone can convince me otherwise on the Cmos cameras,please let me know.

Hi Miquel. I recently purchased the ZWO ASI 1600MM.The micro lensing was awful when using Narrowband Filters,+ the Haloes were not acceptable to me.I know the 1600MM is very prone to this,but all of the cmos cameras suffer to some extent with this problem as far as i know.I have returned the camera and grateful to FLO for letting me do so. I dont see the point of having to spend time trying to process these artifacts out,when a ccd does not suffer with them at all. The ccd camera will allow good images of Galaxies,and will use my old DSLR for Nebulae. I know many people will not agree with this finding. Mick.

Hi. Anyone using the Mono version of this Starlight camera? Interested in your thoughts if you have one. Mick.