gorann

TS say on their web site that they have the Esprit 100 in stock. Could be worth ordering from them if FLO cannot promise a delivery date. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5437_Skywatcher-Esprit-100-ED---100-mm-F-5-5-FPL53-Triplet-Apochromat-Refractor.html

Really good to hear that it works for you too Graham. It may be that this FR works best for shorter focal lengths like the Esprit 100, but is struggeling with longer ones.

SW has a designated and not expesive FF for each Esprit that are excellent. When it comes to FRs SW has none so the Riccardi is usually recommended but some from TS work too. If Carole is satisfied with the native FOV I suggest that she starts off with the SW FF, so f/5.5 and FL 550mm. EDIT: With my Esprit 100 the TS 0.79x 3" FR works fine but I have not manged to get good stars in the corner with it with my Esprit 150.

Aha, but Camera Raw is only for DSLR, isn't it?

Carole, you may not want to wait for too long to order your Esprit 100 - deliveries of refractors (and other astrostuff) are now drip feeding in from China and who knows what it will be like in the future - as noticed in this thread. I just got an ASI2600 camera that I ordered in February:

My first idea was actually to suggest an Esprit 100, since I have one and love it, but then I thought you were in the market for an 80mm refractor. You cannot go wrong with a FLO tested Esprit 100.

Why not go for the 80mm Esprit? About the same price as the TS, f/5 and proven high quality. You should of course get it with the dedicated Esprit 80 flattener. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/esprit-professional-refractors/skywatcher-esprit-ed-80-pro-triplet.html

I had not heard of the Fringe killer action. Is it this one? https://blog.lorrifreedman.com/hdr-and-the-purple-fringe/ I downloaded it but when I run it the whole colour balance of the image is altered (but I do see less purple fringes). Is there a better action?

And Altair says "Out of stock",

I have two Esprits, 100 and 150 and I love them, so I am sure the 120 would be an excellent scope. However, an alternative from which I have seen great images is the 130 from TS. You can see on Astrobin what "pete xl" https://www.astrobin.com/users/pete_xl/ can do with it, very impressive, and it comes at a very reasonable price. There are two versions that only differ with regard to the size of the focuser (according to TS - I asked them since I am tempted to get one myself): https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p6679_TS-Optics-PHOTOLINE-130-mm-f-7-FPL53-Triplet-APO-Refractor.html https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p7717_TS-Optics-PHOTOLINE-130-mm-f-7-FPL53-Triplet-Apo---3-7--Focuser.html and the one with the smaller focuser is in stock and in my experience TS do not lie about this but you should ask them. If you google this scope you find some good info, especially on Cloudy Nights

Nice nebula but never forget to watch out for what you do to the stars while processing. Protect them with masks when you stretch the data. Ideally their cores should not be bigger (blown out) than in the unstretched image.

Found a bit info on the Taurus Molecular Cloud. The large dark nebula in the centre is Barnard 7, surrounding LBN 782, a blue reflection nebula. To the left is vdB 27, lit up by the young variable star RY Tauri. Another reflection nebula to the right is illuminated by CW Tauri, also a variable. In the bottom right the eliptical galaxy IC 359 shines through the dust from 186 light years away.

Thanks Richard. I have now stocked up with a RASA8 and ASI2600 waiting for darkness to arrive, with the hope to catch this kind of WF data.

I finally had a go at your Taurus data. Very nice and fun to process. Mainly done in PS (except SCNRgreen in PI). I gave the colours a bost initially by using curves in Lab Color mode in PS, so I ended up with a bit more colourful version than most here. So at least it is a bit different. Thanks again Richard! No astrodarkness here for two more months. Is it OK if I post it on my Astrobin, with full credits of course?

Yes Mark, the Oiii glow from the shell obviously covers the Ha inside and obscures it. A version with less Oiii should probably make the central structures stand out more clearly. So I did the experiment. I processed a version without the boosted Oiii signal (first image below) and then added this as a layer to my previous version in blend mode Lighten in PS (second image below). I like it as the central structures stand out a bit more.

This is really not an easy Ha Oiii object to process (but nothing wrong with the data). When boosting the the Oiii signal that covers the whole nebula it makes the red Ha signal of the nebula look a bit dull, but mabe that is how it should be. In any case, here is a new version (selective colour tweak in PS) where I think the nebula stands out a bit more.

I also had a go at your data. I used PS and made a synthetic green by mixing Oiii and Ha 50:50. Stretching it made the Ha signal to overwhelm the blue. So I did a separate stretch of the blu channel to bring out that outer Oiii shell. Some mild NR applied to the Oiii data (Noels actions). Then I tweaked the colours using curves and selective color in PS. I also gave it a dose of HDRM in PI. No star shrinking neccessary. Like Carole I felt I needed to rotate the image 180°. Thanks for sharing your data - defenitively nothing wrong with it and great fun especially since there is no astrodarkness here until late August! EDIT: I added a second version with more Ha in the background.

A great start from a very nice looking obsy. Northern Ireland phone companies must be very liberal to let you climb their poles and move their cables, or was it a matter of better asking for forgiveness than permission?

I wonder if the L-extreme would work on my RASA8 f/2 and ASI2600 - any news on how fast scopes it could handle?

Just a small correction: Baader filters are 2 mm thick.

Thinking more about this and reading Dave's comment I think it is almost certain that the reflections are going on between the chip and the filter and have nothing to do with the scope except that it grasps more light than your refractor and in this case from a very bright star. Turning your refractor towards Vega could possibly create the same ring phenomenon. It may be that you could sove the problem with turning the filters as Dave suggest but it could also be that the filters you use (ZWO?) are not the best and may vary in quality.

I have no better ideas regarding the reflection rings but I know that the odd pattern around the brightest star (52 Cygni) is the well-known microlensing artifact that the microlenses on the ASI1600 chip give, and there is no way around that (you will also see it around bright stars with your refractor). A lot of people are happy imaging with Edge HD scopes (including me) so I expect that you will find a way to solve the issue with the ring-reflections. If not, these reflections are probably only going to be apparent if you have a very bright star in your image, so you may want to choose your targets accordingly. As I said, bright stars also do not go well with the ASI1600 due to the microlensing.

It will depend on what imaging scope you are guiding. You will be fine with that camera if you are using a guide scope and not an off-axis guider. Mono will be a bit more sensitive but I was using an ASI120MC on a finder-guider for 3 - 5" refractors and always found guide stars. Then for a bit better guiding I went for an QHY5LIIM (mono) using an ST80 as guide scope. It was only when I started with long focal length SCTs that really need off-axis guiding I found I had to have something more sensitive and more expesive to be sure to find guide stars (like a Lodestar X2). So in my experience, small CMOS cameras (like those from ASI and QHY) work well if you use guide scopes but maybe not for off-axis guiding.

I would be very satisfied with that image Rodd!

Excellent, much better dust Rodd! No more patchy mud floating around in the sky I like the way your M100 sreally shines. PS. Maybe you should crop away that star halo protruding in from the right side.