gorann

I had a go at adding more dust to the image using the interesting PS method Olly @ollypenrice recently posted. I think I like it.

PS. Or just bring down the brightness of the dust to match the data until you can drive out to a dark place to get some better dust data. But as I said - lovely image that I would be pleased with as it is.

Splendid image Rodd! I agree with Olly that the core is superb and if there is a problem it is the noise in the dust. This is what to be expected when you have a bright core (so more signal and less noise) and outer areas that has to be brought out with stretching, so more noise. I think I would be very happy with the image as it is, but the dust could be a good exercise for some advanced NR experiments (or 50 more hours of data that would maybe help the dust but not the core).

Tanks a lot Steve - much appreciated!

Thanks Tomato - I suspect you may be a happy Esprit owner too....

Stort takk Ola! (A big thank you Ola)

Thanks! Sleep stacking is a good idea, especially with the high number of subs produced by CMOS cameras.

Yes, really nice Steve! Excelent stars that survive pixel peeping.

Thanks a lot Steve! Fortunately most of it was done while I was asleep, except the processing.....

Friday and Saturday night were supposed to be clear, and the obsy roof was off and I was out getting everything ready - but in vain. Then on Sunday night, which had no great forecast (and I had to get up early on Monday), it was suddenly totally clear. The guiding suggested a modest seeing (RMS around 1"/pix) and SQM was 21.0, which is ok but far from the best I get here. I used my dual rig on the the Mesu 200 with ASI1600 for Ha on the Esprit 100 (3.5 nm Baader Ha, 46 x 10 min, gain 139, offset 50, -20°C) and ASI071 for RGB on the Esprit 150 (85 x 5 min, gain 200, offset 30, -15°C). Ha mainly added to the red channel using lighten in PS and a bit Ha added as lum. Stacked in PI and the rest in PS. Totally 14.75 hours. EDIT: reprossesed the image to emphasize the dark nebulosity floating araound

Can only agree - lovely! And as said especially that close up. You run a smooth operation down there!

Yes, it looks very good indeed. I think you could adjust the blue tone a bit. On my screen at least it looks more greenish-blue than blue in both the stars and filaments.

You got similar donuts centrally and in the corners so your field appears flat so the distance between camera and CC is probably correct. So most likely your focus was either off even if you though you nailed it or the focuser slipped after focusing. I agree with Alan that the best way to focus a DSLR is to use live view at the highest ISO and 10x zoom on the creen. Focus on the smallest stars (the ones you only see when you have perfect focus). Just do not forget (as I sometimes did) to turn down the ISO before you start exposing.

I also started off getting an ES refractor and then two (80 ED and 127 ED). Nice scopes that really got me into imaging, but they are not Esprits when it comes to the focusers and colour correction. I am traveling to Australia in December and will bring the ES 80ED as a travel scope. It is a worry to travel with a scope but if it get damaged travelling, it will give me a good excuse to buy an Esprit 80

I have an Esprit 150 and an Esprit 100 and I am totally happy with both of them, including their focusers (not sure why some replace them with a Feathertouch but then I have never tried one). I can only see three reasons why you would go for one of the 2-3 fold more expensive US or European brands of high-end apo refractors: 1) You want to support our domestic manufacturers, which may be an argument I can sympathize with. 2) You do not trust anyone outside the US or Europe to make a top class telescope, which is not a very enlightened view. 3) I skip this one but it relates to why some buy a Rolex......

Nice image from Bortle 8 Carole! Really impressive since I know how faint this one is. Funny, I decided a few hours ago to go for the Flying Dragon tonight. I got Bortle 2 - 3 but the moon is up so it will only be Ha to add to HaRGB data I have from last year.

As Dave says I have started imaging with a 14" Meade ACF but it is not on my Mesu but on the EQ8. I bought it more as an impulse since I found it cheaply (2500 GBP) near where I live and thought I could give it a try on my EQ8 that was not in use after I bought the Mesu200. I have to say I have been very positively surprised by how relatively easy it has been to get decent images out of it. With a ZWO OAG and Lodestar X2 I have on good nights had 0.4 "/pix RMS. Here is the first image I caught with it (NGC7331) using a Canon 60Da for RGB and an ASI1600MMpro for lum, totally 5 hours over two nights. I used a Lepus 0.62x reducer so FL=2.2 meters f/6.2. One important point: I also built a second obsy to house this thing - I would never try to set it up each night - just the tube weighs 37 kg (I believe that Celestron is a bit lighter as they use thinner metal.).

A short but very informative review Sara that I think confirmed the general though of this thread - at present this is not the way to go for better guiding. Thanks a lot!

Actually this autumn my EQ8 is behaving exceptionally well. Maybe he is trying to prove himself after I put him in the garage and replaced him with a new and shiny Mesu200 on the pier. But then I built a second obsy for him and a 14" Meade ACF that I got cheaply. And now the EQ8 and 14" SCT play along quite well, even getting down to RMS 0.4"/pixel on a good night. After some soul searching I realized that it was a bit unfair to put the EQ8 in the garage and his missbehaviour was most likely due to bad seeing some nights. He is not a Mesu but after I tightened up his backlash, he is really quite good.

As you say there seems to be very little practical experience, as far as I can see NONE in this thread (so far). It probably means that this has not been a selling success and that is why no new models are coming out. People may have realized that it is better to trim the mount or upgrade than spending 1500 or more Euros on an active optics unit.

Thanks, this is quite clarifying and I agree on everything you say, but it seems like the manufacturers may agree with you and are selling this primarily to adjust for mount error and not for seeing. Actually, I have realized that even my relatively cheap EQ8 is "seeing limited". Thus at good nights I get an RMS of 0.4" / pixel while on average seeing nights it is more like 0.6 - 0.8", so "adaptive optics" would not help at all, possibly the opposite as you say.

I have seen that both SBIG and Starlight Xpress sell "adaptive optics". The SBIG versions only seem to fit SBIG cameras but Starlight Express makes one that may fit many brands. They booth look fairly old in the electronic design with RS232 plugs and I have the impression that they have been around for a while and not evolved much. I cannot remember having seen any posts from people using them and wonder if they are not worth the extra expense. Still, the principle seems very smart: an optical unit in the light path that adjusts minor movements in a guide star on a millisecond basis, while the guide camera also sends the usual slow signals every odd second to the mount. Here are the products I found: http://diffractionlimited.com/products/cameras-accessories/adaptive-optics/ https://www.sxccd.com/sxv-ao-lf Any comments anyone?

So how much is Modern Astronomy asking for the Mk2? Why would that be a secret?

If anything it should be cheaper than the mk1 since it does not seem to have the Alt Az adjustments of the mk1. How would it work for people that already have a pier and cannot fit in that elbow?

Do you mean that someone like Daniel should not upload the images he has processed to his Astrobin so that they would never leave his hard drive and never be seen by others that clearly appears to appreciate them a lot? And should he do so to satisfy those that finds it terrible that such an image may become an IOTD? Apparently a lot of those looking at Astrobin images could not care less how they were acquired, they just appreciate the beauty of them, and I find nothing wrong with that and I do not think that Astrobin should be a site solely for those that swear that they have done it all them self except for manufacturing the equipment. Maybe the puritans should form their own Elite-Astrobin with their own PIOTD (Puritan Image of the Day) 😎