gorann

If you decide to invest in something like an ASI2600 then I suggest you also get a refurbished Win 10 laptop. There must be companies in the UK selling those. Last such laptop I bought here in Sweden (a HP 14") costed 1/10th of the price for an ASI2600 and it came with Win 10pro, dual core Intel i5 processor, and some scratches on the outside shell.

I addition to all the advantages pointed out for CMOS over CCD here I would like to ad the fast download from a CMOS which I really love - I can put up the gain and see a live image with the CMOS when I want to focus and frame. The slow download of the ATIK460 CCD I once had (and sold in time) drove me crazy.

I picked that example because it is from the net site of a UK firm: FLO.

It struck me that we are no better in being consistent with units. Why do we often give aperture of our scopes in inches while we would never consider giving the focal length in inches. This does not help when you rapidly want to calculate the focal length of 6" scope from the f-ratio, or vice versa.... Cheers, Göran

Great dark shark Billy! No need to go CMOS when you have a camera like that.

Excellent Dave! Dusty it is. Most of that PI hocus-pocus is unknown to me but I like the result.

The CCD cameras are of course not dead, it is just the market for them that died, so Lee, you should go shopping and give yourself a Christmas present, maybe get more real estate than the 383🧑‍🎄

Thanks a lot Tom! One day.....

Yes, quite a few relatively large NGC galaxies, but even more that are only in the PGC or UGC catalogues. I will do a proper annotation in PI soon. The one posted now is only the one automatically made in Astrobin.

I continue using the Star Xterminator filter in PS to get better control of my star fields, which is particularly needed for the very faint Integrated Flux Nebulae (IFN). So here is a reprocessing of data I gathered in April 2021, now with much brighter nebulosity and a better controlled star field than in my previous attempt. IFN (Integrated Flux Nebulosity) is thought to be dust at the outskirts of our galaxy energized by the collective radiation of the galaxy. I do find that there seem to be a variety of IFN when it comes to colour and structure. There is also an abundnce of galaxies behind the IFN, NGC 3147 and 3348 being the most prominent. Hunting IFN is a very rewarding activity under dark skies, and I have a quite dark site. SQM was around 21.6 these nights, so Bortle 2. Sadly, at a site with more light pollution, many times longer integration times will be needed get an S/N ratio good enough to get a decent IFN image. For every unit decrease in SQM, 2.5 times more integration time is needed. Gathered with a RASA8 and ASI2600MC (gain 100, offset 30, -15°C), 68 x 5 min subs. Processed in PI and PS. Cheers, Göran

That is very impressive, light polluted or not you really know how to use you processing fingers. Congratulations to an excellent image! CS, Göran

Thanks a lot!

Thanks Boki! High saturaton seems to be in fashion right now but I see what you mean, and I was back and fourth with sauration on this one, but thought it was ok since it is a HaRGB image. I now had another another look at it and did a few more adjustments, so here is v2.

I have been told that using superpixel when debayering in PI is effectively a 2x2 binning and I have tried it with ASI2600MC and it works. So binning is possible with colour CMOS. I am sure @vlaiv may know even better ways of doing it. PS. Why not a QHY600/ASI6200 colour camera? That is 16 bit - I thought QHY410 was 14 bit.

That pixel size is perfect for something like a RASA or Epsilon, and even 1 m FL refractors, and what is the problem with binning if you have a longer FL? Nothing wrong with software binning as far as I know, and the great thing is that you can decide after collecting the data if you want to do it or not. That is not an option with CCD. A camera with small pixels that can be binned is much more versatile than one where you are stuck with big pixels, especially with the new CMOS that have quite a lot of well depth.

While clouded in I continue to reprocess some of my data using the new Star Xterminator filter for PS. Here is a reprocessed data-set I collected with my dual-Esprit rig back in November 2019. I now made a starless version with Star Xterminator, stretched the nebulosity and did a few other tweaks. Then I brought the stars back while suppressing their size with a curve in PS. The result is a brighter image with much more visible nebulosity than in my previous attempt to process the data. These Sharpless objects make up a complex of HII regions in the Perseus arm in the outskirts of our galaxy. Centrally in Sh-232 is the small planetary nebula PK173+03.1 I notice that the Astrobin annotation places Sh2-233 slightly in the wrong place so its coordinates probably need an update in the system (I doubt that the nebula has moved since Sharpless made his catalogue). I collected RGB with the Esprit 150 and ASI071 (0.79x TS reduser) and Ha with the Esprit 100 and ASI1600MM. 39 x 10 min of RGB and 51 x 10 min of Ha (Baader 3.5nm). So totally 15 hours. Processed in PI and PS. Next time I get my Esprits up it will be a dual Esprit 150 rig since I just made a very god deal on a second hand Esprit 150. Cheers & CS Göran New processing after using Star Xterminator Astrobin annotations Old version

Unclear to me why you think a CCD would be better to grab the details, especially compared to a modern mono CMOS, considering the much higher read noise, usually lower QE, dead pixels and columns that affects the CCD.

I would take the best of two worlds any time: CMOS and Mesu😆 Happy to have sold my CCDs before the market crashed.

Hi Lee, Thanks Lee! I think I see what you mean but I do not think it is walking noise (which I often saw during my DSLR days). I think here it could be real structures in the clouds, especially since it clearly changes direction which walking noise cannot do as far as I under stand it. And why would it only be apparent in that corner? Googling walking noise I found that it is "dark fixed pattern noise of the sensor slowly moving in a consistent direction across the frame over time." The walking noise I have seen from DSLRs is also at a much smaller scale. Or maybe I am not seeing/looking at what you see. Maybe someone has an oppinion.

Excellent Wim! A new group to me and with two stunning beauties. I would try to suppress the stars and their halos a bit, maybe try experimenting with a starless version.

Now we are way off the topic, so the OP can ignore this, but yes I bought an iOptron CEM70 about a year ago and used it with a RASA8 and guide scope (ST80). It did its job but I cannot really tell you how well it was guiding since the focuser of the ST80 is a bit flimsy to say the least, and I usually got the RMS around 1"/pix, but sometimes around 0.7"/pix, so seeing was probably also limiting. I thought the guiding was good enough for the RASA (FL 400mm) so I did not bother trying to fiddle with it. Since I decided to have a dual-RASA rig I needed to move it all to the Mesu 200 for weight reasons and I have now put an EdgeHD8 on the CEM70, with OAG. So if I get that up and running (and a clear sky) I will have a better knowledge about the guiding capabilities of that mount.

Yes, got an Esprit 150 with flattener, and Esprit 80 with flattener, an EQ8 with tripod, and a professionally modded Canon EOS 5D Mk III for the equivalent of 5400 GBP. I could not say no to that but I really just wanted the Esprit 150 for a dual rig. But, yes, cearly off the topic

I would seriously consider the Esprit 80 - never read anything bad about them. I have not tried one yet (but I will accidentaly get one tomorrow as part of a package deal together with an Esprit 150 and an EQ8 from a person that bought the stuff some years ago and esssentially never got around to use it). However, the Esprit 100 and 150 that I have had for several years are excellent scopes when used with their designated Esprit flatteners - no problems with star shapes even with an ASI6200 full-frame APS. Hopefully someone here have used the Esprit 80 and can tell us about it. PS. I bought a TS 71 SDQ (quadruplet with FPL53 made by Brightstar with a supposedly flat field) two years ago and I am not impressed with the star shapes. It have since then lived a life as guide scope and it is apparently not sold anymore. @wimvb recently bougt a similar scope from TS and has a similar experience.

Thanks Tom, I take that as a poititive remark😉

Thanks a lot Paul! Yes, it defenitively opens new doors in processing, at least for me since I never got around to use Starnet++. You may have seen this thread on SGL (that is how I found out about it): Cheers, Göran