gorann

Admirable attempt Steve! I do not have the paitence (and weather) for mosaics larger than 2 - 4 panels, so this is really impressive. Maybe you can collect the colour with the RASA - will be done in a few hours I promise😉 and then combine it with your lum. Is it possible to reduce the brightness of the galactic cores a bit?

Yes, you have been lucky with the optics👍. I can even just about see in there that Alnitak is a double star (that little brighter spot to the left).

Great image - I imagined that the M45 would be terrible for the microlensing but apparently not, at least with skilful processing👌

Sorry, I forgot that you all live on such a small and crowded island🙄 Actually the same seems to happen with coutryside houses here due to COVID.

It seems like we all, and maybe especially you in the UK, will get a lot of time for thinking the coming months🥴....... But hopefully also time for some imaging

Yes, that is the drawback with going mono, but at Bortle 8 skies (if I remeber it right) mono and NB is probably you best option. Of course if you go for the ASI1600 you can use smaller filters but then not use the fulll imaging circle of your lenses/scopes. But if you move out on the dark courtryside, an ASI2600 OSC would be your dream camera - I bet it would outperform an ASI1600 even if you do NB imaging with it.

Googled it and found this site suggesting around 2000 GBP, so about the same as the ASI2600 (colour version of the same chip): https://cloudbreakoptics.com/products/268m

If Dave is right I would suggest you hold your horses until February - a mono camera with that Sony IMX571 back-illuminated sensor (same as in ASI2600) would be so much better than the old ASI1600 (of which I own two) with its lower sensitivity, rather high noise, microlensing artefacts (you can forget doing the Pleiades with an ASI1600), and amp glow.

That is what I have done - moved to a Bortle 2-3 sky by buying a small farm on the countryside. To compensate for cloudy nights in northern Europe I have over the last years built myself three obsies so I can optimise my efforts on clear nights (although so far I have limited myself to running two obsies in a single night). As many of us are going to work largely from home even after corona I think this is a way to go if your line of work allows it.

Good arguments if there was a mono version of the ASI2600 or similar APS-C camera. But as far as I know all affordable mono-CMOS cameras still have smaller sensors, so sadly more of the photons collected end up outside the sensor. If there are any credible signs that an APS-C sized mono CMOS camera is oround the corner, it would be worth waiting for.

If you go for a OSC and have the budget, then, from your list, the ASI2600MC should be you choice and a good match to your lenses. It is just an amazing camera with zero amp glow, very light sensitive, very low noise, and a large enough sensor. I have been using one this autumn and Iove it (I do have other ASI cameras to compare with). You can click on my Astrobin to see some of the pics from this autumn.

That is indeed impresive. That Sony IMX571 chip, which I have learned to love in my ASI 2600, is just outstanding!

But come on, get real, do you think he had stocked up on "Premium Cheshire Collimator eyepieces" to make a few penneis becasue he had anticipaded a pandemy? If I was a scalper and had anticipated the pandemy I would have bough the complete stock of ZWO cameras, which could maybe have been worth the risk and effort, but then only in hindsight as no one could anticipate the current situation....

Not sure why you would think this would be scalping - the guy is asking 200 pounds and FLO sells it for 215, so then he must be a complete looser as a scalper. I think the poor guy just wants as much as possible of his money back. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi-alt-az-mount-tripod.html

One of my scopes is an Esprit 100, and I love it, but since it is already a fast refractor at f/5 I would not try to challenge it with a reducer. It is perfect at its native FL and what it can do there. For getting more wide field I whent for a RASA 8 - its 200 mm aperture gathers 4 times more photons and it clearly shows it. To get a faster telescope there is no short cut other than getting a telescpe with a larger aperture, as I think maybe Olly @ollypenrice would agree on.

Thans a lot Ntinos!

Thank you all, much appreciated!

While I was chasing dark nebulae with the RASA, I has my double Esprit rig aimed for two nights on this triplet of galaxies (actually much more in there than a triplet). I collected 6 hours of Lum with the Esprit 150 and ASI6200, which did bring out a bit of Integrated Flux Nebulosity (IFN), the dusty stuff illuminated by the glow of our own galaxy. I collected most of the RGB during 4.45 hours with the Esprit 100 and ASI071. However, particularly the red signal was quite low so I added 2.4 hours of old DSLR data I had collected with my Canon 60Da and Explore Scientific 127ED back in 2016. Seeing could have been better. At some point I should get back to these objects for more Lum and then also some Ha data. Right now only clouds and rain in the forecast.....

Or the Canon EF 300 mm f/4. Both these Canon lenses will gather more than twice the light of a Red Cat and will cost you less if bought used. They are apochromats with flat fields. I have had some good experience with the 300mm f/4 on a Star Adventurer. Brought it to Australia a year ago, and you can see the images on my Astrobin (in my signature below) if you go down to Decenber 2019. I bought the lens on ebay. Be sure to go for the old version without image stabilizer (which is also cheaper).

Well, it looks like it will now be raining for the next week, so be patient🥴 I also need a holder for the filter on the RASA8 / ASI2600 combo and I have ordered one from Artesky in Italy that is supposed to be in at the end of October: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p11535_Artesky-2--Filterhalter-und-T2-Adapter-fuer-Celestron-RASA8-Astrograph.html (I ordered mine directly from Artesky in Italy since I hope it may be faster) Meanwhile, if it clears I will just use the ASI1600MM and Baader UFS 2" filter slider with my Baader filters. I have a High speed Baader Ha and the ordinary Baader 8.5 nm Oiii that seems to work fine at f/2, as seen here on the rear behind of the Lion nebula: https://www.astrobin.com/3g6ee0/C/

Great resolution with the 12 panels - almost as good as a one shot with the RASA😁😉

Now when you remind me, a broader bandpass was actually what I was thinking two weeks ago when I ordered it. It arrived yesterday so something is really slowing down packages from the UK - guess it is related to that virus somehow (even more out of topic😁 ).

The plan was to go to Lizard Island in December (I have even invested in a travel scope), but that is not going to happen now. Maybe next year......

Yes, as already said, you nicely separated the blue reflection - many have failed in doing that. Like it!

Thanks Wim! Yes, that is the risk with wide-field imaging, you may find one night that you have done the whole sky😱