gorann

I remember that there was a thread here on SGL a few months ago about a primary mirror shifting in Sharpstar, I think it was this one. It may give some suggestions:

Yes, looks promising John! The stars look a bit squarish to me - is that a collimation issue?

This reminds me that we are told to warm up CCD cameras slowly after a session, but I have never seen that this should be done to CMOS cameras. I always just turn off my ZWO cameras and ZWO has no routine for slow warm up. Why is it that CCD and not CMOS needs a slow warm up? Or am I misstreating my ZWO cameras? Great image by the way!

To be able to campare them you should stretch them (e.g. with Levels or Curves in Photoshop) to the same brightness and look at the noise level. The one showing the least noise when you zoom in will be the best. If you upload a raw exposure here of each ISO I assume someone could have a look for you if you want a second oppinion. Maybe someone like Vlaiv @vlaivcould even give you a number for the signal to noise ratio.

I just added a second version to my original post with more blue saturation in the blue stars and galaxy, which I suddenly found a bit pale.

I just edited my post - I had clicked on the Vixen link. I have just added the Helios to my basket and am going to the checkout!

This post really worked because they are allready out of stock! EDIT: Sorry, I clicked on the Vixen link, and it were them that were out of stock!

Looks great Adam! Great find even if some American also found it😁

Thanks a lot!😀

Thanks a lot and good luck in New Mexico John - I love the nature and sceneries there! And the best of luck with your new wide field scope!

Thanks a lot Craig! Yes, these things are massive, but faint, and really demand short FL scopes. I thought if would be cool to capture one of them together with an iconic galaxy,

Here is my last RASA 8 image for a while as clouds seems to have settled for more than a week. This dark nebulosity between Cepheus and Cygnus is Barnard 150 and next to it is the Fireworks galaxy NGC6946. I was pointing both my RASA and my Edge HD11 at the same area this last cloudless night and I just posted the Edge image of the galaxy. Barnard 150 apparently also goes under the name of the Seahorse Nebula due to its shape. I am a biologist and have often worked in marine environments but have never seen a seahorse like this😁 The ASI2600MC was set at gain 100 (offset 30) and kept at -15°C. 19 x 10 min, so 3.2 hours. EDIT: I added a second version below with more blue saturation as it struck me that the blue stars and galaxy looked a bit pale

I would not go that far Adam but thanks a lot and much appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

Thanks a lot Steve! (I finally figured out your name - I suspected it was not really that of my favourite veggie)

Clouds have settled here but fortunately I managed to catch this one on the last clear night. Here is what Wiki has to say: NGC 6946 (also known as the Fireworks Galaxy or Caldwell 12) is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs, similar to the distance of M101 (NGC 5457) in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group, but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster. Caught with the EdgeHD 11 on the Mesu 200 and ASI071 that was set to gain 200 (offset 30, -15°C). 50 x 5 min, so 250 min or 4.2 hours. Stacked in PI and processed in PS. Had quite good seeing and guiding (RMS 0.4 - 0.5 "/pixel). This is a 50% crop since I had elongated stars in the corners - not much lost this time since it was mainly "empty space" but I obviously need to check the chip distance until next time.

Outstanding image Alan! Amazing details. Really good advertisement for the Esprit 150!

Thanks Mark!

Well, I may accidentaly have caught a few galaxies with the RASA over the last weeks, but now I also got the Edghe HD 11 up and running on the Mesu mount and I first aimed at NGC 660, a peculiar galaxy that may be interacting with its neighbour IC 148. Here are some info I found: NGC 660 is a peculiar and unique polar-ring galaxy located approximately 45 million light years from Earth in the Pisces constellation. It is the only such galaxy having, as its host, a "late-type lenticular galaxy". It was probably formed when two galaxies collided a billion years ago.However, it may have first started as a disk galaxy that captured matter from a passing galaxy. The warped galaxy at the lower right is IC 148. It lies at a similar distance to NGC 660 so it is in fact possible that this is the galaxy that NGC 660 interacted with in the past. Seeing and therefore guiding were not the best at these first galaxy-hunting nights and I may get back to this object later to capture more details, maybe with my 14" SCT. 102 x 5 min (so 8.5 hours over two nights) with the ASI071 (gain 200, offset 30, -15°C). Stacked in PI and processed in PS

Great image and amazing mix Dave!

Yes, that IS IT! Congratulation on an impressive and successful effort. I should really put my RASA 8 to the test on this one but the skies have now stopped collaborating completely here.

Yes Wim, this has been a very productive period thanks both my new RASA 8 - ASI2600 combination and relatively good weather. And when imaging at FL 400 mm you do not need perfect seeing. I have realized that in this hobby you need to take the opportunity when it is there. Now clouds have moved in and may stay until the moon is back🥴

PS. It just struck me that the nebula looks like a litte fat fish with sunglasses on. Maybe it does not know that the Shark nebula (LDN1235) is nearby🥴.

Funny that we were both sucking photons from the same target last night. I look forward to see what you gathered.

Thanks a lot Adam! Not much skill needed by the operator - I have it on my cheapest mount (a 6 year old NEQ6) and have an 8 year old Mac Powerbook to download the images (using the free ASICAP) and to run PHD2. It did take me the afternoon to process (PI & PS) as it is quite faint, but no special secret tricks used and that is what I usually spend to get a first presentable image.