gonzostar

Hi This is my attempt with the ZWO 385MC camera with a L-eNhance of the Wizard nebula in bottle 5 skies. Certainly not the quality as other members have posted Telescope used was the ES102mm APO AT f7 on a AVX mount Settings used in sharpcap. Gain 200 (is this to high for my camera??) with the L-eNhance filter Integration time around 14 hours using 120s subs. Could it do with more subs? Darks and flats used, Finished in PS. Of course pointers for improvement welcome Cheers Dean

Wow that's awesome so much detail.

Hi This is my attempt with the ZWO 385MC camera with a L-eNhance of the Crescent or Jellyfish nebula (NGC6888) in bottle 5 skies. Telescope used was the ES102mm APO AT f7 on a AVX mount Settings used in sharpcap. Gain 250 (is this to high for my camera??) with the L-eNhance filter Integration time around 12 hours using 120s subs. Could it do with more subs? Darks and flats used, Finished in PS. Of course pointers for improvement welcome Also included Tiff file if anyone would like ago 😁 12hrs.tif Cheers Dean

Polemaster takes around 6mins from connection to finish on average. As a creature of habit I took the plunge and tried sharpcap's PA. Thanks Alan I can see with a bit of practice and knowing your right from left it certainly will be a quick process. Also I like the reading telling you how "far" off you are. I couldnt get any better then good tonight. I feel thats because its wat to gusty along the south coast. But will be sharpcaping next time

Thanks Michael, that should be achievable 😁

Thanks Alan. Also thinking that i should find then a alternative for PA and not polemaster. Polemaster seemed adequate for 5min subs with the DSLR, The ZWO385MC seems less forgiving! Will figure out Dither setting in sharpcap. Cheers Dean

Amazing photo's on your link. Did look at ASI pro, maybe one day however need to save up! Like the idea that it's a all in one. At the moment using polemaster for polar alignment, Which i think is fine for the DSLR but not less forgiving with the OSC camera

Wow that's a amazing picture thanks for showing. Unity gain for the ZWO385MC is 135 will try also to increase gain to around 200? and see what happens. May reduce exposures to 2 mins as my mount is quite susceptible to wind and guiding errors. Although i did 5 mins subs with my 70d DSLR! Do you use sharpcap? Trying also to figure out dithering using sharpcap, and after how many exposures do you tend to set the dithering? So many questions 😁 but thanks again Dean

It would be boring if it was easy 😁 Yes those black pixels look bad. Is this worse due to longer exposures Didnt see your message till later, so did another hour of 3minute subs. Agree that these exposures maybe to long with my guiding on the AVX mount. Also brighter stars looking "blotted" Also tried dithering Initial frames where 60s in duration so will give that another go. May risk 120s? I'm using sharpcap and PHD2 for guiding. Although PHD2 did dither however took a long time to settle back. Not sure how i alter setting in livestack for guiding. Anyway will try again Cheers Dean

Thankyou for your ideas and suggestions. Stack_16bits_6frames_1080s03.fits This is a fit file from last night last night, consisting of 6*180 subs. Think i'm on my way and as you both suggest a lot more frames needed. Will post once i get a decent image Cheers Dean

Thats a relief, Thankyou Alan for time and helping me out with these issues. Fingers crossed for plenty of subs. How did you neutralise in Photoshop?

Thanks Alan for feedback, raw file from original image 60s sub gain 135 correct dark incorrect flat as i changed filter from previous imaging filter from a previous target frame_00012.tif This was master flat i used in initial image MasterFlat_l-enhance 030623initial 2023-06-03T19_35_24.fits New master flat that i used last night MasterFlat_040623 l-enhance 2023-06-04T19_12_19.fits Also attached FIT file from yesterday session. (not correct darks used) This is todays task Quite blustery so 3min subs where a challenge with this mount today Stack_16bits_4frames_720s02.fits But I think data looks better then initial FIT file that I posted Thanks Alan for taking time to have a look will be interested with your opinion Cheers Dean

Gave it a quick go. Increased exposure to 180s, but need dark frames as some amp glow in top corner. Increasing exposure and keeping gain at 135 brought out a little more Ha data. Guess will need to save up for IDAS NBZ nebula, sounds more productive then the l-eNhance filter. Again thanks for your feedback and suggestions Alan Dean

Abig thankyou for looking into the data for me very helpful. My sky bortle is 4/5. The electron/ADU gain settings for this camera is 135. My camera is uncooled also may be noisy? I may struggle with 5mins duration on the AVX mount. I guess i will have these issues with other nebula's such as lagoon Would it work if I went back to the IR/UV cut filter and tried the gain at 135 and 60s exposures? Cheers Dean

Hi Hopefully a easy question for your experts. I'm using a ZWO385MC camera settings gain 135 exp 60s using a L-eNhance filter with a 102mmAPO refractor. Looking at the fits file which is 20 mins in total. I have saturated red areas. Does this suggest i should reduce exposure or gain or take it down from 16bit to 8 bit? Thanks for looking, Oh this is supposed to be the Crescent nebula 😁 Cheers Dean Stack_16bits_20frames_1200s02.fits

Hi This is my attempt with the ZWO 385MC camera with a ir/uv cut of M57 in bottle 5 skies. Telescope used was the ES102mm APO AT f7 on a AVX mount Settings used in sharpcap. Gain 60 (is this to low for my camera??) Integration time around 6 hours using 30s subs. Could it do with more subs? Darks and flats used, Finished in PS. Of course pointers for improvement welcome Cheers Dean

Thankyou will give at go 👍

Thankyou for reply a little clearer. So in my camera's case the unity gain is 60? Cheers Dean

Hi I have a ZWO ASI385MC camera. Initially used for lunar and planetary imaging. However i want to explore deep sky a little more. Had some success with brighter objects. On the graph in the manual I'm a little confused which gain settings i should use. The read noise drops off at 60, but on the other graph the gain e-adu says 135. Do i use 60 or 135 or in between? I've being using again 60 with 30s subs with my set up. Does this sound about correct? Any words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated Cheers Dean

Cheers, If I can anyone can. 😁 Taken a while but worth the perseverance. Still not as good as many other people's efforts though

Nice image, Also like how you got the galaxy

Thanks Simmo39 Their was me thinking i should have gone for 60s 😁 Longer for nebula's Galaxies? Cheers Dean

Hi This was my first attempt with the ZWO 385MC camera with a ir/uv cut filter bottle 5 skies. Figured out how to use sharpcap to stack lights, darks and flats Telescope used was the ES102mm APO AT f7 on a AVX mount I chose M13 as it was at reasonable high above the horizon and bright enough be found with my navigation. Dont think I blew up the core! Settings used Gain 60 Exposure 60 minutes using 30s subs. Could it do with more subs? Of course pointers for improvement welcome Cheers Dean

Ah Thankyou Pipnina a factory reset sounds good. Being meddling with settings due to new OSC colour camera compared to Canon 70d camera. So pressed wrong button somewhere along the line! Also did notice in RAW/FITS tabs when i clicked the monochrome box for colour camera DSS doesnt like this. They are my individual subs Elp and havent noticed lines in the subs. So I'm presuming its something i've pressed in DSS. Use sigma clipping in sharp cap. I agree certainly lots of satellites whizzing around up there! Cheers Dean

Hi This is M3 taken with new ZWO385asiMC camera. Gain 60 Exposure 30s total integration time 56 minutes. Used sharp cap to capture images and then stacked in DSS. However a set of parallel lines appeared across stacked image. Any suggestions would be great. Not seen before when i have previously stacked using DSS. I've attached TIFF file straight from DSS stack Cheers Dean Autosave.tif