JohnSadlerAstro

It's good you got the issue sorted out in the end--FLO are where it's at with customer service! John

That's a nice lagoon, not too much red, either. Is your camera unmodded? I'm really excited to get out later this week is the weather allows, but its so difficult to decide which one to image: the Eagle, Trifid, or Lagoon Nebula. :D John

Could I be a noob and ask what an ADC is? Also thanks for the tips, I will try cropping down the capture size so I can get way more frames. John

Those are really nice photos--they are certainly far better than any results I've ever got! I've never even seen the Red Spot, let alone imaged any detail other than the 2 main bands and some aberrations introduced by the barlow! I know I'm being very cynical, but it seems to me that each field of astronomy requires almost as much money thrown at it as skill. ? Once I got stuck on DSO imaging, the money for planetary doesn't exist! I'm guessing quite a lot of it is in the camera? Or just very very good collimation and a good barlow? So far I've used the default SW o.25" 2x Barlow, and an ASI 120 MMC. John

I also keep a "remove before flight" tag on one of the tripod bolts, (to stop the setup blowing away in a wind--this one's been quite successful), and a pocket compass attached to the PA slo-mo controls (for good PA, this one's not quite so effective sadly). I have heard of keeping pet spiders or even rats nests in out-of-use OTAs is good for keeping up collimation, apparently their droppings prevent mirror corrosion are also better than most re-aluminizing methods. And of course, the 130P-DS superstition about never saying "zero" near the setup while imaging--take the 0 of 130 and you get 13! John

I'm afraid I'm just plain superstitious when on the issue of flats taken the next morning, after 'nothing has changed'. I have never got next-day callibs to work satisfactorily. Possibly the setup is angered when the by-3am-half-dead astronomer puts sleep before photos and staggers to bed. You mention there is vignette, to be honest I cant see any? Perhaps the effects of the website compression and screenshotting have masked it though. John

Hi, Does photoshop have the ability to mask an area and then apply a brightness change to that mask (like Star Tools)? If so, that's probably the best way. You might need to make several attempts at getting the mask the right size/blurriness, though. John P.S. Nice M101!

Yes I have noticed this issue as well. Unfortunately the default focusers just don't keep steady at different focus points. (Although, once they are locked in position its all good, so not realy much point in getting a new focuser unless you plan to image with 2 entirely different cameras in one night. ) John

Hi, I didn't remove it for the flocking process, although I did make sure that was level all the way round with its mounting. I guess part of the trouble is that I never did much collimation until i got my PDS and the image coma became an issue. With some more practice, I'm sure it will improve. John