Adam J

Its not blown out with no stretch in APP but even with no stretch its bearly blue just a hint of blue, its an Spectral Class A8V star so really only very just blue. I think people may be pushing this star to be more blue than it actually is.

I am using Astro Pixel processor and PS2. Its an Esprit 100, ASI1600MM Pro and Baddar LRGB filters. Adam

So I am trying to work out some colour balance issues with my setup. I am having a hard time getting blue stars in my images. For example: In others images that bright stars at 7 o'clock is blue.....I cant get it to be blue, its always white. Yet I am getting a few blue stars in M13 so whats going on? Thanks for the help. Adam

For me the 533 is superior to the other two and by quite a large margin. Just look on astrobin and despite the 533 being relitively new its producing much better images. Adam

Someone must be using an Esprit 100 with an autofocuser?

I am having some issues with setting up my filter offsets on my Esprit 100 I keep ending up with slightly bloated red channel when I average focus based on HFR. I would appreciate it of anyone with an Espirt 100 could share their offsets for comparison, I know mine will be different so its just a wet finger in the air thing. Mine are currently set as: Lum = 4 Red = 7 Green = 0 Blue = 0 Thanks, Adam

If the ASIAIR displays a histogram then you are looking for the peak to be about half way along the graph. Don't forget to get some dark flats too at the same exposure length. I am a bit surprised that it does not have a optimal exposure calculator for FLATS. Adam

nice, have you tanken any images recently, seems a while since I have seen you post anything.

Stop, nothing on that mount needs to be so tight as to be rounding off your Allen keys! You will strip something.

Yes a HEQ5pro can't guide an esprit 100 unless your camera has big pixels like a 8300. The newer CMOS cameras with smaller pixels show guide errors. I am speaking from personal experience here. I had to upgrade to an AZ EQ6 GT.

Would not currently recommended the AMP 107/700 a friend of mine is having trouble with his, I don't think it's up to the standard of their LZOZ lenses. The esprit 120 seems like the best bet, if your feeling poor the TS version of the 115mm is great, if your feeling rich the LZOZ.

I think you need to consider some factors, 1) We are going to loose astro darkens soon. 2) I would not recommend importing astronomy gear seen that trip too many people up, you will have no support. 3) If between now and Augast when it starts getting dark again you can get together another 200pounds and you get the ASI533mc pro you will be much happier down the line. There have been many many times in astronomy when I have fallen into the trap of buy cheap buy twice. Adam

It depends on the amount of backlash. Ideally backlash being low you would balance it perfectly to place less preasure on the mating surfaces of the gears and to reduce the load on the motors. However, if as is often the case with budget mounts (think less than 2k) backlash is present in significant quantities then you will want to bias towards east heavy in RA. In Declination it i will depend on how good your Polar alignment is as to if you will and to perfectly balance or not. However in most instances you will not be able to as you will find balance will shift with dec position, in this case and in the expectation that there will be a reasonable amount of backlash on your EQ5 I would recomend that you make the mirror end of you 130PDS very very slightly heavy. Adam

You will only need an extension tube if you are not using a flattener.

In my opinion the ASI533mc pro is a superior camera. For a couple hundred more. Of course the QHY183mc will be a better choice than a DSLR. However for me it's pixels are a little small for a OSC and so you may end up binning during processing to improve perceived noise.

If you want to take a shot of M3 then a longer focal length would be best. I would say the 73 is best out of those two. For me the 51 is a travel scope not a main scope for every day use unless you want to go really wide. Adam

I like the level of automation but I think that some additional features such as pauses and options to refocus on specific filter changes could be added to the sequencer. I also like the autofocus stuff but that is new to me. Adam

Thanks I was quite pleased for 550mm focal length :)

I have quite alot of light polution so with the low read noise of the ASI1600mm pro you reach deminishing returns quite early, I could even go shorter and still burry the read noise, but 1000+ images already takes a long time to stack and a large SSD. With shorter exposures I find that I have more flexibility I discarded any exposure that did not give very good star shape and FWHM mainly due to seeing, so about 5 hours of data was chucked as it did not make the cut. The RGB is tripple the exposure length because with 1/3rd the light comming in it takes 3 times the exposure to burry the read noise as with lum. NINA has a optimum exposure calculator that can help. I have started to use a formula or total lum exposure = combined RGB exposure and that seems to work quite well. Adam

First attempt at galaxy imaging with the Esprit 100 / ASI1600MM Pro. Also the first outing for my recently aquired AZEQ6 GT. 1200 x 30s Lum 100 x 90s RGB per channel. Big Crop. Full Image Thanks for looking. Adam

Which scope are you using?

I find IDAS to be deeply frustrating, they bring this oddity out: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction-imaging/idas-z-body-mounted-filters-for-zwo-asi-cameras.html Which costs more than a 2 inch filter which you could just use with the APS-C sized ZWO OSC cameras for less money and a 1.25 inch would have worked for the rest of them while screwing into the existing 1.25 inch thread mount that comes with ZWO cameras. This product just makes no sense! But don't sell 1.25 inch filters and I really want an NGS1 for shooting galaxy luminescence. Sigh..... Adam

Honestly not so good by today's standards, the ASI294 and 533 are significantly superior cameras which can be found second hand for only a couple of hundred more. Thats not to say its beyond consideration, but only if you really cant push even slightly higher than £500.

Ill be interested in a review when you get some use out of the 85.