Dragon_Astro

SharpCap can be used for long subs for deep sky work, because I do for subs lasting minutes, along with many other people. SharpCap can also be used to capture Fit file format as well as PNG. The “offset” is the “black level” slider under the gain. It can also capture your Light subs and apply your master Dark frame to it at the same time, it saves all your various darks in a folder. The latest version of SharpCap also does dithering linked with PhD2.

I use SharpCap with my cmos camera, and I can concur the Smart Histogram is very good for measuring your skies and working out the correct exposure, gain etc. SharpCap Pro version is £10 a year and find it more stable than APT, which I found froze all the time with my cmos.

I need to get one soon too, for my 12” Dob.

You need to develop the “dobsonian hug” 😄

I think I’d like to try for Pluto too next time I’m out. Can just about catch the Sagittarius region over my garden wall 🤔 A plate solve in the right region, then upload to Astrometry should do it 😊

Nice! Love my 150P, The ol’ Girl serves me well 😁

Aah nice! Im from Haverfordwest 😁👍🏻

The clear forecast has disappeared, with a sudden downpour signing it all off. I wanted to catch the GRS :(

I did however manage to sit on my glasses in the dark 🙈 Now got a nice hairline “artefact” on one lens 😩

You had the heavy rain too then Gina? Here in Pembrokeshire it literally rained all day from 7am to about 6pm 🙈 Don’t think there was a drop left for last night lol

Managed to get a good hour or so observing tonight, before the clouds rolled in. Easily found M13, which was a generous peppering of stars right down to the core, more appeared the longer I looked. Then it was on to M31 and it’s companion M110, M31 still just a very large bright smudge but the large Moon that was rising didn’t help. Also looked at my favourite double, Albireo

The 224 chip particularly is also already more sensitive in the red part of the spectrum, so that’s a plus if you want to go for HA nebula etc.

So if luminance is captured 1x1 and colour binned at 2x2, would astro software match all the stacked subs, size wise?

Unity gain of 400 and black level 50 for the 183 is often recommended too

I am swerving towards the Telrad, shame it’s so big. It’s having to find a good spot for it. The Rigel has a much smaller footprint as you say......but is the sight any good Alan? I’ve heard it moves with head movements?

Really nice, natural look to this 👍🏻How long were your subs?

Pembrokeshire hey, that’s where I am 😁where abouts have you booked the cottage?

An out of the blue rain shower here at 10pm, afterwards decided to still venture out with the truss dob, had a look at Jupiter, Saturn and finish off with the Moon before the thick clouds decided to roll in.

Aah I see 👍🏻

I use two Altair cmos, you saying they’d run better plugged into a powered USB hub rather than straight into the laptop? Download speeds can be a lil “flakey”.

Anything here you’ve not tried yet?..... http://galaxymap.org/cat/list/sharpless/1

Welcome to the forum, stepping out of the shadows with some great captures 👍🏻 I prefer the first one

That is with a guide scope + a guide cam too mind you, not just the HEQ5 on its own

I started off with the 150P on an Eq3-2, which I didn’t find quite sturdy enough to guide accurately, though to be honest it was early in my AP journey so it could’ve been down to my inexperience with it all. Now use the 150P on an HEQ5 and it guides like a dream, 5min+ subs when polar aligned well. The 150P does take 2” accessories, the 1.25” part is removable for using it with a DSLR (used a Canon 450D with mine). Aswell as the familiar targets like above, I’ve captured the deeper space ones like the Abel galaxy clusters and Hickson galaxy groups. Below is a recent Jupiter capture (stacked subs)....

Trying to decide on a finder.... Telrad... Rigel Quikfinder.... or Baader SkySurfer 3? 🤔