Craney

That looks very good, and considering as well, the Moon last night in my garden was brighter than the neighbour's security light !!! If you get that sense, like yours, of the HH being in front of a gas curtain ( like on a 3-D theatrical stage ), then it is a beauty of an image. From what I read, this is a game changing camera. I have noted a fair few 'older' and not so old CCD's coming up for sale as people upgrade. I guess this is a keeper then ? sean.

@iwols A couple more from last night. If you have the focal length, then there are always a few smaller emission nebulae/objects dotted around the heavens away from the Moon. I went for a few old favourites which are now in the Western sky, to get my 'eye' in again with the imaging so to speak. It's been a while. Both with C8edgeHD with 0.7x, Atik 414ex . Crab in SHO, HH in Ha-O3. ( although not much O3 in there)

Abell 12 (The Hidden Planetary) There yer go... Mu Orionis tends to dominate the processing. Ha-O3 combined in PS. Ha : 30mins ( 10x3mins) O3 27min ( 9 x 3mins) : C8Edge Full 2000mm FL. Atik 414ex Mono.

When's the next Total Solar Eclipse in the UK ?? .... you might get 2 x 1 min RGB ... at a push...

no probs..... I'm just setting up for tonight. It appeared in Ha and O3... and looking on Astrobin, seems like the wavelengths of choice..... and Nitrogen !!! if you have one of those filters just lying around.

Here's a cheeky one..... Abell 12 ( the hidden planetary ). (not my picture) I tried it last night Ha and o3 with the Edge and Atik 414. ... and there it was . Have yet to process. Great thing is you do not need to find a bright star to re-check focus when you do the filter change. There is a big convenient one in the FOV. Located at the the top end of Orion.... http://astronomynow.com/images/Abell12.jpg

Thanks @ZiHao that gives me a starting point. It is at a moderately low altitude here in the UK, that might give a bit of atmospheric turbulence to contend with.

Hello there, Well it's clear tonight and Moon will be big and bright .....( deep in the heart of Yooorkshire... all sing-a-long-now.....) My mono-cam (414ex) is a bit erratic at the moment ( horizontal bands!!??) so I'm after a new target /diversion. How about imaging Sirius B...... it is favourable placed at the moment. So I have an Edge 8HD and various planetary cams ( 174m, 120mm, 224C ) . Is the 'stacked' sub-second exposure AVI the way to go about it, or is the 'pup' just too faint and I will need to lengthen the exposure to several seconds or beyond ??? If anybody has successfully done this, I would be very interested to hear how you did it ?? Maybe it is fiendishly difficult to achieve. Any help welcome. Thanks, Sean.

I first picked the issue up when scanning through the Astrobin forums https://www.astrobin.com/forum/c/astrophotography/other/flat-frames-l-extreme-asi294mc/ ..... and this connected to a few lengthy discussions on CloudyNights. ( there is much longer one somewhere than the one I quoted originally). I have the 294mc on a wish list, so I was a bit surprised and concerned to hear a few serious astrophotographers talking about potentially a physical reason within the camera that might be causing the chip to display this mottled coloured effect. ie. the sensor is not set perfectly square against the fixing surface. Although, a few people commented that theirs were behaving perfectly OK. ( shades of the DayStar Quark product ???). As with most things on CN, the discussion then mutated into a verbal tennis match about how to take correct flats etc.... and you end up not knowing what the original problem was !! I hope you find a solution that is exterior to the camera and which is easy to remedy. It would be reassuring to know that the 294mc is as good as the specs say it should be. Rgds, Sean.

There is quite a bit of discussion regarding this phenomena. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/653346-flats-not-working-as-expected-asi294mc-osc/ Not sure what the resolution was /is ??.... whether it is a chip thing or a chip / filter thing. Looks a nice camera as well. I would be interested to see how it works out.

Really nice and smooth. Where does the time go? I've still got an animation to complete from the 2017 total eclipse !!! Since Mars was from October, I suppose it does and doesn't show Perseverance.....

Hi there, I too have a QHY8pro. Never really used it to its full potential as I also have a mono Atik 414 which is just amazingly sensitive and always gets first dibs on a clear night. Ever since the 414 started to produce bands (unexplained as yet ) I have gone back to the QHY8 to try to get it singing.... but lack of continuous clear nights has really made it a stop-start procedure. ... a bit like learning AP all over again. Anyway.... Looking at your image, apart from the optics of the lens mentioned above...... my immediate question would be, how are you attaching the lens to the camera? Is there any 'skew' ?? Also, are you using any filters as such ?? ... and are they possibly slightly mis-aligned or the source of a off-centre reflection ??.... Just guessing but might be something to look for. Not related, but what values for GAIN and OFFset do you use ?? Cheers, Sean

Top book price on a Tak (apparently...)

That's some view Adam. It looks a low Bortle site as well... that double envy !!!

This is a good website https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar You can track when a shower is coming in. You have about 10 mins delay on the update, but it is enough to give you a warning. Looks like tonight we are in the firing line !!! Sean.

Do not look at Astrobin !! ( well....not for the first year at least )....

Don't be at crossed purposes......

Good mount. Probably a bit dated and agricultural in design when compared to other makes, but it delivers and there are a lot of happy owners to testify to this. The advantage of a large ownership is that there are lots of advice for mods, upgrades and fine tuning. For visual, should be OK for a 120mm refractor... if its not too windy.

Probably go for tape first...... but I do believe they use this stuff on wet-suits.

What if all your hot pixels are Red, and none of Adam's are ?? That's a frightening percentage difference at red wavelengths. But... back to the original topic...... what is that stripey pattern caused by then ?? Very odd.

So true. There is possibly a PhD in there somewhere. I'm not a massive Lunar fan as well.... so ho-hum.... but something like the OptoLong- Extreme would work well with your 294MC on those Moon-lit nights.

Getting that red filamentary detail on the Cigar Galaxy is no mean feat. .... and without any Light Pollution filters as well. I know FW is in the Highlands, but it still has quite a big town centre and throws out quite a bit of light.

That's a great image..... It must have been your comparison that I nicked the idea from..... so, thank you . Cheers, Sean.

Whilst we are dreaming, Epsilon 180 in the boot....just........ Salma Hayek might need to vacate the passenger seat to get the full set of AstroDon's, Chromas and Baaders in ......

I do not know Ollie, but he sounds like he likes a 'proper' car and can get the most out of it. One day, fingers crossed.... I'll book a month at his place and turn up in one of these.....