smr

Well it's the best image of the Squid I've seen, amateur or professional.

Wow! Fantastic image and effort.

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

Good question.

I would go for the 268 as it has more options for readout modes (See the review that Steve linked above), and I suspect the build might be better.

However, looking closely I think the back focus is longer with the QHY, something to watch out for if you want to put filters in the light path, as it could push them above the vignetting threshold.

I've never owned a QHY Camera or a ZWO apart from my 120MM but that's been fine. The only thing I know, other than what you've just said is that QHY apparantly have a bit of a reputation for not as stable drivers, but by the sound of things have got much better with driver stability over recent years. The other thing is that I see a lot more people with the 2600 - a couple of users here and quite a few 2600 owners on CN. I've yet to hear from anyone who has the QHY version apart from Jared.

16 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

That 2600MC Colour gets an amazing write up.  I nearly went for one two or three months ago but I wimped out to wait for the Covid situation with my employment to bottom out.  FLO did not have any in stock then and have not had any since.  Likewise the QHY268C, similarly great write up.

https://www.amateurastrophotography.com/qhy268c-test-report

EDIT:  Bern has the QHY268C in stock!

FLO did actually have some in stock a couple of weeks ago, but they sold out quite quickly - within the space of a week.

268C or 2600 though? 

Fantastic image Goran, and a nice write-up. I am very tempted to buy the ASI2600. I've noticed that there seems to be quite a lot of ASI2600 owners with fast scopes though, in the f/2 or f/3 range of light gathering capability and I'm wondering if I would need to buy a RASA 8 as well to make full use of the Camera or whether it should work well with my f/5.9 Z73.

1 minute ago, alacant said:

Yes. 

Thanks.

Seems to work without power if I plug my guidecam straight into the laptop, otherwise its not generating enough power off without the power lead, so I may as well plug my guidecam into the laptop anyway.

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Does it need power? I found it works more reliably without. But then again, I only have imaging camera and mount connected.

If anything, I'd run a separate lead to the guide camera; one frame every 2 seconds as opposed to one frame every 300 seconds.

Just my €0.02.

Cheers

Plug the guidecam straight into the laptop instead of through the hub you mean? 

Definitely needs powering, I've got my DSLR, Guidecam, 2 USB dew bands and the Mount (FTDI to USB) plugged into the USB Hub.

Having imaged for the last 2-3 years with a Stock DSLR (Canon 80D) I would suggest upgrading to a modified DSLR asap. I procrastinated over buying a modified DSLR for the whole time I used my stock DSLR and tbh I should have upgraded a lot sooner. 

I quickly realised that there were a lot of targets I just couldn't image successfully with a stock DSLR but there were a few which surprised me. I think the Veil Nebula is actually quite bright compared to many other Ha rich targets (such as the Heart Nebula)... that, the Lagoon, Eagle etc. I just didn't bother imaging after trying the Rosette Nebula with my stock DSLR.

I'd always choose brighter DSOs or Galaxies with my 80D - M31, M42, M33 etc. although I was quite surprised with the Eastern Veil Nebula. I did plough 16 hours of integration time into it. I don't think it's impossible without a modified DSLR but it just takes much longer, it effectively takes 4 times as long on the basis that most DSLRs only let 20-30 percent of Ha photons through. A modified DSLR let's in 100 percent.

Some results with my unmodified 80D...

The Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 33 by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Messier 42 - The Great Orion Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Eastern Veil Nebula by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31 by Joel Spencer, on Flickr

Yeah it's a powered USB Hub. The Cable length is 1m. Too short really, I'd need 1.5m or 2m. This is the adapter...

The power cord for the USB Hub is too short really. Anyone know what could I replace it with which would be reliable ?

Thanks for the suggestions guys. There's a reason why my Scope has the dovetails in that way, I can't remember exactly why now, it might be how I had to do it to fit the guidescope or balance or something like that. There's no problem with the empty USB ports facing upwards is there  ? Just thinking in terms of dew etc. 

Thanks. I'm not sure how easy it would be to fit the hub to the scope. Some more pics... where would you think is best to place the hub?

18 hours ago, Wyvernp said:

Calibration and stacking will be no different, the only time I can think of that it changes will be the additional step of combining when using a mono camera which isn't the case here.

Thanks. I guess I just need more data. I'll add some more hours and see how the image develops. 

Just wondering where best to place my USB Hub on my HEQ5? Like this on this part of the mount ? 

I've just been on Holiday to a Bortle 4/3 location for two weeks and one night was clear, I managed 1.5 hours of imaging time in two weeks. For me I'll go for an ASI2600MC Pro as my next Camera.

Hi, 

So I've got a three hours integration on my first image with a modified DSLR and L-eNhance filter. It's only 3 hours on the Heart Nebula from Bortle 5 and Bortle 4 locations. Is there a different method of processing I need to utilise compared to processing with an unmodified DSLR and no filter? I know 2.5 hours isn't much in terms of integration time at all and I usually aim for at least 10 hours but I was expecting to be able to pull out a bit more signal than I currently am.

Hi guys, 

Imaged for the first time with my newly acquired Canon 600D.... 

The strange pattern lower right - anyone know what that could be, doesn't look like sensor dust... will it clean with a sensor clean, and can anyone recommend a good sensor cleaning kit for the 600D please?

On the bright side it's the first stack I've ever done (albeit only 1h30m) with a modified DSLR, and also first with a narrowband optolong l-enhance.

A couple of points, positive and negative... the banding is much more pronounced in the 600D compared to my 80D - it has made me realise just how good the 80D is in terms of the cleanliness of the data, almost thinking about modifying my 80D now.

The Optolong L-eNhance is superb from first impressions, stars are much smaller which is really nice, and no halos. I could imagine with a clean sensor and several hours integration I could get a nice image.

Thanks
 

Joel

that thing on the bottom right also shows on flats.

3 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

Perhaps the best way to deal with DSLR noise is to dither between frames and then stack with an algorithm which removes the hot pixels. This means taking bias frames  (along with your light and flat frames) instead of dark frames. Indeed, you'll probably find that dark frames introduce more noise.

HTH

Ah yes Kappa Sigma clipping and hot pixel removal in DSS should be fine. I dither with APT and PHD2 and use Bias frames. Really don't want to take darks with a DSLR as they need to be temperature matching which is difficult to do and then there's having to wait for dark frames. Thanks. 

6 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

Start off by imaging the sky and blind  plate solve  , once image had successfully solved , sync mount , then use go to++ choosing an  your object  from the Apt  list    , then let Apt do the rest it will put object within a few pixels 

Anywhere in the sky or is it better to use Stellarium to CTRL 1 to the target first, then do the plate solve?

7 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

It probably is closer to 442mm if its blind solved. I found it to be very accurate. Heart Nebula probably is in the list. There's an option to tick for an extended list of objects.

Ah yes thanks, 18,000 Objects!

So if I slew with Stellarium to the Heart Nebula but it's not on target, I then select the Heart Nebula from the object list, and then click Solve, after it's solved, I then click the Sync command ( does this move the telescope to the exact position of the Heart Nebula ) ?

Not sure why the focal length says 442 when it's 430?

Does this all look right? I loaded an image of the Heart Nebula and did a Blind Solve as it didn't seem to have the Heart Nebula in the Object Browser.

Surprised the Heart Nebula isn't in the objects browser. Trying to do a test plate solve on an image of the Heart Nebula I took last night.