teoria_del_big_bang

Mind you never mind Bortle 9 I need it to be able to see through snow clouds at moment 🙂 Steve

Can you share it ? Steve

Yes I have had a go with the ap and I think it is very good. Only issue I have is that I struggle seeing things on my 17" screen laptop and just impossible on my phone, but that is an age thing and probably on out of date glasses prescription 🙂 But despite not using the app I have stuck with stellarmate and for £50 I think is value for money. Yes you can load just about everything it has yourself for free but to save the hassle it isn't a big price to pay. But AstroBerry is probably exactly the same, although there were a couple of things that were just a bit more tricky to setup, and I never could get it to think I wan't in Poland, but that again is probably me not the software, so still not really much to choose between them except AB is free 🙂 Steve

Funny isn't it how most imagers are never totally happy with their images (myself included). Considering the conditions most of us have to contend with just to get a few hours of useable data it really is a miracle we actually can image anything but the brightest DSO's but this site alone puts up spectacular images every day. I think that is a great image, even better when brightened up slightly. For 1 hour of data in not ideal conditions it is actually incredible so not surprised you are "not unhappy with it" 🙂 Steve

Managed to get some data for the first time since early September on clear night last week. Unfortunately all did not go well and ended up discarding over half the images so ended up with the following: Ha 8 x 6 min OIII 6 x 6 min SII 6 x 6 min Steve

I will remember that, just hope travel is back on soon otherwise it will be all electric 🙂

Blimey those AstroDon's must be good

Oh I see. I take it you will not be taking your own gear with you then otherwise you are going to have to get one hell of a "grab and go" to fit it all in that. But turning up in that would be something 🙂 Steve

All printed - final version (V03) and I think you will be happy, so long as cables fit okay - but if not that is easily fixed with a slight redesign and reprint. No screws and all sections seem to clip together securely. And only weights 80g . Message me your full name & address and I will get it off Monday. Steve

Is this advice from experience - not totally sure what you mean 😕

Oh I realized that a while ago 🙂

Wow, thata an incredible stretch but very effective and agree with you entirely about the resulting image. Steve

Just wondered what someone with more experience thinks about these flats. These are just auto stretched in PI. A lot of the round blobs seem to line up on all images so I assume are dust bunnies ir some form of contamination on either camera or one of the lenses but what causes the really dark arc to the right on the OIII flat. I think there is something similar but feinter on the Ha but cant really see it on the SII. Steve

Nice 🙂 Similar LP to my patio probably and funnily enough it seems to be a quirk in my part of the UK that clear nights only happen when moon is more than 70% so that should be achievable for me. To be honest I have had very little use out of my LRGB filters so far due to the moon always being so bright on the clear nights (I wasn't joking 🙂 ) but would like to get more use out of them. Steve

Ha Ha 🙂 Yes I did that a long while ago, just happened to see your comment on the latest posts on the main forum page and it made me chuckle otherwise I try not to look 🙂 I used to look and ended up costing me a fortune and then somebody always buys something better just as you receive something, I just wish I did not have such a materialistic nature. Steve

Now I am just jealous. Just fantastic, what can I say. But, how much of the success of that Ha image is down to filters, and how much to scope, camera, viewing conditions & dark skies ? I imagine the filters do play a big part but the biggest plus must be the dark skies and lack of LP (in my novice mind anyway) and as @vlaiv says the 3nm filter coupled with lack of LP is what pulls all that detail out. Much of that I am not going to get from my patio and having to travel more on clear nights I know is probably the best upgrade I can have, we do have some relatively good dark skies in the Dales so I need to use them, and then maybe the difference between the Baader 4.5nm and Astrodon 3nm is still there but not so obvious. And my aims are continual improvement of the final image, so there are lots of other stuff I can do to achieve that before paying a few K for new filters and also still a lot to learn on the processing side yet as well. The better filters may come one day, not sure but I think this thread has made me realize I need to use what I have for now and get the best out of them I can. On the bright side if AP was easy then I probably would have got bored by now and given up 🙂 Steve

What rotators are you using out of interest ? Steve

Those bolt on spacers look pretty hefty as well . Oh I can see an upgrade to a FeatherTouch focuser coming here 🙂 That filter wheel also looks a lot bigger than my current SX 7X 36mm. But I think it only supposed to be 691g, looks can be deceptive. ZWO ASI1600MM 410g QHY2600M 812g +422g SX Filter Wheel 700g QHY Filter Wheel 691g -9g Spacers approx 80g Bolt on Spacers ? Guess 200g +120 So around an extra 550g, actually not that bad if some of my guesses are correct. I find it har to believe its not more than that. Steve

Or maybe not Ha Ha. I certainly agree with the life's too short and can't take it with you. But my filters are in the 3.5Nm to 4.5 Nm range so I will see how I get on with them and the obsy is probably a better thing to spend the money towards and is what I intend to do. Only thing stopping me making a start is that we are probably going to downsize in next year or two and dontt really want to spend 2 years getting the obsy just right to then move and pack it all up, or that was my reasoning but there again the 2 years could turn into 3, or 4 and who knows ? Steve

Wow is that the 1600 next to it in the first pic ? It looks tiny next to the new camera and filter wheel. I have the same FW coming soon I hope. It would be nice to see the camera and FW mounted on the scope. Thanks for the update 🙂 Steve

Nice sub and compared to mine it miles ahead,. But real hard to do any real comparison when LP will be different, sky conditions may not compare, it was a bit hazy with around 60% moon with mine and mine was 300S. Yours is really more like what I would like to get from the OIII and clear skies permitting if the target is still in my line of sight then I could try a longer sub hopefully on a better conditions and then see how it compares. Steve

My word Olly like a genie mention your name and you appear 🙂 I have the Badder so called Ultra NB (Ha 3.5Nm, OIII & SII 4.5 Nm) in 36mm and went for these as the price was not astronomical and had read about the persistent halos with the standard O!!! and Baader did promise that would not be an issue with the new range. I was very luck and managed to get the Ha and OIII from Ian King when they were as rare as rocking horse poo, it then took me until back end of last year to get the SII. But the reason for asking these questions is as these are the only decent filters I have had in my short 3 years in AP I just don't know how good or how bad they are and have not used them enough to really see the results myself. But I haven't really noticed any major issues with halos but there again maybe not been near any very bright stars.. Not sure if it helps but a couple of crops from single 300S raw frames of Monkeys Head below. OIII Ha Steve

No problem, I like to help people on the forum and quite honestly I like a challenge and the design side of it. I find it quite relaxing on the cloud filled evenings. So its not really a hassle for me and I can never design something that is of no use to anybody so on the odd occasions these sort of requests appear I quite like doing it. Might be different when the clouds clear mind ha ha 🙂 Steve

Makes sense and many thanks for the advice, which until those lottery numbers come u I will heed 🙂 I know its great to get a new bit of astro kit but to be honest I am not sure I really need anything for a while now (oh I would like but I don't need it) so the money will probably not even go on astro gear, as such, but possibly a holiday when we can do so and get to some dark skies with my scope. Maybe even get out to Ollies place which I promised myself I would do one day. Steve

That's good, so 112g heavier than ZWO and 10mm longer, I can definitely live with that, but full marks to ZWO still getting it down to 700g. Steve