barkingsteve

Hi stu, Hope you don't mind me chiming in. Saturation and brightness are too high ( in my opinion ) if you pull it back a bit you get something a bit more natural ( again, it is subject to opinions but in mine, i think it looks better ) but it is a good start again, hope you don't mind but i reduced saturation and brightness and balanced the colour a little in photoshop

So after a few with the 130 pds i got out the big boy. I need to fine tune collimation but she does ok. The first five are with the 385c and the others are with the 294mc pro with the altair tri band filter ( forgot to take it out 😕 ) both with a x2.5 barlow.

While doing some eaa i turned to the moon and saw it was a pretty steady night so i took a few shots with the 130 pds and 385c camera. Baader neodymium filter and best 15% of 1,000 After these i pulled out the big boy ( C925 ) hopefully i have some good data to process, stay tuned

A few captures from tonight. 130 pds, 294mc pro at -5c 25 x 15 seconds at 150 gain, saved as viewed and cropped. Eastern veil North america Pacman Omega Elephant trunk Western veil

Some wispy clouds tonight but i got a few more captures. Same as above but 30-50 x 12 seconds at 100-200 gain. Bubble and little lagoon Crescent Heart pacman pelican

There does seem to be a bit of lopsided haloing around the brighter stars ( collimation ? tilt ? ) but this was rushed. i should get a good session in tonight as the weather is looking clear, so we shall see. Still seems to get decent detail on the rosette ( considering the tracking, flat and daylight breaking ) but hopefully i should get a good comparison with the p2 on the pacman and bubble tonight

A quick ( very quick ) test of the tri band filter. Skies cleared at 4:45 am so i set up and done a flat ( rushed 😕 ) and tested this filter. Weather looks good most of the week and i am off work so i expect to do some further testing soon but thought i would share my first results now. 130pds on evo mount, 294mc pro bin 1 with AA tri band filter, flat and dark applied, 12 second x 50 frames at 120-150 gain. saved as viewed, again this was done quickly as i am impatient Orion Nebula Horse head ( usually i cannot get this at all ) rosette ( it was starting to get light ) tracking seemed to have burped. I am really looking forward to further testing this week under better conditions with this and the idas p2 i don't think i need to invest in any more filters

After following the cn thread about this scope, seems like there are a few problems with it. While i would love a scope like this i am not really a tinkerer and for that price i should not have to be spraying nuts black and replacing screws with nylon tipped ones 😕 My original plan was to upgrade from a 130 pds f/5 to a 150mm f/4, only a slight improvement but improvement never the less. Alternatively i could go carbon fibre and possibly squeeze an 8" f/4 on my evo mount but not sure the extra 2" aperture would be that much of an improvement for an extra £500.

Sorry to hear that Mike, i wish i could be of more help. I started with sharpcap pro as i got a year free with my altair 385c cam and have never used anything else, so i cannot compare. All i can suggest is to keep an eye out on the night skies network: https://www.nightskiesnetwork.com/ Some of the guys there who live broadcast use sharpcap and are usually happy to answer any questions you may have while they are imaging. Just watching what they do may help. Steve.

Thanks guys. I can only guess it is where people put the filter in the image train ? perhaps they are placing it too close to the camera. My image train is: camera ->21mm extension ->16.5mm extension -> baader mk III cc -> idas p2 as you can see, no problems with reflections ( shrugs shoulders ) I normally wouldn't go eaa on a full moon myself but i wanted to test this filter, glad i did now I will say it is the easiest time i have had with any cls/uhc filter colour balancing, it allows me to be a little liberal with the saturation. In my opinion the phrase ' you get what you pay for' really does apply in this case. I have ordered an altair astro tri band filter to test also, perhaps i should of held off, hopefully i will get to test that one next week .

130 pds and 294mc pro with idas p2 filter. Best 15% of 1,500 frames. stacked in AS3, sharpened in registax and processed in photoshop.

Not the best idea perhaps being a full moon tonight but after receiving my new shiny p2 filter from FLO and clear skies i had to give it a go. All captured in Sharpcap with master dark and flat. 294 mc pro at -5, 12 second exposures 49-50 stacks at bin 1 and gain of 100-150. All images saved as viewed. Bubble Nebula ( deffo one of my favourites ) Coathanger Iris Nebula M15 M27 Pacman Nebula Considering it was a full moon and in bortle 8-9 skies i am thoroughly impressed with this filter. Looking forward to the next clear, moonless night

Looks ok to me have you heard of registax ? it is a free program which allot of us use to sharpen images in post processing. It is pretty simple to use, even with a little tweak you can get your images looking sharper. Hope you don't mind but here is your image with a little tweak in registax

Hi Vulisha, Thank you, i use a celestron evolution mount with starsense, i like things as simple as possible it has built in wifi and an internal battery. I can only speak from experience but i originally started with a 385c camera. It has a much smaller field of view ( smaller chip ) but is very sensitive. Here are a couple of links where i was testing a cls and neodymium filter on the same scope and mount as i used in this post, so you can see the difference in field of view ( M27 ) unfortunately with cameras when you lower the cost you usually lose field of view as the chip sizes get smaller. Here is a link to the fov calculator i use then you can work out what kind of targets you can expect to fit in with certain scopes and cameras. https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ i would also recommend some kind of filter in bortle 9 skies, do your research on filters, it's a whole new can of worms but a general lps or cls filter does help a bit with contrast in poor skies without losing too much useful light.

Hi Geoff, yes the 294mc pro is a much larger sensor than the 224. As you can see from the image below, a 294 would give you a slightly larger fov than my setup.

C925 with a reducer and a 294mc pro at bin 2. Best 10% of 1,000

Thought i would test this filter tonight. All captures are around 50 x 8-9 second exposures with a gain of between 160-250. flat and dark applied in sharpcap. This is the non ccd cls filter, so no ir/uv cut. images are all saved as viewed. My sky conditions Bubble Nebula Cocoon Nebula Iris Nebula M15 M27 Pinwheel Galaxy

Found a review of it on cn forums. seems solid enough https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/663055-new-sharpstar-15028hnt-initial-impression-with-pics/ thanks for the feedback guys. I am leaning towards a 'yes' when funds allow and the colour scheme will fit nicely with my 294mc pro, just need to respray the rings on the evo mount red now hehe. Edit: looks like they do an 8" F/3.2 version, would be a tight fit on an evo mount though 😕 http://sharpstar-optics.com/index.php/en/15F28/277.html

As usual, i am getting speed fever. This scope seems like it would be ideal for EAA and would nicely fit on my evolution mount. Could this be my dream scope ? https://www.365astronomy.com/sharpstar-15028hnt-150mm-super-fast-f-2.8-hyperboloid-newtonian-reflector-telescope-red.html Any thoughts or observations appreciated, was thinking about the hyperstar but this is 4kg less than the 925 which is great for better stability.

Have you seen Astrojedi's Guide ? i found this super helpful when first starting out https://liveastronomy.neocities.org/SharpCapGuide/The Unofficial Guide to Using SharpCap v0.5.pdf

130 pds with a 385c camera and a baader neodymium filter. all images are 50 x 8 second exposures at 150 gain in sharpcap. Master dark and flat applied., no processing, saved as viewed. Testing the neodymium, I feel i need a slightly stronger lps filter for my skies than this, but it is used mainly for the Moon anyway Cocoon Nebula Crescent Nebula M27 Eagle Nebula M13 Omega Nebula M57 Trifid Nebula

Quick one before an eaa session. 130 pds with a 385c camera and a baader neodymium filter . Best 15& of 1,000.

Thanks Mike, darks and flats make a world of difference while you are live stacking in sharpcap. Compared to my first few efforts a year ago when i was new to sharpcap and had no idea about darks and flats,these results i could only dream of then from my location i fully recommend sharpcap for live stacking, making master darks and flats are very simple as well.

Thanks guys, the 130 pds and optolong uhc seems to be doing the job quite well colour balance can be a bit fiddly though.

Been a while since i done any deep sky stuff. 130 pds on an evolution mount with a 294mc pro and optolong uhc filter. Bortle 9 skies, all captures are between 30-50 stacked 8 second exposures, 125-200 gain and are captured as viewed, no processing. Master dark and flat applied in sharpcap. M31 ( andromeda Galaxy ) ic 5146 ( cocoon nebula ) M16 ( eagle nebula ) ngc 6992 ( eastern veil nebula ) M13 ( hercules cluster ) M8 ( lagoon nebula ) M27 ( dumbell nebula ) M17 ( omega nebula ) ngc 281 ( pacman nebula ) ic 5070 ( pelican nebula ) M20 ( trifid nebula )