don4l

That's just right. Do not even think about reprocessing it! 😉

I'm still quite new at this, so I have an awful lot to get to grips with - (what focal length to use, Sharpcap or FireCapture, all the settings in both, etc, etc, etc.) I had a quick go at ICE and wasn't making progress, so I have put that on a back burner for a while. In the meantime, I'm learning about new features in Gimp. "Layer Groups" are a fantastic aid in this sort of work.

Last night the seeing was better than normal. I put a Takahashi 1.6 extender onto the back of the Tal200 and the results were way beyond anything that I have managed before. I've also been playing with the settings in Sharpcap and been surprised with the differences that some settings make. This was shot in Raw16, Brightness 3, Gain 35 and Colour balance "Auto". I've no idea why "Auto" colour should make a difference, but it does seem to. There are 24 panels. This was processed in Autostakkert2! with the sharpening option. I tried the wavelets in Registax, but this didn't seem to produce any improvement. I also tried a couple of shots with a 2x barlow (total 6400mm) and these came out OK, but there would be far too much work involved in combining 80+ panels!!! Sorry about my poor mosaicing skills.

Thanks for the lovely comments. Last night (29th) I had another go, but this time I used a 1.6x focal extender to give a F/L of about 3200mm. I think that in future I might stick with this, as it should mean much less processing due to the larger FOV of each frame. I also tried Firecapture for the first time. User incompetence meant that I ended up taking far too many subframes - I suspect that the default view may not show the full frame!!!! My overlaps were far too big. There was one small exception, where the overlap was a bit too small. Hopefully nobody will notice [cough]. I haven't converted this one to monochrome because I sort of like the way that it has turned out. I'd welcome people's opinion on this. Perhaps it just looks weird? Click to enlarge:-

Thank you, Geof, and thanks for the tips. Your advice has all turned out to be spot on, and has saved me lots of time and effort.

Thank you. I assembled the mosaic in the Gimp. I've tried a couple of mosaic packages in the past (ICE and iMerge). I didn't manage to get them to work well. I will have another look at them in the future.

This is a 22 pane mosaic taken at 4000mm with an ASI120mc on a Tal200K with a 2x barlow. I've got the feeling that the 2x is pushing it a bit far,but I wanted to find out what it would be like. It is better than without the barlow, but the difference is not huge. I've scaled the image to 60% because it just looked worse at full size. Perhaps I should have reduced it even further??? Click the image for full size.

I suspect that something is going awry in the porcessing. If you are capturing in Raw mode then you can use the Canon software to convert one of the subs to a tiff. Open the tiff in the Gimp and try "Colours" -> "Auto" -> "Equalise". You could also try "Colours" -> "Auto" -> "Colour Enhance". These won't make a pretty picture, but it should give an indication of what is in the data.

Nice animation. I've had exactly the same problem with RGB, so I've started just taking L. I might try it with a Canon EOS250 if I can figure out how to do it.

The second is much better on my screen too.

I've solved it in ASTAP. You might be having a problem with the stars, but you don't seem to have any problem with the galaxies!😉 I haven't counted them...

Is this any use?

NGC3718. It won't solve in my ASTAP either, which is unusual. EDIT: It solved fine when the full size jpg was used.

Have you played with the "Chroma" setting in Gimp? I think that it might reveal a lot more colour.

I used Cartes du Ciel. I'd also recommend ASTAP which will identify asteroids as part of its platesolving.

It's asteroid 447 Valentine Mag 13.9. EDIT: Beaten to it!

If the current forecast is correct (unlikely) then I might be able to have a look at them in a couple of nights.

I love these ARP galaxies, and this image makes me hungry to image some.

I like it. The core often looks over processed. This image looks nicely balanced and delicate. You should be very pleased.

I've been having a similar issue for the last two weeks. A calibration fixes it for the session. Every time that I do a meridian flip it starts to wander off as soon as it tries a guide pulse. There is a "Reverse Dec on meridian flip" option in PHD, but it doesn't seem to affect my problem.

I'm fairly sure that you couldn't use 36mm filters. I use 2" filters on a smaller sensor.

The image that I saw was taken by a Scandanavian chap. The 6200 chip size and pixel size would suit the FSQ brilliantly IMO. However, I do feel that you are absolutely correct to be very cautious. Good luck.

Have you seen any images from it yet? Somebody posted one here on SGL about a week ago.

I'm enjoying these close ups. It's very nice to look at a familiar target and see it in a completely different way.

Were the items bought from a user, or from a third party? Most people who are into astronomy take incredible care of their equipment. The de-centred optics could be subjective, but the stripped bolts really sound like something that any user would know about. I hope that your friend doesn't lose his interest in the hobby.