Martthebass

Cheers, just hoping we get a few hours of clear sky before the astronomical darkness ends in these parts.

Ditto on the ‘frustration’. I’ve not done this one justice, pretty much the same kit as you. Never seem to get the correct balance of light and dark…you’ve made a better job of it than me.

I feel your pain, I’ve had only tiny amounts of clear sky time over the last 2 months. A couple of weeks back I decided just to hit up a few open clusters as I was lucky to get 45 minutes. Fortunately my set up is sat in the sun room ready to go at short notice. I was amazed I got anything of M35 as the sky was really fighting that night….

Watching with interest. I was considering upgrading my 533MCP last year for a wider FOV but ended up getting a Redcat51 to supplement my Stellamira 90EDT and I’ve been more than happy with the results in terms of increased FOV. I’m now considering adding a 533MM and using it on the 90mm.

I find my AM5 pretty quiet when slewing and tracking. You’d need the counterweight with an 8” though.

Well the winter constellations are now starting to make an appearance over the trees to the east so here’s my first rendition with the ‘new to me’ redcat51. The weather app is still not getting things right here in the north so my hoped for 4 hours was cut short to about 2 hours of 3 minute subs on the 533MC pro. Hopefully I’ll get another couple of hours on it over the Christmas break.

I’m not on Pixinsight…..this was Siril and PS. My laptop really isn’t up to Pixi so I’m sticking with Siril at the minute.

Really nice image. I also use the SM90EDT but as I’ve the small sensor 533MCPro I shot this using a Redcat51. I’m still struggling to bring out the soap bubble which is just staring to show in the starless image but hoping to get another hour before it dips into the trees this year.

To echo a comment above, humidity was really high last night. I had frost growing off all surfaces of my rig at 6:30pm and had to pack up due to freezing fog at about 7:30

I started off using -10C on my 533MCP but moved over to -5C last year and haven't noticed any difference in image quality.

There is always a risk with 'over enthusiastic' posties. I bought a WO GT81 a couple of years back and some rough handling managed to kick some swarf onto the inner lens element which was removed successfully by the guys at RVO (the poster was very helpful in this regard). On the positive side I bought a Stellamira 90EDT from FLO and it arrived in perfect condition. As others have said, I'd have no concerns with buying from FLO; if buying privately I'd collect if possible or make sure the item was insured appropriately.

Well as with many of us the skies have not been kind of late in these parts. The relentless cloud relented slightly on Monday evening but the haze rolled in pretty quickly, killing my guiding numbers and any real detail. That said I did manage about 2hrs of watery subs on IC5146 with my Redcat51 combo. I’ve overexposed the nebula a tad as I was looking at how much dust I could bring out. Hopefully I’ll get another crack at this in better skies before it dips into my neighbours trees.

This one’s a fairly new addition Mandy, I’ve rested the 90mm and got the Redcat to do some wide field stuff. Pleased with it so far and it’ll have to do as I can’t see me acquiring a 2600MC any time soon 🤣 it would be nice if the clouds would do one, I’ve only managed to get a few hours light on it so far.

That’s definitely a big beast Mandy…..I seem to be going the other way 🤣

Pictures or it didn't happen Mandy! lol.

Too right......I'm getting seriously bored of reprocessing old data. Haven't had a decent clear night in nearly 2 months.

I’ve tried this one a couple of times but definitely need to get more time on the area. I still haven’t managed to get the ‘bubble’.

Adam, It would also be worth considering something like the 'all in one' solution below. If something like this had been available 3 years ago when I was first looking into the hobby I would have bought it. It's limited to the larger DSOs but the images I'm seeing from this piece of kit are excellent at the price point (<£600). https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/zwo-seestar-s50-all-in-one-smart-apo-telescope.html

Hi Adam, I'm not far from you (Rotherham). If you need a lengthier discussion then hook me up. The dark skies are pretty thin on the ground in these parts, you're probably looking out into the peaks to get half decent skies. I'm Bortle 6 so tend to shoot mainly with L-Pro or L-Enhance filters which do a fair job on helping to deliver decent images.

Fully agree with your comments on the ZWO ecosystem. I was already on ZWO cams and ASIair so the move to the AM5 wasn't a major concern. As Steve says the AM5 plays very nicely with the ZWO stuff and PA is very easy and quick (certainly in comparison to my old AZEQ5 which wasn't bad by any means). Mine was one of the early ones where the PE plot was a bit larger than the ones that are being reported now but to be honest the guiding seems to be more dependent on the seeing than anything else. 0.6" is pretty typical with 0.4" on the better nights with my <7kg load. To me the main benefit though has to be the portability; it will be coming with me to a better sky later this month with the little Redcat and it all packs down to 3 small packages.

I’ve found hitting a few points of Hue-Chroma in Gimp helps a lot to bring out the star colours on broadband targets. Youve done a great job uncooled, I really struggled to get rid of noise even with calibration frames on my old uncooled camera.

A 533MCP, it’s not an ideal pixel match but it doesn’t do too bad a job. Andromeda, was one of my first targets on this set up also, not the best image (my stacking software is having problems with my calibration frames) but ok on 60 minutes in wet skies.

Yes I remember Quantum Mech 101 on my first day at Birmingham Uni......I wanted to go home. I still can't prove Schrodinger's equation.

Lovely image. I’ve switched over for the end of summer nebula season to the more wide field set up. As you say it’s great to be able to leave it set up to use in a flash.

It was nice to get a clear night last night, the first decent seeing in many weeks. The AM5 took advantage of the good guiding and gave me 0.40” rms over the 4 hours with the little Redcat51 on board.