AstroMuni

No, On Siril you just need to mark on 1st and last frame

Hmm...not familiar with DSS. But I did manage to stack the comet using Siril (I know you said you were looking at an alternative other than Siril) and it works fine. This was I think 70 x 10sec exposures

I personally only use a Coma corrector without any focal reduction, so cant speak from experience. But I am sure others on this forum can help. EDIT: You would need to double check that there is enough travel left in the focuser tube to compensate for the introduction of the focuser!

Ask her to buy you a focal reducer too 🙂 That would greatly help IMO

You are on a roll Dave 🙂 Yet another great image

You can image DSOs pretty well without cooling. See my signature link for what I did manage to get with a ASI224mc (also a planetary camera with no cooling) If you are worried about optimal camera for your FL then you need a camera with larger pixels (or you could do a bin2 with 678 and add a 0.7x reducer)

First and foremost...a dob is a newtonian after all, so if you have got a tracker sorted you should be good with any advice being provided for a Newt. You will find lots of discussions on pros and cons of MC vs MM. Both have their plus and minus points. As a starting point, I would personally get it working with the TEPP tracker and camera to see whats the longest exposure that you can get without getting trailing stars BEFORE adding guiding to the mix. Have you tried out the FOV calculator on SGL site https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ to see what kind of DSOs will fit into you sensor size for the 678? Here is what M13 would look like. You might wish to invest in a focal reducer [removed word] coma corrector. Good luck and Clear skies. Thats the challenge for a lot of us 🙂

Thats a great image! Not sure if its just my screen or does the bottom right half have a magenta tinge?

I guess a simple way to check is capture an image using a different software (say) ASICap and see how it records the FITS header

Trying to sharpen before stacking - Is there an advantage to be gained that way?

Try looking for any 130mm reflector rather than SW130pds specifically. Its not going to be exactly cheap ! but you should get them in the £25 range. Cheapest will be to build your own using a sheet of plastic along the lines of a Bahtinov mask.

The FITS header is showing as BGGR in Siril. You can access it under Image info which is available when you click the 3 bars Once you do a background extraction, the green cast is removed. Doing a Colour calibration should help get rest of colours right too (already demonstrated by Oddsocks 🙂 )

Download an app like Skysafari and point your phone in the direction of interest. It will tell you what you are looking at! As others have pointed out you have managed to get many stellar objects of interest in your image. Enjoy.

Its looking good...you are correct about adding more noise, but the SNR should improve too. Unfortunately in this imaging game, I think we need to add lots more data to see significant differences in the quality of the image. 😞 @MartinB a version of Graxpert has been coded into Siril and it does a pretty good job of removing gradients IMO.

Try this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/locator.html

Nicely written Lars. I have been using Kstars/Ekos on RPi4 for sometime now and love it. EDIT: In the Ekos Scheduler section you could also mention about creating an artificial horizon for use in your home so you can plan and work around obstructions surrounding your setup.

Many software have been named above that run on Windows. Let me add a bit of info in case you use a Mac/Linux. Kstars/Ekos allows you to control the mount/cameras/focuser etc, capture images and has a planetarium, platesolving, guiding, scheduler all built in. For stacking and initial processing I would suggest Siril. You can use Photoshop to do the final touch ups. EDIT: If you find Sharpcap easier to use, you can get it to do the image capture and have Kstars managing rest of devices. Disadvantage with this approach is you cant get platesolving done via Kstars.

You could make a start with an uncooled astro camera if you are not too fussed about widefield images. Several of the cameras with smaller sensors cost less than a DSLR. I started with an ASI224MC and these days you get better versions.

Whereabouts in India do you live?- is it an urban area etc. As others have said its best to save up and get a decent scope. EDIT: I found this link https://bas.org.in/ My suggestion would be to join them on their Telegram chat group and ask the questions about locally available scopes, etc. Good luck

Aww...in his post Sterrenland mentions how he has sharpened his stars. Have you tried that technique?

Thats a lovely composition. Looks like a fish facing left with a large dorsal fin 🙂

I like the bright colouring it makes the nebula pop out giving a 3d look. I can see what you mean about the stars which look a bit like flattened minus signs on my screen. Are you using a Flatner - Could be due to distance not being perfect?

If you wish to get a Go-To and budget is the issue for purchasing a new mount then consider the 2nd hand market.

Begs the question why dont the astro cameras come with the filter attached, if its so essential to AP.

Its tricky to get compass to point correctly when the tripod is nearby as the metal content can confuse the compass. 😞 So what I used to do (before I bought my HEQ5) was to place the phone on the ground and get the top of the phone pointing North by using the app. Then I placed a wooden slat at the base of the phone so its going W to E. Now if you place the 2 legs of the tripod along the slat then the 3rd leg (with N marked on it) should be pointing North ! PS: The HEQ5 comes with a polarscope so compass not necessary