Dan13

very surreal at times isnt it! and yes a joy to behold when there at the best! clear skies

Excellent such a good feeling and as you have shown, one that sticks forever!

Hi Vlaiv, 3. I would just recommend you in the future to use Gain 120, to turn off AWB and check if offset has good value - and continue taking nice images this was your point, mmm i really not sure whats gone wrong last night but im really not happy with the frames for the cam i have, i used to achieve better with a dslr...

Hi @vlaiv apologies to jump on an old post here and disturb you but you made some points that may help my issue. I imaged to Veil nebula last week that turned out ok considering integration time spent, with that i moved onto another target. This time using unity gain and offset as previous was at 0 my histogram was clipping in the black levels, i bumped it up to 30 and things seemed ok.... Ive come to process 4 hours of data and im really not happy with the noise levels at all... !. can bumping the offset up cause extra unwanted noise 2.what do you mean by making sure the "gain value" is ok? many thanks for any input, i also have a 294mc pro recently coming from a 600d Dan

Hi, Last night out of the blue i encountered some huge dec backlash and unstable guiding. I think im due a strip down and re-grease soon anyway but when i opened up the cog chamber i found the Dec belt (rowan mod) a little too soft for my liking so i put some more tension on it. Is there any program i can grab to test how the axis are behaving at all without having to lose imaging time? (HEQ5 Pro) many thanks

Haha brilliant! Such a feeling isn't it, a great hobby we endure for sure! Has its ups and downs but the rewards are fantastic.

No thats great info. I did try my barlow and mono cam as its smaller but didn't really give me much joy. Might try the mc Pro tonight with the barlow in and see how I get in. Thank you Steve will do

Excellent thank you, do you any other attachments or spacers at all steve? What acquisition software do you use for planetary ?

I've always imaged the night sky from the early days but for some reason I've never viewed and appreciated with my own eyes the beauty up there. This week I bought a 127 mak from an SGL member (thanks dave for the pleasant transaction) and got out last nice to observe jupiter. I looked up and see its position, looked through my finder scope and when it came into view.....WOW!! I was stunned! This was just my finder scope and I could see its moons already! With full excitement I ran in the house and woke the wife up ( wasnt overly happy at first 🤣) and dragged her outside to look. I popped the 25mm eye piece in adjusted the focus and pretty much was gob smacked!! We both sat in awe for a good 15 mins just taking turns to look before popping a 2x barlow in for a little more grunt. What a fantastic experience and one I know I should have done a long time ago. My eye pieces are basic but I have a hyperflex zoom on order ( thanks John SGL) for the recommendation. All in all I had a very special moment last night with the jight sky that I can't wait to share with my son when he's older and a memory I wont forget! Ill be viewing a lot more now and am eagerly awaiting oct for mars. Questions... I would like to grab some images of the planets, I have a 120 mms and a 294mc pro will either of these suffice? I had great trouble trying to line the planet up with stellarium as its always miles off and I just plate solve but due to a lack of stars around the planets how would one usually tune stellarium to the correct position ( use eq mod not hand controller) I have a HEQ5 Pro. Many thanks and clear skies everyone What a magical hobby we have.

Tbh Rodd, Your attitude towards @vlaiv earlier and now myself is uncalled for. You dont want to take any advice or info on board , you sound like you know best so i would advise to continue as you were and do you.

Your missing my point, Maybe its my fault. I joined the topic to discuss the advantages/disadvantages of 10 hours integration or 5 hours. i think 10 is over kill and wont benefit any more...thats just my findings. with regards to your issue, i dont believe the single frame is better when inspecting it differently, i think the stack is. Try and re process, its the only option. Its near impossible for a single sub frame to be better then a final stack so maybe your processing was off. then stack half the data (5 hours) and compare that to you ten hours. Id say you will save yourself 5 hours sleep after seeing the results.

Id go back over your stacking parameters and try again and see if you get the same result, maybe something was off. Ive just separated your images and put one on each of my dual monitors, IMO i can tell which one is the 10 hour stack by doing this and now think the stack is better but marginally. This goes back to my previous post, i dont believe IMO 10 hours data on a single target is justified compared to say 5 hours. In this case it still is strange because your single sub is very close to that of a stacked image, but then again with a 30 min sub i think your at the limit of getting the most detail you will from that target in any given shot. by taking 19 more your really only fine tuning the detail lines and not the whole nebula. Stacked image is cleaner -less distorted/less noise-more detailed , not sure what else your after here....

great images.... Im so interested in this subject because i just cant see the advantage of a ten hour integration over a 5 hour. ive never seen enough detail change in my own final stack to continue shooting for ten hours when i can do two targets at 5 hours each. just my opinion. I tend to do 6 hours max over a few days if im doing HARGB. if its a single osc shot ill do 4 hours total.

All ordered John thanks for your help

Gotcha Steve I would create a star mask with star net++ on a 3 hour integration and then apply that to the final image. clear skies

haha brilliant Geoff, ive ordered the zoom lens but as we no with this hobby oct-dec is a while away yet and new gear can be bought

what gain did you use Steve? also find a slight curve transformation will help lower the stars a little.

Thats a good point thank you Stu, Im kind of gearing up now ready for mars in OCT, always been a dream to view that target and looking forward to it. I think i may go with Johns suggestion as it seems very versatile

stellarium/EQmod/Nina

Thabk you, yes I like the look of the one John posted it seems to be a multi tool if I'm reading right. Would an 8mm be enough for mars saturn and Jupiter without a barlow?

I'm really not sure tbh I'm not very knowledgeable with observing and these are the only ones in the tool kit atm

Thank you , happy to pay a little over if its on good merit from somone such as yourself. So this is in theory 3 eye pieces in one? Am I reading that right?

Thanks John , ah ok! Well I'm guessing it will be then as it was only £20 I think! Maybe I need a half decent Barlow and a eyepiece...rabbit hole continues 🤣

Hi, Im due to acquire a 127 mak from a member here on Friday. Strangely I started my astro journey with astrophotography from the start and never really obsevered. I absolutely love this hobby and am fully committed to it now. Question is ...I have some standard 9mm ,25mm eye pieces that I've acquired through scopes along the way, I also have a 2x barlow. I'm looking for a nice eye piece to complement the Barlow for some good planetary and Luna viewing, looking to spend up to £70 as t this moment. Many thanks ( apologize for spelling it's not my greatest strength) Clear skies

Hi Steve, i didnt personally in this image, i used it as a mask to get my colouring right on the nebula and the stars them selves. i really like the stars around this target so they dont bother me at all tbh. Side note, i forgot to add i used a L-enhance with this for the first time and was shocked at how well it picked up the surrounding nebulosity, thats why i kept a lot of it in the image