CCD-Freak

I was looking for a supplier for the TS Concenter tool in the US since the shipping from Europe was prohibitively expensive. I was not having any luck so I was talking to a buddy of mine and he made me one to try out. His uses a laser etched skylight filter and T-threaded extensions along with a nice compression holder for the "peep hole" which make it very flexible. I have just started to experiment with it but it looks like it will work great for all my Newts and RCs. He calls it the "SMAT" (Secondary Mirror Alignment Tool) 🤪 He made a few extra so if there is anyone on the US side of the "Pond" that wants one drop me a private message and I will get you hooked up with him.

I like that right angle drive motor....where did you get it?

Here is the comparison at +20C. I stretched the images the same amount and there is very little difference. I was wondering what capture software you use and what was the gain and offset settings. When I look at the stats of a single warm pixel they are typically around 6k ADU so they are not saturated. Good Darks and dithering will produce very clean images. I see no problem with your camera.

Do you have a Dark taken at your desired operating temperature like -5°C or -10°C?. I can take a Dark at 20C to match your 20°C you posted. I will get a comparison posted later this evening.

I compared Shimrod's Dark to my ASI-533 at -5°C and there is little difference. The auto visualization is such a narrow range tends to make it look really noisy. If you check the value of most of the warm pixels they are no where near swamped. the second image shows just a little stretching of the visualization makes almost all of the warm pixels go away. Doing Dark frame subtraction will take care of the warm pixels and dithering is also a good practice. This is a 60 second single image @ -5°C showing the Debayered image and the Raw It would be interesting to compare the OP's dark image the same way.

This 6" Unitron refractor belongs to the University of North Texas so it is not mine but I wish it was. I dreamed of having the 6" since I first saw the ads in Sky & Telescope magazine.

This image of M42 was made with an un-modded 100D through a SS 150mm F2.8 Hyper Newt. I just got a Ha modded 100D and I hope to shoot M42 again using the same setting for a comparison as soon as the weather clears. We have 6" of snow and a low of -4°F night before last.

Looks good to me. Very nice image with great star color.

The Pixel Shift sounds like Dithering so maybe it will make for less noise and hot pixels

Those are on my short list. John Love CCD-Freak WD5IKX

It is based on true events. John Love CCD-Freak WD5IKX

I have the DVD as well. We watch it when we have a cloudy night at star parties. 😀 I also like "First Men in the Moon" John Love CCD-Freak WD5IKX

I am working on my top 10 list but I am surprised that no one has listed "The Dish". It is one of my very favorite films. John Love CCD-Freak WD5IKX

I found this selfie of myself imaging with a 8" f3.8 Newt at the Okie-Tex Star Party a few years ago. I really enjoy the Bortle 1 sky out at the tip of the Oklahoma panhandle. John Love CCD-Freak WD5IKX

I used to do that but the fine focus knob has enough "sponginess" I found I get better repeatability when using the coarse knob. If not trying to do auto focusing there is no problem using the fine focus knob. Just my personal preference. 😀 John CCD-Freak WD5IKX

I use the Orion focus motors with a FCUSB control box controlled with Astro Art or the FCUSB focus app and a Bahtinov mask works nicely. John CCD-Freak WD5IKX

Did you use a UV-IR filter or a filter that cuts IR? John CCD-Freak WD5KX

Were you binned 1x1 for this image? I am considering the ASI294MM-Pro John CCD-Freak WD5IKX

One of the best images of the Rosette I have ever seen.....GREAT work !!!!! John CCD-Freak WD5IKX

I did not set up the stacking process correctly.... "Flying through Hyper-Space ain't like dusting crops" John Love CCD-Freak WD5IKX

Great images for your first full year. 😀 John Love CCD-Freak WD5IKX

Thanks...My image is not EEVA by today's standards but in 2015 I had to shoot a short batch of images then stack them with Astro Art (V4 back then) to get the above image. EEVA or EAA as it is called across the pond is much easier these days with very sensitive cameras and live stacking. (^8 John CCD-Freak WD5IKX

I am also late to the party. This image was shot back in 2015 with an Atik-383L+ OSC and an 8" RC John CCD-Freak WD5IKX

Here is my trusty old Celestron Ultima 8 on a Milburn wdge and a C14 heavy duty tripod set up for some imaging fun. Here is my other cat....Mini Me (yeah the clone of Dr Evil) in her cat throne. John CCD-Freak WD5IKX

Are you using a focal reducer? Looks like the spacing is wrong if you are.