Budgie1

The main reason was that it was in the FLO sales at a much reduced price! Apart from that, the L2 is for general use with a corrector/reducer and the colour correction on my 80ED & 100ED isn't too bad. Having processed your Rosette image, the L3 may be the better option for your setup. I've done a process in PI and it's below. The focus is fine and there's good detail in there, I haven't removed too much of the background gradient because it would make it too black and remove some of the Ha nebulosity from the edges. The stars have been reduced, but not too much, and I removed the magenta from around them. There isn't that much noise in the image TBH, but it's easy to introduce it so sometimes less is more when processing. Anyway, here's what I got. I may have another go at it tonight as I'm not happy with the dark rings around the stars in the centre of the nebula and it's looking a bit washed out.

Both the ASI183MC Pro and ASI294MC Pro only have AR coated window. If you're not using any type LP filter then a UV/IR cut filter should help reduce star bloating, if you're seeing this in your images. Although the UV/IP cut filters are cheaper than other types of filter, you still get what you pay for, so I wouldn't go for the cheapest version. Something mid range from a good filter brand should do the job.

I've always put any filter right in front of the camera sensor, so it's the last thing the light passes through before it hits the sensor. Whether this makes any difference, I don't know, but it works for me. I have the 2" ZWO UV/IR cut filter and I've just replaced it with the L2 for use with my ASI294MC Pro in Bortle 2. I've not really had time to see if it makes a difference as I've only had a couple of clear nights when I've used it, but the last image is below. Mine is connected to SW Evostar 100ED DS Pro with a 0.85 FR/FF. How do you check your focus? I only ask because the image of the Rosette looks a bit out of focus, when looking at the dust, bottom right of centre, and this will effect star bloat as well. Processing can also have an effect, like over stretching the image trying to wring out that last bit of data. If you want to post one of your stacked files, I can put it through my normal work flow in PI to see what it looks like.

One other thing with using this type of filter with ASI294MC; if you find you're having issues getting the flats to calibrate correctly then use a gain of 200 and offset of 30 and they should calibrate correctly.

You should have a 1.25" filter adaptor which screws into the 11mm spacer on the front of the camera. This places the filter as close as it can be to the sensor, avoiding vignetting, reducing the chances of reflections and allowing the whole sensor to be used to capture the image. I've not used the ZWO Duo Band filter, I have the L-eXtreme which I use with my ASI 294MC Pro, but you'll need to use it on emission nebula, which mostly have Ha & Oiii, like the Heart, Rosette & California. They don't work well on planetary nebula and galaxies but they do allow you to take longer exposures during the full Moon period, which is what I bought the L-eXtreme for.

You should be able to run the ASIAir from the 12v cigar socket and then run the AZ Gti and the cooling for the 183MC Pro from the ASIAir power ports. The 183MC & 224MC should be fine running off the USB ports on the ASIAir. This means there's only 1x power cable from the tank to the mount and shorter cables on the mount, so less chance of snagging. Also, the cooling on the 183MC won't be running at 3a all the time, maybe just until it gets down to the set temperature, then it will idle until it needs a wee boost for adjustment.

The editor is normally a What You See Is What You Get style but there is a Preview button at the top of the text window, last on the right.

There are Pros & Cons, even to dark sites. I'm also one of the those 0.01% who live in a Bortle 2 area and the skies are fantastic. On the flip side; I also live in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with only 5 rainless days through Jan & Feb this year (that's rainless, not clear!). Between mid-May and mid-August we have Twilight all night, so it's too light to trying any imaging. By the time it does get dark enough to image, we're well into the season of Clan MacMidge, and that can last into October! Would I change location? Nah! Oh, and if you haven't experienced Clan MacMidge, here's a wee video for you, see if you can watch it without scratching:

Not really helpful if you're using StarTools but, I ran your image through PixInsight to see that I could get with the data and here's the result.

I thought I would enter this one as well. This has NGC3718 as the main focus with NGC3729 above it and ARP322, a galaxy chain, to the left. Subs taken on the 31st March and I used 1h21m 180s subs, taken with ASI294MC Pro on an Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FR/FF. Stacked in DSS & processed in PI.

I put your stacked image through my normal workflow in PixInsight and there is colour in there, but it needed dragging out. As Vlaiv has already said, there is something not right with the stars. I my processing they have a blue halo on the right of the nucleus and the focus seems to be a bit out. A UV/IR cut filter will help with the halos and I would advise going for a mid-range one. The cheaper ones don't always do what you expect them too. With DSS stacking, you don't need to ditch the subs with satellite trails (star trails yes). In the Settings > Stacking Settings > Lights > Set the Stacking Mode to Kappa-Sigma Clipping and leave the other settings at default. This will remove the satellite trails for you. If you want to remove the green cast, which is normal on OSC camera because the bayer pattern has 2x green to 1x red & 1x blue, then on the same setting page as above, look towards the bottom of the page and click on "RGB Channels Background Calibration" > make sure "RGB Channels Background Calibration" is ticked > click "Options" > on the new tab "Calibration Method" should be set to "Rational" and set "RGB Background Calibration Method" to Minimum. Here's what I managed to get using a quick process of your stack:

Thanks Dave, I think it's the advantage of no Moon and Bortle 2 skies. The only filter I used was a Astronomik L-2 UV+IR cut filter on the camera.

Had to do a bit of cloud dodging last night and I only had about 3 hours of imaging time. With it looking like the last clear night for a while (weather & work wise) I wanted to get a couple of targets done. I'm not normally one for target hopping, but needs must, so I didn't get the time on each target that I would have liked but here's what I got: First I had a go at NGC 3718, a new target for me and one I'll go back too later. I got 1h 21m of 180s exposures with the ASI294MC Pro at gain 200 & offset 30. I went for the 200 gain on this as a bit of an experiment, to see how it differed from my normal 120 gain, and it wasn't too back given the time on target. Second, I got 32 minutes on M3 at the same camera settings (only one set of flats required ) Both were stacked in DSS & processed with PI, with a final tweak with Topaz De-Noise AI. C's & C's welcomed, as always.

They are, naked eye Milky Way in detail is great. The downside is that at this latitude I have to stop imaging between May & August because we get Twilight All Night. I guess there's pros & cons wherever you live. Enjoy those skies!

The last time I imaged the Iris was with my astro modified DSLR and I used ISO 800 at 180s exposures and it came out fine, picking up lots of the black dust. With the sensitivity of your ASI2600MC, you should be fine using 180s and if the focus goes off or there's high cloud then you're loosing less exposure time for each sub.

A couple of things to check: When you switch the mount on, send it to the Home Position on the hand set and see if it moves from the scope up, counter weights down position. If it does move and does not stop in the normal Home Position, undo the RA & DEC clutches and manually move it to the correct position. This is just to make sure the mount knows where it's starting from. Make sure you tell the handset that we're now in BST/DST (assuming you're in the UK ).

If you've not had a go at it before, what about NGC2264 and take in the Cone & Fox Fur nebulas, with the Christmas Tree Cluster thrown in. I've just finished this target and it works well with a duel-band filter, although I'm in a Bortle 2 area.

Exposure wise, I haven't really reduced it after changing from gain 120/offset 8 to gain 200/offset 30. This past week I've been imaging with 240s & 300s exposures using the Askar Duo-band filter on the ASI294 MC and have got some good images out of it. As @Adam J mentioned, make sure the flats are the same gain & offset as the lights, I know on APT I sometimes forget that the Flats Assistant uses the Bulb gain setting, which I normally leave set to 300 because I use it for finding the target & plate solving. I also make sure the flats & flat-darks are shot at the same temps as the lights and I aim for ADU of 26,000 +/- 500.

I checked the linear version and there's no star trailing or back focus star stretch in any of the corners. Must be close stars. The stars in this image were removed, processed separately, reduced and sharpened before being added back in. So it may be a remnant of that.

The last few clear nights I've switched from the Evostar 80ED DS Pro to my Evostar 100ED DS Pro for Galaxy Season but I've still got a few nebula in view. This is the centre of IC1805, Heart Nebula, taken on the 26th March using 3h32m of 4 minutes subs. The kit was the 100ED with 0.85 RF/FF with my ASI294 MC Pro fitted with a 2" Askar Duo-Band filter. The camera was cooled to -10°C and I used a gain 200 and offset 30. Stacked in DSS using Darks, Flats & Flat-Darks then processed in PI, with final noise reduction using Topaz De-Noise on the starless background. I'm really pleased with the way this one has come out, with good detail and a nice colour contrast. C's & C's welcomed.

Previously when I've been imaging M101, I've always stuck with that galaxy. But last night I noticed NGC5474 on the edge of the frame and repositioned to get that one in the image as well, mainly so I had something to enter in the Galaxy Clusters competition , but also for something different to the usual M101. This is 3h35m of 5 minute subs, stacked in DSS and processed in PI, with final noise reduction in Topaz De-Noise. The kit was: Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FR/FF HEQ5 ASI294MC Pro cooled to -10°C, gain 120, offset 8 and UV/IR cut filter. Captured with APT and guiding with PHD2 C's & C's welcomed, as always.

When I've imaged M101 in the past, I've just concentrated on the main galaxy. Last night (25th March) I went further afield to capture M101, NGC5474 & NGC5477 in the same frame. Taken with Evostar 100ED DS Pro, 085 FR/FF and ASI294MC Pro. This is 3h35m of 300s exposures at gain 120 and offset 8. I've added an annotated version for completeness.

I tried the same thing and it didn't work, so I can only assume the USB ports are like an un-powered USB hub. I already had a 3-pin USB charger hub, so used that for powering the bands. Alternatively, Dew Control will make 12v bands to the size you want and fit them with a 2.1mm plug so you can power them off the 12v outlets on the ASIAir Plus.

I added some more data to the Cone Nebula last night, only this time it was standard OSC with only the UV/IR cut filter, to get some RGB stars. I stacked the NB & RGB versions separately in PI and took them both through the workflow to the get them non-linier (stretched) stage. I then removed the stars using StarNet2, keeping the RGB stars for adding in later and combined them with PixelMath using 60% NB & 40% RGB. Then went on to use Curves etc. The final thing was to take the Luminance from the NB version and add that as a luminance layer to add detail. This added a bit of noise so I put the image through Topaz AI De-Noise before adding the RGB stars back in. I'm not sure this is the correct way to combine NB & RGB versions from a OSC camera, but it seemed to work okay and I'm going to have a play with some other combinations to see what I can come up with. Here's the result, with a close-up of the main nebulosity.

I did 4h52m on this target at the start of the month using the Askar Duo-Band filter (similar to the L-eXtreme). Tonight is clear here and the Moon doesn't rise until around midnight, so I've started capturing broadband data to add to the previous data to get the RGB stars and more colour to the nebulosity around the Christmas Tree Cluster. I may just use the Ha data from the first two nights, if tonight goes well. Where I'm using the ASI 294MC Pro, I don't quite have the FOV to get Hubbles Variable Nebula in the frame.