Budgie1

No, it's not just you. I also had to carry the mount, scope, camera, guide scope & camera, leads, cables & laptop from the front of the house into the back garden. Then put it all away again at the end of the session. Last summer I built a roll off roof shed observatory and now I can turn on the laptop, cool the camera while I roll the roof off, slew to target, plate solve, final focus and start imaging. What used to take me 45 minutes to an hour, now takes 10-15 minutes.

A little update on a few additions to the obsy over the last couple of months. Firstly, after adding the solar powered fans, I thought I would give them a hand and fitted some insulation to the roof panels. This does seem to be working as it's no where near as warm in there now and it's also much lighter during the day! You'll also note the new solar powered LED light in the roof, which is extremely bright and has three brightness settings. It does a great job of lighting the inside of the obsy for setting up and I got this from The Solar Centre. I also decided to fit power into the obsy, I did this in the form of an extension from an external socket on the house. The extension is made up of about 12m of armoured twin & earth, which is buried under the lawn, and terminates with a standard 13amp 3-pin plug at the house and the twin socket in the image below. This way, I can isolate the obsy from the house, if needs be, and I don't have the trip hazard of running the extension lead from the door of the obsy into the house, across the lawn, as I did over the winter. All that will be running on this is the laptop and the PSU on the pier, which powers the Pegasus Power Box Advance with 12v 10A max load. I've also tidied the wires around the desk and it all looks much smarter now. In case you're wondering, the blue thing on the desk is my laptop dew shelter which I made a couple of years ago.

If you're using WBPP in PixInsight for stacking then I would do both. Stack the whole lot together to see what you get, then stack them separately and combine them using ImageIntegration in PixInsight. You can then compare the resulting images. You will get the combined stars in the whole stack but you can remove them from the separately stacked images before combination and then add just the 120s set back in after. If you've gone to the trouble of shooting the 30s & 300s sets, it's a shame not to use them.

I don't remember downloading it, so I also thought it was included. If it helps, the script is found here:

If you haven't already got the filter drawer then ZWO make a filter drawer to fit the Canon lenses and no other spacers are needed. Here's the link: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-filter-drawer-for-canon-eos-lenses.html Alternatively, you can remove the Canon attachment ring on the lens and replace it with an Astro Essentials M48 threaded attachment so you can screw the filter drawer & spacers directly onto the lens. This makes for a more secure connection but I'm not sure which spacers you would need.

Normally I don't bother trying to image between May & late August because there's little to no astro darkness or just too much light in the sky. So I use this break to go through the kit and prepare for the next season. So far I've tuned my HEQ5 with new bearings, grease & removed the backlash. I've also started setting up NINA to give that a try for image acquisition. This week I managed to get everything connected and set up profiles for each camera/scope combo I may use and then last night it was unexpectedly clear, so I decided to try out NINA's polar alignment tool to dial in the mount after it's tune and do an experimental image sequence to get used to the software (I've been using ATP for the last 3 years ). Things went well, with a couple of learning points and I managed 40 minutes on M3, which turned into 34 minutes by the time I'd weeded out some poor subs. I also used the flats tool, which was very quick & easy to use. Overall I like NINA and it's got some good tools but I need more time using it and getting use to it. I'm still finding my way around the various controls at the moment. Anyway, here's the 34 minutes of M3 using a Sky-Watcher Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR and ZWO ASI294MC Pro at 200 gain & 30 offset, with flats, flat-darks & darks. Stacked & processed in PI. C's & C's welcome.

Towards the bottom of FLO's page for this scope, it mentions the corrector lens has a female M54 thread for the wide T-mount. So, if the thread on your T-mount has an outside diameter of 54mm then a M54 to M48 adaptor should allow you to screw your ZWO filter draw onto the corrector lens.

I thought I may as well enter this one as it's the only other galaxy I've imaged this season. This is just 3 hours 20 mins on M106 taken on the morning of the 19th April 2023. I had planned to get more integration time on this one but I ran out of astro darkness. Taken with the Atik 428EX & Baader LRGB filters, through the Evostar 100ED DS Pro, 0.85 FF/FR. Lum = 20 x 240s Bin 1x1 RGB = 20 each x 120s @ Bin 2x2 Stacked & processed in PI.

The bubble on my HEQ5 mount isn't anywhere near correct, so I don't use on it. I don't think it was fully seated when put into the mount and I know it's not accurate because I levelled the tripod with a spirit level and the mount removed. I then added the mount back on to the tripod to see where the bubble sat, nowhere near centre is the answer. If the bubble on yours is on the tripod then a check with the mount removed to get a good flat top on the tripod would tell you whether you can rely on the bubble or not.

My last image for the season, I'm only getting an hour or so of Astro Darkness at this time of year and that'll be gone in a couple of days. This is 9 hours 20 minutes of integration on M101, Pinwheel, using an Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR and ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera at gain 120, offset 30 and 240s exposures. Stacked & processed in PI, but I had issues with the flats over correcting, so I didn't use any, just Darks on this one.

An LRGB rendition of M51 with just over 6 hours of integration. It was taken over three nights, 9th, 14th & 18th April, using Skywatcher Evostar 100ED DS Pro with 0.85 FF/FR, Atik 428EX camera and Baader LRGB filters. Stacked & processed in PI.

With the ASI294MC Pro, you're better off not using Bias calibration frames. They are reproducing what the Darks are doing and I found with my ASI294MC Pro they actually caused remnants of the amp glow to be left behind. Just use Darks, Flats & Flat-Darks.

There is no difference between Gain and Unity Gain. Unity Gain is the Gain sweet spot between minimum Read Noise and good Dynamic Range. On the older CCD cameras gain and offset were pre-set at the factory and you can't alter them, but in CMOS cameras you can alter the gain to your own setting. When I use my ASI294MC Pro, I use a gain of 120 for broadband imaging and 200 when I have the L-eNhance or other narrowband filter fitted. In either setup I choose the exposure setting I feel is best on the night, New Moon will tend to have a longer exposure (180 - 360 seconds) and for a Full Moon or bright object I'll use 45 - 180 seconds. In your case, a lower gain level is better suited to longer exposures and with short exposures you can turn the gain up. It's all about learning what works best for your setup, there's no "one size fits all". The AVX mount should be fine for guided imaging, as long as you have some sort of guide camera setup running with the likes of PHD software. If you don't have a guide camera & scope fitted, then slowly increase your exposure times until you see the stars starting to trail and then reduce it back again to find the ideal exposure time. If you're using 60 second exposures then just take lots of them, for good deep sky images you're normally talking about hours of subs to get the most out of it. You can obviously spend less time on the likes of clusters because they are quite bright objects, but you'll see some members on here taking 24 hours or more of subs on a single target.

You may not even need Darks with the ASI385 MC. You will still need Flats & Flat Darks, but that may be about it. Worth trying with & without Darks and see what the difference is between the two stacks. As for gain, 300 may be a little on high side. Looking at the graphs for the camera, there's a nice drop in Read Noise + a lift in dynamic range at a gain of 60 and Unity Gain seems to be at 135 (if I've read it correctly). Experiment with it and see what works best for your setup. Lastly, you mention using the L-eNhance filter, this doesn't really work that well on broadband targets like star clusters, galaxies & reflection nebula. It can actually remove or block some of the signal you need for these objects. Where this filter does come into it's own is with emission & planetary nebula with lots of Ha & Oiii. If you're not using the L-eNhance filter, then make sure to use at least a UV/IR Cut filter, assuming you don't use any sort of light pollution filter. This stops the star from looking a bit bloated.

I've done a few images using the narrowband filters with my Atik 428EX camera, but I've still only had a go at a couple of broadband targets. The last couple of weeks presented two clear nights so I went for M51 in LRGB with a set of Baader filters I got from a fellow SGL member recently. Initially I had issues with the focuser on Evostar 100ED DS Pro, it turned out the weight of the camera, filter wheel & FF/FR when the scope was in the vertical was causing the focuser to move and it just needed a wee tightening. The ZWO EAF worked fine after that. So, over the 7th & 15th April I got a total of 4h12m, broken down to: L - 1h58m R - 38m G - 56m B - 40m The red & blue channels suffered more from the loose focuser on the first night and I had to ditch all of the blue and most of the red subs from that night, that's why there's more green. The next clear night then I'll top up on the red & blue, especially the red because it really seems to be lacking from red or Ha. Overall I'm quite pleased with the detail it's captured for such a short integration and it's done a good job with the outer dust. The combination of the 428EX sensor size and the 100ED's focal length with the 0.85 FF/FR gives a better FOV for some of the larger galaxies than I have with ASI294MC Pro. It also shows again that CCD may not be in favour with CMOS around but they are still very capable cameras. C&C's welcomed, as always.

I live on the West Coast of Scotland, so high humidity most of the year, high rainfall and temperatures from -6°C in the winter to 26°C in the summer. I've only had my ROR observatory over this last winter (build thread is HERE ) and I haven't suffered any issues so far with moisture. There is a large enough gap between the walls and roof to allow good airflow and this keeps the inside dry. Even on nights with a lot of dew, the mount, scope & camera are normally dry again by mid-morning on the following day. I have two scopes I use on the mount, Evorstar 80ED DS Pro and Evostar 100ED DS Pro. When they are not being used I have them stored in a Oklop padded bag with a Desiccant Cap in the focuser to keep it all dry inside the scope. I've just fitted a pair of solar powered fans to help remove some of the heat from the roof in the summer. I'm not sure how well they will work, but it's worth a go and the fans also add to the circulation of air during the day.

StarTech do this 5m version: StarTech.com 5m 15 ft Active USB 3.0 USB-A to USB-B Cable Strangely, their 10m version is cheaper on Amazon's UK site. I got the 15m version of THIS ONE which came with a PSU, but I use it as an extension between the laptop & USB hub, rather than a direct connection to a camera or other piece of kit.

Use an Active USB 3 cable. This powered and will transfer the data without issue. I had a 15m Active USB 3 cable which was powered by a laptop at one end and a USB3 hub at the other. This worked fine, even down to -5°C in the winter.

I think I may have bought the one you're referring too and it's still a really good camera which I'm enjoying using. These days, second hand CCD cameras are a cheap but good quality starting point for those wanting to get into mono astrophotography. Agreed, not so great if you're trying to sell them though.

See if there's anything here which will help: https://download.astronomy-imaging-camera.com/manual/

It could just be that demand has dropped and FLO aren't stocking them any more? The Widescreen Centre have a good selection, as do RVO. 5.40um by the way, if you still need it.

I had another go at processing mine last night and I think I made a few improvements, especially on the background.

One little addition to the Obsy in the last month; Although I live in Lochaber, it does occasionally get warm, and so does the inside of the obsy as I found out while building it last year. So, to assist with removing the heat and creating an airflow all year round, I fitted a pair of solar powered fans to the roof section of the shed. I actually got them back in October but only got around to fitting them in the last month. The fan kit I got from Amazon and I also fitted a bug screen and rain cover on the outside of the shed, just to give it a bit of protection. I fitted it to the East side of the roof, so it'll be shaded from the Sun and the solar panel even powers the fans when it's cloudy, as well as in full Sun! I need to tidy the wires but it's working well.

Yes, it was captured with a OSC camera and the L-eNhance filter, so sort of a HOO rendition. I've now got a mono setup as well but my FOV with the mono isn't quite enough to get the whole nebula in one shot. So I'd have to do a mosaic to capture this shot in SHO.

I had a bit of a play with your image and managed to get more of the dust to show by using a Luminance Mask. To create this is clicked on the button under "View" marked "Extract CIE L* component" and then use HistogramTransformation to highlight the parts I wanted to exclude. Then I used a blur mask to come up with this mask: This was then inverted, so I could work on the background and increase the RGB/K in Curves and this is the result: