powerlord

yeh sorry its the mak 102 that SW do in the package with the az gti

drat.. you had to say that last line.. now I feel I need to go and prove you wrong. well right probably.. but still.. it's a challenge ! 😉

Oh, sorry my bad - for some reason I thought I'd seem em at that. But yeh.. its more like 160-180. well, ignore that bit of my advice then. But I would still got for a second hand az-gti. As a photographer, you can stick your kit on it for your imaging. you don't really want or need lots of FL for imaging - just long subs and lots of em. Have a look at the beginners imaging 135mm thread for examples. And have a look at the AZ thread for examples people have captured with the az-gti in az mode, rather than the modified EQ mode - which would be a lot less portable if hiking,etc what with the bar, weights, etc. So that gives you a solid goto mount, battery powered and controlled by your smartphone. Get that now, do some imaging with what you've got camera wise, then later add a scope ? If it's just for visual, you don't need fancy APO ones that don't distort colours like the 72ED. Instead, you can get a cheap achromatic job - and you can definately pick one of those up for 50 quid or so ? stu

I started with a SW 102. Actually still have it. I got it as a package with a az gti and tripod. prices have gone up, but imho its still a great start for both visual AND imaging if you want to stretch the budget. it is about 100 quid more than it was last year, and more that double your budget, but it is portable, and though I know you don't mention it - you are going to find finding stuff to be a real PiTA and wish you got a goto mount. This way you start with one. you'll get close moon shots, and with a barlow, you'll see jupiter and saturn as more than dots. You get nothing for free, as folk have said above - its F13 what with being quite powerful and small, but I never regretted starting with it. And the benefit is, when you outgrow it, or decide that a more widefield visual or whatever thing is required, you keep the az-gti. Also of course, you can fit cameras directly to the az-gti.. I do this with my canon 6d and 300mm F4 lens for example - sometime using with canon 1.4 or 2x extender. this gets me great pics with the same mount. And of course, buy used it you can, and that will get you closer to that 200 quid point... though prob still over it. a used 102 goes for around 80 quid. a used az-gti maybe about 200 quid (with tripod). so not that much over your budget. I've got both of those thing spare to bo honest.. if interested in a deal (though mine is modified for EQ mount at present).. though that might taint all the above advice - but believe me I wrote it all till I got to the end, then realised they are sitting on a shelf now. 🙄

With the 72ed, I get about 0.3" rms. Seeing on a good night here I think is better than 2".but to be honest, one reason I want to try it is to find out for myself - are such mosaics worth it for me here. I suppose I'm likely to find that out quickest with the sw100, but it is far more tricky get get the guiding rms optimised for that. With the 72ed it's easy. If I'm binning it's failed IMHO. I'm gaining nothing with the mosaic really. Which is what your saying. With the long nights it's an easy enough experiment so I'll update with progress 👍

done that - trying to get a higher resolution job, especially for more detail around carnival of animals.

Hi all, Just looking for some advice as I plan my first attempt at a mosaic for the next clear night. I'm planning a 4 part Rosette. planned in telescopia with coords ready to input into a plan in asiair pro. I've got two choices to make: scope: either my 72ED + 2x ED barlow (840mm or so with the flattener) or my SW200P (1000mm) Obviously the newtonian is faster, but it is also a PiTA to use and means I've got diffraction spikes. camera: either I shoot with my asi1600 +EFW and do NB there or I shoot with the asi533 and L-extreme, with maybe an extra pass at the the with just an Sii filter over it. I'm thinking, best quality wise, probably SW200p and asi1600 is the way to go, but it does mean lots of heavy stuff on my EQ6-R, lots of faff setting up and taking apart over however many nights it needs, etc. Compromising and using the 72ED+ 2x ED barlow makes it much more usable, but I'm wondering it if will push me down the asi533 road if I hope to get results without having to spend 20+ hours on it. Obviously 'try it and see' is the default approach, but as this will take ages, I'm for once inclined to ask for some advice first. FL wise... SW200 is F5, 72ED with barlow is gonna be, F11ish. so 25 vs 121. Or about 5 time more light into camera with the SW200 as the 72ED.. which I imagine... all other thing being equal, would mean I need 5x as much integration to get the same results with the 72EDx2... ? stu

another - just auto levels and auto contrast from last one - which does seem quite dark on some monitors. no more colourful, just brighter.

i wasn't happy with my heart and soul - too garish, and the oiii was all mistly with clouds. so shot all new subs and tried again.

Right, on my colour balanced monitor I now see the above is mince. Also, taken all new data now. So - new data, new processing... much happier with this one.

Here's mine. Mono, but from nb Hso data. Shot in a single 3 hour morning this week. I used my asi1600 and efw with a heath Robinson attachment to my samyang 135mm. Processed in affinity photo. I've posted the colour and Mono versions on the dso topic, but I'm going with the mono for the comp. It's a bit different, and I think would make a nice print? I've tried to keep the dark dust clouds. Stu

Here is a final mono - composed from all 3 NB channels.

Very very nice. Got subs last night and will try and follow same tutorial I think. It's got some real depth to it 🤩

And a wee video.

So, here we go 240 mins Ha 200 mins Oiii 100 mins Sii Don't think hubble palette works for M42, and HSO doesn't do much with the blue either, so it's a bit of a missmash to basically just get it the way I wanted it to look. Might add some RGB stars later, but for now its just the Ha for the stars. Click for full res version. comments welcome as always.

So, wiz missing rgb stars, so shot them and added them last night. 20 subs of 10 secs each of RGBL. Doesn't make a big difference, but does look better imho.

So wasn't happy with my oiii. Cloud's just hazzed it up something aweful. So shot another 3 hours last night, including some Sii. So gonna try again with this one, only carrying over the Ha from previously which seems to have avoided the clouds. Stu

Got loads more ha, o and s last night. Sky pin sharp. So reckon I'm gonna do summit a bit weird with it.. Try processing each as a clean mono that stands on its own, then also do an SHO. Watch this space.. Well prob not this space.. Suppose can rename title... Yeh.. Makes sense.. Watch this space!! 😁

Nice. And that answered a question I had.. How long do I need to get colours stars for my nb images... Suffice to say that I doubt the 20 seconds subs I took in l r g and b last night are enough then... Cough.🙄

It's a good mount. Keep it unless u need more load. As @wimvb says I've never went longer than 10 mins (my standard for nb). Anyway if it does 10, it's do 20 surely? But no point. Plus just longer for Musk's shatalittes to ruin a sub.

You can also easily do this with startools nb accents. Or of course, something like affinity photo. 👍

You don't mention your bortle? A cheap light pollution filter can work well and you'll need less integration time that the l-extreme. However as owners of 2 l-extremes they are very good. Just be prepared for some long exposures which with your 1100 are gonna get a bit noisy. Maybe less so now its freezing at night.

Yeh in English it's 'knows the way to the pie shop' 😀 Yeh v8 decon is pretty good.

You should get all those with the camera. Ie it comes with all required spaces for 55mm. At least my asi533 and asi1600 did. You're down the rabbit hole too then.. Mount next? 🤩

nice detail for an unmodified dslr