Ags

That's a really great capture of M82.

I just noticed this very cheap filter: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-filters/zwo-125-2-duo-band-dual-narrowband-filter.html Unfortunately I have a mono camera so it is less useful. But I do have dichroic RGB filters so why not stack this filter with R to get pure Ha, and stack with G or B for Oiii? Also the docs make a great deal about the incident angle of light being 8 degrees or less. So what focal ratios does the filter work with?

I guess if getting a sharp blue channel is hard enough, getting a sharp UV image must be tricky... Did you see my earlier question about sub length? Also I am guessing this is shot at native F10?

Just a thought - If I am shooting exposures between 0.5 and 5 seconds in length, can I guide using the images taken? Obviously the guiding wouldn't help individual subs, but would prevent incremental drift and would enable dithering?

I've learned something - I didn't know you could do UV with an SCT because of the corrector plate absorbing the UV. How many milliseconds were the subs?

The C6 works well enough on my AZ GTi and Berlebach tripod. About 1 second for vibrations to damp. My concern for the weight was of course because the AZ GTi has a max payload of 5 kgs.

My first impressions of the 3.3 kg Fi 6 are very favorable. But I need a bit more time with it...

Very nice, I particularly like the second one.

Hi and welcome!

...and the sky gods blessed me with half an hour of clear skies so I got to try out the C6 tonight. Given a very gloomy weather forecast, there was no forward planning, so the scope went out and immediately into action uncooled. I pointed it at Luna and tried out my 24mm (60x), 10mm (150x) and 6.7mm (225x). The AZ-GTi copes OK with the weight and bulk of the C6, with vibrations damping in 1 mississipi. Not as solid as with my Mak 102, but what did I expect? It is a bit disappointing the RDF would not align with the scope - not sure how I'll fix that. Focusing was good - no image shift. The Moon was stunning at 60x, but too bright, so I switched up to a dimmer view at 150x. The view at 150x was noticeably sharper and more detailed than the Skymax 102 - it felt quite thrilling actually. Changing up to 225x was never going to be good with an uncooled scope and broken cloud blowing through, but I gave it a try. The tube was held steady enough by the mount, and in the moments of good seeing detail was sharp - in the Skymax 102 this level of magnification shows softness (like the image has been passed through a mathematical smoothing function). Cloud was getting thicker so I slewed to a star to check star shapes. With an unalignable finder and fast-moving gaps in the cloud I couldn't get a bright star in view, but the stars I did find seemed nicely resolved and point-like - nothing like the hairy Newtonian snowflakes produced by my now re-homed 150PDS.

There is something odd about Celestron C6 OTA weights: Celestron seems incapable of giving a correct value in its documentation. The original specs state 4.54 kilograms, which seems improbable compared to the weight of the C8. The Astro Fi version is however stated as weighing only 2.17 kgs, which is so glaringly wrong its hard to see how Celestron can't see that. Reviewers have claimed 3.7 kgs for the non-Fi version at least (including diagonal and eyepiece for some reason): http://www.scopereviews.com/page1aa.html My Astro Fi Ota arrived today, and my AZ-GTi only has a capacity of 5 kgs, so the first thing I did was put it on my bathroom scale. The scope had its visual back, dovetail rail, RDF, but no diagonal, eyepiece or dust cover. I weighed it twice to make sure, the first time just weighing the OTA and the scond time I held it and subtracted my weight. Both times I got 3.3 kgs.

It's mega giant huge big! Finally my own giant SCT!

I don't know about the winner between refractors and SCTs, but I think it's clear cat owners can't compete with the fanaticism of frac owners!

Never felt that way about my ST80...

Eagerly awaiting my first SCT. It's going to be mounted alongside an ST80 in a dual scope setup so no need for me to choose one or the other.

No you're not. You're looking at a parallel beam of light from a distant star that is either 4 inches or 8 inches wide.

Very nice M51!

Well, Ias a first step I am going to try to image a glob exactly like I image a planet. We'll see!

Yes, I have seen amazing results with large dobs. But also some impressive stuff with a C8, so worth a go, especially for the brightest bright targets.

Surely a planetary pipeline would work on a planetary nebula? 😀

I have a C6 coming this week (calloo callay! o frabjous day!) intended primarily for planetary imaging and visual use, but DSO lucky imaging has caught my eye. It looks like meaningful images can be taken with 500ms exposures at F10, which I think my AZ-GTi can handle. The thought of imaging planetaries, galaxies and globs at 1500m focal length (or 945mm with a reducer) with my humble equipment has me excited. The ASI 178 MM is nice and sensitive and it it has little little pixels that should love the sharpness of lucky imaging. Something to keep me busy while we wait for planet season? Time will tell if I can coax my setup to give results, but actual how-to info on DSO lucky imaging is hard to come by. Do I shoot video and stack like a planetary image in AS! or do I shoot individual frames and do a DSO pipeline in DSS? Does anyone know, or have any handy tips and tricks? EDIT: Just adding one of my efforts so the picture displayed for the thread matches the subject.

The Fi C6 will arrive in a few days. I'll put it on my scales when it arrives. If it really weighs 2.17 kgs... I will buy a new scale!

Full marks for recycling.

Interestingly, Celestron state on the link I gave above that the Fi mount max load is 3.6 kgs... When writing these specs, do they just roll dice?

I would think that but according to Celestron specs the Fi tube weight is 2.17 kgs which is less than half the 4.54 kgs usually stated for a C6 OTA. I don't believe either figure, for the record. https://www.celestron.com/products/astro-fi-6-schmidt-cassegrain-telescope