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The best thing i ever did ....


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I see loads of posts stating the best thing i ever did with my imageing setup is ..... For example

> Upgrade Mount

> Get DSLR modded

> Started Autoguiding

> Switched to CCD

So what sort of things "really" do make the biggest difference to imageing quality ?

Alistair

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One thing leads to another...

My personal journey was...

LP filter , then guiding ( the lp filter allowed longer exposures)  followed by a modified cam ...

I  decided not to go down the CCD route ... I was happy with my DSLR efforts and do a lot more "normal" than astrophotography so the money went into that instead...

Peter...

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What you might find is that a person upgrades the weakest part of their equipment and so they then perceive the biggest improvement.

Upgrading from an EQ5 to an HEQ5 when using a poor scope will have little effect, keeping the EQ5 and putting a better scope on would however.

For imaging I suspect the one significant change is to go from unguided to guided.

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Since I started with a pretty good mount (HEQ5), the biggest jumps were from unguided to guided with my old DSLR then a huge jump from DSLR to CCD and NB filters. I always used a LP filter with my DSLR so no jump there.

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My mount upgrade from the cg-3 to a bresser exos 2 was mine.

I am now gathering kit to autoguide.

i did my first guided image last night with some sucess but i was using an unmodded cheapo hd webcam.

m5 was a semi sucess but i did it too early in the evening but got one good 5 min sub.

when i slewed to alkaid to guide on for m51 i couldnt get it in to detect the star so the next big upgrade is a guide cam and i think that will be equial to the mount upgrade.

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Another vote for guiding early on. The next, and my biggest step up, was a move to a mono CCD, which was not because the individual images are better per se from the camera (they are by the way), it was a complete change of mindset and approach to imaging as a whole that using a mono CCD brought about in me.

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For me the best thing I did was get a Daystar Quark for solar h-alpha imaging. I used to image with a dedicated 60mm solar telescope and now I can use my Equinox 120mm scope for solar h-alpha. The main advantage of the extra aperture is that I can image finer details. If you want closer up detail for solar imaging, aperture is king.

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It seems kinda silly, but the smartest and least obvious purchase I ever made was this multi use foldable cart which also functions as a desk and this chair which is surprisingly made by TeleVue

post-44555-143342433717_thumb.jpgpost-44555-143342438715_thumb.jpgpost-44555-143342444341_thumb.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Almost every upgrade was a big step forward but if I had to pick one, it'd be the guiding. this obviously allowed for much longer subs which would not have been possible without my mount upgrade. the most enjoyable and fulfilling would have to be the jump from dslr to ccd. I guess they all have given me great pleasure though (with the possible exception of my 60mm apo... shouldv'e gone for the 80mm which I now have but hey, we live and learn :)

Oh, and then theres the astrotrak... and the....:D

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Almost every upgrade was a big step forward but if I had to pick one, it'd be the guiding. this obviously allowed for much longer subs which would not have been possible without my mount upgrade. the most enjoyable and fulfilling would have to be the jump from dslr to ccd. I guess they all have given me great pleasure though (with the possible exception of my 60mm apo... shouldv'e gone for the 80mm which I now have but hey, we live and learn :)

Oh, and then theres the astrotrak... and the.... :D

when i seen your name in the imaging section and the best thing i ever did, i thought you had sold it :grin: not trying to winde anyone up that was genuine

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when i seen your name in the imaging section and the best thing i ever did, i thought you had sold it :grin: not trying to winde anyone up that was genuine

not a chance matey :). visual is almost impossible from my house :(

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It seems kinda silly, but the smartest and least obvious purchase I ever made was this multi use foldable cart which also functions as a desk and this chair which is surprisingly made by TeleVue

attachicon.gifImageUploadedByTapatalk1433424335.289021.jpgattachicon.gifImageUploadedByTapatalk1433424384.609978.jpgattachicon.gifImageUploadedByTapatalk1433424440.885718.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

cant believe the chair isnt black and green :smiley:

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come with us mid july then for 2 nights, well easy there in mag 21 + skys

what, for the 7 minutes of astronomical darkness?

Think you need to swing a dobfest in north wales :)

I'll be there for sure. I'll not bring my imaging stuff......promise :D

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guiding I went to straight away as I watched my very first Orion 1m subs some in with star streaks all over, I figured I'd have to do it. 

I think the biggest incremental improvement so far actually came from using a QHY5liic as guide cam, instead of the meade LPI / Toucam SPC900c I'd been trying to use.

I'm hoping my new modded 1100d and new AZEQ6 will be similarly improvement-making, but I actually haven't had much playing with either yet, all that fun to come  :-)

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