M42, etc. Mosaic

[AusGuy]

We've had nothing but overcast and rain for quite some time now so it hasn't been possible to get out and wrestle with the new (to me) ASI294MC Pro camera and so advance a much needed learning curve. In desperation I've revisited some earlier attempts with an easy target that gets pretty high in our sky. Anyway I've managed to salvage something from what I thought were rather poor results when captured. For what it is worth here's a pretty garish mosaic of two panels. Debatable as to whether it really qualifies as EAA but the SharpCap live-stack exposure lengths for M42 were only 4 seconds and for the Running Man 4 and 8 seconds so maybe it does.

Vixen R200SS; SW AZ-EQ6; ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled to -10C; Baader MPCC

SharpCap live-stacks at 310 gain. Adjusted in Photoshop and StarTools.

Edited January 7, 2021 by AusGuy
poor choice of words

[AusGuy]

In the early test viewing / imaging session mentioned above it quickly became apparent that SharpCap will be great for EAA outreach purposes when viewing targets that have a high dynamic range such as M42. In past public viewing sessions back in the almost forgotten days before Covid-19 when using other software I needed to use a range of different exposure lengths to show visitors the full range of detail that a camera can reveal. But with SharpCap it seems that to achieve the same result one can employ just one exposure setting and simply vary the positioning of the live-stack histogram's mid-level slider. And the nice thing is that visitors will then immediately see the changes on-screen as you make them and so better appreciate that the view is real and not just manufactured.

[Mike JW]

Hi AusGuy  - this is such excellent, professionally produced, informative presentation - thank you.

Mike

[AusGuy]

Thank you Mike.

Cheers

David