M31 first light with redcat 51

[Neo_uk]

Hi,

First light with my new lightweight rig 

Redcat 51 v2

Star adventurer gti

Zwo 183mc (non pro)

Asi air plus for control and guiding.

After years of lugging out the heq5 pro or eq6 pro I decided to put together a lightweight rig for ease of set up. Something I could leave setup all the time and just lift in and out of the house and be imaging in 10 mins.

Processed in pixinsight wich I have fotgot how to use been so long since I did any imaging (such a learning curve anyway 😆)

X 94 .. 2 min subs with darks and flats

Just a quick 10 min process following astro journey uk video

Maybe a bit over cooked and not too happy with stars maybe a stacking artifact ?

[happy-kat]

Looking very nice plus sounds a quick rig to get out and start using

[Neo_uk]

Thanks kat ..

Yes the rig is a joy to use so easy compared with the heq5 and eq6 ..of course can't carry the same payload as above but I can see me using it alot more .

[MartinB]

That looks terrific.  There has been quite a move to wider field imaging, small is beautiful!

[Martthebass]

Lovely image. I’ve switched over for the end of summer nebula season to the more wide field set up. As you say it’s great to be able to leave it set up to use in a flash.

[Neo_uk]

Yep makes so much difference..

What camera do you use with your redcat ?

[Martthebass]

2 hours ago, Neo_uk said:

Yep makes so much difference..

What camera do you use with your redcat ?

A 533MCP, it’s not an ideal pixel match but it doesn’t do too bad a job.

Andromeda, was one of my first targets on this set up also, not the best image (my stacking software is having problems with my calibration frames) but ok on 60 minutes in wet skies.

[Neo_uk]

15 minutes ago, Martthebass said:

A 533MCP, it’s not an ideal pixel match but it doesn’t do too bad a job.

Andromeda, was one of my first targets on this set up also, not the best image (my stacking software is having problems with my calibration frames) but ok on 60 minutes in wet skies.

Nice job like the colours you got in the stars .. I've never had a colour cam before always shot mono with the sx h694 and asi 1600mm pro wich are both cooled  ... so abit of a learning curve on the processing side for me with added noise of the 183mc I've got not being the cooled version.

[peter shah]

what a superb little set up and great first light

 

[Elp]

Its a good result. I think you may have pushed the data a bit too much as the noise is also amplified around the galaxy. More time will help with this. Also did you dither?

[Martthebass]

4 hours ago, Neo_uk said:

Nice job like the colours you got in the stars .. I've never had a colour cam before always shot mono with the sx h694 and asi 1600mm pro wich are both cooled  ... so abit of a learning curve on the processing side for me with added noise of the 183mc I've got not being the cooled version.

I’ve found hitting a few points of Hue-Chroma in Gimp helps a lot to bring out the star colours on broadband targets.

Youve done a great job uncooled, I really struggled to get rid of noise even with calibration frames on my old uncooled camera.

[windjammer]

A lovely image, great colours - I would definitely have a go at the noise.  I scraped the image and ran it through Topaz Denoise

 

[kirkster501]

I'm loving it.  Superb!  Well done.