[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by marco

Beautiful Ray! I like them both, honestly the first version less saturated is as good as it can be on this target, so I would keep that one
Clear skies
Marco

thanks very much for the helpful feedback Marco.

Originally Posted by Larryp

Lovely image, Ray. The first one appeals to me more. Great work!

Hi Laurie - thanks

Originally Posted by allan gould

Most excellent images and processing. I can see advantages in both types of processing.
Allan

Thanks Allan. I also am a bit unsure which approach is best - thanks for your comments

Originally Posted by RickS

Both great but my preference is #1 too, Ray!

thanks for the feedback Rick

Originally Posted by gregbradley

I like the 2nd one. Its sensational.

Greg.

hi Greg. very kind comment.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Excellent Ray! For me the second one has more grab, looks great mate!

Hmmm? I will be putting the H694 on the AG12 soon

Mike

Hi Mike. thanks for the comments. Looking forward to you getting the 694 going in your new wind free environment - spare a thought for us plebs with an EQ6 swaying in the breeze .

Originally Posted by tilbrook@rbe.ne

Like the detail and colour saturation in your first image Ray.

Your stars look like mine, I use a bintel 200mm f/4 reflector. I have tried various fixes, new coma corrector, fixing flexure and always check collimation.
But the always come out the same.
You mention mount tracking noise, what is this?
Would appreciate if you could fill me in on this.

Cheers,

Justin.

Hi Justin. I am not sure I am an expert on this, since I have been battling with this scope for years. However, I think that the current distortion is due to the mount producing very rapid tracking excursions that produce fleeting illumination outside of the main stellar spots. For dim stars, the excursions are too dim to see. For very bright stars, the excursions are smaller than the blobby stars so they do not cause distortion. for Intermediate brightness, the excursions are just bright enough to be visible, which leads to stars that vary in appearance with brightness. That's the theory anyway and my next job is to do some tests to see if it makes sense. test 1 will be to image some bright stars at very short exposures to see if the effect goes away.

I also found that diffraction patterns from bits and pieces of the OTA could be strange if the entering light column was not properly centered. You can use the reverse LED projector to test this.

Originally Posted by asimov

Great work Ray. I love the second one best

Hi Asi! thanks for the feedback

Originally Posted by alpal

Great work Ray,
That is very sharp & clear.

Thanks Allan. I was trying to optimise the resolution, so appreciate your comment.

regards ray