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Old 27-03-2021, 02:14 PM
Zuts
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Location: sydney
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2nd Light, Esprit 120

My first light attempt was a complete disaster as I reverse connected the battery.

This blew up

1. Mount motherboard
2. Synscan Wifi unit
3. AsiAir pro power outputs

Luckily the cameras, focuser were not damaged. All up it cost me around $800 to rectify my mistake.

The AsiAir pro usb inputs are fine but I had to buy a pocket power micro to power everything.

The Esprit has a longer focal length of 840mm compared to my TV85 at around 450mm with reducer. This seems to let me take at least 300 sec exposures without any filters under bortle 9 skies and a 80% moon in central Sydney shooting away from the moon.

Anyway this was just a quick shakedown to test that everything was working.

NGC3372
20 by 300s plus darks, flats and bias
Esprit 120
ASI2600 MC
FL 840, supplied flattener
No filters
Processed in PixInsight

Unlike my TV85 the image is flat across the entire field, I only cropped a few pixels at the edge to remove the stacking artifacts.

I am not sure about the focus, maybe someone could comment on the focus?

Cheers
Paul
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  #2  
Old 27-03-2021, 03:59 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Paul
Astrophotography can definitely put a dent in your hip pocket but your back up and running which is positive
Lovely image there from your inner City location especially with heavy light pollution and the moon ( I reckon there’s so much more detail to pull out of your data considering the brightness of Carina and your integration time)
Focus looks ok to me
I can’t see how longer focal length scopes and longer exposures will mitigate light pollution and sky glow to an acceptable level without sacrificing something, especially in your location. The only way to isolate all that bad signal is with narrowband filters or light pollution filters to some degree
Can I suggest ( take it with a grain of salt if you wish ) you look into a OSC Duoband filter for your 2600MC camera ( the camera will thank you for it )
I’ve been using my ZWO 2” Duoband with the 2600MC for the past 8 months and its been excellent, I shot 18min in M42 a while back and the detail was incredible for such a short integration. I could never had the same detail shooting broadband RGB
I recently purchased an Optolong L Extreme filter and it’s a quantum leap from the ZWO Duoband
I posted my first light with the L Extreme on Carina in Deep Space section ( first time after nearly 4 years in the beginner section ) received some nice reply’s and some things to review
These OSC narrowband filters really work and work well , the more data you can capture the better they perform
Still a great effort
Well done !
Martin
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Old 27-03-2021, 04:07 PM
AdamJL
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The downside to duo-band filters is the loss of more star colour. You tend to get only reds and blues and some minor variations.

That said, a duo-band would definitely have brought out more nebulosity here at 300seconds but I do like this one still. Focus looks great to me as well
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Old 27-03-2021, 04:30 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamJL View Post
The downside to duo-band filters is the loss of more star colour. You tend to get only reds and blues and some minor variations.

That said, a duo-band would definitely have brought out more nebulosity here at 300seconds but I do like this one still. Focus looks great to me as well
Totally agree
However , there are ways to give your Star field a lift in colour variations when using narrowband
Create a Star mask in Startools and colour your Stars separately using Scientific ( Colour Constancy ) you have to wind back the colour bias a bit as this algorithm is very aggressive
I’m sure other processing software has work arounds for your Star colours when using Narrowband
To me these filters and the 2600MC have been a breath of fresh air in AP after wrestling with a DSLR in bortle 8 for nearly 4 years
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  #5  
Old 28-03-2021, 01:05 AM
Zuts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek View Post
Paul
Astrophotography can definitely put a dent in your hip pocket but your back up and running which is positive
Lovely image there from your inner City location especially with heavy light pollution and the moon ( I reckon there’s so much more detail to pull out of your data considering the brightness of Carina and your integration time)
Focus looks ok to me
I can’t see how longer focal length scopes and longer exposures will mitigate light pollution and sky glow to an acceptable level without sacrificing something, especially in your location. The only way to isolate all that bad signal is with narrowband filters or light pollution filters to some degree
Can I suggest ( take it with a grain of salt if you wish ) you look into a OSC Duoband filter for your 2600MC camera ( the camera will thank you for it )
I’ve been using my ZWO 2” Duoband with the 2600MC for the past 8 months and its been excellent, I shot 18min in M42 a while back and the detail was incredible for such a short integration. I could never had the same detail shooting broadband RGB
I recently purchased an Optolong L Extreme filter and it’s a quantum leap from the ZWO Duoband
I posted my first light with the L Extreme on Carina in Deep Space section ( first time after nearly 4 years in the beginner section ) received some nice reply’s and some things to review
These OSC narrowband filters really work and work well , the more data you can capture the better they perform
Still a great effort
Well done !
Martin
Thanks Martin,

Yes, it was a very expensive mistake.

I meant F Ratio. The Esprit is F7 and does not need a reducer. The TV85 was F5.5. 5 minutes with the TV 85 would result in a washed out image which does not seem to be happening with the Esprit.

I have a ZWO duoband and have used it but would much rather shoot without it if possible as I like the colours the camera can produce.

I may get an Oxygen filter and together with the ZWO duoband attempt to extract 3 full channels and try some narrowband processing.

As per your suggestion I have pushed the processing a bit further.

1. Removed stars using Starnet
2. Stretched a bit more
3. Multiscale linear transform to bring out more detail
4. Pushed the saturation
5. Added the stars back in



Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamJL View Post
The downside to duo-band filters is the loss of more star colour. You tend to get only reds and blues and some minor variations.

That said, a duo-band would definitely have brought out more nebulosity here at 300seconds but I do like this one still. Focus looks great to me as well
Thanks Adam.

I am looking forward to some clear weather and I may go bush again to get some nice dark skies.
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Last edited by Zuts; 28-03-2021 at 02:26 AM.
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