Are those fancy astro cameras worth it?

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by jimmyh1555

Do say 20 frames at 30s in L
Do 20 frames at 30s each in RGB (ie 60 frames of 30s)
All done in SharpCap with .png and about 100 gain
Do say 10 frames of darks.
Go to DSS and individually stack 4 lots of 20 frames, adding the darks
I would now have 4 files of .FITS and a dark file'
I would now go to Star Tools 1,4 and guess I would open the Luminescence file?
Then I will press the RGB button and assume that Star Tools will now combine the lot...
Is that about right??
Comments appreciated!

Almost. The earlier links show the process in the detail you will need to do a proper job. The text link tells how to align and stack in DSS and the video shows how to put the LRGB frames together in StarTools and then colour balance the result

[jimmyh1555 (James)]

Thanks, Dunk, I have tried those .FITS files . HEY, guess what I just did! I connected up my ZWO o34 camera in my room and pointed it at my bookshelf, took 50 lights in Sharp Cap, and then tried to stack them in DSS, but it said it couldn't see stars, so refused to stack. "I'll fix it!" I said, and then put my rather faded 4 x 6 photo of NGC4755 on the bookshelf, and focussed the ZWO 034 on that! I then stacked it successfully in DSS (it recognised the stars this time), then I loaded the stacked file into Star Tools 1.4 and it accepted it ! So now I can get a Hubble picture from a magazine and image it! I'll win all the competitions [shame in me...AS IF I would do that.......]
Thanks guys for your guidance