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Adam,
Superb image of the Sculptor , detail and res is tremendous
Nothing beats a cooled Mono with specific filters that’s for sure ( a 2600MM Mono is on my list for 2023 )
Well done !!!
As far as Read Noise goes , ZWO provide performance charts for most cameras which do help in determining your Gain setting
Attached is the performance chart for the 294MM
You can see the HGC ( High Gain Mode ) switches on at Gain 120 where your read noise drops dramatically from over 6.0e to 1.9e but still delivers excellent Dynamic range at 13 stops. Well depth is still quite high at nearly 20k
You can also see from the charts that increasing Gain higher than 120 doesn’t achieve any real further reduction in read noise but it does proportionally sacrifice Dynamic Range and well depth ( probably more for lucking imaging with super short subs )
My 2600MC has a similar HGC mode where it kicks in at Gain 100 to achieve a low read noise
I did some testing with Gain 0 and Gain 100 under Bortle 7/8 skies and Gain 100 made a huge difference.Plus I dropped my sub exposure lengths down to 2 minute for Narrowband and 90 sec for Broadband and the results were really positive. At my dark site down south I’ll probably only use Gain 0 during the new moon period imaging dim galaxies pushing +5 min subs
Cheers
Martin
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