View Single Post
  #2564  
Old 14-01-2025, 04:37 PM
strongmanmike's Avatar
strongmanmike (Michael)
Highest Observatory in Oz

strongmanmike is offline
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 17,618
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexN View Post
Realised it was time for an update...

Then realised these pics are out of date already....

THEN realised that in 2 weeks, any pics I take today will be out of date again.

In any case...

In the pics:
Askar 120APO with Askar 1x Field Flattener.
Player One Artemis C Pro (IMX294) CMOS camera.
Player One Filter Drawer
Player One M54 OAG.
Player One Sedna M IMX178 guide camera
Askar M54 backfocus adjuster.
Emcan Astro EM31 Pro mount
Mele Quieter 4C
Wanderer Astro Wander Box Ultimate V2.

The Player One Camera/Filter Drawer/OAG setup has since been replaced by a ZWO 1600MM Pro + EFW + OAG monochrome setup...

And currently in the post, is a Touptek ATR2600M, 7x36mm EFW and M54 OAG kit...

I thought I'd pick up the 1600MM exclusively for narrowband imaging, and adding luminance to colour data collected with the 294C... After shooting with it for 4 nights, I have decided that I'll move both the 294C, and the 1600MM along to new homes, and upgrade to a the IMX571 kit.

Silly to have gone through 4 cameras since November last year (I had the ST8300M with LRGB filters)

It went as it always does I guess...

I just got back into astrophotography and went straight to the ST8300M as it is the camera I had prior to taking my big break (2013~2023)

We had TERRIBLE weather, and I could not for the life of me capture a full colour image in 1 night, and in some cases, it would take a month worth of shooting through sucker holes to get anything.

Disheartened, I bought my colour camera and sold the ST8300M. It was frustrating, as I knew the benefit of mono, but I just wanted colour pics without cloud ruining it.

It then moved to winter - Narrowband season, and despite all the quality of the current crop of dual narrowband filters, I was simply not happy with the results (Especially the disparity between Ha and OIII captured per sub)...

So, wanting to shoot narrowband more and more, I thought I'd grab the 1600MM... Weather this december/january has been abysmal, but, still better than last year, so, I was able to give the 1600MM a good run, and really feel those mono camera benefits right out of the gate...

This pushed me to finally say, "you know what, I'd rather make 10~12 awesome images a year going 100% mono with a very high quality camera, than make 13~20 significantly lower quality images by blending mono lum/narrowband data from a 1600MM with colour data from the 294C"


M78 - 13h of 180s subs with the 294
Rho Ophiucchi - 2.75h of 180s subs with the 294
2070 - 8h of 300s subs with the 1600MM
Rosette - 7.55h of 300s subs with the 1600MM
Cool read...you are well stocked, you just need a dark mountain top now

Mike
Reply With Quote