I was wanting some feedback on this image please.
A version that is full size is on Astrobin
https://astrob.in/rowsvr/0/
This is just a single frame of Ha (300s)
I just did an auto histogram in PixInsight just to show something visible, not to eek out any detail.
This is shot with a 10" Meade LX200 GPS OTA (old 2002 vintage, pre-ACF), with a 6.3 reducer. This is Bin 1 on an ASI1600MM Pro. Outer suburban Melbourne (Warrandyte) - Bortle 5/6
Besides needing a little tweak on reducer distance as the corners are a bit rough, this was shot on a few nights where the weather was pretty nice, and probably the best focus I've had. However, the image is just soft.
Guiding went really well and was typically in the +/- 0.5-0.7" arcsec range.
I've historically tracked on an EQ6 which was probably well past it's limit for the weight, but have since moved to an AP Mach2 GTO, which has really helped quite a lot!
I'm still refining the setup. Having eliminated the mount as a limiting factor (which I used to blame for most of my poor subs), I'm now looking to see if I can actually do better.
Technically, this is probably a bit over-sampled, even at a notional 1575mm focal length.
I don't think the scope needs colimating, but next chance I get I will give this a tweak also.
My question is, am I going to do much better than this with this scope? Am I just mismatched with the camera/scope combo? I'm more than happy to keep trying to chase and tweak, but I feel this may be hitting the limits of the combination of gear I have.
I'm not UNHAPPY with this image, but I just don't know if the optics are my limiting factor, or there is more I can do to get more out of this gear.
I feel I may be trying to convince myself in to a dedicated fast astrograph, but I honestly just need to get a reference point to know if I'm going to get much improvement persevering with this gear.
ps. I added a 100minute
rough stack, simple auto histogram stretch just as a reference, just as a JPG on this post.