M20 - first night with new mount.

[Drac0 (Mark)]

First night out with my new mount & while it doesn't take the photos I think it helped with the results - I am pleased with this one, even if others may not be.

M20, the Trifid Nebula. Total integration of 3 hrs.

Saxon 102mm APO Triplet + 0.8 reducer
Canon 70D (unmodified)
AZ-EQ5 Pro mount
180 x 60 second subs
50 x darks
50 x flats
50 x dark flats
50 x bias
Processed in StarTools, tweaked in Lightroom

[Startrek (Martin)]

Mark,
A fine M20 with your new mount showing good detail
Nicely framed too
Well done !!
My only observation is the colour seems out of balance. Red in the Ha region a bit too pinkish and blue in the Oiii region a bit too pail. Also you could mask out the larger stars to avoid the blue over saturating them. Only my observation by the way. What version of ST are you running ?
Also do you use DSS to stack or these little red boxy ASI air thingy’s with live stacking ?? These things are all the rage today. I prefer old school stuff , separate programs from A to Z
PS: From all the Astro DSLR gurus in the US, they reckon the best ISO setting for the 70D is 1600 ( dynamic range and read noise ) What do you use ?

Cheers
Martin

[xelasnave]

I like pixel peeking and unfortunately no oval stars in your image so well done.
Great job.
Alex

[Drac0 (Mark)]

Martin:
Thanks. Still working on my processing so I probably did something wrong in ST - I haven't been able to get any really decent data to put through the process but getting there. An unmodded DSLR wouldn't have helped I suppose.
Running the latest ST, 1.8 I think.
Stacked in DSS - not a fan of the ASIair either - too restrictive with the equipment choices & it lacks a lot of features available elsewhere (multiple imaging cameras anyone?).
These were done at ISO 800 - I switch between 800 & 1600 depending on conditions. Conditions improved a lot as the night went on, my later subs where much cleaner, so maybe I should have gone with 1600.

Thanks Alex, was good having a mount that didn't need constant babysitting in case went haywire and was able to guide &track for hours on end.
Cheers,
Mark