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Old 19-04-2023, 06:45 PM
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turbo_pascale (Rob)
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Meade 10" LX200 OTA - is this the best I'm going to get?

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.
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Old 19-04-2023, 09:45 PM
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Atmos (Colin)
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As you know it’s not the sharpest image on the block but there is so many factors that can go into that.
As for the combo, I’d argue that it’s perfectly fine if what you want to do is high resolution imaging of small regions. I’ve been imaging for a few years at 0.4”/pixel and loved it, recently moved to 0.5”/pixel and have no regrets.

Overall optical quality does play a role, that also goes for the reducer. You could have a great telescope but not so great reducer. Or the mush could be caused by less than perfect optics. Collimation is another big one. Seeing can be the biggest contributor to mush however. I’ve had nights comfortably below 1.5” seeing and then a few days later due to a wind direction change it’s pushed 3.5”!
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Old 19-04-2023, 10:05 PM
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turbo_pascale (Rob)
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Thanks Colin.

I guess I've got to get some more measurements and refinement to try and eliminate more variables.

Hopefully others with similar equipment can chime in and provide some context.
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Old 19-04-2023, 10:18 PM
Dave882 (David)
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Hi Rob. I spent a bit of time with a similar setup (Meade 10” on a cgem) a couple years back doing some basic eaa livestacking and basic saturation / contrast boost using my phone. Here’s a post I made back then with a few shots:

https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/...d.php?t=193594

There’s no fancy processing here and live-stacking means even the crap subs are included, but it gives you a bit of a comparison.

My personal opinion of you shots is that it’s actually not bad at all. Your main issue is backspacing and possibly collimation/focus. If you get this sorted and get some good conditions I am confident you can come up with quite a tidy image. Just note that no sct is going to give you stars as tight and small as a good frac or newt, without some post processing. But I’ve had a heck of a lot of fun imaging with a range of different scts and keep leaning new stuff to make improvements along the way.
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