I am relieved to know that my purchases aren't responsible for messing up other locals sky for imaging!
After much deliberation, and far too many elongated stars at the corners of my images with the SharpStar 61EDPH II I managed to score the Field Flattener/Reducer specific to this scope. It arrived 2 days ago and was swiftly mounted in the scope. I am tickled pink as to the difference it's made.
Night one I tried it with the ZWO ASI533MC Pro, and last night I had the ZWO ASI 183MM Pro in it. While conditions were less than stellar, I managed a start on a new, and hopefully improved imaging train. Upper level smoke was bad, causing transparency issues. I used STellarMate Capture/Control for aquisition. The image below is the result of 10SII, 5
Ha and 7 Oiii Optolong filters. My plan was for 5
Ha and 10 each of Oii and SII. I have no idea where the extra 3 Oiii images went. I should add, the
Ha and SII data was capture at 300 second exposures and the Oiii was at 180 seconds.
Processing was done from registration, calibration and histogram in PixInSIght, and a minor adjustment in Luninar AI for noise correction. I know the Heart is usually not shot in SHO but I couldn't resist!
Advice is always welcome.
July9_IC1805_SHO by
Brent Secord, on Flickr
Scopes: SkyWatcher 8" Quattro, Celestron C8, SkyWatcher ST120, Orion ST80, SharpStar 61EDPH II. SLT 130 Celestron
Mounts: CGEM, CG-4, EQ2, Alt Az, SLT
Cameras: ZWO ASI533MC Pro, ZWO ASI120MM, Canon 1100D