Here it is. 4 months later, my first Astrophoto that I am happy to put my name on (for the most part) since I purchased my first telescope 4 months ago: The Flame and Horsehead Nebula's.
This is my first capture with the ZWO ASI1600mm Pro. While I did have some issues to work out, the learning curve really was not that bad at all.
Setting up the filter wheel was kind of a pain, because the set screws were so small... I wish I had gone with the mounted filters, but I am glad I know I can add them if I want to later on. I also lost track of the filters (oops lol). I thought I was shooting in Oiii when I was really shooting in Sii. That was easy enough to figure out though.
I set the camera's gain at the lowest read noise preset, which is what was recommended by ZWO at first, connected the 1600, my guide camera and filter wheel, and was happier with the easy cable management.
I took my first shot in
After my first night of shooting in
Here are the details
Celestron Advanced VX Mount
Explore Scientific 80mm FCD100 Triplet
ZWO ASI1600mm Pro settings -
Gain/Offset (all subs): 300/50
1x1 binning
Cooled to -20 C
Sii - 34 subs @ 300s
50 darks, 100 flats (50x2), 50 Dark Flats
Acquired with Astrophotography Tool + PHD2 Guiding + Celestron CPWI
Stacked and Processed in Pixinsight, using Lightvortexastronomy.com as a guide.
I believe I might have messed up on my calibration frames. I will have to do more of a deep dive into that as well. I am aware of the reflection thing at the bottom of the image, but I am not sure what it is from--either a reflection from the Sii or possibly the field flattener? It was definitely not there in
I also tried to shoot in Oiii, but I was getting some weird stacked results. I might post up about it later if I see it again. I cleaned the filters and am going to check to make sure I put them in facing the right way. This is why I combined
So I would greatly appreciate any advice you all can give. I honestly cannot tell if this image is still too noisy, and if I should have been more aggressive with the noise reduction. I also can't tell if I went too far with saturation... I have been processing for a week now, and I am so desensitized to any changes, especially as the changes have less and less of an impact as you go through the processing. No need to mention the field curvature lol also, I am aware of the reflection, but if you guys have any thoughts on what that might be I would love to have some ideas on what I should check first...
I wish I framed it better as well.
how did I do?
Flame_Final by James wainwright, on Flickr
I'm going to sleep great this morning! lol
but I was surprised with the combination and I enjoyed it! Thank you 
