I've had some excellent help on yesterdays troubleshooting thread, which allowed me to sort out an issue with my darks.
So using the "fixed" darks, here is 6.3 hours of OSC data - RC6, CCDT67, ASI294MC Pro, stacked in ASTAP.
Amazing how much better StarTools works when you give it a correctly calibrated stack .
CYGNUS_WALL, 2022-09-25, 2022-08-08&12, 401x60L, iOptron CEM40, ZWO ASI294MC Pro_stacked low adu flats, old darks.jpg (435.98 KiB) Viewed 3044 times
That can't be easy with a long RC and no filters. Pretty dark skies?
Star spikes are sharp! Could be a bit on grainy side post-denoise? Matter of personal taste though I'd say. The image really shows what a busy star field much of that area is.
Hey thanks Mike. Dark skies? - I wish! Maps say I'm bortle 6 but ASTAP background measurement reckons I'm in Bortle 7 territory.
Scope does seem to be sharper since tweaking the collimation with SkyWave though.
Fair point about the noise....might try another version.
Nice! The Ha there is pretty bright - I was able to get a passable image of the NA nebula when I fist got a Z61 and still used a non-modified Canon dslr.
I'm conflicted by your excellent stars. Why? Because I have been telling myself I would not spend money for any RC6 stuff that could not be transferred to another scope (been using it as it came for over a year). Now you've got me wanting to sink money into SkyWave...
Thanks Ron. I do think that setting my mirror distance correctly (i.e. for minimum spherical aberration, not to spec) has tightened up the stars a bit, although getting the secondary correctly aligned will also have helped.
The PPU models are not that expensive, and Gaston is very helpful. If you do decide to get SKW then PM me because the collimation of secondary on an RC is NOT simple - but is worth it.
Don't forget you can install the software in "test" mode at no cost to try it out and see if you get on with it.
I have seen people make an excel file that can generate move commands to make a composite image with a star at 8 points equally spaced around the center. I think they did it for NINA. I use KStars/Ekos, but I'd need to have a windows computer hooked to the camera to use SKW anyway. More prep work (getting NINA working before starting on a 30-day trial).
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