Posts Made By: Charles Hakes

I have a DSI-Pro and a Meade LX200, but they have never gotten together for imaging. I use the DSI-Pro for guiding, and it seems to do a good job and is fairly sensitive, so that might be a good start for imaging. I also have WAY more experience imaging in Alt-Az than you should ever want. You could get a field de-rotator, but only if a wedge won't work for some reason. Believe it or not, I think you will be able to get some reasonable results on many brighter objects without either. You will see image rotation in less than a minute no matter where you look, but I will also bet that in many parts of the sky you can get 15 seconds with rotation hidden by other imaging effects. And for that short, a good fraction of your images should be OK without guiding. I am not sure if you need a T-mount, as my camera came with a nosepiece that just fits in place of an eyepiece. I am not sure what software came with the camera, or what you already have. I know CCDSoft (what I use) will NOT talk to a DSI. Don't know about the other capture programs. I suggest to start with, just use the software that came with the camera and see what you can get. Do that before getting other toys. (Eventually, you might decide you want a new mount, a new camera, filters, a guide scope, a guide camera, etc., etc...)

One thing that I recommend though, is getting a program that can rotate images as well as shift them when you align multiple images. You will need that. I use CCDStack, and as far as I know, that is the only program that does scaling, in addition to shifting and rotating.

Good luck. Show us what you take.

Charlie

Another nice galaxy I am not familiar with.

Sure is nice for a soft image with a funny story. Stars were well repaired if there were streaks there to start with.

Both images are nice, and I agree about stretching. And maybe increasing some green and blue compared to the red. I don't know what the "proper" ratio would be with using H-a for red, but it sure does bring out the nebulosity compared to stars.

Excellent image. Worth all the time (and trouble?) spent.

Charlie

Excellent use of your nice night.

Charlie

Very nice - I like the full size where you can just keep panning around and seeing more stuff.

I think it looks great. Glad the software is working for you.

This happened on the night I drove out to take this image. Fortunately I was already slowing to make the turn to the observatory when the large animal with very little brain thought it should try to make it across the road in front of me. I was surprised there was no carcass. Everything is repaired by now, but I do have an urge to aim for those deer...

Charlie

Looks like something to be happy about. New scope must be fun.

Charlie