Posts Made By: William Killeen

If I am binning RGB and shooting full resolution luminance, can I use full resolution unbinned RGB flats and darks for the binned files, or do I have to make binned flats and darks?

Maxim DL is the software I'm using.

Thanks.
BK

New try at Orion. First one was horrible. Comments for improvement?

I have a question about the two ways of focusing an R-C. One is with a fixed focusing plane and a movable secondary, the other is a fixed secondary and a movable focusing plane.

My impression is that the main advantage to the movable secondary is that heavy items such as cameras can be securely bolted to the back of the telescope so don't move, wobble, or shift. My impression is that the advantage to the fixed secondary is that of cost of manufacture, sparing the costs of mechanisms necessary to keep the secondary precisely aligned yet allow movement for focus.

Reading more, it seems that primary to secondary distance is very important and minor changes in the primary to secondary distance affects image quality.

Would a fixed secondary be a better design for imaging quality but at the expense of introducing "camera hanging on the end of a focuser" issues? Is the amount of change in distance between the primary and secondary enough to affect image quality? Are there other issues that should play a part in deciding between the two designs?

BK

So which RGB filters are you using now?

I'm looking at the Astrodon TruBalance E series Gen 2 for use with a SBIG ST2000XM. Any thoughts?