SharpCap Forums

Hi Andy,

I am at Bortle 5 consistently but some nights push Bortle 4. No street lights or anything but I am in a valley.

Brian

I reworked the image after having discovered that the blue stack was not contributing enough to the final image due to low signal-to-noise. Next time around I will double the exposure on all channels. Difference between this image and the original on page one: 1. Boosted blue channel by 15%. 2. Boos...

Andy, You are in very good shape. Your camera has a full well depth of 45,000 electrons. It can handle long exposures. My camera on the other hand is 7,000 electrons, so I can easily put stars into saturation which leads to star bloat and incorrect star color rendering. Keep going with those long ex...

I just completed an analysis of my sub-frames. I wanted to get to the bottom of why my image doesn't show more blue in the outer galactic arms. This is what I found: My 36-second exposures with the blue filter is just not enough to raise the signal out of the noise. Sure, on close examination you ca...

Andy, I'm taking the plunge into CCD. I did my own analysis of high read noise inherent in CCDs and concluded that its effects are largely mitigated by having the 16-bit A/D. We'll see!

Brian

Thanks, Mr Wikkett, but not as nice as yours.

Thanks, Andy. Good luck tonight. Hopefully my camera will arrive soon. I'd like to get another chance at M101.

Thanks, Dave. Black Wikkkett has got an M101 here https://forums.sharpcap.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1412#p7373 that shows more detail. Three factors at play: twice the aperture as mine, active guiding, cooled camera less noise. My mount is 50 years old. I added a stepper motor to R.A. with peri...

I have mixed feelings about the quality of this image since I always strive to improve myself. What it's come down to is this: I've reached a plateau. I know what to do to make marginal improvements but the cost in time is high. So I present to you my last deep-sky image before retiring this camera ...

Actually, I thought that your tracking was very good. I don't guide. I have a 50-year old mount having just a stepper motor on the R.A. axis. I rely on good polar alignment thanks to SharpCap. I can get 200-second exposures. Star roundness isn't perfect but it works for me. A new mount is in my futu...