Astromart

April 12, 2011 04:15 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

IC2177 Seagull

Nice picture Jim!
I prefer to use 1x1 bin for Ha and later add Ha as a luminosity - this gives beautiful sharp nebulosity. But of course it needs longer exposures grin

Thanks for sharing!
Maciej

April 29, 2011 06:37 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M106 and some friends

Posted By Maciej Kapkowski

Jim... FANTASTIC!!!

May 2, 2011 05:26 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

ST-2000XM and Paintshop pro problems

Posted By Maciej Kapkowski

David,
Together with the camera you should get two softs - CCDOps and CCD Soft. Those are basic softwares for aquisition/correction ( darks, flats etc)/registering and combining RGB images. You can easily store the image in TIFF and finally JPEG format and use them for final processing in Photoshop, PixInsight or probably Paint shop ( sorry I dont know what kind of software it is).
Regards
Maciej

May 29, 2011 05:40 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

First CCD

Posted By Maciej Kapkowski

Robert,
Starting from the begginning : you will have immediate answer for nearly all questions reading ST 2000 manual and not skipping the basic CCD part smile

Adding something more - you MUST focus your setup with the desired filter on th position ! Each filter has a different focus point ! There are of course some sets called" parafocal" but believe me - I never found them 100% parafocal.
Concerning ST 237 chip- once again read manual. It is precisely defining what is autoguiding, how to use internal chip and so on...
Regards
Maciej

May 29, 2011 04:00 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

First CCD

Posted By Maciej Kapkowski

OK. Step by step:
ad.1.Open CCDsoft. Go to Camera >setup . Then click setup filter> choose CFW 8. Click on small "settings" right from the filter wheel window and setup all filters..simple?
ad.2 .- Both- autoguider and imaging chip of ST 2000 "looking" through the same window( eq.the same filter) . There is not separate filter for guiding chip and imaging chip. Once again- focus your setup with the filter you will shoot.
ad.3. It depends what kind of filters you are using.
ad4. As soon as you probably dont have Robofocus or something similar its better no to set automatic session. Shoot red, green and blue separately as well as luminance. Dont forget to correct focus after filter change.
ad.5. Darks are filter-independent. My advice - arrange "darks library"- record 5-6 darks in each temperature and desired lenght, make Master and store in file.
ad.6. Well, you can use ST 237 as a imaging chip but I can help you in that. Never used.

Regards
Maciej

June 2, 2011 04:57 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky