Posts Made By: Chad Quandt

One of the scopes I regularly observe with is an older AP 6" f/12 Superplanetary. I love it. Awesome views and a classic look.

I was wondering if any of you guys have been able to directly compare the refractor performance of this older model to a newer 6" APO, whether it's AP, Tak, etc.

I would expect the latest versions would have better performance, but who has actually compared them visually.

I took an image of the Elephants Trunk Nebula this weekend and I noticed this other dark nebula right next to it on the right in this cropped image.

Does anyone know if it has a "common name".

To me it looks like a colonial guy sitting on a horse wearing a chapeau or tricorn type hat.

I suggest naming it either the "George Washington Nebula" or the "Napoleon at Berezina Crossing Nebula".

Any other suggestions? Or just go ahead and burst my bubble and tell me what it is actually called.

I've been imaging with a Canon 60Da on my Tak TSA-120 with success for the last year. I am now looking into getting a CCD camera with an 8300 size sensor and filter wheel.

Among the cameras I have been looking at are the QSI 683wsg and the FLI ML8300.

Both look like good cameras. Price and options differences aside, I have the impression the FLI camera and required gear would be much heavier. My concern is that the 2.7" focuser on my TSA would flex a little. I also have the impression that the QSI camera would be lighter (also less expensive with everything factored in).

As a going in gameplan, I would be looking to get either camera setup with either an internal or external filterwheel, complete with normal LRGB and standard narrowband filters. My mount is a Paramount MX.

Anyway, I appreciate any feedback from anyone who has used either of these cameras on a scope like mine, or at least a focuser like mine.

Chad

I recently picked up a ZWO ASI 16000mc-cool and am having difficulty with stacking in both PixInsight and Deep Sky Stacker.

I am able to process mono CCD files just fine in PixInsight and Deep Sky Stacker works just fine for the DSLR images I use it for.

With Deep Sky Stacker, I get it all setup and ready to go, but it can't register the images. Even by adjusting the threshold to the minimum value it is unable to find any stars.
I was using 5 minute exposures and focused with a Bahtinov mask and I have good stars (not any trailing) and have a full set of calibration frames (flats, darks, bias).

Does anyone have any ideas on what I might be missing? What would be different with this camera from that which would come form a DSLR, other than RAW vs. FITS?

Next question. I usually never used PixInsight for stacking color DSLR images because it seemed to take forever to get through the batch stacker routine. Is there a good technique for getting it work better with OSC CCD?

Thanks for any help.

-Chad