I am with you on the skies - it has been a mess everywhere! Just fortunate we are not flooded - frozen - and/or in the line of fires.

Try this, Gain of 200 offset 50, I think your OTA is a F/7 without a reducer, if that is the case use a 240 second exposure. You will not notice any loss of detail - the S/N ratio is only marginally different. I do not expose longer than 180 seconds anymore and I hang around 200 gain, most of the time - except when experimenting. Now this is when using NB filters. When LRGB, I use 30 to 45 seconds on L and 60 sec on RBG.

Here are my gain/offset settings after doing my on test.

Gain 0 - Offset 10
Gain 75 - Offset 15
Gain 139 - Offset 21 (Unity)
Gain 200 - Offset 50
Gain 300 - Offset 65 (try this with LRBG and using 20 seconds for L and 45 for RGB) this camera is a performer at the short exposure settings with high Gains) Noise is negligible and signal is terrific)

We are going to have 3 days of pretty decent skies relative to clouds....."Seeing" is not going to be all that good but I will take it.

BTW, nice image!


After a lot of testing with the ASI1600MM-C here are some of the results that have worked for me.

What GAIN and OFFSET are you using?

You need to jump in! Like everything else, there is a learning curve. I got a telescope from my son 7 years ago and it, along with the mount, stayed boxed in a closet for a year. After a surgery, I was confined to rest I opened the stuff up and started reading the manual. As soon as I was able to carry it around....I set up up on our back deck and tracked the moon visually. That was all she wrote. Now I am a dead broke, so so, dark sky imager. In fact, I now have my social security check direct deposited at "HighPointScientific" :).....this is where I have purchased the lion share of my stuff.

I am trying not to complain - we have had a lot of rain but our weather is manageable......unlike many in the midwest and northeast and far west. If all goes as planned......next week will feature the sun and clouds during the day. The nights still look mostly cloudy but seeing the sun - as opposed to successive overcast days with drizzle and downpours - will be welcomed!

This last year was the rainiest in 35 years - or so our weatherperson said.

It's been many moons since I have had a clear sky night - we hads two nights - then more rain - bah humbug!

I used those two nights to image NGC2174....i combined images taken with a SV70T and AT65EDQ - both using ASI1600MM-C cameras and Astronomik NB filters. I had 4 hours each night for each kit - a total of 16 hours over the two nights. I combined 180 second images and ended up keeping and staking Ha, 60 Oiii, and 50 Sii. I used Nebulosity 4 to grade the images (instead of SGP) and threw out a bunch. I kept 210 (10.5 hours) and processed in SGP. 20 darks, 150 flats, 100 bias for each kit were the supporting files.

Bortel sky at 5.

NGC2174

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Thumbs up! Print and hang this one!

Gotcha!

Great capture - did you use DSS to calibrate and register your images? It would be a laborious challenge to tackle doing calibrations in PS, let alone registration so curious if you are using a PS action or plugin. If I had the time I would like to write one to do this for PS.

This is an awesome result - few folks know how much grief you have endured - long cold nights - trying to get the mount talking, the focuser talking, and the settings just right so you can image using Sequence Generator Pro. But, this past week - methinks you have gotten close to some nights when you can spend the entire time imaging rather than trying to figure out "why this or that" isn't working! Soooooo, this is a terrific results and points to some super imaging sessions down the road! Cudos Stepping!

Thumbs up! Good work!

Celestron AVX 900 - not my favorite but I would guess it is the most popular beginner mount - for the money it can't be beat - well built. I did have to return mine twice....and it was replaced the second time I should add that this one seems to be working very well. I think I just bought a lemon which can happen with any model.

Orion Atlas Pro EQ/AZ, I think it is still priced at 1900 is my favorite. I run two of these pictures.

For the record, when I started doing this , 6 years ago, I too was just going to use my DSLR and scope given to me plus nikon lenses (hence my moniker). A lots of money later - well hang on astro friend - if the bug bites you..... you had better find a good flower shop for momma! Now I just have my social security check direct deposited into the HighPoint Scientific checking account.

BTW, this is a great buy https://www.astronomics.com/celestron-8-advanced-vx-series-go-to-equatorial-schmidt-cassegrain.html

(Download)

Super presentation ...and captures!

I have tried this on two atlas pros, avx, and ioptron zeq25! Pole Master is spot on every time but this new drift alignment tool in Phd2 is pretty cool and really gets you close enough for a night of decent guiding. It is called the PDA Polar Alignment tool and then run the Static Polar Alignment Tool or SPA if you want to refine your PA accuracy. Link at bottom of this post.

Before you run the bottom link....do a rough polar alignment using PDA which is 1 of 3 PA tools in Phd2 click on this link first...then tha last link for SPA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tYUMmiRx2E&list=PLQvmVoMS3gIJ1AaiIzIGwbutr2z_yabD8

It beats the heck out of looking through a polar scope and fidgeting with the Alt Az knobs

Go to this link and watch the short tutorial on how to use the second PA tool SPA!

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWKT2B5qPqA&list=PLQvmVoMS3gIJ1AaiIzIGwbutr2z_yabD8&index=2[url\

These two tools will cut down on your "getting ready to image" time as a good PA and leveling will help to find your first alignment star!!!

Super dooper! Captures and processing are spot on!