A question for everyone.

[Skyhawk727]

What individual item that you purchased improved your DSI imaging the most?  Don't care what it was, just what individual item helped you the most. 

I am currently using an LX200 10" permanently mounted in small observatory, DSI III, Envision for capture, Registax and DeepSky Tracker for stacking. I have a focal reducer flattener but have not yet added it to the image train.  I also use a Meade Flip mirror, but find I would like a sturdier one (any suggestions welcome)  Made a diffraction focus aid which helps some, but not as much as I would like.

I have a Telvue Pronto mounted on the 10" but have found the Meade (old style) counterweight insuffifient to balance both scopes and camera train. Have ordered a bigger, better counterweight system which should arrive in a week or so.  The Pronto is OK (really quite nice) but although smooth focusing, the locking screw could be a better system.  Am looking for a bigger (660-800mm FL range) APO with 2 stage focusing; ideas appreciated about scopes under $2,000 new.

With that in mind, does anyone know the maximum practical load I can put on my LX200?  The scope is about a year old and should have the better gears although I HAVE NOT looked.

Have been hesitant to buy Adobe Photoshop as I'm not sure which edition has the most utility for astrophotography. Same goes for Maxim DL.

I plan on moving up to a larger format CCD and maybe use the DSI as an autoguider, but any suggestions would be welcome here too. 

[akjudge]

skyhawk,

I own a LX200R 8" on a wedge.  I have a SBIG ST-7, AO-7, CFW8 in addition to a DMK21 for lunar and planetary work.  I have MaxIm DL and Photoshop CS-2.  But I am truly a novice.

Yet interestingly enough, the one item I use the most, and have the most fun with is a Stellacam II.  With it I can "see" almost any DSO in 10 seconds or less.  I can cover 30 to 50 DSO's a night.  It allows me to see non-visual objects with ease.  It is great when I have visitors, since there is no need to look in an eyepiece and refocus for individual eyesight differences.

Even more interesting, is the fact that I can get quite good astroimages in less than 5 minutes.  I use an Orion Filter wheel and Meade 3.3 focal reducer with the Stellacam II.  Attached is M1 which took less than 5 minutes to take all images (LRGB).  I must admit it took me about an hour to process the final image, but like I said, I'm a novice.

Like most people, I have aperture-envy and hope to move up in equipment with time.  While I will sell everything to do this, the Stellacam will NOT get sold...

Jim
 

[wsuriano]

You don't mention it, but are you mounted on a wedge?  To improve your images often means taking longer subframes which is not going to work without a wedge.  So if you don't have one, the first thing I would buy is a wedge.  My images improved greatly when I went from 1 or 2 minute subframes to 5 minute subframes.  In particular, the DSI III is less sensitive than its DSI II cousin and really likes longer subframes. 

I just have a couple other questions.  What do you plan to do with the flip mirror?  Once you have a wedge, I assume you will want to start guiding so you can take longer subframes.  I'd get rid of the flip mirror and replace it with a guide scope or an Off Axis Guider.  The TV Pronto would make a good guide scope and is a very capable wide field imager as well.  There's a few other things you need as well so if you're moving in this direction, let us know.  Finally, guiding or imaging with the long focal length of a 10" LX200 is hard because even little changes at that focal length can cause problems.  If you really want to image through the LX200 definitely use the focal reducer.  However, until you have this down, I would use the LX200 (with the focal reducer to make it easier to find a guide star) as my guide scope and image with the TV Pronto.  You could pick up an original DSI mono to use as a guide camera.  How is your Pronto mounted on the LX200?  That connection really needs to be stable.

[Tony]

All good input above. Biggest change in my iimaging came from finding a more precise focus... envisage just didn't do it. I used a Batinof mask, and that's good for some stuff but nothing beats coputer aided focusing. Nebulosity has that feature. You could use that program to focus your rig, then switch back to envisage for capture if you want with the DSI. Nebulosity is very good for capture also, but I do miss some of the ease of use that envisage gives you, drizzle, stacking as you go etc.

Also the flip mirror turned out for me to be too loosey goosey to be of any value. Imaging planets, it was helpful to see stuff and center the object, but still was kind of in teh way.

Photoshop is a really great tool and there are "actions" by Noel Carboni that make enhancing your images much more effective. I just upgraded from CS2 to CS4. many new tools and "virbrance" are useful. Its a pile of money even on Amazon, but truly worth it in my view... especially with the high quality equipment you have to take images.

good luck! I've not used a stellarcam, but last year bought a QHY8, with which I'm quite happy. Runs really cool so I don't have to take darks, is larger format so finding objects is much easier than with my DSI, take a look at DSOMAN's mages on this website... really good stuff!

[Philip Pugh]

I do very low tech DSI (see my Pleiades post) and spent £20 on a light pollution reduction filter. Not the best ever £20 I ever spent but not far off. Best was the Magni Max Image Amplifier I bought for £25, then got £95 for writing an article about it.

[bignerdguy]

For me two things have helped: MaximDL and Focusmax.  Focusmax is freeware and maximDL does cost quite a bit but the focusmax solved a lot of issues i was having with the focus being off badly.  Focusing by hand is a touchy and hard thing to do.  Meade does make some usefull software for that but it is basic and does not provide autofocus routines to make it easier, plus it takes longer doing it maanually.  focusmax will takes a series of images and scan each image for quality then build a focus profile for that nights setup. then it will set the meade microfocuser to the proper point for pinpoint focus.  With a little bit of scripting in MaximDL you can also setup the software to refocus after every color shot or how ever you want it to do.

Your LX200 should have come with the meade Microfocuser if it is not the classic LX200.  if not, after a wedge, i would suggest one of these be added as it will enable you to take much more finely focused images than you could without.  of course there are also other focusers out there that will do as good if not better but the meade is by far the cheaper solution and works well for the price.  I've had mine for years and it is still working fine.

-Brian A.

[Tony]

Agree wuth all above, get a Wedge, lose the flip mirror, consider using Nebulosity by Stark Labs for capture... much better than Envisage on which I learned, a Batinoff mask is useful for planets, but for deep sky, use the fine focus in software like Nebulosity as its far more precise, Photoshop is a great investment and Noel Carboni's Actions save lots of tiime. Haven't tried other focusing software, but they probably work similarly... precise focus using your electric focuser is a must... will make a huge difference. Got a microfocuser from Meade for my LX90 and it worked fine... a bit heavy so yoru new balancing system shoudl fix that.

I added a Stellarvue 102SV ($900) for a focal length of 714mm or less with a field flattener. A focal reducer to get your f10 down to f6.3 is a big help. I tried an f3.3 focal reducer on my f10 LX90 but wasn't thrilled with the results... too much coma. Orion's easy guider camera for guiding uses PHD and is inexpensive and works well.

good hunting... getting subframes up to 20 minutes is a hoot!

[CleverNight]

I agree with Tony, go with the focal 6.3 reducer for a better focal length and more forgiveness in small tracking errors. That's the biggest improvement I have gotten so far as far as imaging goes. Attached is a picture taken with my LX200ACF 10" scope with the 6.3 reducer and a Canon XSi (Modded). I am still in Alt-Az and will be installing my wedge soon but until then, the focal reducer was a NECESSITY.

-Patrick Holland