Deep Sky M71

[OhNo]

Gain:   70
Offset:   8
Exposure Time:   240 seconds
Camera Temp:   -15 °C
Camera:   ASI183MM P

LRGB 3x420 sec

 

[Tracy]

You playing with your gain/offsets, or do you find that these settings tend better for galaxy clusters?
The color variance is impressive for this beginner.

 

[OhNo]

No, I don't ever change the gain or offset. After I bought the 183MM P I noticed that Unity was blowing out bright (highly saturated) objects. Talked to my retailer (who actually uses the products he sells) and he suggested that because of the shallow well on my particular camera (183) I might try a lower gain. A night of testing on the same target at different gains (and exhibited in the histogram) showed that a gain of 70 worked best for me and my location. The offset I am using is the Unity offset.

I have played with the offset of my guide camera (ASI120MM Mini) By increasing it I can see the stars in the guide scope more vividly.

The above image was taken with a SW 8" Quattro astrograph (Imaging Newtonian). At f/3.9 it is a lot faster (at gathering photons) than my f/4.5 refractor. The other difference is the FOV. The Quattro FOV is much smaller than my refractor. The combination of Aperture, FOV and f/stop will determine the SNR, I believe.

But I'm just a dumb ole farmer....