ZWO ASI224 mc Generic equipment discussions · Cosmiccharlie1973 · ... · 6 · 292 · 0

Cosmiccharlie1973 0.00
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Hello Fellow Astrophotographers I currently am using a Celestron Nexstar 8se and a ZWO ASI120mc-s camera for planetary and lunar work. I'm still a newbie with regards to AP. I was wondering if it would be a big step up from what I'm currently using and will it let me get my feet wet with the faint and fuzzies. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed and encouraged. Thank you in advance. CosmicCharlie1973
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Dale 0.00
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Cloudy Nights Forum has an EAA section (electronically assisted astronomy) many of us have a variety of cameras including a 120 and you will get tons of specific questions answered.

https://www.cloudynights.com/forum/73-eaa-observation-and-equipment/

I used an 8se and a zwo224 camera. I bet you will NEED to use a focal reducer 6.3 or (3.3 is better) or you won't have enough stars in your filed of view to stack if your using sharpcap.
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Cosmiccharlie1973 0.00
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Thank you for the reply. I have the f/6.3 focal reducer/corrector.
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Gerardoborn 0.00
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L
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Gerardoborn 0.00
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I have used both cameras and there won't be much of a difference for planetary imaging.
Haven't used either for deep sky as that is not their purpose.
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Cosmiccharlie1973 0.00
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Thank you Gerard.
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jlangston_astro 0.00
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Long exposures will suffer from noise, but lucky imaging is great with these on bright targets. Pick bright planetary nebula and use say 2s exposures at Gain 300 (offset 140ish I think- google it), take a few thousand of them and stack... amazing detail...  I say set your software to take 2000 exposures, and at about 1700 cover your scope to get darks without stopping the camera.  Just be aware that Deep Sky Stacker may not pick up enough stars to stack, but you can use Siril or AutoStakkert to stack with one or a few alignment stars.  A focal reducer helps too!
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