I really wanted to push limits here.
What can an amateur field setup do on a misty Bortle 3 field in Poland? A pretty big 100 kg setup that is... Having a beautiful clear week coinciding with the New Moon is rare, so we tried to salvage it. Instead of producing 7 crap-pix I decided to do one crazy one. Without a lot of help in data gathering and setup overseeing I couldn't have done that! The result isn't as great as I imagined as handling 0.5"/px was not possible, especially with poor seeing. 1"/px is acceptable I think.
A short summary of the very different 5 days of data acquisition:
Days 1 and 2:
I used the parfocal property of the 1.25" ZWO filters and looped:
-> L: 480 s + RGB: 3x300 s + dither
That saved a lot of time for dithering, also ensured that each LRGB set is aligned and ready to preview. The mist and humidity was crazy, drops falling from the scope here and there.
All other days were devoted toward L only.
Day 3:
I was alarmed as I was told, the stars look worse, we tried focus and collimation, but it was hard, because as it turned out, seeing was absolutely horrific.
Day 4:
After a quick in-field collimation the stars came back to being perfect (I will present the best L frame in revisions). Thank god for having intelligent and observant helpers. And that I always have Allen keys and love tweaking mirror tilts!
Day 5:
Only a few (ca 20) frames came in as clouds arrived and, as I fear, will stay for many weeks. Besides we've used the RC10 for lurking at some background objects.
CS Friends
And I hope this crazy projects isn't seen by U as overextending amateur astrophotography
PS. Revisions will show different feats
Rev A: The picture
Rev B: The 143 x 480 s L stack; default stretch; 100% scale
Rev C: The best L frame, uncropped, uncalibrated
Rev D: The best L frame, uncropped, but calibrated
Rev E: A setup pic
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