ASI224MC and dso imaging

robby9newbie

Good morning

I have a Meade 8" LX200 with a .63 focal reducer on an alt/azimuth mount and the ZWO ASI224MC camera. I was wondering if anyone could suggest the settings to use in Sharp Cap to capture M57 (Ring Nebula) for the best results. I am confused about the resolution setting as I would think that the higher the better as well as many short exposures versus a fewer long exposures. Should I be using Sharp Caps live stacker or process the individual frames with Deep Sky Stacker?

The planets are not visible from my backyard but they will be in the fall and that is why I am experimenting with some bright DSO's first

Thanks from a Newbie

riklaunim

Live stacking is live, so it may not be as good as in postprocessing. I use Nebulosity 4 for capture and processing. As for imaging this type of cameras like capturing many frames at shorter exposures. As for resolution - you need relatively fast f/ratio as DS objects are way dimmer than planets so you can't shoot them efficiently at higher resolutions with typical telescopes (and at high resolutions seeing will also affect DS images).

robby9newbie

So in essence I should be using the ZOW camera for planetary/lunar imaging and as a guide camera and using my Canon T5I for DSO imaging?

Sam@ZWO

Yes, you can use the live stacking of sharpcap

you can set the gain to around 300 and exposure around 5s should be ok

donboy

Robby, I've done some EAA DSO imaging. When I was active using the 224 M57 wasn't available for viewing but you can find settings on some of my images in this 224 album which can give you an idea of what to set. Most were shot using FireCapture, but today I probably would prefer SharpCap.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23705399@N04/albums/72157656927157919

Don

robby9newbie

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try this weekend and see how I make out

allanstargazer

Donboy,

What scope and mount are you using for the images you have posted on flckr. Nice imaging