Just did a crash course on Pixinsight and managed to finally get an image.
Much better SNR using that compared to DSS. I did a little editing to boost the colours and contrast but tried to keep it more natural compared to the above pic which was done in DSS.
Neb1.PNG
Vlad, there are a couple of other programs I'd like for you to try and let me know which one you like more (they are all free), Besides DSS, check out Sequator and SiRiL.
I like Sequator for high SNR also, but DSS is unbeatable for removing hot pixels when you dont take dark frames (which I dont.) SiRiL is supposed to be the best (for freeware anyway) but it has so many options I haven't started tackling it yet.
Vlad are you using TEC (thermo electric cooling)?
Yes the camera has built in TEC cooler.
Pixinsight resulted in several times at least better SNR that I could ever achieve in DSS. PI is a very complex but powerful bit of software, well worth it.
We did another session but this time we did 4 min exposures but unfortunately high level cloud ruined 10 out of the 20 exposures. Still I managed to get something nice out of the 10, still double the exposure of the 2 min ones the first night using the new camera. We also did 10 dark frames.
Also I nailed the focus, so good I was getting low 3s for the HFR on the center stars and the main star's diffraction spikes is now infinite in length.
What we want to improve is obviously more exposures but also get a field flattener and also take some flat exposures to help get rid of the vignetting.
Any site I can chuck up the TIFF file for this? resizing a tiny PNG just doesn't do this image justice.