Astrophotography: Red Cat + Full frame = Awesome! 

My GT81 produces stars that look just like that in the corners. The problem is that I have a 4/3 sensor in my 294MM Pro... not a full frame one. Though, if you can convince yourself to spend the crazy $$ on the full frame camera and supporting filters... the field of view you can get is amazing - as you clearly demonstrate. Also, around the 4:20 mark in the video you refer to the Oiii as ozone. They aren't the same. Ozone is a molecule composed of 3 oxygen atoms. Oiii is doubly ionized oxygen - a _single_ oxygen atom that has had electrons stripped away due to intense radiation. It isn't bonded molecularly to any other atoms (either other oxygen or hydrogen) because the environment is too hostile. The cyan glow we see is the photons being emitted as the electrons of the oxygen atom move from state to state from being bombarded by the intense radiation (typically UV).

This came out incredible James! Love the workflow and the final image! It was very nice of Isaac to share his awesome data he collected as well, fantastic collaboration.

That is an impressive image. Beautifully processed and man, that setup covers a lot of sky and nebulosity.

That is a compelling argument in deed for a full frame camera. Great final image James - your processing skills are on another level and great data set from Isaac.

That's an insane amount of sky that Isaac captured & you've done a great job processing the data, there's a guy who comes to out astro club meets trying to sell me a redcat he even bought it on Friday night to try & tempt me lol, it's very tempting but I just don't have the money for it.

Great job, once again!!! Keep up the good work and keep helping with your skills to people like me 😀. Thank you for sharing 🙏.

Insane!!

WOW! one of the nicest images I have seen of that region. Great job you guys! I think I need to learn Pixinsight now

Great processing video James!! Excellent job!

Thanks!

Wow! So much intricate detail! Next year, I’ll have to dust off my RedCat and try this target out. Now you have me wondering if I should buy a full frame camera or invest the extra time in doing a mosaic with my current 2600mm Pro.

Hey James - Was a really good look at how the full frame camera performed. I hear you in terms of claims about full frame cameras, they do rather exaggerate how flat that field will be. Awesome looking final image, really enjoyed the color pallette. :)

It’s awesome stuff James. I tell ya using my 2600 with the cat now vs the old 183 it’s just crazy the difference in fov. And we know how much smaller the 2600 is to the 6200 but I really could t be happier

I use my Redcat 51 with a 2600mm Pro and that’s a pretty wide FOV… this is insane and beautiful 😍

James, I think that corner was bad because I had the filter wheel loose on the camera. I only discovered it afterwards. But overall the stars look really good. This is 15 hours of data, and yeah the 5 hours are from bortle 1. I have to do at least a 2 panel mosaic one day 😅. Thanks for making this image look freaking awesome!!

Excellent video! Now what I'd really like to see is a comparison between images taken with this setup (ASI6200MM-Pro plus Redcat51) vs the poor man's alternative of Rokinon/Samyang 135mm f/2 plus ASI294MM-Pro. The field of view is essentially identical between the two. If you use the ASI294MM-Pro in Bin1 mode, the image/pixel scale is also very similar between the two setups, with the full frame setup being a little less undersampled (3.1 vs 3.5 arcsec/px). The difference in price is huge between these two setups, and I'm not sure the superior sensor of the Redcat setup is worth the significantly higher cost. The Rokinon/Samyang setup has a lot going for it: The lens is about half the price of the Redcat, despite having both a larger aperture and significantly faster focal ratio. It also has a reputation for having excellent optical quality. Most camera lenses aren't up to the very high optical demands of astrophotography. This lens is one of the exceptions. How it compares (optically) to the Redcat though, I'm not sure. Smaller, and therefore more affordable, filters can be used with the Rokinon/Samyang setup due to the smaller sensor of the ASI294MM-Pro. Another advantage of the smaller sensor is less worrying about star shapes (and vignetting) in the corners, since only the central portion of the full-frame-sized image circle is being used. It weighs less than the Redcat setup. Always a plus in my eyes. And last, but certainly not least, the ASI294MM-Pro is THOUSANDS of dollars less expensive than the ASI6200MM-Pro. I know what I would pick based on these points, but I would love to see actual comparable images. How much would I actually lose in final image quality by saving my wallet?

I use my 6200MC and 6200MM with my RedCat 51. My RASA 11 however supports a full frame sensor too, but the vignetting is *horrendous*. Isaac's (@Iceman Astro) data is typical, as far as I'm concerned, in its corners. I see it myself, often. Good data = quick processing, yes! And yes, a 6200MM with a quality full filter set will set ya back about ~$8k. James, you brought life to his data. Congrats to you both for a wonderful image. Submit that thing for an APOD and Astrobin IOTD as a collaboration, I say. Damn that's a nice image. I really get interested in the astronomy aspect of it too, but I digress. Clear skies gentlemen, -Jason

I have 2 Redcat51 with 2 QHY294 .

I have the same technical setting. Which fog does the motif show?