Tilt...

So I spent three nights over the course of a few weeks trying to get my tilt & backspacing for the 0.72 SFFR dialed in. Well, this was a bit of journey as I researched and used all the programs that most recommend. (ASTAP/CCD Inspector/Hocus Focus) Like some people, I found that they all gave somewhat different results which is a bit like chasing your tail. After I understood how the adjustments would impact the results then it was easier to work towards getting the results I was after. This is a bit of a guessing/testing methodology which can be frustrating. At the end of the day I preferred using Hocus Focus as it seemed to respond the most accurately when I tweaked the tilt screws on the reducer. I did not adjust the tilt on the camera because I don't want to have to redo it when changing to a different telescope. (I hope)

I think I have a few more iterations to go through but I didn't want to sacrifice any more clear skies without getting another image. So I used the remaining time to capture 6hrs of photons on the other half of the Veil Nebula across 2 nights. I'm quite pleased at how it turned out and processing it was a bit difficult as I wanted to exactly match the colors I settled on in the Western Veil image. Both Veils are of the HOO palette, which I like better than the Red/Green traditional color mapping.

This Random Single Frame from the Western Veil that shows all four corners, sides & center. You can see there is a bit of star elongation in the left side which is all I have left to work out.