View allAll Photos Tagged autostakkert
The shadows of Ganymede and Callisto are clearly visible and the Great Red Spot can be seen above Ganymede's shadow.
104_6266,7,8 MP4s centred, cropped with PIPP then stacked with AutoStakkert. Moons brightened and planet contrast increased with PhotoShop.
First Saturn of the season. A slightly more successful night's imaging but it was still touch and go with uninvited cloud mucking up the shots, so this is cobbled together from the best frames of each video. Saturn reached opposition on the 2nd June so this is the best time to view and image it.
Image made from 3 videos - a total of 6076 frames
Captured with FireCapture
Processed in PIPP, AutoStakkert, Registax, and Photoshop
Equipment:
Celestron NexStar 127 SLT
Skywatcher EQ5 Mount
ZWO ASI120 MC imaging camera
Forzada saturación de colores en Photoshop para distinguir diferente composición mineral.
Seeing normalito tirando a malo.
Telescopio: Refractor Bresser Messier Acro 102/460 f4.5
Cámara: ZWO ASI178MC
Montura: iOptron AZ Mount Pro
Filtros: Baader Contrast Booster Filter
Software: FireCapture, Pipp, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshop
Fecha: 2021-07-24 (24 de julio de 2021)
Hora: 01:42 U.T. (Tiempo universal)
Fase lunar: 100.0% 13.94 días Creciente (Llena a las 4:36)
Lugar: 42.615 N -6.417 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 5 videos de 1 minuto cada uno
Resolución: 3096x2080
Gain: 229 (44%)
FPS: 30 + 29 + 30 + 29 + 29
Exposure: 0.282ms
Frames: 1802+1763+1800+1822+1768 = 8985
Frames apilados: 45%
Sensor temperature= 33.5°C
Jupiter, the Great Red Spot, and 3 out of the 4 Galilean moons. This time-lapse, my longest yet, shows the movement of these distant objects over 2 hours and 38 minutes.
The Great Red Spot, a giant storm larger than the Earth, rotates into view from the left. Europa casts a shadow as it transits Jupiter from the left. On the right, Io overtakes Ganymede with its faster orbital speed before they both enter the shadow of Jupiter.
Jupiter has 80 known moons and a faint ring system. Its atmosphere is separated into several bands at different latitudes, resulting in turbulence and storms along the boundaries.
Each one of the 36 frames in this video was processed as a standard planetary image stack:
1,000 x 1/30 second ISO1600 (best of ~5,400 frames)
Phase angle: 0.24°
Apparent magnitude: -2.88
Apparent diameter: 49"
Distance from Earth: 4.013 AU
Altitude above horizon: 38° to 50°
Atmospheric seeing: 4/5
Captured from 03:12 to 05:50 UTC on 08/19/21
Location: Coral Springs, FL
Camera: Canon T3i
Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 f/6.0 Apochromatic Refractor
Barlow: Antares 3x Triplet Barlow (effective magnification is 4.932x for 2373mm focal length at f/29.66)
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G
Captured with Magic Lantern RAW Video (10 bit, 30 FPS, 640 x 320)
Processed with MLV App, PIPP, AutoStakkert! 3 (with 3x drizzle), PixInsight, and Paint.NET
The ISS crossing in front of the Sun as seen from Wimbledon, South West London on 18th June 2017
Composite image consisting of individual frames extracted from the capture video
Lunt LS60 scope, Televue 2.5x Powermate, ASI174MM camera
Processed using Virtualdub, PIPP, Autostakkert, Registax and Photoshop CC
Rendered in false colour
The waxing crescent moon as photographed on the evening of April 30, 2017.
Taken using a 5" refractor and a ZWO ASI178MM-Cool camera with a Baader Long Pass filter (610nm, deep red).
Image stacking with AutoStakkert! (best 20% of 2000 frames), sharpening with Registax, and final processing with Adobe Photoshop CC2017.
Best seen at full size (2048 x 1405 pixels) and against a dark background (click on the image to enter the Flickr lightbox).
All rights reserved.
The atmosphere was somewhat less turbulent than normal, not great, but much better than the usual bad conditions. One problem of living under the jet stream.
Imaging telescopes or lenses: Meade Ar5 refractor
Imaging cameras: Point Grey 5MP mono
Mounts: Celestron CG-4 MotorDrive
Software: Autostakkert! Autostackert! · Adobe Photoshop CS4 Photoshop CS4
Filters: Red
Date:Jan. 22, 2021
Frames: 600
FPS: 12.00000
Focal length: 1150
Resolution: 5983x7927
Data source: Backyard
Description
2 panel mosaic, each 300/2500 frames
Genova, Italy (06 Oct 2022 23:52 UT)
Planet: diameter 12.5", mag -0.7, altitude ≈ 38°
Telescope: Orange 1977 vintage Celestron C8 (203 F/10 SC)
Mount: EQ5 with ST4 hand controller (no GoTo)
Camera: QHY5III462C Color
Barlow: GSO APO 2.5x
Filter: QHY UV/IR block
Recording scale: 0.150 arcsec/pixel
Equivalent focal length ≈ 3990 mm F/19.7
Image resized: +50%
Recording: SharpCap 4.0
(320x240 @ 125fps - 60 sec - RAW16 - Gain 120)
Best 25% frames of 7571
Alignment/Stacking: AutoStakkert! 3.1.4
Wavelets/Deconvolution: AstroSurface T5
Final Elaboration: GIMP 2.10.30
C90 mak-cas telescope mounted on iOptron Skyguider Pro. 17mm EP with 12.5mm t-extension, F/42, effective focal length 3750mm. MP4 4K video centred (not cropped) and best 50% converted to AVI with PIPP. Best 5% of AVI stacked with AutoStakkert. Brightened moons and moved planet and moons back to the diagonal with PhotoShop.
Inspired by a lecture to our astronomy society from Damian Peach, as well as a short discussion with the great planetary imager afterwards, I revisited the best nights of data capture I have ever had for Jupiter, the successive nights of 14 and 15 October 2011, taken from my home observatory in Southern England. Although there have been some good nights in the intervening years, none have been quite as clear and certainly none at all so far in 2015-2016.
This time I have stacked the raw RGB files with Autostakkert, sharpened the wavelets in Registax and used Winjupos to derotate four RGB sets covering around 18 minutes on the late evening of 15 October 2011.
Happy memories and an improved final image!
Peter
Equipment used:
12inch LX200 SCT, 2.5x Powermate, RGB filters, DMK 21AU04 mono CCD.
Seeing 2.5/5
Transparency 2.5/5.
15 min video derotated. 1.5X drizzle
C9.25 EDGEHD (F=2350mm)
ZWO120MC
SharpCap
Winjupos
AutoStakkert
PixInsight
First light for my new ZWOASI120MC cmos camera which I got for Christmas. We've had the mono version for years and I loved it, but it stopped running on my Windows 8 laptop and nothing we tried would stop it from crashing each time I plugged it in. So I haven't used it for a very long time and it's in fact now used as a guide camera in our observatory set up! I got the colour version for Christmas but hadn't even plugged it in because I assumed I would have the same issues that I had with the older camera. Today I just figured I'd give it a try and to my astonishment it worked!
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a William Optics 70mm refractor, and the ASI120MC camera with a 2x Barlow attached. The whole assembly was on an EQ5 Pro mount on a permanent pier.
2,000 frame video shot using SharpCap, the best % frames were stacked using Autostakkert! 3 Beta and wavelets adjusted in Registax 6. The image was then processed in Lightroom, Fast Stone Image Viewer and Focus Magic.
104_8252 moons 1/8s f/24 51200 ISO
104_8254-6 planet 1/60s f/24 4000 ISO
Prcessed planet with PIPP and AutoStakkert, enlarged to match still photo of moons, then merged with PhotoShop.
The moons from left to right are: Ganymede, Europa, Io and Callisto. The GRS is to the left of the upper equatorial belt.
104_6424,5,6 4K MP4s centred, cropped and stacked with PIPP and AutoStakkert.
Plenty of activity on this side of the sun at the moment, today there was an M5-class solar flare from sunspot AR2173. Seeing pretty turbulent so not as sharp as I'd like. Captured using PHD Planetary on the Orion SSAG, best 1800 frames of 2000 stacked in Autostakkert! and processed in PS.
Thanks for looking!
I embarked on a mammoth lunar imaging session on 10th February so I could produce an animation showing the sunrise over some prominent craters. I've already shared the video I created with the data but am now sharing the still images. If you didn't see the animation you can watch it here:
I was imaging from15:45 UT until 22:30 UT and during that time the Moon changed its illumination from 69% to 72%.
Taken from Oxfordshire with a William Optics 70mm refractor and ASI120MC camera through a Celestron 3x Barlow. A 2,000 frame video was shot with SharpCap and depending on the quality graph I stacked either 50 or 25% of the frames using Autostakkert! 3. Processing with Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer.
Ok Seeing
Skywatcher 130P, Nikon D3300, x2 Barlow
800/2000 frames stacked in Autostakkert!2, Wavelets in R6, final tweaks in Photoshop.
A 2 panel stitched image.
Telescope: Altair Astro StarWave 102ED
Camera: Altair IMX178Colour Hypercam.
Captured using Sharpcap 3.0
Post processed with Autostakkert 3.0, Microsoft ICE and Photoshop CC 2017
10 panel mosaic
Skywatcher 120ED (F=900mm)
img132e
Autostakkert 2
PixInsight
Microsoft ICE
Sri Damansara, Malaysia
On Sunday night my balcony observatory got half an hour of great seeing.
I observed visually, and it was probably the best Jupiter that I have ever seen. The eye could easily distinguish the disks of the satellites and almost all the details and swirls that are in the photo. It was really amazing. While I was installing the camera, focusing etc, turbulence was increasing rapidly so Blue channel was taken in best seeing, Green is average and Red was below average.
This was taken from my balcony in Brisbane.
OTA: TAL250K (Klevtsov's System, 250mm, F/8.5 or 6.0 with flattener/reducer)
Mount EQ6-R PRO, camera ASI290MM Mono, 2x Svbony Barlow Lens effectively as 2.5x. Noname 1.2" LRGB filters set and manual noname wheel.
Three videos was captured about 200 seconds (~10K frames) each, best frames margin was set about 35%.
Software Toolchain:
FireCapture -> AutoStakkert -> WinJupos -> Registax(Wavelets) -> PS
Photos taken with 8in SkyWatcher Dobsonian telescope mounted on Asterion Ecliptica equatorial platform.
Saturn processed with PIPP and AutoStakkert then merged with shot of moons using PhotoShop.
104_7521 Moons 1/4s f/24 51200 ISO
104_7556-60 1/60s f/24 4000 ISO
Yesterday, my son and I took pictures of the moon. I had bought a cheap Nikon to C-mount adapter (telescope/microscope 1.25"), so we also tried the DSLR on the telescope (seben.com Star Sheriff 1000mm/114mm). I have also tried stacking the images with PIPP and Aotostackert for increasing the quality. (in advance, the final version is my son's job).
Optics : TEC 140 F/7 Apo
Filter : Baader Cool-Ceramic Herschel Wedge + Baader Solar Continuum Filter (540 nm) 2";
Camera : ZWO ASI 174 MM;
Mount : Ioptron CEM70G & Ioptron TriPier;
Software : FireCapture, AutoStakkert, Photoshop.
Casalecchio di Reno - Italia
44° 29’ 29” N
11° 14’ 58” E
ZWO ASI178MC
Tele Vue 2.5x PowerMate
Meade LX850 (12" f/8)
Losmandy G11
4000 frames captured in Firecapture
Best 2000 frames stacked in Autostakkert
Wavelet sharpened in Registax
Finished in Photoshop
The Sun continues to be incredibly active and enjoyable to view. The photo on the left is a view of Our Sun's photosphere and on the right is Our Sun's chromosphere. The photosphere highlights the sunspot activity. You can also see faculae on the surface. The chromosphere captured using a Hα filtered telescope, highlights prominences, sunspots, plages, and filaments. The chromosphere is the layer of the Sun immediately above the photosphere.
The pictures were captured in Elkridge, Maryland USA.
The Sun’s photosphere was captured using:
Telescope: Astro Physics Traveler 105mm f6
Solar Filter: baader planetarium Herschel Prism Mark II
Mount: Celestron AVX
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
The Sun’s chromosphere was captured using:
Telescope: Lunt 60mm Hα – LS60T Hydrogen alpha
-Double stack: LS50Hα
Mount: Orion Solar Starseeker
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Both images were captured in monochrome.
Capture software:
Sharpcap 3.2
Processing software:
AutoStakkert! 3.1.4
Adobe Light Room Classic
Adobe Photo Shop
For the first time I've managed to stack a few frames. They've been taken in a very short period of time, then stacked in Autostakkert 2. Some convincing result came out of it eventually, more details and less sensitivity for extra saturation. This way solar arrays have a faint, but steady orange colour, Progress-67 cargo vehicle and other elements of the station are somewhat more realistic. Stacking (8 ISS frames) proved to be very helpful eventually, definitely the way forward...
Taken with a Skywatcher ED80 Refractor using a Baader Astrosolar Filter and a Canon 600D at prime focus. Best 20 of 40 images stacked using Autostakkert
Sol Regiones Activas 14082, 14081 y 14079
Seeing y Jetstream bueno, nubes pasajeras y algo de viento
Telescopio: Refractor Bresser Messier Acro 102/460 f4.5
Cámara: ZWO ASI178MM
Montura: iOptron AZ Mount Pro
Filtros: - Baader Neutral Density Filter 1¼" (ND 1.8, T=1.5%)
- Baader Solar Continuum Filter 1¼" (double stacked) (540nm)
Accesorios: - Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism
Software: FireCapture, AutoStakkert, Registax y Photoshopp
Fecha: 2025-05-07 (7 de mayo de 2025)
Hora: 12:27 T.U. (Tiempo universal)
Lugar: 42.61 N -6.41 W (Bembibre Spain)
Vídeo: 1 minuto
Resolución: 3096x2080
Gain: 152 (29%)
Exposure: 0.032ms
Frames: 1168
Frames apilados: 15%
FPS: 19
Sensor temperature= 37.6°C
I decided to setup for some Planetary imaging last night. I ended up with a fairly decent image of Jupiter with two Galilean moons "IO" and "Europa".
APM 152mm Apochromatic Refractor
Zwoasi224 planetary camera
EQ6r pro mount
Best 30% of 2000 frames
stacked in Autostakkert
Wavelet transformation done in registax6
Post Processing in Photoshop
Finalized in Topaz Labs De-noise AI
Another cloudy day but with a few gaps now and then so managed to run off a few SER recordings using the 72ED with full aperture Hoya neutral density 16 filter and Sol'Ex with QHY5III 178M. Dopplergram is a single image created in INTI,Continuum image I chose as near a secluded line slightly past the Halpha line and this is a stack of four. Halpha image is a stack of six out of ten. Stacking carried out in Autostakkert,processing in Astrosurface and PS CS2.
Note.Use of Hoya neutral density filter on the front of the scope is to protect the mirror slit of the SHG. Under no circumstances is it to be used in this way for visual use.
Questa è l’immagine ottenuta dall’ultima ripresa video del gigante gassoso nella notte tra il 17 e il 18 settembre. Grazie a una migliore stabilità atmosferica ho ottenuto forse il miglior risultato della serata. Poi ho preferito un’elaborazione più leggera e ho aumentato un po’ la saturazione per mostrare meglio la GMR e i colori delle bande atmosferiche.
Il satellite Europa è in basso a destra.
Dati:
Telescopio Celestron 114/910 Newton
Montatura eq2 con motore AR con pulsantiera
Camera QHY5L-II-C
Barlow 2x Celestron Omni acromatica
Filtro UV-IR cut
Sharpcap per un video di 90 secondi contenente 9847 fotogrammi
PIPP, Autostakkert!3 e Astrosurface per elaborarne il 25%
Data: 17 settembre 2022 alle 22:44 UTC
Luogo: Cabras, Sardegna, Italia
Captured with a Nikon D5500 and a 10-inch Meade LX200 'Classic' f/6.3 wide-field telescope.
EXIF data is removed via stacking processes in Autostakkert!2 for planetary imaging and in Deep Sky Stacker for deep sky imaging.
There will be a partial solar eclipse visible in the UK on the morning of 10th June 2021. From Northern Ireland, about 43% of the Sun will be eclipsed.
I usually use my 900mm f/7.5 refractor for solar work but it is too zoomed in to give me a complete disc.
This was taken with my 480mm f/6 refractor. If its clear at my home location, I will use this set-up to safely image the event.
At a focal length of 480mm, there wont be much detail in any sunspots. AR2824 is seen here with AR2825 on the limb.
Must aim to centre the Sun a little better.
480mm f/6 refractor with Baader Herschel Wedge.
ZWO ASI 174MM camera
Best 25% of 30 second video.
Acquired with FireCapture v2.6
Stacked in Autostakkert!3, best 25%
FireCapture v2.6 Settings
------------------------------------
Camera=ZWO ASI174MM-Cool
Filter=L
Profile=Sun
Duration=30.005s
Frames captured=2873
File type=SER
Binning=no
ROI=1936x1216
FPS (avg.)=95
Shutter=0.406ms
Gain=120 (30%)
Gamma=OFF
Histogram=97%
Limit=30 Seconds
Sensor temperature=25.6°C
Focuser position=0
Aristoteles lies at the edge of Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold) and is of course name after the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Eudoxus is named after the Greek astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus who was a student of Plato.
Egede, named after Dano-Norwegian natural historian Hans Egede has been flooded by lava leaving only the rim.
Galle is named after Johann G Galle who was a German astronomer who was the first to view the planet Neptune.
Sheepshanks, named after Anne Sheepshanks, born 1794. She was a British astronomical benefactor who gave £10,000 to Cambridge Observatory for a photographic telescope
C Mayor is named after Christian Mayor, a Moravian-German Catholic priest, astronomer and teacher.
Meton is a compound formation of several merged craters. Meton was a Greek mathematician and astronomer.
Barrow, named after Isaac Barrow who was a Christian theologian and mathematician. He is credited with developing infinitesimal calculus.
Goldschmidt is a large walled plain named after Hermann Goldschmidt who was a German-French astronomer and painter. He discovered 14 asteroids.
Location:01-12-2023 St Helens UK, Phase Day 19, 75%.
Acquisition:Best 25% of 1000x 20ms IR625.
Equipment:Skywatcher 100P Newt (Modified), EQ6Rpro; ZWO EAF, EFWmini; Optolong IR625; Altair H183Mpro.
Software:Sharpcap Pro, EQMOD.
Processing:PIPP, AutoStakkert, Registax 6, Affinity Photo 2 with NoiseXTerminator plug-in.
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a Canon 1100D with 300mm zoom lens on a static tripod.
Illuminated crescent part:
90 images shot, centred and cropped using PIPP then the best 60% were stacked in Autostakkert! 3.
Earthshine portion was a single shot with a longer exposure.
The two images were blended together using a layer mask in Photoshop CS2. I find it really tricky to blend Earthshine images with the illuminated portion!
Equipment:
- Nikon D90 (Astro-Mod)
- Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
- Sky-Watcher Tripod
- Rokinon 135mm f2
- AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E
Acquisition:
- Taken 6/24/2021 from Sharon CT
- Taken from a bortle class 2 zone
- ISO 100, F2.8, 1/320 second
- 1505 total frames, stacked the best 35%
- 100 dark frames
Processing:
- Pre-processed to tif in PIPP
- Stacked with 1.5x drizzle in Autostakkert
- Linearfit RGB to get better color in pixinisight
- SNCR green
- Sharpened in registax
- Blended sharpened and unsharpened version to get nice halo in pixinisight
- invert+sncr to get rid of purple noise
- curves transformation to up saturation
- LRGB combo for finishing touches
Atmospheric turbulence was quite bad tonight but pleased to get my first image of Mars. Southern Polar cap seen at the bottom.
The dark feature towards the top is Niliacus Lacus. The bright region on the left is the Tharsis region.
Celestron 9.25 inch SCT with ZWO224MC colour camera.
ZWO ADC at +/-2
FireCapture acquisition software
AutoStakkert!3 for stacking.
RegiStax6 for wavelet sharpening
Colour balance in PS.
Best 50% stacked of a 5000 frame video @ 108 frames per second. Focal length = 6000mm.
21 arcseconds diameter and increasing as it nears Earth in its orbit. It’s just after winter solstice on Mars (Ls =279) so Southern Hemisphere is tilted sunwards.
Magnitude -2.2
Distance 3.7 Light minutes
CM = 40
Skywatcher Evostar 120
Quark Daystar Chromosphere
ZWO ASI120MM Camera
best 40% of 2000 frames sacked in Autostakkert, wavelets adjusted in Registax6 and colour added in PS
Mond in RGB
-
Nikon D5300
Sigma 150 - 600 mm @ 600 mm
ISO 320
f/8
293 x 1/1250 Sec.
-
Stacking & Edit
Lr CC
PIPP
Autostakkert
Astra Image
PS
-
This is the same data as used in www.flickr.com/photos/79161275@N05/8523074995/in/photostr...
I think I have managed to tease out a little more detail. Not sure if that is because Autostakkert has done a better job than Registax or my wavelet tweaks were more effective. Comments very welcome please.
Skywatcher Explorer 250 pds, x2 Barlow QHY132E. Stacked in autostakkert2 wavelets in registax. Finished in Photoshop.
I embarked on a mammoth lunar imaging session on 10th February so I could produce an animation showing the sunrise over some prominent craters. I've already shared the video I created with the data but am now sharing the still images. If you didn't see the animation you can watch it here:
I was imaging from15:45 UT until 22:30 UT and during that time the Moon changed its illumination from 69% to 72%.
Taken from Oxfordshire with a William Optics 70mm refractor and ASI120MC camera through a Celestron 3x Barlow. A 2,000 frame video was shot with SharpCap and depending on the quality graph I stacked either 50 or 25% of the frames using Autostakkert! 3. Processing with Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer.
SkyWatcher Explorer-130/900 EQ2, 3xBarlow and Vesta Pro webcam.
Stacked in Autostakkert!2 and post processed with Registax 6 and GIMP.
Palus Epidemiarum literally translates as the "Marsh of Epidemics", though there are better reasons to keep your face covered on the Moon.
Canon EOS 80D + Orion SkyQuest XT10 + Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate (giving an effective focal length of 3,000 mm).
Broadstairs, April 2021.
The galactic centre of the Milky Way located about 30,000 light years from the Earth, the two giants Jupiter and Saturn, above the Atlantic towards the islands of Houat and Hoedic from the "pointe du Conguel" at the end of the Quiberon peninsula.
July the 16th.
Nikon z7 20mm f/1.8 5000iso 8s. 5 frames stacked with Autostakkert. Processed with Darktable.
#sky
#ciel
#etoiles
#stars
#astrophotography
#astrophoto
#astrophotographie
#astronogeek
@astronogeek
#milkyway
#voielactee
#jupiter
#saturn
#houat
#hoedic
#quiberon
#kiberen
#nikon #z7 #20mm #darktable #autostakkert
First test runs of hybrid H-alpha-continuum solar imaging system :)
Left - the setup in operation. The shot is Photomatix-fused HDR of three subexposures of 1/250, 1/60 and 1/15 seconds taken with Canon 60D through EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM @17 mm f/14.
Right - full-disk image of the Sun @07.06.2015 11:15 MSK taken through Meade 6000 (EFR = 960 mm, f/12). 6 panels of 180/1000 frames, stacked, deconvolved, wavelet-sharpened and manually stitched in PS using difference blending. ICE failed :(
Inset right - H-alpha fulldisk taken through piggy-backing PST with DMK23 (400 mm, f/10). 180/1000 frames, deconvolution, high-pass filtering. Orientations of images are matched.
Some considerations and observations.
1) I thought QHY5L-IIm would be good for white-light imaging of the Sun. Nope. The images show distracting vertical banding of obviously electronic nature. I'll give it yet another chance but I have doubts.
Upd: defocussed flat-field image clears the stripes very effective.
2) All these look imposing but it is effectively 20 kg so I have dismounted PST and gave it personal mounting plate. Advantage: now both tubes work with the same small counterweight - I just need to move it along the shaft when remounting.
3) Use of 2x Barlow lens gives 2,1 pixels per the unit of resolution - 1,75 arcseconds here.The use of 2,5x lens would be just fine for Nyquist sampling.
4) Cameras have difficulties reaching the focus without use of Barlow lens on 6000. Even with the diagonal. But I think that the empty casing of Meade Barlow would make a good extension tube.
Upd: proven!