Hey there! I've been imaging for a bit now and have a solid grasp on astrophotography with a refractor, but I just recently bit the bullet and picked up a Apertura Carbonstar 150p to level up my images and focal length/aperture.
After the usual teething issues with setting up a new rig, I was finally able to get a couple of hours on M101 last night. I noticed however that i'm getting some unsatisfactory star shapes that I'm a bit unsure of the source. I have a couple screengrabs below for reference. Is this a collimation issue? tilt issue? They also feel softer than they should for a newtonian astrograph. I might be off by a mm or two on my backfocus?
I collimated prior to imaging last night, but i've never collimated with a cheshire before, so I'm not sure if I just did a poor job of it! I didn't notice any overt flaring on a star test of capella, so I didn't think it was pinched optics.
Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone!