Pleiades and comet Lovejoy first attempt (untracked) plus questions

[Gambero]

Hi everyone!

This is one of my first attempts in astrophotography (the first decent one). Suggestions and comments are more than welcome!

http://www.astrobin.com/full/151694/0/

Technical details:

Taken from my backyard (Oxford, UK)

Canon 70D

18-135mm STM @ 50mm f/5.6

light: 180x5s, ISO 3200

dark: 60x5s

bias: 41x1/8000s

no flats

untracked

Processing:

Stacked with DSS (no drizzle). Gradient removal, stretching and curves in PS.

I am not new to astronomy and I currently own a C11 on the NEQ6. The problem is that I have no access to my equipment: I moved to the UK from Italy a couple of years ago and my telescope is still at home. I do not have a car here so I prefer to leave it there for the moment. Nevertheless, I am new to astrophotography and I would like to buy a tracking mount to have fun here in the UK. I currently own a Canon 70D, the 18-135 kit lens and a Manfrotto 190 tripod. I am looking to spend about 300£: everything has to be very portable because (again) I do not have a car and I can only move by bike!

I was thinking about the Skywatcher Star Adventurer: what do you think about it? Can it support a small refractor (future plans...)? What is the maximum exposure without guiding? Thank you for your help.

Clear skies!

[skysculptor]

Hi

Like the shot think it's come out really well! I use a star adventurer and its a decent little mount for wide field tracked and auto guided photography it's light and portable and pretty straight forward to use it has a few parts to it to assemble , mount head wedge dovetail bar n counterweight but it's easy enough ! Yes it will take a small refactor but it needs to a SMALL one ie 60 to 70 mm and weigh no more than a couple of Kgs, even though the mont is rated a 5kg to get decent performance I don't think you'd want to go more than 3kg or so of scope and camera. Accurately polar aligned I'd say 90 to 120 secs max! But that's enough for to get decent pics of plenty of targets!

[skysculptor]

Oh forgot to say with a small camera lens like say a 50mm or so you probably get a3 to 5 mins out of it!

[Gambero]

This is great news! I will probably order the mount later this week. I read online that the polar scope is quite good for achieving polar alignment. What is your impression? Do you think it is possible to use the 12x speed and apply the drift method with a DSLR?

[Paul M]

Hi, and welcome.

I can't advise on equipment but I do like your image!

[Astrosurf]

Let us know how you get on. I'm fascinated by the Star Adventurer. I have an Astrotrac but it's far more expensive and I find it hard to polar align.

That's a lovely image!

Alexxx

[skysculptor]

Hi yes! You can use the 12x for drift alignment with DSLR the polar scope its self is fine so long as you use a smart phone app to help with polar alignment the setting circles are fiddly! N pointless , the mount well at least my one is solid and tracks well when propery aligned!

[skysculptor]

Only small issue is if you just mount a DSLR on the adventurer you have to polar align prfore you mount the camera as this blockers the scope when fitted. The polar scope light is also a bit of an after thought and needs adapting to use once a the dovetail L bracket is fitted! You'll see what I mean if you get one!

[Gambero]

I finally ordered the Star Adventurer! It is sold out almost everywhere. I should receive it tomorrow so it is probably going to be cloudy for the next two weeks or so...

I will keep you posted on my progress in AP.

Gabriel

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Nice shot of the comet and Pleiades together, I was hoping to do the same but cloud intervened. I can consistently get over 2 minute exposures at 135mm using my EQ3-2, the Star Adventurer is probably better for periodic error so hopefully should run a bit longer with good alignment.

[happy-kat]

I just last night inside created a set of flats to use and this guide helped me. And on first look these have really helped in matting the back ground to flatten noise.

http://www.budgetastro.net/calibration-frames.html

[Carina Lass]

I think I'd spend a few quid going over to italy and getting my car and bringing back the eq6 in it.