RemcoDutch

Thanks so much for the post! Think I will pick up the SA begin of feb (when they come back in stock).

Hey guys, Driving to Tenerife this monday! Going to visit the local Astronomy shop there and planning to buy the SWSA2. My current camera is Canon 2000D (Rebel T7 I believe in US?) with a 18-200 f5.6 Tamron + 75-300 EF F5.6 Canon lens. Will I be able to track accuratly for 1-2 min exposures on the SWSA2? Or would I be better of buying something else ? Suggestions please below 500 euro if possible If not I might have to rethink my strategy Thanks alot in advance!

@vlaiv New file is about 300mb so ALOT smaller . I added it to the first post. Curious to see what other people can make from my TIFF. Looking forward to get to trying longer exposures with a tracker soon. Thanks for the replay and will read into the black level stuff from canon!

Good evening everyone! After my first few posts I have been busy enjoying myself with some untracked photography. Absolutely love the photography part and a bit frustrated by the editing part 😂. All part of the fun! Have been getting better at focusing and actually framing/finding the targets (Like Andromeda) with a DIY laser assembly. On my vacation to Tenerife this year I am planning on picking up a Star Adventurer (or something similiar) to be able to have longer exposures. This will help alot to eliminate noise right? Yesterday I picked up a Canon 75-300 EF f5.6. I know this is not the best and a (very) cheap lens but alot of people seem to be getting decent results with it. Yesterday I stacked and today I edited/played around with the following: 292 lights @ 1sec, 300mm, F7.1, ISO1600 (I read that stopping down will help eliminate some CA) 30 flats 50 darks 40 bias When strecthing the image in GIMP and/or PS CS6 the first few stretches are fine, but then the 5th or so stretch I get MASSIVE red noise / light polution? I am not sure what it is. The position of the red / orange creep does correspond to the location of the nearest (15miles or so) big city. Below my stacking and editing results. (REMOVED and REPLACED wrong stacked file, sorry for everyone who downloaded!) Any people have some good feedback for me? Autosave.tif

Yes, I found that the canon app helps with remote shutter release. But going to see for a dedicated one. The laser I hadnt considered yet! Sounds like a thing people invest in at some point anyway. So this sounds like a smaller step I could take financially sooner then anything else! Still having trouble focusing. Even though it seems ok. But babysteps 😅. Seems like my lens has some issues aswell (on forums they seem to indicate that tele lenses distort on the edges?). All in all, keep learning every session 😄, for years to come probably!

Looks like tracking will take me to the next level after getting used to editing

Insane!! I bought a supercheap Celestron for observation and falling in love with the stars and planets. Only a matter of time before I upgrade aswell 😄. Very stunning image, hope I can achieve this in 18 months from now!! ❤️

This was Orion today. Apart from the weird framing I am pretty happpy for my 4th session ever :). Baby steps! Going to Tenerife in 36 days, so pretty exciting to shoot from the Teide Plateau!

Awesome! Thanks ^^. Going to do Pleiades tomorrow so cant wait to follow along ! Thanks a bunch!

Thats amazing 😂. Such a small world! I am the owner of the Bed and Breakfast Villa Pico in Sella !

It was with a static tripod !

Good evening! Went out tonight (planning to shoot Orion / Pleiades) and when it turned cloudy I pointed my Canon 2000D (unmodded) with Tamron 18-200 towards Capella I believe the star is called. Zoomed (Not sure what to call it) the lens to 100mm, F5.6, 6400 ISO, 2sec exposure. Used Dark (50), Flat (20), Bias (28) and light (150) frames. Stacked with DSS (Havent got time / drive to look into Siril yet seems alot more complicated!). While editing in PS c6 I got the images shown below. 1st image: This is after stretchin 4-5 times (quite agressively I think) 2nd image: Final image, so stretching, curve and substracting Dust and Scratches filter, which seems to have helped for the weird red square (?). I am actually quite happy with this result, considering this was my 3rd time shooting and 1st time doing the frames and focus actually the right way! 3rd image is the dust and scratch filter I substracted from the 1st image to create the 2nd image (sorry for the weird order of posting) Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? Is the red just noise and did it get stacked weirdly in DSS? What is and how to prevent that red square?

Yesss, this is amazing. Got my hand on a cheap PS C6 copy ! My next challenge is going to be achieving focus 😁. And actually using calibration frames! Stretching REALLY brings out the good... and bad! Wind is blowing hard, so that also seems to be a factor on my light €50 Monfrotto tripod. Hoping that the winds will die down soon!

Thanks, thanks, guys. I am very happy with the learning curve, seems like a GREAT challenge! Thanks for the tips on editing. I love Gimp, use it to make personal designs alot. I will dive into the world of youtube even deepen then before 😁. And Yes! Glad you mentioned Stargazine, heard it somewhere before but forgot about it, i'll check it out. Along with some different sorftware see what fits me best!

Goodmorning everyone! Had a really late night yesterday after buying a Canon EOS 2000D with 18-200 Tamaran f3.5-F6 lens. And a simple tripod. Decided on this camera because of my budget and the lens because the shop owner had it for 129 euro second hand. Gave it a test spin around the area and on the dogs, very happy so far! Started reading up on astrophotography (no tracking / no scope just yet. To expensive for now!) but did get a Powerseeker 60. Not for photo's I know now ;). But did see Jupiter with its moons which was SUPER tiny, but VERY exciting. To the point now. Yesterday had a session shooting Orion. When editing after stacking in DSS the only thing that seems to be making a difference is playing with the RGB channels / histogram? How do you guys make everything pop after stacking? Playing with RGB really makes the stars come out of the dark image, but feels like I am missing something? Also the orange glow as I understand it is light polution right? I had 20 dark frames, 100 light frames, 0 flats (not sure how to yet) Editing is done in Olympus Workspace (First Image, Orion, is zoomed in 100x2s 1600 ISO F5.0) (2nd image, Pleiades, not zoomed 10x25s 1600 ISO F5.0) Thanks for any comments and all the criticism . .