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I'll agree about Steve's books and would also recommend The Deep-Sky Imaging Primer by Charles Bracken which gives tons of excellent background and, to Olly's point, really helps with understanding rather than just following recipes.

I tend not to like images with harsh neon colours but I loved your first rendition of this wonderful target, Martin. However... …the redux is truly outstanding. I appreciate this is all subjective but this is an absolutely perfect rendition in my view. Wonderful. Inspiring. Kudos.

Hello Martin and welcome to SGL. You've come to the right place! Where are you based? As others have said, the bright object to the right of the moon at the moment is Venus and when they are well placed Jupiter and Saturn are spectacular through even a modest telescope. Clear skies, Ian

So - just to check - when you turn the wheel that @Cornelius Varley has circled, does the eyepiece move in and out?

The trouble with the Baader microfibre cloth is that it obviously gets dirty with use and eventually needs washing. Astrodon / Optical Structures recommend using Kimwipes and that's good enough for me!

+1 for the Telegizmos 365. Expensive but I've had mine for 8 years and it's still going strong. As with others it's sometimes just covering the pier, sometimes the mount for a few days / weeks and sometimes the whole setup for a day or two...

I completely agree and went through the same thought process... thought it could bare a bit more sharpening but then decided I really like the more ethereal look that Carole's sympathetic processing has produced. I'm not normally a fan of the pink either (though bright red can also grate a bit with me) but here it just seems to work with the hot blue stars. Very nice indeed Carole.

I prefer the second version FWIW, Martin. Super work, though, and I'm pleased you posted the Ha as well which looks stunning.

I'd be weary of 'general purpose' cameras. If you want to do primarily planetary and lunar and dabble a bit with deep sky then fine but the chips in these are pretty small so check out the field of view you'd be getting with your scope before committing for the deep sky stuff. Also none of these cameras have active cooling so there is a practical limit to the length of exposure you can take (though I don't know too much about 'modern' CMOS imaging...). I think all these are also only 12 bit cameras which is a bit limiting for deep sky imaging. QHY used to do a small sensor, cooled camera (but not set-point cooling) with the SONY EXview ICX618AL CCD sensor and a 14bit AD (IMG0H). Not sure they make it anymore (Bernard at Modern Astronomy could tell you) but you could look for one second hand? They're good cameras but have a bespoke power unit and an unusual power socket (to accommodate the TEC cooling) which is a bit of a pain...

The Zeiss wipes are pre-wetted so not the same thing. It seems to be really hard to find something similar in the UK. Safetiss are lint free, strong when wet, and don't shed too much but I'm not sure how they compare,,, Cheers, Ian

As Vlad says you can, in fact, focus the Orion exactly as he describes, but you can't focus the reticule. You could always just buy a new bracket for the SV on AB&S - the Antares one from RVO would work fine.

No... and the eyepiece is secured by a circular dovetail in a very short socket so, while you can use different eyepieces, it's not ideal. I also have an Antares: https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/antares-8-x-50-right-angled-correct-image-illuminated-finderscopes.html I don't tend to use this one as the eyepiece end is bulkier than the Orion but it could be just what you need. You'd have to add the bracket which is another £20 - but it comes in a choice of colours!

Ermm, no. Good point, well made...!

I have the Orion 9x50 Illuminated RACI Finder Scope which is great but not sure if it fits with your price constraint... https://uk.telescope.com/Accessories/Telescope-Finder-Scopes/Orion-9x50-Illuminated-Right-Angle-CI-Finder-Scope/pc/-1/c/1308/sc/1375/p/109848.uts

There is a nice TS RACI finder on the for sale board right now that meets most of your requirements. In my experience the TS stuff is really good quality... Forget that, it's not illuminated...

I'm pretty surprised at how well this has come out given how misty it is out. Lots of high cloud making a whopping halo. This is a single shot (Atik 460ex, TS130 APO scope - and forgot to say it's through an Ha filter) with a bit of tweaking in PS. Won't win any awards but I'm pleased given the conditions.

It's taken a while to find us, but better late than never! Welcome Steve!

It's also worth learning how to collimate your telescope. You don't need expensive kit to do this but it's a skill worth having if you have a telescope with mirrors... poor collimation and / or bad focus will result in stars that are blobs rather than pin points of light... I'd suggest getting used to your scope by using it on the moon at first - your scope should give really good views of the lunar surface. Then maybe progress to looking at some double stars and other interesting things within your scope's power. Planets require the highest magnification and to be completely honest you don't have the best scope to observe them - but you will be able to see Jupiter and the Galilean moons which is a thrill (and the moons move pretty quickly so you can see them orbit over a few nights). Views of Saturn like in the video you posted would require excellent collimation, focus, and seeing. I struggle to get a view that good using my 11" SCT to be honest... but you should be able to make out the planetary disc and the rings (but the Cassini division will be pushing it, I'd have thought). All in all you have a capable starter scope that should at least allow you to determine whether the hobby is for you.

Welcome to the future. Just 120 of the planned 12,000 up so far. It's going to be very busy in low Earth orbit and we imagers are going to be very frustrated...

Thanks Steve. Very interesting and there is a very discernible difference. Glad I got Dark Art... for Christmas!

Oh no. Pi is wonderful at some things but different software does different things better than others...

So this is lovely but I am genuinely interested to know how this stacked image compares to a single shot. I've not been able to tell the difference when I shoot the moon if I'm honest.

Lovely.

OK, so I will totally defer to Olly on this one (and, in fact, every one!) but.... The Lum layer looks a tad over stretched to me. I'd be tempted to dial that back just a bit. Then, if you have PS, I'd be very tempted to switch to that, give the RGB a bit of a Guassian blur, add the Lum layer with blend mode luminance and see what you get. Your most recent post looks really good but I'm convinced you have excellent data here which has a bit more to give,

The blink looks like a big improvement Adam. Bit more data on the Lum and I think you'll have a real cracker on your hands.