Jonathan_Shields

I agree decide what you want to do the most. I am more of an EAA guy but I think its fair to say a 200p on an EQ5 is overweight even for visual. 300 will get you a 130pds and change. You are then in a good place for unguided astrophotography/EAA. If you like the 200p for visual keep it but handle with care on that mount. Or sell it and save for e.g a ZWO585 which will likely give you better results than an unmodded dslr. If you are set on guiding and keeping the 200p you might be better saving for a more suitable mount.

Nice solution. Craning my neck to see the laptop in the kitchen isn't doing my spine any favours.

Even in June its darkish by 11, so globular clusters, open clusters, brighter planetary nebulae and planets are still viable although staying up till then is a weekend only endeavour for me. To be honest last year I still did nebulae etc in the summer and just saw what I could see. A filter like the Baader Neodymium or L Pro at least gives you a bit more constrast. A narrowband filter maybe even better although neither is going to alleviate things entirely.

Next time just do some visual or EAA. Just enjoy the objects. Drop the focus on getting a perfect picture and just do what you feel like.

Pretty good achievement. I have seen many of these EAA style with a 6 inch goto dob but visually i just don't have the skies or the patience (even with my 8 inch manual dob which has a diy azimuth scale and an inclinometer). Its very hard to find something manually you can barely see even with Stellarium etc so its a great achievement to take your time and see all these properly. I've never understood the "see them all in one night" Messier Marathons ...sounds pretty stressful and the exact opposite of why I look at this stuff.

I vote for the Heritage but if you can go for the 150 instead all the better (light gathered is proportional to area of mirror so you are getting like a 40% brighter image at 150 vs 130mm). I have the 150 and The focuser is not great but it works. As others have said wrapping with PTFE improves it s bit. You will need to make a shroud unless you live well away from any stray light. You can make one with 3mm thickness black EVA craft foam from Amazon. My least favourite is the refractor. Chromatic abberation and at that kind of price the tripod often sucks.

It looks like exactly the sort of problem I get in Bortle 6 with the same camera and an F5 dob. For me it seems to be caused by Stray light - you could try a dewshield. I diy'd one from black EVA foam. Its not pretty but it helps. The moon - especially if there is high cloud which kind of catches the moonlight. Not much to be done except don't EAA when the moon is bright but personally I like to get out whenever I'm in the mood and its not cloudy, so i just tolerate it. The Sharpcap gradient settings are definitely worth a go. Linear gradient removal can be helpful but I often stick to Simple offset. You could also try dropping the gain but and taking longer/more exposures.

Very nice. I have that camera but I use a 6 inch goto dob (so alt-az) so I am limited to 8 seconds tops. You will really get the best out of the camera with 8 inches and being able to take longer frames. If the crappy weather abates I am going to try both flats and darks on a good night. I tried them last time but the high clouds rendered the night a waste of time in the end. I have been using gain 350 but I am thinking of trying 252 to reduce noise a bit.

I use the Baader Neodymium as well and it does make a difference. I am in Bortle 6 with several unwelcome sources of stray light nearby. Sadly the advent of wide-spectrum led streetlights means light pollution filters work a bit less well as the light is smeared all over many frequencies. The old orange lights had a specific frequency which they cut. I am also considering the l-enhance but for emission nebulae only.

Thanks all. Ok maybe next time i will try with darks as well. If i just stick to one exposure time its not so bad. I agree with Peter though too much preparation time kind of sucks the life out of it but its worth experimenting to see what kind of difference these things make.

I tried taking flats just using a tablet with a white screen and following the sharpcap instructions. I adjusted the exposure so the histogram peak was at about 50%. I then had an EAA session looking at some of the Leo galaxies. I noticed some "reverse vignetting" where the edges of the image were brighter. However given what i am interested in is in the middle usually it wasnt so bad. I didn't use darks just hot and cold pixel removal as usual. The results were certainly not worse. I will persevere maybe trying a white t shirt or some sheets of paper over the tablet next time.

This is interesting. I have never used flats because frankly I can't be bothered and don't usually use darks as they seem to make very little difference with the ZWO585 as I think the amp glow is minimal on EAA length exposures (I am using a goto dob so I've never gone over 10s) I think i should get off my backside and at least try flats as really it sounds a 5 minute task. I have a tablet i can just point at blankwhitescreen.com or similar. Do you think a white t-shirt is needed over the tablet or will that suffice?

Just to add here for anyone else getting this issue the windows 7 version works for me. You can find it lower down the skywatcher download page.

Just to weigh in you can definitely do EAA with a goto dob. I've had a great time with a 6 inch and a ZWO 585. I have seen great views of things using EAA that i can hardly see at all in my 8 inch manual dob visually. The cloudy nights forum has a monthly EAA challenge which i have enjoyed and Dobsonian Power is a good channel....he has loads of videos on EAA with dobsonians. Spacers are really for situations where you need more backfocus particularly when you start using a focal reducer. Personally i dont bother i like to keep it simple but I know a lot of people get good results with a reducer like the Nexus. Enjoy EAA!

Thanks i might try that. They do seem ridiculously bright by default.

Btw which are the galaxies after the Iris nebula?

Great captures looks like a decent session. I tried C5 and C7 last night and found them both very hard to get much detail at all with my 6 inch dob but where they are is right near some streetlights...I think I'll try again when they are better situated (or buy an air rifle!). Darks i have tried i just put the camera outside with the cap on for 10 mins before setup then use the capture dark function in Sharpcap. I honestly didnt notice much difference but i have the ZWO585 which allegedly has no amp glow. Flats i have never tried as they seem a faff but I'd be interested what people think about their worth for EAA.

Not for me unfortunately

I have the same issue. I just open the exe and get a white screen. Annoying.

Nice captures.

I have a couple of dobs. I agree with the eyepiece advice given already and using a collimation cap. Turn Left at Orion is well worth the cash. Can I suggest a good star atlas like The Cambridge Star Atlas by Wil Tirion as a companion. Its great for learning the sky.

Hi...not posted in this thread yet and I am quite new to any form of astroimaging although I have been doing visual for a while. Apologies if I am regurgitating what others have already said 161 pages ago but I came across this and was impressed with what others have done with alt-az so I thought I'd add my "two pennorth" The attached are intended as EAA more than astrophotography so there is no post-processing except cropping but these are all with a 6 inch goto dob (Heritage 150p Virtuoso) and a ZWO585 live stacked in Sharpcap. M65/66,M3, M51, Bodes, Cigar, M87, M97, M100/Ceres/light pollution, M101 and a part of Markarians chain. Ranging between 2 and 8 seconds exposures and for a max of about 20 mins worth. If a rank beginner like me can capture this stuff I am here to tell you that you can 100% take pictures in alt-az. OK there are challenges and limitations but its a lot more accessible than the traditional EQ6/ED Refractor/cooled camera route. While I like to see traditional astrophotos I don't have the patience to go out all night taking 300 5 minute subs, or the dosh to buy an EQ6. I can live with a bit of coma at the edges or slightly bloated stars and I don't really have the inclination to get into all the Photoshop stuff personally (not knocking those that do its just not my bag). I love to watch the Astrobackyard and Astrobiscuit channels etc but I'm more about getting a good view of the object and in Bortle 6 I can hardly see a lot of this stuff visually even with my 8 inch manual dob so this route really appeals to me and I am having a lot of fun with it.

Terrible weather here this week but I managed a couple of stacks during a brief clear spell. The M101 I am OK with and this was with 8 second exposures. The FWHM filter dropped a lot more than with 4s but I think the result is better. Great example of a SAB(rs)cd galaxy apparently...slightly barred bulge with a slight around the centre and loosely bound arms...to me its like a catherine wheel. M100 and Ceres I was pleased to see but the skyglow wrecked the pic a bit. Now payday is nearly here I am going to order a Baader Neodynium.

I have been getting into EEA with a 6 inch goto dob and have found that alt-az is fine for 8 second exposures and have heard about people getting 15 secs with no trailing on alt-az. You will get some field rotation effects at the edges but for observing an object as opposed to astrophotography its not an issue to me. If you do want to save an image they are easily croppable. That said obviously equatorial "mode" gives you the flexibility of longer exposures.

Very informative and easy to follow.