StarDuke82

Stayed up until 5am battled clouds rolling in at the last second, spent the last week reading up on proper exposure times for Jupiter and Saturn, and over the past couple of days and played with my app’s settings tonight and took a few quick shots and I think I finally figured out how to take a halfway decent planetary photo finally. Even tried out different settings on DSO’s but I still need to work on those. But I present to Stargazer Lounge my first proper Astrophotography, shot on IPhone 13 Pro using Astro Shader App to photograph, and IPhone Camera app and Wavelet App to edit the post images.

No but I had thought about re-enforcing the area where I setup my scope with four extra post and cross tie them but your suggestion sounds more economical, thanks.

I just rebuilt my deck (where I mostly observe from) with that Newtech Wood and I had to order some because that stuff transmits vibrations something terrible, I had to run a fan the other night because it about 30 C* and my scope was vibrating so bad I thought my mount was broken and I have a setup that weighs about 23 kg. They do help some but not as well as they advertise, I would say they cut Vibration down to about 1/2 to 3/4 as bad as it would be without them.

By rotating them so one foot peg faces in towards your tripod it helps speed up the vibration suppression by helping cancel out the oscillations faster. The vibrations are waves that start in your tripod legs each leg sends out a wave each pad cancels that to a degree and by having the foot peg centered with your tripod the waves are cancelled out even more because of wave displacement.

Yes it’s best to upgrade to a heavy duty tripod that has weight and can be be anchored down if needed but usually weight with your mount and whole setup is enough unless conditions are extreme.

If you use or plan on purchasing Vibration Suppression Pads with your setup then it will quickly become obvious that setting them up in the dark can be a bit awkward getting the orientation where one of the foot pegs of each pad is positioned facing inwards towards your tripod. You can easily solve this issue by buying some inexpensive glow in the dark paint from a craft store. Then paint a mark from the edge of the foot peg, up the side and finish over the top edge for all three feet. In this way you know where all of the feet are in the dark and can easily line any of them with the center of your tripod. It’s also helpful to add a weight to the underside of your tripod somewhere on the order of 1-2 kilograms to increase the effectiveness of suppression pads.

It’s a Celestron Nexstar Evo purchased within the last 3 years and yeah I read it’s pretty near impossible to pinch the secondary of an SCT well if you did you would likely end up shattering the mirror in the process, I have loosened the tension on all three collimation screws for the time being just enough to relax their tension but not so much that they are loose, unfortunately I can’t check or adjust my collimation for at least a couple of days due to rain so I don’t know if it worked, though I have considered making a makeshift artificial star using a bit of fiber optic filament and a Christmas tree bulb on a dimmer so I can do collimation in my basement for such occasions. I really need to learn to leave let enough alone I get it near perfect rough collimation (24 mm ep) then I increase magnification (10 mm ep) for fine collimation and end up cods-walloping my efforts for perfection.

The other night while collimating my SCT I noticed that the airy disk on either side was flattened which can only mean pinching, I managed to get one side to return to the normal arc but as soon as I tightened down the collimation the opposite side was always slightly flattened. My question is how badly will this affect imaging different objects? I know it can cause aberrations in Stars and DSO’s but what about localized objects like planetary imaging, I also suspect my Secondary is out of alignment though the angle of orientation clockwise may just be an aesthetic preference and not an actual alignment issue though the outer housing that unscrews so you can swap out the Secondary for a Faster Camera did become loose a few nights ago. My main concern is the pinched optics. I will note that the ambient temperature was near 80 with 90% humidity and a dew point of 70 the last few nights so could it also be the conditions and not just the optics?

I like my Celestron Evo it’s a Go-to when I want it to be and I can unlock the it and turn it into a Manual Scope if something happens like the battery runs out of power or the mount acts up which can happen with go-to’s occasionally.

Last night I was excited to realize that Saturn is finally rising in a position where I can view it from the comfort of my backyard where I have my register marks on my deck so I can line up my tripod in the same spot every night, and after waiting for some clouds to clear I was able to see something I have only seen pictures of in Books and Astronomy Shows. The whole experience was surreal and awe inspiring to see Saturn right in front of my eyes through my telescope. I had only planned on observing the ringed planet but I got so excited I had to run back inside and grab my smartphone rig and snap a few photos, I think I got two of Saturn’s moons in one of the rough ones. these were shot using the Celestron NeXYZ Smartphone Mount and an IPhone 13 Pro using a Baader Hyperion Zoom set at 8mm Magnification, on a Celestron Nexstar 9.25” Evolution, on July 1, 2023 at 3:31 am. The rough photo was taken using the native IPhone Camera app and the better quality Versions were taken with the Astroshader app.

According to a diagram I found online it’s a straight through cable were each wire is connected to the same pin on the opposite side, also thank you for the answer you have saved me a lot more searching, possibly my pocket book, and definitely sped up the time it will take for me to get back out with my Scope.

As Elp said the best option is to stay away from the lights however if you can’t the I just purchased the Baader UHC Ultra L Booster filter because it blocks Led light in the blue part of the Spectrum and conventional street lighting, it’s a broadband filter that lets in OIII, and C2 lines between 501, 511 and 514 nm making it decent for viewing Planetary Nebulae but an OIII filter is better because it’s more refined line filter, however the UHC L does cut out LED and Streetlight emissions as well as skyglow without dimming the star field too much and allows clear contrast views of the nebulae for what it is.

I set my Baader Hyperion Zoom at 8mm this time at 8:13 pm Venus was at Alt: 30.27* Dir: 271.47* (W) moving out of Cancer towards Leo. I’m not sure if it was the seeing conditions, the eyepiece being set on its highest magnification, my bluetooth camera shutter or my new vibration suppression pads or a bit of all four but it seems this is one of my most clear and crisp images yet and definitely better than my image taken on 6-17-23 in this image you can clearly see points on the end of the crescent whereas on the 6-17 image they were sort of blurred and blunted.

I have a Star Sense Auto Align Camera and last night while I was monitoring my Dew Heater wiring trying to keep it from getting snagged on anything or falling as my scope rotated to an object the RJ12 cord for the Star Sense got hung on the holder for my Hand Controller and pulled apart from the jack by the wires. It pulled straight out and if I were more savvy it looks like it could be repaired. I have have checked Celestron for a replacement cord but they don’t have one on their website and also emailed them. I checked online and a company in Canada custom makes them to order but say on their website it can take up to a month or more and the only other seller I have found online is on eBay with no Seller or Company Name just Leicester, UK and I don’t know about ordering stuff from eBay especially internationally with no name, business, or shipping address attached. But back to the problem at present does anyone know if there is a way to replace my cord with one I might be able to find somewhere locally like a computer supply store, camera store, or electronics store? I know it’s a RJ12 6p6c cable but I’m not sure if any RJ12 6p6c cable will work or if it has to be a specific type.

No observing for me tonight one of my RJ12 cords snapped last night and I can’t get my telescope to track properly, 😭but last night before catastrophe struck I had a wonderful time testing out my new Baader UHC Ultra L Booster filter after I spent some time looking at the Moon and Venus I began to test the filter by viewing the Catseye Nebula, then the Iris Nebula, then I waited a few hours and I viewed the Dumbbell Nebula and capped of the night with the Ring nebula which at 1:42am was near Zenith my cord snapped around 12:00am and my tracking was drifting badly by the time I found the Ring Nebula by the go-to getting close and then manually guiding the scope on target. Hopefully I won’t be down long and can get back out with my scope very soon 🤞🏻

With my 9.25 inch SCT that I store inside where it’s climate controlled I like to set it up at least an 45 minutes to an hour before I observe that’s usually right before sunset so it has enough time to warm up to the ambient temperature in the summer and cool down in the winter but depending on the temperature and conditions outside I have sometimes set it up as much as an hour and a half before observing or set a fan or heater up beside the scope to speed up the process of equilibrium. (Note setting up a fan or heater can blow debris into or onto your scope so it’s better to just wait patiently)

Venus is finally starting to image as more of a crescent visually matching what you see when you’re observing it through your eyepiece, looks a bit like a habanero pepper in the photo.🤣 I used my Baader Hyperion Mark IV Zoom set on 10mm and a ND 0.9 filter, (I am still waiting on on double polarizing filter to arrive from Baader) Venus was photographed at 8:15 pm, Alt: 32.55 Dir: 272.53 W in Cancer. Labeled for a project I am working on.

According to the manual the secondary is supposed to be offcenter slightly do you not have the manual for it? Hopefully the image is allowed and will be of some help, next check the center point of the main mirror in the secondary if the center point is not in the secondary adjust the secondary by using the three collimation screws at the back of the secondary.

I’m using IOS so SkySafari is probably best and I believe that is what I will go with after I have read all the comments here.

Being able to review all past recorded observations would be useful for rechecking the data I have been collecting on my observations.

Oh believe me I have found that out quickly buying EP and filters over the last year so investing in an App is good idea I have just been on the fence because I didn’t know what SS+ offered, but from what I’ve read here it’s worth the investment.

It’s certain scopes Nexstar, Synscan and LX200 protocals I just double checked my mistake

Well the free version doesn’t but according to the paid version it will connect via wifi or bluetooth.

I have been wanting to take the skysafari plunge for awhile but didn’t know if it was worth the cost but you all have talked me into it, also I downloaded the free version of stellarium and compared the main difference is stellarium has a daytime view and night view and can fast forward to the evenings view which I kinda liked about the app.

It’s not easy to transfer what you see onto paper it does take practice and talent so yes it’s something special, people actually take white light drawing classes and you’re working with homemade filters and sketching with talent alone so never stop trying, and I won’t either. 🫡