Spad

16 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I have both a StellaLyra 12" f5 Dobsonian and a  StellaLyra 8" f/4 M-LRN Newtonian. The 12" is a doddle to collimate - it takes a few seconds at the start of each session. The 8" f4 is a lot more difficult and I'm not sure I've ever got it right and I (allegedly) know what I'm doing.

The 8" f4 has huge back focus for imaging and the matching coma corrector works really well. For visual you need a couple of extension tubes to get it to focus - it was made for imaging. The build quality is excellent as are all the StellaLyra scopes.

Thank you Mr Spok amd mal-c... this was the kind of advice I was looking for!

I have an EQ6r Pro.

I want it for visual and imaging.

I just want to know if these are good as I want to move away from Sky-Watcher scopes.

At present I have a Sky-Watcher Explorer 150P Newtonian with an upgraded (supposedly) dual speed crayford focuser. I am wanting to get a new Newtonian...

The one I am leaning towards is the StellaLyra 8" f/5 M-LRN Newtonian Reflector. I am also seriously considering the 8" f4 one, but I have read they can be diffucult to collimate, is this correct?

Would this be a good replacement for the SW Newtonian and will it prime focus?

Thank you,
Ian

Ay oop!

Last night I took an image of Cygnus using a SW SA2, with a 50mm lens on a Pentax K5ii. 24 x 1min exposures with 10 light, 20 dark, and 15 bias frames.

Stacked Siril, the split in Starnet. PP'd in Ps and Lr.

Can somebody run an eye over this and give me some tips to make my future shooting better?

Ta

Earlier in the week I posted my first tracked and guided image. Elp recommended Siril.... So I went and got and found a great tutorial...

So this is my first fully tracked, guided and astro edited image!

This is the result. I am well happy with this!!

Thanks Elp...

Will give it a shot :)

Hey

When shooting over several nights, is better to do it from the same position, or is ok to move about??

Thanks

Thanks, I'll have a shufty at that

Good evening guys,

Last night I did my first attempt at guided imaging. My target was the North American Nebula... but I think I missed it as I was eyeballing on the aiming.

Kit: Svbony SV503 70mm ED f4.8 with red/flatt. Skywatcher EQ5 mount guided by a Synguider 2 on a 9x50 scope. Skywatcher Enhanced handset and motors. Pentax K5ii and remote intervalometer.

Exposures: 20 x 2mim iso1600, 15 dark, 15 flat and 10 bias.

Stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop.

All help, and tips will be gratefully recieved!!

37 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

IR pass filters work great on the Moon. Longer wavelenghts are less prone to poor seeing so you can often find better detail in IR even if shorter wavelenghts have a chance of being sharper due to limits in diffraction.

So not completely useless. If your camera has an uninterpolated video shooting mode like the movie crop in a 550D then you can do some serious lunar work with the camera.

Righto.... I'll point at the next full moon and see what happens!!

TBH... I might just stick a 50mm 1.8 on it, then slap it on my Star Adventurer and see what comes out...

Thanks everyone!

Number 1

So pretty much useless for astrophotography then!

Also... daylight snaps is quite a narrow view. It far more capable than that generalisation. When yiu start fannying with the on camera white balance, in Photoshop, and shooting at night (not astro). You can get some quite startling and ethereal images.

57 minutes ago, gtis said:

Welcome Ian 

Are you on the Pentax user uk forum by any chance 

I am indeed

I had a feeling it would not, but thank you for clearing it up for me.

So if the telescope is, say to right of the centre line. Do I have to orientate the scope to point at the NCP?

Screw on or Cokin type IR filters on DSLR's require long exposures. So the mod on mine allows you to shot like a normal colour camera, but it's in IR.

I believe they do remove the IR Cut Filter on the sensor. Some are full spectrum, mine is a 720nm.

Here is an image of the sensor.

It needs cleaning too!!!

Spose the easiest thing to do, is slap it on a telescope and do some shooting!

I have an IR modded DSLR with a 720nm filter.

Is this any good for doing astrophotography??

Thanks!

My first quesstion, is a request for advice on mounting!

I have seen on glootoob videos, people mounting a scope and guide kit on a vixen dovetail plate in the horizontal plane, so this leads me to ask;

Is it ok not to have the Dec azimuth not pointing at the polar axis? As per the below photos...

Thanks,
Ian

 

Hello!!!

I am Ian - AKA Spad and I live in the Peak Disctict.

I got my first telescope for my 50th in 2020... I have always wanted one but decided to do it! Then covid hit.... but once that buggered off I got the bug. I started out with a Sky-Watcher Starquest 130P with an EQ2 and discovered I could attach cameras to them.... This lead me to hit eBay with a vengance!! I now have a Sky-Watcher EQ5 with the enhanced handset and motors. I am hoping to upgrade this to an HEQ5 next year. My scopes are a Sky-Watcher Explorer 150P (Black Diamond) and  Skymax 127 MCT, and I have just recently bought an Svbony SV503 70ED with Flattener/Reducer. I also bought an SV305 Pro Planetary/Guide camera. So I have been learning to use PHD2. At some point I will get a mono guide cam. It's jusst the SV503 and 305 Pro were going for a rediculous price.... So I bought them!!

My back ground is Photography and I worked in Motorsport Photogrpahy, so I have plenty of experience in this field, but boy have I junmped in to a new field with an effing vertical learning curve!!

I am more of a lurker and searcher of forums. I have used this forum on numuroues occasions and find it a wealth of information, as well as a great archive!! On the odd occasion I will jump on and ask for help and advice, when I cannot find an answer.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to pestering you guys sporadically!

Ian