TiffsAndAstro

I have to do a 2 or or 3 star alignment first before synscan all will let me to a polar slign due to no mel or maz I remember mel and Kim gonna have to google mel and maz

90 x 60sec subs with a 500mm mirror lens. its sort of ok, but i think i could do better. full moon light pollution and cloud dodging.

here's a random .cr2 file, 135mm f4 60 sec (i think it was - need to make better notes as i go along) seems andromeda might be visial tonight so ill try an hour on that an hour on pleides and an hour or as long as poss on orion IMG_6399.CR2

just in case i set picture mode back to neutral so its 0 0 0 0 ty im tempted to find a reset to defaults and give it a go last night was covered with thin high cloud i couldn't see it until i loaded the subs onto my pc. still i had a chance to do proper polar alignment via synscan app and it seems im a god at PA. which is unlikely. is there a way in the synscap app to see how accurate it thinks i am and can even test it?

set up full polar aligned, it fact went so easy seems too good to be true. doing 60sec exposures atm just hoping someone can check my image for any obvious problems? there's cloud in this image and it looks a bit oxer exposed but don't want to drop iso below 200. i should set picture style to neutral ?

In an hour or so I'm gonna try quick polar along, 3 maybe 2 star alignment then full polar alignment. Cue clouds

Ty for the advice, but m31 is too low will look for m45 though and give it a go. Pleides probably out of view before orion cant check until later. so too many clouds last night. might be similar tonight, if it is ill try a proper full polar alignment, at least i can practice that. If clear, will try pleides then orion. should have two hours when they are visible for me.

If I move my eye to the left/right... How can I tell if I've lined it up with my eye in the right place. Wherever that is.

would 10 x 107sec subs show more details than 107 x 10sec subs, do you think? i know its not an easy question to answer though.

im not expecting to rival the jwt but i'd like to see some progression orion is gettting lower by the day, but its possible i can get some of it tonight. i really do appreciate everyone's input and help ty again. also - only had a little play with siril's noise reduction and i don't like the results. hopefully just means i need more experience with it. the green noise reduction seems to work well mostly.

wow ty for this. definately never enabled this intentionally. i've generally used 800iso but did try some iso400 last night maybe with better results. playing with processing now, stacked with background extraction looks ok, but it seems almost monochrome will have some more tries at it. here's one i made earlier - i think its better and worse at least more red. this is all good practice for me though, apologies these are both from 107 x 10 sec subs f2.8 iso400 50mm on 600d moon up to the left and almost full, no lens hood and probably poor PA. if its clear tonight ill try again but do a Polar Align, Start Align and then try a 2 star polar align. Maybe with a 135m that has a hood. also, tempted to try my 18-55 kit lens for comparison's sake. its a lot slower though.

do you know where this feature lives? would it function even in manual mode?

ty so much for all this. i think it possible i had exposure compensation on, possibly. im pretty sure i have it off now. its been clearish here for a few hours. i took orion again while i could see it, some pleides first too, also playing with a mirror lens as i type this. my tracking times have been a bit variable though, sometimes star trails at 10sec, sometimes at 30sec - especially with the mirror. i've tried to take in what everyone here has suggested, hopefully some of my efforts from tonight will turn out well. i just want to see an improvement from using a triped and a gazillion 5sec exposures. im taking all the calibration frames for both lens and exposures etc - will do my mirror flats when clouds arrive. im assuming the mirror will be bad but it looks nice

why would i place that over the front of a lens ?

ty both for this. what's an M6 washer ? also, i could do 5sec exposures on a tripod no tracker would a bedroom light from behind blinds 30ft away create that gradient?

bortle 6 backyard never looked but i checked how to access it and will try and remember er i think this one was siril with drizzle. lens was wide open at 1.7, i was trying last night with it at 2,8 and iso 400 its an old pentax m 50mm f1.7 on a 600d here's a test shot i did last night. 30sec iso400 f2.8 couldn't really do much more cos clouds IMG_5291.CR2

had a frustrating time dodging cloud and rain. 30 seconds at iso400 look promising, but its frustrating doing this through clouds

ty so much for this. Av is the next position on the selector wheel next to manual. Its more than possible i accidentally changed it to Av mode and more than possible after i did, i did test shots and changed the shutter speed via the roller for speed - which also might have changed the exposure compensation to +3. Because im pro 630 to 1030 going to be clear according to my new favourite weather app. With such faster replies on here (who knew ireland had internet? ) i might post an update in a few hours showing my skills or begging for more assistance ty all again !

im actually pretty confident as im sure it was exposure compensation. i just need to be careful not to do it again. i was using the roller wheel to adjust exposure times for test shots. ill do it via bulb and an intervalometer. at least west of ireland has lower bortle to make up for the even worse weather.

i will have a go ty for the suggestion lol

with english weather i think i have to shoot what i can. if i ever get a clear night i could be more choosy if nothing else, my basic set up and quick polar alignment skills are improving trying to google if there's a menu option to disable exposure compensation.

i think i had exposure compensation on +3. possibly. clear skies in maybe 4 hours will have a check then. I'm not intentionally doing anything to the .cr files except copy them across to my pc. i was intending to sort out the crap subs with cloud/trees/aircraft lights before stacking, but couldn't see much ty for this very very useful post. im sure my focus was soft, i was hoping it was 'ok' enough to test longer exposures/my PA etc but i will get it right first. i find it tricky to do, but jupiter should be around and it can help with focus.

btw the moon was out almost full. not within frame, but its obviously more powerful than i assumed. I don't have a lens hood i do have one on a vintage tokina 200mm but want to do better at 50mm before getting too advanced exposure compensation? i did change something a few weeks back which sounds a little like this - but i thought it was to make live view look more like the final exposure? apologies for being rather new at this and ty all for the help. just googled exposure compensation and im pretty sure i didn't mess with this as i shoot in manual and it can't be changed in manual? after grabbing my camera, i think i may have unintentionally had this set to +3. using the roller i thought just changed shutter speed, even in manual mode, but it seems it does that AND exposure compensation? this might be a very good catch ty so much. it would explain a lot i think?

ok so there might be 2-3 hours of clear tonight, my plan is: put my tripod roughly were it was when i took my previous untracked shots (can shoot orion earlier as trees out the way) stop down to f2.8 and do test shots at 5, 10, 20 and 30 sec. if it looks good at 30s sec i might try a test at 60 and 90 seconds too. let it rip until clouds come over. though i may do a similar process for pleiades just before orion, as they come into view a little sooner

lol yes i did