JGM1971

Hi to all you Non-EQ imagers! I like to pop back from time to time, to check on this runaway train of a forum I started all those years ago. Although I'm still taking a break from imaging these days, except with my phone and fixed tripod (family and work still don't give me enough free time to play properly) I'm still aiming to get back into it one day soon. It's amazing to see the work that you have all proved time and again, that can be achieved even with limited gear. Keep it going! John.

Wow! This forum just keeps rolling! Just popped back in the see how my baby is going. Love the images and the advice that is being shared. The long summer nights have kept my kit well and truely in storage, but I'm looking forward to the dark nights again. Might be over my affair with the dark side, as the issues I pointed out in the rules at the beginning do indeed hinder the fun at times. EQ mounts are amazing, but the number of nights I've wasted with poor alignment or set up issues is causing me to reconsider my move. Love the OTA, but might get a good old Alt Az again for "drop n go" imaging. Keep up the good work and clear skies to you all. John

Wow, wow and indeed wow! After starting this thread all those months ago, I never expected so many comments and amazing images to be posted. I've picked up lots of hints and tips over the time, as I hope you all have too, as this was the main hope for my initial post. I have a terrible admission though, I've gone to the dark side!! I now have an EQ mount ?. I was right, AltAz is a lot easier, but the temptation grew too much and a member of my local Astro club offered cold hard cash for my Nexstar. Keep up the fantasic work.

Yes, 6.3 reducer used on M3 and the Leo Triplet images.

It's actually M3, not M53. My bad! Need to start an observing log, as the memory is getting a bit rusty.

They were beyond help, as the trailing / focus / collimation was poor on most of them.

oops! Canon 600D attached to my Nexstar 6SE. ISO 6400, for 20secs. That's about the max I can get without star trailing, although I took about 20 shots of both targets and these were the best of the bunch. No flats, darks or bias frames subtracted from either, but I ran them through Photoshop to sharpen a bit and tweak levels.

M53 Globular Cluster & the Leo Triplet. Single Light frames taken while experimenting under the dark skies of the Lake District, UK.

This is my weapon of choice. Nexstar 6SE, with Canon 600D & 18-200mm lens, on piggyback mount. Used this to get the M31 image I posted earlier in the thread (also the last clear night I've had) It was the first time I'd used the piggy back, but as the image showed, it worked fine.

I do. Newcastle, UK. It was part of the reason I started this thread, as I wanted to see just what targets were potentially possible when not tracking EQ - I presumed that if you were an Alt As user, then part of your reason was that due to location, light pollution would rule out having a much higher spec set up. I generally look to see if it's clear, then quickly set up in the back garden, using part of my house to block as much of the lamp posts in the street. Hence, I have no views West!

Quick M31 tonight. DSLR piggy backed on Nexstar 6SE. 34 x 30sec subs, no darks, 20 bias (was intending to to 100 subs, but battery ran out - school boy error!)

I'd have to say no to Barn Doors too, as they still track equatorially. Sorry.

Thanks for being the first to post. Now this is EXACTLY what I wanted to see. It can be done. :-)

M81 / 82 image taken from light polluted Newcastle garden. Overlay of 2 x 25 second images, as I had each galaxy centralised in the field of view to help with the vignetting caused by using f6.3 focal reducer.

I'm still fairly new to imaging, but have had a good start with Planetary and Wide Field images. Obviously, like most of us, it's the Deep Sky stuff I'd like to glimpse, but time, location and more importantly budget are limiting factors. I currently use an Alt Az platform (Nexstar 6SE) paired with either a webcam (ZWO ASI120 on the Xmas list) or a Canon 600D DSLR and have found SGL forums to be a great source of info and inspiration, but do get a little exasperated when scrolling through threads posted by people in a similar equipment position to me to constantly advised to "just buy an EQ mount". I will, but for the moment, the £1,000 has alternate requirements. I loved the thread started by Stevie P below (30 minute Challenge) so thought I'd see what we, the lowly Alt Az community, could assemble. Please post images and setting data, as a way to assist others. I know they won't be Hubble quality, I know EQ users can do much better, I know it's going to be flooded with M31 grainy attempts, but who knows, a few of us might have squeezed a few more photons out of the sky with our limited kit. Rules: 1: Please don't post planetary / lunar images, as we know we can do these just as good as the EQ big boys. 2: You must have used an Alt Az mount (No EQ, Polarie, AstroTrak, etc) but a fixed camera tripod is fine too as I've seen some REALLY good images taken this way - 500 x 1sec subs, is just as good as 1x 500sec sub (ok, field rotation aside). 3: Give as much settings info as you can, so others can copy/learn the tricks. 4: Don't post advise saying "hey, that's great but you can do this... with a £50,000 observatory class set up, perfect dark skies from Antarctica, etc" as we know it already! :-) Look forward to the posts and learning to do things a little better myself (my main reason in posting this). Finally, don't feel 2nd class as an Alt Az user, remember we can drop the kit and observe / image in seconds some nights - very handy when clouds roll out, then back most nights. Try getting an EQ set up, polar / drift aligned, guider tracking in that time! Only kidding, no fighting please. John