knobby

Just relax and enjoy your images, don't be hyper self critical ... Stars look fine to me !

Keep at it and enjoy the end result 👍

Nice 👍, pretty smooth to for only an hour.

Great idea, I'd be worried about flexure though ... Could you make an additional clamp to go across the bar and finderscope mount to increase rigidity ?

I really like that, is it mapped RGB /  HOS ?

Loosely based on HSO Pallette. It's been a while since a clear night here so set up to have a dabble with guide settings - managed to get the AZ-GTI to stay just under the 1" mark fairly consistently tonight, hopefully it's repeatable 🤞

Posting this as it made the wife smile. Very quick stack and process of  20 minutes Ha - 10 minutes Oii - 5 minutes Sii.

You could try masking the open end of scope to allow less light through.

Mine was definitely better after stripping down, I had to do it as it was virtually useless after not being used for about 18 months.

Loads of info here https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/578878-celestron-avx-rebuild/

I think you have some good data there, really quick dabble with Photoshop. I chose HSS rather than Hubble as I prefer the Reddy - Blue hue.

Just levels / curves / gradient xterminator and remove colour noise to make stars whiter and Noels tools to make stars smaller on the Sii to improve stacking.

Just found this ... https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/662659-how-to-use-sharpcap-with-a-dslr-part-ii-jpg-files/ looks way easier so as long as you have a shortish focal length scope it's gotta be worth a bash. You can try using the latest of the version 2 sharpcaps as they have the static polar align for free but it kept crashing on my set up, but for free it's worth seeing if you can get everything connected and working before you shell out for the pro / stable version 3

Old thread revival, I'm getting guide accuracy to around 1.5" now , fairly consistently using 1 second exposures - min move @ 0.16 and Ra and Dec aggression on 100%

Copes with 300 second images nicely at 335 mm focal length.

11 hours ago, CaptainShiznit said:

Cheers So it's out of the question to just buy a cheap standard webcam for sharpcap? I had a little read of the manual online and that's what this led me to believe.

If you can manage to attach a webcam to your focuser then it will work, Google diy webcam for astro imaging.

1 hour ago, CaptainShiznit said:

what would be the minimum I could spend on a webcam to have some success with SharpCap?

Keep an eye out for used equipment, astro gear is generally well looked after ...

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=157240

£80

Sharpcap pro is £10/year and well worth it just for the polar align feature ! Not sure if it works with a DSLR but it uses your guidecam or main cam.

What do you have already ?

Edit - saw other posts, you have a Canon dslr, looking at this post https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/657429-how-to-use-sharpcap-with-a-dslr/

It's possible to use your Canon in Sharpcap ... But very difficult.

How did you get on Victor, I hope it's ok.

Nice write up, we went 2 years ago and much like you, my wife booked it (for me really) but didn't take into account the near full moon. We had a few nights toward the end of holiday where it rose fairly late though so did get to see how beautiful the sky was. Driving ... Yes, nerves of steel agreed.

I took DSLR, star adventurer mini and 12-24mm lens.

Again, similar to you, I found a nice dark secluded cliff edge about 10 mins walk from the hotel ... Could barely see the ground (til the moon rose) very scary being alone but worth it, even bumped into (what I thought at the time might be locals about to mug me or worse) a German chap hand holding his DSLR trying to take milky way shot and then a Polish chap shortly after. Even though we couldn't really communicate I let them both put there camera on the star adventurer for a few 30 second exposures ... Their faces were a treasure to remember 😄

Glad you had a good trip 👍

Attached my memory from the south east of La Palma. Bit gutted as slightly out of focus but still a lovely memory.

... Next time ... Take focus mask 😁

Nice Emil, I love narrowband ... It's 2 hobbies in one. Astro imaging and Art 👍

Can't believe you spent all that money to get a scope that matches the star adventurer colour scheme 🙂

Seriously though, looks very impressive.

Hi, I hope your son enjoys the scope, I'd say just use the eyepeice you already have for a while to make sure he is into it. If you do want to try new ones then keep a look out on ukastrobuysell, look for BST starguiders (aprox £35 used) or celestron exel lx slightly more expensive.

If he gets into planets then a 7 or 8 mm will give decent magnification whereas if he gets into nebula / deep space then a 32 mm would be useful.

ps. being a West Ham supporter I found it very hard giving you advice judging by your user name 🙂 ... Liverpool supporter ?

example of used bargains ... https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=156492 and where to look

Post a picture of the focuser area, if I remember correctly there is a 2" extension and a 1.25" if both are fitted together you can never wind focuser in far enough to achieve focus.

Try pinging pixinsight.com then use up address (if it replies) in browser. If it then connects maybe your DNS has gone squiffy ?

Have you tried duckduckgo to search for pixinsight or maybe try a new private tab ?

That's really nice, looks very natural. Nice processing too.

That's really nice Barry ! Platesolving is pukka 😁

The purpley stars (I believe) can be whitened with Photoshop - noise - reduce noise - move colour slider all the way across .

Then they are fairly white but still false (no colour)

Just a matter of taste really.

But well done on a nice Heart.

Nice Victor, thanks for sharing.

15 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Hi knobby, thanks for the feedback. I agree that the Ha on it's own really shows the detailed nebulosity very well. I think every time I shoot Ha, I like it on it's own as a B&W image more and more. If I may ask, of the 2 colour versions, do you prefer the one with whiter stars, or the one with more colour, sharpening, etc. If no preference then no worries.

Many thanks

The coloured stars version is more natural looking and my preference.