VigdisVZ

Hi Stunning capture. Really enjoying it. Would love to get my hands on a CCD/Modded DSLR to capture me some emission nebulae (also would like to sit further south, a lot of the southern stuff is impossible up here north). Some remarks: Stars are slightly elongated, and you've cut the background just a tad to much towards black.

Wonderful image. Thanks for sharing.

That's a fine piece of work. You've really got the colors to separate. Thanks for sharing. The only thing I would have done differently is to keep the background noise and not burn it out (keeping the pixels values around 20-30 instead of 1-3).

Reading about astronomy in mainstream media: Come for the news, stay to chuckle at the comments. Maybe one should start selling tinfoil.

That's still pretty darn decent for a regular ol EQ5 at 90 sec. The elongated stars is because the mount is struggling and/or polar alignment. You might be able to get rounder stars in some of the subs with a better polar alignment, balance and/or luck. Meaning you're really pushing your luck with unguided 90 secs on an EQ5. You will get mixed results unless sturdier mount/autoguider. Also focus like has been mentioned by Leveye. I pause every few subs and refocus in max zoomed live view. Streak is a satellite.

Hi What mount do you have for the MAK? Unless you have a motorized equatorial mount, you might find it very hard to do deep-sky with a DSLR, in that case you could hook up a simpler webcam and do lunar/planetary for a fraction of the budget. As I recall the GOTO mount for the MAK 127 is an alt/az mount and will introduce field rotation when doing long exposures. However if you plan on buying a DSLR for both astro and daytime, Canon is the preferred brand due to software support. Personally I think the 600D is dated. In that price range, have a peek at 700D.

Hi and welcome! You came to the right place.

Hi and welcome!

Crisp! Good job!

Took this one yesterday as a test run with a timer-remote I borrowed. Much better. But my setup wasn't spot on this time and I struggled to keep about half my subs, due to eggy stars and thick fog that rolled in towards midnight. Scraped together 30x90sec subs, 10 darks, 20 flats, 40 bias. Gear in my signature. Got a coma-corrector arriving in the mail next week, and thinking seriously about finding a laptop to setup PHD. Critique and feedback always welcome. Be honest. Thanks for looking.

Any chance to see a stack? Data looks promising.

Tried a buddys timer remote today at the astronomy club meeting. Worked like a charm. Convinced him to loan it to me, might even give him money to order a new for himself, and keep this one . Also ordered a coma corrector today.

Sadly this is how most apps are today.

At what FL can you fit both M31 and M33?

Not sure if this has been linked yet, but pretty good. http://www.ted.com/talks/jim_holt_why_does_the_universe_exist

Like has been mentioned before, a dobsonian, while a bit bulky, gives the most bang for the buck. However, the cheaper versions dont have a motor that tracks the sky, but getting used to nudging the telescope along takes a few hours and then it becomes second nature. They are a bit bulky like FunkyKoval35 mentions, but don't let that put you off if your husband is reasonably fit, the 150p isn't a problem to lug to and from the car if you dont have a back garden. Worth mentioning with a dobsonian reflector like the 150p mentioned above is that you may want a collimation cap like this one http://www.firstlightoptics.com/other-collimation-tools/cheshire-collimating-eyepiece.html in order to keep the mirrors aligned. Also I can recommend this book as an excellent companion to the scope. http://www.amazon.com/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Telescope/dp/0521153972 Best of luck and please come back with any questions you might have, and send your husband here when he starts scratching his head.

Photoshop CS6 (benefits of company licenses) but can be just as easily done in GIMP for free.

Good work! At this point I would probably google for "diy phone holder telescope". There are some contraptions you can make easily.

I really like it. These widefields of familiar objects give you a whole new sense of context. At some point you should take darks, flats and bias. Especially flats would really help you in processing. And nitpicking, a bit more color in the stars would have been nice. What ISO? Thanks for sharing.

Best of luck! SCT's seem to dominate higher focal length. Newts kinda take the midfield.

Thank you. No, you shoot at prime focus ie no magnification. Just the scope. It "magnifies" just as a camera lens would at the same focal length. In this case 750mm. You can in theory attatch an eyepiece in between with an eyepiece projection adapter, but the focuser on a 150PDS lacks inwards travel to reach focus. If you're curious as to how big certain DSO will look with a specific camera/scope combo, have a look here... http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fovcalc.phpAnd remember that a bigger higher focal length scope isnt always better, it depends on what you want to image. I chose the 150pds for its comparatively low focal length, allowing me to fit all the big popular DSO like M31, M33, M42, M45 within the FOV. If you want to go for pure planetary like Jupiter and Saturn, you want something else. And some people who like to image wide field emission nebulae go with smaller aperture lower focal length refractors that have superior optic quality.