nephilim

Wow very nice indeed. I finally made a firm decision to save a little bit longer & go for the 533 over a DSLR, it'll be a steep learning curve as my first dedicated camera but looking at your images it'll be well worth the extra homework once its paired up with my 135. Should be ready to go at the end of Feb.

Looks very tidy, an extra 12v will be a bonus. Both my mount & upcoming dedicated cooled camera utilize 12v

I'm not familiar with your area but a couple of good filters for heavily light polluted areas are the optolong l‑enhance & optolong l-extreme, the l-extreme is particularly good for imaging when the moons out & about. These filters are fairly pricey but imo worth the investment. Also at some point you may want to guide, guiding enables you to 'dither' which helps eliminate all sorts of artifacts such as airplane/ satellite trails, fixed pattern noise etc. This link explains a bit about it https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/astrophotography-jerry-lodriguss/why-how-dither-astro-images/

I'm really surprised you collected so much detail with only 30's exposures (is your camera modified ? You have good Ha on the Horsehead) & M45 has come out amazingly well as getting the nebulosity to come through isn't easy & most images I've seen with that amount of nebulosity have taken upwards of 3hours, I suppose that's the benefit of having pretty dark skies (what exposure lengths & iso settings were you using for M45) , I'd be more than happy with results like that on my first attempt.

My ex girlfriends parents live in a farmhouse on the edge of Alston & I know the area well. I'm about a half hour drive from there & very lucky to have very dark skies. The village I live in just below Cross Fell has only 1 streetlight & the need for headtorches to get around at night 😀 The one downside is we also have the Helm wind, the only named wind in the uk & when that comes in you know about it, we get a heck of lot of 'weather' here but those occasional clear pitch black dark nights, stepping out of the front or back door to a glowing Milky Way with no need for dark adaptation more than makes up for the Armageddon type weather we can get 😂

I also used to think the same thing until I sadly realised that shiny AP gear comes before food 🤣

Perfect. That is a fantastic image 🙂

I'm slightly biased when it comes to post processing as I've always used a windows PC & Photoshop for this. There are many different software packages. I'd ask the question on the forum although that will obviously give you a big list of favorites based on the software others use but will probably provide a Mac option aswell. The ones I know about are all for Windows as I've never used a Mac. Aside from Photoshop, there's GIMP which is free & apparently quite good & Pixinsight which I've heard is more complicated than Photoshop but I've never used it. Although I've long being interested in astronomy, I only bought my first scope back in around 2011. I had no idea AP was actually accessible to mere mortals until I joined SGL, so my kit wasn't suited to it & after trying & failing many times I ended up just throwing in the towel. Its only in the last few months that I've been able to build up a suitable kit for AP & now just have the camera to buy in a couple of weeks time. So really, although I've a little bit of experience & a lot of reading behind me on the subject, I'm still really a total novice. Sharpcap is the way to go imo after seeing a lot of great reviews using its PA tool. As for Deep Sky Stacker & post processing I've found this site really good for practicing these things although you do have to have your own editing software & have already downloaded DSS. Its basically whole sets of data from DSO's including calibration frames which you can then stack & process yourself so its great practice for when you get your own images. http://www.remote-astrophotography.com/cgi-bin/Fits.pl As for the Cumbrian skies, I'm very lucky to live in a Bortle 3 area & my village only has 1 street light which is well out of the way from me. Its that dark that I have to use a headtorch at night to get to the car. I'm actually in the North Pennines AONB (but for some reason my address is still Cumbria) & with the area having the AONB tag it means there will never be any sudden floodlit buildings popping up as LP levels are kept at a bare minimum.

I bought this for all the reasons you've listed. Imo its definitely worth it & much less hassle than lead acid or trying to mess around trying to bodge something together. I wanted something that would work straight out of the box & be as convenient as possible & this fitted the bill perfectly.

Hi Ande, Great to hear you've managed to get out just hours after the arrival of new kit, it usually takes at least a month for the new kit/ cloud bank curse to lift 😬 Any first AP image is a positive step as you've captured 'something' & it can only get better from here in. I've yet to try my lens as I'm still waiting for the camera (a modded EOS 650D) but very much looking forward to first light with it. The first time you actual get out & start is always a headache of errors, things not working, forgotten things & things generally not doing as they're told. It gets easier as you go on. You mentioned about setting up in daylight, that's always a great idea as you can get a proper procedure going & an order of doing things. The more streamlined your session is the more time is spent gathering those photons rather than faffing with forgotten end caps etc 😂 Try stopping the lens down to 2.8 for now or even 4.0 as it'll make focusing much easier & you can then concentrate on other things such as nailing PA & framing your subject. Stellarium if you use it (it's a free app) has a great feature where you can put in your lens/ camera/ scope details etc & it'll give you a precise view of what can be framed with the given equipment & how it will look. Planning future projects is a great thing to mess around with on those cloudy nights. I know you said you didn't want to use a laptop but if you do decide to go down that then Sharpcap (another great piece of software) has a fantastic polar alignment tool, although I've yet to use it, I know a few who do & swear by it. Sharpcap is free but to get the PA tool you need the premium version but for £10 a year it'll be money well spent. Anyway, well done on your first outing & do let us all know how you get on. As your now ahead of me with regards to using the Samyang, I'll be asking you for advice next time around 🙂

I'd had a look at the Halfords one & a few of the jump start type batteries before just taking the hit for the Celestron one, but the whole thing of not been able to run them right down (meaning yet another thing to keep an eye on) & remembering to charge every couple of months if not in use put me off, plus most of these don't have USB 3 (only USB 2.0) which a lot of astro related gear benifits from. I'll also add that although not a deal breaker, there's a big red (there's also white) light that's on the side & is a massive help as it illuminates your whole imaging area rather than a head torch or handheld torch, great for setting up & working with. I obviously wouldn't be shelling out this type of cash just for the big red light though 😂

I understand that implicitly 😬

I agree with you there. It was actually £39 cheaper when I bought it 2 months ago (I've noticed a fair few pieces of astro related gear has recently shot up in price for no apparent reason) but still pricey. I wanted something that was relatively light, reliable for a full evening session & easy to use which this is. A lead battery although cheaper needs to be charged up every couple of months & cant be run down down where as this can & when not in use can just be put away & forgotten about.

I use this & it will keep my imaging rig going for an evenings AP, its not cheap but, lightweight compared to a lead battery & doesnt need to be 'looked after' as a lead one does. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-lithium-lifepo4-powertank-pro.html

The Synscan version of this one comes up with 'notify me when this item is available'. Its only the non goto in stock.

The waiting times for stock at the moment are ridiculous, on a plus point though I'm starting to see a fair bit of kit going up for sale second hand on the fbook astro sites as people realise they wont be getting the Hubble quality images they were hoping for. Fingers crossed this trend will continue & we'll be in for some bargains in the new year 😃

They are apparently in stock here but i'd email just to confirm. They're usually pretty quick to respond https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-explorer-150p-eq3-pro-goto-telescope.html

That would have being the best outcome imo, It sickens me on how much money & time is wasted on trying to kill each other.

Classified reconnaissance satellite 🙄 Yet more pointless garbage going up there so everyone can have a nosey at what everyone else is doing, ruining the night sky in the process, courtesy of elon musk.

Great to hear your happy with them, there certainly is a lot to learn with a DSLR but i'm sure you'll soon get the hang of it. The Samyang is an amazing lens for the price, i'm still waiting to finally use mine for AP, let me know how you get on with it. There are several software packages available for controlling the EOS through a laptop specifically for AP, a few are discussed briefly here but I recommend BackyardEOS as its very simple yet effective & has a number of very helpful features. There are plenty of youtube videos available for this & the other software mentioned. Have fun with your new kit 🙂 http://www.astronomiser.co.uk/software.htm

Good idea there mate. Once I have one 'prediction' in the bag they will then look at me as their new messiah & my plan for world domination can commence. I'll grant you the position of Astronomer Royal for putting me onto this cracking idea because I'm generous like that 😂

I've had a fair few friends immediately contact me (knowing I have a little more than a passing interest in astronomy 🤔) all excited about how bright this 'star' will be etc etc. When I start with my cynicism regarding the daily comi......erm I mean newspapers & their love of disregarding actual science fact over paper sales, my friends start to lose interest, when I continue with the actual real distance between these planets, my friends start to yawn, as soon as the words 'arc seconds' leave my mouth, my friends eyes glaze over, I've lost their interest completely & that's pretty much where the discussion ends. The friends who are the most excited by this impending celestial firework show are also the ones who get the most excited by the daily express yearly headline about the upcoming winter which will be the coldest, longest and most ice age like for the last 15,000yrs.......again 🙄

Robert. I think your idea of lending to a club or school could be a better option. There would possibly be less chance of unintentional misuse & potential damage as I'd have thought there would usually be a single person who would take responsibility over it & will make themselves familiar with its use etc.

Congratulations John. I'm sure you've advised me at some point. I'm a fair way behind, just into my 9th year.

Also, this is the lens in the flesh, it's a beast 🙂 Hence the need imo for a good solid mounting system.