MKHACHFE

Hi all, finally got round to processing the fruits of Sunday night's brief session. My target was Cygnus and Lyra, but nothing specific. This was taken with a canon 4000D, a f5.6 55mm stock lens and a star Adventurer Mini WiFi. I took about 60x30 sec shots as well as around 20 each of darks, bias and flats..but in the end, I only ended up using 6 of each of the latter. Processing was done in DSS and it seems I managed to capture down to around magnitude 12.5-13. I will be getting access to a few f2 lenses for my next session, very interested to see the difference. I know this is a boring image, but I'm very proud of it to be honest. The hardest bit was correlating the image with stellarium to find out which stars are which...that took me quite a while. Thanks for looking and please let top with any criticisms.. Lastly that light part at the bottom is the milky way. Cheers Sent from my N10 using Tapatalk

Finally found what I was talking about. RIDGE A https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_A I quote from the article: "Researchers on the project suggested that photographs taken through a telescope at Ridge A could be nearly as good as those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope" Cheers

Thanks for the replies. Just to be clear, Im not asking because I'm planning a trip there...I'm just curious to read more about the subject. To answer the second posters question, yes the zones had specific names, but they were vague technical names...I cannot remember any other details other than they were specific anomalies in terms of sky clarity and depth. I specifically recall one zone supposedly having such dark and clean skies that the view was almost the same as Hubble sees (in terms of depth visible and darkness) Sorry to be so vague. I wish I could recall even the slightest detail as that would make googling far easier. Thanks again for replying.

Thanks for the replies. Just to be clear, Im not asking because I'm planning a trip there...I'm just curious to read more about the subject. To answer the second posters question, yes the zones had specific names, but they were vague technical names...I cannot remember any other details other than they were specific anomalies in terms of sky clarity and depth. I specifically recall one zone supposedly having such dark and clean skies that the view was almost the same as Hubble sees (in terms of depth visible and darkness) Sorry to be so vague. I wish I could recall even the slightest detail as that would make googling far easier. Thanks again for replying.

HI all, I remember reading not long ago about certain zones in Antarctica where the sky is supposedly so clear its almost like being in space. Hyperbole aside, I absolutely cannot find anything on Google. Does anyone know what I am talking about or did I imagine this article? As far as recall there were 2 or 3 ares that had very technical names... Thanks

That's exactly my experience a few weeks ago when it was brighter with my 8 inch. Very well described.

I just realized I wrongly labelled Capella as Castor....D'oh!

It will be interesting to see just how good my polar alignment really is once I get into the 50+ images, which I'm hoping to do tomorrow. I only had it all set up about 10 mins before I had to come in this evening. Cheers

Thank you. I am aware that its really not impressive, but with a 30 quid tripod and an old lumix the only things at my disposal at the moment (other than my SAM), i'll take this TINY victory, along with the excitement of whats the come. I know its so stupid to be so happy with such a rubbish pic, but for some reason, I am. Knowing the amazing advice and support I will get in the future for this community really helps feel excited about learning more. Cheers

Hi all, Long story short, I bought my first tracking mount yesterday ( a Star Adventurer Mini Wifi) and cheap, crappy tripod to learn the ropes. Never taken an single image of the sky in my 45 years of life. Since we are facing another month of lock down, I went with the most cost effective setup for my limited budget. Unfortunately, my Nikon DSLR is in a storage unit in town, and i have not had a chance to get it yet (that qualifies as essential travel right?) So my wife gave me her old lumix dmc-t220 which is a compact camera I bought her many moons ago to at least get started. Anyway, after easily polar aligning from my Bortle 6 garden, I managed to take 14x15sec exposure pics at 200 iso on the crappy camera. This was really just to see if the tracking was working. And after a quick layering in PS and some levels adjusting, I'm happy to say that yes...its all tracking nicely so far. The camera has a bit of trouble focusing so the stars are a bit big, but I don't care. I'm happy as a can be with this crappy image I took this evening. I only had an hour of play time sadly otherwise I would have done more. So there you have it. I know this is not in the slightest bit impressive, but since you fine folk are the only people I have to show who care (my wife lovingly feigns interest..bless her) I thought I would post it. Note, i have halved the image size. I'm so looking forward to the next month and learning more once I get my DSLR. My wife says she has not seen me this happy in a long time. I know I will not achieve the INCREDIBLE images posted here, but as long as I can get a wide field or even M31 image in the next month, that will do for me. Waiting for my copy of "every photon counts" as well. Thanks for reading this boring, unimpressive post. Cheers

Well done mate. Glad your perseverance paid off.

I am also in B6 and can just about make out the slightest blurry fuzz with my XT8. You are not missing much.

Same. Im 100% certain I'm in the right spot, but absolutely no joy...To be honest, when I DID catch it about 10 days ago, it was a bit brighter, but even then, had I not known it was exactly where I was looking, I would have missed it. Incredibly faint. Nearby M81 and 82 positively POP out in comparison.

Yeah...super disappointing.

Very cool!