Doug9559

@Bobby1970 Don't give on DSO yet, I took this last night 20 May around 11pm with the D2 when the Moon was at 93% waxing gibbous shining full on the D2.

M51 was almost at zenith but the D2 is really happy in equatorial mode - I checked this with Dwarflab a while ago because I know that very early models had issues with cracked bases, this has now been strengthened.

For EQ mode I can't see Polaris from where I'm imaging I use a digital inclinometer to get approximate declination (52.6° from where I am) and a compass to find N-S, it seems to be close enough and I get very little field rotation.  This image was 900 subs, 6 seconds, 100 gain.  Processed in Siril, Affinity Photo and Topaz Photo AI (the latter really helps with denoising and cleaning up the background).

The D2 is NEVER going to replace a "proper" astro rig but I get a hell of a lot of fun using it.  Looking forward to seeing what the Dwarf 3 looks like after the 30 May release, what I've seen looks good but not what I'd call a game changer.  Although I'm thinking of putting in a capex request with the wife if the pricing is right...

@Bobby1970

Very impressive NGC7000, particularly from only 285 subs, love the subtle nebuosity.

I've had a go at this one in the past but didn't get anywhere near your result.  Does the Tri band filter make a difference?  You've spurred me on to try again!!

I also use Siril and Starnet plus Affinity Photo and Topaz Photo AI.

@Bobby1970

Very impressive NGC7000, particularly from only 285 subs, love the subtle nebuosity.

I've had a go at this one in the past but didn't get anywhere near your result.  Does the Tri band filter make a difference?  You've spurred me on to try again!!

I also use Siril and Starnet plus Affinity Photo and Topaz Photo AI.

Totally agree.  The last update was May 2023 and that's a looong time ago for an app.  Rumours about Dwarf3 also make me nervous about continuing support for Dwarf2.

You're right about the GOTO list, for this type of equipment I think this needs updating and maybe could be done ahead of other things (do you read SGL posts DwarfLab?).

Still for the price a great bit of kit.

I'd recommend it as Stu1smartcookie says for the quick setup and easy operation.  I wouldn't describe it as a toy but obviously it can't compete with a "proper" rig.  I've used it for the last month from Wolverhampton but haven't had many clear nights when I was in, I run the app on an 8 inch android tablet which gives a better view than a phone and use the free Snapseed app for post processing on the tablet.   The attached of M31 was taken in back garden with a near full moon (the blue one haha) shining on the telescope and my skies are fairly light polluted, so you can get decent shots.  I found manual inputting of targets is ok and also adds a bit of interest because you can look for the coords on Stellarium and pop those in, for example Brocchi's Cluster (the coathanger) below isn't in the built in database but fits the field of view well.  I haven't yet tried downloading the raw fits files onto a PC and putting them through something like Deep Sky Stacker.

By the way for best targets tonight I use two apps, Telescopius and SkEye.

I'd be interested in any suggested Dwarf II targets from anyone.

There's a rumour that DwarfLab will be selling a 2x telephoto lens but I don't know how true that is.  It would help with things like M57 which is quite small in the field of view.  I understand that Dwarf III is also in the pipeline but if that happens I hope the developers will continue to support Dwarf II - I think they will, they seem very customer orientated.

Attached files:

Brocchi's Cluster  =  50 x 8 second images stacked on Dwarf2 and just cropped.

M31  =  500 x 13 second images stacked on Dwarf2, cropped to remove field rotation, with auto curve adjustment made on the Android Snapseed app (I was lazy...).