Bagginsies

I was out on the 8th getting some data, but the moon was very bright, so hoping for Monday! Will be gutted if this one fades 😞 Not sure why I got the lines out of both sides of the stars either.

Next good clear night here without a moon is Monday! Hope it will last till then? Fingers are crossed?

Managed just over an hour of data last night of the Comet Atlas (64 x 60 second : Iso 1600 : 10 x dark : 10 x bias and for the first time 10 x flat!). Stacked it in DSS with the comet and stars tracked. It gave the stars a little bit of movement as well for some reason (to be honest I like the effect!). I have also seen on here it may be breaking up and might have peaked in brightness? I do hope not, was planning on more of this over the next month. Just glad I got it 🙂

Thanks for the comments 👍 I do like to edit my images as little as possible to try and keep the natural look. Managed another last night with slightly different settings (did get a little aberration back this time though); 21 x 40 sec frames @ Iso 800 : F8 300mm. I also used darks and bias this time (10 of each). I also had a tiny thin layer of cirrus reflecting the moon by the looks of it?

No, I found it very smooth. The video was a lot of tracked photos and each was tracked for 30 seconds. Whe using the slt mount I always had the legs all the way in for extra stability ( I am very short, hence Baggins, a hobbit LOL) and you can hang a weight to the bottom of the tripod if needed. Your biggest problem will be wind. If it is windy a weight will come in handy. Hope this helps.

As the title says 🤣 Managed to get 11 x 20 sec frames @ Iso 1600 : F7.1 135mm. No darks or bias, stacked in deep sky stacker. Have been struggling with aberration on the standard lens, so quite happy with this as it came out fairly clean. Couldn't make out any nebulosity and the clouds didn't help either!

I have used this mount to attached my Canon 60D directly (tilted 90 degrees like you say). I didn't do any long exposure stuff with it due to field rotation with an Alt Az, but you can do short exposures with tracking (some good info online and here about Alt Az tracking). To get the most exposure time with a camera on Alt Az, East and West targets are best (gives the longest time without field rotation). I carried out the normal Skyalign (point at 3 bright stars) with the camera attached and it aligned well enough. As for star trails. If you are going to point the camera at Polaris for star trails you don't need any tracking (unless I am missing your idea here?). A tripod would suffice. If you are using the slt mount, you will need to turn tracking 'Off' in the hand controller anyway for star trails. My first video timelapse, tracking with the SLT mount. (I tracked Alderbarran)

Set my scope up on Alnath with the 60D last night. I was out to image the moon, but thought I would quickly try the ISS (planned on nothing as I know it is a very hard target!). I had a look online about tracking by hand, but due to having an AVX mount that has fairly sticky RA and Dec, I decided I would try 1/6000s ISO6400 (had the Barlow on (x2) so F10 I think) and see what happened; I had the camera set to take pictures with the intervalometer button held down, but fat fingered it in my excitement as I wasn't 100% it would pass close to the star as predicted and it did perfectly!! Only caught a frame just as it was leaving (top left). My first image of the ISS and to be honest a very poor one, but so happy I actually got it in the frame......the start of a new challenge 🙂 Not forgetting my moon 🙂

Looking forward with fingers crossed that it does brighten up to naked eye! Now that would be great for another timlapse 🙂 Nice vid!

Yes, I used the comet only stacking in DSS for the star trails and for the picture with the stars and comet tracked I used the comet and star stacking selection.

I think it was one of yours I saw a while back. Super clear time lapse of a comet. It is what inspired me to try it myself 👍 Hopefully get mine that good one day 🤞

Managed to image the comet last night and used the data to make some images and also managed to make my first time lapse of a comet 🙂 Total Exposure 1 hour 36 minutes64 x 90 sec light framesIso 1600 15x dark frames 15x bias frames Celestron 130SLT (Prime) Celestron AVX mount Un-modded Canon 60D Class 4 Bortle skies Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker Final edits in Affinity Photo

I use the 'Kiwi Dew Heater Strip' from Amazon. Cheap enough, USB and seems to do the job well enough. Also has a few setting son it for temperature and how long you want it on. I only bought it as it was cheap, but there may be better out there?

I have found that most equipment I have bought has been good, but I did buy a mount from eBay and the keys on the hand controller were very temperamental to a point they sometimes did not work. I did get money off so had an option to buy a new controller, but I decided to have a look inside and found a small piece of aluminium foil as an attempt to fix it. I ended up fixing it myself with some remote restore and it now works like new. A little annoyed as the seller must have known it was faulty, but I am happy as I have now saved a good bit of money (maybe why they accepted my low offer) Feel your pain when you buy something and then you think you have to go through the hassle to get it corrected, but I would like to think that most of the time it is a mistake by the seller and very rarely a deliberate attempt to cover up a fault. Hope you get it sorted!

To be honest never seen anything go in front of the moon whilst viewing it, but I am normally taking pictures. Would love to get a plane or the ISS in one, but haven't been lucky enough. Impressed with the Moon pictures you have got with your phone. Still amazes me that phones can now get pictures like that. Very nice detail in the zoom picture! Hopefully you will catch the dark thing in a picture 🤞

I didn't say before, but when I say 'press the button then wait 4 seconds' that is still using the button on the intervalometer. If you touch the camera after the 4 seconds you will cause vibrations again. Just found this on the 80D:

I wouldn't say 'always' Short exposures of maybe 3-4 seconds or less down to maybe 1/250 second yes. I think if you can do 1/500 on the moon then you may not need it? The other problem with 'always' locking the mirror up is if you use an intervalometer. I found this out when I wanted 45 minutes worth of subs. I set it for 30 x 1 minute 30 second exposures and forgot mirror lock was still active. On first activation it locked the mirror up for 1 minute 30, then took a 1 minute 30 exposure, then locked the mirror up for another 1 minute 30...…… ended up with half the subs I wanted doh! 😅