Robbrad

What a fantastic technique! That makes a lot of sense. My only issue is the house is in the way due south. So I won’t pick up a star with zero dec. I guess that’s gonna matter as the target result won’t be a flat line. Any tips as I’m in the U.K. Lots of sky available north and west

Thanks for the inspiration guys. I have taken the plunge and bought the ZWO ASIair and the ZWO 178MC. Appreciate this won’t fully resolve my alignment issues - but might be a bit more fun than the clunky DSLR. I was using a remote release for the photos with the SLR and mirror lockup. Thanks for the iso tips. I'm finding polar alignment a challenge. Is there any more info and drift alignment. I think I have screwed up the calibration of my polar scope.

Sorry for the delay in reply and im afraid more advice needed. Finally some decent clear skies................. As advised cam attached direct to scope ! - thank you FOV looks better as I can now get in the full field of some objects - although Andromeda looks a bit small. Issues im facing DSS won't stack (as I think the image isn't sharp enough) - this is my pursuit now. Without stacking I can't hope to get decent images or move to fainter objects. The stars look like little zigzags - Tracking issue? polar alignment? - scope was steady and balanced Images attached have been edited but my images are blown out on exposure (attached one example - 3200 iso @ 30 seconds) Stars are a little stretched at edges (is this due to the refractor? Thank you Rob

Wow thank you guys some fantastic advice and inspiration. I have had this kit 5 years and never realised you could conned the camera directly!! Now I just need some clear nights again and I’m gonna try this out. Then fine tune the results as you described.

Thanks Louis! I am doing eye piece projection... The scope is a skywatcher 150p (sorry I put that in the subject) so I can connect my cam direct to the focuser? What adapter do I need for that and do I need a coma corrector and a field flattener if doing that? looking like I need a better mount... thank you

We moved house to a Bortle 5 location which is great. The last three nights have been incredible conditions, which led to my frustration more so. I did manage to capture a decent beginners shot (1st image stacked in Photoshop 5x30seconds at iso 12800)- couldn't get DSS to work) of M42 but i'm still not happy. Im thinking my 750mm telescope might be to long. I have an EQ3 mount and a 25mm eyepiece (Cant even get the 10mm to focus on stars) with a D750 camera attached(focusing was hard but managed it with a bahtinov mask - 2nd image of Sirius)). I can't get the scope and the camera to balance when RA and DEC are open with the DSLR attached, so I attracted some extra weights which balanced it, but resulted in trails.(3rd image) !! So I removed the weights and did a 2 min exposure, (ITS AVERAGE! to say the least) it's still not as tack sharp as I was expecting and the edge stars look odd - feel like it does not match the effort I put into polar aligning, focusing etc As for other objects nothing really showed up on long exposures Have I reached the bounds of my equipment ? The end of my tether... the edge of sanity Any suggestions before I spend a load of money or give up ! (Appreciate patience is key but I feel like im doing everything right but somehow something isn't going well, or the scope is out some how) Thanks in advance Rob

I have a Skywatchers 150p and and eq3 mount, a Barlow x2, 10mm, 25mm, a t piece some metal tube that looks like a photography extension tube. Let me firstly say my astronomy ability is pretty poor. I have not tried to get the auto tracking working as my polar alignment went wrong and the space in my garden was limited. I will also say I love photography and really got the scope to eventually take astrophotography. I got the scope in July. Due to weather and the general unsociable ours of or sun my first few uses of the scope have been a challenge to say the least. I thought I would start simple and view the moon, first experiences were good - saw some wicked craters and detail with different combinations of the Barlow, 10 and 25. I have tried to photograph the moon with varying success, focusing is really difficult, and what looks sharp on the cam often doesn't translate to sharp on the pc. I haven't tried stacking images yet or tracking but that might help. Due to our small garden the moon hasn't really presented its self in a favourable position to try this. Not tried viewing planets yet for the same reasons. the attached image is my attempt of using the ipad cam against the eyepiece, fail. I digress, back to the question at hand, I have moved the scope up to our dormer room 3rd floor as I'm currently renovating the dining room. This morning I got woke up at 5 ish am for some reason, had a look out the window and to my joy there was jupiter a little to the left of the moon in the middle of Gemini ! I got the scope lined up and thought ill start with a 10 mm only. I tried to focus but it would only go way beyond the focus required or way below, no fine enough adjustment, there was no gaps between the moons and jupiter, at best it appeared as a blob with a tail, looked a little bit like a small white match stick - all joined up. I tried with the Barlow and the 10mm - same issue but increased issue. am I doing something wrong, are my expectations to great? I was expecting to see separation at least between the jupiter and its moons and at best some detail on jupiter. please help! Rob