hyak

That is odd, makes me think there might be something wrong with the power cable. Make sure it's not damaged anywhere and that the fuse inside the battery-side plug is making contact. If it were me I would jiggle the crap out of the cable and see if the power light comes up.

That series is such a great camera. I have a 10 year old D7000 that's been used and abused and it's still running strong. Will you connect it to a PC for imaging? The one thing that bothers me about the D7000 is no articulating screen. That wasn't an issue until I bought a newer DSLR and realized how convenient it is. If you plan to use it without a PC you might want to look at the D5XXX series. Not as robust, but they have some nice features and at least here in the US are fairly inexpensive used.

That's much cleaner than my image. Would you mind sharing what tool you used to touch it up?

Thanks for the feedback. I was following a tutorial and there were quite a few steps focused on noise reduction. I'll try re-processing the image to see if I can cut down on the mottling.

I've taken a DSO images over the past couple of years - single images with poor guiding and no stacking or processing. Here's my first go at a processed image. It needs improvement, but I'm happy with it as a first attempt. I did learn a lot over the weekend, most importantly I learned that I should sleep for a few hours before processing an image. I spent several hours trying to correct a color issue, and I was so tired that I missed what was right under my nose (wrong bayer matrix for my camera). I also learned the importance of a good mount. I used my shiny new EQ6-R Pro for the first time this past weekend and my guiding has never been so good. Here are the details: Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 81 Guide Scope: William Optics Guide Star 61 Imaging Camera: Atik Horizon II OSC Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120MM Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro Lights: 30 @ 120 seconds Darks: 20 @ 120 seconds Processed in Pixinsight, LightRoom and PhotoShop Feedback is welcome. I might have cropped the image too much, M27 might not have been the best target for my camera/telescope.

Thanks for posting, I love seeing outreach photos. Outreach is one of the things I miss most right now, and there's no telling when we'll be able to start things up again. The attached photos is from one of our last star parties held at Pedernales State Park. The monument in the center is an obelisk with a Polaris spotter on top.

Do you guys have cookies? I was told the dark side would have cookies, that's why I'm here.

I have an Atik Horizon II and have enjoyed using it for EEVA. I recently started using it for non-EEVA imaging (total newbie). My primary imaging telescope is a WO Zenithstar 81. The FOV with the Horizon is too large for many of the targets I'm interested in. The Hypercam 183C TEC looks like it might be a good option based on the FOV and CCD suitability calculators on Astronomy Tools. I do have a few other telescopes I might try in addition to the Z81 - SpaceCat 51, 130pds and NP101is. I've used the SpaceCat with a DSLR, but after purchasing the Horizon my DSLR cameras have been collecting dust. The 183C seems to be a decent match for all of those telescope. Granted, I'm a total imaging newbie so I'm sure there's more to it than FOV. Any suggestions? I should note that I'm located in the US. There's a significant shortage of cameras here and I'll likely order from FLO or Altair depending on the camera I chose.

I'm using a Berlebach Report with my SkyGuider Pro. It's not super compact, but it's light and very stable. It's solid enough that I also use it with a Giro Mini and Stellavue M2 for visual. It's my most used tripod.

Were you able to attend the Apollo 50th celebration at Johnson Space Center last year?

I've been lurking on this forum since 2014, and I'm surprised no one has ousted me yet. 😀 I live in Bertram, TX. It's a rural area about an hour Northwest of Austin, if anyone is familiar with the area. The content in this forum has been incredibly useful over the past several years, I search for information and read through post almost daily. I figured it was time to stop lurking and finally introduce myself. I'll share one of my most memorable newbie moments. I was at our club's dark sky site six years ago with a shiny new Orion XT12i. It was late December and unusually cold for Texas - cold enough that only one other person was on the observing field. I fiddled with the XT12i for two hours and still couldn't get it to align, I was in over my head. I hadn't yet learned the constellations and sat there cold and defeated. The other person on the field walked over and introduced himself. He must have noticed that I was struggling. Jim gave me a few pointers on how to use the telescope manually and showed me how to find M42. That was my first view of the Great Orion Nebula and I was blown away. Jim showed me how to find a few other objects, but I kept going back to M42. I might have given up the hobby if it weren't for Jim. After that night I vowed to learn the night sky and not rely solely on computers. I recently started imaging and am once again in over my head, so I figured it was time to stop lurking and start interacting with folks. Steven