The Admiral

It's a bit of a horses for courses question really, it all depends on how serious you are about astronomy. I started with a spotting 'scope but found it a devil to align on a target, and its shape didn't help that either, having a bulge at the eyepiece end where the 45° prism is. But it is a good 'scope and an expensive one to boot, and I could have acquired a decent astronomical 'scope for the same price. But if you can only afford just one 'scope and are interested in both wild-life and astronomy, well, it may be your best bet. It strikes me that it is the mount which is the problem for you, and as others have suggested an Alt-Az mount is a good way to go. It seems 'more logical' in use. If you go even further and get a GOTO Alt-Az mount then that will find the targets for you, though you will need to be able to 'calibrate' the mount so that it points correctly. That isn't difficult but will need a finder of some sort for the 'scope. Which is where a proper astro 'scope is to be preferred because there are fittings to take the finder which can be mounted onto the telescope tube, if it doesn't already come with one. For visual astronomy an AZ mount will be perfectly acceptable. Don't be put off by this, this isn't strictly true. Perfectly acceptable astro images can be made with a driven Alt-Az mount, within limitations. There is a long thread on this site devoted to that. It depends on what your ultimate aspirations are, but even so, it's a good way to 'cut one's teeth' on astro-imaging. But don't be put off, there are some amazing things to see. If you are new to astronomy then it would be well worth your while joining a local astronomy club and seeing what it all involves, before departing with hard earned cash. Ian

Doing a bit more sleuthing, at the time of my imaging on 25th we had an ENE breeze at ground level, and as we were then under the influence of high pressure I would postulate that any high clouds would have been subjected to a more northerly breeze. As M101 was itself more or less ENE this would mean that the cloud would have been drifting from left to right across the frame, which is more or less what I observe. So if anything this reinforces the assumption, though quite why it should appear in the way it did I don't know. One can only assume that the wipe algorithm was confused by the varying pattern of light and dark. Ian

Did you take flats Herzy, and if so, before or after the session? Did they show any abnormalities? I've just done a bit more checking. I stacked the flats and examined the RGB separately; no sign of anything unusual. I scanned through the individual subs and whilst there was nothing major that might have given rise to the artefact, I did notice that the background 'red fuzz' appeared quite blotchy and gave the appearance of drift between subs, so I'm wondering if this was the result of thin high cloud drifting in the wind. Ian

Hmm, OK. I'm not familiar with PSP, and I'm not sure how a change of operating system could bring that about. I do wonder though if data is ever that consistent. Light pollution alone would not be the same. Ian

Well caught Happy-Kat. As you say, it makes a nice change to see one of the rarer targets. My images always have some stars which are saturated, so I can't quite understand your surprise, if I understand you correctly. Ian

Right, I've had another (well, several actually!) go and whilst not getting to the bottom of it, I have at least managed to suppress it by using a higher aggressiveness in wipe-vignetting. This has also allowed me to extend the frame size to include NGC 5422. Because this is in the stacking artefact zone I've ended up needing to clone some of the background back in, in that extreme corner. I think this must now be the definitive image! So, in summary, I collected a total of 205 x 30s subs at ISO1600 (battery ran out on the final batch ) on 25th March 2017, from which I selected 147 to stack in AstroArt. I used 60 flats and a generic bias from 200 frames. Processing was performed in StarTools and final polishing in both Lightroom and PWPro. The usual equipment: Fuji X-T1 through an Altair 102mm f/7 Super ED with a TS Photoline 2" 0.79x reducer/flattener. Mounted on a Nexstar 6/8SE Alt-Az mount, now with added StarSense! (even if the operator of it doesn't have any ). Ian

Thanks Ken. I'm quite pleased I've also captured some detail in NGC 5474, which apparently is a rare dwarf spiral galaxy, in the M101 group. One can make out the spiral nature of the galaxy and the star forming regions, just! The pic I showed is of the stacked fits, after wiping and hard stretching. There's nothing obvious in the subs, but then without dealing with the backgrounds in all of them individually, I don't really expect to be able to. I might check a selection when I have a moment. It wasn't a dewy evening, and a quick glance at the OG when I was doing the flats at the end of the session revealed no misting up. It's very much the sort of effect one might get with ST if one doesn't crop all of the stacking artefacts away before wiping. But as I say, I cropped quite a bit off so I can't believe I left any stacking artefacts. It was also an easterly target so field rotation shouldn't have been excessive (though the mount was wandering a bit). Ian EDIT. I think I may have a way around it! I'll report later when I've had a chance to implement.

Thank you Neil, and thanks to StarTools! Ian

Thanks Happy-Kat. I agree with you about what equipment is used. So often one sees a pic in forum and there's nothing about what it took to get the image, other than a list of subs, times and whether it's L, R, G, B, or Ha, or whatever. I'm sometime guilty of that mind, like in my above image . Ian

I've just had a quick process of my M101 from last night. There's something odd going on here; this is heavy stretch after after cropping and wiping, and I have this odd effect mainly visible in the top left, but it does extend to around the galaxy. It doesn't matter how hard I crop (and this is already quite a crop) I can't get rid of it. There's nothing like it on the flats, and of course I didn't take any darks, which might have revealed if there was any amp glow. But that said, I've never seen anything like this before so I would be surprised if amp glow is now rearing its head. Any ideas? I suppose it might be an effect of high cloud, such as a vapour trail, but there was quite a breeze yesterday so I wouldn't have thought it would hang around in one place too long. I don't recall anything like it on M64 I did the day before. Anyway, I've pressed on with the processing just to see what I could get out, and this is the result. The black point is set quite hight but the artefact is still just about visible. Not too sad. There is some chromatic aberration visible on some of the bright stars - whether it's down to my optics or ice in the high atmosphere I wouldn't care to say. The galaxy towards the bottom right is NGC 5474, and near the middle of the LHS is NGC 5477. I had hoped to reveal NGC 5422 off beyond the top but it was right in the crop area needed as a result of field rotation. Ian

Thanks Nige. I like the way your mind works Ian

Nice one, very pleasing to the eye. Ian

Agree and I have toyed with that, but Tuttle is too high for my set up. I know there are others, but as I said with so few decent imaging nights one has to be selective. Ian

Do you think you'll end up guiding your SCT and trying some long FL treats, or are you a committed nebula man? Ian

With my set up Ken I'm getting 1.7"/px, rather better than seeing. The overall FoV is 2.3° x 1.6°, and yes, it is a smallish crop. Here's the Astro Tools rendition: I did the Leo Triplet the other (bright) night, with poor results that I posted, and I'm going to have another go at Makarian's Chain before long, which would be a repeat of last year's attempt. Planning M101 tonight, if the wind doesn't cause me too much grief. At least that's galaxy is a bit larger than M64, and there are other galaxies which should be in the field. Virgo is rising a bit late for me at the moment. Too many things to try and unhelpful weather. Ian

I had a wee go at this wee object last night. What do you reckon? I think I'm pushing the limits with this scope, especially in Alt-Az. I am rather taken by galaxies, but not many come in large. This is the first go I had with my new StarSense, so I'm glad I ended up with anything after spending a frustrating couple of hours in the cold trying to follow the meagre instructions. I stacked 109 of my 193 x 30s subs (yup, I was being picky) in AA, and then did a quick process in ST, with a bit of help from the colour module, followed by a bit of noise reduction in LR. Usual gear, Fuji X-T1 through an Altair 102mm f/7 Super ED with a TS Photoline 2" 0.79x reducer/flattener. Mounted on a Nexstar 6/8SE Alt-Az mount. Ian M64 'Black-Eye' galaxy.

With this lousy weather we've been having I've not been on here much, but with our first clear(ish) night for ages, and despite a 90% Moon trying to get in on the act, I had a go at the Leo Triplet. When I brought the gear in it was dripping, so I think that there was a lot of water in the air, though I think the seeing was reasonable. Better than I thought it would turn out, considering, but when I look back at what I'd achieved a year ago I think this is certainly no better, despite double the number of subs. Rather noisy. Previously I'd not used the 0.69x reducer/flattener, which may have given me larger view in the frame, but I thought that the more 'concentrated' photons would yield better results. May be I'll try again if better conditions present themselves, because I really wanted to improve on my earlier exploits. Perhaps with such small objects I've reached the kit's limitations. This image is comprised of 180 x 30s stacked subs, taken 16 March 2017. Subs were stacked with AstroArt, processed in StarTools, using the colour module and final tweaking in Lightroom. No darks, just flats and a master bias. Equipment: Fuji X-T1 through an Altair 102mm f/7 Super ED with a TS Photoline 2" 0.79x reducer/flattener. Mounted on a Nexstar 6/8SE Alt-Az mount. Ian

Well, you have to start somewhere! And that's a good start. More often than not it all comes down to total exposure, so you'll have to get into stacking, and teasing out the detail with processing. That can make or break an image. But don't give up . Ian

Ken, I'd be very interested to hear just how good the alignment is just by doing the 'soft' alignment using the StarSense, and what sort of exposure durations you in fact do achieve. If they are good without too much trouble the prospect of EQ imaging for me is more attractive. The reasons I never went the EQ route was because I don't have sight of Polaris and as I set up from scratch each time I image I really don't want too much hassle - life's too short as it is! Guiding and drift aligning really is a step too far. Not that the weather is co-operating! Ian

Thanks Ken. So, if it works , that's quite a slick routine. I wasn't aware the StarSense could do that, and the device certainly helps automate the operation. By the way, I see that FLO are now offering the EVO mount, on its own, for ~£900, so Alt-Az imaging isn't the cheaper entry option as it was with the Nexstar SE (it cost me about half that), and is on a parr with EQ mounts. True, there is the Star Discovery but its load capability is lacking. Ian

Can StarSense and ASPA be used together, or do you have to align conventionally before using ASPA, and then switch to StarSense? ASPA does appear to take a lot of the pain of polar alignment away, and works when you don't have sight of Polaris, but I wonder how good an alignment you can achieve, and the maximum length of sub you can use. I guess it also requires precise centring of stars, so does that mean using a graticule eyepiece rather than centring on the live view image? Ian

Well who saw that one coming? . You've achieved a lot Ken and I'm sure the Alt-Az has allowed you to cut your teeth to the point where it's limitations are holding you back. Good luck with your future ventures and we shall miss you not providing us a standard to aim for. New hurdles to jump! Ian