Dazzyt66

Taken from my bortle 7/8 back garden when there was a brief break in the clouds last night - I really just wanted to see how much difference the CLS filter made. Taken with 200mm prime lens at f16! (yes, stupidly I turned the aperture the wrong way as I was in such a rush!!) This is just 20x30s lights (best 16 used), iso1600, 20 Darks, 40 Flats stacked in DSS (for a change!), processed in StarTools and final tweaks in Gimp. I know its a bit rubbish and slightly out of focus but it bodes well for my filter when I can do longer sessions with the right settings!! I only imaged it cos that's where the break in the clouds were and when I saw 'supernova remnant' I couldn't resist!

Same here!!!👍

Brilliant. As I live in Bortle 7/8 this gives me lots of inspiration for what's possible! Great image!! 👍

This is what I follow albeit for Siril rather than DSS for prep. The main problem (apart from user error 😂) was which ‘linear’ selection to make initially in ST as that makes a massive difference to image quality. The colour section will also be down to personal preference as I personally don’t like the default apply. It’s pretty straight forward once you work out your workflow and worth the money if you don’t want to spend PI or PS wise. 😊 ps I’ve tried doing some initial processing in Siril and then moving across to ST with not much success so I find it best just to stack and then go to ST - again that could be user error!

That sounds an excellent plan and if I could do it all again its the route I probably should've taken...🤣 Good luck! Its a really rewarding hobby but can be a money pit if you let it!

It sounds easy when you read the blurb, but you'll still need a mount, so what starts as £700ish suddenly turns into £1500-£2000 if you include a HEQ5. I'm not saying that you need an HEQ5 but that is known to be the beginners 'AP standard'. You will always need polar aligning (or a way to do it without seeing the pole) to be able to take long exposures as well as other basic setup. IMO you'd be better of with a star tracker to begin with (unless you want to go down the HEQ5 route) which are relatively easy to setup and you'll get some decent images with just a DSLR, lens and a remote shutter control (there are plenty of Youtube videos showing what can be done). Assuming you have the DSLR and lens already the whole lot would cost around £300 new. This is the star tracker I'm hoping to get soon: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini (SAM) Wifi Astro-Imaging Mount Pro Pack | First Light Optics There aren't really any shortcuts to get decent AP images, I've tried lots and failed 🤣 there is plenty of advice here though and I'm sure others will have their own views of where to start. What I will say though is that a DSLR and lens will give you some great images with potential minimal outlay. Hope that helps. Daz

You can try it for free and see how you fare. In my case it took several work throughs of one of my images until I'd achieved something better - mainly to do with the initial import and manipulation in ST.

No need to feel silly - I originally got Ekos to control my scope and with a bit of DIY I built an autofocuser - and then decided to modify that to fit my DSLR lenses. Up until last night it was working fine which is why I thought the faster lens may have been an issue. I know next to nothing about photography except basic stuff. I'm not worried about pixel peepers - any image that looks OK is good enough for me! 🤣 Its currently bucketing down with rain so a clear sky at 4am might have been optimistic! 🤣

Thanks Paul. I've been having some great success with the AF module in Ekos - it's not the same as using the camera AF (which I couldn't do with the M42 lenses anyway on my EOS) - the module works brilliantly with my 135 & 200mm but for some reason couldn't achieve the last final steps with the 50mm. Although I didn't really have much time last night to try tweaking it - maybe the star selected was towards the edge of the field... anyway I digress... 🤣 Thanks for confirming - I'm hopeful that the non tracked shots will be good at 8s - it looks like it might be clear(ish) here around 4am so I'll give it a shot! 🤞

Hey, I got this lens used in vgc as I didn't have a 50mm for very widefield shots - and its fast. The thing is, I had a quick try with it last night using my usual autofocus setup in Ekos - I realised pretty quickly that the AF was not going to work properly at 1.8, it would get close but then fail. Clouds then came in so had to abandon. That said, the single frame I did get off was excellent - if a little out of focus. So, my questions are: Is it better to set the lens at say f4 to get a good focus and obviously the wide view (when using the Ekos autofocus) or step down (up??) even more? I'd also like to try and take some non tracked shots of Orion (as I need to do this away from my HEQ5 setup) on a tripod. I'm going to go for 8s exposures. Can I go f1.8 like this or again is it worth stepping down (or up??) again? Sorry if I got 'step up/down' confused - I'm not much of a photographer (but you'll know what I mean)! 🤣 Cheers Daz

I echo this. I have an ST80 which I've used for AP. Yes, you will get a decent image from the 120 although it will be far from perfect (and not much use for planets). On the other hand if you get a star tracking mount like this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/star-tracker-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-star-adventurer-mini-sam-wifi-astro-imaging-mount-bundle.html and use even just your stock 50mm lens with your 5d you will get far superior pictures. As you get used to AP you can then upgrade should you want to. For me, the camera lens combo gives me much satisfaction at the moment (my goto lens is a M42 adapted 200mm I got from ebay for £20) which gives me this (although I'm using a HEQ5 mount rather than a Star Tracker):

And I thought it was only me that spotted stuff like that!!! 🤣

100% agree with this. I have done exactly this recently and am already seeing some great benefits. I actually use Astroberry rather than StellarMate and it works really well, but that's just because I wanted to see how it all worked together before I spent any additional money. So all in all, I think my remote setup, including a focuser which I built myself cost me under £150. I access it on my Macbook, Windows PC via browser/vnc and even my iphone/ipad (using VNC). It connects on to my home wifi and is all powered from a £50 jumpstart powerbank! I wont bore everyone with my recent images using this setup but they can be found in the widefield section if you are interested 😁

To be fair my tripod and mount are permanently outside (covered of course) and polar alignment is pretty much spot on using the Ekos polar alignment tool - and of course I use autofocus and plate solving to centre the target, so all that prep helps the budget stuff perform as well as it can 🙂

I think this is a greatly informative thread @StuartT - and it proves 2 things definitely: 1. You are definitely capturing some great data! 2. As I think we all find as we move through the AP journey - processing is the absolute key on how that data transfers to image quality. I'm sure with all these great folks offering advice you'll find the solution. One thing I found when trying to see what throws up the curve balls is processing the image with one set of cals at a time - you'll then definitely see where the issue lies. I would try just darks and see what happens...

Thanks! It totally amazes me what I can accomplish 10mins from Donny centre with a cheapo lens and DSLR combo - obvs my mount is good though! 😁

Taken a few nights ago but redone today in StarTools now I seem to be getting the hang of it (previous version is my avatar). Best 50 frames from 90 x 60s iso1600, no cal frames apart from 5 darks I took today at roughly the same temp. I think this is a beaut! Thanks for looking 😀

I'm no photography expert and also new to AP but how I understand it is that binning reduces the size of your image (but improving noise levels) by 'combining' pixels. So basically is you start with an image (1x1 bin) and bin it by 50% (2x2 bin) you increase signal to noise ratio by 2 - I think! 🤣 I too don't like spending money if I don't need to (although it appears that AP can make you do this!) and have ditched imaging with scopes (for now) and am concentrating on DSLR/Lens AP. This can be REALLY cheap as you don't need a massive mount (although I have an HEQ5 already). In my case my kit is all used: DSLR - Canon 1100d -£60 ebay. I paid for the astro mod which was £70ish Lenses - I get these from ebay too. M42 lenses with adaptors are cheap. Dearest lens I have cost me £25. If you stick to prime lenses you can get some pretty decent images. I did this one last night with a 200mm prime lens (£20). There are some used Canon 350D's on ebay at the moment for around £20 and 600d around £100

Thanks Steve, that means a lot! It is literally my first process in ST using a 'properly' captured and stacked image with all fresh calibration frames - and a LOT of Youtube tutorials and reading of advice here! 😀 Thanks! Yeah, I'd read that to get a best out of a lens you need to go to mid F stop so it was either F8 or F11 - maybe F11 would've been better (?) - but then again, I only paid £20 for the lens on eBay...🤣

Thanks! My camera is an astro modded 1100D.

Hopefully this doesn't look too bad to all you AP pros! Taken with a 200mm prime lens at f8, 800iso in Bortle 7/8 skies (no filters). 120x60s lights (best 100 used), 20 Darks, 50 Bias, 40 Flats stacked in Siril. First time using ST with a calibrated M31 and I'm quite pleased! I'm a total ST newbie so its a bit of a curve - I'd have liked to have brought out more colour in the galaxy, but couldn't work out how to do this without making the stars ludicrous!! 🤣. Comments/feedback welcome. Thanks for looking. Daz

+1 for the t-shirt approach. I do this outside in daylight and it works great 😀

Stunning images! Must've been great there! 👍

I have an HEQ5 GOTO which I got initially with my Mak 150 but I now predominantly use with a DSLR and lens unguided. This is giving me some good results from my Bortle 7/8 back garden, is quick to set up (I leave it outside under cover) and is controlled via RasPi using Ekos. This enables me to set up a target, focus, plate solve and then leave it to go. Its probably 20 mins from deciding to go outside to capturing first frame. Take down is even quicker. I am also considering a Star Tracker to take on travels with the DSLR - I have taken the HEQ% but its quite heavy! If I had to choose again I'd still do HEQ5 Goto first as this gives great ease of finding targets quickly and is capable of numerous kit combos. I am considering the Rowan Belt mod too for when I eventually move to guiding, but should also benefit the unguided too.