Anthonyexmouth

1 hour ago, smr said:

Hi guys, 

Been a while since I posted on SGL and in this thread. I had a go at imaging M42 in February and was pleased with the image I got - considering it was my first attempt at aligning Polaris that night - and imaging. Since then I've been busy moving house and with work etc. and add cloudy nights to the mix... I went out on a couple of occasions though, and stupidly thought I was aligning on Polaris when it was another star - one time it was a star way off ! Frustrated I thought that my gear was to blame, so I didn't really give astro imaging much thought thereafter for quite a while, but I decided to pack my gear and take it with me on a recent Holiday - and I'm glad I did. I wasn't sure the gear was the problem so I did everything nice and methodically - setting up making sure I was on Polaris, levelling up the mount etc. and then found M31 and took a few shots to frame centrally ( delighted to see that my SA was fine and it was indeed just me being thick ) ... I was ecstatic to see M31 on the back of my camera - I would like to buy a go-to mount but I could imagine that that buzz wouldn't be there in finding an object (even though M31 turns out to be not that difficult to find - but still) yourself. Anyway, here's the image..

 

what camera/lens did you use? how much exposure time? nice detail in the dark areas

im in the process of planning my permanent pier, it wont have a shed, just some kind of small hardshell cover

how would you mount one of these if you wanted to use it as a quick grab scope to use with something like a star adventurer and dslr?

1 minute ago, serbiadarksky said:

And aim it to the sky or where? I dont have any lightbox..if i aim it to pc display where i open white paper in fullscreen than i have to center so onyl thw monitr will be visible?

you're probably over thinking this. anywhere it will get even illumination will be fine. 

22 minutes ago, serbiadarksky said:

Sorry, of topic

If i shot flats with lens what is the best method? And do i need to be in focus? Becouse if i stretch tshirt over lens i moove the focus..

thats why i used a cut out section of squash bottle. stretched pillow case over and slid it over the lens

i used the cotton pillow case because i found the t shirt being so close to the camera lens had an issue with the weave when pulled tight, the pillow case was tighter weave and looked better

I cut a section off a squash bottle and used a white cotton pillow case. 

1 minute ago, geordie85 said:

Do you have a bahtinov mask? They're great for finding perfect focus.

Out on the middle of nowhere after I finished work.

 

can you get them for camera lenses?

2 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

My personal experience is that the camera live view screen (even better if it flips out) is miles better for focusing that any PC screen can manage, use the x 5 then x 10 options and focus on the realy dim stars (these wont show up till focus is very close to optimal).

I expect I will get flak for this but do try it and check the in camera settings for ISO which should be temporarily turned high/shutter speed to 20 Seconds and play with the live view screen simulator options too, after focus is set then change the settings to the required positions.

Alan

 

yeah the screen flips out and i did zoom but maybe the cold made me rush. i have usually used BYEOS to focus but may try more with live view just to see how it goes. wish my focus rings were a little stiffer and not so slack

6 minutes ago, JemC said:

To my eyes it doesn't seem like there is anything wrong with your polar alignment, looks like you nailed it, well done done on your 1st tracked image,

looks like you just caught a small part of the roof in bottom left,

 

yeah, too cold to hang around and let orion get any further from the roofline. just noticed that flame nebula is just about showing in the pic too, wasn't expecting that. next step is to buy a WO zenithstar 61. 

4 minutes ago, geordie85 said:

They are both excellent pieces of software. You can't go wrong with either. If you think you might purchase a dedicated Astro camera at some point in the future I'd recommend apt as BackyardEOS is only for dslr whereas apt can do both.

 

good point. just got the trial of APT so i might try and stick with it. used byeos a bit for static widefield images. 

that was just focused through live view. ill wrap up a bit next time and focus with laptop. any opinions here on whether to buy APT or BackyardEOS? 

ok, heres my first tracked image. 90s ISO 400 f5 with my canon 760d and 55-250 ef-s lens at 55mm. i know its not focused but i wanted to see how my first polar alignment would fare. got a break in the cloud and went for it. comments and advice on what to change and why would be appreciated

wow, that looks quite a hefty lump on there. didnt realise they were so capable. will it take an ed80 and dslr?

what small scopes are suitable for this little mount if using a canon 760d? ive only got the kit 18-55 and a canon 55-250. if i just used the lenses what range of targets would i have.

cheers