serbiadarksky

24 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

Hi guys, 
I am a bit out of topic, but was not able to find examples on any other places and this topic has lots of photographers in on place.

So I do apologise in advance.

I recently tried to make some "Longer" exposures with my Canon Kit Lens and was struggling to take flats after ...
The camera is fitted piggyback on 130PDS, I tried to shoot Flats at daytime at the sky, but cam catches some little clouds, so tried to place my white T-shirt on the lens, in this case, it catches the pattern of the shirt

It was much more easier with the scope than with kit lens!  

Any advice? 
 

P.S. I do need flats (as I noticed on other forums, some say they are not needed for Ap without the scope), I have strong vignetting and even some dust bunnies.

It can be fixed in lightroom, it really fix, but....you will need flats if you really have dust bunnies

On 20.2.2018. at 00:59, Ryan_86 said:

Loving your efforts??

Ive recently added the z61 and a stand alone guiding system to my set up. Its been cloudy ever since. 

Keep inspiring us with your images pal.

I will be replacing those gym weights with wrist/ankle straps weights.

Cheers

Ryan

Looks nice Ryan.

Sorry for answering now, i was quite inactive

By this time you had several clear nights, did you maganed to do some images?

Did you tedted the guiding system?

On 8.1.2018. at 23:08, SteveNickolls said:

The past two night's have been clear here and I began taking exposures of Simeis 147 (Spaghetti Nebula) as suggested by serbiadarksky :-)

For Christmas I received a modded Canon 700D DSLR and an Astronomik clip-in Ha 12nm filter which were both used with the SA mount capturing exposures on both nights. The image below is a slightly cropped composite from 28x 600s plus 1x 780s and 5 x 900s light frames (in total just over 6 hours) at 85mm, f/2 and ISO 200 together with 32 assorted dark frames and a master flat and bias frame (each from x50 exposures). The frames were stacked In DSS and processed in StarTools.

Judging by what others have employed in terms of hours of exposures to image this faint region I'm still happy to have imaged something I would never be able to observe from where I live.

At the 2 o'clock position in the composition is Elnath and to the left, M37.

Cheers,
Steve

 

Looks awesome Steve

Now do 30 lights at 3min and stack them in pixinsight (it have the trial) and choose the Ha to be red and the light for lum and thats all, there is no any others filters needed

it will look awesome red 

1 minute ago, Randalloverby said:

Oh I know, just added the extra camera cause it looked cool, LOL, the balance with the 5D and the 70-200 on top is perfect though. The tripod is a Manfrotto that I bought just for this but its not as stable as I had hoped. I added a sandbag to the center column which helps out a lot.

Manfrotto is common with the SA, but i never understand why people do that stupid thing...for 65€ you get the SA tripod which is designed for the SA, but no, instead of doing that a lot of imagers (i did that stupid thing to.....) buy manfrotto for 200€+..

51 minutes ago, Randalloverby said:

Yes, I have always saved to the memory card then process etc on the desktop. I use a laptop and BYEOS when I shoot here at home and normally I go out from time to time just to check on it and review the images taken up until that point, then press continue. I am very much looking forward to shooting without hauling around a powertank and laptop. Thanks.

Uh you are slightly overloading it

Keep as light as possible to track longer with accuracy

59 minutes ago, M Astronomy said:

Well not all of them are, as he did say that he used a scope for some of them.

Well with the scope and that much of detail on andromeda he must use guiding becpuse unguided he cant or anyone cant archieve that.

3 hours ago, MattJenko said:

Missed this thread till now. Shame on me. Some awesome work being done with this little mount.

I have not had my SA out for a while after a house move, but here are some of the images managed over the last 18 months with it, all unguided with both scope setup and a Canon 450d/50mm lens. Also showing off the mono rig on a Berlebach tripod to keep the whole thing low and out of the wind.

 

Thoose images are not with 50mm lenses.

1 hour ago, richyrich_one said:

Easily

It can easily handle the 13pds?

3 hours ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

Hi,

Well i guess its my turn to post here now, I've had a 130 for almost a year now, I'm using it with a basic EQ5. These are my best images; I'm working on software/control reworking then i should be back into imaging for the new year.

 

 

John

So if the regular eq5 can handle it, than can the NEQ5 Pro goto handle it for photography with dslr+guide cam+guide scope on it?

18 minutes ago, Randalloverby said:

Just curious, I purchased the SA to focus more on widefield and its portability but I am still using my laptop to run BYEOS. If I was looking for something smaller to control my setup, what would be the route to go..a tablet or an intervalometer ?

An intervalomezer is the best solution if you want to be fully portabily.

39 minutes ago, Randalloverby said:

I decided to redo this target with the SA and managed 210 sec subs unguided with the 70-200 at 95mm. Edited with StarTools. More recently I shot some of the Milky Way and had no problems getting 7 min exposures with pinpoint stars at 40mm. I have to say I am pretty impressed with the unit. The best advice I could give is to have a sturdy mount or tripod,  I am using a Manfrotto with a DIY sandbag for extra stability. Now I just need some clear skies which is looking pretty doubtful according to the weatherman. Merry Christmas everyone !

I like this type of processing, but it looks very dark.

My opinio but still like it

8 hours ago, geordie85 said:

Is this true? So if the polarfinder app has Polaris at the very bottom, I need to put Polaris at the very top of the circle in the polar scope?

Nope

I mean if you use the app for the star adventurer mini

I used another app and it doesnt give me the rotated image

8 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

It's not a polar alignment problem, it's a speed control issue.

Try 1.5x speed 

23 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi

Thanks but I've not used the polar scope. As I said, it's not tracking fast enough in RA so board swap is likely to be the only option. But probably not worth messing around with. Maybe I'll get a replacement in the New Year - I'll see.

Louise

Louise,

I think you can give it a go with the polar scope, than how did you aligned it?

6 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi all

I'm impressed with the images posted here. I have an SA but it's been in dry dock for quite a while (I bought it over 2 years ago). That's because I could never get it to track correctly. I got it out last night to have another go (though I wasn't expecting it to self-repair!). I attached a canon 1100d with a 200mm Super Takumar lens via the counterbalance bar. Made sure it was balanced. Of course, I put brand new batteries in . But tracking is still way off. I can get 5s but anything longer gives streaks in RA which obviously get worse with longer exposures. I suppose it is tracking too slowly in RA with the '*' setting. I'm wondering if anyone knows about any possible adjustments I could make - either electronic or mechanical? 

Thanks for any replies

Louise

Im sorry to hear a bad experience from you.

Just to ask- did you know that thr SA polar scope is 180° rotated?

If polris is at 11:30 for expample..you will have to set i to 5:30

Maybe it can help 

49 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

On the evenings of the 8th and 11th of December I was able using the SA mount, Canon 600D DSLR and 85mm lens to image the Flaming Star Nebula region in Auriga and was able to marry the sets of images in DSS and subsequently process in StarTools. The following image results from just over 6 hours of light frames (a record for me). In total there were 21 x240s light frames taken plus 22 x300s, 15 x420s and 4 x480s light frames at ISO 200 f/2. Longer exposures were able to be taken as the object rose in the sky. Additionally 20 x240s dark frames plus 40 x300s, 17 x420s and 16 x480s dark frames plus x50 flat and bias frames were also stacked. DSS was used to stack the frames and StarTools to process the resulting image. 

The two larger open clusters are M36 and M38. To the lower left corner are three patches of nebulosity (Sharpless 2-232 and 231 and 233). The lighter belt around 2-232 can be seen running from the 7 to 1 o'clock position.

Weather permitting I hope to have another go this time using my Samyang 135mm lens.

Cheers,
Steve

Steve,

Its a nice image with a lot of redish nebulosity and i like it

Maybe try to captire the spagheti nebula with thr 135mm it can go up to 4-5min subs and that contains a lot of details!

8 minutes ago, Randalloverby said:

Yes, I do have a laptop and currently run BYEOS with my telescope. Thanks, I will check into it.

I should suggest to take a look on this
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p8915_Altair-GPCAM2-AR0130-Mono-Guide-Imaging-Kamera--1-2-Megapixel---Komplettset.html

15 minutes ago, geordie85 said:

You sold your canon 6d for only €400? Maybe I need to search the Serbian 2nd hand market for one. They go for more than double that here. 

Auto focus doesnt worked, the baterry died fast, the body had dog bittes (huskies what can i say...) so 400€ was a good deal

6 minutes ago, smr said:

Why didn't you mod the 6D instead? 

The service in serbia dont take the risk for it, I sold it for 400€ so pretty good deal and got the 600D already moded for 300€

2 minutes ago, M Astronomy said:

Is the Orion Mini Guider a stand alone guider then with no need for laptop? After a while getting good with my Star Adventurer I think I'll want to try guiding, but I really don't fancy taking a laptop around with me, as the whole point of the setup I'm trying to build is portability. How good is non-laptop guiding?

Best standalone guider for the price is Synguider and its a good guider

1 minute ago, smr said:

Which guider and scope would you recommend and do you use?

 

I have a question about sensors - if, for example, doing 60 second exposures for an hour and leaving 5 second delay between each exposure, can this damage a DSLR sensor? I only have one DSLR which I use everyday so I don't want to damage the sensor. Would it heat up too much?

I use 8 minute exposures and no damage, okay outside it is -10°C

Well, I use the orion mini guider with a 50mm scope images here:

I sold the 6d and got a modded 600D

23 minutes ago, Randalloverby said:

Thanks. I'm looking for something more portable than the setup I have now for imaging the Milky Way, time lapse and targets like you describe. I would love to get into guiding down the road with my AVX as well if my wallet ever allows it.

Have you got a laptop?

If yes there are some pretty good guiding systems for 180£(camera) and 50£(scope)

If you have no laptop, than a standalone guider like the Synguider(200£) and small scope 50£

On 9.12.2017. at 02:12, Randalloverby said:

I am getting a Star Adventurer next week and have found a lot of useful information here on this topic.

As Steve said, you will enjoy it

But..dont have unreal expectatons

Dont imagine that you will be able to do hubble quality images.

You can get decent images of like orion pleiades etc...maybe if you add guiding you can get some really really high quality images

Well, not the best for AP

I would recommend canon, as I used the 6D, 600D and 450D

6D expensive uh

600D nothing to say, paradise for AP

450D cheap, easy to to the astro mod, live view 

11 hours ago, smr said:

Finally all set up, just to see how everything goes together. Thanks for the help. What I meant about the screwing bolt is showed into pics 1 - it will leave the mounting plate with lots of little indentations and marks on it and I wasn't sure if that's how it was supposed to be.

The unit does seem well made, although the battery cover is very flimsy and comes off if you as much as breathe on it. Apart from that it seems quite solid. 

Does my pan tilt head look a bit daft on it? Will it work well for astrophototography do you think or should I invest in a ball head which may be easier ?

I've not done any alignment or anything I just wanted to see how everything attaches together first. 

If all looks set to go I guess the next thing to learn is how to locate polaris and align properly. Any apps that can help me you'd recommend please. I've got an Android phone.

 

As Dave I use a ball head too, more stable and easier to move, also if you got an guide cam with scope you can get another ball head, attach the ball head with the guiding setup on the lower part of the brackett and the dslr on the upper with the lens

Good luck