smr

Thanks, yes it has been cropped in quite a bit.

Thanks very much. Thanks very much.

As John said that's very impressive considering. Which camera is it ? Scope? Light pollution filter used?

Thank you.

I think I prefer this one, the colours are a bit more subtle. What do you think?

Whilst on Holiday last week I managed to get 5 hours of data on M31. The subs consisted of 3, 4 and 5 minutes. Gear used in sig, but as I was imaging from Bortle 4 skies near the coast I didn't use a Light Pollution filter. Processed in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

I did mostly 5 minute exposures last night. As a test at the end of the imaging session I did a 10 minute exposure...

Thanks Scooot yeah that makes sense. Left it at ISO 200.

Yes, thanks. Just didnt know if i was clipping any data?

Hi all. Imaged Andromeda last night and will image again with clear skies forecast later. Just wondering though... at ISO 200 and 3 or 5 minute exposures my histogram data looks very close to the left. Is it ok or should I raise my ISO up to bring the data over to the right a bit more? 5 min at top and 3 min below

Thanks guys I will bear in mind those targets for another time. I decided to image Andromeda. I havent imaged since April so it was probably a good idea not to try and image something more difficult. My guiding was going haywire to begin with. Not sure if it was the wind or what not but I began as soon as it started getting dark and M31 was only about 25 deg up. I lost my guide star a few times and nearly packed it in for the night as I was feeling the breeze tiring me out a bit and getting frustrated with phd2. Everything else had gone fine. Then as soon as M31 started ascending towards the Zenith the guiding started getting better and better oddly enough. I dont know why that is... maybe lack of turbulence / atmospheric pressures? It stabilised so much that I went from 3 minute to 5 minute exposures for the last hour. All at ISO 200. I can make out the outline of the Milky Way ahead and the skies here just look so much cleaner and darker, like black velvet. At ISO 200 and 3 minute exposures the histogram is juuust about seperated from the lhs of the graph. At 5 minutes it barely shifts much more but the peak is wider so its obviously gathering more data... in the 5 min subs I am sure I can see bits of Ha as well on the outer dust lanes. It would be nice to get more 5 min subs and as many as I can. Another thing is I think the seeing and transparency was good last night. The best I have ever imaged. The stars werent twinkling at all.. i read somewhere that sometimes the best seeing is when it has rained during the day and it did shower yesterday.

It looks like it will be clear skies but its a little breezy. Not too bad next to the caravan though which offers some shelter.

Wells Next the Sea. Camera is Canon 80D unmodded. Z73 scope on HEQ5 Pro guided.

Very nice image but im not sure I will get 15 hours on it.

Ah Bodes Galaxy. Its a nice galaxy and I probably could get a nice result but its quite small in the frame of my camera and scope. Hoping to image something a bit more frame filling but it is potentially a target. Could do M82 at the same time.

No i havent.. would that be feasible with an unmodded dslr?

Hi all I'm on holiday at the moment and have a bortle 4 sky, 21.69mag. I'm wondering what to image. If my DSLR was Ha modified I'd pick whatever I want to image, and probably the Veil Nebula but I dont want to waste time on a target like that if the result isnt going to be great... or would it be ok under such skies? As a safe target I am thinking Andromeda where it should be easier to image with an unmodified DSLR and it would fill the frame nicely at 70mm. Or are there any relatively bright Ha / Nebulae targets or other which should be be ok to image? Gear is in sig. Thanks for any advice.

Hi guys, Next week I'll be on Holiday at my family caravan on the Norfolk coast where it's Bortle 4/3 skies, I can see the milky way above there so hopefully it'll be clear skies. I've been wondering how to attach my DSLR to my HEQ5 Pro and have just come up with a solution so I thought it might be helpful to others wondering how to do this. I won't be able to guide, but I'd have thought I won't need to with a 24mm or 50mm lens on the HEQ5 Pro? Can anyone confirm this? Anyway here's the simple solution, just use your tripod head quick release plate clamped into the mount on the HEQ5... Incidentally I've moved from one end of my village to the other (from nearer the nearest city to further away from the city and towards more rural, only a 2 minute drive but it's the difference between Bortle 6 and what I now have as a Bortle 5 sky)... wouldn't have thought moving 2 mins away would make a difference on the bortle scale!

Hi all, Been a while since I imaged anything, last imaging session was in March, been busy moving house and lost some motivation with the long days as well, but I've got my mojo back. I decided to image the Andromeda Galaxy after looking at DSO Browser earlier, clouds permitting. The reason for this is that I should be able to image this more successfully with my unmodified DSLR. I've not been happy with Ha rich targets with the equipment I have probably because of the lack of total imaging time and UK weather but moreso that my camera isn't Ha modified, so I'm going to save those emission nebula etc. for when I get a dedicated astronomy camera. M31 is an easier target to image having said that. Funnily enough I then stumbled across this article which says that Andromeda will be nearer to Earth for the first time in 150 million years (!) than it has ever been before in August.... so it won't have been this close since mankind didn't exist! http://www.scienceinfo.news/in-august-the-andromeda-galaxy-will-move-closer-to-earth-a-cosmic-event-that-only-happens-once-every-150-million-years/ On a technical note I am wondering whether I should ditch my cheap OVL light pollution filter. With it, I am able to expose for 3-5 minutes therefore gathering more light during each exposure. Without the filter I am not able to expose for nearly as long, probably a minute at ISO 200/400 which is the recommended ISO setting for my DSLR. I have no sodium lamps near me, the village is 95 percent LED and what's also good is that where I live now the LED lights turn off after 12am. But from my back garden there are no direct lights visible ( it backs onto a field )... so I am wondering whether I should remove the filter and shoot without it, shorter subs, or keep it on as they claim to help with 'general skyglow light pollution' ... any advice welcome.

I've upgraded! My Star Adventurer Mount looks dwarfed now! William Optics ZenithStar 73 & HEQ5 Pro Rowan Belt Modded.

even compared to spending a bit more, ie. if I bought a WOZ73 scope and the flattener (and whatever else is needed to connect my DSLR) would I still have to faff around trying to get it to work, guessing what sort of combination will produce good images?

exactly as I thought then, that just all sounds like loads of hassle and not what I want anyway, all I want is to buy the scope and whatever else I need, plug it all together and start imaging, I haven't got the knowledge or expertise to start faffing around with spacing etc. disappointing really as the scope is so cheap for what looks like great IQ. I don't want to reduce an already very wide focal length either.

I'm still yet to get around to buying my first refractor. As the ED72 has been out for a few months now, I have a couple of questions... Firstly, will it hold the weight of my Canon 80D DSLR? It's an APS-C DSLR and weighs a bit more than a Canon 700D but not more than a 7D Mk2. Secondly, how easy is it to achieve a good reliable performance. Ideally I would want a refractor which I can just plug things into and it works, because I come from a photography background where you just pop a lens on and away you go, so spacing, and measuring, and back focus distance is all alien to me. Would it be easy enough for me to achieve, if someone would be so kind as to tell me what I need and give clear instructions as to how to go about fitting everything together. Or 3) Would it be too much hassle and would I be better off buying a refractor like say, a Z73 and just buying the flattener for that and everything works straight away? That's where I am at, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. I have imaged before but not on an advanced level (ie. guiding, PHD etc.) but guiding is something I want to do and if I'm going to be using longer focal lengths in the region of 500-600mm I'd need to be really. Which would be easier from what I gather with a scope as you can just attach a guidescope on the tube rings. With a Camera lens it's not as easy as that in that they don't come with tube rings.

Not very old, bought in 2016. It has a focal length switch to avoid lens creep.