teoria_del_big_bang

I think £1K is enough to get some decent equipment to get you going but be warned if you get a liking for it then you will spend this several times over (well that's my story anyway and I think so many of us on this forum). Please get the book I recommended though it really will give you some great knowledge and an insight into what equipment is needed and what types of software you will need from a very unbiased view. We all wanted to get going asap and depending where you live it maybe a matter of grabbing what imaging time you can due to weather, but, really a slower and methodical approach really does pay off and i think you actually see the rewards with better images far quicker than rushing in armed with little knowledge of the processes involved. But, I have to admit you sound keen and not expecting to do this for pennies so with our help I am sure you will succeed 🙂 Steve

Firstly welcome to SGL, honestly if you want to succeed in astrophotography you have made the perfect start joining. Lots of great knowledgeable people wiling to give good advice. Secondly, I think you need to reply with answers to @Cosmic Geoff post as we need to know these things, my advice would be not to say I want to image a bit of everything as both the equipment and the methods used are quite different. Certainly trying to buy equipment to do both planetary and DSO's I think will just mean you end up with gear not ideal for either and also because the processes used for each of these is quite different it also makes it much more difficult for you to do either of them well. Yes of course eventually you can do both but concentrating on one to begin with I think is the best approach. Thirdly before spending any cash on gear I would but a book or two, ask plenty of questions on this forum and use google to find out what is involved. One book you absolutely must get is "Every photon counts". There is quite a bit more to AP than pointing camera to space and taking an image, or even several images which are then stacked together. And I am sure you have already done some homework and probably aware of this but I certainly found "Every photon counts" really did explain things in very plain language I could easily understand leaving me with the knowledge I needed to get a good start and not buy lots of unnecessary gear. Whilst reading your books and learning by other means get involved on SGL and eventually when part of this community you will have access to the 2nd hand sales on here which means you could save lots of money and will get good condition 2nd hand gear. Good luck in your new adventure 🙂 Steve

Very good point and I did mean to ask but in all my waffling I forgot (age thing 🙂 ) Steve

Unfortunately, I agree with both replies so far. Whilst many have produced perfectly good images on a budget I would think the budget is well in excess of £300. You may look and see telescopes for around the £200-£300 mark and some may work okay for AP but the scope is only part of what you need, really you need a very steady tracking mount otherwise it can be difficult and a cheap mount will only give you issues that make a difficult hobby even harder and more than likely you will give up before you see results. For sure I would buy the book mentioned by @Cosmic Geoff "Every Photon Counts". There is a lot more to Astrophotography than a camera and scope or lens (to be fair that is the easy part) and if I had not read this book a few years ago I would have no idea what is involved. Some of it takes a few takes by reading the book over a few times before the penny drops (well it was like that for me) but don't worry when it does you wonder why it took you so long and stays with you then. Also you do not need a telescope to take good widefield images if you have a DSLR, a good lens and a tracking mount will suffice and a great way to start off relatively cheaply. Just a suggestion but why not by the book mentioned above, maybe another on general astronomy and for the "glass" buy some decent binos that allow you to study the night sky and get to know it and the major stars and constellations, what is about at what time of year. I would suggest astrophotography is not something to rush into, if you do believe me you will buy stuff that although cheap astro wise still costs a fair amount of hard earned cash and you will regret it as you realise its not really the right equipment and also you may not be able to sell it on. Read the books, learn stuff online, ask lots of questions on this forum, use your binos on clear nights and save up what you can afford. Get your posts up so you can use the 2nd hand section to buy good equipment at much lower prices than new and you will do well. That way you find that later you can upgrade and probably sell on your original gear without much loss in cash and build up a good imaging rig (in time). Good luck in your venture 🙂 Steve

And I thought I was hard on myself, no way is that worthless. We all have sessions that do not go just as we hoped, sometimes due to weather or equipment issues but more often than not due to issues of our own making. I think as we progress these self induced issues get less and less but certainly in my case never go altogether. Important thing is that we learn from these issues and endeavour to make sure they do not occur again. I am impressed that despite finding out the images were the wrong format you still took the time to process them and did not just throw the towel in straight away and by doing so still produced a very acceptable image. So please lighten up and don't be so hard on yourself, all in all a good effort and next time with correct settings you know it will be better still 🙂 Steve

Nice image 🙂 Glad you are back imaging I don't think I have done any since March. Steve

Incredible, such a great image and I love the colours, nice but subtle. Steve

Oh , sorry Carole, I had forgotten about that, you tried that last time at Kelling and it didn't work , I was really referring to the use in NINA as it is all set up already to use it, and in fact not using it (in my opinion) means you are not using half of the available utilities in NINA is written to do. Steve

@carastro gives some great advice in a previous post but honestly I would take the time to learn how to use the framing assistant in NINA. Using a frame from a previous session you can get the exact same framing. I have an automatic rotator ant it will do the lot for you, taking a quick image, plate-solving, rotating the rotator and then moving the scope as many times as it needs to to get the FOV the same, within a specified tolerance, to the original image. If you do not have an automatic rotator I believe it stops, tells you to rotate the camera a certain amount of degrees and than carries on as above but waiting each time for you to manually rotate the camera. And I know many people shy away from plate-solving thinking it is complex but so long as you have the right catalogues of stars and the correct info about the camera and telescope NINA does it all for you, it really is simple to learn. Just to make sure I do crop about 1mm off the frames to allow for some slight misalignment of different sessions but not even sure that is really required. Steve

I can only agree with Peter that is just superb detail 🙂 Steve

That thread I was on about is HERE Steve

I do not know if significant but somebody else had exactly the same issue only a few days ago. I say the same issue, maybe they were using different software (I think PI but maybe using DSS to stack) and they had just taken a new set of darks and I did reply so should be able to find the thread, but they also cured the issue themselves by taking new darks. Strange Steve

Well considering it is the one and only post from the OP it has certainly stirred everybody up 🤣 Steve

Yes but don't ask me how, I can do it but always takes me a while to figure how each time. I assure you i am no expert on processing but use PI a fair bit and if i cannot answer there are plenty of experts on SGL that can 🙂 Steve

Do you have, or know somebody with a 3D printer ? If going this far is OTT then some really good suggestions above from Michael 🙂 Do you want this base to be easily removable so you can fold the tripod down after a session or can it remain in place ? I have just sold my HEQ5 but because I have a printer I have always printed some sort of mount using it for the HEQ5 and now for my IOptron mount. Steve

Hello, Forgive me but I am still a little confused even after reading your OP a few times. You say "The first 2 images were fresh stacks of the old data, using my new dark files." and these two images auto-stretch in Pi perfectly okay, which would indicate the darks are not the issue - or have I missed something there ? But also you say for the 2nd two images, that do not auto-stretch to reveal anything, if the SAME dark master is used but if you stack them without the dark master then the auto-stretch does reveal the nebula. Again have I understood that correctly ? There should be no need to take new dark library just because you moved house - a dark library is usually used to make a dark master and that dark master can be used for 6 to 12 months without issue and then maybe take a new dark library and make new masters every 12 months or so, well that's what I do anyway . I think to get anywhere you need to upload a link to your dark frames, dark masters and your light frames and ideally a flat master if you are using one. Steve

A while since I used APT but remember I had a few failures to start with, which was annoying because I thought it was all set up okay as I had stayed up twice to watch the flip previously and all worked flawlessly. In the end if my memory serves me right it was all down to making sure EQMod was not also controlling the flip which I think is what screwed me but also I think I changed the delays to ensure the flip was always initiated after passing the meridian. I think if you follow the guide in the link from @bottletopburly you should be fine. Steve

I would post this on the NINA discord group, you will get an instant answer, and probably from the author, and if more than one reason for this particular error will help you diagnose the issue. There is another thread HERE on SGL with a Similar (not exactly the same) error. Steve

I know exactly what you mean about getting a first good image, feels very satisfying 🙂 , but getting an image of these DSO's that we normally wouldn't see is a great achievement. Although daunting at first taking flats they are worth the effort and some flat frames wouldn't half clean the image up. Steve

Good price that 🙂 Steve

Very nice, get that rotator fixed 🙂 Steve

Excellent ! 🙂 Steve

+1 for OnShape Steve

Nice to see 🙂 as I do not think I have even seen much of the moon in the past 6 weeks in my part of the country, surely this weather has to change soon. Thanks for sharing. Steve

What a brilliant idea, but at that price it will put a lot off getting one. Steve