Nerf_Caching

Here is how I ensure the core is not blown out in GIMP. I've illustrated it here with 6 screenshots: 1. Here I have a photo with the core overexposed. 2. This is a layer I've made prior to the top one with a less 'stretched' version showing the core nicely(the bottom layer is just my unstretched photo. I will not worry about that.). 3. Move the less stretched layer in 2. up to the top. 4. Click Layer>Mask>Add Layer Mask. Select 'Black(full transparency)'. After selecting, it should reveal the overexposed layer underneath. Make sure that layer is toggled. 5. There should be a black thumbnail beside the thumbnail of your top layer. Make sure you are working on that black thumbnail. 6. Click paintbrush with the settings shown on the left. Make sure foreground and background colors are white and black respectively(Shown above paintbrush settings). Now color in the core to reveal detail. Double click on the top layer and click 'New from visible' after you're done. Hope this helps. Cheers!

The Flame and Horsehead nebula are good targets for your setup. I have the same scope but on a Star Adventurer and I can get a decent image from Bortle 9 skies.

56 minutes of data on Flame and Horsehead Nebula from Bortle 9 sky. Scope used was SW Evostar 72ED, camera was modded Canon 450d and mount was SW Star Adventurer. 112x30 seconds at iso 800 with CLS filter.

My attempt at the Orion Nebula under a full moon. I used a modded Canon 450d attached to a Skywatcher Evostar 72ED on top of a Star adventurer. One hour and 14 minutes of data from Bortle 9 skies.

Nice shot! How long were your individual sub-frames?

I photographed the Lagoon and Trifid Nebula last summer using a stock dslr and 420mm refractor. Both are emission nebulae and you can clearly see that the red Ha signal is somewhat lacking; it appears more of a pink color compared to red. It still looks nice without a modded camera. Give them a try next year!

You need to focus your telescope by turning the focusing knob. The propeller shape is the shadow of the secondary mirror and the spider vanes.

Evostar 72ED is cheaper compared to Z61 but has a longer focal length. Both however are wide-field scopes and speaking from experience, I have had some good photos taken using my 72ED. If you can afford it, go for the z61 but the 72ED is also a decent budget scope. The attached image was taken using a 72ED on a Star Adventurer unguided. The camera was a stock Canon 650d with a clip-in CLS filter. 20.5 minutes of 30-second subs from Bortle 9 skies.

Here's what I've done recently on my Star Adventurer, including reprocesses with the help of Topaz AI Denoise(trial). Scope was a SW 72ED and camera was a stock Canon 650d with Astronomik CLS clip-in filter under Bortle 9 skies. Remarkable results even at 420mm focal length with 30-second subs; it really is pushing the mount's capabilities!

Unfortunately, my mount tracked too well so yes I seems that I did not dither. The object would usually shift slightly with a star adventurer.

Hello! I am having trouble at the moment dealing with vertical walking noise in my photo of the Dumbbell Nebula. Any advice would be appreciated. I've attached the stacked file so you can see it. M27 stack.TIF

Wow nice picture you've got there! I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty to download a png of your picture and did some further processing myself using Siril and GIMP. I first did a background extraction in Siril to remove the gradient on the picture. I then transferred it to GIMP to crop the stacking artefacts, remove the color cast with curves and finally performed a slight desaturation of the background. There are residual artefacts on the upper right but that can be easily cropped. Keep up your good work!

I processed the same data again but with more experimentation with colors. I've managed to increase the contrast between the reflection part of the Trifid Nebula and the background. Looks a little better than the last process with the warmer colors.

Good idea to get a field flattener. The field curvature is quite bad on some of the photos taken with my 72ED.

Not sure about weight but I've been lucky enough to see one in person in a Japanese showroom and boy is it huge. It's larger than what photos depict so you might want to have somebody watching you lift and carry the beast.

Hi, I own the astromaster 70az and I can tell you that the tube is quite long. The whole setup is quite light though. However, I do not recommend you to get this scope as it is back heavy and the altitude axis can slip. Refractors may be easier to use, but they don't gather as much light as reflectors so I highly suggest buying one of those instead. If you are worried about collimation, search up a couple of YT videos. First light optics(the sponsor of this forum) sells the Skywatcher Heritage 150p for under 200 pounds. If budget or weight is an issue, you can always opt for the smaller Heritage 130p. Both of them are tabletop models so they're smaller than the astromaster 70az in terms of the area occupied by the full setup and they gather more light!

Have you considered a push-to instead of a goto mount? It only shows you the way to the object via a supplied handset but you have to manually adjust the telescope accordingly. You can get more aperture for your budget that way. Since you are in the US, perhaps the push-to version of the Orion Starblast 6 is a good idea. Just my 2 cents.

Do you have the unprocessed stacked file? Maybe we can help you out with processing. What was the total integration time?

I'm thinking of buying something like this as well. Might also have to replace the stock dovetail with a longer one as it is a little too short to balance a camera properly.

Scope was back-heavy with a dslr. There was no dovetail saddle on the star adventurer to balance properly in dec which in turn throws off RA balance when I point the scope to different areas of the sky.

Hi all, I gathered 20 and a half minutes of data on the Lagoon and Trifid Nebula recently. I was wondering what would constitute a 'correct' color balance using an Astronomik CLS filter since it gives the whole image a blue cast. Having said that, I did obtain some really good data for such a short amount of time; probably the best I've had since I began astrophotography last year! I have attached both my interpretation of the data as well as the stacked tif file for y'all to have a go at processing. I'm under the impression that the Lagoon and Trifid should appear pinkish-red for a stock dslr but I'm not too sure so any help would be appreciated. Thanks! L&T stack.TIF

Hi all, I had a frustrating night trying to photograph the Lagoon and Trifid Nebula at 420mm using a Star Adventurer, a stock Canon 650d and 72ED refractor from Skywatcher. I didn't have a clear view of Polaris so I had to rely on trial-and-error drift aligning. My optical train was also rear-heavy so dec balance couldn't be properly achieved as there were only one of two threads on the bottom of the dovetail to attach onto the mount. As a result, I suffered from wonky star trails for reasons yet to be known; I hope the tracking motors aren't broken! Anyway, I was surprised at how much detail there was on offer for only 3 minutes of data using 30-second subs. I also used an Astronomik CLS filter.

Looks good for doing your makeup🤣. Quite strange to have a reflective rear in my opinion.