Nigella Bryant

Thanks, I've been looking at this.

Hi all, I've been away on holiday with just my omegon clockwork mount, modded dslr and some telephoto lens. It's got me hooked now to take my TS70mm carbon fibre tube telescope next time. At present this sits on my 12inch f4 Newtonian and used only as a guidescope. Bit of a waste I know. What kind of mount would be a good match, definitely goto and eq with autoguider input was what I was thinking. I found trying to find objects with the omegon clockwork mount near impossible unless I knew exactly where the object should be and also the omegon only has a 2kg capacity. My TS70mm plus dslr would be around 3.5kg. Many thanks for reading.

That's what I thought too.

Me too, now that I know what my scope is able to achieve.

Many thanks Pete and so true.

Using one as we speak on a camping trip in the southwest of England. I'm keeping to two mins sub's which I'd say is about right with my modded 1000d Canon at iso800. First time I've really used the mini mount, I've found polar alignment fairly difficult or should I say fidly. Last night messed up 6x2min sub's as I realised I wasn't polar aligned properly, got star trails. Second lot of 15x2min sub's seem good, I'll see when I'm home and able to process then. I captured m16 and m17 quite by accident as I was trying to aim for the lagoon nebula, lol. I'm using around 100mm telephoto. I found when the drive runs out turning the winder takes the camera off target and you have to realign. Fine if you've finished that shoot on that object but a pain if you want more subs. Moral of that story is rewind and align with each new object you wish to image, that will give probably 40 to 50mins of subs, which is plenty. My brief take on it, seems good but proof of the pudding will be what comes out of my images when home.

Best eq mount you can afford, depends also if permanent or wanting portable. Then start with a small refractor 70mm or 80mm Ed or fluorite depending on your budget. I've just started imaging with a modded Canon 1000d, second hand but you can get dedicated ccd, again depending on budget. Software can be free or cheap as APT which I use with a laptop. You can of course use a dslr camera and download onto the sd card in the camera. Lot's to think about.

Hi Andrew, I'd been away from the hobby since 2004. I had to sell all my stuff back then but accumulating again, lol for DSOs I use APT and deepsky stacker and an ancient photoshop CS2. For planetary imaging a cheapish zwo ASI224mc and sharpcap and autostakker 3. Have fun.

This was my efforts from Turkey 2006. I took out a meade 90mm etx.

I use a 5x powermate on my f4 Newtonian but Jupiter and Saturn are to low to use such power. It gives me f20 but absolutely terrible through the thick atmosphere. I'm only going to try my 3x Barlow next time I'm able to image. Sadly not tonight, going away tomorrow. When Jupiter is higher in a few year's I'll be using the 5x powermate. Meantime no.

Thanks everyone, goodness a very good discussion. I've obviously not thought thing's through enough. After all I'd be talking a good part of £6,000 for changing my mount and scope. The mount I've still yet to decide upon, but that's the priority as my neq6 is at top load capacity of 20kg. I'll be keeping my 12inch f4 Newtonian for some time yet, so the mount is priority this year. I'm not in a rush and obviously don't want to make the wrong decision. I understand skywatcher is bringing out a new mount next year with more payload than a cem60 but similar design. Probably somewhere between a CEM60 and a CEM120. Seen some illustrations of the mount. I may hold off until then and see. I'm not deffinet on upgrading to a 16inch f4 Newtonian anytime soon. Thanks all, alway's a great debate with much that washes over my head I'm afraid.

A total solar eclipse will occur over much of the central Eastern Hemisphere on Monday, August 2, 2027. It will commence over the eastern Atlantic Ocean and travel past the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco. Totality will be visible in southern Spain as well as parts of North Africa and the Middle East, as well as the northern tip of the Horn of Africa. Or this one, A total solar eclipse will occur on August 12, 2026, in North America and Europe. The total eclipse will pass over the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, Atlantic Ocean and northern Spain. Hopefully I'll make it to these, lol I'll be 67 and 68

Yep, people next to us we're opening bottles of champagne, lol. They are beautiful sights to behold though.

I'm going to have to wait for Spain and Egypt in several years time, lol. I'll be officially retired then, lol

Spooky, I was in France for the 1999 eclipse, lol.

So you we're the one, lol. I was in Turkey for the 2006.

Warm welcome, you'll find everyone helpful here.

Both Jupiter and Saturn are good for a few month's yet and it doesn't matter if the moon's in the way. Moon phases only affect if you won't to observe deepsky object's. Hope that helps.

Great image, particularly as it's a mosaic. I've only captured with full disk, wouldn't have a scubbie doing a mosaic.

I've a 12inch newtononian and sometimes even the main mirror fogs up so I've installed a fan which keeps everything OK. Glad you're getting thing's sorted and seems able to be sorted.

It is great about this site, everyone helps and no judgement. I was on a couple of Facebook Astro site's and I'd posted a pic and all I got was other's posting their own pic's saying look at mine. Saying you've a long way off. Talk about discouragement. I've since come off those. No encouragement, no offers of how to do it better just people who want their own gratification. Thankfully I found this site with helpful people and lots of encouragement. Looking forward to seeing your image's, darker night's are around the corner.

Cool, lovely wide field image, hope you don't mind I've played around with your image.

Hiya, I've only done a couple of DSOs with a modded Canon 1000d and impressed of what can be done even at 30sec subs at iso800. I'm still learning too. I use the free Deepsky stacker and that does all your stacking, dark and light's calibrations all in one go. Attached are my attempts, but along way to go. I have to image in a light polluted bortle 6 sky cus I've a heavy 12inch f4 Newtonian and neq6 mount. Good luck with your imaging, the results of your own work is rewarding enough. These attached image's are the only ones I've done so far.

Lovely image.

Sorry to read about your scope, hope it's easily remedied by a good clean.