Lonestar2123

iPhone X through my Orion XT8

awesome! thank you for the info! I honestly had no idea of what I was looking at! Thank you

Hello! I have been taking random pictures in my city all night long! and I found something that I believe is the Orion Nebula but I am not to sure... If anyone has a good eye out there for crappy iPhone photos! but I am unsure what this is.. and the app that I use for my phone works a bit off set... Not to sure what I was looking at! But it blew me away!

I use sky guide personally... It lets you adjust the brightness of the app to show the things that you can actually see depending on what sky you are looking at (City sky or clear sky) helps to pin point those difficult things in a lot of stars or a tiny amount of stars..

Thank you guys for the input it means a lot.

In my struggles with finding someone who wants to head out to the desert to do some late night observing... I have taken to my back yard in LA.... Honestly I know these images are not anything compared to the things that people post here... but I am slowly working on adapting to the living xD And with taking the images with a cellphone camera... lol... I cant really complain... iPhone X Camera, 2x Barlow, 25mm Eyepiece... I know sad attempt... but planning my trip out to the desert for when the real camera gets here! If anyone has any advice for city observing... They would be very appreciated... I know that there is a filter that is designed to try to remove most of the city lights.... but I have no idea what its called.

Thank you for you're feedback... the problem that I can see with me is that I have a pretty big dobsonian… so finding a mount that can hold it yet still giving me the mobility that I will need for longer exposures im sure will kill my wallet lol

I managed just picking up a cheap nikon like $150 to just get started... I want to save up for a nice mount so I can take longer exposures.. but at my current setup it is going to just need to be really quick pictures... I also need to find a location near me where I can actually go and just set up and look up at the sky.. Living near La this is not an ideal place to look at the stars but that's the best I can do without driving 4 hours out to the desert up north or maybe down south. I am hoping with this $150 camera I will atleast get some better quality than my iPhone.. lol. I guess we will have to see. And I managed to get a T mount which fits the lense inside so I hope that also makes the quality of the pictures a bit better. I guess we will have to see.

Thank you for the information I started looking at a new mount for it that would make longer exposures easier... A bit out of the budget for now. but def a future project to work on. as for the camera I will look into the DSLR. Thank you xD Yeah the iPhone Camera just isint doing it for me anymore xD If you would happen to know? What MP amount would you recommend for the DSLR and maybe what brand?

Hello. I am using a Orion xt8 reflector telescope. I am wondering what optic / eyepiece set up I should be using for a mix of DSO and planets. I have a couple pictures which I have taken with honestly my cell phone on one of those (Omi cellphone adaptors for telescope) and they pictures don't come out to bad... but I am looking for something that I can actually put into the eye piece that will give decent looking pictures, or even one that I can hook up to my computer and look through it live. Price really is not the biggest issue but not really looking for something over $400. I know there might not be such a thing as I am describing. most of these pictures were taken with a 2x barlow and a 20mm The ones of mars I just took with a 5x barlo and the same 20mm. and I am unsure what this star formation I took a picture of is but It looked pretty cool and I am glad that I was able to take a picture of it.. But just looking for some help choosing what camera would be best. (Obviously using the phone camera the objects appear so bright and there is no way to pull the actual detail of the planet into focus for me) But any help would be great :) Thank you for any feedback you have and I cant wait to become more active on this forum!