City9Town0

I used https://www.cheapastrophotography.com/ for my 450D. very pleased.

Thanks for the reply. Nice spot, I've used top of the RSPB driveway as a dark(ish) site; have been up the hill in daylight but never after dark. It's only 15 minutes from me; I'll possibly give it a go sometime.

Is this from up on the hill fort near Boyton RSPB?

I attended a family wedding and stayed in Bromley, and have relatives there... The night was orange and LED white! Horrible... Horrible... Horrible... Horrible... I'm looking to go from my Canon 450D modified to mono in Bortle 4 in Suffolk.... Where I am even Bortle 4 is a dark(ish) sky is a joy I'd struggle to live without. Any clear night I'll take a thirty minute walk with my dog and it is an absolute pleasure. Neowise beautifully clear naked eye on any recent cloudless night re-affirmed my choice to avoid any city hustle and bustle!

Thank you for posting... A stunning image.

I know that I've given this a 'like' but I'd like to add that having been to Bromley it is stunning!

Sigma 150-600 at 150mm, Star Adventurer. Five 20 sec exposures. Star Adventurer sat in a cupboard since I got the HEQ5 PRO secondhand. I'd forgotten the fun of a quick 'grab and go'.

Data over-stretched....

Den Thankyou for the reply... I've been keen on getting a Quark... nearly got a second-hand one recently... though there seem to be 'variable' reviews. You have some fabulous images on Flickr. Certainly haven't put me off my aim... quite the contrary.

Den Beautiful images.. may I ask what imaging kit you have, allied to your processing skill?

+1 for Sharpcap

I found this a great help when starting out two years ago... https://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-pre-processing-calibrating-and-stacking-images-in-pixinsight.html

My kit bought off this website last summer (HEQ5PRO ED80 DS PRO) is manoeuvred into the garden and brought in each session with much mud on the carpets.... Has stayed in the lounge by the patio doors Sept -now. Have just this afternoon taken it all apart and put in in the spare room upstairs... Some serious carpet cleaning tomorrow a.m. Dog wondering where to lie now it's gone! Wife less impressed with me suggesting that the guitar(s) amp/kit comes down to occupy the space... may well cost me a significant amount of flowers/chocolate/cleaning/cooking.

Good luck. I've been thinking about getting a solar scope... but haven't been brave/stupid enough to 'pull the trigger'. Will watch this with interest.

Having spent the afternoon yesterday adjusting (and re-adjusting!) the worm drives (thanks to astrobaby guides and the internet) on my HEQ5PRO with marginal success I set up yesterday evening to give it all a whirl. It was all a bit erratic... and more fettling followed. Still not really satisfied as there are a few 'bite points'. Will be busy trying to improve further today. I was just checking star alignment and came across M3 on Carte de Ciel (never gone there before and had no idea what it was until I checked on the internet) so had a quick aim and bashed off four 240 second images (16 minute total) via my ED80 and 450D. Blasted through Pixinsight... Result attached... Thanks to Steppenwolf's post/image and a bit of research I'm pleased/interested enough to want to go back and spend another hour or two imaging it. (Assuming that the mount behaves!)

Very nice Steppenwolf. Funnily enough I imaged M3 for the first time last night (total 16 minutes)... I'll put my image up as well...

Fabulous...

Steve They fly pretty good formation!

I'll image until about 23.30... any later and my wife is miffed in the evening and I'm a very grumpy bear in the morning.... I've probably finished until September... Have been seriously looking into solar. I'd love to be able to stay up all night!

+1 for this. I set up HEQ5 Pro every time from fresh... Roughly align mount by compass. Sharpcap polar align (brilliant). Launch EQMOD I've Red dot finder/guidescope/ main scope all aligned....Carte du ciel for a few alignment stars. Launch PHD and calibrate near celestial meridian and eqautor Aim at target, run guiding assistant... Fire up APT... Start imaging May not be the best/most efficient but takes 25 minutes and works for me...

I dithered, but then rather lazily didn't remove the 'fireflies!!!!'. I presume that they are hot pixels... Fifty-two 75 second images.

+1 for the red dot finder.... Made my life so much simpler and removed a massive frustration. (I now can concentrate on the next level of frustrations)

Thank you for your explanation... the points were not new to me but I appreciate your patience and persistence. The thread was about aligning the HEQ mount. The method is most certainly good enough for that... refinements such as knowledge of errors may even help.... This would get close enough to Polaris to start a polar alignment... Anyway, I wait until sharpcap can find a few stars and away I go! I won't go into compass errors due to friction or anomalies in the Earth magnetism if you want to be accurate... ( I do know what accurate means) This is not helping the OP, to whom I apologise. End of.

The end points of the shadow are marked at the start and the end of a ten/fifteen minute period....... The straight line between these points is the East-West line (within a degree of so...) The error direction is known so a bit of correction can be added with a smidgeon of guesswork. I'll be within 1.5 degrees...

I was taught the 'Anthony method' in the 1970's in fieldwork/living for an organisation.... always works within a couple of degrees when I've tried it... From Southern UK to Northern Norway....