Stuf1978

On 06/05/2020 at 14:42, Alanjmolloy said:

@Stuf1978 This is a great looking rig. Mine is similar but I haven't cracked the guiding bit yet. When it comes to the polar alignment, do you just rough align manually, then use sharpcap with the ballhead but leaving the main scope roughly pointing near your target or do you do something else. I think where I've been messing up is trying to get everything pointing at the pole, using sharpcap, then moving everything which probably knocks things off. I also find that with the exact same set up as you, my camera, guide scope and everything else hits off tripods and wedges if I try moving RA much. Very restricted. Any advice on this (or PHD2) appreciated. Currently I'm assuming its the polar alignment messed up, because I get really bad streaking and a terrible graph in PHD2, although at least it calibrates :-). 

@Alanjmolloy Yeah I roughly align through the SA reticle then use Sharcap to nail the PA down. I never frame my targets up before polar alignment, so I have to move the scope after alignment.  I find as long as I tighten everything down properly on the SA wedge and don't tighten down the SA clutch too much it doesn't cause too much of an issue. Once I'm aligned and my target is framed up in the scope and my guide scope is pointing in the same direction it's just a case of setting the guiding away in PHD2 (make sure you have deactivated declination). I was surprised at how effective guiding is on the star adventurer as it's massively increased my exposure time and the number of sub frames I can keep. 

The only time my camera fouls on the wedge or the tripod is when I'm shooting something that's more or less overhead which is not very often. Hope that helps 😀

2 hours ago, Nerf_Caching said:

Interesting that you mount an RDF on your scope. I am planning to do the same but with a skywatcher 6x30 finderscope. Does it affect your balance at all?

Not at all, the RDF doesn't weigh much and I need something to get roughly on target. Plus in the configuration shown the counterweight is below the guidescope in order to achieve balance, so there is still loads of room to move it about if needed 😃

23 hours ago, Nova2000 said:

Does anyone guide with the star adventurer? And if so how long can you expose and what scope/lense do you use ? I am thinking of a nice quick light weight and effective setup in the future which I can just easily take out and do some imaging .

I guide the star adventurer when I use the 72ED and it's pretty effective. I've managed subs up to 5 minutes with nicely rounded stars (haven't tried longer subs yet). As daemon indicated good polar alignment is required and I use Sharcap for that 😁

Here's my set up: 

43 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

Keeping a close eye on both of the weather apps i use. Keeping my fingers crossed etc.. 😀.  Hopefully all will be good as i am off work the Monday and Tuesday so i can get set up earlier and enjoy a few beers whilst sat out taking many subs.

Yeah clear outside looks half promising.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you 👍

58 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

Very nice. I have only managed a couple of sessions on the orion nebula since getting my star adventurer. I would be out all the time if it was not for this persistant rain and very windy condions.  Its looking like Monday night is nice.and clear plus a lot less wind. So hopefully i can get out and improve on the last session of about 35 subs of 60s. Hopeing to do the same amount of subs but 120s exposure this time so i can do a comparison. Fingers crossed for the clear skies 😀

Thanks, yeah this winter has been a bit of a write off for astrophotography. Good luck with the next session.

1 hour ago, Snooze said:

Thanks

 

The Sigma 70-200 is not too bad but it's not the best lens ever either. It is certainly a huge upgrade over my sigma 70-300 f/4 - f/5.6.  I find that stars are little bit bloated with my copy of the lens and it can be hard to get good/perfect focus even with a bahtinov mask. Also there is some coma at the edges even at f/4. There is very little CA andIMO images are quite sharp if you manage to get focus right at f/4. I've seen canon versions of the lens that had worst CA than the sigma.

Also I got mine at a bargain price of 150€ (used without autofocus) so I very happy with how it performs  .

Cheers,

Alex

For 150 euros it was definitely worth a shot, I've seen some earlier copies of the lens go for similar sorts of money and that's why I've been tempted. 

On 23/02/2020 at 16:36, Snooze said:

Went out to a dark site yesterday evening and managed these 2 pictures with my star adventurer mini, Canon 1200Da and Sigma 70-200 f2.8

First one was a widefield view of the orian cloud complex. Stacked about 50 x 60s images ISO800 @135mm F/4

 

Second target of the night was the Rosette Nebula. This time I stacked 64 x 75s images ISO800 @135mm F/4

 

Cheers

Nice, how do you find the sigma 70-200 f2.8 for imaging? I've heard mixed reports but the price of these used compared with the canon equivalent makes them hard to ignore. 

Orions belt using a star adventurer, modded 450d and a sigma 150mm f2.8 macro lens. About 2.5 hours exposure from my bortle 8 garden. 

Just bought a SW 72ED with the intention of using it on the SA with guiding. Still need to get myself a guide camera but thought it I'd give it a shot anyway.  Ended up ditching approx 50-60% of the subs in this M42 image.  Total integration was 22x60 second lights with 10x15 seconds for the core. Darks, flats and bias applied, stacked in DSS and processed in Ps. Hopefully once I'm guiding I'll get longer subs with an increase in keepers 😃

7 hours ago, AstroExploring said:

Yeah I’ve got the ED80 FF/reducer with the adapter to connect to 72ED. The OVL will work no problems. 
Hope you get some clear skies, it’s supposed to be clear down here tonight! 

Thanks, yeah clear outside is indicating it should be ok after midnight tonight (just in time for orion to clear the tree line to the south of my house) 😁

On 27/12/2019 at 18:36, AstroExploring said:

I use the 72ED with FF and M48 adapter with DSLR with no focus issues. Was using it last night in fact. 

Is that the skywatcher FF/reducer? 

I've ordered the OVL flattener from FLO so I guess I'll find out if this perpetual blanket of cloud ever disappears from the north east. 

20 minutes ago, knobby said:

There is a thread about the 72ED and flatteners here somewhere, but I'm pretty sure that combo works, especially if it's a new 72ED as the tube length has been shortened by 10mm

Edit - added link

 

Brilliant thank you. Yeah it's the new 72ED so should be fine 👍

Hi all, 

Does anyone use this combination when imaging with a dslr and if so can you achieve focus with just the scope, FF and camera adaptor? I've read conflicting reports on whether you can achieve focus with this combo. 

Thanks

Started with Astrophotography at the end of last winter. Here's a couple of images I'm quite happy with. 

M51, shot with a Canon 80D on a skywatcher star adventurer. Sigma 70-300mm @300mm F5.6, 96 lights @60 seconds, 10 darks, 20 bias, Stacked in DSS, PP in PS and LR, taken from my bortle 7/8 garden

North America and Pelican shot with a Canon 450D modded, Canon 70-300mm F4-5.6L @ 180mm F5, Skywatcher Star Adventurer, 82 light frames @ 90 seconds, 32 Darks, 77 bias  Stacked in deep sky stacker, Processed in Ps and Lr. Taken from Bortle 4

Hi, 

I had a bit of a play around with your data as I don't need any excuse to practice processing as I'm still rather crap at it. There is plenty of detail in your tif file but I couldn't seem to get shot of the halos around the stars. So you may be right about the filter. 

Stu

That's good enough for me. Thanks for confirming what I thought 👍

I have a self moddded canon 450d where I only removed the LP2 filter and I'm looking to add a light pollution filter. I've been looking at the skytech cls and cls-ccd but I'm unsure which one I need. The cls-ccd indicates that it's for modded cameras, however I'm sure I read somewhere (which I now can't find) that I don't need the ccd flavour as the camera still has good UV cut as I left the LP1 filter in place. 

So is the cls-ccd only needed for a full spectrum modded camera and should I just save myself some cash and get the cls variant? 

Thanks 😃

Thanks everyone, I'll remove the filter and if I struggle to get focus ill just send it off to get the sensor re-shimmed 👍

33 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

Most modern camera lenses with AF are designed to go to infinity and beyond for video use so that the motors dont hit a solid end stop.

Alan

So in theory I should be fine 👍

Hmmm may just send it off to cheap astrophotography services and get it modded with the shim then I know I'll have no issues. 

Brilliant thank you, I guess it's just a case of trying it. If i can't achieve focus I guess I can always get the sensor shimmed to retain auto focus and therefore the ability to manually focus correctly. 

I've bought a cheap canon 450d with the intentions of doing a self mod for astro and removing the LP2 filter. I intend to image widefield targets with a variety of lenses:

Canon ef 50mm f1.8

Canon 24-70mm F4L

Canon 70-300 f4-5.6L 

What I'm concerned about is achieving focus manually using live view. Is this still going to be possible? I understand I'm going to lose auto focus but the camera will only be used for astro so I'm not bothered about that. However, I've read conflicting reports online that I'll not be able to focus to infinity with the modded 450d and lens combo. 

Has anybody had an issues manually focusing a lens on a modded 450d?

Thanks

Stu

My star adventurer arrived this afternoon so I had a quick go at setting it up. It's a really nice bit of kit, easy to set up and polar align. Weather conditions were rubbish though with intermittent cloud and it was a bit blowy. Looking forward to some better conditions to see what it can do ?

Just taken me about 2 hours to read through this thread and I'm very impressed as to what this little mount can do. Planning on buying one next month and can't wait to get my camera pointing skyward ?