carastro

For solar system imaging you could get away with alt Az. But a non tracking manual mount is going to present real problems of keeping the target in the FOV while you focus and take images.

If you take a video you can stack the frames in Registax or Autostakkert.

I don't use Siril, but the main thing is to register the two images so they will exactly fit when combined. I use Registar for this. Generally Ha is added into the red channel.

If you're on a budget as you suggest l would get a Skywatcher Star adventurer and a good camera lens like the Samyang 135mm. This will give you a good start with your DSLR. If you master this and feel you want to get something that will enable even better images and have more money to spare we can talk again. The minimum you will need then is an HEQ5 mount, a guide scope and guide camera and an Apo refractor approx f7.5 - F5. Plus then a cooled dedicated astro camera.

Well said Olly.

A friend of mine left his rig out year round, well protected with a cover and small heat pad. Worked fine until he took it to astro camp and found the tripod legs had rusted so was unable to adjust the leg heights. So a pier would be best if you can manage it, if not make sure you keep the tripod legs protected too.

Processed entirely in Photoshop. Each channel processed separately before combining Combined in RGB channels, some high pass sharpening. Using levels and Curves, star reduction, selective colour. (Processed twice and the results were combined).

Precisely, that's why I wasn't sure if the non Pixinsight files had been calibrated.

I have downloaded the tiffs, and they look calibrated, but it wasn;t clear from the explanation above.

The tiff doesn't say if they are calibrated. Carole

If you don't use Pixinsight, how can you obtain the relevant files and calibration files in fits or calibrated in Tiff format? Carole

It is in East Sussex just South of Bewl Water. PM me if you want to join us. Not going again until May 2024.

I do indeed. I rarely attempt broadband from home as l get swirling gradients. Bright narrowband nebulae work well in narrowband in Bortle 8. Carole

I have just realised that this Y shaped light from a vertical landing vehicle is upside down to what we saw. So not the solution. Aquila apparently was a sound and acoustic testing site Carole

I guess we were about a mile away. Don’t recall any sound. My son who l have told this story to in the past says l have told him it was green in the past. Hubby thinks it was Red but if it was it certainly wasn’t a deep red. Fireball is in my mind until it turned into a Y.

Seeing at is was the MoD Testing Facility. that would certainly make sense, spooked me out for years. I did wonder whether it was something to do with Aquila but just could not fathom out what. In particular as this was really a residential area. So did they have these sort of crafts in the 1970s? Thanks for that. Hubby saw it too so it wasn't me going mad.

There is no runway there it is too small. But whatever it was the full upside down Y shape was as brightly lit and "burning" as the ball of light was. As if the ball of light changed shape. Hmmm, this is the closest I have seen to it on that page you linked though can;t remember now if it was green.

Many years ago (about 50) when we were first married. Hubby and l were decorating our bedroom so there were no curtains up and it was evening and dark. This is in Petts Wood SE London. Suddenly we saw a very bright ball of light dropping downwards. Then shortly before it “landed” it turned into a still bright upside down Y shape. Then just before it disappeared a second ball of bright light appeared a little to the left of it. This followed the same routine - dropping slowly and turning into an upside down Y shape before “landing”. We have always wondered what it was. It is roughly where Jubilee Park is now. There used to be some sort of premises there years ago that the public were not allowed to enter but we can’t remember what it was called now. Anyone got an explanation? A couple if helicopters landing would fit the speed but these came down vertically and why would a helicopters be lit up in this way with brightly lit “landing legs? “ Ah ha? After some googling (remember they didn’t have internet 50 years ago) l found the name of the company which could partially explain things. Aquila MoD Testing Facility. So can any of you still explain what we saw.

The elongated stars are more in the four corners. This suggests spacing to me more than guiding as the middle looks OK as far as I can see, (need a more zoomed in picture to judge properly. Spacing is the distance between your Flattener/reducer and your imaging chip. If you don;t have a flattener, then that too could be causing it. Carole

Wow, what a resume and what a location to live for dark skies. Welcome to SGL. Carole

Great results.

Very nice results Nigella, much better than I ever did at planetary, even some detail on the small Moon. Carole

I use the same finder guider mounted on my ED80 whether l have my Ed72 mounted on the ED80 for a dual rig or whether l have my Samyang set up mounted on the ED80. For some reason the FOV is slightly different with the Samyang lens. I tried to adjust it once but it was such a nightmare adjusting it back for the dual rig l vowed never to do it again. Therefore my finderguider is not aligned with my Samyang rig. Doesn’t seem to make any difference so l just live with it.

You do some fabulous landscapes.

I agree Andy