carastro

Agree

Excellent, the dark nebulae show up very well.  
 

Well done the winners.  M57 needs to be zoomed in to really appreciate how fantastic it really is.   
 

Carole

Went to our little campsite in East Sussex this weekend as an impromptu session.  I had planned 2 targets one for the first few hours and one later once it had risen, as my main aim was to image the Witch Head since I live in Bortle 8.  It was one of those nights where so many things went wrong, and things that have never happened before.  Consequently I never got the first target at all, I ended up having my dinner at 11.30pm having given up on the first target, and whilst waiting for Orion to rise.  Then things continued to go wrong, so I never managed to get going until about 2,.30 am.  So this is less data than I had hoped.

My long term plan is to get Ha and some more RGB which I think I can do from home (either side of a miscreant tree next door!!), and if I get a chance get some more luminance at some point.

So this is stage 1.  Rigel is rather overbearing, but I did my best to reduce it as much as I could.  

Lum 10 x 600
RGB 10 x 600 each
total 3 hours 20m

Samyang lens 135mm @ F2.8
Atik460EX on HEQ5

Went to our little campsite in East Sussex this weekend as an impromptu session.  I had planned 2 targets as my main aim was to image the Witch Head since I live in Bortle 8.  It was one of those nights where so many things went wrong, and things that have never happened before.  Consequently I never got the firsdt target at all, I ended up having my dinner at 11.30pm having given up on the first target, and while waiting for Orion to rise.  Then things continued to go wrong, so I never managed to get going until about 2,.30 am.  So this is less data than I had hoped.

My long term plan is to get Ha and some more RGB which I think I can do from home (either side of a miscreant tree next door!!), and if I get a chance get some more luminance at some point.

So this is stage 1.  Rigel is rather overbearing, but I did my best to reduce it as much as I could.  

Lum 10 x 600
RGB 10 x 600 each
total 3 hours 20m

Samyang lens 135mm @ F2.8
Atik460EX on HEQ5

Very nice work Bryan 

Excellent Adam.   

I have to say it has been a really great guide camera. 

I think it will also take some sort of basic images, I never tried it, but there was some software that came with the camera, which I only tried out on live view and can't remember whether it was planetary or otherwise.    I think it ws called QGvideo or something, and most likely that means planetary only.

Carole 

Ah, l see Malc has beaten me to it while l was faffing around. 

I took some photos of my QHY5.  It is in the back of my finderscope but did come with a 1.25” nosepiece.  
 

Yours seems to be slightly wider one end but could be the angle the photo was taken at.  
 

The fact that there is a guide port on yours does suggest it can be used for guiding. 
 

Mr Qhy was always very helpful l recall. 

l have had this camera for around 12 years, it was superseded by the QHY5ii and doubtless some others after that.  My drivers were supplied on a disc. 
 

Looks a bit like the QHY5 guide camera. 
 

l have a QHY5 which l have only ever used for guiding. 
 

I have only ever used a guide scope or finder guider.  I have read too many nightmare threads of problems people have had with OAGs that would put me off that option.  
 

However l do gather that they are necessary for scopes that suffer with mirror flop.   Though l had a 150p and a 130pds reflector for a while using my finderguider and had no guiding problems but it could be more difficult with larger mirrors.   

Excellent. 

Welcome.  What telescope did you buy? 

Taken in 2021 but never posted.

Skywatcher Esprit100 & HEQ5
Taken from Bortle 8 (Home)
Ha 18 x 600
Oiii 7 x 300 binned
Sii 6 x 300 binned 

Total 4h 5mins

I have both scopes which l use as an imaging dual rig.   
 

They both seem to work well.  The ED72 gives a bigger FOV.   According to the specs the ED72 is faster than the ED80. 
 

SWED80 seems more solidly built but l think a shorter focal length is more forgiving to a learner. 
 

l did read somewhere about some problems getting focus with the ED72 but l have never had a problem.  
 

Not sure this helps much. 
 

Excellent work.  Congratulations. 

In DSS you can alter the number of stars detected.  If it is too high often the software can’t detect enough stars and will stack only 1 frame.  
 

It is a long time since l used DSS but it is in the settings somewhere  before you ask it to stack.  
 

It sounds like you don’t drive.  Orpington AS do their Observing nights in Otford.  

There is also vignetting but perhaps you didn’t bother to add flats for this demo photo.  

Fantastic Adam 

I feel your pain as am in the same boat or perhaps an even worse boat. 
 

l have Macular degeneration.  The right eye is pretty much useless for anything much as everything is distorted.  Luckily l do imaging these days but used to use my right eye.  The left eye is doing much better but also developing cataracts so at some point will have to have that done.  Long distance focus is not great in that eye even with new specs which might be the cataract they say.  Bit scared to have my only reasonably decent eye operated on as all operations carry a degree of risk. 
DVLA are doing regular check ups. 
 

It has been stable for some time so fingers crossed it stays that way. 

Not tried observing with the left eye to see how it fares but will do so soon. 
 

😢

O….M….G

57 panels!!!!!!!!!!!  
 

amazing.  
 

NB. It is projects like this that put everything into perspective.   I never realised that NGC7822 was THAT large.
 

 Well done to you and the team.  Hope this is going on Astrobin.  
 

Carole

I found CN a most unfriendly forum, unlike SGL.   Too many of them up their own backsides.