AstroMuni

13 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Keep it simple and avoid buying stuff which you'll need to replace later because you didn't buy right in the first place

Thats the route I took as well. Simple scope, camera, good mount and jumped on the AP wagon. After a year I bought the guidescope. So IMO you are on right track I reckon its a bit like moving into a new house. Only when you live there for a few days you realise what else works well with it.

34 minutes ago, Iem1 said:

After I post this to facebook, this is what is actually posted (I downloaded this on my mobile from facebook and emailed it to myself):

Each website has its own ways of storing & downloading the images. A lot of the websites compress them so when you download it comes as JPGs. Also your choice of downloading on different devices could result in different sizes. A mobile phone is considered a small format device so images will be in a reduced quality to suit the device.
As an example take Flikr where a lot of astro folk store their images. I think if you upload in any other format besides PNG you end up getting JPGs when you download.

20 hours ago, WilliamAstro said:

How do I polar align it?

If it doesnt come with a built-in polarscope, you can add that to help you do PA. Or better option is do it with software ! So if you plan to use Sharpcap, Ekos or NINA then these allow you to take a few images and help you do the PA.

On 12/03/2022 at 17:51, OK Apricot said:

Thank you. I was thinking it'd need to be some high spec jobby, glad it doesn't have to be so high end.

The high spec (expensive bits) are the scope and accessories, not the laptop itself

27 minutes ago, PatrickO said:

So should it be with no lens, just straight to the sensor? This could be a RTFM situation!

Be careful when you screw the fish-eye attachment (picture attached) as if you screw too tightly it might scratch the sensor. The fish-eye attachment needs to be removed before attaching to scope and replaced with the nosepiece adapter (picture attached)

15 hours ago, PatrickO said:

Skywatcher 150P, 1.25" adapter into the 2" focuser, x2 Barlow, ZWO224MC.

I would remove the barlow and try to get focus (as already suggested). When I first got my ASI224, I pointed the scope at some distant trees to help focus and at night street lights, moon should help too. I figured that the leaves stand out in different colour so more easy to notice. But given the season we are in, you might struggle to get such candidate trees   Good luck.

Have you got it working with the all-sky lens provided with the camera?

38 minutes ago, barbulo said:

It seems that reflections are only produced with very bright stars: Alnitak, Propus... Now trying to avoid them

In your images the artefacts are not just around the stars, so suspect there is another culprit out there. Good luck

On 06/02/2022 at 15:46, barbulo said:

Any clue of what's wrong? Anyone experiencing similar issue with this camera and/or filter?

If its not something thats due to filters or can be corrected by flats, it could be reflections similar to what I am facing. I get similar artefacts when I image in a certain part of the sky and narrowed it down to a street light thats causing reflections in my scope. Plan to put a dew shield on and see if that helps.

1 hour ago, Jerry Barnes said:

Alternatively do you get good results from something like a Skywatcher 200 PDS on something like a EQ6R?

Its all to do with are you getting the best out of your current equipment IMO.

This is how I would go about it - by checking the following:

- Is my mount capable of handling the weight of the scope etc.comfortably

- Can I improve areas like backlash etc. by doing any upgrades to mount OR do I need to change whole mount

- Are there improvements I can make to the scope (eg.focuser, collimation, flattener, Coma corrector)

- Is guidescope of correct size etc.

- Are my cameras suited for the objects that I wish to image

- Will filters help me (UV/IR cut, specialist filters for enhancing nebula etc.)

- Do I need to upgrade my processing software

HTH

On 06/03/2022 at 14:54, WilliamAstro said:

So I was thinking if a canon 550d and a star adventurer is good enough for deepsky imaging and does require filters right? I dont want to spend to much and have it over complicated. is the L-optolong pro good for that?

Over and above all this hardware you will need a decent laptop/RPi and software to manage and process the images. Half the challenge is post capture

On 21/01/2022 at 10:01, Newforestgimp said:

I understand why filters are sometimes very expensive, however, where I get confused is when the same type of filter from different brands price varies so wildly ? 

Its to do with the bandwidth of light they allow/not allow through. If you look at the graphs from each vendor you will see subtle differences and if you search on this forum you will find discussions which cover these. But at the end of the day (as others have said) its what you wish to spend vs how much noticeable difference you will get in your images given the fact that we have so many other factors which are at play besides UV/IR.

On 06/03/2022 at 09:31, PatrickO said:

High embarrassment. Look what I found in the box...

Glad its all sorted now

On 27/02/2022 at 10:47, alecras2345 said:

Hi im Ash,  im reading a book on astronomy and im trying to learn some facts but the book i have is a little overwhelming.  The book i have is Collins Stargazing.   Can you suggest an easier book please to learn facts about the solar system and stars please?     Thanks.

Hi Ash,

What are your interests in astronomy? i.e. are you interested in whats out there, more interested in the science behind it, how to observe/photograph etc. That would help us in recommending appropriate reading material.

5 hours ago, JackG said:

 My current goal is to integrate this system with a workflow stating with plate solving to calibrate the telescope's GOTO function.

I use an RPi too... If you are unfamiliar with Kstars/Ekos do a bit of reading up and try it out using the simulators.

I tend to run Kstars on my laptop (linux) and connect to RPi where I just run the indiserver +drivers.

My workflow is: setup mount, polar align using the polarscope on my HEQ5Pro mount, attach scope, adjust focus (I dont have autofocuser). Optional - run polar alignment assistant in Ekos. Select object and do alignment (ie. platesolve). (You dont really need to calibrate the mount as everytime you do an alignment it uses that data and refines the mount model.) Capture image to check if all is well. So depending on object I get scheduler to do the align, track, guide, capture. I use PHD2 on RPi or the internal guider. have created a set of sequences in Ekos for 30s, 60s & 120s so I can choose right combination for each object.

Good luck.

20 minutes ago, GazK said:

When I first hit "autostretch" on my image I get this weird circular halo.

Do your flats have this halo too?

1 hour ago, GazK said:

Taken on the feedback and processed in Siril, with just the lightest of touches at the end in PS. Feels a much more natural image to me, plus the background is a bit more under control. Could have gone brighter but then I lose the core. Comments welcome. 

Looks great. Try a bit of deconvolution to make the stars more crisp.

19 hours ago, BrightestStar said:

What extras are a necessity for my telescope? What equipment/books/reading material/apps, should I purchase?

Over and above what has been said above, get to know your equipment so you can use it to its fullest potential.  You will soon realise its shortcomings (nothing is perfect) and then can make informed decisions on what to purchase. In the scope such as yours the common areas for improvement that will be suggested are an upgrade to a steadier mount and the eyepieces. But learn first 🙂

Here is a screen shot of what it could look like. I have applied Photometric calibration in Siril to your uploaded image @GazK

Your shot is really good...And to be fair you have taken on one of the harder DSOs - its easy to capture but hard to process due to the extreme dark & bright shades on it.

18 hours ago, GazK said:

Thanks! Any ideas why that might happen?

I have no experience of using DSLRs, so will let others like @alacant respond. Gut feel suggests it could be something with the optics.

On 28/02/2022 at 09:23, Dave scutt said:

Is there any clusters, nebula or galaxies any one could recommend and point me in the right direction to find them .

Try this monthly newsletter meant for bins but equally relevant for scopes. https://binocularsky.com/newsletter/BinoSkyNL.pdf courtesy Steve @BinocularSky

On 27/02/2022 at 14:04, Thingo said:

Unfortunately, I just couldn't find it and I'm asking myself what on earth went wrong... I'm quite certain that I had found the right area by star jumping, but I couldn't see even the faintest smudge, neither in the telescope or in my finder scope or binoculars.

I would suggest you use an app like Skeye or SkySafari on your phone to point you in the right area. And then you could use bins to see if the object is visible. Skeye has a push-to functionality as well that should allow you to attach the phone to your scope and help you reach the right spot. Good luck

23 hours ago, Mr Thingy said:

in the problem session I was closer to the zenith at about 70 degrees. Not sure why that would create an issue though...

It could be a balance issue as suggested already. I have same mount as you without belt mod and there are a few areas close to zenith where the mount struggles. Good luck finding the exact cause

On 27/02/2022 at 16:37, alacant said:

Oh, and a call-out for Siril, which reached the milestone of version 1.0.0 recently.

+1 to siril. Nice image too

22 hours ago, GazK said:

92 x 15second subs (being cautious) @ISO1600, 23mins total. Darks, bias and flats also used, flats were a bit iffy as zoom kept shifting. Canon 80D, 70-300 lens @ 150mm f5.6, on a Star Adventurer on a video tripod.

Nice shot. And an excellent one for a first attempt

The areas to improve over and above what has been said by others is the bottom half of your image has oblong stars, while top half is quite round. So thats one to get to the bottom of. Good luck

will try this as well. thanks