Mandy D

Are you using a DSLR? On some of the high end Nikon prosumer and professional cameras there is a utility in the settings menu that gives you a virtual horizon that shows pitch and roll for the camera on the rear LCD. It is also in viewfinder, but much more limited. My D800 and partner's D7200 have this. I guess Canon have the same. https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/d850/en/18_menu_guide_06_06.html

You've got a nice focal length there for the Moon, especially if your DSLR has a crop sensor. I just did my first stacked image, which was of the Moon, using a full frame DSLR on my Skywatcher 200P, which is 1200 mm focal length. Shot 135 frames and stacked the best 67. I got a lot of great help from a couple of forum members and got my best image of it yet. The Moon was very low in the sky and my telescope mount was struggling to keep it level!

Would I clean that? Only if I was shooting a wedding with it! Then, only because it is expected, given the cost of wedding photography, but it won't give better images for it. 😀

It's lovely up here at 53 deg N. Had some clear views of Jupiter and Saturn, but my photography is not up to your standard yet. Nice Jupiter!

Hey, welcome to the forum. What is it you are most interested in looking at? Have you got a copy of Stellarium yet to guide you around the sky? I find it really handy for identifying things I'm looking at and for locating interesting stuff to see. Ask lots of questions and you will get a lot of help in here.

I had a look to see how Jupiter and our Moon were lining up last night ready for tonight's closer encounter and managed to get Jupiter, the four Gallilean moons and our own Moon in a single image. The photo was taken at 22:45, about five minutes before the start of Europa's transit across the disc of Jupiter. In the cropped and enlarged (2x) image, you can just make out Europa touching the edge of Jupiter. Hoping for clear skies tonight, so I can tackle this with a much longer focal length and have all four Gallilean moons lined up to the left, well away from Jupiter . In last night's image, the order of the moons is, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, Io, Luna(!) - the latter, of course missing in my second image! Nikon D800, 135 mm, f/2, ISO-400, 1/4s

I'm not sure whether this belongs in Lunar or Nebula! I never thought dense cloud cover and a full Moon could result in a beautiful image. I was wrong! Nikon D800, 135 mm, f/2.8 1/40s, ISO-3200 handheld from the bathroom window at 4 a.m. last autumn after I'd completely given up on the Moon and gone to bed!

Thank you! That means a lot to me. I couldn't have done this without all your help. Getting the images was easy, but it took a lot of figuring to get the software to do it's bit. Easier next time, I suspect!

This is my first ever attempt at stacking, but first, thank you to @Laurieast and @Steve Ward, whithout whose help I would not have managed this. Last night was incredibly clear and steady and I grabbed 136 images of the Moon with the D800 through my Skywatcher 200P. I cropped and evaluated them in PIPP, then got Autostakkert to stack the best 50%, which according to PIPP were all above 90%. Final processing to adjust contrast, brightness and to sharpen was done in GIMP. I'm pretty pleased with the final result.

Same here. I'll have a ten minute window through the trees for Saturn around midnight unless I go out onto the main road! It sucks.

So, that's what happened! I recall noticing how much fainter Betelgeuse became at the time. Let's hope JWST can spot the ejected material.

It would be "Astrodomme" in the feminine! 🤣

Yes, I have an ASI178MM already. I just never got to grips with ZWO software. Let's get the DSLR stuff working for now as I can already get good images with that. I just need to make them great, then I will re-visit the ZWO. One step at a time. 😊

I've found my cable and playing with digicamcontrol now. It looks good so far. Thanks.

Yes, I was quite happy with $50, but not with what Nikon wanted to charge. I'll try your link first though and if that covers what I need, I'll be very happy. Thank you for the suggestion. I just need to find my Nikon USB cable, now ... 😉

Sadly, unlike Canon, the Nikon software is not free. In fact it is very expensive. Backyardnikon, as suggested by @Laurieast is probably what I will use. I get that PIPP will give me the full resolution of the camera, but for simplicity at this point I will go with shooting video until I get my head around this processing game. But, thanks for the additional suggestions. I'll certainly investigate them further once I get going with this.

Ah, good old VLC. Looks like that might be what I need to get started. I'll see if I can grab a few minutes of video tonight.

OK, thanks. I've installed Autostakkert. My D800 appears to produce MOV, not AVI. Will this work or do I need to convert it first?

@Gem85 I started with a Skywatcher 250PX and it got me hooked, as I could see so much with it. Then, I thought I needed something a bit more portable, so I bought an iOptron RC6 as it is a lot smaller than the Skywatcher, but I had to buy a whole lot of extra kit that makes it less convenient to drag out than the bigger scope. So, since my 250PX is in France and currently unnaccessible to me, I bought a used Skywatcher 200P, thinking it would be smaller, lighter and easier to store than the 250PX. Nope! It takes up exactly the same amount of floor space, as the Dobsonian base is the same size and the tube the same length and it weighs near enough as much! Most of my astronomy is currently done with a 300 mm prime lens on a Nikon D800 or D3200 and with a x2 teleconverter (Barlow) to give me 600 mm at f/8. I have a heavy (and expensive) video tripod to keep things stable. I also have a ZWO ASI178MM camera that gets less use than I'd like because I have to lug a laptop out to use it. What I am trying to say is that whatever you buy, it will have downsides as well as upsides. I use all of my kit, but some more than others. Initially, you may be disappointed with the views in a small scope, especially for DSOs, so a large scope will give you a more exciting intro to this hobby. I'm actually glad I started with such a large scope, but now I am getting more observing done with smaller gear. There is no right or wrong answer to what you should start with or advance to, other than avoid cheap supermarket telescopes like the plague. I paid £200 for my 200P, which is an absolute bargain for such light gathering power. I've seen similar out there for even less, so stuff is available within your budget.

I bought a Skywatcher tripod with the 2 inch legs and made an adapter to take a tripod head, so I can also mount my camera directly on it.

Ahh, I have Registax, just need to learn to use it and must download Autostakkert. I currently do everything in GIMP, so not sure if I need Affinity. I think now is the time to up my game. I have just bought an AZ-EQ5, but am currently unable to drive due to an eye injury and very little sky available at home due, mainly, to trees.

Thank you! I'm using a Hahnel system at the moment to remote release the shutter and have the intervalometer, too. I've never seen Backyardnikon before; it looks interesting. I like the idea that it can stack images and AVIs as that is something I am currently stuck on. The only problem is that I am lending my laptop to a friend tonight, otherwise I'd try it on getting the other moons of Saturn. I'll definitely give it a go. Do you use the classic or premium edition?

Last night's supermoon. Nikon D800, Skywatcher 200P

My attempt on Saturn, last night with a Skywatcher 200P and Nikon D800. Nowhere near as awesome as some of the images you guys are posting, but I can see a clear gap between the rings and the planet and in my second image are the moons Titan, Dione and Tethys. I don't know where Rhea went as that was supposed to be brighter than both Tethys and Dione! I only get a ten minute window to the south from my garden because of the tree line. I might have another go tonight, as this is addictive and I now want 5 moons!

If those screws are slightly smaller than M3 and given the age of this telescope, I suspect they would be 6 BA, which are 2.75 mm in diameter. You should be able to obtain some from a model engineering supplier. It seems a shame to change parts for metric equivalents on this projject.