adoldesa

Without dew heaters I could not image, on an average night I get condensation after 30min of imaging.

Seeing other's images and knowing which equipment has been used and how the image has been treated helps me a lot to understand what I can and cannot do with my own kit. I mostly post on social media and I add these details in the post, never used an actual caption but I would probably do if posting in a different place. I would say that the most important details are (for me): Scope, filters, correctors/flatteners, mount, camera, total time and subs time, ISO/Gain. This helps others understand what is needed to reach a certain quality of image.

Are you using any filters? Mist can also appear on the filters in front of the camera or on the sensor itself if it is not properly sealed.

Hi there, 1) No need to attach lenses to the camera. 2) What is the telescope pointing at? It looks like it is simply out of focus. Being a Newton you may have troubles getting in focus using a DSLR camera since the focal point my fall inside the focuser tube, but if is hard to say without knowing the specs of the scope/focuser. Is the focuser 2" or 1.25"? From your first picture it looks like you are using a 1.25" adaptor at the end of a larger tube, that is likely to extend the camera too far back from where it can get in focus.

Hi there, guiding will surely help, especially with a 250P which has a fairly long focal. There are good deals online for a guide scope and a guide camera for about £200 (I use the ZWO120mm mini). I used a DSLR for about 12 months using a good light pollution filter (I am in Class 5 skies), for instance an IDAS or a SkyTech LPro Max are good choices and the can be used with dedicated astro cameras. Personally, I upgraded the mount and the guiding before moving to a dedicated CMOS cooled camera, the DSLR will give you great results if you can guide for 2-3 min with a good filter.

Hi there and welcome to the forum! I have successfully used an Omegon MiniTrack LX2 (which is a mechanical type of tracker) with a Nikon D7000 and a 70-300mm zoom lens. My kit was at the limit of the tracker capabilities but I managed good 2-3 min exposures at 70mm and 30-90sec at 300mm. It will really depend on the focal length, exposure and how the camera sits with respect to the tracker. Remember the "100" or "300" rule, which is well explained in these two guides by Christian Fattinanzi: https://nimax-img.de/Produktdownloads/Astrofotografia Paesaggistica_EN.pdf https://nimax-img.de/Produktdownloads/exposure time_EN.pdf Have fun with this hobby!

Are you using a coma corrector? In this case the corrector will have a fixed back-focus distance (usually 55mm), in this case the ZWO guide at this link helps: https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/tutorials/best-back-focus-length-solutions-55mm.html If not using the coma corrector you should work out where is the focal point of your Newton, usually this is inside the focuser barrel for standard focusers (like SkyWatcher) and you may struggle to reach it (although I was able to reach focus with a DSLR and a a standard crayford on my old SW200P). If the focus is too deep in the focuser you either add a coma corrector or replace the focuser with a low-profile one. Hope this helps.

I can see the reasoning about this and I agree, however if for some reason your scopes end up misaligned wouldn't this affect your guiding? I am thinking in terms of cone error between the two scopes. Of course an adjustable dovetail plate solves this issue.

Hi, two things moved me a long way in imaging: 1) Astro Pixel processor License and 2) ZWO ASI294MC-Pro camera. I understand the camera may be out of budget for now but I would rather save for that than trying to change the telescope. When making my choice of camera I concluded that with the weather in the UK and the useful time I can spend outside a colour camera with a Tri-Band filter was a much better option for me, since I will be able to capture all the important bands of emission nebulae in one shot. I do image under Class 5 skies and I find this combination very satisfactory. If looking at a good light pollution filter I found the SkyTech LPro to perform very well, although I was undecided between this one and and IDAS, but the price difference helped me decide. Hope this helps!

Are you doing flats for each filter? I had problems with gradients when my flats were not correctly taken at 50% of the histogram. However, even then light pollution still leaves some residual gradients, I usually remove it in APP which has a good tool for it. Another problem could be focussing when changing filters, some filter combinations are not parfocal and you will need to re-focus with each one, if this is not done the illumination will not be even across the filters and may produce gradients and strange effects after stacking.

Hi, looks interesting. One thing to consider is that this telescope will have fixed clamps, ideally for a guide scope you want to have clamps which allow you to centre the scope and align it to the main tube. An 80mm diameter will help in picking up faint stars, but it will also depend on your guide camera and the focal length of your main scope (for short refractors a small guide scope is usually enough). Then you should consider the weight, ideally you want to have it as light as possible not to affect to much your imaging train. At the moment I use a cheap (about £50) 50mm guide scope but I will soon move to a SW EvoGuide 50ED (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/sky-watcher-evoguide-50ed-guidescope.html). It is a more expensive scope but after looking at it in person I noticed the huge difference with a cheap one and the ED glass surely stands out! Personally, I prefer good optics for guiding rather than large diameter, as the star shape in the guiding camera is important for good performance. Hope this helps!

Hi, when I was using a Nikon D750 I noticed a huge difference when I started dithering. In my experience, however, darks are still very useful to get rid of bad pixels before the stacking process, especially with DSLRs, this helps the rejection filter (or simply the median if no rejection is used) to get rid of true outliers which may be skipped if stacking without darks. Dithering will help with walking noise and it will also allow use to use frames that contain satellites/meteors/airplanes, I was surprised when I staked 50 frames, 10 of which with airplanes trails and I could not detect any of it in the final image!

Hi Lorenzo, Welcome from a fellow Italian in the UK and a Physicist as well (condensed matter and solid state). I've been living in the south west (in Exeter precisely, HQ of FLO) for about 6 years now and the skies down here are really good for photography. If you find yourself happy to drive 4 hrs down here you can enjoy the dark skies of Dartmoor National Park, a breathtaking landascape for skyscape photographs! Enjoy!

Hi there, When I decided to start DSO imaging again I bought the ED80 on HEQ5. I started imaging with a DSLR and quickly realised I needed a field flattener. I image under class 5 sky and a good light pollution filter was my next step. Then I moved to a dedicated cooled camera. So, in my opinion the ED80 is an awesome scope for beginners and intermediate, well priced, light and easy to guide on HEQ5. A flattener is a must so I would order it with the scope straight away (I had to wait three weeks for mine and it was horrible! 😅). Hope this helps!

Hi, When I was using a newton for imaging (SW 200mm f/5) I had a long dew shield which did a good job at keeping dew and stray light at bay. In general a dew heater is not necessary for the primary mirror and I have seen people mounting a very thin heater directly around the secondary mirror cell taking care to route the cable along the mirror mount to minimise obstruction. For observations another heater around thr eyepiece can save a lot of frustration and it is almost necessary if using a coma reducer for imaging.

Hi there, I have a similar restricted view from my backyard but I still enjoy viewing most of what is out there. I use Stellarium to plan ahead, in this software you can import a panoramic image around your observing site and load it as your horizon. The feature works very well and there is a good guide on Stellarium website that explains how to do it. I use a dslr and photoshop to prepare the image but a mobile phone with a panoramic mode will be enough. Enjoy this hobby, it is very satisfying!

Ehm... Sorry about that... The FLO paecel said it may contain clouds but i think I unpacked about 3 months of it! Eheheh.

Hi everyone! After reading a lot of stuff on this forum, I think it is time for me to contribute as well. In brief I have been observing on and off for about 16 years now but only recently (about 1 year ago) acquired an astrophotography setup and upgraded it slowly to its current form which consists of a SkytWatcher EvoStar 80ED Pro, HEQ5 Belt Modded mount, 50mm guide scope and mono ToupTek guide camera, ZWO ASI 294MC Pro camera and a few filters (LPro Max and Tri-band). I traditionally image from my backyard here in mid-Devon under Class 5 Bortle skies, which is surprisingly good given I live in a medium-sized city. Here a couple of my latest images, the Heart Nebula (IC1805) was acquired with my Nikon D750 DSLR and the Pleiades (M45) are the first light of my new ZWO ASI294MC. Unfortunately the integration if fairly short (4hrs on IC1805 and 1:30 hrs on M45) due to the horrible weather we had in the past two months. So... that's about it for now, I am sure I will keep learning a lot from this forum and I hope I can contribute a bit of my knowledge too.

Hi There, just started on the forum and I was looking for posts about the ASI294MC Pro. I have just bought this camera as my first move from DSLR (Nikon D750) to dedicated camera. I had the same dilemma between mono and OSC for a while and in the end I choose OSC mostly because of the little time I get to image due to the weather here in the SW of England. I use a tri-band filter and a more broadband light-pollution filter and I found a massive difference compared to the DSLR. I also use APP for processing which has a de-bayer algorithm to "extract" the Ha and OIII channels from the OSC data using tri-band filters (I don't know if other programs have this, surely not DSS). I get good results with it, although they cannot compete with full LRGB on a mono sensor it is a great compromise. Hope this helps.