Thor92

Absolutely fantastic mate I only dream about taking photos like this.

Amazing for a smartphone camera! What a long way we have come from our 0.9MP flip phones!

What a picture, luck or good planning?

Fantastic!

WOW, simply WOW. That is genuinely absolutely fantastic, I work on ships and you only get that on a perfect night deep sea somewhere very far north and you have at your feet!

I usually prefer deep space pictures but WOW that 1st place pic, it's absolutely stunning, a rainbow of stars, it must have taken ages to get that right! The 2nd picture is absolutely incredible as well, beautiful colours and no bluring even though non guided, bet he thought he'd one for sure! The 3rd one is quite good as well, quite clear for a 30s exposure. Top draw Gentlemen/Ladies

I may have a wonder over to this be one of my first meets. Got a skywatcher 150pds with a few mods on a modded EQ5 mount. Be nice to see folk and get some advice, every days a learning day especially with this stuff!

I'm fairly new to all this, so I could be wrong. However I am a marine engineer and my inner engineer says that yes it is absolutely still needed. Unless you have the entire telescope in a sealed environmentally controlled room ( I doubt your dome is ) your still going to get dew. So your initial instinct is correct (In my opinion) keep using it Hope that helps somewhat. PS- I'd be interested to see pictures of your dome. Always liked that idea!

Thanks for your reply and comment about the picture. I was a tad aggressive with the unsharp mask but certainly getting there, a big learning curve getting the right camera settings etc. Yes I understand it's absolutely huge which is why it's annoying me not being able to find it. You could be correct I could be looking straight through it. I think one of the problems is it's very close to a local obstruction and I have to setup in a different location to normal so that throws me off a little. Perhaps I shall persist abit longer. Any suggestions for any other deep sky objects that should be relatively 'easy' to find? J

No not yet. I'm currently in the process of adding them. Perhaps I didn't explain it very well. I'm currently planning on using (making or buying) a astro EQ controller. This should give me a wider set of options for the future

After another night trying and failing to find the andromeda galaxy, I'm officially calling it "fake" haha Well that's what flat earthers do when they can't understand why something is happening, sorry that's another subject that annoys me, bloody flatards...... anyway I must be doing something wrong, from talking to @nightfisher it should be fairly visible, especially on a night like tonight It looks like a carpet of stars tonight it's absolutely beautiful, i'm just frustrated at my inability to find what is essentially a massive galaxy. Think I may need a session with someone that can find it. I'm absolutely positive I am looking in the right area, skymap,sky walk 2, solarium and every instrument I have says I'm in the right place but can only see stars. On a good note I did manage to get some good views of a double star while messing around

Hello all, Thanks for all your help so far. I am getting there, learning both the scope, mount and my camera. I don't seem to have an issue finding, our moon or the larger planets. I am however having a very hard time finding deep sky objects. I was doing my very best to find the Andromeda galaxy, using the SkyWalk2 app, but failed, infact I'm quite sure I captured about every star in the area of andromeda. It was very frustrating, I seem to be having trouble with any deep sky object, other than stars. I then moved back to capturing the moon, managed several close up shots and one half decent full disc image (well 5frames stacked - Image attached) So where am I going wrong with the deep sky stuff? doesn't seem to matter if i'm using a barlow lense connected to the DSLR or using it connected via my coma corrector at prime focus i can never find the deep sky stuff, the most success I have had is with a planetary nebula but even that was un identifiable even when processed. Is there any easy way or tips at finding the deep sky objects, I realise that they are the dimmer sometimes smudge looking objects, after reading and watching a few tutorials I am still finding it difficult to find anything. I am considering making a DIY go to for my EQ5. I have a fair amount of knowledge with regards to stepper motors, ardunio and encoders, there are plenty of tutorials out there. Does this sound like a good idea, it should allow me to be able to find things easier aswell as be a good upgrade for tracking objects for longer exposures. Thanks for your advice so far, I look forward to your comments J

Thanks for your response. I don't have auto tracking nor a motorised mount....yet I assume that polar alignment would only affect this if motorised? I have come on a fair way since I made this post. I shall create another thread with another few problems im having Regards J

Struggling to find 2" barlow lense for use with my coma corrector. and 2" camera nose piece. Should I use a 1.25" one above the coma corrector and then get another nose piece for my T ring?

Thanks, you should have seen the first few photos of the moon. Looked like I'd taken it with a pin hole camera whilst riding on a roller-coaster haha. Still its nice to see an improvement especially over one night. makes it a tad more rewarding. Good to know about the barlow lenses , wasn't sure if they were compatible with the camera side of things or just strictly visual, I think I'll order a couple up perhaps a 1.5x and a 3x. So you think I require a focal reducer get a decent deep sky image? I would love to capture the Orion nebula or Andromeda. Heck to be honest any deep sky object that I can even get the slightest bit of detail in that wasn't a dot would be absolutely fascinating to me. My attempt at vega is absolutely shocking really, I mean look at this absolutely beautiful photo. taken with a similar scope & camera. All I get is blur, and this appears to be even more "zoomed in" *THIS IS NOT MY IMAGE*