asanmax

The Owl Nebula imaged from the city. Equipment used: Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P Imaging Newtonian Starizona Nexus 0.75x Focal Reducer/Coma Corrector Full spectrum modified Nikon D5300 Optolong L-eNhance filter EQ6-R Pro Mount 3.5 hours of total integration time.

This is amazing! I can't wrap my head around the fact that photons from those distant objects took billions of years to finally reach your camera's sensor. Those distances are just incomprehensible compared to the tiny world we live in.

Perhaps a set of backdrop stands with a black fabric (curtain) thrown on it could help? I use a similar setup when I image something towards South low above the horizon. Those street lights 😕 Something like this one https://www.amazon.ca/T-SIGN-Backdrop-Professional-Telescopic-Background/dp/B081CY45SB/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=backdrop+stands&qid=1683178672&sprefix=backd%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.b06bdbbe-20fd-4ebc-88cf-fa04f1ca0da8&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFIODVRQlRQMzhPN1QmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAxNDcwNDM5N0JLRFJEWk03TlQmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDM0NTI0OVJKT1BOTEVUWjNMRCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Here is my take on the Horsehead Nebula from the city in a Bortle 8 red zone. 94EDPH with an F/4.4 reducer. Full spectrum Nikon D5300. CLS-CCD filter. A total of 3 hours and 47 minutes of three minute exposures at ISO 200.

I used the PHD2 drift align feature which took me about 30 minutes. Then I just marked the mount legs positions on the concrete of my patio. Now I just bring the mount out, align the legs to the previously marked spots and start imaging right away.

The mount is just an amazing piece of equipment. I've had only positive experience with it. I've been doing AP using this mount for a couple of months now and was able to get pin point stars at 1350mm with my Celestron C5. Ot takes some time to learn how to use the mount but it's totally worth it. I had to add an additional counterweight to balance the scope though. Here is the Dumbbell Nebula at 1350mm.

Hello everyone and let me chime in into this discussion. I am a new user on SGL and would like to share my experience with the iExos-100 mount. I was going to build a budget solution that would work at my backyard and would make a great portable setup that I could take with me anywhere. I've been using the mount for 4 months now. For the first month I was doing visual connecting to the mount from my Samsung A-10 tablet via WiFi. No troubles, just needed to figure out how to download the app and the database. The mount responses to the app commands well. But then I figured I'd do astrophotography and I switched to my old laptop and switched the connection type to serial (it is actually USB connection). I followed the video tutorial on how to install POTH Hub and ASCOM and how to connect to the mount. I was actually surprised how easy it is to operate the mount using ASCOM platform. There are so many way to control the mount through different applications such as Cartes Du Ciel, Stellarium, APT etc. So, I build a small guide scope from the doublet lens objective I had, 37mm/130mm and attached the cheap AR0130 sensor to it. I installed PHD2 and set everything up for autoguiding. I initially used 200mm, 300mm and 500mm lenses to test the mount and actually got some pretty good results, good guiding, no star trailing. Finally I put my Celestron C5 on the mount and hooked up my Canon 450D to it. The focal length was 1350mm thanks to the Meade extension tube. Keep in mind that 450D has a cropped sensor. I took it outside, set everything up with no hopes that I would get any good images. To my surprise, the total RMS kept within 0.8 to 1.2 arcseconds and almost 100% of frames came out with no star trails. To say that I was super excited is to say nothing, it was a WOW moment for me. The next step for me was to setup a plate solving solution for the mount as I don't really like GoTo and wanted the whole process of centering the object to be automated. I use APT for imaging and it has its own plate solving. I installed the needed components and tried it out the next day. Again, surprised how precise the application centered the first star I chose within 1 minute. The same night I spent 5.5 hours imaging M31 and M33 galaxies. Centering objects has now become a breeze. Of course I had some questions along the way and ES were very quick to answer them, whether on the CL forum or in the live chat on their website. All in all, I've had some really great experience with the mount and having to image at 1350mm focal length I can't think of a better solution at this price. Here is the link to the official thread, please look at the recent posts to see the results from the folks that use this mount. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/643240-now-available-our-new-explore-scientific-iexos-100-pmc-eight-399/ And here is my latest M33 and M27 shots. 480mm and 1350mm respectfully.