Older Padawan

Very nice pics. I really like the way the color pops in the first photo. Hope to get my camera before long so I can enjoy capturing these types of images

Fantastic shot. Thanks for sharing

Pretty sure you were looking at the Starlink Satellites. Elon Musk is responsible for placing these into orbit. We saw them here in Colorado last week and the local television stations were flooded with calls about them. While fascinating to observe Musk wants to place thousands of them in orbit and wreak havoc on our viewing and photographing the stars.

First look at Betelgeuse in quite a while and wow what a difference. Can't wait to see what it has in store for us next.

Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing

Beautiful shot. Can't wait to see what comes next

Thanks Geoff some great information. I do have the 250P flex tube and after many frustrating nights of horrible alignment I went to Polaris and then did a 2 star alignment from that point. It worked really well as the scope slewed right where it was supposed to the rest of the session. I like your idea of preplanning with Stellarium and finding stars that aren't hidden from view by local obstacles. I will be putting that method into use immediately

I just got in after a couple of hours gazing at the universe and I have to say thank you guys all of you. I lined up on Polaris then did a 2 star alignment and it worked great. I was very close to dead center on everything I went to. Man I love learning from experienced people.

I haven't had a clear night lately but I have found out the compass I was using was messed up. It would show a different north each time I tried to use it. Sometimes off by as much as 15 degrees. Obviously I no longer use that so next time out I will use Polaris and go from there. Thanks for all the help it is greatly appreciated

Thank you Don and Andy. I appreciate the information. I can tell I have a lot to learn. I think I need to get out, shoot, read, make mistakes and keep going.

Ok here I go showing how very, very little I know about AP. As someone who is looking at possibly getting into astro photography can you please tell me about flats, darks and bias. How are they taken and how are they used. (Told you I don't know anything lol) Thank you in advance for the information

Wow what a beautiful shot!!

Just curious, do any of these maps show Mt. Marion and does anyone besides Jim Lovell know exactly where it is. Just curious

Thanks for the input everyone. I have a Skywatcher 250P 10" with a SynScan GOTO and I am in Colorado. I have been using the 2 star alignment I think I will use Polaris next time and see if that takes care of the situation. I love all there is to learn about this hobby and I love the information on the site.

I am still very new to this hobby and have run into a situation where my goto is consistently off by 8 to 10 degrees. Is this a problem with not finding true north. Can I enter a different value to correct for this? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for the information happy-kat. I will check it out.

I was able to share the view of Saturn with my wife and daughter recently. It was fun to hear them gasp at the sight of those beautiful rings.

The body of my D90 weighs about 24 oz. I have a feeling that's going to cause a problem

I wonder if anyone has used a Nikon D90 for imaging. I have a Skywatcher 10" Collapsable GoTo telescope and my big concern is the weight of the camera. Any thoughts out there?