MattGP

Stacking is still on my need to learn list Often read on here about people taking a huge amount of subs to get a decent picture, I’m not sure I would have the time to be able to do these large amount (i have a manual shutter cable at mo). I wonder looking at how good at this zoom the pic would be tho, as really does look more like a smudge.

Many thanks all, well I can now locate M51 with ease just by pointing camera However this photo is the max zoom 300mm I can get with my lens and whilst I think it's still pretty cool that a non AP camera with a non AP lens can pick up an object 23 million light years away, it does confirm why I need to invest in what I'm thinking of an Evostar 72ed

ooh not heard of this site before...is it straight forward to use? edit.....very straight forward

Oh wow. can see it now My sense of scale for this photo was well off - thanking you again

Oh wow really (I need to learn to read star charts better). Can I ask what helped you identify? Edit ah of course that Alkaid to the left i know what I’m doing later but on a higher zoom Many thanks Matt

Ok having looked at some more start charts am pretty sure that if I could see it, I would be seeing it in the bottom right part of his pic, alas I can’t 😢 So I move to a target I can pick up with current set up

Interestingly though read somewhere (maybe on here) that the IS function on lenses can cause issues if using a star adventurer, as the lens could try to auto correct the movement of the tracker

Having a quick review of a few pics taken tonight and can see that this one matches up with your link above (the trapezium shape) so was very nearly there - or may well have been in this pic?......

For the moment I've just been using two apps to help me confirm what I'm looking at in the sky - of the two I'm preferring StarTrackerLite. It's not perfect in terms of locating say Galaxies that you can't see with the naked eye - but is great form identifying constellations etc and good for helping you locate Polaris - which you'll need when Polar Aligning the Star Adventurer :)

This is me last night trying to find M51 (unsuccessfully) But, on full 300mm zoom 26 sec sub with the Star Adventurer Mount, stars look pretty sharp to me

Many thanks, everything helps at the moment, am a total noob at AP and consequently observing too This star maps are super helpful, I’m literally just using an app and my eyes, but clearly the apps are only giving me a general area rather than a true “this is where it is pointer”. Hopefully skies will be clear again tonight so can have another go, as said tho I really would be happy with just a smidge considering am using a non Ap modded dslr with what is a kit lens too

I suspect mine would be similar, just looked on light pollution map and where I am is pretty high up....weirdly tho I would be happy with a photographing a small fudge patch of light tho

Just googled it and Description Cartes du Ciel is a free and open source planetarium program for Linux, macOS, and Windows. With the change to version 3, Linux has been added as a target platform, licensing has changed from freeware to GPLv2 and the project moved to a new website.

Ah this is awesome many thanks 🙏

Hi there Im using a 300mm canon lens, this photo is full zoom. So wasn’t sure if just couldn’t see it with this lens/too much light pollution or just simply not aiming in the right place. Can’t see it with the naked eye here - oh and this was a single 26sec sub

Evening all Wondering if anyone can help. Attempting to work out if I can capture any Galaxies and as M51 seems to be above me thought I’d give it a go tonight. From what I can determine the bright star in this photo is Alkaid and from what I can see on my APP, M51 should be to the right of here. Using your skills, is M51 in theory in this frame (and my lens simply can’t pick it up) or have I not gone far enough over? many thanks as always all. matt

Nah none at all, didn’t even no Orion or Venus 😊 These are some I’ve taken over last 2 weeks, the zoomed ones are 300mm and the wide shots are 18mm, some using Star Adventurer but not all and then editing in canons free photo software (actually simple but good). These are all single pics, no stacking cheers matt

Oops my bad....noob out 😂

I’ve just started with pretty much the same lenses as you (my bigger is 300mm) and have the Star Adventurer too I’ve captured Orion Nebula so far, but not sure if light pollution will let me capture any galaxies - that said it’s still great fun taking zoomed pictures of what I can and the 18mm lens for wide sky star shots. also go on to canon website and download the canon photo editing software, it’s actually quite cool- these are some pics I’ve taken with my lenses

Pretty sure I’ve seen a specific thread on here about how much people love this scope maybe check the search function for it

Matter of interest what lenses do you have? I spent ages pondering the same question, then came on here and was suggested to just use the camera I had (canon 500d) and to invest in a Star Adventurer Pro (tracking equatorial mount) and to just use my existing lenses 80mm and 200mm. Since this I’ve now borrowed my sisters 300mm lenses and actually this is great for learning and starting...eventually will add a Skywatcher Evostar 72ed which I can add to this set up

I would have never guessed that in a million years, many thanks 🙏

Morning all Have only been taking Astro photos for a few weeks and probably only taking photos of the moon for a week at best. Looking at this photo I saw two extra dark spots on the right hand side, that didn’t appear to be on any other photo I took, so wasn’t anything on sensor etc. Having Googled already, seems to indicate it’s shadows, but is it shadows of a specific time feature that I just managed to catch at that time in that frame? cheers all matt

I’ve been learning AP using 500d that I already had, with 17-80mm and 80-300mm kit lenses and a Star Adventurer pro. I’m finding a good set up to keep me going and learning

Do need to get something like this soon, will be a good reference