MattGP

Interestingly hadn’t tried live view on lunar until last night....was awesome

So far my attempts at stacking haven’t been too marvellous....but haven’t tried lunar ones yet

Yeah has been so clear the past week 🙏 Am just manually focusing through the viewfinder at present (using kit 17mm and 300 lenses) sometimes use the laptop but on the whole just by eye. Yeah the moon was very nearly in focus, but has been cropped a wee bit too

Should probably start finding where on forum to post my pics, really liking what am taking now, although still haven’t learnt stacking etc

Really happy with the colours I managed to get tonight (such as a clear night) Whilst I did manage a successful stacked image too (woo Hoo), this one is an crop and edit of a single frame

Cheers all, had wanted to try stacking again, but failed again, this was a one shot pic (with editing in canon software) with a 300mm lens at full

Lots of work needed, but my first nebula photo 🙏

First attempt at a full 200mm zoom Next thing to learn.....:stacking.

Hoorah and can now polar align and use the Star Adventurer 🙏

Defo, this forum will become my bible 🙏

So have started my new hobby, am using my old Canon 500d and have bought to go with it a Star Adventurer, although haven’t started to try and learn how it works/polar align just yet. So these are just using a tripod and starting to learn the manual settings of the camera. Am looking forward to learning how to take better shots and learning exactly what stacking is as time goes on and will be good to keep these as where it all begun 🙏

Must be said all, my head hurts a lot less now and I believe I know where I’m heading to start, so using existing Canon 500d with 200mm (also have a 50mm), couple this with the Star Adventurer Pro Pack and Tripod 🙏and within initial budget 🙌 So now I’m guessing am going to have to take a crash course in subs, darks, flats, bias and stacking to name but a few 😱 many thanks all matt

I think I am definitely leaning towards the star adventure pro pack, guessing their standard £59 tripod is ok?

Ooh what’s the score on m42? Not seen these yet

This has been a real eye opener, I can’t quite believe a 200mm lens can achieve that! I’ve never been particularly impressed with that lens even for landscapes, so always just used the smaller one, hence thought it wouldn’t be much cop. Now to see it could achieve that is amazing 🙏

Excellent cheers, that’s the kind of set up I was imagining, what’s the evostar like imagewise? Was looking at a thread about 80s and I was quite surprised by the images obatained.

Many thanks for this, whilst it in places felt like you was talking Dutch, that goes along with a previous comment to read an AP book as I have a lot to learn and digest. Still can’t believe my current set up will get me going (well once have a mount and tripod). Will check the one you’ve linked above too. thanks matt

Oh wow Jesus!! I saw the star adventurer mount, but then thought about the cost of tripod and lens etc on top so moved away. But having had another look can see there’s quite a few variants of that, pro pack and AP packs. If my existing lens is at least good as a starter then just this mount and £59 tripod would be cool. Is there much difference do you know between the pro pack and astro photo bundle? Also if went for this type of mount am I right in thinking that in the future scopes like the SW130 wouldn’t be compatible? many thanks matt

Many thanks for the super fast and very detailed replies, all super helpful and a few more names for me to take a look at. When I looked at the EQ3-2 mount mentioned on another thread I thought it was motorised....then realised it wasn’t ☹️ For me it’s primarily imaging, although not sure my current lenses are much cop for AP only 200mm I think, so keen to get going with something. Totally understand the comment re mount being most important and defo can invest more into interest if it develops and continues (although am guessing will be an expensive hobby 😂). cheers matt

Evening all, so have been looking for the last few weeks and doing research on a set up for primarily AP (with a Canon 500D). Am posting to get a little more advise as to be honest my head is starting to hurt now 😂 Originally has decided on the Skywatcher 200 dobsonian 8 in, but then realised that this may not be best for AP due to the fixed manual mount. Then started looking at AP specific, redcat, explore scientific, but that soon made me realise the price tag was way out of my reach, I’m looking at. £3-400 which I kinda know now is a drop in the ocean. Came across this site and have read quite a few threads and the SW 130 with EQ3-2 seems to be a firm favourite and would work for someone like me, but not I’ve found the SW150 with Eq-3-2 which is within budget 🤔 but then I get flummoxed by the three diff types 150m, 150 PDs and 150PL and then my head starts hurting again. So with this small budget would the SW150 be ok for AP and of these I’m thinking the PDS would be the better? many thanks for your help. matt

Super useful thread as I was literally looking at the same setup for AP too, now my head hurts even more around what is best 🤔