BlueStinger

Depends what you class as high end graphics because that budget will get you entry level, used or not.

Wow. So sad to read about this. As usual it's all about money, so nothing will stop them all going up. I hate humanity at times. Lord help the rest of the solar system, and beyond, if we manage to venture outwards in the future seeing as we pollute and destroy everything we come across. Seems like my new hobby will be very short lived....

When I first looked at the nebula with Binoculas a month or so ago I saw exactly pretty much how you described OP, multiple stars surrounded by a haze of briliant blue and white light. Stunning. It wasn't 'til I took a picture with my phone attached to the binoculars that I could see more colours. Sadly Orion is too low in the nightsky now to observe properly but I'm going to be taking lots of snaps again later in the year. Seems the best time for viewing will be late November here.

Hi, I have a P20 Pro and was using it with my binoculas to take some pics for a while. Complete novice when it comes to taking photos of anything so these are all very raw (no pun intended) and just a handful stacked images and poorly editied or none at all. I mean these are all pretty rubbish but I have actually impressed a few family members and friends believe it or not 🤣

For a second or two after seeing the first post after reading the thread title I thought it was a plane flying across Mercury....I thought, woah, that's a nice scope he's got there to see Mercury that close! 🤣 Anyway loved reading through this thread. Talk about the perfect right place right tme moment. Brilliant.

That makes sense. It can be easily attached to a tripod without having to remove the strap from the camera first. I think you've nailed it. I was searching for ages, so thanks a lot!

Hi, Hope this is the right place to post this. I bought a used dslr a week ago and found this at the bottom of the bag. I'm assuming it's part of a tripod but can't work out what exactly. I've googled multiple ways of saying tripod part but to no avail. Can anyone identify it? Cheers.

Hi, Having only owned a dslr for a week I had my first attempt at Jupiter and Saturn earlier this morning. Lots to improve upon with experience of course but I'm very happy to see Jupiters Moons and the bulge of Saturns rings with just the camera, a cheap tripod and a 55-250mm lens. Canon 700D, 55-250mm stm lens @250mm, 1.6, F8, ISO400 Jupiter with Io and Callisto together on the left, Europa on the right and Ganymede on the far right. Saturn

Took a few of the moon tonight, and then messed around with them to produce this monstrosity, but I kind of like it. I was going to put it in the Lunar thread, but I think I'll just hide it here

I have a 700D(T5i). My first DLSR and only had it a few days. I can't say much about it other than I would have seriously regretted not getting one without a flip out screen. Easy to see what you're doing not matter the angle.

HI, I took this picture last night with my Canon 700D and 55-250mm STM lens. I've only had the camera for a day and never owned any camera apart from ones on smartphones before so forgive the poor quailty as I learn my way around the settings. At least I have my own picture of this especially as it won't come around again for another 8 years??

I do have a tripod and fully intend to use it whenever I can. I'll have a look out tonight at some point before they drop out of view. Thanks! Oh and yes, the fold out screen was a big draw for me as I'm already fed up with crouching down to see what i'm doing using my previous phone and bins method. This is a perfect solution.

Hi, I'm new to all this, still, as you might have guessed from my welcome thread a few weeks ago. I was taking pics of the nightsky with my Huawei P20 Pro, both with just it mounted on a tripod for Milky Way shots and attached to my Binoculas for some closer shots of Orion etc. I was impressed at how well it performed and with some stacking (new to that too!) really impressed at the level of detail, and colour, it pulls. The only disappoinment was The Moon, no matter what I cannot get any real detail to show. Anway I have been binge watching youtube vids regarding shooting the Milky Way and came across one of some guy just pointing a dslr at the moon and taking a pic (in manual mode of course) and, boom, a great shot. Wow! So I had to have one! As I have zero experience of any camera let alone dslr's and a limited budget it seemed I would have to settle for something like a Canon 4000D unless I went the second hand route. The reviews of the 4000D say it's a decent camera for the price but it has some drawbacks that put me off mainly the fairly low quaility, fixed, lcd and so some older used models might be a better choice. I scouted through ebay, fb marketplace and the like and came across some guy selling a 'like new' Canon 700D with some really nice extras and the seller was in the same town! I fired some questions his way as there was no mention or picture of the USB data cable or the shutter count (seems this is very important) and the reply was that there was no USB cable included and he had no idea of the shutter count. He said he only had it a few months, after buying it from a friend, and never even heard of it. I decided to go have a look anyway as it really looked in excellent condition form the pics and the extras were tempting. So I went for a look last night and even though there was no way I could find out the shutter count (as he had no pc available, and without the usb cable I couldn't even connect it to my phone to check the website camershuttercount.com.) I took a risk and bought it (stupidly I guess) as it really did look in excellent condition. I picked up a usb cable on the way home from a local supermarket and straight away went looking for the shutter count (a bit late now but I had to know). camerashuttercount.com told me that this camera doesn't add the required info to pics so I tried EOSinfo. To my absolute joy and relief it says the shutter count is 11,446 which is lower than I expected but I guess not really considering the overall condition of the camera So, I paid £250 for a really nice Canon 700D, the 18-55mm stm kit lens, a 55-250mm stm telephoto lens, a battery grip pack with two Duracell batteries and some weird looking AA cage that can also fit inside the grip, a remote shutter release, a brand new looking Evecase vintage camera bag, a cleaning kit (the rubber ball dust balloon thing will be useful elsewhere too) and of course the standard battery and charger pack and manuals. All in all I think this little lot is pretty good for a complete novice like me without spending a fortune! Sorry for the long write up (I'm good at that) but I'm excited haha! Cheers.

Good video. I insta clicked it when I saw it go up earlier. A friend and I are going off to find some darker skies tonight seeing as it's going to be super clear tonight for the first time since the 16th I want to make the most of it! I have a pair of Skymaster 15x70's which I am very happy with considering they were just £62. One day I'm hoping to get as a good a shot as you did with Andromeda and those cheap bins and a smartphone Cheers!

Yes I'm expecting them to be really heavy and would need a decent tripod for sure. Those swingy arms ones look good. Those image stabilised ones look real nice too. I had to look up what a binoviewer is and didn't even realise they existed. A fantastic idea to be honest. There is so many things I want, and the list gets bigger everyday haha!

Hi Chaz, Though I had no experience whatsoever with quality, features, or issues faced depending on price regarding binoculas, I did do a bit of research into this price range (under £100) so my expectations were quite low but good enough for me considering. It turned out they were actually a fair bit better. A far brighter, crisper image than I expected and much easier to handle I agree. Of course they are much better on a tripod but I can still get some great spotting without for a while, especially if I have something to lean on. I have read about them being very easy to knock out of collimation (I even half expected them to turn up like it) so I am very, very careful with them. The bag and extras really are as bad as I was expecting. I ordered a metal tripod mount the same time as I ordered the bins as I read multiple times the included one is rubbish, and they were spot on. Any movement meant waiting 10+ secs for the wobbling to calm down. Instant fix for an extra £4.60 from ebay I'm actually thinking about a bigger pair already. I was looking at the 25x70's initially but the field of view looked too narrow for my liking so that's why I went for the 15's. I would like a nice set 25x100's maybe, to preserve the wider fov, but will do plenty of research beforehand if I do. I bet that lens is good for frying ants! hehe just joking. Cheers.

It's more to help me get set up until I get a feel for things in time. For example I couldn't for the life of me attach my binoculas to the tripod mount the other night without shining my phone light at it to see. I guess it will be second nature soon. Noted regarding getting a very dim red led as I would only need a slight amount of light.

Thanks Joe, I've read up on red lights being the only choice for working in the dark without wrecking night vision. In the mean time I have been using the old shut one eye method my dad told me about from his Army days. I shall be investing in a red led headlight for sure though.

Hi again. I popped round a friends the night before last and as we were trying (and failing) to get anything viewable in his fathers telescope we aquired I was taking more pics of the nightsky with my phone. So last night I was messing around with a program called Photoscape X i noticed that I could actually see Andromeda in a few of them. I'm mainly taking these pics to get to know the sky. It's quite fun finding out about new things to view and being able to spot them in these blanket pics I am taking beforehand. So, again, sorry about the quality but like I said these are more my personal maps rather than fancy shots. I do intend to start taking better pics but the damn weather isn't helping me do things faster heh! Anyway, here's the pic. I'm pretty sure this is it?

Thanks very much! I look forward to looking getting a view of it the next clear night. I shall also look up the Hinds Crimson Star, it sounds very interesting. Cheers.

Hi, whilst scanning the skies last night with my binoculas I left my phone on the tripod for a while and took a bunch of RAW images to mess about with as I want to learn to stack them etc. Anyway before I went to bed (way too late!) I had a look at the Moon coming up and noticed a really red star somewhat close at roughly the same level. Turns out it was Antares. Really impressive and easily the most red star I have seen so far. This got me interested in looking up some more red stars as they are rare in the grand scheme of things it seems. So, I of course now know of Mu Cephei - Herschel's Garnet Star and am eager to find it as it's supposed to be easy to spot just how red it is with binoculas. The weather is going to be poor for the next few nights at least so I won't get a chance to look for it for a while. In the meantime I wanted to be armed with the knowledge of where to look and have found that I may have inadvertently been taking pictures in it's direction last night. Now I know the colours are all messed up and the picture is pretty rubbish itself, like I said I was just messing about on my first try, but it's just the positioning I'm interested in at the moment. So, am I right? Is that the Garnet Star?

Thanks, I'm well chuffed It is a nice clear night down here in Yeovil too. I'm going to stay up for a few hours later tonight to make the most of it. Need to find my gloves though hahah! Anyway, good luck to anyone else hunting for Andromeda for the first time!

I found it tonight for the very first time. I'm using Skymaster 15x70's and I believe i'm in a Bortle 5 area, but observing away from any street lights etc. I'm very new to stargazing but I'm learning where everything is fast. I'm pretty good at using a map and it feels the same thing looking up kind of. Anyway, I knew it was further down from the bigger point of Cassiopeia. Took me a while of scanning just because the binoculas reveal so many more stars heh! So amoung all the little pin pricks I eventually spotted the oval smudge with it's bright centre. Didn't get to view it long as it was just above the rooftops then slowly sank below them, but at least I now know where it is! I'm blown away that I have finally seen Andromeda with my own eyes, and even more mind boggling that I'm seeing the light from it from 2.5 million years ago. Incredible. Hoping to get some images next time it's a clear evening.

After a small trip out with the binoculas to a darker area with a friend the other night has got him hooked now too. Lots of 'wow' moments just panning around the sky. Afterwards he mentioned his dad buying a telescope some years ago so gave him a call and asked him. Sure enough he did but as it was in the loft he didn't know what make it was or any other info other than it cost him a couple hundred. He hardly used it. He went and picked it up tonight and now it's at mine for the time being. It's a virtually brand new Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ-MD. Neither of us know anything about setting up telescopes so it took ages but I think we got there. Just waiting on tomorrow night when it's supposed to be clear from 11pm onwards or so to take it out and give it a whirl. We have also been looking at some light pollution maps and plotting where to go. Talk about addicted! Sorry to keep posting in here but seems to tie in well with the topic at hand. I will be using the other forums for sure once I've gotten more than one or two nights observing under my belt. Cheers!