KevD65

On 21/04/2020 at 20:02, Stu said:

I was out looking for the Starlink pass last night, and decided to pop my phone on a little tripod and see what it would do on a longer exposure.

This was a 30s shot using night mode on the iPhone, then tweaked to reduce the background and bring out the stars a little. The second version has more faint stars but that makes it harder to see the shape of Ursa Major; I checked the the faint stars are indeed stars, not noise!

The third unprocessed shot just about shows a trail from one of the Starlinks towards the bottom right. Any attempt at processing makes it disappear, so this is what the raw shots of the others looked like too.

 

 

 

Hi, I'm new to the forum, but have been tinkering with iphone imaging for a couple of months. Can I ask you what software you used to process your images, as the results are great and I'd love to be able to do something similar myself. Also do you have any links to good guides for beginners attempting iphone astro imaging, or any good books on the subject? 

14 hours ago, John said:

The stability of  mount can be improved by having a weight hanging from the centre of the tripod eg: a milk bottle filled with sand or water.

Now that is a damn fine idea, I'll try that !

6 hours ago, Ricochet said:

How recently? Is it recent enough that you can still return it for a refund? The reason that I ask is that you've already spent somewhere in the region of £150 for a telescope with a mount that you know from the outset is not good enough. You're planning to upgrade the mount, and @John has given the most reasonable options, which will cost you another £170-£180. Your planned spend on this setup is over £300, but at the end of the day you will still only have a Powerseeker 114. If you were to spend all of that money at once now, you could buy a Skyliner 200p Dob or an Explorer 150p on either of the mounts John suggested, any of which will give superior views on all objects.

I can't work for medical reasons, so money is tight. The upgrades I plan are over an extended period of 12 to 18 months. I chose this scope because it has reasonable optics, and I wanted a beginners scope so I could start getting to grips with using a telescope sooner rather than later. If I had over £300 to spend now I would have gone for a better scope and mount, but I simply don't have that money available now.

I hope that makes sense.

So I have dabbled in Astronomy for years on and off using binoculars, but recently took the plunge and bought a beginners scope, the Celestron Powerseeker 114EQ. The package I bought included the celestron motor drive for the EQ mount to track objects. I'd read a lot of reviews regarding the scope, and like all beginners scopes it has pro's and con's. For this model the con's listed are the included eyepiece quality and the EQ1 mount and tripod being a little on the light side for this scope, making the setup a bit wobbly. I knew when I purchased the scope that I was going to have to upgrade the eyepieces and at some point the mount and tripod.

So my plan is to purchase a couple of higher quality eyepieces first, and then maybe for Christmas or my Birthday get myself a sturdier mount and tripod for steadier viewing and control. Whilst on the mount supplied with the scope I'll confine myself to viewing the moon, and planets, and easier to find stars and nebula etc.

The tech spec for the telescope is that it has a 900mm focal length, with a focal ratio of 7.89, and supports 1.25" 

So I have 3 main questions really, and bear in mind since I'm a beginner I don't want to spend a fortune on top of the range equipment (yet 😃 ). I'm looking for equipment that can get the best from my current scope and me as a beginner;

1 - For lunar and planet observing, plus looking at some of the easier to find stellar objects, what sort and make of eyepieces and filters would you recommend. I'm not looking for high mag at first since the mount is a bit wobbly and aligning and tracking at high mag is tricky. I know practice on my part will help. I just want to be able to view the objects and make out some detail on the planets.

2 - The supplied finder scope is plastic and not very good. Can you recommend a good reasonable level one that will fit and work within the range of my scope and mount limits, Not to mention my own !.

3 - Final Question. I know that at some point in the future, I'm going to have to upgrade the tripod and mount to something sturdier and stable to get the best from the optics this scope has. Again I don't want to break the bank as I'm a beginner, but do you have any recommendations on makes and models I should consider. Being able to track objects would be a plus, but I don't want to go for a computerised mount yet.

I hope I've given even info for you to be able to give advice. If you need to know anything else please just ask.