AstroNebulee

Thanks Lockie for your detailed reply, it's means a lot to revcie good instruction from you. I will look at the set ups suggested by yourself. I do have a skymax 127 so may keep that scope set up as going to sell my sw explorer 150p eq3-2 with ra motor to fund hopefully the sw az gti WiFi mount as this seems to be able to image well (obviously not to many members high standards, but enough for me) as I've been looking at this mount, I will research a small ed70 refractor also. The portability is the key for me living in my flat and any basic dso from a refractor would be great. Yes I dud post on your YouTube channel as well, your videos are very informative and clear, keep it up. Clear skies

It's a pain I must admit and never got my set up outside at all. I like the sound of your set up and would like to get the sw az gti WiFi mount. I have my skymax 127 and I've seen someone put it on this mount with dslr but getting close to weight limit and works well. I am definitely going to sell my sw explorer 150p eq3-2 with ra drive but would consider selling my skymax 127 also to get a nice refractor and az gti mount. I'm glad your enjoying your new set up, clear skies

Thank you for your post, I have looked at the no eq challenge before and is really good but as you said I need a set up that can get me outside first the two mounts I've been looking at are the skywatcher az gti WiFi one and the one that comes with the skywatcher starquest-102r as lockie diy astro has gone videos on then my dslr can be mounted also. I'm thinking of just selling my skywatcher explorer 150p eq3-2 with ra motor drive it costs £433 new so what would you call a reasonable price to sell second hand it's in excellent condition and 6 months old. Clear skies

Yes that's my issue I can't do heavy mounts, I've seen a few videos online of users having maksutovs and refractors plus dslr on an az gti mount quite well, I know I'm not going to get images like the great imagers on here are getting but I'm just looking at basic stuff then going from there and to be able like you say to have my dslr on the mount alone.

I've now decided to sell my skywatcher explorer 150p eq3-2 with ra motor fitted and 9x50 straight through finderscope (not the 9x50 ra one) all original boxes and purchase a skywatcher az gti mount and tripod do I can easily use my skymax 127 on it outside as its very portable and has the goto function plus can add my dslr onto it also. See how I go with that before selling the skymax for a refractor. I see the skywatcher explorer 150p eq3-2 without a motor are going for £320 on average new so with the motor fitted is £300 a good price to sell.

I was think about keeping the 9x50 ra finderscope, just would like a more portable kit that I can easily take down the stairs and set up outside rather than I was over optimistically thinking I could lump about all my kit I have now, which I can't. I like the look of the starquest-102r that lockie at diy astro has posted videos of. I've also seen this SKYWATCHER EVOSTAR 72ED DS PRO REFRACTOR as its a apochromatic refractor , would this be suitable for the mounts that are portable eg the equatorial mount on the starquest or the other portable mounts.

Hi As I live in a first floor flat and have 2 flights of stairs to go up and down as I've mentioned before in many of my posts on here, I'm looking at selling my set ups to purchase something more portable for basic imaging at first and visual. When I bought my current scopes I was in the hope of getting it outside to use but sadly this hasn't been the case at all, I've never managed to get it outside once. I did go big fast and made many errors in doing so and have only been able to use it through my bedroom window which I know isn't the correct way but it's all I have. So I'm looking at purchasing a portable refractor set up for basic imaging at first and visual as I want to get outside with a telescope and something that suits taking up and down 2 flights of stairs. I've been looking at the skywatcher brands as this is the brand I have and really like (I know nothing will be available for many months yet). I'd like your advice on what set up I can get if when I sell my current set ups. They are listed as follows : Skywatcher explorer 150p eq3-2 with ra motor drive which I added. (bought 7-20) Skywatcher skymax 127 maksutov (bought 7-20) Astrozap 127 dew shield Batiniv mask 150mm-200mm 9x50 straight through finderscope (bought 8-20) 9x50 RA erecting finderscope (bought 8-20) This set up is quite new and well looked after. So if I sold this little lot what could I be looking at, the skywatcher evostar series looks good or have seen the sky-watcher starquest-102r f/4.9 achromatic refractor telescope but would like tracking also. Sorry this is a bit of a wierd post in selling a complete newish set up to fund a smaller one. Clear skies

Late to the party on this one but thinking of purchasing this scope and mount when they become available and selling my skywatcher skymax 127 which I've hardly used. I see that it can be fitted with an ra motor for tracking when imaging. I'd like a more portable setup than I have at the moment as living in a first floor flat I cannot get the scope mount, tripod down and up the stairs. It's a eq3-2, skywatcher explorer 150p and skymax 127. But as I've never been able to get this kit outside would like more portability so I can take a setup outside and do basic imaging as a bonus and visual. Would you recommend the sky-watcher starquest-102r f/4.9 achromatic refractor telescope.

You must have bahtinov eyes👌

I bet it looked great through your scope, I couldn't get mine down the flights of stairs with my issues living in a flat.

Thank you, I'm pleased I got something of the conjunction in the few minutes I had, even if it was a few days before.

That's what I've been doing, so I guess I've done it wrong (I've wasted so much time at least my max shutter speed was 30 seconds lol) I'm new at this also, so will use the same iso and set to av mode and let dslr determine the shutter speed

To take flats, they are the same iso & shutter speed as your lights and darks

That's a great start to your imaging. M42 was my first dso and definitely gave me the bug for more and getting better and learning more. I use a similar old version of photoshop and does me ok so far, though as you say it doesn't have everything but a good place to start. Regarding taking your flats, I use a bit of old white t towel and shine my phone display through it, though you could use an old white t shirt and should hide the cracks in your screen. Perhaps next time try upping the exposure time to 4 seconds at the 70mm lens and open your aperture to its biggest and will let me light in, seeing as you can go to 6400 iso is very good as my canon 450d will only go to 1600 iso. As you've learnt the more you can stack the better your final image will be and more detail it gets, Keep at it and just learn from each experience of imaging. Your image of the double rainbow is amazing and a good capture. Clear skies 📷🌌👌

I've had a bit of a go using this link for processing my two images https://www.astropix.com/html/j_digit/laymask.html I lost myself at the gaussin blur bit, I could do some of it but got so confused as I'm using ps cc2 version 9,yes it's very old but got this from it so far. It's very poor though, need another fresh head moro to do it again.

Yes that's the issue I'm trying to deal with, I can use the selection tool and feather it then cut it from the image then paste into the overexposed one but gets washed out by the brightness whether I can select the overexposed moon and use exposure tool to lower it

Thank you for your help, I shall give this workflow a go later on a see what results I get.

Hi I have taken several exposures with my dslr of the moon to give good detail on the moon at a short exposure and then several images of the surrounding sky, with clouds, how do I go about merging the short exposure moon on to the longer exposure image, as on the longer exposure obviously the moon is over exposed. I've normally done this by selecting the short exposure and copy then paste as a layer on the long exposure image, then using the screen option in ps to bring them together but this time the moon is being washed out by the overexposed one. I'm reading something about using a layer mask but can't see anything regarding my subject. Sorry if I made it sound all complicated. Clear skies

I followed this excellent advice from pixies when collimating my skywatcher explorer 150p and worked a treat for me and very simple to follow.

Thank you, I will try that, I was just trying yo get some of Jupiters moons to show up also

This link may be of help if you put in your scope and eyepieces http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ Clear skies and enjoy your scope when you get it.

I did manage this yesterday though... I set the dslr up at around 4.45pm to try and image Jupiter and Saturn and at around 5pm they appeared between two banks of cloud for around 2 minutes. I had the 55mm lens on and couldn't separate them so had to go in to get my 70-300mm lens and took this image at 300mm, you can just make out two of Jupiters moons to the top left of it and one just on the right hand side of Jupiter. They are the same image one is just cropped in tighter. I have a series of 10 images (this is only one of them) but couldn't stack them in dss, pipp or as3, is there a way of manually stacking them? If I had longer imaging them I'd of liked to see what size lens would of got them as close without touching. To the naked eye you could only see one planet (star of Bethlehem) then they disappeared behind clouds and everything was dewing up. This image you can see Jupiter is nice and round and that Saturn is appearing as an oval so pretty pleased at this effort and glad to of got something.

No chance here in North Cornwall tonight, there's more chance of seeing the QE2 go past with all the rain we've had, even if you could see it through the mist and fog. Clear skies to anyone lucky enough to see the great conjunction tonight

I set the dslr up at around 4.45pm to try and image Jupiter and Saturn and at around 5pm they appeared between two banks of cloud for around 2 minutes. I had the 55mm lens on and couldn't separate them so had to go in to get my 70-300mm lens and took this image at 300mm, you can just make out two of Jupiters moons to the top left of it and one just on the right hand side of Jupiter. They are the same image one is just cropped in tighter. I have a series of 10 images (this is only one of them) but couldn't stack them in dss, pipp or as3, is there a way of manually stacking them? If I had longer imaging them I'd of liked to see what size lens would of got them as close without touching. To the naked eye you could only see one planet (star of Bethlehem) then they disappeared behind clouds and everything was dewing up. Don't think I'll get any moro at its closest because weather is looking horrible, rain, mist, mizzle and fog. This image you can see Jupiter is nice and round and that Saturn is appearing as an oval so pretty pleased at this effort and glad to of got something.

I rushed home from work on Wednesday evening as it was a rare clear night to try and capture Jupiter & Saturn close together. As I'm not sure whether it'll be clear for the great conjunction on Monday 21st I wanted to get something. As the planets were disappearing quickly behind the houses where I live, I set up my dslr, tripod and omegon lx2 star tracker to get only 5 lights, 2 of darks, bias and flats. This is the result.