jindivik

love it, i've not seen it yet but the timing of this comet is quite special. It's lovely to see it shining through the wispy sheets of noctilucent clouds

Magic or aliens. They're the only two theories I have, I understand nothing of the two whatsoever but what I don't know about them is still a lot more than the mathematical knowledge required to even start comprehending stuff like this. I just like looking through an eyepiece and going *ooooOOooOOooo*

Found loads of this metal detecting. It amuses me quite often how more people suggest it is meteorite before even considering the more likely industrial connection 😁. You can find this stuff dumped all over the place

Thanks, i'll give that a try next feel like i've hijacked the original topic of this post somewhat, sorry! thank you all again

TCF, Thank you! This has at least given me something to work with. I "Stretched" the images in the Asi Fits viewer which made them much brighter to stack. I then stacked in Registax, i don't have any dark, bias, etc files so this is just 20x 20sec exposures. It is by no means even a good standard but as my first ever deep sky image i'm very happy to even come out with something at least a little recognisable. As you say, the learning curve is absolutely huge (and a little frustrating) haha

I'm an absolute novice and only recently got my camera (224MC). I've been having a little play with it though on the one clear night i've had so far. Got some images of the ring nebula but a bit lost with something, if i open the images with the ASI Fits viewer they are nice and bright but when i open them with a program like Autostakkert or Registax, all my images are extremely dark and hard to see any detail at all. Can anyone shed some light on this? Other than that the programs seem pretty easy to get to grips with (so far) for a complete novice

Disappointing but not unexpected, thought this would be the case as the camera is quite heavy anyway! If anything it has just confirmed my expected disappointment Thanks again

Good afternoon everyone! Could anyone offer some advice on a mount for the Celerstron 130SLT for me to piggyback a camera onto, if it is at all possible? I appreciate the Alt Az mount on the Celestron isn't ideal for any form of very long exposure photography but i've seen lots of other pictures from people that i'd be more than happy trying to replicate myself. With the other half furloughed at this moment in time a dedicated Astronomy Camera isn't a viable option and the camera i already have (Sony Cybershot DSC-H400) is a bridge camera with 63x optical zoom so i want to try imaging with just the camera attached onto the telescope rather than use it as an afocal camera, or would this be better using the obvious added light gathering the telescope would offer? I'm really quite a novice with the camera as it is, adding astronomy into the mix is a whole new can of worms! Just excited to potentially be able to get started and enjoy the learning along the way. Even if results aren't fantastic with my current camera then the actual experience gained via the image processing afterwards would at least be of some value for when i can afford a dedicated Astronomy camera. Many thanks!

Chris, that's fantastic! The only gripe i've had so far is the tendency of my scope to vibrate like crazy at the lightest touch, i'll definitely be investing in these! thank you! As for everyone else, thank you all for the lovely welcome!

Evening ladies and gents! What a great forum, i've always had an interest in astronomy, around 15 years ago i had a basic refractor given to me as a gift, it had an EQ mount and i could never get to grips with it. I've always wanted to get a better telescope and have finally treated myself to a Celestron NexStar 130SLT. Must say i'm absolutely loving it, so simple to set up and use! my back yard is quite limited to how much of the sky that is visible but i've had fantastic views of Venus, M44, M13 and of course, The Moon! Did have a go trying to see M51 but couldn't make anything out. I'm not far out from Manchester so light pollution is quite the issue here (isn't it everywhere really?). Looking forward to this whole Covid-19 situation to blow over and then have some dark sky sessions planned for later in the year! Thanks for reading and stay safe