Jamgood

First job, if you plan on using it, calibrate your polar scope. 👍 Then, as above, take small steps, make sure everything is working good and learn each of your tools. I am 3 months in and just starting to learn guiding. It's a fantastic hobby, when the weather allows you to indulge in it. 😁

I would have thought so, yes but I'm no expert. Interesting that there were cobwebs around though. As above, I'm no expert and it was just a suggestion but as @ollypenrice said, you would expect to see extra diffraction spikes from all stars. It is strange that the line tapers in and out across the image. Is it in the same place in every image or does it move when you dithered, etc?

Cobweb maybe?

I'd say keep looking. My i7 3.4GHz 16Gb RAM is quite nippy and even with that, big projects take a while to stack, etc.

I totally agree @kaelig, it could be made easier. Sadly though, there are too many combinations of telescopes, camera and eyepieces to make something like this that simple. As with everything to do with Astronomy and Astrophotography, a lot of it is trial and error to find what's right for your set up. I read once that it is 99% frustration and 1% fun. That's not far off accurate for me but when everything works, it's amazing! In the few short months I've been doing it I've tackled polar alignment and polar scope calibration, telescope collimation, eqmod and Stellarium connectivity, APT software, plate solving, PHD2 guiding. It's a never ending lesson in new toys. 👍

I'm only a beginner myself @kaelig. I've only been doing this since July and everything is new to me. I'm learning as I go. With the Baader, I still haven't got mine perfect and I adjust it slightly each time. The flange of the MPCC is currently 13mm away from the face of the Canon. (Canon's sensor is 44mm back.) That gives me 57mm which is close. I only have a cheap T Ring between Camera and MPCC. The problem I'm finding, which others have/do too, is that there is always some tilt between the focuser/camera giving what looks like Coma in one corner usually. I have another adapter to try and see if it helps with that.

A nice bit of clear sky last night, gave me a chance to have a play around with PHD2 and do a bit of fine tuning of my guiding on the HEQ5Pro. A lot of testing and not much imaging. Not perfect but getting there. Had a bit too much tilt on the focuser. (That's the next thing to tackle) Iris Nebula 19x5min Subs at ISO1600. 5 Darks, 30 Bias, 30 Flats. Will be adding more data to this in the near future. End of the night and clouds rolling in, I thought I'd have a quick look at the Horses Head as it rose over the trees at 4:30am. I didn't bother re-focusing. Managed to get 3x5min Subs. Wow! I can't wait to image this one for a good length of time.

Last time I got to a chance to go out I tried the same target with my 60Da. Only managed to get 55 x 1min exposures though. Hoping to get more sometime soon. Upgraded from EQ3Pro to a HEQ5Pro on Sunday and will be guiding as soon as I have a chance to test it all out and make sure everything is ticketyboo. Looking forward to longer exposures. 👍

If you're using a computer to control, look at Plate Solving and you can forget about 2 or 3 star alignment.

I currently use a EQ3PRO Goto without guiding and I can get 1 minute subs without trailing stars. That's really the maximum though. I have a Skywatcher 130PDS on it. The polar scope is calibrated well and the mount holds polar alignment amazingly well. I wouldn't advise getting one for Astrophotography though as you'll most probably soon outgrow it as I have. I'm picking up a HEQ5PRO on Sunday and moving up a gear and going into the guiding world. The EQ3PRO would be excellent for visual work though. I'm undecided as to keep it and set up another rig or sell it on. Decisions! EDIT** A friend has a EQ5Pro and he can do around 90 second subs without guiding.

@ollypenrice Cheers for that. As I said, I'm a complete newbie too. Yours is a much better explanation than mine. 👍

This is a good tutorial for setting your polar scope. I used this. This fella is awesome. Watch all his videos and learn. He'll teach you so much.

Post processing is difficult. I've only been doing this since July so I'm a newbie too. Great images can be achieved, it just just takes time to learn and refine the art. (Not that I've mastered anything yet by a long shot) There's an add on for Photoshop that you want if you haven't got called Camera Raw Filter. It's a great tool for helping you to edit your images. (In the video I used the keyboard shortcut but when installed it is under Filter) Here's a short video I've literally just made showing a rough way of stretching data, without using layers or anything special. I do a lot more than this now when editing but this shows that some simple editing can make a good enough image for a beginner. This is the Wizard Nebula I shot last night. EDIT* Forgot to say, definitely collimate your polar scope. It makes life so much easier. It's very simple to do, it just takes a little time so when you have an hour or so to spare, do it. There's some good tutorials on YouTube to explain how it's done. I'm only using an EQ3Pro but I can get polar alignment that works without hitch. pp.mp4

There's definitely more data in there to be stretched out. I did a quick 30 seconds stretch on it. I would recommend taking more Darks and Flats. Flats being the most important. I usually take around 30-50 Flats. I use a Tablet with a white jpg open full screen, on the telescope pointing up. AV Mode on the camera, click away. Always take Flats every session. Darks and Bias at least 20 of each. (You can re-use Darks and Bias for other sessions) Looks like you have drifting issues as well. Are you Polar Aligning? Have you collimated your polar scope or is it still as it was from the factory? Chances are it is out. The two things I found that are absolutely essential are good Polar Alignment and good Flats. Makes the world of difference. Combined with lots of exposure time and you get some nice images.

I have something very similar looking on my 60Da along with a few dust bunnies. I've left it as after using Darks, Flats and Bias it doesn't show in my images.

This ^^^^^^

@Spaced Out Looks pretty damn good to me. 👍 Out of interest, what focuser are you using? I'm going to upgrade to something similar when I go the dedicated camera route.

2hrs 30m on Andromeda last night. Next clear night I'll add some more data to this. I think another session of the same length will really bring out more of the detail. Happy with this one though. Gives me something to really practice post processing on. I've tried a few time to get this and it's never looked very good. 150 x 1min subs 30 Flats 30 Darks 30 Bias 130PDS - EQ3Pro - Canon EOS60Da - Astronomik CLS - Baader MPCC

Awesome. Happy imaging! 👍

That's where you're going wrong then. I think you got lucky the first two time, to be honest. I made a quick image that hopefully explains what I do. Starting from the Parked position, weights straight down, scope up pointing north. 1. Choose target in Objects 2. Goto Target 3. Put in Objects Co-ordinates. You just click Object in the Current Image at the top and click OK as your target should already be selected from the Goto stage. 4. Click Auto. It will take an image and then solve that image. 5. Click Objects in the Center FOV at position at the bottom and again, click OK as your target should already be selected from the Goto stage. 6. Click GoTo++ and let it do it's thing. When finished, your target should be in the center of your image and you're good to start. Hope that makes sense/helps. 👍

It's more than likely. Did you plate solve Andromeda, after plate solving Polaris, to get Andromeda in the centre of your image or did you just plate solve Polaris and that's it?

You really don't need to plate solve Polaris. It is not required. As long as your mount is polar aligned via the polar scope in your mount, you're good to go. When you slew to your target it will slew to where it thinks it should be pointing. Then you plate solve and it will see where you are pointing, correct the coordinates and re-slew to where it needs to be. I did exactly this earlier. Set up, polar aligned the mount. Told APT to goto IC1396 Elephant's Trunk Nebula. Plate solved. That took around 20 seconds to complete. Goto++ to centre the object. Done. Been imaging for 2hrs now. By plate solving Polaris, you are making it more complicated than it needs to be.

To be honest, I think you probably got lucky the first two times to have your target be in view. The mount, polar alignment, camera angle, etc only has to be slightly off for everything to change from one night to the next. What I do is have the mount and telescope in the home position, facing north, weights down. I don't even look to see if I can see Polaris with my scope because it is irrelevant. Slew to your target that you want to image and then plate solve and sync from wherever it takes you. Done, start imaging. Repeat for any other targets you might go to later on.

Do this ^ instead of plate solving Polaris. It works every time, every object.

I know what you mean about sinking money it to it, this game is a never ending spending spree! I'm very new to this myself. The 130PDS is my first scope and I've only had it a couple of months. I jumped in a little near the deep end though and went for computer connected mount/camera. I'm not a fan of standing out in the cold. One thing I would definitely suggest is get as sharply focused as you can. Makes everything all the easier. Have you got a Bahtinov Mask? They're quite cheap to buy or you can make one. Makes focusing a doddle. 2 second job, lock it up and start imaging. My wife made me one out of cardboard and it works really well. Also, you never said whether you took Darks, Flats, Bias? I found that good Flats make the world of difference. Like yourself, I was a bit blaise when it came to processing, thinking it would be easy and then learning very quickly that it most certainly isn't. But, every day is a school day, as they say. It's great to learn new things.