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To The Universe And Beyond

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Everything posted by To The Universe And Beyond

  1. So much good advice - thanks to all. Lots to think about. Carole - your website is amazing - so much useful information for beginners and experts alike - https://sites.google.com/site/caroleastroimaging/home
  2. Sninnypuppy71 - yes, know what you mean about 800 squids (+) for a glorified tripod - especially one that leaps around of it's own accord! And yes, good build quality for glass and pride of ownership. Although the price of of the Sony GM lenses make a lot of telescopes look cheap! Considering selling my soul to get some astro gear at this point since not much else left. I've got a bad demographic regarding potential Covid mortality so hoping the distraction of a major new interest in something I can do alone if needed will help with morale and mood, without necessarily turning into a hermit! Will deal with the pale-skinned night creature/newbie astronomer issues another time Let us all know how you get on when your EQM-35 arrives and hope you get hold of it soon.
  3. Hi Skinnypuppy71 I wondered about the eqm-35 myself but thought I'm more likely to move towards heavier and larger gear as time goes on so a larger mount is probably going to be best for me. That Williams Optics Z73 dose look really nice for a high quality and portable/more manageable for a newbie telescope. Did you consider the Rother Valley Optics RVO Horizon 72? Think they've attempted to clone the WO design but with similar sounding good optics and possibly better focusser etc. Couple of v positive reviews on pdf from their own site but can't find any user experience accounts of the RVO Horizon anywhere though.
  4. Kyle Allen -You can get the book for £20 from First Light Optics (the forum sponsor) Thanks - have ordered a copy. Let's hope I can do a better job tracking down some distant galaxies in the future better than I did with that publication :).
  5. Hi Carole - those are wonderful images on your website which are exactly the kind of image I would hope to make myself one day. Especially impressed with the skywatcher ED80 images - just shows what's achievable in the right hands. Do you think this might be a sensible option to cut my astrophotography teeth on as a ? Unfortunately the Sony A7S has a completely different imaging good all-roundersensor to my A7R III - shame - and 2nd hand prices are still very high despite this being a relatively old mode which Sony have yet to replace. Back to mono CCD consideration - think you're right - narrowband and LP issues very relevant to me. That astro-camping in East Sussex sounds a great idea - let's hope we're all in a better place in a few months time to be able to consider this kind of thing again.
  6. Many thanks for your thoughtful replies. Kyle Allen - Have you read the book Making Every Photon Count? I've been trying to track down an affordable copy (Amazon £49.99!) but the publishers aren't posting anything out currently due to lockdown. endlessky - Really helpful to hear that using the HEQ5 or even the NEQ6 Pro in the field is manageable - I'm more inclined than ever to look for one of these at this point. I'm still a little wary of purchasing second hand but you're right - the vast majority of astronomy enthusiasts are likely to nurture their expensive gear rather than abuse it. Interesting comments about focal length. I's already factored in my thinking the need for a field flattener as something essential for Astrophotography whatever I end up getting. Even though I know there's no one-telescope-does -it-all option out there, trying to identify x2 aaffordable telescopes to cover the bases still feels really difficult for me currently. Think the next option for me, unless miraculously I come across an excellent and affordable second hand package somewhere, is to get a quality mount and then find out just what I'm able to get from my Sony mirrorless with different lens combos. When I mentioned getting a mono CCD I was initially thinking about how to extract the best possible data for imaging. You mention a really good point which hadn't occurred to me though - multiple nights shooting the same image with typical UK weather may not be the best choice for me - will look again at colour CCD options. .....it's worth it. When that first picture you took - despite all the defects it may have - will show up on the screen of your PC, it will give you an immense joy. YOU took that picture, with YOUR equipment, and YOUR skills. And, as the last two improve, so will the pictures! Well said, endlessky!
  7. Hi – newbie potential astrophotographer here. None of the gear but some ideas which I’d really welcome you views about. What I’d like to work up to over time is to build an astrophotography system with the ability to take high quality images of nebulas, galaxies and the planets, in that order. Being retired from the NHS I’m on a pretty limited budget, so I’m thinking of going the second-hand route over the next 12-18 months, but part of me is tempted to sell some camera lenses and a guitar (or two) to go all in and try and build a complete system from the start – mount, telescope plus their bits, guide-scope and a mono ccd module. I have a laptop and I’m competent in photo-manipulation software so at least that bit feels dealable with. I’ve worked out perhaps the key component for astrophotography is a decent mount. I want to operate from my girlfriend’s back yard, in which case perhaps something like a Skywatcher EQ5/6 might be suitable. But due to local light pollution I’d also like to visit some darker sky sites from time to time too. In which case, how realistic/easy would it be to chuck an EQ5 in and the rest of the gear into the boot of the car and set up everything in a field in the middle of winter? Do people do that, or is setup time, lugging lots of weight, the need to avoid freezing to death etc just not worth the hassle? Is buying a mount second hand a sensible option at all, bearing in mind what can go wrong with goto mounts which are full of gears, electronics, lubrication need etc, all of which need to be working well in order to be useable? Telescopes – would a more compact refraction telescope be a good starting point? Coming from general photography I know the importance of good glass. I’m not clear whether a shorter focal length telescope with very good optics e.g. RVO Optics 72 (a Williams Optics clone) might still enable me to get decent images of galaxies as well as nebulas using a lower-end CCD module and guide-scope? Or would I simply need something with a significantly greater focal length? Cameras – I do have an excellent Sony A7R III camera generating 42mp images which I could use as a starter dslr-type camera on the end of a telescope, but it has the Sony “star-eater” curse, in that Sony uses aggressive noise-reduction algorithms which can’t be disabled by the user for anything over 3.2 secs exposure and which erases a significant number of stars in long exposures. Thanks, Sony. Consequently, I can’t find anyone on Google using these cameras for longer-exposure astrophotography through a telescope. Am I right in thinking a max limit of 3.2 sec for image stacking is not going to be long enough for deep-sky imaging? Similar question about buying ccd modules second-hand– minimal info out there about reliability of CCD modules and their likely lifespan/reliability if buying second hand. Any thoughts? Given how quickly technology moves on, any unusually good performing ccd modules recently arrived that could be recommended in the “cheaper” end of the market? Not too much info out there apart from lots of people showing stunning images from £1kplus ccd kit. I’d really welcome all views about the above. I think astrophotography is going to be my last big project so I want to try and get as much right from the start as possible.
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