SyedT

That's interesting, is that a relatively new design concept? I did own the ED80 quite a while ago (2016), and it was second-hand (purchased by the buyer in 2012).

If you're planning on doing visual stuff then eyepieces could be handy, but that's a whole new topic (and one that I haven't got a clue about as I only really do astrophotography and have a single zoom eyepiece for all my needs). Other stuff you may need: 1. Adapters – If you get the ED80, you’ll need a T-ring to attach to the DSLR. This will then attach to the 0.85x focal reducer/field flattener, which will in turn connect to a 2-inch nosepiece. You can then insert the nosepiece into the focuser barrel, and away you go. I would advise you to email FLO if you are stuck regarding adapters etc as they are incredibly helpful and knowledgeable. 2. Dew heater straps + dew heater controller - It can get fairly humid/frosty at night depending on the season, so these will keep your equipment dew and frost-free. Just be careful not to set the temperature too high. The power for the dew controller usually comes from a cigarette lighter plug, so you’ll need to get an AC to cigarette lighter socket adapter depending on if you are using a power bank or mains supply. 3. Power bank – This is handy if you’ll be imaging away from home. If not, you can just run a mains extension cable from inside the house, or install a waterproof plug enclosure outside. 4. Autoguiding – Your mount may be able to handle short subs without guiding, but for longer subs you’ll need guiding. This is usually done with a separate “guidescope”, which has its own camera. The idea is that it tracks a single star across the sky and keeps the mount locked on to that star. What I’ve used previously is a simple Skywatcher 9x50 finderscope attached to the finder bracket on the ED80; I removed the eyepiece lens from the finderscope, inserted a special adapter (which can be bought online, I actually have a spare one at the moment) and then connected a guiding camera (ZWO ASI 120MC-S) to it. That kind of setup works perfectly well for short focal length setups like the ED80. 5. Laptop - You can easily use the DSLR as a standalone item; attach an intervalometer, set it to a particular exposure time and number of subs, and let it image away. Alternatively, you may want to use your laptop and a capture program for a bit more control. I previously used Backyard EOS (still do for occasional widefield stuff, recently did a timelapse with it which it handled very well). You’ll also need a laptop if you start using guiding (the program most commonly used for guiding is called PHD2). I’d recommend Making Every Photon Count as mentioned above. I’ve not read it myself (clearly I preferred to muddle my way through the hobby), but have heard nothing but good things about it!

I would 100% recommend the ED80. It was my first refractor and a proper workhorse, never let me down and made me more and more interested in the hobby. It will be much easier to handle than a 200P and you will get a lot of enjoyment out of it. It doesn't require collimation (i.e. alignment of the optics) unless you seriously bump it. You can capture plenty of nebulae with the ED80 along with some widefield galactic shots. As said before, I would recommend the 0.85x reducer/flattener. This will increase your field of view and also flatten the field, reducing field curvature. Here's a calculator you can use to determine what the images will look like (pixel size of the 1300D is 4.29x4.29) : https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ Apart from equipment, another thing I would look at is processing programs. Capturing images is all good, but the work really begins with processing! You can make a start with DeepSkyStacker (which is free), and then look at other programs e.g. AstroPixelProcessor, StarTools, Pixinsight etc and try them out before you purchase them. Good luck! SGL is the best place to get advice for anything astronomy related, so you're in the perfect place.

My Mini PC has an M.2 SSD so I'm good with that, the 290MM was capturing very nicely on SharpCap via a USB-3 port on the Mini PC. Looking forward to capturing a lot more!

Thanks for the advice all. Quick update, received the 290MM and managed to capture Venus as a test. Quick RGB stack below:

Forgot to reply to this! Cheers for that, my issue with further curves etc was that a background colour cast appears, so I kept it on the mild side. I'm hoping to get more RGB when I go back to widefield stuff later on. I used SCNR after stretching.

Decided to do a startrail version of it. Pleasantly surprised by the relative lack of satellites (although this won't last long), and the fact that the mount tripod stayed still throughout. 😂

Cheers! I'm happy that the lights are now turned off at midnight as previously they stayed on for the whole night which was frustrating. The floodlight is a motion-sensing one installed by one of the neighbours, so can't be helped I guess. I was surprised by how many stars and the Milky Way were picked up in 15 second exposures, as I live in a Bortle 5 zone which borders a Bortle 6 zone. I kept the f-stop and ISO toned down to avoid washing the image out, and it seems to have worked relatively well.

Ran a timelapse of one of my imaging sessions. Not sure why I haven't done this before to be honest! Milky way is visible very faintly, although the quality has been degraded by compression etc. It gave me a sense of the vastness of it all, and that my scope is capturing only a miniscule proportion of a fraction of what's out there... Canon 6D unmodified Samyang 14mm F2.8 ED AS IF UMC 872 x 15 sec exposures @ f8 + ISO 200-1250 Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2iSv1KR Imaging Session 150420 Timelapse Sped Up 2.mp4

I did try SCNR, but it threw the balance off completely. It was a lot of trial and error, but worth it in the end!

Thanks guys. I think what I needed was to look at it with a fresh perspective today, and that's what did the trick. I initially ran Photometric colour calibration which didn't work particularly well, so ended up using Background Neutralisation and ColorCalibration in Pixinsight. Then a lot of fiddling with curves and levels until I got a good background, then dropped the saturation in order for the red colour to disappear.

It's quite something isn't it? I initially thought standing in front of the camera was cheesy, but all it did was heighten that sense of perspective for me.

Decided to annotate the image in Pixinsight. To say I'm blown away by the number of galaxies present would be an understatement!

I used an Anker 7-port hub (+3 charging ports) which worked very well, until I upgraded to an all-in-one cable management box (the Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox) which provides 4x12V power supply, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 2x dew controller ports and an autofocuser motor port.

I've been going through my old photos, and came across my favourite Milky Way shot from Santorini, Greece in 2017. It was a while ago but I remember it so clearly. I was on holiday with some friends and we were staying very close to Perissa beach. I wasn't planning on taking any shots, but having seen the beach landscape earlier during the day I decided it would make for a good foreground. I headed out at about 11 pm and a couple of my friends joined me, but soon I was left by myself. The beachfront was completely lit up with all the shops and streetlights, but the skies out towards the sea were pitch black. I must have looked rather silly to most people, taking pictures of what appears to be nothing! It remains one of my favourite pictures to date, even though it's tough to edit due to the LP gradients from the beachfront lighting. I would love to go back to Greece at some point and explore the other islands, such an incredible place. Canon 6D unmodified Samyang 14 mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC @ f/2.8 No tracking Milky Way - 46 x 30s @ ISO 12800 = 23 min Foreground - 1 x 20 s @ ISO 6400 Darks applied

Welcome to the forum! Well done (or commiserations to your bank account) on taking up the hobby (and blaming it on the missus!) There definitely is a lot to learn, and I have to say I've learned a fair bit of it from SGL. The members are friendly and non-judgemental, and advice is always at hand. In terms of upgrading, you have the right idea about going slow. I started out with a 200P on an HEQ5 with a Canon 650D, so pretty close to what you have! I've slowly upgraded as I've learned more about the hobby. All the best!

Agreed, I really wasn't expecting that many galaxies to pop up in the background as I was just going after M106 for lack of nebulae to image as the season comes to a close, this particular field is incredible. Thoughts on the re-edit?

Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it! Do you reckon it's more M106 or the background? I've looked at it so much that all I'm seeing at the moment is red! It would make sense though as the red channel is exposed twice as much, although it does take longer for the ADU values to match up to blue/green.

This integration had been sitting around for a bit waiting to be processed, I think I've spent enough time on it (mainly staring at/through it trying to figure out how best to control noise whilst bringing out detail and colour). Had to deal with some very awkward Luminance gradients but I think I did ok in tackling them. Colour balance was off as I didn't manage to get as much G and B exposure time. I used Pixinsight to blend Luminance directly into the RGB channel after processing them separately. If anyone has a workflow which can help with more accurate blending, dealing with awkward gradients, matching up colour schemes etc, would be much appreciated! Atik 490EX Atik EFW2 Chroma LRGB filters Primaluce Lab Esatto 3” Robotic Focuser Takahashi FSQ85-EDX Primaluce Lab 60 mm Guidescope + Starlight Xpress Lodestar Avalon M-Uno Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox Intel NUC Mini PC Dark, flat , bias frames and bad pixel map applied Processed in AstroPixelProcessor & Pixinsight Bortle 5 skies Imaged over 5 nights L: 584 x 60s = 9h44min R: 122 x 60s = 2h2min G: 59 x 60s = 59 min B: 60 x 60s = 1h Cheers!

That's great, thanks! I'll try that later on.

I tried altering the nebula and star colour with that tool but it ends up blowing out highlights and adding noise. Might have to look at it again and maybe approach with some more gentle processing. Thanks for the feedback!

Came across my very first images from 2016, taken with a DSLR on a fixed setup, no tracking. Thought I'd give re-processing a go! Previously processed image below it. I'd like to think I've learned a few things about not overbaking images. 😅 Cheers EDIT: Now that I think about it, this probably belongs in the widefield section! My bad, admins please move if you see this.

I used to run my ASI 1600MM-C at -20 as per the graph below, taken from https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/asi1600mm-cool

No need to stretch at all, it's very easy on the eyes and very nicely processed. Very much frameable!

I did look into that and I'm not convinced that it's due to the optics, seems more like tilt. If the spacing is excessive then the stars should show a radial pattern i.e. circumferential around the centre, whereas this shows more of an outward elongation most pronounced on the right side. The flats I've taken also show most vignetting at the top right corner which would fit. Plus the seeing hasn't been great and that does throw star shapes off. I'll have a play around with the connection between the 490EX and EFW2 and see if that makes a difference. I'm fairly happy with it as a trade-off for consistent autofocusing though!