Pryce

If it's in both 1" and 300" exposured I'd assume it's not a tracking issue. Especially since it's changing it's position when you rotate your imaging train. Try to rotate each unit individually so you can find out which is causing the issue. Hopefully it's not a problem with your optics! Edit: But I don't really know, because I'm noob 😀

Are the elongation always in the same direction for every session? Has it always been a problem with that telescope/setup or has it slowly become worse over time? Try to rotate each piece in the image train individually. Start in the back and move your way forward. If it happens with one device specifically it might help with the troubleshooting. I recently saw a video by Dylan O'Donell from Starstuff where he has a similar issue. The problem was that he has more error in the RA axis than in DEC. Maybe this will help!

I think yall are misunderstanding me here. Initlially I thought he said a newt CAN'T be used during the day when the sun is up. So thats my bad and why I thanked him for the clarificarion. Precautions has to be taken and kids have to be told not to look at the sun without a filter no matter what telescope they have. I guess we can all agree on that right? You have to warn them about the dangers no matter what. So that argument is invalid when we weigh the options against eachother. Image erectors are needed if you're going to use a newt during the day, yes. And they do lessen image quality but not to a noticable degree during the day as, well, everything is a lot brigther and clearer to begin with. And they are available and pretty cheap as well. Having to cover the poles on a flex tube is a good point, but I guess thats an easy fix if mom is good with a sewing machine. Or with a shroud thats meant for that sort of thing. Speaking as someone who bought a cheap-ish refractor and insantly upgraded to a reflector in the same-ish price range I can say for sure that I'm getting much more pleasure from using the newt than the frac. Both during the day(with a relay lens) and especially during the night. So I guess it comes down to what the scope is most likely to be used as. A refractor would be a lot easier if it's mainly going to be used during the day, but with a newt you'd get more bang for your buck if it's mainly going to be used during the night and it's still usable during the day with a relay lens/image erector. In my humble opinion at least.

Probably a topic better suited in Imaging - Discussion 😁

My mistake! I confused it with another compact Panasonic model!

I guess I should just do some testing and see what works for me and my camera?

Thanks for you your clarification! 😁 However, kids arent STUPID. If you propely explain to them what will happen they will understand. You can even show them by pointing the telescope at the sun and use a piece of paper to represent the "eye". They'll see what happens and never ever even have their face close to a telescope without a sunfilter. At least, that's how my grandfather taught me when I borrowed his old brass telescope 25 years ago. Edit: you can use a corrector for a newtonian though. During the day you can't even notice a degredation in quality. Or at least I don't.

So I'm checking here and there about callibration frames and I've found a lot of conflicting information. At what point would you reach deminishing returns for your bias and darks? Does it change based on exposure time? Sensor? ISO? Temperature? For now I'm using an EOS 550D unmodded and of course uncooled.

Not looking to hijjack the post, but why do you say that? I just sat here looking at the sun with my newtonian. Can be just as exciting as looking at the moon or planets!

In that case, yeah! A phone mount may be the way to go! Or even a second hand cheap DSLR and a camera adapter. I bought a few of my DSLRs for like £50 second hand. And the adapters arent that expencive and you can probably get one second hand fairly easy as well. The phone mount you linked to last was £50 wasnt it? You'd definitely get better images with a DSLR and you'd be able to use it for normal photography as well! Just remember to get one with a live view function for easier focusing.

The biggest question here is: what are you looking to image? I'm not familiar with afocal photography with phones, but I'm fairly certain you won't have many other options than to image the moon. Especially since you have a dob and no tracking capabilities. When I tried afocal on my 150P with my DSLR I was able to image the moon well, but everything else in our solar system became a small glowing dot. And I could just forget about DSOs. So if you're thinking about getting into astrophotography I think you'll need to upgrade your equipment.. A lot. I just spend about £3000-£3500 just to get started. Granted, I bought almost all of it new from FLO, but that gives you an idea of the moneypit this is😅 I dont mean to discourage you here but you need to have realistic expectations. I sure didnt Important note though; I bought a EQ6-R mount, which is a few thousand alone. I just didnt want such an important piece of gear to be sub par.

My first visual DSO was Andromeda and its really easy to find! Find Mirach(a redish star in the Andromeda/Pegasus constellation East/South East around midnight tonight) and go almost straight up from there. With a 25mm EP you'll see it real well! Screenshot from stellarium of where you can find Mirach attached! Clears skies! Edit: Oh and I completely forgot; Welcome to SGL! 😁

Did you ever give it another go at processing? If so, show us the result! 😁

Dude. This is amazing! Such an improvement! Tiiiny tiny hints of curvature but hands down, this is great! I'm suuuper excited to see this! Edit: Just looked at it again and even though I've had a few beers this evening I'm completely flabbergasted! Amazing result! The lower ISO did wonders on the noise!

The AZ GTi and 130PDS will put you just around that £400 budget. It has GoTo and a wifi connection for control with your smartphone/tablet/pc. I've seen some people say they use it for basic astrophotography but I havent seen any example images though. *Important note. I don't know if they used it in AltAz mode or if they had a wedge and used it as a EQ mount to image with.

Good plan! In that case I recommend a Sky Watcher 130PDS. It's a entry level telescope without too high focal length and you can easily transition into imaging with it at a later stage! FOV of the Triangulum galaxy(M33) shown here with the circle representing a 25mm eyepiece(what you see will be much dimmer though) and the rectangle representing the image FOV using a Canon EOS 550D with a 22.3 x 14.9 sensor size. Would be a good starting option for both visual and imaging(wish I knew that before buying the 150P😂)

Pour the bulk of your money into a good mount. Like the the minimum of EQ5 or EQM35 equivalent. Though if your budget allows, go for the EQ6 right away or you'll have to switch it out when you eventually move to a bigger telescope. Get a small wide field refractor like the Evostar 72ED with a field flattner/reducer for example. Get a used DSLR for cheap. Get a guide scope and cam and build extra acessories from there. Remember that you need a T-adapter to attach your DSLR. They don't cost that much. OR Get a star tracking mount, DSLR and a fast telescopic lens. Like a 200mm. This is probably the cheapest and the most forgiving option. Though you'll have a wide FOV and won't be able to image the smaller DSOs very well. Then again, there's plenty of wide field targets out there so it's not like you'll run out of things to photograph any time soon. As someone who's just been through the process of putting together a setup for imaging I can tell you that it costs way more than you think and you'll allways want and need more and more gear if you get hitched. Starting with high focal length isnt the smart thing to do as that requires even more precise and heavy duty acessories which again costs even more money. When I bought my first telescope(150P) I thought that 'bigges is better' because stuff in space is so far away. Well, it is. But a lot of the objects people begin to photograph(like andromeda and such) are relatively big and they would extend beyond the FOV of the 150P(without a focal reducer). For beginners I'd say a cheap second hand DSLR(like a 550D or equivalent) and wide field refractor/ tele-lens is the way to go!

After looking into some guides on setup and processing I'm confident that it's too early in my imaging days to even consider a dual setup 😅 Crawl before you run as it were! Thanks for your replies though guys!

I see. How do you combine that data?

Soo, I have 2 550D cameras so I'm wondering.. can I set up two Evostar 72ED on the same mount to gather more data? If so, how would you do stacking ? Just input all the bias, darks, flats and subs into the same stack? Also. My wallet is crying because I'm even asking this question..🤣

In theory RA dither should work if it only dithers in one direction and not back and forth. Stacking software should in theory remove those hot pixels that would create thos stacking artifacts. In theory that makes sense. At least in my head

I like how everyonw just completely ignored this fine joke 😂

Better have a lot of painkillers for those post-processing induced heahaches 🤣 But, I also have to say that you're in a bortle 8 AND you imaged during a full moon, so there's that. Not going to be optimal. Speaking of. Are you using a light pollution filter?

That looks much better! Similar result I ended up with. Wasnt able to enchance the nebulosity further without blowing out the noise though

Did some modifications today by raising the plexiglas board using some bigger L brackets. I drilled holes in them for eaier cable access and airflow(will probably drill a few more below the PC for more airflow) I drilled a hole in the side of the case and added an outdoor socket hood so I can easily access the PC with the cables from the equipment. Added a wireless thermostat so I can monitor the inside temperature while the case is closed! If the temperature turns out to be an issue I might add a minor fan system in the lid to keep the temp at bay. One thing I'm concerned about is if the aluminum case and foil will function as a faraday cage and block the signal from the wireless thermostat(or wifi). But I'll have to do some testing on that. I'll also look into adding a USB hub as my computer only has two ports. Suspect I'm going to need more.