barbulo

Hi and welcome to SGL!

Hi and welcome to SGL. IMHO your gear is a good starting point. If you want to take longer exposures you would need a star tracker or an equatorial mount. Though with your short FL you can skip this for the moment.

Welcome and good luck!

Welcome to the Lounge!

Hi and welcome to SGL, Marco.

I’ve seen good reviews of this 80 APO: https://explorescientificusa.com/collections/apo-triplet/products/ed80-essential-series-air-spaced-triplet-refractor The flattener is affordable too: https://explorescientificusa.com/collections/flatteners/products/2-field-flattener-lens-for-ed-apo-s

Warm welcome to the Lounge!

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Welcome to SGL!

Good question. For instance, Autostakkert has a graphical representation so you can decide the percentage of subs to stack. Could be an interesting feature to be implemented in following versions of DSS.

Sorry for that waste of clear sky time. There are so many variables in AP…

Welcome to the Lounge!

Following with interest and looking forward to see the comparison.

Hi and welcome to SGL

Hi and welcome to SGL

Good luck!

92mm aprox.

IMO, the main advantage of GOTO mounts for AP is not the ability to select a target and point at it, but the capability of moving at sidereal rate (what you need to avoid star trails in long exposures). Being sturdy is another feature I would look for in a AP mount. It is said that NEQ-5 class is enough for entry level AP.

Once the tripod is leveled (roughly at least), you have to adjust the red angle with the green bolt: But as mentioned above, if it is for visual observing, just set the 51deg angle and point the RA axis roughly to the geographic north. For GOTO mounts, the polar alignment and star alignment must be done more carefully. HTH

Welcome to SGL. What mount do you have?

DSS is a fairly good software for stacking but for nothing else. Another good one is SiriL, slightly more difficult to use but with lots of tutorials available. Don't worry if you don't see a clear picture after stacking. The information is there. Hidden. After stacking you will need an image editing software such as Photoshop, Gimp... (the latter is free) to stretch the histogram and make that information visible. In order to preserve all data gathered during your session, the output file from DSS should be a FIT or TIFF file of at least 16 bits. There begins the dark art of image processing. There are tons of tutorials in YouTube about image stacking and processing. Dive in and have fun trying to squeeze out the most from your images. And the most important: enjoy climbing the steep learning curve!

If you plan to use a DSLR camera with the 200P you might have problems to reach focus. The Sky-Watcher P telescopes stock focuser is designed for visual, so probably you will not have enough inward focus distance. The PDS series are the ones meant for AP. You can upgrade the scope with a new focuser but it would be another bite to your budget. If you take the DSLR path I strongly recommend you to borrow a camera from a friend and try it before any other purchase.

No only the location but the correct actual time is also important for platesolving. Could happen that your OS didn't update the time.

Hi and welcome to SGL

It is Ok. I’ve had a 200PDS (green dovetail) with all the AP gear attached and no issues. Now a 130PDS with the same dovetail and no problems either. Good mount, by the way. I’m very happy with it.