Astro Waves

I'm pretty new to this as well and I reckon the best thing to do as mentioned above is have a look into what kind of astro stuff you want to get into then just consume as much information you can do via books, youtube and articles before you buy anything. That's what I did, and like your self I wanted a portable set up for now as I'm always out and about being in different places for a few months at a time so to me that was important. As anyone here will tell you its a very expense hobby but you can spend as little or as much as you want on gear but you can always upgrade and also depends on what you can afford at the time as well (that's a big one). I guess its kinda of a double edge sword being weather permitting as you always want to upgrade bits and pieces but if there's going to be no clear Skys for a couple of weeks it gives you a bit of extra time to look for deals etc but then also you can't do what you're excited to do and that's have a look upwards.

I mean I think they both look pretty good, I'd be well pleased with them but I'm happy when I shot anything, haha. Personally I think there is a lot of data there, so much of it comes down to the post processing side of things. I thought I'd have a go at doing an edit as I'm waiting for my camera to finish up, this is what I got. I'm trying to learn to do gradient removal with out the use of a plug-in so the background could be a bit more uniformed.

I know its not quite what you were going for with processing but I kinda like it in a sense that it has depth but also look like a vintage image or sorts.

I'll have a look and see what I can find on Facebook. Just had a look, t'other side of town, its only about 4 miles, haha. I've only been doing AP over the winter period so far, I can imagine that it just get a bit less fun in the summer due to the shorter lighter nights? But definitely want to get out and explore Scotland whilst doing this as well, which would be nice. My other solution was going got be be trying to find some where close to me and just have a go at dealing with the light pollution.

I thought this might be the case, luckily I've got some friends near the peatlands which is good but also don't have my own transport, well apart from me bike so its lucky I've got a very portable setup. I feel like its going to take some getting used not having access to a garden at my disposal and also currently in Bortle 4 so I will definitely miss it. I saw that post the other day as well, so I'm taking all the notes I can do.

So I'll be moving to Edinburgh in a couple of weeks and the flat I'm going to doesn't have a garden so was wandering if any one knew of any good spots to go and shoot from? I don't really know the city that well, have a few friends there who know the place but (but they don't do AP) so they might now know it in the same way. I'll be up near the Botanical Gardens if that helps. At points I'm hoping to be able to get out the city and more towards the highlands way when I can sort transport. Any tips would be ace! Cheers

These look great! this is next on my hit list as well.

Hiya, As AP is something relatively new I'm slowly getting into, I'm thinking about equipment over a long term goal. I was wandering if red dot finders are good for finding targets easily enough? I'm not on a go-to and still trying to learn the stars as much as I can but when trying to find certain targets I do struggle a bit. I realise the are pretty cheap but still don't want to waste some monies if I don't have to. Cheers

Ta very much, I do like it as a scope and I think its a good first scope to have as its pretty wide field but with that means you have to crop in heavily to pretty much everything. I don't mean that its disappointing but on reflection and as I couldn't visit any shops during the lockdown period when I got it I think I may have gone for something with slight more focal length but then I'd need to start looking into a go-to mount which sadly isn't am option at the moment. I'll have a goosy at AstroFlat, still don't know that much about the programmes side of AP so the more help the better!

So, I'm ssuuuupppeeerrr happy with this. To say it was taken over two nights on a 98% and 94% moon. I have sacrificed a bit of faint wispy bits for a clearer more uniformed background and I'm pretty alright with that. Not guided, no filters, heavily cropped. Stacked in Siril with basic adjustments and only using background removal in Affinity photo (which is really good) with adjusting levels, curves and couple other small tweaks along the way. Let me know what you think. Lights: 400-ish at 80sec Darks: 43 Flats: 30 Biases: 50 Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101). 21 Mly away.

Definitely getting on the Pinwheel again tonight! just had a go at stacking and editing what I got from last night and I'm well chuffed, managed to get about 4 hours I think. I can't 100% get rid of the gradient but we'll see tomorrow. I'll post a pic then, I think for me this will easily be my best image (seen as how I've really tried about 5 targets so far, haha).

Right, I get you. Sadly I don't have any filters as of yet but depending on how the stacking goes tomorrow with the Pinwheel I might try the Jellyfish. I think this is the clearest night I've had since I started shooting, its great. Got about 3/4 hours of subs so far, might have to call it quits soon though.

Same here, if its clear skies I'll definitely give it a go. As your pic proves, you never know! I was also thinking the jellyfish but decided to have a go at the Pinwheel Galaxy, mainly because I've not really tried galaxies yet that much. Is it better to go for the H-alpha on a full moon rather than galaxies?

I'm still unsure on the 'thing to get next list' for me, its either a filtre or guide scope as the price difference isn't much in them overall. I find that I can get pretty good 4 minute subs without guiding and then I'd also have to get long enough cables as well because like yourself I wouldn't want to leave my laptop out until getting one dedicated for AP. I know they would both be beneficial but just don't know which to choose. If it helps I'm in Bortle 4/3 skies but will only be here for another few months so kinda wanna make the most of it.

Because I'm not using a go-to mount I basically do a test run of finding targets I have my eye on and see if I can get a some snaps of them, not to be a finished image by any means but just seeing how easy it is to find etc so then when I go out on a nice clear night I know I'll have a much better idea of how easy it was to find depending on the size of the object......or the moon.

Oooohhh that looks good, might have pick myself up a copy. 17 hours? not messing around there, is there pic I can see? For galaxies or any deep sky object do you just generally go for the most amount of integration time you can do or do you find there are limits to certain things? I have been looking at dual narrow band filters, I'm just trying to figure out whats best to shoot once the moon starts kicking off but trying to go for informed decisions on buying kit mainly because upgrades on anything for me will be few and far between. I just wanna say you lot seem so helpful on this forum its great. I don't know anyone else that does AP so I can't just constantly pester them with questions, I massively appreciate all the help.

Thanks very much. I'm using a redact with an astro mod Canon 750D, I have to do some cropping but not too bad. How much worse is things such a heavy moon lit nights for galaxies? Would it be worth getting a some kind of filter to help out? That is the next thing I'm looking int really as for now the setup I've got is running pretty nicely. I'm sorry....you what? one.......point......seven......billion? WWWWOOOOOOWEEEEEE! well I'm pretty darn happy with that! I did try using Astrometry earlier but didn't come up with anything that coooool! Also how do you find out info like that? I think I understand most of that, might have to read it again a couple times though.

So the Whale Galaxy is now my furthest away object I've intentionally imaged at 30 Mly. I may have gone a tad too hard on the saturation but not bad either way, I said holy f**k after every stretch and levels the more details that came out. I'll have another go at editing it tomorrow but otherwise, super happy with it. I tell you what, people weren't wrong saying calibration frames make a big difference. I think there's a total of 2:20 of integration time maybe. I might keep going on it as well. Let me know what you think.

Some one very kindly did me a small walk through of Siril and I've got two nights worth of data sorted and I did it properly with actually using calibration frames for the first time (I know I know) and even without editing, it outputted the image and I said holy f**k about 6 times, its by no means the most detailed image of the Whale Galaxy but for my first proper go at one over two nights shooting I'm super pleased! I think I'm going to try a bit more galaxy hunting as well. Might need a larger hard drive though, had to make so much space for Siril to be able to process it. I'll post a piccy once I've done a good edit.

Soooooooo SWarp then? haha. I'll have a look into it but taking me forever to even just get to grips with stacking software. I need to get on this plate solving business would make life much easier but same applies as above about software.

Nice, I'll give that look. I'm still new to plate solving and still haven't really figured it out yet but I'll get there.....at some point. Well you're not messing around there are you. That's a fair old distance. Side topic, I did post this is imaging discussion but its also very appropriate here seen as how no one answered it yet. Do the imaging settings need to be the same when imaging on multiple nights? I've managed to get two nights on the Whale galaxy but with different exposure times. They are also slightly framed different mainly because I'm not using a go-to mount and bloody hell, trying to line up nearly the same took me about an hour last night because the changes are so minute. This is my first time trying to get more than one nights data on one target which is exciting. I accidentally got NGC 4244 (Caldwell 26 galaxy) in my sights before getting to the whale which was cool as well but then decided to persist on the Whale seen as how these things aren't going any where. When I very first thought and started AP I was so excited about capturing nebula (which I've only done semi successfully yet) but so far I've been way more excited about capturing galaxies. I'll post a pic when I can finally get everything stacked and sorted which I've been having a bit of trouble with.

Ta very much!

Currently sat outside shooting to try get a second night on the Whale Galaxy (on Pleides at moment due to high cloud). Is it recomened to keep the same settings for each time you shoot an object so you can stack everything together or is better to stack the various nights and then blend them? Also if you just process everything together whats the best thing to do about the calibration frames? CCCHHHEEERRSSS

Despite all the amazing deep sky objects out there, there is just something about the moon that feels so special and other worldly. This is a single image quite heavily cropped in. I'm going to try and do some stacking shots when I can. Enjoy.