Astro Noodles

2 minutes ago, barbulo said:

OMG, this thread is a gold mine! 
As a beginner I don’t have many anecdotes to tell: cap on, clutches untightened...  I’m pretty sure the rest will come sooner or later. 

I'm a beginner myself but the silly mistakes are mounting up fast.

This week I bought a new mount only to find it won't attach to my tripod. So bought a new tripod - but it doesn't attach to that either.

55 minutes ago, Longy717 said:

My argument for these stores is that if I did buy one I'd at least have it. Anyway I'm glad it's overcast or I might be tempted to just buy. It's crazy how many are out of stock. However it reassures me that it is a good bit of kit if its sold out everywhere. Must be hard for the shops not knowing when the next delivery will be.

Hi Longy717

Backyard Astronomy is one of a number of hobbies which have become very popular during the current pandemic. Thousands of people (myself included) have been buying entry level astronomy kit. Add to that the fact that most if not all of the budget telescopes come from China. What with the Suez canal blocked, all the containers sat in ports in Europe, Chinese new year etc, supply chains have been affected. The second-hand market seems almost non-existent at the moment.

I know you are itching for a telescope but the advice on this forum is excellent. Hold out for that Heritage 130. Less than £200 for a scientific instrument is a real bargain. I bought a Skywatcher 130p in January and I have been delighted with it.

10 minutes ago, KevinPSJ said:

Bumping ISO up to max to find stars for a quick framing shot and then (pleased with the framing) immediately doing an hour of imaging that all needs to be thrown away due to wrong ISO setting.

 

It' so easy to do 

Lucky 🙂

Hi Jordan.  Can you tell us which telescope it is? I am just a beginner myself, so don't really know much but I think that aperture and focal length are more important than magnification for viewing planets.

I did drop my DSLR a couple of weeks ago and smashed in the USB port. That was a silly error because now I can't use APT with it and can only focus using the screen on the back of it.😭

Getting into astrophotography in the first place 🤔

You could process it GIMP. It's a free phot-editing software.

I had another go last night with a dew heater. It was a little bit more successful but the issue still persists.

I have attached two subs below. The first if from 21:23. DSS detects 131 stars. The second is from 23:08. DSS detects 2 stars.

Would it be possible to take a look to see what the issue is?

IMG_6907.CR2 IMG_7105.CR2

I set mine on single shot and works perfectly. Of course, the instructions were pure gobbledygook, so perhaps you have to experiment to find what works.

That's a good idea.

So I now have a lens heater and have just set off 399 x 20 sec subs on M101. I am keen to see if the heater fixes this problem.

27 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

If you have a laptop you could try Sharpcap for polar alignment - you will need to pay the £10 subscription to access the alignment process, but I believe you should be able to do that using images from your DSLR. The free option lets you check alignment so you could try that first. It would buy you a bit of time to save up a bit more or wait for your chosen option to come into stock!

edit: I have also found this thread here which is software for polar alignment software specifically for DSLRS - might be worth a read.

Thanks for that Shimrod.  I dropped my camera and broke the USB port. 

I agree with the above post. I too use a no-name intervalometer with a Canon 1100d and find it works like this:

Set the timings on the intervalometer first.

If you are using 20 sec exposures, set the exposure time on the camera to 20 sec.

Turn the camera off.

Plug in the intervalometer.

Turn the Camera on and you are ready to go.

9 minutes ago, Pompey Monkey said:

Edit - Second-hand prices are stupid at the moment due to shortages of new kit.

Thank Paul but second-hand mounts are as rare as rocking-horse manure at the moment.

8 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

I'm more than happy with my Celestron CGEM.. but there are great reviews of the Advanced VX which is smaller and should go well on focal lengths upto 1000mm.

 I forgot to say that my upper limit is about £550 atm.

I am not considering this as the last mount I'll ever get but one which will allow me to progress this year.

Hi guys,

Can I have you opinion on which mount to buy ?

I am interested in DSO imaging. Currently I am using the eq mount which came with my Sky-Watcher 130p with an RA motor. Using a DSLR and lens I can get up to 20 sec subs but there is no realistic way of properly polar aligning. I would like to get into the 3-5 minute range. In the future I am considering a refractor in the 70-80mm range. Not thinking of travelling with it.

I have narrowed the choice down to Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, Ioptron Sky Guider, or Sky-Watcher EQ3 Pro Go-to.

Any opinion or suggestions would be very welcome because I just can't decide which would best suit.

I

As a beginner myself, with limited experience, I would concur with what the previous posters have written. I think that you need the best optics you can afford at this stage and leave the electronics for later. I started with a 130mm reflector from Skywatcher which came with an equatorial mount, a tripod and some eyepieces and I was blown away when I first viewed the moon with it. 

I think that astronomy as a hobby has a steep learning curve, but there are no shortcuts if you want to get the best enjoyment out of it. Learning the sky, the constellations and how to find things is one of the most basic skills to acquire and I think that you might want to be able to do that yourself without relying on an app to do it. There is a great book called 'Turn left at Orion' which I would recommend to help select targets and find them.

Flying saucer 🤔

It certainly seems too good to be true. But maybe someone just hit the jackpot.

Hi Shimrod.

The lens and camera had been outside for a coupe of hours before the imaging session. The camera on the mount and the lens inside a backpack. I haven't experienced this problem before, just other problems like faulty polar alignment, poor focus and being unable to find the target. I have ordered a dew heater to see if that helps.

I have noticed lately that the temperature is dropping by about 5-10degC over the course of o couple of hours and it is pretty cold by midnight. Would this make dew more likely to form?

Hi Martin

Thanks for your reply

I am using a DSLR with a 200mm lens. I have noticed that the lens is fogged after bringing it indoors but I'm not sure whether that is because I have just brought it in from the cold outside. 

Stupidly I have deleted the unusable subs. I am using Deep Sky Stacker and have noticed the star count drop whilst registering the image. The first sub was about 50 stars but it very quickly dropped to 1 or 0.

I have been having an issue in the last couple of weeks. I set my equipment up, set the intervalometer and come back at the end of the session. Just lately I have only got useable images from the start of the session. For example, on Wednesday I took 1200 13 sec exposures but could only stack 169 of them. Yesterday I took 400 20 sec exposures, but only the first 17 were stacked. The tracking is ok and the camera still has power at the end of the session.

Am I experiencing the effects of dew?

Thanks for the welcome

Must be cloudy in Germany and Glasgow 😉

Hi

I have been lurking for a while.

Just thought I would say hi.

Bought a Sky-Watcher Starquest 130p back in January. I also got the RA motor for the mount. When the weather has permitted, I have been out on every night since.

I picked up a Canon 1100d and an old Tamron 200mm lens from ebay recently because I thought it would be nice to show people what I could see. I think I might have become addicted to astrophotography.