Astro Noodles

That's really good. When did you take it? The full moon at the moment makes deep sky imaging very difficult. Is your camera astro-modified?

Astro Backyard's video https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=astrobackyard+starting+astrophotography&docid=608029805808614165&mid=5A5B86466AB43D69E1375A5B86466AB43D69E137&view=detail&FORM=VIRE was very important for me in determining what sort of setup a beginner should go for without bankrupting themself. Nico Carver for his processing tutorials Dylan O'Donnell for a laugh I also like Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur and Event Horizon with John Micheal Godier for futurism, sci fi, space philosophy etc. Good fun and quite thought provoking.

All of the second had equipment I have bought has been in perfect condition. Brand new equipment, I have had a couple of lemons which had to be sent back because they were faulty.

Perhaps by your standards, but I'm used to much more noise (most of it light pollution it must be said). 😁

There is an excellent book called 'Turn Left at Orion' which is great for interesting things to observe.

I spent 4 hours the other night and ended up with just 6 frames of 90 seconds. 😒 Using the WO 61 on an iOptron Skyguider pro. it is necessary to get the rig very precisely balanced. I think that the dew heater lead must have been snagged or something because I had star trailing in most of the subs, but not all of them !?!. Anyway, because the frames were not closely aligned I decided to ditch the dark frames. So what I got was an image without much signal and without much noise. 😆 Autosave009.tif

It certainly does appear that you have succeeded in detecting a drop in the light. I am very impressed.

Here's my first effort of M42 taken on 29th April 2021 with a Canon 1100d, Tamron 200mm lens on a wobbly mount without PA and a cheap RA tracker. I can't remember the exact details but It was taken over a couple of sessions using 10/20 sec subs with darks and bias but no flats Here's one I took the other day. About 45 minutes total of 90 sec subs with an Astro modified Canon 600d iso 800 with darks, flats and bias. Askar FMA 135 and iOptron Skyguider pro. Both stacked in DSS and processes in Gimp. For the newest shot I also used a dew heater and an Astronomik CLS filter

Longer exposure times with a decent tracking mount are a real game changer.

Rosette. 22 x 90sec

Western Gemini

Alintak and associated nebulae

About 40mins total exposure time of Orion Nebula taken last night. I'm quite pleased with it. It looks much noisier on here than it does on my laptop. Taken through Askar 135mm and blown up.

Dithering would require guiding. I'm not at that stage yet. 🙂

I've just read on a different post that Darks may not be really necessary for Canon DSLRs. @vlaiv @alacant

I am using an uncooled DSLR, so it is impossible for me to get dark frames at exactly the same temperature as ambient (unless I want to spend 50% of my imaging time taking photos with the lens cap on - which I don't). If I take dark frames which are always at a higher temperature than ambient, what would be the drawback in doing this?

Yeah, It is totally cool. I'm eager to know if you get a result.

Something like this might be a good place to start. Sky-Watcher Heritage-130P Flextube | First Light Optics

I find transparency to be more of an issue than seeing.

Why are they trying to grow fruit and veg during the night? That can't be cheap or environmentally viable. We are all supposed to be finding ways to save energy.

You ought to be able to filter out that yellow light with a decent CLS filter. It is utterly appalling though.

I haven't really got room.

I was thinking of some sort of wooden frame around the bottom with fastenings for the legs. Anything permanent and I run the risk of upsetting her. Also, I'm getting the yard re-paved this year.

That's a good idea. I'll keep that in mind. Although I don't have a garden but a paved yard but I'm sure I could come up with some method of securing it.

Yeah, I don't think people are being sensible with their light pollution. It is not just one neighbour though. I live in a terrace house so there are other properties overlooking my yard. One on either side, and one opposite with one on either side. Out of the six, four of them have nuisance lights (one also has flashing fairy lights). At the end of the row there is an LED streetlight. At the other end is a grain elevator with a light at the apex. There are people going to the bathroom, going to bed, getting up in the night, turning their kitchen lights on and off etc. It is supposed to be bortle 5 here but I've never seen the milky way. Narrow band filters are the only real solution. I think if I can cut out the direct glare, then I might at least be able to find what I'm looking for in the sky at least. Anyway, I have ordered one of those clamps off Amazon.