SeedyF

Nooooo! Just saw this on the BBC website

What a sad day for astronomy in the UK.

The aim of the post was to share some of the things I learned over a year of using the scope to help new users to get started quicker. Many of the solutions to these problems I found using this forum and I thought it was a good idea to put them all into one post.

I'm glad I got help from other SGL members rather than a snarky know it all response like yours.

I agree, not sure there was any need for that tone in Capricorn's response.

Capricorn - I think you missed the point entirely, not everyone is going to start out understanding all of the things Nigel is pointing out. If you did well done, but maybe don't be quite so dismissive of everyone else's learning curve.

Nigel - this is a great assessment and will be really useful information for folks starting out who are thinking about Goto.

I got the 250px Goto a little while ago and it has helped me a lot in getting to know the constellations better and specific stars. Now I'm like you, I plan ahead so I am ready for star selection for the star alignment. That in itself is helping me understand how the night sky changes from hour to hour and day to day

And what a great link Michael - why on earth is that not shipped with every skywatcher goto!!

Oh well, here goes.

I took the plunge of attempting proper polar alignment on Saturday 8/1/11 (a real challenge as it was only 9pm, light pollution is bad, Polaris is above my neighbours house from the limited area I can observe from making the light worse) the plan was to attempt a first DSO using M42 in Orion.

I started with Betelgeuse to check focus and was fairly happy. Tried a 30 second then a 60 second exposure at ISO400 - well the second image was like a Tango advert was being played out the sky was so orange!! So I had to stick to the 30 second exposure.

This is the result using a f5 6"/150mm Skywatcher reflector on a motorised EQ3-2 mount. No filters. File format was Jpeg, 30Secs at ISO400, white balance sunlight. No darks, flats, lights or anything else - I just wanted to try a basic shot. Minimal processing to sharpen slightly and adjust the contrast to reduce the skyglow.

Edit to add it was taken with a Canon400 DSLR coupled direct to the scope.

As a first go I was fairly satisfied but had clearly not got the polar alignment spot on as the stars are starting to trail. Next stop is a darker site where I can see what's going on in the polar scope and end up with a darker image.

Be gentle please