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Hi from Somerset

David_Pickles

By David_Pickles
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David_Pickles

David_Pickles

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Hello to everyone in the lounge.

I have been an amateur astronomer for about 18 months and have progressively updated/expanded my equipment over that time to meet my passion in astrophotography. I started out with the Sky-Watcher Mak 127 and soon started experimenting with astrophotography, by attaching my Nikon J1 to the scope and imaging the moon and planets. However, I soon caught the bug and upgraded to a Sky-Watcher Explorer 190MN Pro earlier this year. I initially mounted it on a Celestron CG-5 mount, although found that tracking for longer exposures was not that good with such a heavy scope attached, so eventually upgraded to a Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro. I also upgraded the camera to a DSLR, which I modded myself by removing the IR cut filter.

Over the past few months I have managed to capture some reasonable images with this setup and my processing skills with Nebulosity 3 and Photoshop CS6 have improved dramatically - have a look here at some of my images on Flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/89259683@N04/

However, I have now decided to take a leap into the Cooled CCD world and have bought a used QHY8L which I am just getting to grips with. My latest photo, of the Orion Nebula, was the result of my first light with his new camera and I am really pleased with the result - in particular, the lack of noise in comparrison to my DSLR.

10844322233_ae64c38958_z.jpg
The Orion Nebula (M42) by Judge.pickles123, on Flickr

I am sure that to get the most out of this camera I have a steep learning curve ahead, however, I am looking forward to seeing the results and learning more from the expertise on this forum. I just need some clear skies in the south-west of the UK!

Regards to all,

David

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John

John

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Hi David and welcome to SGL  :smiley:

Thats a lovely image - great result from the 1st use of a camera.

I'm a visual astronomer myself based in North Somerset, so not too far from you I guess.

Hope you enjoy your time here  :smiley:

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JamesF

JamesF

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Welcome to SGL

The last three months do seem to have been particularly poor in the south west (I'm also in Somerset).  I was hoping that the colder weather predicted to arrive this week would clear things a little, but in fact that doesn't appear to be going to happen at the moment.

James

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David_Pickles

David_Pickles

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Welcome to SGL

The last three months do seem to have been particularly poor in the south west (I'm also in Somerset). I was hoping that the colder weather predicted to arrive this week would clear things a little, but in fact that doesn't appear to be going to happen at the moment.

James

I agree - looking forward to some crisp clear nights over the coming months.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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