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Hello from light-polluter Kent


SJP

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Hello all, as I've posted a couple of times today I though it only right and proper that I introduce myself formally.

I'm Steve, I got into Astronomy back in the 70's with a small refractor and even got myself an O'Level in Astronomy (my project was to calculate the different solar rotation rates in the polar and equatorial regions by logging sunspot transits - how interesting is that :tongue: ) but then my interest diminished and I went through the usual process of getting married, having kids, and having no spare-time for such trivial-pursuits. 

Last autumn I thought I'd try my hand at Astrophotography, so I built myself a barn door tracker but was disappointed in my results, so when my local telescope retailer had a Celestron CG5GT mount discounted just after Christmas, I thought I'd invest and use it to track my camera, a free Celestron 6" Newt' clinched the deal. 

Since then I've been trying to rapidly learn the intricacies of astro-photography helped along by January's Stargazing Live events where I attended an imaging lecture by Nik Szymanek who really piqued my interest.  Having spent 30 years away from the hobby I'm staggered at how astrophotography has evolved, with amateurs using relatively inexpensive equipment now extensively trouncing the best professional images of the 80's.  I guess the evolution of CCD/CMOS chips means that light-gathering is now so much easier than it was back in the days of film/plate.

My current set-up is the aforementioned Celestron C6N and CG5GT mount, with a home-made 14Ah battery-pack, a Skywatcher polar-scope, Light-Pollution filter (as my sky is far from dark!), and a Revelation 2" Crayford Focusser upgrade (that really helped with focussing after the stock rack & pinion monstrosity, even after I stripped, cleaned, lubed, and honed it) .  I'll shortly be trying my hand at illuminating the polar-scope reticule, fitting a red-dot finder in addition to the stock finder,  and replacing the CG5's altitude and azimuth screws. 

On the imaging front I'm using a Canon EOS 6D and 60D DSLRs, and have tried my hand at the supernova (what a stoke of luck that appeared just as I got everything set-up and running!) and the ubiquitous M42 thus far, once I've developed my skills a little more I'll be tackling some more interesting sights.

So hello to you all, and I look forward to being amazed by what you can achieve :Envy:

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Hi and welcome :)

Glad to see another budding imager on board!

I highly reccomend the free software Stellarium for your pc and the book "Making every photon count" for the Astrophotography side.

The book is pretty much considered the Bible of Astrophotography.

Look forward to seeing your images in the future!

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Thanks for the welcome :cool:

Making Every Photon Count is on order :smiley:

So far I've been using iPad/iPhone StarmapPro and SkySafariPro for navigating myself around the heavens.  I'm not sure that PC software will offer much more?

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Not really if you already have decent apps although it can be useful for seing how much of an object you can fit in the frame once you have added your camera and scope to it as it shows you the field of view.

I use Luminos and Redshift on my Ipad and love them :)

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Another Kent resident! I'm in Canterbury, where are you? (Kent's a pretty big place :) )

I'm south of Sittingbourne, so everything to the North is washed-out. South's fine though :)

Thanks for all the welcomes everyone :)

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