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tonyvee

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tonyvee

tonyvee

Posted
Posted


 

Hi All,


 

Let me
first introduce myself. I am Tony Volante and live in south Devon. I have been into photography since my first camera (Kodak Box type) back in 1953. That makes me coming up to 80 years old. Over those years I have covered just about every type of photography possible and for the last 25 years have specialised in one of the most challenging of all, wild life photography. However, tramping around fields, moor land and woods loaded down with half a ton of camera gear is getting a bit too much for these aching bones so I decided that I must concentrate on photography that I can do mostly from home. As there’s only so many photos you can take of bird-table visitors without getting bored I have turned to astrophotography as I have always had an interest in astronomy. But what a steep learning curve ! Forget plonking a camera on a tripod,  pointing it at the sky and pressing the shutter button !! So here I am seeking help and guidance. 

As to my equipment: Camera: Nikon D3200 DSLR. Lenses: Nikon 18-55mm f3.5. Sigma 70-300mm f4. Opteka 500mm catadioptric (mirror) f8. An intervalometer for time lapse (check out https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfER7DULZt72TmcxXQU9Tlg for some sunrise/sunset results). Also a JVC camcorder which can do slow motion and time lapse video. Several tripods and just about too much other camera gear. 

Telescope equipment: SkyWatcher Heritage 90mm Vertuoso motor driven. Various eyepieces and a Barlow lens plus T mount for the Nikon and a scope web-cam.

Problems: I am still experimenting with still photos and photo stacking software to enhance results and certainly have a lot to learn, but I’m getting there. 

Scope control: So far no can do ! I have tried Stellarium. Works on my desktop but not on my laptop. Some thing about a ‘No OpenGL’ problem ? Anyone know a work-a-round ?  but on my desktop it will not ‘talk’ to the scope. I tried the Astro Ursa Minor demo but can’t tell if it
will operate the scope until after I pay for it.  Anyone know of any other software (preferably free) which definitely will operate the Virtuoso ?

Best wishes

Tony Volante



 

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Mr Spock

Mr Spock

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Posted

Hi Tony, welcome to SGL :)

I don't know the answer to your Stellarium problem but you might like to try Cartes du Ciel. It's a bit more powerful than Stellarium and you may get better results.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Posted

Hi Tony and welcome to SGL. you, like me, will shortly be joining the octogenarian camp in a short space of time. We do have among us many experienced Astro Photographers, Steve Richards among the most notable has written a book on the subject "Making Every Photon Count" what many of our imagers have cut their teeth on, not literally of course. If you wish to avail yourself of a copy it can be had through FLO see top of page, may help to resolve some of your problems, enjoy :)

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xtreemchaos

xtreemchaos

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hi mate and welcome from south wales,i had the same problem with Stellarium on my laptop,you need the older 32bit version,it asks you on the installer pick the one with No OpenGL’ .i wish all clear skys.all the best charl.

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purdo

purdo

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Hi Tony & Welcome to SGL.  Copy your post to the Beginners Imaging  Section as more people would read it there.  Good luck with the AP.  There is also a Photography section in the Non Astro section where you can post non astro images.  Looking forward to seeing you around.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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<p>I have one of those mounts coming and I think you might like this thread here

Alternatively you can get a Skywatcher handset to control it and these can be bought new for example at FirstLight Optics or alomost new from astroboot if in stock.

I went for the bluetooth option though these mounts are not geared up for long exposure length (though I might play with EQ setting using Android app) and and the quaility of the gears may not be up to the accuracy that long esposures might demand.

Though this is also a great thread http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228101-the-no-eq-dso-challenge/?fromsearch=1]here{/url]. So you could try longer exposures using your wider lens and just normal tracking and see what you get when you stack lots of images.

Really depends how serious you want to get into it, but you can start and play with what you have already got.

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