Newbie from Lincolnshire

[JulietPapa]

Hi everyone,

I started astrophotography late last year using a Star Adventurer and a Nikon D500/200-500mm and like most people I pretty much became hooked straight away, grabbed my first Andromeda Galaxy image a couple of days ago - always a great buzz to shoot a new target! (Editing leaves a lot to be desired!)

 

I love the portability factor being able to run it from a Power Bank and I’m looking to expand my setup at the end of the year with an EvoStar 72ED (slightly lighter than my current lens), I’d like to ask a couple of questions if I may;

 

I’ve seen that I should add a field flattener which is fine by me but I have heard that there needs to be a certain distance between that flattener and my cameras focal plane - how do I best achieve this?

 

Also in the interests of keeping the setup as light as possible I’d like to use the skywatcher 6x30 finder scope in the hope that I could mate it to a ZWO 120mm mini mono as a guide scope with the ZWO ASiair. Does anyone know if the camera and finder scope are compatible? 

 

If this is the wrong place to pose these questions I apologise in advance and would be happy to post them elsewhere in the forum.

 

I greatly appreciate any help and advice you can offer

 

 

[sloz1664]

Hi, and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Really great to see you jumping into astrophotography from the start, no mean feat, as it's as complicated as taking photographs can get. Regarding field flatteners, these are usually dedicated to telescopes and if you plump for the Evostar 72ED then a field flattener would be a consideration. One piece of advice I give to any budding astrophotographer is to purchase the book "Making Every photon Count." It is written by a member of SGL  "Steppenwolf" and is considered "the bible" for budding AP enthusiasts. You can purchase it here from FLO

Steve

Edited September 24, 2019 by sloz1664

[JulietPapa]

Hi Steve,

 

thanks very much, I’m certainly finding it a challenge but that’s part of the fun for me!

I’ve found the field flattener I’m going to purchase so all good on that front. 

I will absolutely look into the book as I need all the help I can get! Hopefully I’ll be sharing some images with you guys over the winter 👍

 

James

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @JulietPapa and welcome to SGL. 

[banjaxed]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

[Davey-T]

2 hours ago, JulietPapa said:

Also in the interests of keeping the setup as light as possible I’d like to use the skywatcher 6x30 finder scope in the hope that I could mate it to a ZWO 120mm mini mono as a guide scope with the ZWO ASiair. Does anyone know if the camera and finder scope are compatible? 

Hi and welcome to SGL, the font of all knowledge 😂

There are adapters to convert the 9X50 finder scopes don't know about the 6X30 ones.

The guider can be attached to the other end of the dovetail bar.

Dave

 

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Criermike]

Welcome to the forum 

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

Peter

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun with the ‘challenge’. 🙂

[Ronclarke]

Welcome to the forum, just up the road in Newark on Trent although a former Yellowbelly!!

Ron

[Mr Spock]

Hi James, welcome to SGL 

[ronl]

Hello and welcome to the community, good luck with the imaging.

Clear Sky's.

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi there, welcome. 

[muddy]

Hi and welcome to the Party

[Kev M]

Hi James, welcome from another relative newbie in Lincolnshire.....

[Criermike]

Welcome to the forum 

[oldfruit]

Hi and welcome, also in Lincolnshire.

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Peter in Bedfordshire🙂

[Demonperformer]

Hi, JulietPapa, and welcome to SGL.

If you want a light finder-guider, you may want to take a look at this. A bit more expensive than a standard 6x30 finder, but by the time you have bought an adaptor (if you can find one!) you may find purchasing something built for the job a better option (i.e. less hassle ... and can't we all do with that?). I seem to recall that these have sometimes been offered in a package with the 120 (zwo tend to do a lot of 'offers' like that), so may be worth keeping an eye out for that.

Enjoy the journey.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Demonperformer

[JulietPapa]

Hello everyone,

really appreciate the warm welcome from you all, I thought I’d share an image I grabbed since I posted here as a way of giving back to community, I’m really pleased with it given this is probably the 5th target I’ve shot and it is the North America Nebula as I’m sure you’ll know!