First camera test

[Mr Thingy]

Below is my first ever astrophotography picture! It's not much, but I am very chuffed with it.

I took the plunge to buy some AP gear a couple of months ago and I was going to wait until my HEQ5 arrives to try it all out in anger, but it looks like it may still be another 1 month+ before it arrives, so I decided to take some short exposures to get accustomed to the camera (Zwo ASI 183 GT) and the image acquisition software...... Then the rain came and I've been anxiously waiting for a break in the weather ever since, which was finally gifted last night. 

I took 5 second subs, knowing that I would get star trials, but wanted to see if I could capture any detail of Andromeda, and was amazed to see how much detail I could get in such short exposures. 

So for me this is a major success as everything worked, and also that my camera seems to do a decent job. M110 also sneaked in for a little appearance, which was nice to see.

Can't wait now to get the HEQ5.

 

 

Edited October 26, 2020 by Mr Thingy

[andrew s]

Good to get started. Hope the mount comes soon. Regards Andrew 

[wimvb]

If possible, align the camera with RA. This means that the long side of the sensor is parallell with RA, and the short side with DEC. This way, it's easier to reframe targets if you image over several nights, and it's also easier to trouble shoot any guiding/tracking issues. To align with RA, take a 30 second exposure. 5 seconds in, you move RA either with a handset or, as in your case, with the slo-mo knob for RA. After the exposure is finished, turn the camera towards the star trails. In the image here (assuming good polar alignment), you would need to rotate the camera about 40 degrees counter clockwise.

[Mr Thingy]

5 minutes ago, wimvb said:

If possible, align the camera with RA. This means that the long side of the sensor is parallell with RA, and the short side with DEC. This way, it's easier to reframe targets if you image over several nights, and it's also easier to trouble shoot any guiding/tracking issues. To align with RA, take a 30 second exposure. 5 seconds in, you move RA either with a handset or, as in your case, with the slo-mo knob for RA. After the exposure is finished, turn the camera towards the star trails. In the image here (assuming good polar alignment), you would need to rotate the camera about 40 degrees counter clockwise.

A good tip. Thanks. I will add that to my workflow 😀