Focusing problem with zenithstar61

[Riccardo Pacini]

I everyone,

I've started Astrophotography about 6momths ago so I'm super new to this

I'm still with very simple and entry level tools

But thinking to get seriously into this

So far I've been using a canon90d unmodified a staradventurer pro and a sigma 150-600mm without autoguiding i was able to get this m31 and the orion nebula with only 45min exposure each with 2min subs at 300mm iso 1600

Since then I decided to get a zwo120 for guiding and a 30mmf4 scope paired with zenithstar61 and flat61

Followed all the instructions from william optics for backfocus and using bahtinov mask focus looks ok, autoguiding with PHD2 shows average error around 1.5"

Tried last night heart nebula and California nebula both have 3h total exposure at 360mm 4min subs iso1600 and in both cases results seems way poor compared to the sigma 

Any advice on focus or backfocus  if that is the issue ?

Thanks 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Riccardo Pacini

[SStanford]

Take it from a true beginner; those images are fantastic! 👍

[Space Oddities]

Great images!  

Perhaps it would help if you show us your imaging train?

 

[Riccardo Pacini]

Hi 

This is my actual image train.

When took the andromeda my setup didn't include the autoguiding and the zenithstar but only had camera with big heavy telephoto and counterweight.

The actual payload is 4kg when used sigma lens it was 5.5kg