Hello from UK (West Sussex)/ Spain

[stillneon]

Hi everyone

New to the forum and somewhat of a beginner to Astrophotography. I'm lucky enough to have a base in Spain as well as the UK, so the dark winter nights can be much warmer. Started out observing through a Meade ETX -80 and in November 2021 when in Spain with a friend we decided to make a mount for a camera to sit on top of the scope, just to see whether we could take a picture. Zip ties and T adaptor did the job. Canon 600D and 50mm lens on Orion that trip. We were pretty pleased with the results. And so it began...

Now using a SW SA2i tracker with a variety of lens from 14mm Samyang to a 420mm SvBony scope and the old 600D and a modded 500D camera. Trying to keep the set-up portable as much as possible. Still learning a lot and although data capture is becoming easier, the post-processing element of the projects is the really steep learning curve for me. Currently using a combination of Siril and Affinity v1. Will probably look at auto-guiding in the fairly near future as limited to 60 sec subs on the 420mm at the moment.

Looking forward to getting to know people on the forum and I know I'll gain plenty of knowledge as I go.

Regards

Jonathan

[happy-kat]

Welcome

There's a raft of astro macro functions in affinity photo that I think were extended in affinity v2

Affinity astro macro information here

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387940-affinity-photo-astrophotography-macros-video-tutorials-and-other-resources

Edited March 20 by happy-kat

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun. 🙂

[stillneon]

1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

Welcome

There's a raft of astro macro functions in affinity photo that I think were extended in affinity v2

Affinity astro macro information here

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387940-affinity-photo-astrophotography-macros-video-tutorials-and-other-resources

Many thanks for the link. Would you say an upgrade from Affinity v1 to Affinity v2 is worthwhile? I don't use it for anything other than Astro at this point.

[carastro]

Welcome, lots of imagers on here if you need advice. 

[Stickey]

Would you say an upgrade from Affinity v1 to Affinity v2 is worthwhile?

I pondered the same question for a good while and in the end, I decided to upgrade when one of the regular deals was on. TBH, I've not really had the chance to test it out properly but my rationale was that the James Ritson astrophotography macros are now being developed for V2 only. 

it's not too expensive compared with alternatives. There's always GIMP, Images Plus etc

[barbulo]

Warm welcome to SGL.

[alacant]

Hi and welcome

Astro in Spain is exhausting. Just pray for cloud so you can occasionally get a good night's sleep 💤

Cheers 

[stillneon]

10 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi and welcome

Astro in Spain is exhausting. Just pray for cloud so you can occasionally get a good night's sleep 💤

Cheers 

Thanks for the welcome. Yes, I go back to the UK for a lie down.

[Sunshine]

Welcome!

[Bugdozer]

Hello there, welcome to the forum!

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂