Thought i would share some of my efforts here. Been a long time since i posted.

 

M81 Galaxy

 

 

M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy

 

 

NGC 281, The Pacman nebula

 

 

Mars

 

 

Thanks for looking :-)

Stunning. Love the Whirlpool one

what setup do have for this? 

that whirlpool shot is stunning

Fabulous shots!

 

I'll echo mac11irl on asking what setup you used? 

Thanks for the comments. 

 

Most of the above were done with a small 72mm aperture, 432mm focal length semi Apochromatic telescope. Mounted on a Skywatcher AZGti mount in Equatorial mode. Camera was a ZWO ASI 178MC. Some of the images were captured with the aid of a ZWO ASI Air Pro. A little computer which lives on the mount or tripod. Then after initial set up I can retire inside the house and do the image acquisition from a tablet. Wirelessly. Or just remote viewing of anything I can target within the restrictions of the view from my back garden. 

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"  Oscar Wilde

 

Couple more I've done this year. 

 

Iris Nebula

 

 

 

Dumbbell Nebula

 

 

 

Any chance of some photos of the equipment?

This is the set up I use most frequently

Main camera goes in where the eyepiece is in this shot. 

 

How 'dark' is your location as I can imagine that would have a huge impact on either the quality or amount of time to acquire a decent image?

2 hours ago, john999boy said:

How 'dark' is your location as I can imagine that would have a huge impact on either the quality or amount of time to acquire a decent image?

It's not particularly dark. I believe it's a "Bortle Class 5" area. I'm in a fairly new development in a town just outside of Swindon. But I seem to manage ok. When its late at night and everyone's house lights are off I can make out the milky way with my naked eye. Just, faintly. 

We have new led style street lamps so that could help a little I guess. 

Processing the images is probably my weak point still tbh. 

 

The images I have posted are generally in the region of 2 to 3 hours worth of total data gathered. Made up of multiple 2 or 3 minute exposures. 

 

The planetary image is the best 75% of 5000 frames captured during a video capture that was maybe a couple of minutes long. 

Edited 14 November, 20205 yr by Guest

nowt as fancy as the OP but..

 

santa brought Spud sr a Celestron 70mm compact telescope and lego!

 

 

nipped out the back earlier to see how the sky was, pretty clear so did a rapid set up. .

 

 

 

photo taken with my mobile held as still as i could to the 10mm eye piece.

 

spud may have another new hobby!

40 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

spud senior may have another new hobby!

FTFY.

47 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

nowt as fancy as the OP but..

 

santa brought Spud sr a Celestron 70mm compact telescope and lego!

 

 

nipped out the back earlier to see how the sky was, pretty clear so did a rapid set up. .

 

 

 

photo taken with my mobile held as still as i could to the 10mm eye piece.

 

spud may have another new hobby!

That scope could give years of satisfaction. 

 

Although small in terms of aperture. The moon should still look pretty good through it. If you have a DSLR you can easily attach it with a cheap adaptor and use it like a 400mm long lens. 

 

Some of the brighter nebulae such as the Orion Nebula should also be easily visible. 

 

Enjoy, but be warned, it's a slippery slope. I got hooked with a look through a plastic toy national geographic scope my done was bought when he was younger. Lol

1 minute ago, roblatus said:

Enjoy, but be warned, it's a slippery slope. I got hooked with a look through a plastic toy national geographic scope my done was bought when he was younger. Lol

 

im already looking at Barlow lenses, camera adapters and possibly a clutched locking 3 axis mount to allow easier fine adjustment like a total station

 

i got santa to go with this option as i figured it was better get a semi decent but not ridiculously expensive starter kit to hold attention better than a cheapy toy one that barely magnifies stuff in the garden... interest would vanish very quickly i think, whereas now he and i can have a proper go at a deeply interesting hobby

 

@roblatus

ive stolen your whirlpool galaxy shot and sent it to a friend of mine who is also into amateur astronomy. 

he helped point me in right size direction for santa

 

my friends response when i told him i had phone mount ordered...

 

 

look what turned up today...

 

just flicked it in for a quick test, with the 10mm eyepiece i can more detail in the neighbours roof slates than if i was standing on them..

 

so the magnification is now

400/10 x 3 = x120.

 

bit of good "seeing" this evening for a moon test would be nice..

2 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

look what turned up today...

 

just flicked it in for a quick test, with the 10mm eyepiece i can more detail in the neighbours roof slates than if i was standing on them..

 

so the magnification is now

400/10 x 3 = x120.

 

bit of good "seeing" this evening for a moon test would be nice..

Should be good for use on the moon and planets, seeing permitting of course. It wouldn't become too concerned with "magnification" generally the trade off is a much less crisp and sharp image. Do you have a tracking mount?

 

39 minutes ago, roblatus said:

Do you have a tracking mount?

 

not yet, though i think ill be making use of a spare tripod from work and getting an adapter for a more easily adjusted mount. i dont want spend a mad amount of cash on this yet either.. no idea if spud will maintain a serious interest yet..

On 06/01/2021 at 16:44, mac11irl said:

not yet, though i think ill be making use of a spare tripod from work and getting an adapter for a more easily adjusted mount. i dont want spend a mad amount of cash on this yet either.. no idea if spud will maintain a serious interest yet..

Mac, did you and Spud pursue this any further? I only ask as I'm currently looking into astrophotography a little bit. 

I'm currently looking at e couple of entry level Newtonian 'scopes but would appreciate some pointers if you did. 

I'd ask the OP but it appears he's no longer with us.

If anyone else reads this input also appreciated or if they don't I'll start a new topic.

Edited 8 June, 20232 yr by @Lee

8 hours ago, @Lee said:

Mac, did you and Spud pursue this any further? I only ask as I'm currently looking into astrophotography a little bit. 

I'm currently looking at e couple of entry level Newtonian 'scopes but would appreciate some pointers if you did. 

I'd ask the OP but it appears he's no longer with us.

If anyone else reads this input also appreciated or if they don't I'll start a new topic.

 

Interested here too as my eldest is just finishing her first year of physics with astrophysics at Lancaster Uni...   And my spotting scope doesn't cut the mustard 

Edited 9 June, 20232 yr by skomaz

On 09/06/2023 at 00:33, @Lee said:

If anyone else reads this input also appreciated or if they don't I'll start a new topic.

 

I've been looking upwards for a while.  It's surprising what you can see, even with 10x50 binoculars.  I'm lucky to have Herstmonceux Observatory and Science Centre only a few miles away and access to dark(ish) skies as a result.  I wasn't sure what to get, but it's easy to find recommendations, not to mention we have astronomy group open evenings at both Herstmonceux and Beachy Head.  I also wasn't sure if I'd take to it, so didn't want to spend a lot of money for an entry level telescope.  I decided on a 130mm Celestron, or similar.  But then this came up, very locally (under two miles away) for peanuts, with three lenses, including a Barlow:

 

 

It's a 114mm Helios (forerunner to Celestron), but I figure it's a good starting point.  As an absolute novice, I've cleaned it, but I'm dead nervous about collimating, so I might join a local group to find my way.  Yet to use it properly.

 

Interesting to read @skomaz comment about his spotting scope - I'd wondered if one of those might be a better option for me.

 

Gaz

 

The spotting scope works OK for some stuff and is good for the moon but is difficult to line up well even before zooming in and on the one I have the mount between tripod and scope isn't stable enough.  I can probably fix the latter with some fettling to tighten it up but the alignment issue would then remain., so I'm thinking something purpose made would be much better. 

A few from the back yard taken over the past couple of nights. All only using a Canon DSLR. Trying out different ISO and duration. All I've done is reduce chrominance and luminance noise plus sharpened a little in Canon Photo Professional 4

Looking south towards Hamburg



 

Eastwards


 

 

East again

 

And south again