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You don’t need to travel faster than light to arrive before events happen, you just need to leave on time. In this paper, we will consider that the speed of light is actually limited by getting the kids out the door, and
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Oct 18, 2021 13:53
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It's not particularly amateur, but the YouTube algorithm blessed me with a great little video, and I want to share its blessings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxwhCmO90UQ To pay the on topic tax, if the above video's too pro, the gap between Saturn and its rings is by far the best thing I've ever seen with a telescope that belongs to me. There's just something about setting up your own rig that gets that stuff out of the realm of textbooks and hammers home the idea that it's all really out there. More people need to experience that feeling.
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Oct 18, 2021 15:50
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I've been collecting M42 the past few days, about 45 minutes of total integration to get this : Which looks way better than the 12 hours I have of M45. Very pleased with the dark nebulosity, but I should have reduced my gain/time to preserve the core of the nebula.
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Oct 19, 2021 02:23
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Sexual Lorax posted:It's not particularly amateur, but the YouTube algorithm blessed me with a great little video, and I want to share its blessings: First time I saw Saturn through my own scope, my reaction was more along the lines of "that's fake as hell". I felt strongly that someone was holding up a black velvet cloth with a little toy hanging in front of it.
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Oct 19, 2021 13:43
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Hasselblad posted:First time I saw Saturn through my own scope, my reaction was more along the lines of "that's fake as hell". That perfectly describes my thought! I was at a summer camp, and someone had brought a decent sized reflector. This was probably 30 years ago. I remember thinking "looks so fake" probably because it looked like a textbook image.
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Oct 19, 2021 14:17
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This is on my drive home tomorrow for $80 (bad photo, Celestron Astromaster 130EQ). For very amateur backyard scope (me). Assuming it doesn't come with anything else not in the photo, any tips for things to pick up? New eyepieces, some way to collimate, t-ring for Nikon and T-ring adapter, etc.  Oh! And I bought that Rokinon 135mm lens suggested upthread for my wife's moon photos.
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Oct 19, 2021 23:04
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pumped up for school posted:This is on my drive home tomorrow for $80 (bad photo, Celestron Astromaster 130EQ). For very amateur backyard scope (me). Assuming it doesn't come with anything else not in the photo, any tips for things to pick up? New eyepieces, some way to collimate, t-ring for Nikon and T-ring adapter, etc. For visual, if you can find them, grab a couple of the GSO eyepieces from Agena Astro. They are amazing for the price. The GSO superview 20mm and 15mm paired with a 2x barlow gives you basically all you'd need for some casual observing of planets and some DSO. And, I think you could get all 3 for ~$100-$150. They are miles better than the 2 included eyepieces. You're unlikely to get good pictures with this scope using prime focus. The reason being that without moving the mirror, you will not be able to achieve proper backfocus. You're going to have more luck doing eyepiece projection photography. An adapter like this works well enough (in combination with the t-ring: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0140U9URO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Keep in mind that the focuser that comes with this scope will not support the weight of a dslr very well. It will slip. I've said in this thread before that taking pictures with this scope is a real pain in the rear end (I tried a lot).
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Oct 19, 2021 23:44
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simble posted:For visual, if you can find them, grab a couple of the GSO eyepieces from Agena Astro. They are amazing for the price. The GSO superview 20mm and 15mm paired with a 2x barlow gives you basically all you'd need for some casual observing of planets and some DSO. And, I think you could get all 3 for ~$100-$150. They are miles better than the 2 included eyepieces. This is great, thanks. I wondered about the weight. I've been looking for a refractor or mak (rear mount) for that reason. For $80 I figured I'll grab it. But thanks for the early notice so I don't get myself worked up about it. Known issue, I'll just use it for backyard viewing and learning how to use an EQ mount. Cheers! E: well that fell through. Maybe for the best. I think I'm back to looking for a more portable kit so I can take it with my on my field travels. Budget $1k without camera (I'll be packing a dslr anyway) too unrealistic? pumped up for school fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Oct 20, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2021 00:39
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https://twitter.com/JohnBarentine/status/1451584939229519873 Statistical study of brightness distributions of megaconstellation satellites. Since the twitter embed cuts off the table image: Starlink: Mean Vmag 7.0, ranging from 5 - 9 Visored Starlink: Vmag 8.0, ranging from 6 - 10 OneWeb: Vmag 9.1, ranging from 7 - 11 OneWeb looks like the winner when it comes to minimizing astronomical impacts, at least with naked-eye observing. On the other hand, they're also at higher altitude so they're illuminated for longer.
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Oct 22, 2021 18:51
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Luneshot posted:https://twitter.com/JohnBarentine/status/1451584939229519873 I still am floored when I start to think about this subject, and it pisses me off each and every time.
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Oct 27, 2021 18:00
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The Rockland Astronomy Club just announced that NEAF will return live to RCC (Rockland Community College) this coming April 9th and 10th, 2022! NEAF is short for the Northeast Astronomy Forum and Space Expo. NEAF has had cool guys show up as guests like Alan Stern (of New Horizons fame) and Neal DeGrasse-Tyson.. this year they have Eileen Collins, former Space Shuttle Commander and Gerry Griffin, one of NASA's flight directors during the Apollo missions. I like going because sometimes I can get great deals in the dealers room and Canon usually shows up, sometimes with some neat new toys.
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Nov 1, 2021 19:35
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Is it worth it to do the hot mirror replacement to convert a first generation Canon 5D to full spectrum for astrophotography or should I be looking at a dedicated camera to mount to a telescope? For the sake of convenience, 90% of what I shoot will probably just be some kind of digital camera hanging off the back of a Meade ETX 90, although I've been making some progress on fixing up a bigger scope and definitely want to shoot some film with a few older cameras to see what I can do.
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Nov 2, 2021 06:58
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I didn't know this thread existed. I took up astrophotography late last year after finding I had a lot more money from giving up drinking. Now I don't have a lot of money, being an alcoholic is cheaper I think. Anyway I'm currently running a 250 x 1200 saxon newton, QHY294c , belt modded heq6 pro and a 80 x 400 achromatic frac with an ZWO asi120mm for a guider. here's some images of mine: CED 129- 44 x 10min at 1600 gain  Antennae galaxies- 21 x 10min at 1600 gain  Robins egg nebula- Ha 8 x 20min at 200 gain, Oiii 6 x 20min at 2000 gain, broadband 6 x 10min at 1600 gain  NGC 1365- 58 x 5min at 1600 gain  Prawn nebula- 2 panel mosaic (both panels have same sub quantities) Ha 12 x 20min at 2500 gain, Oiii 10 x 20min at 2500 gain, Sii 16 x 10min at 2000 gain  Sculptor galaxy- 88 x 5min at 1600 gain 
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Nov 4, 2021 05:15
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 Not space but I felt like it had nebula vibes
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Nov 4, 2021 18:16
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pointsofdata posted:
that's the only kind of nebula I've been seeing for the last 2 loving months 
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Nov 4, 2021 20:20
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Clouds.. the eternal enemy (of astronomers)
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Nov 4, 2021 22:50
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Yeah, seriously. How dare you come in here posting that.
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Nov 4, 2021 22:52
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Amazing Zimmo posted:I didn't know this thread existed. Nice shots dude! I gave up hunting and spent far more on all of my astro gear. So I feel you.
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Nov 4, 2021 23:52
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https://www.qhyccd.com/polemaster/ What say yunz? Hooked up to a raspberry pi with a tiny screen would IMHO make set up a breeze. (Until I get around to building a perma pillar mount) Hasselblad fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Nov 5, 2021 |
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Nov 5, 2021 01:21
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Hasselblad posted:https://www.qhyccd.com/polemaster/ I'm using Sharpcap ($15 / yr) and the guide scope. Takes about 20 seconds. NINA also has a 3 star polar alignment routine but I haven't tested it out. Cuiv seemed to like it. Polemaster looks neat, but I think Sharpcap has it covered without adding additional hardware. But yah, a tiny screen would be great, I have to lug my laptop out for that 20 seconds.
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Nov 5, 2021 01:38
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Yooper posted:I'm using Sharpcap ($15 / yr) and the guide scope. Takes about 20 seconds. NINA also has a 3 star polar alignment routine but I haven't tested it out. Cuiv seemed to like it. Polemaster looks neat, but I think Sharpcap has it covered without adding additional hardware. Sharpcap is the way to go. The polar alignment is all I use it for and that alone is worth the pittance per year. For all my imaging I use NINA as it truly has everything from framing a shot to running observatory doors if you have them. My poor laptop spends the nights outside with my rig, I automate all the sequencing. If I wake up through the night then I log into it via remote desktop on my phone while staying comfortable in bed, just to make sure everything is sweet.
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Nov 5, 2021 02:43
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I was using Sharpcap for polar alignment, but I switched to the NINA nightlies with the alignment plugin. The 3 point polar alignment plugin does a really great job. The only caveat is that you pretty much have to use ASTAP for plate solving. It's the only supported solver that's fast enough to make it useful. I shoot 1s subs through my luminance filter and I can pretty much align in real time. The way the 3 point polar alignment plugin works is that it just takes and solves 3 pictures and calculates a circle. Then you adjust to make that calculated circle be concentric with the celestial pole. This means that you can use it even if you don't have a view of the celestial pole. The closer you are to the celestial pole, the more accurate things will be as the error on the calculated circle can be larger the farther you are from the pole. Also, it expects your mount to be tracking, so if you're way off on your initial alignment, the tracking error will manifest in the adjustments. Usually this doesn't matter as the error introduced is relatively small as long as you're somewhat quick in getting aligned. Worst case, just run it again if it'll make you feel better. Also, if you're guiding at wide to modest focal lengths, then perfect alignment is definitely not required (like a couple arc minutes would definitely be fine).
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Nov 5, 2021 05:09
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Any of you folks use binoviewers? I'm more into visual viewing and use an Orion xx16g Dobsonian. I was thinking about adding the Orion Premium Linear BinoViewer or one of its cheaper clones since they are suppose to work nicely with newtonians without needing additional backfocus and extenders. I'm hoping this is correct. Also I do have a number of 1.25" eyepieces and would just need to get a few dups of what I already have. I was thinking of getting dups of the Baader Morpheus 9mm & 17.5mm. Prices just increased on them in the U.S. to $299, but probably should be able to get them cheaper from Teleskop-Express in Germany. I would also like to get some in a lower power. The ES 24mm 68 degree eyepieces would probably be ideal, but they really increased in price this year unless I snag a pair off of AliExpress. I've ordered from a few astro vendors there before - no issues, but supply is drying up quick. Other option is get a dup of the Celestron Ultima Edge 24mm flat field. It's pretty much the same as the APM 24mm UFF or the one from SvBony. Any other good options?
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Nov 5, 2021 14:21
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Looking for some advice. I've got a Vixen VMC95L I got for free out of my friend's closet. Its been a great tool for learning the basics, and it's got a nice 90 degree flip mirror so you can look down an eyepiece and have a camera set up to take (mostly bad) shots without swapping gear. Problem is the included tripod (Vixen Mini Porta) is a piece of junk, and I snapped one of the plastic supports trying to remove the accessory tray. To my untrained eye the scope is still in pretty good shape, but it seems like most half-decent tripod mounts cost more than the total for this scope + tripod. If you had ~$600 to spend, would you upgrade the mount, or just get a new scope + mount combo altogether? How about at ~$1000? Obviously not gonna get anything super well-equipped for astrophotography at either price point, but I do like the option of doing some un-tracked photos.
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Nov 6, 2021 02:15
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simble posted:For visual, if you can find them, grab a couple of the GSO eyepieces from Agena Astro. They are amazing for the price. The GSO superview 20mm and 15mm paired with a 2x barlow gives you basically all you'd need for some casual observing of planets and some DSO. And, I think you could get all 3 for ~$100-$150. They are miles better than the 2 included eyepieces. I can't find these anywhere. Looking for 1.25in to fit my simple ST80. Any other suggestions for bang for buck eyepieces? And for anyone looking for stray items: Svbony is running 20% off on eBay w/free shipping I think through the weekend. Yesterday I saw conflicting end dates (saw both 9 hours and Nov 8th). 18 Dummy Juice posted:If you had ~$600 to spend, would you upgrade the mount, or just get a new scope + mount combo altogether? How about at ~$1000? Obviously not gonna get anything super well-equipped for astrophotography at either price point, but I do like the option of doing some un-tracked photos. For baby's first try, I bought a like new Star Adventurer 2 for $300 and a KF concepts photo tripod (20# payload cap) for $50. You've got more focal length but I bet similar weight as my st80. The SA counterweight is kind of a joke. I know the ioptron offering sells extension bars and addl counterweights. But I'm pretty sure mine will end up a dslr rig so nbd. pumped up for school fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Nov 6, 2021 |
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Nov 6, 2021 17:40
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pumped up for school posted:I can't find these anywhere. Looking for 1.25in to fit my simple ST80. Any other suggestions for bang for buck eyepieces? These are also good bang for the buck: https://agenaastro.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=starguider%20dual%20ed Same, but in Astro-Tech livery: https://www.astronomics.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Paradigm+dual+Ed duodenum fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Nov 7, 2021 |
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Nov 7, 2021 14:33
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 Pacman Nebula! Four hours of 180s subs during the New Moon. Really happy with this one, you can even see the IFN patches around the nebula. I did California Nebula too, but still working on that one. It's big, so I really need another night to stitch each side together.
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Nov 8, 2021 00:37
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Even in the summer my finders would fog up after ~1 hour. Telrad is practically unusable most nights. I was thinking what would be an effective way of defogging in the field. A hair dryer? It's really the finder that's the problem and eyepieces, but those can be preserved by rotating them and keeping them in your pocket.
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Nov 9, 2021 10:39
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Leaf Lock posted:Even in the summer my finders would fog up after ~1 hour. Telrad is practically unusable most nights. I was thinking what would be an effective way of defogging in the field. A hair dryer? It's really the finder that's the problem and eyepieces, but those can be preserved by rotating them and keeping them in your pocket. A quick google shows that AstroZap makes a dew heater for Telrads. https://www.highpointscientific.com/astrozap-dew-heater-band-for-telrad-az-721
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Nov 9, 2021 17:08
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simble posted:A quick google shows that AstroZap makes a dew heater for Telrads. Or you could do what I do and get an AstroSystems Telrad dew shield and stuff a hand warmer inside when you're not looking through it. Cheaper, equally effective. Dew heater strips don't function alone and require a controller and power supply. Cost really adds up and if you're only trying to warm a finder it's turbo overkill.
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Nov 9, 2021 18:18
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duodenum posted:These are also good bang for the buck: This is perfect, thank you.
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Nov 12, 2021 04:13
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So I recently got an iPhone 13 Pro and decided to try out ProRAW shooting with 30 second Night Mode on a tripod. A waxing gibbous moon was rising in the other side of the sky. This was in light polluted Colorado springs, and the milky way was NOT visible to the eye. Nonetheless I pointed where I knew the milky way to be, exposed for thirty seconds, and decided to see how much data I could pull out in Lightroom. And, uh... Jeezus Christ! https://imgur.com/a/nD2S1Kj Here's another shot, taken at new moon. https://imgur.com/a/BD8IOhG Not too shabby, and I still don't really know jack about post processing RAW. Nonetheless, slight star trailing kinda bothers me. So I decided to build a barn door tracker. Still need to attach a ball head mount to the top board, but here it is. https://imgur.com/a/3YcIDcw It attaches to my PST mount and will use a basic RDF for polar alignment. The crank wheel turns 15 degrees every 2.5 seconds for sidereal rate. I'm gonna try stacking multiple tracked thirty second exposures and see just how stupidly far I can take iPhone astrophotography. I'll be taking this out under Bortle 2 skies eventually. I'll post the results.
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Nov 18, 2021 03:55
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Well I guess I'm picking up an old Ha-modded t2i for cheap. Other than the fact that I own Canon nothing, what do I need to know having never shot with filters removed? For now I'm just going to order a T ring and shoot it with the opt 180 f/4.5 I got last month.
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Nov 23, 2021 22:37
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Anyone get any lunar eclipse shots? I took a bunch, with both of my scopes (80mm refractor, C8), going to try and do some timelapse stuff. Preview for now though. Hasselblad posted:https://www.qhyccd.com/polemaster/ I have one and I like it a lot. I use it with a laptop or my observatory computer though. Sharpcap is a perfectly fine alternative though, although I haven't done polar alignment with it myself (I guess I should give it a shot, I like Sharpcap for a lot of other reasons... I use it for plate-solving) Yooper posted:I've been collecting M42 the past few days, about 45 minutes of total integration to get this : This is an amazing shot, you're right about your dark nebulosity there. AstroZamboni posted:So I recently got an iPhone 13 Pro and decided to try out ProRAW shooting with 30 second Night Mode on a tripod. A waxing gibbous moon was rising in the other side of the sky. This was in light polluted Colorado springs, and the milky way was NOT visible to the eye. Nonetheless I pointed where I knew the milky way to be, exposed for thirty seconds, and decided to see how much data I could pull out in Lightroom. The dynamic range on newer iPhone sensors is pretty wild. I was never able to do anything like this with older ones (this is with an iPhone 11) 
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Nov 23, 2021 22:55
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B&H has a used 6" dob up for $180 and free shipping. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/802408526-USE/sky_watcher_s11600_old_6_f_8_traditional_dobsonian.html
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Nov 24, 2021 14:57
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hannibal posted:
I'll be clamping my D700 onto my refractor if my field flattener ever arrives, and I believe SLRs are not on the list of usable cameras
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Nov 25, 2021 01:18
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Hasselblad posted:I'll be clamping my D700 onto my refractor if my field flattener ever arrives, and I believe SLRs are not on the list of usable cameras If it handles ASCOM drivers (and it claims to) you should be able to get a DSLR working with it.
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Nov 25, 2021 03:21
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After getting really tired of basically laying on my back to look through the finder scope of my dob, I've decided I probably don't need to see M31 right now anyway.
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Nov 25, 2021 04:02
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That Rokinon / Samyang lens suggested in this thread several times, and I've since seen is extremely popular for dslr astro-shooters, is on sale for BF, Amazon. This sale isn't the lowest prices per camelcamelcamel, but I couldn't find one on mpb or keh this week for the Fujifilm mount. If anyone had them on a wish list, worth checking it out. I picked up the Samyang version for $382, Fuji X mount (it was $450 ish yesterday). The Rokinon version of same today is on sale for $424, so if you are looking to buy, I'd search both versions out because different name badges are cheaper per mount. Cheapest appears to be the m4/3 mount.
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Nov 26, 2021 04:41
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Phanatic posted:If it handles ASCOM drivers (and it claims to) you should be able to get a DSLR working with it. Just did some light googling, and it appears that it does not play all that nicely with Nikons.
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Nov 26, 2021 16:44
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