Dobsonian Astrophotography

[stark gorge]

Die

[dapper plover]

XDDDDD

[stark gorge]

Bogan

1000 messages

@dapper plover I got it

[dapper plover]

Alr hehe fair enough

[stark gorge]

Lmao

[stark gorge]

You gonna shoot sculptor soon?

[wraith adder]

what happem

oh

that

[dapper plover]

Uuuuh if it's clear, then yes

It has been cloudy for the last 3 months

[gentle shard]

https://discord.com/channels/794642864218439681/1021410258985435147

if anyone could process this for me <333

there are stacked and unstacked files, though i can't get all vids into one stack due to being on mac

[dapper plover]

Sure

Ohno it's planetary, idk how to process planetary haha

I could try tho

[gentle shard]

Thanks xD

[gentle shard]

hahahah, planetary is soo hard

[dapper plover]

Im building an Onstep goto for my 8 inch dob

but for me its like learning chinese language.

[mossy glen]

Awesome!

[native ermine]

Yoooo you are nerd let's goo

[mossy glen]

Ohhhh

Yess

[gusty holly]

Testing sat tracker 😉

[high hamlet]

That’s super cool

[gusty holly]

I know right! I'm super stoked to finally get it working

Might try it out tonight, seeing won't be very good but at least tracking will lol

[high hamlet]

You should try visual ISS, I haven’t done it personally but I’ve heard it’s amazing

[gusty holly]

that sounds intriguing, definitely something I'd do

[rigid stratus]

It’s best visual target for sure

From experience

[supple rover]

What can you do with 30 minutes data? Process it.

[meager temple]

what target is that?

[rigid stratus]

Single stack Mars from just now at only 25deg alt. High cloud came in so this was the last capture of the session. Quite noisy ik but derotation will deal with that.

[supple rover]

M81

[meager temple]

thanks

[lime glen]

wow. what size dob?

i feel I asked this before

[thin fern]

he got 16"

[high hamlet]

Neptune

[mossy glen]

I've already done it (with no tracking lmao, it was a pain) and I was so happy cause I managed to see the solar panels shape

[wraith adder]

oh my

[burnt hedge]

Pfffft… whatever… it’s not like it’s 127.61 million km’s away or anything!!

[dapper plover]

Hopefully at Christmas I’ll get a dob

[subtle garden]

but its smol

[burnt hedge]

I was being sarcastic. I think it’s an incredible shot!

[subtle garden]

:D

[hidden berry]

I wonder if there’s a way to do sat tracking with a non skywatcher goto dob e.g an onstep converted one

[lime glen]

Ok so, Telrad or Rigel QuikFinder? Or something else? Is there one like these with a right angle option so I don't have to bend down weirdly on my 8" Dob?

[subtle garden]

right-angled finderscope?

[lime glen]

maybe but I like a 1:1 ideally mostly just to quickly find planets

[subtle garden]

DIY one then

PVC Pipe + right angle with plane mirror + PVC Pipe

[lime glen]

I'm extremely not DIY, like literally I can't lol

Hashtag eyeroll

[fickle shore]

Lmao ‘now only’

[subtle garden]

its eez

tho

[lime glen]

well, I got this for now https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0140UA2OY?psc=1&smid=A35QEQK7X2VZX7&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

basically that red dot finder (but can also do day time with green) with a base for for astro

we'll see how it goes

I had a telrad before, and it works good, but it's so clunky and big and plasticky and I don't want to pay $50 for it

Other question, for planetary, do you bother with using a coma corrector or is it not necessary because you'll crop to a tiny FOV anyway?

[gusty holly]

I wouldn't think so because of such a tight fov like you said. And it's just another obstruction for light to pass through. Perhaps if you're doing a wide shot with all the moons of Jupiter or something, might be useful.

You should experiment, sounds interesting

[lime glen]

yeah, I'll try with and without

[gusty holly]

Also, 1:1 red dot might be decent if you're working with a short FL but you probably would be better off with a 6x30 or something if you're working at 2000mm+

Easier to get it in the fov

[gusty holly]

Probably, it seems like it's pretty versatile. Just need to have the right drivers installed

[hidden berry]

Ah I thought it was only for syscan mounts? but im not 100%

[gusty holly]

Me either, but I know that it uses ascom so perhaps your mount will be compatible with it

[hidden berry]

possiblly

ill test it out once ive got my dob and onstep converted it

[rigid stratus]

Good seeing at 20deg on the UK south coast this evening

Ganymede transit later, although high fog risk

[lime glen]

yeah, I have a finder scope that I can use, it's... I actually don't know what it is gonna find out

[lime glen]

6x30 🙂

[native ermine]

Lucky for clear skies lol midlands not doing well lol

[lime glen]

yay

[sour anchor]

#1021521271617491064

[rigid stratus]

Dead chat

Also couldn’t see it on the list for some reason

[sour anchor]

ping you there

[fickle shore]

Special texas order?

[rigid stratus]

Apparently

[fickle shore]

hot damn

[thin marten]

this reminds me of a question, which would be better, low on the horizon but good seeing, or high but bad seeing

[thin fern]

High

Cuz I can it kinda close to zenith and I always have bad seeing and turns out quite nice

[vestal kayak]

whoa how big is that scope

oh

good seeing

[cold sand]

always cloudy here

And im not even in the north

Always high cb

Literally overcast at 7-10k today and kast night

Which is a big shame

Espc the fact the humidity is so low and so is the dp

[thin marten]

Tom has 16 inch I think

[wraith adder]

@thin fern so apparently you B1 people can see mag7.5 and below with your eye

[lime glen]

In B1 the Milky Way casts a visible shadow on objects, which is sort of weird if you've not seen that before

[fickle shore]

Bruh

[sour anchor]

I'm in B4 in my city, I just travel 2km and I go to B2

I've seen the M8 and M20 very weak to the naked eye

[gusty holly]

I'm in B5 and I've seen hints of spiral arms of m51

[cold sand]

not really much here with naked eye
orion looks like a little spludged star
cant really recall on anything else apart from mw as my eyesight is awful

i look more in the telescope at the target, than at the target without a telescope

think you guys are operrating it wrong

[gusty holly]

M17 and m27 through 18mm eyepiece and handheld phone, 2 second exposure

@cold sand

[cold sand]

hi

[dapper plover]

Are you sure that's M8? It doesn't look like it, it looks like and the stars match to m17

It looks like a little swan, hence the name swan nebula

[gusty holly]

You're right my mistake, M17.

[thin fern]

But my eyes are pretty bad think the faintest thing with my unaided eye was k2 panstarrs but I’m not sure I def saw the prawn and eagle nebula tho

[hard vapor]

greetings, I just found my favorite new channel

researching EQ platforms - looks like TomO or Geoptik out of DE.

[wraith adder]

lucky

[thin marten]

That's walking distance

[viscid pagoda]

very lucky, Im in b9 and drive 500 - 2000 km to b2

[cold gyro]

same

[solar fiber]

excuse me "drive 500-2000kms" for b2 ? WTF

[viscid pagoda]

its china :)

[solar fiber]

even if its 500 kms , its like 7-8 hrs drive

[thin fern]

500km should be 5hrs

[solar fiber]

nah , india and china are diff

idk about china , but it does take 6-7 hrs here

[thin fern]

Damn ur traffic is slow

[feral ice]

Do you know about TEPP equatorial platform ?

[hard vapor]

No but I’ll check it out today.

[wraith adder]

i gotta drive ~100km for B1 from B7

[thin fern]

Probably worth it

[dapper plover]

There are any ligh pollution filter wich is working?

on LED lights

[lime glen]

if it's white LED light, there is no filter that works as it's basically full spectrum. remove gradients in post processing or better yet move site.

[rigid stratus]

Yeah the dust cap

[thin marten]

About 150-200km for b2 from b7

[subtle garden]

theres a famous traffic signal in bangalore called silk board junction, the first traffic junction in Bangalore. It's infamous cuz, at peak hours, traffic moves at like 1 cm/hour, no joke.

[hidden berry]

Air rifle

A tight narrowband filter will cut out a lot but there’s nothing that will cut it out 100%

[dapper plover]

This is what I could make of the 1 min. of data that I got last night, it's not a lot but I think it's quite promising. 120x 1/2sec. no calibration frames untracked at ISO 2000 (Nikon D5300)

[dapper plover]

is that a tracked dob? and what settings did you use? that's incredible

and just 30 minutes as well

[supple rover]

10" Newtonian on an EQ mount

[dapper plover]

oh what I've been bamboozled

[mental schooner]

I got like 80 from B3 to B2/1

[wraith adder]

[dapper plover]

[austere cave]

try 209km

fml

[mental schooner]

i'm surrounded by B4

lot of B4 here

[cold sand]

here it is just b4

[red light]

For my 8" dob, would a $165 ASI224MC or a $120 QHY5III 224C Camera be a better deal? Looking to do planetary imaging but open to deep sky as well. Both cameras are used, and I am a beginner astrophotographer.

[cold sand]

@rigid stratus would it be best to expose for saturn when shooting the iss

[rigid stratus]

No lol

More like Venus

[cold sand]

ouch thats annoying as venus isnt out at 8pm (unless the earth really messes up)
only logical thing i can think of is to go for jupiter and expose until it only becomes barely visiblw

[rigid stratus]

Yeah

That’ll do a decent job

[cold sand]

dont want to overexpose as well, yeah

would you expect anything decent though, crop is about the same as the 462 on the same rig but at 600kpx

[thin fern]

shitty seeing but 70deg alt

[thin marten]

Saturn only rises to like 30 degrees where I am

Jupiter peak at 45

[thin fern]

pog -36 latitude

[gusty holly]

Near perfect seeing today, shot almost 500gb

[high hamlet]

Hyped to see what you get

[gusty holly]

Me too 🙂

Might take some time. I'm tired lol

[high hamlet]

Looks good, could I get a sample of the seeing

[thin fern]

wdym ?

[high hamlet]

Like a portion of the video

Just like a 5s clip

[thin fern]

idk how to crop them im dumb

i can stream some of the vids if u want 😄

[high hamlet]

I normally just screen record with OBS for stuff like that lol

[thin fern]

i can stream some if u want

[high hamlet]

Can’t atm, but maybe soon

[thin fern]

k

[cold sand]

@rigid stratus after alignment does previsat unlock the tracking feature?

[rigid stratus]

u wot

no idea what you mean by that

[cold sand]

previsat

the tracking thing

just dont know what to expose for, what do you usually try when you started out?
i think the best thing to do would be to send the scope on its way, wait for it to appear in the view and adjust the settings then video

[rigid stratus]

Idk I just guessed then refined it

yeah that works but not sure if it’s too much to do

All at once

[cold sand]

aghh i cant decide if i should go ahead and do it visually or try image it @rigid stratus

would it be worth viewing stopped down n stuff with the tube cover hole off

now i gotta download netcore
bruh

[gusty holly]

Snapped a photo of Orion with my phone on night mode while viewing it earlier today, and surprisingly it had much less star trails then expected

[lime glen]

whaaaa

[red light]

iPhone?

[thin marten]

is this stacked

[cinder flower]

With a phone????

[gusty holly]

Samsung s20fe on night mode

[gusty holly]

No, just a single

[topaz coral]

Some ok seeing lastnight fixing my secondary mirror today it had some divots from when i was an idiot and used to overtighten screws now I know better

[topaz coral]

Isnt fog good for planets in the uk thought i heard peach say that

[static sierra]

photo night modes on phones take many short images and stack them, so yeah it's automatically stacked by the phone

[burnt hedge]

I think he was referring to the fact that wind and fog don’t exist at the same time. So if it’s foggy, it’s at least not windy.

[rigid stratus]

Yes but doesn’t help if I can’t see anything

[viscid pagoda]

^^

[burnt hedge]

This is awesome, btw.

[gusty holly]

Andromeda, messing around before sunrise using night mode with my phone held up to the eyepiece for 5 seconds. It's pretty dim so I had to boost exposure a bit, but a dust lane is visible

[dapper plover]

~1000x 0.5s exposure, only green channel because the r/b channels don't have any usable data. ISO8000, Skywatcher Classic 200P, Nikon D5300. stacked in 8 batches of 108 (Siril) , then stacked the final 8 together with 1 earlier stacked file (DSS). processed in Siril and Gimp

[native ermine]

Wow
The magic of subs lol

[lime glen]

did you toss bad subs?

[dapper plover]

Nope not yet but I could do that, it just takes loads of time

[mossy glen]

My father's F2 lense+Uranus C (that I'll buy "soon")

And I could put this on the eq platform that I'm about to build

[stark gorge]

That should be a great setup. I want to buy a Uranus C myself

[thin marten]

Oo horsehead and orion mosaic?

[wraith adder]

dob AP dead

[stark gorge]

sadge

[fickle shore]

REVIVE

https://tenor.com/view/revive-un-dies-revives-back-to-life-resurrect-gif-21804877

[mossy glen]

Yeah, I personally dont have my dob for 3 weeks and there's a lot of clouds over France so...

[thin marten]

Clouds are finally clearing for 2 days

So I'll do dob ap

[gusty holly]

It's not dead, just waiting for galaxies 😉

These were shot with phone and eyepiece

[stark gorge]

nice

[dapper plover]

Clouds are over my home since 7 days and aren‘t clearing for 4 more days….

[subtle garden]

[thin marten]

Dob astro

[dapper plover]

Jupiter with an 8 inch dob, with zwo 224mc and a 2.25x dob. Man this is hard to track manually, but the result is quite good for the money I paid for the equipment

[dapper plover]

Wow

Thats better than mine!

Because you used a ZWO color cam

Lol im screwed with my dslr

[thin fern]

U can get close to thst kinda with a dslr

Also he could be more experienced and had better seeing then u

[stark gorge]

Get a IMX290 module. $40

Same scope but dslr vs the IMX290

[thin marten]

where

please send a link

[stark gorge]

Look for the open Astro guider parts list. It’s on AliExpress

[thin marten]

Had a great night of images

[supple rover]

night is young yet

[old nymph]

hey dobsonian use help me am building Newtonian my first telescope but i cannot figure out the angle of the secondary mirror
some internet article say it should be 45 degree some say it should be 32,35 degree what should i do ??

[wraith adder]

It should be 45 degrees

[old nymph]

thanks bud

[dapper plover]

45° Because then, the light will be reflected in a 90 degree angle, going straight to the focusing tube and the the eyepiece, which should in theory be straight up fron the secondary. If it was in a 32,35° angle, the light would be reflected in a 64.7° angle, so then both the tube and the eyepiece would have to be angled in that same one, which would be super hard to get right. So the right answer is, yes 45 degrees :)

[old nymph]

yeah thats what i was thing thanks bro

[dapper plover]

Sure np

If you need any help with anything, you can always contact me or smth, I will be willing to help :)

[dapper plover]

Also ur building a newt? :0 That's awesome! What's the aperture and fl?

[old nymph]

bro its small first i want to try then move one to large one

its 76mm primary and 25 mm secondary

[dapper plover]

Nice! What will the fl be?

[old nymph]

its 500 mm

first i need to figure out how and what angle things will work out for me the am going for 8'' 750 mm

[subtle garden]

F/3.75

good luck trying to chop the focuser tube

[old nymph]

actually there is something i dont know how to hold secondary mirror in place you guys got any idea i mean i made primary cell to hold my main mirror

[dapper plover]

Yeah, use spider vanes, 4 should be good, to hold it in the center

[old nymph]

i dont think so i need to chopp it i'll move the main mirror little forward that will do

[dapper plover]

And you will need to put a secondary mirror cell in the middle

[old nymph]

no i want to make it my self i dont wanna puchase spider

[subtle garden]

spider veins. do 3 veins at 120degree angle. Very cool star spikes

[old nymph]

in the middle ?? idk what u sying

[dapper plover]

It's hard, you'll need to center them right in the middle

[subtle garden]

no like you gotta chop the part of the focuser that is inside the tube or else it'll cause weird star spike thingies.

[dapper plover]

Try to recreate this

[subtle garden]

like smack in the middle of the primary atop it.

[old nymph]

ya i'll do that alignment isnt problem

[old nymph]

oh okay got yo

[dapper plover]

I have 3 of them

[subtle garden]

or you can get commercial secondary mirror holders for different appertures like 6", 8" and so on.

imposter

now get 990mm pro

[dapper plover]

My spikes:

[old nymph]

bro can you provide links for product

[old nymph]

damn

[static crypt]

How do you like not have star trails

Do you just push the scope along

Manual tracking

[dapper plover]

All night long

[dapper plover]

0.7s subs go brrrr

Æ

[dapper plover]

Damn, I might wanna re edit

[old nymph]

bro stars are outafocus

[static crypt]

(All night)

[dapper plover]

I know haha

It was kind

Bc I noticed after the whole shooting and stuff

[old nymph]

why is that is to to hard to focus on reflactor

[dapper plover]

Nope, it's bc I'm stoopid and didn't properly completely center the spikes of the bahtinov mask

[old nymph]

bro ahh haha 🤣 🤣

damn bro you so hard on yourself

🤣 lol

[dapper plover]

[dapper plover]

I didn't completely focus when I starhopped and forgot to refocus when actually shooting the target

Me is extremely stoopid

[old nymph]

🤣

ya alright its good bruh

bruh we all stupid i mean look at this doing astrophotography in light pollution

[thin marten]

genius

I shot the ISS sadly it was slightly out of focus..

Anyone have tips to get good focus? I try to focus on a planet or a star first but its shaking so hard to tell if its focused

[dapper plover]

Bahtinov mask

[thin marten]

where do i get one of those

[dapper plover]

You can make one by yourself with 3d printing, although if you don't have one available by any means, you could make one out of cardboard

There's a tool to make them, you just put in the aperture, the focal length and the opening length, and it will make one for you

[dapper plover]

I mean like a template for it

And then you carefully cut it out of cardboard, and yep

[thin marten]

Can you send it to me

[dapper plover]

how many subs is that?

[thin marten]

standing here I realize that i was out of focus last night

welcome back to another episode of my dumb file names, I named my latest saturn Samsung and my latest jupiter Soupiter

[static crypt]

Standing here I realise

https://tenor.com/view/metal-gear-raiden-senator-armstrong-moneyintr-gif-15988527

[thin marten]

How do I get focus without a Baltimore mask?

Bahtinov

[cold sand]

twist until its smallest or if its sso until its sharpest

[thin marten]

k

[gusty holly]

Find a bright star, turn down the exposure to somewhere around 50ms. Then play with focus so the star is as tight as possible

[dapper plover]

an update on the m31 with a dobsonian project, this time in colour with about 820 more subs, so that's about a 100% improvement on the exposure time from the last image, which makes the total integration time 13 minutes and 54 seconds with somewhere around 1700 subs. (subs are 1/2 second, ISO 10000, scope is 1200mm in focal length and 200mm in diameter, f/6)
I left the image starless this time

[thin marten]

Wow

Untracked?

[dapper plover]

yes

[subtle garden]

ISO 10000

[stark gorge]

High iso for stars. Also the lower noise is nice for DSS

[subtle garden]

how lower noise at high ISO?

[stark gorge]

Most cameras have a lower noise at higher ISOs. Canon and Nikon DSLRs do

Probably all other dslrs too

You drop dynamic range with a higher iso though

[subtle garden]

but whats all that random colour splotches then?

noise right?

[stark gorge]

Noise

[subtle garden]

but I notice higher noise at higher ISO....

[stark gorge]

What camera?

[stark gorge]

When you substitute exposure time for ISO you have issues. You should always increase exposure not iso if you are underexposed

[subtle garden]

ok

[cold sand]

i believe in the utter nutshell
if you stretch a lower iso image of the same subject compared to a higher iso one of the same subject
the lower iso one will have more noise
someone had an example of this

[subtle garden]

oh

same exposure?

[lime glen]

My Nikon D750 is ISO invariant, so it's not true for all DSLRs

[topaz coral]

@dapper plover what is this monstrosity

Why is the spider all one piece and connected to that ring im so confused

Y 3m tape

[dapper plover]

Wut?

Ooh, you mean the thing I posted earlier?

Yeah, I was just explaining how the secondary is mounted

Like not in a way of saying this is how it NEEDS TO be mounted, but more like in a way of explaining the basic concept behind

I do understand that was a bad example I gave

(3M tape )

But like I didn't have much time to search for something better lmao

[dapper plover]

This was made with a nikon d5300 which is also iso invariant I believe

I just used the high ISO so that Siril would pickup the stars better for stacking

[supple rover]

my spider is all one piece. makes adjusting the 2ndary a breeze. 0 flex

[thin fern]

This channel is now ded thst our leader has turned to the dark side

[static crypt]

The dark side…

10” newt < dob

[supple rover]

A telescope is less than a mount?

[wraith adder]

well no

Doesn’t stop me from lucky imaging

[static crypt]

Mounts are expensive

[thin fern]

What scope isn’t ?

The mount is normally atleast 2x the price of the scope

[supple rover]

Does the Newtonian that sits in a dobsonian mount cost more or less?

[subtle garden]

more ofc

[red light]

ive got an 8" dob, what would prevent me from being able to stick it on an eq mount so that i could do AP 😂

[wraith adder]

nothing would.

a HEQ5 or NEQ5 would work

just need 200mm tube rings and a 30cm dovetail

[red light]

Oh good to know

I didn’t know it was actually possible

Right now though I’m trying to figure out smartphone AP with my phone adapter, and a deal on a QHY/ZWO 224 camera

[subtle garden]

or AVX

[wraith adder]

[subtle garden]

(don't)

[subtle garden]

well your budget ig

[crisp hatch]

At my uni i run the astro club and found out the uni actually has a 16 inch dob they havent touched in a decade

[dapper plover]

That sounds really interesting

[cold sand]

weve got a 10" newt thats most likely not been used in ages
unsure about the mount but id estimate it to be a 1.8m

is a shame really

[supple rover]

love my 10" newt. I want another

[lime glen]

build yourself some reverse binoculars

[supple rover]

I dont want to build reverse binos

[rough river]

For the people who want to see what dobs are really capable off..
Check
György Farkasréti
on youtube he does stunning pics with a skywatcher 20inch dob and another 16 inch one

[limber vale]

Sooo potentially jumping the gun here out of a hint of excitement. If I wanted to do planetary ap untracked using my dob and a dslr, do you guys have reccomendations on a good intervalometer?

[wraith adder]

@thin fern you've got one of those right?

[thin fern]

Intervalometer for planetary??

[wraith adder]

oh

@limber vale you don't need an intervalometer for planetary

you're meant to record a video of the planet

[limber vale]

oh! hm okay. So record video, put through software. throw away worst ones, keep best, proceed from there.

figured i may as well try my hand at AP give all this talk of EQ mounts earlier

[thin marten]

u dont need to be tracked for planetary

[limber vale]

Oh yea I know I can manually track planetary.

Did some seeing of Jupiter at Oppostion on a beautifully clear night for a few hours. Which was a great proof of concept. Im just sad I couldn't take pictures.

[thin marten]

It's fine Jupiter is still super close theres not gonna be any observable difference

[limber vale]

Oh good I may be able to redeem hopefully! I won't get my dob until the 20th though

[cold sand]

debatable

not all cameras dont support 1:1 video, so imaging would be recommended if it cant do that
assuming you want the best resolution and quality

if you own a canon consult here
https://www.astropix.com/html/equipment/canon_one_to_one_pixel_resolution.html

[viscid pagoda]

^^ Before when I used my sony mirrorless it was so shit because I didn't know it compressed and resized down the video

rather take single subs to stack

[cold sand]

and also that

eosmovrec (which "unlocks" 1:1 recording) does shoot avi

rather than mov or whatever it is for canon

plus also video on the earlier canons are point and shoot

assuming you dont have magiclantern

[mossy glen]

First astro night since more than a month!

I'll just take a few pics of jupiter and saturn

[mossy glen]

nvm the conditions are terribly terrible

Look at that sht

[fickle shore]

Revive

[red light]

when my camera arrives and the post-camera clouds clear up ill revive it 😂

[dapper plover]

I still need to stack 1800 frames but it takes really long

[wraith adder]

get a dob

[thin marten]

@everyon e buy a dob

[rough river]

pogsonian

[solar fiber]

dawg i use a phone

[dapper plover]

I’m thinking about buying one atm. First telescope I’ve ever bought.

[wraith adder]

Dobs are great man.

[stark gorge]

fr

10/10

[dapper plover]

Is it possible to get one that can track an object by choice?

[wraith adder]

Yes

Like the Skywatcher FlexTube 200P SynScan

It's Go-To and tracking

It comes in the 8", 10", 12", 14", 16", 18", and 20".

[dapper plover]

@wraith adder thanks! Sounds good. It’s quite a bit more expensive then the dob I originally wanted to go with, but my budget allows it

@wraith adder I know nobody recommends it, but is it possible to do a tiny bit of AP with such a scope too?

[wraith adder]

Ofc

This Dob AP forum speaks all about it

[dapper plover]

I see, but with longer exposure only possible with a scope that allows tracking I guess?

[wraith adder]

Well..you're limited with alt az tracking.

[dapper plover]

Sure but just to get a feeling of it in my case. What is the setup you are using?

[wraith adder]

At the moment, I have drifted away from Dobsonian Astrophotography and bought an Equatorial Mount

Before this, I had the Skywatcher Classic 250P with a Canon 700D and asi224mc

[dapper plover]

Cool thx for sharing!

I’m going to check it out

[wraith adder]

no worries

[dapper plover]

Do you think an extra €300,- is worth a 250P instead of a 200P?

If your budget was €2000,- for an all-in Dob setup

[wraith adder]

You won't see much of a difference between the 200P and 250P

[dapper plover]

Cool thx

[stark gorge]

i reckon the 250 is better by a fair bit, but not that price better

[rough river]

2 inches more is 35% better at light collection i think

[dapper plover]

Wow I want that 20 inch dob

[rough river]

apperture feever

[rigid stratus]

18 & 20 have very poor optical quality

[thin marten]

I want a 24 inch dob

[rough river]

you sure about that? Ive seen awesome views with it at a star party in germany

[rough river]

I want a NMT 50 inch dob

[rigid stratus]

visual isn't the same as photography. The strehl ratio is like 0.6, typical scopes have 0.85-0.9.
1.0 is a theoretical perfect mirror wrt it's curvature & construction

So optically it would have been similar to a 16". Sure, it's brighter due to mirror size but the resolve would have been similar.

[thin marten]

We need a change of leadership in the dobsonian astrophotography

@wraith adder is literally a capybara

He's not fit to rule

[topaz coral]

@rigid stratus fr even if made by master grinders

[tender dust]

Can you explain about the Strehl ratios?

[cold sand]

i think thats some bogus thing that tom made up to sound smart

[hidden berry]

Getting a 12” on Friday

For free

[dapper plover]

From where?

[hidden berry]

It’s my great uncles but he wants to give it to me now as his vision isn’t the greatest anymore

[thin marten]

that went from nice to depressing in minutes

[hidden berry]

Eh I don’t think he’s actually too fussed

Astronomy isn’t his main hobby anymore

[cold gyro]

oh nice, im also getting a footlong sandwich tomorrow

lmao

[dapper plover]

Who use goto dobsonian or goto altaz tripod for deep sky imaging?

[gusty holly]

Me

[gusty holly]

Some examples @dapper plover (still uploading)

[stark gorge]

[gusty holly]

🦭

[cold sand]

me

[cold sand]

what ap you using there?

[gusty holly]

?

[cold sand]

apertturee

[gusty holly]

Ah, it's a 10 inch f/4.7

[cold sand]

looked too small for a 10 tbf

looked the saem as my 8

also did you make the curtain yourself?

[cold gyro]

imo id say it was 10 or 12 inch ngl

nevermind def 10"

[gusty holly]

I bought it, it's called a light shroud, mine came from astrozap

[cold sand]

yeah looked at them

stupidly expensive

dont really see where 100 quid goes in a sheet blackout curtain

stupidly overpriced and almost scam level ngl
i could probably do a better job with a thread ,needle, curtains and a drawstring

for much less

[gusty holly]

maybe idk, not that expensive tbh given the materials and design strictly fit your scope

[cold sand]

i mean if its literal full on pure vantablack i guess its for the price

but still theres a huge price difference in diy than buy

[subtle garden]

I miss the capybara

[wraith adder]

I don't and never will

[rough river]

Hes back

[fickle shore]

I do

[subtle garden]

say what please now clean your sensor with a paintbrush with paint on it

[wraith adder]

no

you can do it

[subtle garden]

no I already have enough dust

[wraith adder]

not with that attitude

[subtle garden]

hmmm I'll try to clean it with a paintbrush then.

[stark gorge]

Uploading here for helping guys to decide what scope to get. Keywords: 8” dob 8 untracked dslr planetary deep space.

[thin fern]

[quaint briar]

Not bad.

[stark gorge]

Dobs are a lot better than the other scopes you listed

[quaint briar]

So, how much?

[stark gorge]

Mine was $500 AUD used. I’ve seen them go for a lot less though.

Mine had $500 worth of accessories so the actual scope was basically free

The 8” is faster than the 6” so will get better results if you do deep space. It’s also bigger so you will get more detail on stuff.

[thin fern]

we like dob

[dapper plover]

Would you mind explaining exactly how you got these images / give image details, because I'm currently busy with dobsonian astrophotography but I have found that it is quite the lengthy process, so any tips will help me to speed up the process or improve the images and I believe this could apply to all of us.

[wraith adder]

short exposures, lots of them

[stark gorge]

Just patience and lots of pictures. Most of my deep space ones are about 500 photos. More is better though and the ideal is about 2000 but I care for my camera shutter too much.
Crank your ISO to the highest it can go in your cameras normal range if you have star detection issues. I stick around 8000 though.

Planetary you need a little webcam or something to get lots of frames

[dapper plover]

Have you got any tips for the stacking software? I'm currently using SiriL for it but it takes up a lot of harddrive space (like 100GB)

[stark gorge]

Ah the pain. You just need to keep space open. I use DSS but it has the same temp files as SiriL

[dapper plover]

Ah okay, the way I do it is I throw all the individual exposures in folders of around ~150 subs and stack them individually, after that I stack those results together

But what are your settings for the subs? I found I can't expose for longer than 0.5s

[stark gorge]

I do 0.25-0.5

The Orion core was 125ms. But I need to go shorter to like 15ms

If I can get stacking working that is. Maybe I’ll do 60ms

[dapper plover]

Thank you very much

[dapper plover]

Maybe someday I'll get a good astro camera and do some lucky imaging with a dobsonian

But I think I need to donate a kidney first to afford that

[stark gorge]

nah mate my LI camera is $40.
I do want to buy a uranus C though
the asi224 is good too

[dapper plover]

I have a 224mc but it isn't really good for deepsky lucky imaging with a dob because of its small sensor

[thin fern]

Works rlly rlly well for me

[cold sand]

wonder why

anyway i wanna go get te 462

but sadly its stupidly expensive

[thin fern]

It’s not just bortle

[cold sand]

ebay selling it for 500 quid

but thats direct from china

so uh... import stuff blah blah

cannot wait to get it though
can go sit in the dobservatory and let the scope do its work

[dapper plover]

Wait you actually do deepsky dobsonian astrophotography with a 224mc?

[thin fern]

Yes

[dapper plover]

Wow tracked or untracked

[thin fern]

Untracked

[dapper plover]

Do you have some pictures you can show?

[thin fern]

@dapper plover

[dapper plover]

That's really cool

[red light]

you took all the above pictures with that $40 camera?

[stark gorge]

Only the Jupiter Saturn and Orion core ones

The rest were with my Nikon D750

[red light]

oh got it

[red light]

do you think an IMX224 sensor would function similar or better than that camera?

[stark gorge]

Similar

[red light]

i didnt buy the 224mc, but i did get the player one ceres c which is basically the same thing but in guidescope format

[stark gorge]

It would work better for deep space though because it’s a raw output

[stark gorge]

Ah cool

[red light]

can it not do video?

well actually i guess thats up to the specific camera

[stark gorge]

My camera can do video yes

[red light]

i have a full frame canon DSLR that i could hook up to my dob but thats a whole other set of expenses cuz id have to buy a 2" IR cut, 2" barlow, etc.

[stark gorge]

Nah not at all. All you need is a T ring

For planetary you don’t need a 2” Barlow either

[red light]

the backfocus is very very likely not going to be enough

[stark gorge]

And uv ir cut filters aren’t needed

[stark gorge]

What dob do you have?

[red light]

how much do they even change planetary images?

[red light]

apertura ad8

[stark gorge]

I mean they help but you don’t need a 2”

[stark gorge]

My Nikon DSLR focuses on my Saxon 8” fine. You might have luck

[red light]

hopefully

i tried a 2x barlow on a 15mm eyepiece and it didnt focus even with the focuser tube all the way out

had to get an extension tube

[stark gorge]

That’s the same as me

[red light]

oh

i might try it out then

i did just check the specs of the ceres-c though, it can record luckily

[stark gorge]

What have you go to loose? $15 maximum for a T ring

[red light]

i need a nose piece as well right

[stark gorge]

Well I don’t have one I just have a part of my 2”-1.25” adapter screwed into my T ring. It saves a lot of space and allows me to focus

[red light]

alr ill try out the DSLR for planetary if the ceres-c doesnt work, but ill order the barlow, t ring, and nose piece together anyways cuz i cant get it anywhere locally and i dont want to pay shipping thrice 😂

maybe cloudy nights can come through for me idk

[stark gorge]

Good idea. The ceres is gonna focus though. And you have the barlow.

[red light]

yea not too worried about that one focusing, and if it doesnt ive got that extension tube coming anyways

[mossy glen]

I do that too and the small sensor of the 224 isn't a huge problem

Yes, it limits your fov but in the same time it makes lighter image files so its easier to stack them

And astro cam's sensitivity to infrared is very interesting for ds untracked

Here's some of the pics I got with this cam and my 130/650 dob

Also it's possible to build an eq platform for your dob and then take some awesome pics

[dapper plover]

That's awesome, thanks for the images

[mossy glen]

Some friends of my father are going to give me a telescope 😳

I have no idea of its size but I know it's at least as big as mine

[rigid stratus]

Exciting

[cold sand]

still waiting on sw to eq-ify synscan dobs

they did it for the az gti

[thin fern]

oh this reminds me i need to stack the m42 and tarantula data from last night

[thin fern]

@stark gorge roughtly 4mins

[stark gorge]

nice

[stark gorge]

well sculptor test stack in siril is nice. gonna need a lot more data. this is 1/4 of the data i got. stacking the rest now

[thin fern]

i couldnt find sculptor

[stark gorge]

two bright stars at the bottom help. then there is 4 above, one out of the frame

i found it with the finder and longer exposures in like 10s

i could see the core live barely

[stuck willow]

Jupiter from a bit ago with my xt8 and T2i

[dapper plover]

that's awesome

didn't webb take a picture of that too recently?

[stark gorge]

yeah it did

[dapper plover]

Can you guys recommend buying a zwo astrocam/planetary cam?

[mossy glen]

Wdym by recommend?

Anyway it depends on your budget and why you want to buy it

[dapper plover]

224mc is quite good for planetary for a relatively low cost I believe

[mossy glen]

It's what a lot of people here have I believe

But if you have a bigger budget, the Uranus c is great

[cold sand]

dobservatory is pretty much ready to go

waitign on the camera now

fully decided on the 462

not the nicest for dso but intend on using it for some hrli

[subtle garden]

yeeeeeeee

DIY cool it

[cold sand]

do have a peltier lying around

😎

prolly in my "procrastination bin"

[gusty holly]

Thor's Helmet from a while back, 483x5sec, 375 gain using 10" GoTo Dob and ASI178 + uv/ir cut

[dapper plover]

that's sick

[gusty holly]

Coughing sick

[thin marten]

I'm sorry but that looks like a snail

Ok no I take that back it IS a snail

I can't be the only one who sees it right??

[gusty holly]

Ha, I see it, the helmet being the shell and the right horn being the head. It should be renamed to "The Snail Nebula"

[mossy glen]

Now I cant unsee it

[wintry saddle]

How did you get these so clear?!?

[stark gorge]

What do you mean? I have a big scope if that’s what you mean.

[wintry saddle]

I was wondering how you got the video without any shake from tracking the satellite on a dob

[wintry saddle]

How big?

[stark gorge]

Stabilised with PIPP

[stark gorge]

200mm

[wintry saddle]

Ah ok

[wintry saddle]

How many inches?

[stark gorge]

8

[wintry saddle]

Dang ok

Nice

What size lens

[stark gorge]

No lens

I’m using a dob

[wintry saddle]

Wait what

Sorry huh

[stark gorge]

Wdym

I don’t have any lens

[wintry saddle]

How do you magnify then?

[stark gorge]

I don’t? I’m just using a camera. 1200mm

[wintry saddle]

Ohhhh ok

I see

My bad 🤦‍♂️

I’ve always wanted to try and find a satellite, how do you go about finding one?

[stark gorge]

I just waited for a pass then tracked it with the finder scope

[wintry saddle]

Oh ok cool

[stark gorge]

0.2-0.3ms exposures is what you want for ISS. Gain to whatever gives you an underexposed Jupiter

And altitude makes a huge difference.

[wintry saddle]

👍

Tysm for the help!

[mossy glen]

I've started the plans of my eq platform for my dob!

[thin marten]

yo how do i build one

[fickle shore]

Revive

[thin marten]

It revives when I get my t ring I'll start talking here

[mossy glen]

And when clouds will have left France

Which seems like never

[mossy glen]

If you want ill Share how I did it

I'll probably create a thread

[thin marten]

Yeah

[mossy glen]

But I have a tool to calculate all the dimensions of the different pieces, then it's "just" building it and adding motors

[stark gorge]

Buy a dob part 2. More pics. Tags:
8” dob
Untracked
Dslr

[thin marten]

You are one of the best examples of Dobsonian Astrophotography

Good work

[thin marten]

@stark gorge arent these dslr

[stark gorge]

Planetary and close up moon is with the webcam. Everything else is dslr

[dapper plover]

my new edit of andromeda, this time with around 4000 subs resulting in about half an hour of data. Also, there's some really nice amp glow this time round. You might see lines, those are stacking artefacts.

[gentle shard]

@last pebble

[last pebble]

wow

[wraith adder]

Collimation

You’d want the moon to be pin point

[cinder flower]

I love dobs

[limber vale]

@stark gorge did you use a barlow for jupiter?

[stark gorge]

Yea 3.6x

[topaz token]

the description of this image is in my username taken with skywatcher 200p 8" dob ASI224 MC ZWO camrea 13 s exposure

[wraith adder]

[stark gorge]

Digital or analog?

[thin marten]

13 seconds???

1 exposure or stacked

[raven relic]

Hi guys is there any chance you could make some live view video how close you can see the moon and other planets throughout 8" dob ? I'm interested in buying telescope but don't know which one to choose dob or something like nexstar 8se ? Would you help me ?

[stark gorge]

Bad seeing for the moon and crappy laptop screen. It looks a lot better if I just look at it live on the screen.

The moon was also eyepiece projection so my focal length was far too high so I was having quality drops. I do highly recommend an 8” dob though. The 8se is going to be pretty much the same quality but much more expensive.

[stark gorge]

This is a much better representation of the images you can expect

This is with eyepiece and phone.

[raven relic]

@stark gorge is dob easy to transport?

Or it's better to be stationary with that ?

[stark gorge]

Sorta. Easier than a tripod scope. My 8” fits in the back of my car easily. They don’t like to be transported though.

Bad for collimation

[raven relic]

I'm looking for something that I can take somewhere

[stark gorge]

But you can transport them

[raven relic]

Bad for collimation ? What do you mean ?

[stark gorge]

How often will you be going somewhere with it?

[stark gorge]

The mirror gets knocked around a bit and goes out of alignment so you sometimes have to recollimate it. You are generally fine for visual viewing after transport though. Imaging you probably want to check it.

[raven relic]

I'm living near new Galloway UK where is no light pollution Darkest area it's like 1h road trip

[stark gorge]

If you get some soft pillows to pack the dob tube in so it doesn’t shake around as bad it will be greatly helped.

[raven relic]

Aaaa ok, what about some case with foam ?

[stark gorge]

I take my dob to the observatory and it’s a hassle but not too bad. Just unscrew the tube and put in in and then put the base in.

[stark gorge]

Sure if it’s very soft and springy foam. But you will need a massive box.

[raven relic]

Aha, so you saying that dob are cheaper than 8se celestron ?

[stark gorge]

Yep

And pretty much identical image quality

[raven relic]

And what eye piece you are using to see planets? And moon up close ?

[stark gorge]

I have a Saxon 8mm 8 element and it’s very good.

[raven relic]

Barlow 3x is good or better use max 2x ?

[stark gorge]

I use a 3.5x. But I don’t use the Barlow for visual because it degrades the image quality more than just the simple 8mm.

[raven relic]

So for deep space will 25mm do?

[stark gorge]

Yep that’s a nice eyepiece

[raven relic]

So 3.5x what's that ?

If not Barlow ?

[stark gorge]

I have a Saxon 17mm 68 degree 8 element which I use for deep space and it’s very good. Much much better than the stock 25mm

[stark gorge]

It’s a Barlow but I only use it for imaging planets and the moon. Not visual.

[raven relic]

So for visual what are the best parts ?

[stark gorge]

Just a wider eyepiece like a 17mm or 25mm and a smaller eyepiece like a 8mm.

Quality eyepieces make a big difference though. I can’t even use the stock eyepieces which are decent quality because the 8 element ones are so much better

The telescope is only as good as it’s eyepiece to a point.

[raven relic]

That's great help you just provide LMC thank you so much for your help.
Now I really know what to look after

[stark gorge]

No problem.

[raven relic]

Have a great sky and always clear

😉

[stark gorge]

Thank you 🙂

[thin fern]

he cant get much more clear skys :v

[raven relic]

@stark gorge last question? What kind of dobsonian telescope you have ?

[stark gorge]

Just a Saxon 8” manual

[mossy glen]

I don't remember posting my planetary pics here

(with my 5" dob)

[lime glen]

oh wow, amazing for 5"

[rigid stratus]

That double eclipse was a great one. I also imaged that night

[mossy glen]

Thanks!

[topaz token]

a 13 secxond video staked

[stark gorge]

10% 6k IMX290 no Barlow 8”

[fickle shore]

Hot

[thin marten]

Mosaic

[stark gorge]

how do you stack lunar

or do i have to reject frames that are badly out of frame with pipp or sumn

[thin marten]

I only know how to stack full disc lunar

[topaz coral]

Some lunar from 3 nights ago

[tender dust]

How do you get that amount of detail with a 5”?

[mossy glen]

I guess it's mainly thanks to the camera (asi 224mc) and seeing

Also I'm at 2000mm fl

[thin marten]

I guess most people with 5" don't use a dedicated camera

Since 5" could be considered "entry level" size

[topaz coral]

My seeing I get this like 3 times a week

[viscid pagoda]

[topaz coral]

Ken it doesnt matter my collimation is so bad this is my derotated set of 3

Would be like 3x better if i was collimated

[mossy glen]

[viscid pagoda]

Actually insane

[onyx wadi]

Hi, is there a simple way to use a normal planetary camera in a gso/kepler 250/1250 ? How to deal with the backfocus being inside the focuser ?

[meager hare]

Proud to be a dob owner 💪💪💪

Set it up last night outside for a first light but as soon as I connected the camera it got cloudy 😔

Its like a curse or smth a swear

[rough river]

Oh damn

bummer

astronomers curse

(quick but sometimes expensive fix: Radioastronomy gear )

[dapper plover]

That looks a lot like Jool

[topaz coral]

@dapper plover ?

[dapper plover]

Oh it's a planet in Kerbal Space Program, a video game:

[topaz coral]

Oh lol

[austere cave]

reprocessed jupiter from earlier this year and iss pog i reckon

[mossy glen]

Oh right lol

[dapper plover]

No way thats with a dslr , what dslr did you used?

[stark gorge]

All the planetary was with IMX290
All the deep space was with Nikon D750

[dapper plover]

oh

i though that the planetary was with dslr too

[stark gorge]

Nah that’s with my webcam module

[dapper plover]

I think i will buy the asi 224mc

budget friendly

[stark gorge]

Uranus C is far far better, but a little pricier

[dapper plover]

Do you recommend buying it from the zwo asi official market site?

astronomy imaging camera

[stark gorge]

Yeah sure. Or whatever astro sites you have

Help Astrobiscuit

[torpid elm]

Hey thx @stark gorge Astrobiscuit here. If you click on the link to your local astroshop then it'll create a cookie and anything you buy from that shop in the next 10 days will earn me a commission. I am most grateful as this will help me make more vids. Please let me know what you bought 🤗😁
:flag_um: OPT: https://bit.ly/33eKOa8
:flag_um: High Point Scientific: https://bit.ly/HPSastrobiscuitcookie
:flag_gb: FLO: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes/ref/astrobiscuit
:flag_eu: Astroshop: https://www.astroshop.eu/?affiliate_id=astrobiscuit

Be my Patron: https://www.patreon.com/astrobiscuit

Order Prints: https://astrobiscuit.com/shop/

[dapper plover]

But if my country is not in the eu

?

[stark gorge]

Less sure. Check where they post.

[dapper plover]

I know a market where i bought the telescope its in my country but they dont sell zwo asi 224mc just 120mc-s

it will show details on jupiter?Like high res planetary imaging

[stark gorge]

With what scope?

[dapper plover]

8 inch dob skywatcher manual

this is what i have

[stark gorge]

This is 8” and IMX290. You will get about this depending on seeing.

[dapper plover]

and if i have perfect collimation?

[thin marten]

Collimation matters too

[stark gorge]

My collimation was very good.

[stark gorge]

Of course. But you are going to collimate regularly enough it’s not a big factor.

[dapper plover]

i did it with a diy collimator cap

[stark gorge]

Much better is possible but not with my skill

[stark gorge]

They work fine

[dapper plover]

i dont know much about the seeing , jetstream says no wind but the liveview with the dslr on jupiter is not really sharp.

[thin marten]

Collimation cap + laser works ok
Collimation cap for secondary laser for primary
Although it's not recommended to use a laser I am aware of the risks that it will damage my telescopes eyes

Don't buy a laser

[stark gorge]

If it’s a really top quality laser they are ok but cheap lasers tend to decollimate your scope.

[dapper plover]

I collimate my scope once and i super thightened it

[stark gorge]

You should be collimating every session or every few sessions.

[dapper plover]

i always check it before starting but looking through the collimation cap , it looks normal

[stark gorge]

Good good

[dapper plover]

i dont know if i go outside to do some astrophotography , planetary imaging with dslr is just struggling.😩

[tender dust]

https://tenor.com/view/the-fonz-happy-days-gif-12161872

[tender dust]

Does your 290 module do raw and what fps do you get?

[stark gorge]

It doesn’t do raw. But it does to YUY2 which I haven’t experimented with yet. I get 30fps

[tender dust]

I got a cheapy 335 module but it only does 8fps in YUY2. It only does 30fps with MJPG.

[stark gorge]

I am limited to 640x480 and 15 fps I think in YUY2

[lament girder]

How did you manage to get those stars that good with an untracked dob?

[stark gorge]

Short exposures. About 250-500ms

[lament girder]

How many exposures on average do those kind of pictures require

[stark gorge]

At least a few hundred. The sculptor galaxy was 700 I believe. Brighter targets don’t need as many. I normally aim for 1 minute of intergration on bright stuff and 2-3 on dim stuff.

I have dark skies and a good camera so I can get away with it.

[mossy glen]

The most is the best

But you have to own a powerful enough computer...

When I "focus" on a target I usually take around 1500 subs

[tender dust]

Oh that’s interesting, I can also do 640x480 at 30fps in YUY2. I never tried going that low before.

[stark gorge]

im going to try imaging the bow shocks here tonight

[urban fog]

Thinking of getting the Uranus C myself, is the additional cooling option worth the extra 65 dollars?

[stark gorge]

if you plan to do deep space i would say yes, for planetary i dont think so.

[urban fog]

I would like to give deep space a go eventually, so might be worth to get it then

Been so unlucky with the weather after getting my 10", probably had like 5 clear nights in 2 months

So looking foward to actually using my scope once it clears up haha

[stark gorge]

buying the camera will only attract more clouds 😄

[urban fog]

Hahaha that's what I'm afraid of

Oh btw, do you think I can get anywhere near your dslr deep space photos with a Uranus C?

[mossy glen]

With a uranus c you'll easily have better results than with a dslr

Significantly better

[urban fog]

Ah that's great to hear, thanks for the info

Definitely going to order one then

[wraith adder]

forgot this existed

[mossy glen]

I've almost finished my family picture!

[thin fern]

aww they very cute

[urban fog]

Got a quick question concerning planetary photography with dobs, I've got a 10" and I'm about to get the Uranus-C. Can I make do without a 5x barlow? On a fairly tight budget and most of the money is going towards the camera.

I should also mention I've got a 2x barlow laying around at home, heard that it might not be enough for a 10" dob with f/5 though

[meager hare]

First light! 💪

[meager hare]

Times your camera pixel size by 5, and divide that number by the f number of your scope. That will give you your needed barlow. You can aproximate, so if you get like a bunch of decimals just get a barlow as close to that number as you can.

[urban fog]

That's really helpful, thanks

[urban fog]

Just looked a little at the numbers, the camera has a pixel size of 2.9, so 2.9x5=14.5, 14.5/5= 2.9

Then a 3x barlow would be optimal right?

[meager hare]

Yup

I used the same formula for my setup and got a pretty nice first image

You have a 10” so you could prob go even a bit higher

Also make sure you have an adc

And some form of rough tracking

[rigid stratus]

Nearer 6-7x for OSC cameras. I run my Uranus-C at f/21

[tender dust]

Trying to work out why it’s a factor of pixel size not sensor size and my brain’s gone dead.

[meager hare]

Sensor size can be whatever

If you had two different sensors but they have the same pixel size, your planet is gonna be the same amount of pixles in diameter

At least I think so

Im no expert on cameras

[tender dust]

For a 4k sensor with 2um pixels a 2x Barlow is optimal but a 640x480 webcam with 3.0um pixels a 3x is optimal

[meager hare]

The sensor size determines how wide your field will be

The thing is, more often then not, I crop my capture in fire capture to around 600x600

Smaller file size and faster fps because the computer does less processing

For example if you take a fullframe dslr and an aps-c dslr that both have the same pixel size, your planet will be the same number of pixels wide

[tender dust]

Ah, right, ok. That makes sense.

[meager hare]

Its just that the fullframe dslr will give you more around your target

Also i guess with bigger sensors its easier to do dobsonian astro bcs you can find the target faster

[tender dust]

I need to try capturing with my DSLR, the MJPG webcam I have is terrible.

[meager hare]

Whats the fps on the webcam?

Dslrs usualy dont have great frame rates

Frame rate is the name of the game basically, low resolution can be acounted for by using barlows and the 5x rule of thumb

Dynamic range doesn’t really matter with planetary

From late 90s to early 2000s, webcams were the main choice for planetary

All the zwo and qhy planet cams today are really just fancy webcams

[tender dust]

Capped at 30fps, annoyingly.

[meager hare]

Yeah thats pretty bad

[tender dust]

And the mjpg compession is bad. Can use yuy2 but much slower.

The DSLR is 60fps RAW

[meager hare]

Oh thats pretty ok

[tender dust]

At 800x600 but that’s fine

[meager hare]

Thats pretty good, but I would worry about getting a planetary cam first before fine tuning magnification and such

[tender dust]

The webcam was supposed to be it, but it turned out worse than I imagined. Not really attempted to capture planets before, coming from visual, so this is new to me.

[meager hare]

I’ve seen your eq platform, that thing is pretty neat. Honestly if were you I would either buy a zwo cam or look for a webcam with decent fps, another problem with the dslr is it’s weight. The SW heritage focuser is a weak point in the system. It was my first scope, and whenever I attached my nikon to it, the focuser started bending abit which affects collimation. Webcams are much lighter, also its a lot better to be able to see your live image on a computer rather than a small screen on a dslr.

I think you might find something on alibaba or smth like that

Also, just another thought, if you will wanna do deepsky in the future with a proper setup, a planetary cam is also a very good guide cam.

[tender dust]

Thanks 🙂

[meager hare]

The sad thing is astro is a pretty expensive hobby, you gotta buy a lot of shit to get good results

Dobsonian astro is kind of the cheap alternative, but still pretty expensive

[tender dust]

Currently using a Canon M10 which is half the weight of a regular DSLR but still too heavy to use on that focuser if I am also using a Barlow... and not controllable from sharpcap.

But for deep sky it's actually working out OK

[meager hare]

Yeah I saw your dumbell nebula pic that was very nice

[tender dust]

Thanks. It needs a lot more data but I was quite happy with it, considering all the hoops I need to jump through.

I think I just need to buy a Uranus-C or something. It would be an OK EAA setup.

[meager hare]

A few weeks ago I basically did the same with my heritage and an eq platform. Nikon D60, but I had a hard time getting consistent exposures with the setup.

The biggest problem for me is that my balcony has a bunch of metal in it so when I get my compass close to the ground it goes haywire

So I have to rough align with the pole from a distance

I saw a video on how to drift align with an eq platform a few weeks ago but I haven’t had a good full clear night to try that yet.

[tender dust]

I am still learning how to do that. I haven't succeeded yet.

[meager hare]

Yeah and in the tutorial the guy has like a massive professional eq platform, I have a cheap consumer grade one from like ukraine or smth

[tender dust]

I have an advantage that where I live, magnetic north is almost exactly true north, so I can get close with a compass.

[meager hare]

Yeah but you can easily adjust your compass by googling the magnetic deviation in your area.

Like in my area true north is about 8 degrees east of magnetic north

Still, dsos are kind of like a side gig for me, I’ve just always appreciated planetary more.

Tbh I actually learned how to use a compass for the very reason of aligning my platform lmao

[urban fog]

Got it, good to know

[urban fog]

That's on the list of things to get, will order that too, thanks

[meager hare]

adjusting it is a little more difficult for dobsonians too, you dont use the level thats on the adc, this video is pretty good at explaining it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fkpu7jmGno&ab_channel=CraigTowell

[urban fog]

Oh alright! That's extremely helpful, wouldn't have thought of that

A UV/IR cut filter would also be good to get right?

[meager hare]

Depends on the camera but most likely yeah

i think the asi120 is the only one that has it preinstalled

also get some other filters to play around and experiment with

[urban fog]

Gotcha, good to know

[meager hare]

did this last night, ir filters usually give very clear images when the seeing is bad

different wavelengths of light reveal clouds at different depths in the atmosphere

[urban fog]

Ah okay, didn't know that

That's also great to know

Oh, and when you mentioned rough tracking before, what were you referring to?

Have looked at EQ platforms, but that's currently out of my budget range

[meager hare]

Well if you can afford it, a go to system is very comfortable to use, the cheapest form of tracking is an eq-platform, its what I use

most of them look like this

[urban fog]

Gotcha, definitely a thing that I would want to get in the future

[meager hare]

you align it to the north pole with a compass and then adjust the three small legs with the integrated level to level the thing

then you put your dob on top and it tracks for around an hour

[urban fog]

How much was that one?

Seen a few around the 400 euro range, but they don't really look as good as that one

[meager hare]

I got mine for around 300, asterion makes two versions, a light and a pro, the light is made for lighter dobs like my 8", if your dob is more than 10" in aperture then you need the pro

the pro is about 385 eur

there are three versions of each, 45, 50, and 55

you buy the one closest to your latitude

my city is at around 54.6 so I have the 55 version

they are pretty nice to use, finding your target is tedious but after you lock it in it tracks nicely

The build quality is also very nice.

for the camera I would get either the asi224 or the one I have, the asi462

both are really good so just get the one that fits your setup better

the 462 is a little pricier but its a newer model, has a little lower noise, and better IR capabilities.

If you don't really care for specialized filter and wavelength imaging just get the 224mc

If you want you could do mono imaging with rgb filters but its pretty hard, not very practical with a dob, and the improvement is pretty small considering the increase in price.

[urban fog]

Ah okay

I'll take a look at the EQ platform, still would like to get the uranus c, but might cheap out and get a 224mc instead if I can get both the platform and the camera

[meager hare]

Do the calculations and see which camera suits your scope and barlow combination.

[urban fog]

Yup, will do

One more question though, I'm at 58 degrees lat, would the 55 version even work then?

[meager hare]

58 is right at the limit, I think it will still work, but you might need to adjust the front leg so the integrated level is a few degrees off.

[urban fog]

Oh okay, great

What website did you pick yours up from?

[meager hare]

I got it from FLO but many shops around europe sell it

[urban fog]

Ah okay, great

I'll have a look around and see where I can find it

[meager hare]

Most Eu countries have a big regional shop, do some research though, for example in Lithuania we have teleskopai.lt but everything is very overpriced, if you live in smaller country, often it is cheaper to order from a neighbouring country.

[urban fog]

Yeah, I'm from sweden and found a telescope shop in Finland which might work

Looks relatively cheap as well

[meager hare]

Yeah search around and compare prices so you don’t get ripped off.

I literally just read forums and asked experts questions for like a year and a half before I bought my planetary gear

Like yesterday was my first light lmao

But the thing is I knew everything about my setup and how to specifically use it before I ever bought it

[urban fog]

Yeah haha, been asking around and looking for a few months, definitely going to look even more to be 100% sure before I get anything

[meager hare]

Stargazerslounge.com is really good there are a ton of experienced people on there that will tell you everything you need to know regarding your future setup and will help you iron everything out.

Tbh half of what I’m telling you now is just me regurgitating info people told me.

[urban fog]

It's definitely helping though, really grateful for all the tips

[meager hare]

Thanks, I guess the most important key points are: The pixel size rule, getting an adc, some form of tracking.

Your whole setup actually really just depends on that rule.

[urban fog]

Yuuup, got it

Thanks again for all the help

[meager hare]

np

Also forgot to mention, make sure your laptop has usb 3.0

[urban fog]

Yup, it has so it should be fine

[meager hare]

good good

[mossy glen]

Fellow astrophotographers, I need your help

Im really terrible at naming things so I would appreciate any idea of Instagram account name to post my pictures

[subtle garden]

HOW COULD YOU EXOTIC

[subtle garden]

pillarclimber201?

or a_random_aper

[thin marten]

P01vr3

Poivre

Mike Lindell works too

[mossy glen]

Lol

[mossy glen]

Oh a name based on nebulas

I'll go for something like that

[thin marten]

Turn Right at Orion