Dobsonian Astrophotography

[frozen flint]

Damn that’s fast boi

[high hamlet]

Any idea if this guy ships overseas

[mossy glen]

I don't know, I'll ask him tomorrow if you want

[high hamlet]

That would be great, thanks

[mossy glen]

Alright I'll keep you in touch!

[mossy glen]

Yep, his work flow is pretty convincing https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RtwYDuN-j54&feature=youtu.be

Now we just have to wait for the results to see how good it actually is!

[frozen flint]

Wait so you’re gonna get the normal one? Not the photographic version?

[mossy glen]

I don't have the money

But the normal version is enough for my current needs (kinda lucky imaging with a pretty small dob)

I'll upgrade it to the photographic one later but now I'll stick with this one

People with similar scopes to mine managed to get more than 10s subs pretty easily so it's already pretty good

[frozen flint]

What fl?

[mossy glen]

I don't remember

Let me check

Also looking at the snr profile with my camera and gear doing more than ~15s subs doesn't really have any improvement except for stacking speed

@frozen flint here's one at 545mm, not exactly the one I was thinking of but I can't find it back

https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=iWUyVvjn2QY&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.astronomie-va.com%2F&feature=emb_logo

And keep in mind its only the second time the dude "polar aligned"

Oh and it's with a 10 inch

[frozen flint]

Idk how worth it it would be at 1500mm like my scope tbh

[mossy glen]

I think I can stop speculating and actually wait for the results when I'll have mine lol

I think the drift isn't a problem, it basically depends on build quality of the problem (so no problem here) and polar alignement which can always be I'm probed, the issue is periodic error and it's hard to see on heavily compressed videos

[mossy glen]

Also I'll do some tests with my Barlow (at 1950mm +3.75 pixel size), even if the stars will be bigger because of the f ratio it still can give you an idea

Now I have to go to sleep 😅 school tomorrow

[frozen flint]

Sounds great, looking forward to your results! Very curious to see what it’ll bring

[inner stone]

Since I’m still new to all of this, I’m a little confused on what exactly it does. Is it simply a SWSA for dobs? How would you polar align something that low to the ground?

[mossy glen]

I guess in way it's a swsa for dob yeah, basically its a platform rotating around the polar axis on which you put your dob

You can't really polar align with a polar finder so you simply point it north with a compass, adjust the inclinaison with a level (each platform is made for a specific range of latitude), then you fine tune it with whichever method you prefer

Sharcap polar alignement help feature for example, or this :

[inner stone]

Where does he manufacture these mounts?

I might be interested in one but I reside in Canada

[mossy glen]

Here the other method

[mossy glen]

He's in Hungary but idk if he ships oversea

I'll ask him today

But I think you should find other offers in north america

[inner stone]

Would you know where I could find these offers?

Any keywords that I need to put in my search engine?

[serene ferry]

Hungary is nice because i live near it in Austria.

[mossy glen]

Equatorial platform united states /Canada maybe?

[gusty holly]

Quick Eagle Nebula just before sunrise on March 22. 360x1 sec exposures (6 minutes total)

[high hamlet]

Awesome shot

[gusty holly]

Thanks! Hoping to get a good hour of data on it next time!

Just gotta wait for summer time

[high hamlet]

Same, I got only like 2 minutes of data on my first attempt and was surprised at the amount of signal

Really awesome target

[high hamlet]

Lagoon Nebula just now

Only half of the data because the software can’t align the rest of it

Which means this is only like 1 minute integration

[mossy glen]

@high hamlet and @inner stone he answered!

So he can ship oversea and for 25€ you can buy additional segments to make the platform work at different set of latitudes

[high hamlet]

Awesome, thanks man

[inner stone]

Very nice

[crystal dagger]

Hi , i have a 8inch dob f/5.9 (untracked) , i currently use my phone camera with a 25mm eyepiece , can someone teach me how to stack images like which app to use and how long should be the exposures?

[serene ferry]

Siril or Dss is good for stacking as a beginner (and also more experienced) but u would really recommend you to get a astro camera or just a 40€ used Dlsr. Because with the phone through the eyepiece you won't get good pictures.

[crystal dagger]

I have an old d60 lying around will it be good ?

[serene ferry]

I used a D60 so i do think so

[crystal dagger]

Ok then i have to buy a t ring and adapter is there any difference between the 1.25inch and 2inch t adapter?

[frozen flint]

Yes the 1.25 inch adapter is 1.25 inch and the 2 inch adapter is 2 inch

[inner stone]

damn where can I get a used DSLR for 40 euros (or preferably CAD)?

even used ones are pricey

[marsh fossil]

if you're doing phone AP with an untracked telescope i recommend you use an app called motion cam for imaging , it will save you imaging time but it will add processing time. for stacking you're going to need a pc or laptop.
if you want to take calibration frames you can also use motion cam or one called deepskycamera which has presets for darks,flats and bias frames.
for me DSS doesn't really work because of how dark my frames are so i use sequator, which is overall worse but it actually stacks all my images

and for post processing i use siril and starnet plugin

[serene ferry]

Got a Nikon D60 for 35 A D40 for 40 and a D3100 for 35

[thin marten]

nonono dont get a d3100

please

you could get a canon t2i or t3i for 40

[serene ferry]

Why not
The only problem i have that it only alows 30s subs

[thin marten]

noise soup

[serene ferry]

Wouldn't say that for the price, this is only 25min

[frozen flint]

With your dob?

[thin marten]

my d3100 is way noisier

[serene ferry]

No this was tracked

[unreal jackal]

T3i for 40? At that price things get risky considering most used t3i's on ebay are around 90 to 200 easily.

You can always get lucky, but you just gotta watch out when you find these newer DSLRs for such cheap prices.

My 15yr old Canon XSi was still 50+ USD and that was a pretty dam lucky deal at the time (close to a year ago)

[languid flame]

hey everyone, I have a heritage 150p and want to take untracked photos of DSOs (I was thrilled by @mossy glen and his results). Thing is, I've been told in the ask_a_nerd thread that shooting with a DSLR is probably a no-go, because I can't get enough info in my short exposures. They suggested ASI 224 as a viable option and I found one in ebay for about 200€. Just thought I'd ask here again before committing to a purchase!

[frozen flint]

Tbh I don't think the asi224mc is really ideal if you want to use it for dso

It's a planetary cam with a tiny fov, small pixels and I think it has amp glow

For some more money you could buy a uranus-c (imx585). It's also a planetary cam but compared to the 224 the fov is huge and it has way less noise and no amp glow

The asi585mc has the same sensor as the uranus-c but the uranus-c is just a little bit better for the same price

[mossy glen]

Yep the uranus c (if you can afford it) is definitely better but 224mc can do the work too (it's the one I use so..)

[frozen flint]

Correction: I think the amp glow issue in the 224mc was fixed, so all units produced after April 2016 won't have amp glow

Point still stands though, imx585 will be a better experience to do dso with than the 224mc

[mossy glen]

Im not sure, mine has amp glow (even if it's not too strong) and I ordered it in 2022

[frozen flint]

Nevermind then skip the 224

[mossy glen]

Also the uranus c can be upgraded with the ACS

[frozen flint]

Yes, also good for dso

[languid flame]

hmmm the uranus-c is kinda out of budget tho, as it is 2x the price

[frozen flint]

And what if you save a little bit longer?

[languid flame]

fair point, just thought the 200€ were a bargain for the 224

Guess not though

[frozen flint]

Nah the 224 is €200 new too

[mossy glen]

Depends where you live

It's 300€ here

But if you can wait, the uranus is really better

Btw I'll upgrade to the uranus c this year

[frozen flint]

Damn

I just looked on zwo's website

[mossy glen]

Inflation

[frozen flint]

It's probably more expensive here too if I look at a Dutch retailer

[languid flame]

yeaah inflation is crazy and I just got started with this hobby lol

It's just that I'm really thrilled and right now I can't really shoot anything else than maybe M42 with my scope

So I tend to be somewhat impatient

But you're probably right, even though I can't even imagine getting results like @mossy glen from my scope lol

[mossy glen]

Seen your m42 result I think you have a little more targets accessible

[mossy glen]

Give it some time and you probably will :), maybe even better (when you'll have the camera at least)

But don't worry if your first results are not as good as excepted, it takes some time

(first vs last pic)

[crystal dagger]

Is it tracked or untracked?

[languid flame]

thx man!

[languid flame]

targets like what?

I tried M51 the other night and it was an absolute fail

I had 1 useful image/750 approximately

Maybe it was that bad because it was windy, but still

[languid flame]

those are untracked I believe 😄

[mossy glen]

Both untracked!

[mossy glen]

Yep wind doesn't help and m51 is a quite hard target because there's almost no bright stars around to align

I was thinking of targets like lagoon, trifid, dumbell maybe even omega? and I'm not sure but maybe m81/m82

M82 is brighter so it's easier

[languid flame]

hmmm seems that M82 then is probably my best shot, unfortunately I can't stay up too late because of work 😥

[crystal dagger]

omg thats so cool

[mossy glen]

Yeah and it's only going to become worse unfortunately...

But it also means better weather and more targets!

[languid flame]

better weather is a huge w honestly. One of the few good things of living in Greece ig 😂

[royal badger]

amazing job

I can't believe that's untracked

you're literally on another level

can't wait to see what you produce with a tracked setup

[high hamlet]

M87 with a vague capture of the black hole plasma jet

6” dob and Mars-c untracked. Like 5 minutes data with 68% moon at 70deg altitude

[inner stone]

How different would such an image look with an 8 inch dob?

[gilded tundra]

More light and detail

[mossy glen]

Finalyyy

[inner stone]

https://a.co/d/hZnDOfW

Will this fit tightly on my Starfield 8 inch dob?

[frozen flint]

Huge

[viscid pagoda]

in contrast, Tong from Hubble optics still no email lmfao

[frozen flint]

Not even a confirmation?

[viscid pagoda]

yeah

i mean, he has a reputation for being slow and hard to reach

[marsh fossil]

hype

[inner stone]

I was gonna get my dob today but the ice storm in QC closed my local astronomy store

[gilded tundra]

Rip

[viscid pagoda]

Finally

[frozen flint]

Epic

[high hamlet]

Cat’s Eye nebula this morn

[meager hare]

How noticeable is coma at f/5 with a small sensor like the asi462?

[mossy glen]

I don't think it's very noticeable

I never actually tested it as I have 224's smaller sensor but my guess is it's good until ~ uranus c's sensor

The coma is visible with uranus's sensor but I believe it's ok

If you have a parabolical mirror of course, if it's spherical good luck

[meager hare]

Who tf uses sphericals for imaging 💀

[meager hare]

Aight

[topaz coral]

@viscid pagoda dang fr im prob going to order the 18 soon how is dude still in working if he takes for every to reply. Im spending almost 10k I would want you to take 5 mins to email me

[viscid pagoda]

Yeah idk just trust the process ig

He took a week to reply

[high hamlet]

Cigar Galaxy tonite

[viscid pagoda]

field rotation fr

[high hamlet]

Pain

Whirlpool, stars suck bc I was doing slightly too long of exposures

and field rotation

[inner stone]

I finally got my dobsonian

[inner stone]

question, can I see M51 in real time with 8 inch dob?

[stark gorge]

Yes you can see it with binoculars

[inner stone]

even from a B9 location?

[stark gorge]

They might be faint. The best way to test this is to try

[mossy glen]

I can clearly see the 2 cores and guess it's global shape with my 5 inch

Bortle 4 though

[serene ferry]

With my 16" i can see some nice spiral structure in M51

[mossy glen]

And the platform is ordered! I'm so happy rn

[high hamlet]

Ngc 7027 gummy bear neb

Super small, 18”

[inner stone]

so I'm having some trouble with my new dob

I'm trying to get my finder scope to align with what I see in the eyepiece but everything is blurry, fidgeting with the 2 speed focuser didn't fix it either

anyone know what I'm missing?

oh and I was trying to align using a pole on the roof of my neighbor's house

could it be that since I was doing it indoors the glass made everything blurry?

[frozen flint]

That and since it’s your neighbour’s house it sounds like it isn’t very far away

You want to focus on something at least a few hundred meters away

[inner stone]

Oh I see

Yeah the pole is roughly 35 meters away

[frozen flint]

Way too close

[inner stone]

Thanks for the input

[frozen flint]

Yw

You could try aligning on the moon if it’s up or Polaris if it’s clear

Polaris doesn’t move

Or you’ll have to find something that’s far enough away

[inner stone]

I’ll try It with Polaris tonight

[gilded tundra]

Are you're images manually tracked?

[high hamlet]

Yup

[gilded tundra]

Oh cool

[gilded tundra]

Oh! And what software do you use when stacking planets?

[high hamlet]

Autostakkert, I use the same for dso even tho it probably isn’t ideal

[gilded tundra]

Ah i see i see thanks!!!

[gilded tundra]

Oh and btw what accesories do you suggest with the dob

Like eyepieces and barlows etc

[high hamlet]

I use a 25mm eyepiece, it’s pretty good for dso observing. And then for planetary I just slap on the 3x

The 25mm is the only eyepiece I’ve owned since I’ve had my dob, never felt the need to get anything else tbh

Nice wide fov, and then the Barlow lets you get close in on the planets

[gilded tundra]

I see

[gilded tundra]

Where did you buy the 3x barlow

Orion is it?

[gilded tundra]

I see

[high hamlet]

Yup, I use the Orion TriMag 3x

[high hamlet]

Sombrero and Needle galaxies tonight. Needle is like 3min data and sombrero like 10

[inner stone]

@high hamlet sorry to bother but do you have any tips on visually seeing M51 with an 8 inch dob? I'm trying to locate the galaxies first but I'm having a difficult time doing so. Can binocs help with star hopping?

[high hamlet]

It isn’t the most contrasty dso visually, so darker skies would help a lot. Binos might help, but I’d recommend using a skymap app like SkyGuide or stellarium

Visually it looks like two fuzzy stars

What i usually do is start with this magnitude 4.6 star and just move in a somewhat straight line at low magnification

[inner stone]

I live in a B9 location, even so can I still find it or should I look for brighter DSOs?

[crystal dagger]

dont you get star trailing?

[high hamlet]

Probably worth trying brighter ones, like planetary nebulae are excellent from light polluted areas

[high hamlet]

My exposures are around 1/5s, so it isn’t that bad

[high hamlet]

In terms of galaxies, Bode’s and Cigar are super bright so you should try those

[crystal dagger]

U use phone or dslr?

[high hamlet]

Dedicated astrophotography camera

Like a webcam, plugs into my laptop

[crystal dagger]

Ahh im currently using my phone

I have a dslr but its having issues with backfocus

[high hamlet]

Phone AP is rough

[high hamlet]

Yeah many newtonians have those issues, mine can’t reach focus with my dslr either

[crystal dagger]

Its ok for planetary but for deep sky its very bad

[high hamlet]

I used my phone for planetary during the 2021 season, it was ok

Never tried dso because I just couldn’t take long exposures with the Samsung camera I had at the time

[crystal dagger]

Only dso i was able to get with my phone was the orion nebula and m13

[inner stone]

I was thinking of getting a webcam as well, what webcam would you recommend for an 8 inch dob?

[high hamlet]

My #1 recommendation would be the PlayerOne Uranus-C

High fps, nice wide sensor which makes it manageable for untracked

[mossy glen]

Yay

It's heeere!

I'll test it as soon as the weather is ok and I'm home (hopefully Monday)

[frozen flint]

Looking forward to hearing your experience with it

[languid flame]

Hype hype hype

[inner stone]

Is that the dob sky tracker?

Nice

[mossy glen]

Yep

[urban fog]

Can't wait to see your results with it

[mossy glen]

You can be sure I'll write a way to detailed report about it ^^

My first targets will be m51 and m83 btw

[solar yacht]

hello everyone , im getting a ten inch dob for my birthday and i have a nikon d3000 , would the nikon be able to get some good images with that?? im new to the hobby btw so sorry if i make any mistakes

[mossy glen]

Hi! Do you have a tracking system (like goto or some kind of equatorial mount?)?

[solar yacht]

i wont be stacking any images to start ill just be doing long exposure images if my camera can do that . and also with my phone lol

[solar yacht]

hey , i dont no.

if i do get one idk which one it would be as im new to astronomy and astrophotography so im a newbie lol

im just getting the dob itself

[mossy glen]

Unfortunately it's quite hard to take pictures without it; it's not impossible but requires some dedication 😄

[solar yacht]

yeah i bet . is a goto mount where it follows the object through the sky? or just takes me to it

[high hamlet]

Planetary and moon can be good without tracking, but dso is a huge challenge

[mossy glen]

You're really limited by exposure lenght, with my 5 inch at 650mm I can't take frames longer than ~300ms

[solar yacht]

so i dont have to find it myself?

[mossy glen]

Yeah exactly

[solar yacht]

ah right

[mossy glen]

It can be both!

[solar yacht]

ohh right , are you able to recommend me one that could hold and sustain the dobs weight?

[mossy glen]

Even if you're dob doesn't come with one, you usually have solution to add a goto system later

[solar yacht]

i have a laptop and a camera i just need to learn how to stack images and learn how to do it all in general really

[mossy glen]

Sorry I don't know that much about Goto mounts but I'm sure someone here will recommend you something

[solar yacht]

ah okay thankyou

[high hamlet]

With a little practice you probably won’t need one after a bit

[solar yacht]

yeah maybe . i would like on in the future tho . i want to produce the best i can as i would love to be able to take amazing pictures of DSO'S

one8

one******

but a goto mount follows and object through the sky allowing u to take loads of long exposure images yes ??

but it does it itself

[high hamlet]

Yes, but you can also get a basic equatorial platform for cheaper (doesn’t take you to targets, but still tracks the sky)

[solar yacht]

oh right

[high hamlet]

So you still need to find them manually but can take long exposures

[solar yacht]

yeah so if i found m31 for example then how would i make it follow it?

[frozen flint]

Using just a goto dob mount still won't allow you to take very long exposures because field rotation

[solar yacht]

ah right

[frozen flint]

You'd need an actual equatorial mount for which it's not really practical to mount a dob Newt on because they're heavy, or you'd need an equatorial platform like Poivre mentioned but that one doesn't find the object for you

You have to point it at the object yourself, it'll just track

[solar yacht]

ahh i see , how would i make it track? is there a button or is it more complicated

[solar yacht]

yeah

[frozen flint]

Not 100% sure how they work in practice but in short you just align it to North

Also level it as perfectly as possible

@mossy glen probably knows more

[solar yacht]

right i see, do you know one that would fit the dob?

[frozen flint]

Poivre's is from TMS astro and they sell two sizes I think

[solar yacht]

ah okay . ill try find one that would but finding one for a tench inch might be hard

ten

[frozen flint]

TMS Astro makes sizes big enough for a 16" I believe

But if you don't have the dob yet I wouldn't worry about tracking let alone equatorial tracking yet tbh

Make sure you learn how to use the dob at all first

[solar yacht]

oh yeah i dont have it now im getting it June 4th is my birthday , maybe for christmas if ive got the proper hang of it ill get one

[frozen flint]

Yeah

[solar yacht]

but even without tracking and finding the object just me doing it by hand ill be able to get some decent pics?

[frozen flint]

I used my dob untracked for a year before getting a tracked dob

[solar yacht]

oh nice what one u have ? 5''

?

[frozen flint]

DSO with a dslr untracked won't be very viable because dslrs are noisy and you'd have to take so many frames that your shutter will die

[frozen flint]

I used to have a 6"

But for planetary you could get some good results, especially with a dedicated planetary cam

[solar yacht]

ah right

nikon d3000 ? any good

[frozen flint]

Sure

[solar yacht]

for both dsos and planetery ? or just planetary

[frozen flint]

Some images I took when I had the 6”

With an asi462mc

[solar yacht]

i just wanna be able to see things yk like galaxies and even nebulas , idc about the detail but just to see them would be cool

like faint details

[frozen flint]

A dob is good for observing those

Idk what bortle you are in

[solar yacht]

yeah thats good

let me try check

idk how to check so much random shit coming up

im from kent if that helps

[frozen flint]

Look up lightpollutionmap

And just go to your location

[solar yacht]

its a faint purple

very close to red

class 7

[frozen flint]

That's pretty high, so make sure that when you are observing your dob is in the shadow

Don't observe while standing under a lightpole or something

[solar yacht]

yeah when i do it its in my back garden all lights off and i live in a close so its fairly good

[frozen flint]

Yeah good

[solar yacht]

no light at all

yes , i have a celestron astromaster 70az atm so hard to use

[frozen flint]

The 10in dob will be a great aperture upgrade then

Nice

[solar yacht]

yeah i cant wait to get it

apparently they're massive ?

like tall

[frozen flint]

They are quite big and heavy

My current 12" dob I have is just shy from being as tall as me when pointing at zenith

Now you can find out about how tall I am

[solar yacht]

ah right im 5'9 lmao so

[frozen flint]

I'm about 179cm or something

Not that tall for a Dutchie, but then again I'm only half Dutch soo

[solar yacht]

i hope ill be able to see through the eyepiece lol

[solar yacht]

ahh yea

[frozen flint]

Ohh don't worry you will

It's not like 2 meters tall or something

[solar yacht]

will i be able to see galaxies and just dsos in general through the eye piece?

[solar yacht]

oh good

[frozen flint]

And you'll rarely observe objects that are right at zenith I reckon

So it won't be pointing straight up all the time

[solar yacht]

sorry if i ask stupid questions but i dont know anything about scopes really

[solar yacht]

ah ok good

[frozen flint]

Npnp

[solar yacht]

will i be able to see galaxies and just dsos in general through the eye piece?

or only when i take photos?

[frozen flint]

Visually they'll generally just look like faint smudges

Don't expect any colourful views like you see in the pictures

[solar yacht]

still that will be amazing to me to see

[solar yacht]

oh ik i wont see it like that but to even see a slight detail in a galaxy is crazy to me

[frozen flint]

Also you have to let your eyes get properly dark adjusted so don't look at any lights or your phone for a while before observing

[solar yacht]

yeah

[frozen flint]

And allow your scope to get acclimated so don't observe from inside through a window, place it ouside about at least 30 minutes but probably preferably an hour before actually observing

[solar yacht]

ill be taking pics of galaxies all the time they're my fav thing

[solar yacht]

yh i always do outside but ty for the tips

[frozen flint]

You could try with your dslr but like I said it's not really viable with that

[solar yacht]

yeah ill try taking a few , would it work better with an iphone 12 on a phone mount with the long exposure feature?

obvs connected to the scope

[frozen flint]

Probably worse if you ask me

Because you'll have to shoot through an eyepiece which.. ew

Only upside is you won't have a shutter which'll die after having to take 1,000,000 frames

[solar yacht]

yeah , whats my best bet at pictures then?

at first i wont even be editing them idk if people do do that

ill just be using the short exposure image lol

[frozen flint]

With a dslr? Lunar would be the easiest and probably give you the best results

[solar yacht]

no like taking pics of anything ?

[frozen flint]

This was with my 6” and a dslr

[solar yacht]

like what to use and how to use it or just the camera and phone through the lens

[solar yacht]

oh wopw

wow

[frozen flint]

Untracked dob, dslr and dso are not a good combination

You can try but if you can spare a little money at least get an astrocam if you're gonna do untracked dso

[solar yacht]

silly question but an astrocam is a camera literally made for astrophotography i take it?

[frozen flint]

Correct

[solar yacht]

do u have one to recommend that would be good for me and the dob?

[frozen flint]

And there are many different kinds, for dso and planetary they are different specialties. But there are some astrocams that are a little more versatile and can do a bit of both

Like the IMX585 (ZWO asi585mc and Player One Uranus-C)

Many people in this server use that one

[solar yacht]

i would probs want dsos as didnt u say the nikon would be good for planetary/

?

[solar yacht]

ahh ty , is this dso or planetary based?

[frozen flint]

The dslr, you could still take planetary pictures with it but it's never gonna come close to what you could be able to get a with a planetary cam most likely

[solar yacht]

yeah true

[frozen flint]

IMX585 is actually a planetary camera but it works quite well for dso too

Well the IMX585 is the sensor actually but you get what I mean

I hope

[solar yacht]

ah ok ty , r u able to recommend a camera just for dso?

[solar yacht]

kinda but dw explaining ill watch a yt vid

[frozen flint]

For your setup, untracked dob? IMX585

[solar yacht]

ty

can u summarise how they work plz?

[frozen flint]

Not rn lol sorry

[solar yacht]

okay no problem , i found that uranus-c u was talking about

[frozen flint]

Good

[solar yacht]

uranus c is for both dso and planetary u said?

[frozen flint]

It's for planetary

[solar yacht]

ohh ok

[frozen flint]

It's not amazing for dso, it's just good

[solar yacht]

yeah

ill look into it . ty

[frozen flint]

Good luck

[solar yacht]

thankyou

[white gull]

quick question. I have a dobsonian 200p and i am trying to figure out how i can attach my camera with a telescope lens on it. now i only connect the camera with a t-ring and for planetary or really deep sky stuff they seem pretty small because the magnification is equivalent to a 25mm or 30mm lens

i am asking here because its the dobsonian group

[frozen flint]

You can’t attach a dslr to a telescope with a lens on the camera

The telescope acts as a lens

It’s like putting a lens on a lens

[white gull]

im not talking about the camera lenses

the telescope ones

i think there is some kind of adapter tube that lets you fits the lenses in between the camera and the telescope

[frozen flint]

What brand is your dob

[white gull]

skywatcher 200p

8 inch

[frozen flint]

The 2” - 1.25” adapter has a thread you should be able to attach the t-ring to

Screw the 1.25” adapter off. It should be on there by threads

[white gull]

i unscrew it and attach it to the t-ring which i attach to my camera

[frozen flint]

Yes

The t-ring should have a thread too

But what do you mean telescope lens

Eyepiece?

[white gull]

yes

[frozen flint]

You’re not gonna need an eyepiece if you’re gonna attach the dslr

[white gull]

i need to zoom in more for certain objects

[frozen flint]

You put the dslr where you’d normally put an eyepiece; in the focuser

[white gull]

and the camera's resolution isnt enough

[frozen flint]

Eyepieces don’t work like that

Or you’re gonna need something else to be able to do that

Or get a barlow lens

[white gull]

i have a 2x barlow but i dont know how to attach it to the camera as well

[frozen flint]

If it’s one of those cheap Celestron ones it should have a t-thread as well, otherwise you’re gonna need a nosepiece to thread onto your t-ring, and you can insert that into the barlow

[white gull]

ok i think i found a way to do it

thanks man

I may have not found a way to do it

These are the adapters i have

The right ring attaches to the camera and the left ring attaches to the right and then to the telescope

[frozen flint]

Like this

Looks like your barlow doesn’t have a t-thread

Can’t tell but I’m like 97% sure

So you’ll need a nosepiece for that

[white gull]

Thats how i put it together but i wanted to know if i can use an eyepiece or a barlow with the things i already have

Thanks again

[frozen flint]

Only the barlow

Which you need a nosepiece for

[crystal dagger]

Can you get focus with your dslr without barlow?

[frozen flint]

Should be possible

I was able to reach focus with both the skywatcher dobs I’ve owned

With my dslr

[white gull]

focus isnt the problem. Zooming is the problem because my camera isnt high resolution to clearly see for example saturn

It copes pretty well with moon, M42 and that stuff

But i think i will have to get an adittional adapter to mount in eyepieces too

[frozen flint]

Spend your money on an astrocam and you’re good

Well, still need the barlow

But image quality is gonna be way better

[white gull]

yeah thats the prob

[frozen flint]

Get the barlow, don’t waste your money on something to mount your eyepieces to the camera

Quality won’t be good and your never gonna use them again

Just get the barlow to use your dslr with and get an astrocam later down the line

[white gull]

i plan on buying an eq mount for the telescope to shoot longer exposures in the near future but the price is a prob

[crystal dagger]

Idk why but i cannot reach focus with my dob (gso)

[frozen flint]

Yeah it’s different between dobs obvs but with my Skywatcher dobs so far I was always able to reach focus

[mossy glen]

I had a few minutes to quickly test it before clouds came in

I didn't understand at first because when I switched it on, stars were moving 2 times faster... Then I realized I was aiming the south and not north

[high hamlet]

Lmao

Does it seem to work tho?

[mossy glen]

Yeah it seems pretty good

[high hamlet]

Epic

[mossy glen]

With a simple rough north alignement and level ajustement I couldn't see any movement at 100x mag

[high hamlet]

Awesome, hyped to see what imaging will be like

[mossy glen]

Yep me too haha

[covert lantern]

Should I just cough up the extra 1.5k+ and get a goto kit for my 8" flextube?

[gusty holly]

M16 from last night/morning (taken during sunrise), I think this is my sharpest yet. 180x1 second exposures with a 10" Goto Dob and Uranus-C. Also left is without denoise and right is using IAN deniose from G'Mic QT plugin for GIMP

[mossy glen]

What do you want goto for? Ease of use, planetary ap or DSOs?

(by ease of use I mean goto pointing)

[viscid pagoda]

I wouldn't do it cuz it's only an 8"

Overpriced af

[gusty holly]

Is it possible to use an ADC without a barlow? I've tried so many different ways, with extension tubes and without no success so far.

[mossy glen]

I'm pretty sure it is possible but I don't have one so I can't help you

[hidden berry]

Yeah for 1.5k you can almost get an eq6r

[solar yacht]

can anyone send their pics with their 10” dob that they have please ?

[covert lantern]

my dob is collapsible so I can't.

[mossy glen]

First test of the platform last night... And it's above my expectations 😄

With a really rough polar alignement (I just approximately leveled it and kinda pointed north), after I aligned it towards north and not south (yeah I did that ) and I switched the speed buttons off on off instead of on off on(because yeah I'm stupid) , it worked pretty dam well

First test was a star in the corner of the field at 200x mag and I couldn't see any movement for a few minutes

I tried some lunar imaging through clouds at 1950mm and I didn't had to reframe at all, the drift was really slow

Only problem is periodic error, it seems quite important but I think it's made worse by the fact the platform is made for loads way heavier than my small dob so I'll try adding some weight

Anyway I'll continue my testings and share it with you guys

[frozen flint]

Share images

[hidden berry]

You can still mod a collapsible to fit on a mount

But also like it’s only an 8” it’s not worth spending 1.5k on it

You can get a solid tube 8” and a heq5 for 1.5k

And have a solid imaging system

1.5k buys you a platform for a 16”

[stiff eagle]

Hmmmmm

[mossy glen]

Through clouds, bad seeing, bad collimation (I havn't collimated the secondary since last year and the primary since this new year )so I think it's not that bad

(5inch at 1950mm/f15)

I'll share a video of the tracking soon, when I'll have better wifi (I'm on 250 kbps )

[north lodge]

Are there any tutorial on how to use dobsonian telescope

[frozen flint]

Lookin good

I’m more curious about its dso performance tho

[frozen flint]

https://youtu.be/WxO3bfE4nBY yeah you can find them by typing how to use a dobsonian telescope but I did it for u

[mossy glen]

Yeah sure but with the clouds and the moon it's not going to be soon :/

[frozen flint]

Fair

[mossy glen]

With a quick test about 4/5 of my 1 sec subs were sharp enough and up to ~8sec subs were good when there was no periodic error

[frozen flint]

That’s pretty good already

Better than untracked

[mossy glen]

Honestly, seeing the performances with a 30sec polar alignement I'm really not worried about the drift, periodic error is the only issue but I'll have to do a lot of testing to know if it really is a problem

[mossy glen]

Oh yeah

Ngl what I appreciate the most isn't sub lenght but simply not having to reframe every minute lol

It's much easier wether it be for acquisition, targeting or processing so I'm finally able to start several dozens of hours projects

[frozen flint]

Oh ye I feel you

Going from a 6” dob untracked to a goto dob

Changed my whole life dude, it made me a different person

[high hamlet]

i must join you on the light side

[mossy glen]

Yeah I can imagine that

Oh I'll also allow me to start my exoplanet detection projects

[solar yacht]

💀

[serene ferry]

Why is it Mono with the Uranus C

[marsh fossil]

there's a mono version of it

[gusty holly]

That was the red channel I believe

[frozen flint]

Nah there’s not

[marsh fossil]

oh

i thought there was

there's a mono variant for every other planetary one

[stark gorge]

i think tonight ill try imaging eagle neb with the dob

[mossy glen]

Idk why the bottom left panel is so different from the rest

And I don't know how I managed to screw the colors lol

[zealous jetty]

Which scope did u use?

[serene ferry]

How do you guys handle field Rotation, when imaging the moon?

[thin marten]

field rotation shouldnt be a problem at all?

exposure time is short

[serene ferry]

I mean when stacking

[thin marten]

stackers should be advanced enough for field rotation not to really matter

i think so at least, not sure how autostakkert is

[frozen flint]

Autostakkert does not account for field rotation

It has an option where you can make it account for it but it requires you to input a bunch of values like time and ra/dec and stuff and it’s quite complicated

[frozen flint]

My lunar recordings are never long enough for field rotation to show

[viscid pagoda]

Would m63s script work on moon?

[frozen flint]

I believe it does yes

[prisma mesa]

what camera do you recomend for planetary imaigning? max price 350dollars

[mossy glen]

You may find an uranus c on sales for this price, depends on your country's prices

It's really the best option available under ~500$

[prisma mesa]

uranus c is too expensive in my country

[mossy glen]

If its really out of budget it will depend on some factors such as are you tracked and your scopes size

[prisma mesa]

I have dobson 8" untracked

[frozen flint]

Uranus c is only 50 dollars more

[prisma mesa]

I know but is out of my budget

[frozen flint]

Then imx462

Mars c

Neptune c II is pretty good too

It's the imx464, same pixel size as 462 but double the resolution

[hidden berry]

save up

Spending a bit more gets you much more camera

[stark gorge]

Definitely get the Uranus

[inner stone]

Wait is the Uranus-C a webcam or a camera?

[frozen flint]

A webcam is a camera

[stark gorge]

What

[prisma mesa]

Is asi 224mc good ?

[hidden berry]

It’s ok

Not amazing but it’s cheap

[prisma mesa]

can I attach usb 3.0 to clasic usb?

[crystal coral]

Your computer needs to be usb3.0

[stark gorge]

Yes but you’ll get like 1 fps

[prisma mesa]

But in not high Resolution

[gusty holly]

Pillars, 1260 x 1 second exposures with 10" GoTo Dob and Uranus-C

[granite oasis]

Nice nice. What sensor does that camera run I’ve seen a lot of images w them

Still using my 120mc-s from 2019 💀

[frozen flint]

Imx585

[crystal coral]

a server that im in is selling the touptek ver thats fan cooled for 375

[gilded tundra]

any tips on dobsonian astrophotography?

[stark gorge]

Short subs, hand track as best you can.

[granite oasis]

If hand tracking planets/ moon , rotate the camera so that it drifts completely horizontally (temporarily). You’ll only have to push your dob in one direction until field rotation kicks in too much and you’ll have to adjust. And then set a crop or region of interest with capture software. Less resolution from crop means you can capture at a higher frame rate if optics speed and object allows for it.

[mossy glen]

Hey guys, just wanted to say my weather is absolutely terrible that's why I'm not very active

[marsh fossil]

[gilded tundra]

[wary oak]

Guys what do you think about the bresser messier 254mm dobson

[neat sigil]

i might buy a 10" dob for my 3rd scope lol

[serene ferry]

Some people recommend it because of its large bearings. But for Astrophotography it isn't ideal

[stiff eagle]

Sooo I have decided to make a dob mount for my telescope how should I make it?

[modest walrus]

is dob astrophotography hard?
getting a classic 200p (hopefully) soon

[stiff eagle]

Noo

It is not hard at all

It is also best for visual observation

[stiff eagle]

Is that ur first scope?

Over all that scope is good

[modest walrus]

yes

[modest walrus]

@stiff eagle is there anything not good about the scope?

[modest walrus]

or for the table top dobs:

[stiff eagle]

Nope

https://youtu.be/WxO3bfE4nBY

And don't worry about the collimation

[frozen flint]

Why not

[stiff eagle]

https://youtube.com/shorts/59fTxcKrkyE?feature=share

MY 130mm

[gusty holly]

Dobs rule (2x barlow on left, native on right)

[feral ice]

M101 and supernova 2023ixf type II
Dobson 15", Player One Poseidon C (2600c), equatorial plateform, baader coma corrector
2000 x 1s , 33min at all
Siril (stacking, alignment, histo), PixInsight (BlurXT, NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat)
1st light with my "new vintage" Dobson ! Lots of things to improve of course :

• marching noise due to an average polar alignment and no dithering like,
• vignetting, because of a 1.25" filter while a 36mm is adiced on aps-c and the OAG shadow (OAG even not used yet !)
• certainly not a good collimation as a 1st... will improve on it !

[meager hare]

How many secs per exposure?

[gusty holly]

1 second 🙂

[meager hare]

Aight

[gusty holly]

24 mins total for 2400mm

21 mins for native

[meager hare]

Im gonna have the opportunity to shoot under bortle 3 with a 10” and an eq platform and a 462mc this summer, I wonder if I should do native or use my 3x

[gusty holly]

I'm not sure about a 3x image brightness will decrease dramatically.. But under B3 and near perfect tracking it's sure possible. I would only go for a barlow for brighter objects/smaller objects to resolve them a bit more

I was thinking that AS3 could be used for stacking instead of DSS since the star registration is pretty bad. But I could only imagine it would work well without field rotation or if you shoot a bunch of videos 2 mins in length (like planetary)

[meager hare]

Yeah I’ll probably be only imaging planetary nebulae anyways

[gusty holly]

I used livestacking though with FWHM filter, it seems to work well. With great tracking I think its perfect

but since you're using an platform, I don't think you'll be limited to sub time

[meager hare]

Astrosurface works pretty well

[gusty holly]

Yeah it works wellish, but at higher FL (with barlows) the stars become huge especially when they're brighter, sometimes even AstroSurface doens't even detect them well

[meager hare]

Got this with an 8” in bortle 8 with 13 minutes if data

[meager hare]

What do you do for walking noise?

[gusty holly]

Neat, that one is pretty difficult lol

[meager hare]

I was thinking maybe rotating the cam in between captures

[frozen flint]

I get some terribly ugly noise in my dso pics too

[gusty holly]

For walking noise, I honestly just hope that its not too bad in the final stack, good tracking helps. Sometimes if I do multi-night sessions I would flip my camera 180 to cancel it out a bit. But rotating it between captures seems to work well too. It's pretty doable to smoothen the walking noise in PP too

I honestly struggle more with banding

[frozen flint]

What’s banding

[gusty holly]

i'm trying to find a picture where it's bad

hold on

this is pretty stretched

but you see the vertical lines, those are banding

Siril has banding reduction, it's helpful but doesn't completely get rid of it

also I tihnk it's more noticeable at shorter exposures

[frozen flint]

Ooh yeah I get something similar to that

[frozen flint]

I need to check that out then

[gusty holly]

@meager hare If you're gonna use the barlow, shoot objects that are at a reasonably high altitude, stars are sharper and affects of atmosphere are less noticeable

[gusty holly]

Yeah! you should. siril has all these cool features I haven't got to play with lol

[meager hare]

Lyra is pretty high for me in the summer which is good.

[gusty holly]

thats perfect, bunch of planetary nebula there

I tried shooting C6 but man that one is dim af

[frozen flint]

Gonna try and gather more M51 data to add to my 100mins I captured last week. So I’ll test that anti banding feature then see if it’s good

[gusty holly]

play around with the "protect highlights" option too

in the banding reduction menu

[frozen flint]

Cool cool

[gusty holly]

I shot some M51 last night too, gonna add it to my final stack too lol

[frozen flint]

What’s the total exposure then?

[meager hare]

Very nice, I love the natural colours

[frozen flint]

Also @gusty holly how do you combine dso data? Stack the final stacks or stack all the individual frames from all sessions?

[gusty holly]

Thanks! that was literally just a 30 second process, but i'll keep that in mind!

[gusty holly]

I stack the individual frames, I tried final stacks before too but idk I haven't found a good way to do that yet

individual frames seems more right anyway

[frozen flint]

Got it. Yeah I tried stacking final stacks too earlier but it doesn’t work right

[gusty holly]

Try livestacking, it reduces your stacking time by a million

[frozen flint]

Yeah I did that

[gusty holly]

Ahh nice

[frozen flint]

But to combine data you’d still need to stack the individual frames from all sessions in a different stacking program right

Also livestacking doesn’t have good pixel rejection

It keeps the frames with satellites for example

Kinda sucks

[gusty holly]

Yeah, its not great. But I just do a bunch of 3 minute livestacking sessions consisting of 1 second subs. If a satellite does appear in one of them I just reset the livestack

then I stack those livestacks in DSS

It's def better to shoot a indivudal frames then stack those, but I really don't have the patience for that

the space it takes and the minor improvements you'd get aren't worth it for me lol

FWHM filter works alright though

[frozen flint]

Wait so you combine all the stacks from the smaller 3 minute livestacks?

If you’re combining data from different sessions

[gusty holly]

Lets say I shot 5, 3 minute livestacks one night. Then another 5 another night. I would combine the total (10) in DSS

so I save the livestacks, but not the raw frames

[meager hare]

Do yall do firecapture for dso or sharpcap?

[gusty holly]

I use sharpcap, idk if firecapture has livestacking. But I want to transition to firecap for planetary cuz of the dynamic roi

[frozen flint]

Gotcha, sounds like a good method

[gusty holly]

Hasn't done me wrong yet!

but like I said, if you're going for the sharpest possible then save the raw frames

[frozen flint]

Yeah

[gusty holly]

then manually go through them all

[frozen flint]

What kind of FWHM values do you get mostly

[meager hare]

How do yall do dynamic roi in firecapture? Does it let you get high fps? Ive just been cropping and then using my finger to slightly nudge the dob during capture.

[gusty holly]

It really depends on the seeing, at native fl i usually limit it at 6-7. with 2x or whatever I go up to 8

someitmes in rly good seeing I limit it at 5.5

[frozen flint]

Ye ye, I limit to about 5.5-6 in good seeing too

[gusty holly]

noice, means we're about at the limit I think lol

I mean you can go lower in exposure

[frozen flint]

I did pretty long exposures for my m51 this time, ~5 sec exposures

Had good seeing

[gusty holly]

You can move the roi in sharpcap, I haven't tried firecap at all yet, so I wouldn't know

[meager hare]

But do you still get 200fps or so while doing that?

[gusty holly]

dang, my tracking becomes too much of a problem

[gusty holly]

Oh yeah, it's pretty quick

[frozen flint]

But tbh I have no idea how to set exp and gain for dso. For planetary I just adjust it to what my seeing is and aim for 50-60% histogram. Simple. Dso Idrk know what I’m doing. I just try to do long exposures with good seeing because signal, and for gain I just adjust it so I can see some signal in a single exposure so I know where I’m aiming lol. But Idk if that’s good

[gusty holly]

For DSO my histogram is cut off at about 40% but same tbh lol

[gusty holly]

I missed this, what were you referring to?

if it's m51, that one was 36 mins

[frozen flint]

Yeah M51

Pretty nice for 36mins

1s exposures?

[gusty holly]

I used 2s for that one

[frozen flint]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/247347265226801153/1111470019117850625/image.png this is a quick edit of my 100mins right after I finished the session

5-7sec exposures

[gusty holly]

Oh wow, that's nice! I see that satellite photo bomb lol

[frozen flint]

Yeah

[gusty holly]

I really like the background dust

Well from the smaller galaxy

Ngc whatever it is

[frozen flint]

Yeah lol

I hope combining data makes it even better

The image in general

[gusty holly]

It should, how do you get such nice blues?

[frozen flint]

I just followed a Siril tutorial on yt lol

For processing dso

For colour balancing and stuff, I finish in Siril with saturation

[gusty holly]

I see, I'll have try that

Do you use the wavelets?

[frozen flint]

Hadn’t done that yet on this image I believe but yeah I sometimes apply some light wavelets

I do that in Astrosurface though, not Siril

[meager hare]

Do yall ever have problems with misaligned diffraction spikes? Not that they are that big with short exposures but still, I’d imagine that could be a problem when combining data from several nights.

[gusty holly]

Yeah, but like you said they're less prominent at shorter exposures so you can get away with it most of the time.

[stiff eagle]

Aaaa

[gusty holly]

But to fight it, you can try to keep your camera oriented the same way everytime. With an eq mount or platform field rotation isn't an issue so as long as your camera is in the same orientation, your diffraction spikes would be consistent

[meager hare]

Aaaaa

[meager hare]

Yeah but you gotta reset the platform every hour. Either way, especially if I’ll be using a 3x, I wont even have any spikes.

[gusty holly]

Ah I see, and yeah most likely only with the very bright stars

[high hamlet]

ISS tonite

[high hamlet]

Slight dust in m31

98% moon in sky + morning twilight started

[frozen flint]

@gusty holly I gathered more M51 data just now and I was gonna combine it with the raw frames from my previous session

They were on my external hdd but they got corrupted while copying them to my pc or something

It’s weird asf. They’re all just gone

[gusty holly]

Wth, try using a recovery program?

@frozen flint recurva by CCleaner is free, I used that sometimes but it isn't always guaranteed

I wonder if it's due to using an hdd over an ssd

But prolly not

[frozen flint]

I wonder if it is because I accidentally dropped my hdd lol, even though that happened a week before taking the data that disappeared

[frozen flint]

Tried it just now but it doesn't work :(

[stark gorge]

Good thing the object isn’t going anywhere anytime soon

[gusty holly]

Yeah, it sucks but it happens

[frozen flint]

Yeah this is like the third or fourth time I'm shooting this object though and I still haven't been able to experiment with combining data

I think I might just move on to a different object

[modest walrus]

how good or bad will a Meade 10" truss tube dob be for ap?

planetary and lunar

not expecting to do dso ap with a dob

[modest walrus]

anyone?

[gusty holly]

It would be fine for planetary, what's the f ratio at native fl

[modest walrus]

f/5 @gusty holly

[gusty holly]

It will work just fine

[urban fog]

M51 from a few nights ago, only about 1 minute total exposure (10 secs each sub)

Took about 1 hour of data but DSS won't detect enough stars in most frames haha

[dapper plover]

very promising, I assume it's a tracked dobsonian?

[hollow ether]

Three shots from a few years back when I didn’t have all the gear I have now. It was just me, my 8” sw dob and a a6000. Probably the most fun I had in ap ever.

[stark gorge]

Use astrosurface

[stark gorge]

Dob AP. Basic yet fun. Spending time out under the stars with nothing that can go wrong with your rig.

[hollow ether]

Man I miss those times. Im contemplating getting s used 12” one just to actually and fully enjoy the hobby for once.

[urban fog]

Yup, that's right, it's a 10" on a TMS Astro EQ platform

But it's not GoTo

[urban fog]

Tried it, but unfortunately the stacked images came out terrible

Only reliable option that works for me at the moment is DSS, but will try stacking them soon again in astrosurface to see if I can get it any better

[meager hare]

@frozen flint @gusty holly which program do yall use for stacking?

[sour anchor]

Now I'm part of this group

[stark gorge]

Really? Even with multi star stacking???

I don’t think I’ve ever had a stack fail with it

[sour anchor]

Doing manual tracking with dob is harder than I thought

[gusty holly]

Usually DSS, but Astrosurface or even autostakkert in extreme cases when dss doesn't do the trick

Sometimes my data just doesn't stack no matter what I do

[meager hare]

And you do sharpcap right?

[meager hare]

And do yall just live stack, and then combine everything or do yall just feed the raw stuff into a stacker?

And do yall do flats and darks and all that buisness or just lights?

[gusty holly]

Yes. I usually shoot 3 minute livestacks then stack them in DSS. You'll probably have a sharper image if you do the raw frames but it'll also take much longer to process.

I'd like to use flats and darks but im really bad a taking them apparently. It's kinda of tricky with those too since you might rotate the camera during the session to avoid field rotation. But if you keep your camera in the same orientation during the imaging session then your flats/darks should work well

[stark gorge]

How well lubricated is your base?

[sour anchor]

It's good, the only problem is when it's low on the horizon, on Saturn I didn't have a problem

[urban fog]

Yeah, I must be doing something wrong..

Will try it again tonight and let you know how it went

[viscid pagoda]

Man the hubble optics dob is impossible to collimate

Primary mirror movement is shit

[viscid pagoda]

Is primary out or secondary

[frozen flint]

Looks like both to me

I would start with racking the focuser all the way inwards and trying to get the primary perfectly centred in the secondary

Then move on to primary collimation

[viscid pagoda]

You mean get the center spot in the middle of the cross hair?

Also there are no mirror clips on this dob

@frozen flint

[frozen flint]

Collimate the secondary so that the entire primary is visible through it

It might make it easier to hang a white or coloured sheet of paper behind the secondary as seen through the focuser

You want a perfect black circle around the primary, in the secondary

Like this

As close to perfect as posssible

At that point your secondary collimation should hold for quite a while so you won’t have to touch it again anytime soon

From there primary collimation may need some getting used to but it’ll be a breeze soon enough

[viscid pagoda]

Better?

[frozen flint]

Yeah getting there

Is that the edge of your primary?

[viscid pagoda]

That's the upper truss cage

[frozen flint]

Huh

I think you need to find a way to have the truss cage all around the secondary if you know what I mean

[meager hare]

How long is too long of a sub time for lucky imaging DSOs?

[frozen flint]

I think if you have very steady seeing it doesn’t hurt to go for a few seconds long subs, as long as your tracking allows for it

[sour anchor]

I have the same problem, but mine is GSO

[viscid pagoda]

I think it's good now took way to long to figure it out

[frozen flint]

Yeah looks much better at least

And yeah first time collimating always sucks

[thin marten]

Collimating gets way easier the first few times

[sour anchor]

12" dob first light

[meager hare]

OK, turns out I can actually kind of see polaris from my balcony so I might try polar aligning the eq platform tonight.

[meager hare]

Ok so as kind of a first test, about 14 minutes on M57. Had to lucky image because of the wind. 3 videos stacked in AS3 and then the 3 sub images were stacked in sequator. Gimp for final touches. I'd say its not bad, but it needs a lot more data.

Also btw this was at the native 1200mm. Might try the 3x if tomorrow is clear.

[frozen flint]

Yeah that's not bad at all! Nice!

[meager hare]

Going on vacation in 2 weeks though, so I'll be putting my summer house 10" on that platform under rural bortle 2 skies, shit is gonna get real.

[frozen flint]

You have a summer house where you also have a 10"?

[meager hare]

Its not MY summer house, belongs to someone in my family, but I go there often, and they let me keep a 10” there. I used to do visual for like 5 years before I started imaging in autumn.

[mossy glen]

Well weather is still horrful for me

Litterally havn't had a single clear night, except for 2 during the full moon

+I have my first exams soon so yeah...

[ruby hinge]

Alright, big question but I’ll try and narrow it down. I want to take photos through my 6” dob. I’m trying to go down a low-budget route for the most part (not the best at diy-type stuff, but always willing to try). I am looking to try and get both planets and dso. What do I do?

[mossy glen]

Yeeees finally

It's not perfect but compared to the past few months it's crystal clear

[gilded tundra]

What website or software is this?

[high hamlet]

Meteoblue

[gilded tundra]

Ohh thanks!

Weathers been under lately

For a month and a half actually

I have not seen a clear sky since then

[frozen flint]

1 hour of 0.5s exposures on M94

Did 6 20-minute .ser files, 2400 frames per .ser of which I stacked 50% each

Was actually expecting to have picked up more of the galaxy

Maybe I'll gather more data for it later, but I'm not sure if it'll improve the signal in any way

Or just make the already existing image less noisy

[gentle shard]

150 secs I think (1 sec per)

@dapper plover

[meager hare]

AutoStakkert or Astrosurface?

[frozen flint]

Astrosurface

[stiff eagle]

Why this thing dead?

[gilded tundra]

Which is good? a collimation cap, cheshire collimator eyepiece or laser
My dob came today FINALLY

Im plannning to buy a collimator tool as my dob didnt come with it pretty much

[unreal jackal]

The outer part of that galaxy is mad faint, I've struggled with it before. If you collect more data, it will do both of those. As a result of adding more data, your both smoothing out noise and boosting signal because your able to stretch the data more, bringing out fainter information.

[marsh fossil]

if i understand this correctly, the laser is for collimating ONLY the primary, and the cap is for centering the secondary

[thin marten]

laser good for neither tbh

i speak from experience

just use the collimation cap all the way

[marsh fossil]

did you collimate your laser?

[thin marten]

yes

i used a v block

to be fair though

expensive laser collimators work

but if you're gonna buy like, a cheap one on amazon

don't, they're trash

[mossy glen]

Alright my exams are finished and the clear skies seem to be coming back so i'll probably have some data soon!

[feral ice]

M51
Dobson 15", Player One Poseidon C (2600c), equatorial plateform, baader coma corrector
RGB 1400x1s + 500x2s + 120x4s, 48min
Siril (stacking, alignment, histo), PixInsight (BlurXT, NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat)
Some improvements in mind, still learning...

[mossy glen]

And nevermind the skies are bad again and I won't have access to my scope for a while...

[gilded tundra]

Uhhhh to those orion xt6 owners is this how the secondary mirror screws supposed to be?

Cause how will i turn the screws to collimate???

Isnt it supposed to be the screw heads??

[unreal jackal]

is the secondary loose?

[gilded tundra]

Nope

[unreal jackal]

those screws should be an allen head

[gilded tundra]

My scope is collimated but im worried for the future

[gilded tundra]

Yeah

[unreal jackal]

so you should be able to collimate in the future

idk why theyre sticking out like that tho lol

[gilded tundra]

Aint no way this a mistake right?

[unreal jackal]

should be fine if its tight and doesnt move

[gilded tundra]

I hope so

Well when my dob came after a month of shipping the primary mirror is pretty out of collimation but the secondary is centered

So i hope no worries

It looks and feels stable so phew we safe

[feral ice]

NGC 7023 Iris Nebula, 1500 x 1s = 25min with a small table SW Heritage Dobson 5". PlayerOne 533c uncool camera, manually centered using the drift graph from SharpCap
Siril + PixInsight + Gimp

[dusty sparrow]

Really happy to see this thread is active and well. I just got the AD12 from apertura Dob and just spent the weekend figuring out how to get my old DSLR attached to it. I'm new to this and will need some help from time to time i'm sure. Good pictures everyone! I'll see if I can catch up.

[dusty sparrow]

First Shot! Super excited. I spent the all weekend learning to collimate and focus my camera! So happy.

[sly shale]

send a png so we can see

[dusty sparrow]

Thanks I just got gimp and RawTherapy installed.

Stock, Canon 5D Mark ii, iso 100, 1/15 shutter. Custom adapter to my AD12. It's a bit out of focus i think I will try again soon.

[lime obsidian]

[feral ice]

M20 - Trifid nebula
ZH-1, dobson heritage 130/650 + motors & 2ndary upgrade kit (beta-test)
Player One 533c, UV-IR Cut
120x4s + 60x8s = 16min
Siril (DOF, stack, photometry, histo), PixInsight BlurXT/NoiseXT, Gimp (sat, curves)
2nd of August - Bortle 4 - Moon at 99%

[thin marten]

Very good!

Even though you have pixinsight it didn't seem like you utilized it for this image

Other than BlurX and NoiseX, but Pix has many, many more capability than just that

[feral ice]

Yes I know, I started with Siril and still like it for the speed to stack many photos, then I should progressively learn the other processes that exist in PixInsigth and look very interesting, there is still some marge to progress, which is good !

[unreal jackal]

Mmm yes, my first try at untracked dob astro with my Orion XT8 and QHY 5L-II mono using color data from my tracked rig.

2 min of 300ms subs

Yes 300ms was a bit to long

[dapper plover]

On my dobsonian I can’t focus my dlsr without a Barlow, any ideas on how to fix?

[marsh ridge]

Why in the world do they call dob astrophotography stupid but not any other newtonian scopes

[tender dust]

Planetary AP isn’t stupid with a dob, it’s just the rest of it

[tender dust]

Many newts aren’t designed to reach prime focus with a camera. If you have a truss you can reach focus by shortening the truss. If you have a solid tube you need to mod it so that the mirror is moved further up the shaft.

You might have better luck with an astrocam or mirrorless, because the sensors are further forward and that might be just enough to reach focus. It depends on the scope.

[thin marten]

afaik pretty much every dob/newt will focus with an astro cam since the sensor is really close, like an eyepice almost

[marsh ridge]

I just use autostskkert lol

[urban fog]

Yeah, worked pretty good when I tried it again :)

[stark gorge]

What’s your imaging train look like?

[fickle shore]

You need to move the mirror cell up

In order to fix that

Properly

Or if ur lucky

U may be able to rig something up

[ashen zodiac]

Hey guys, I’ve been looking at used telescopes for a few weeks now and have come to the réalisation that deep sky astrophotography is just too expensive for me. I am now looking at a dobsonian and am wondering if I could use that for planetary astrophotography?

[thin marten]

yes, they are ideal for planetary astrophotography

[ashen zodiac]

Ok

[half tapir]

They work great for visual too, I got mine last year and was out for hours even though I live in bortle 8 skies

I mean they are like the best for beginner visual astronomy

[dapper plover]

taken through my dob last night

[jaunty shuttle]

Hello! I shall join the dob AP cult

[dapper plover]

Yes!!!

[keen orbit]

Hello my fellow dob owners

[meager hare]

Has anyone here ever tried this one with a dob?

[tender dust]

It’s magnitude 13 my dude

Also v.v. small

[meager hare]

Live view

[meager hare]

Im gonna go for it

[meager hare]

A few minutes on M13 from last night

[frozen flint]

Nice work

[meager hare]

Ok so I definitely got something, but for some reason DSS only stacked a very small percent of my total frames, only 383 of around 5300.

[high hamlet]

Wow man looks really really cool

[high hamlet]

Maybe try AS3 surface mode, might have better luck idk

[meager hare]

Both as3 and astrosurface didnt work bcs the nebula and the stars around are really dim, ngc1501 is like mag 13. I think I just need to change the star detection threshold on dss

[high hamlet]

damn rip, hopefully you get that worked out that’ll be awesome

[meager hare]

I think with all of the frames, and some deconvolution, this one’s gonna be really good

[high hamlet]

Agreeeed

[high hamlet]

How long were your subs

[meager hare]

241ms

so like 21 minutes or so

I'm stacking 80% for the resolution, so around 17 minutes total

Didn't have much time bcs I was also shooting m57, and by 3 am the sky was already getting brighter

Ok 2nd attempt stacking, its taking a lot longer now so it’s probably working

[frozen flint]

Damn that’s great for mag 13

I haven’t been able to get a good pic of anything dimmer than mag 8 tbh

Yeah with all the frames I think it’ll be a banger

[thin marten]

Deconvolution probably wont help much

its stupid low SNR data

[meager hare]

Maybe,

Dont have much experience with dso work yet

[thin marten]

And you're doing lucky imaging so i dont think the psf will be as consistent

[stark gorge]

what about astrosurface multi star

[stark gorge]

hmmmmmmmmmmm

[mossy glen]

I still havn't had a single opportunity to test my mount with my dob

[thin marten]

My original point still stands, decon is next to useless on low SNR data

[meager hare]

This?

Holy shit its working

I didn’t even know about this

@stark gorge thank you so much man

Does it matter where I combine my stacks? I like to do it in sequator, is that ok? Or should I do it in dss

[meager hare]

Just look at this beauty

[frozen flint]

Noice

[high hamlet]

Amazing shot right there

[tender dust]

You got it!

[stark gorge]

Np. Image looks great

[feral ice]

Hello, here are some photos made from the SkyWatcher 130/650 table Dobson "heritage" (230€) upgraded with the "ZH-1" project kit including ALT/AZ motors managed by Teensy/TeenAstro + an upgraded 2ndary 3D printed kit, I am a beta-tester and I spend 4 nights of 2-3h playing with it, and it was fun & easy !
I am using a not cooled Player One imx533c and an uv-ir cut filter.
The photos are made of 4s and sometimes 8s frames for a total integration time between 10 and 20min under a bortle 4 during my holidays (none of my 3 children was left out of the car!).
For the processing, I am using Siril (DOF,drizzle x2, stack, photometry, histo), PixInsight BlurXT/NoiseXT/StarnetV2 and Gimp (sat, curves)

M20

M27

M16

M8

M17

NGC 7293 (15° alt)

M13

M51

NGC 7000

NGC 4631

NGC 6960

It seats on a table. The tape is because of a quick maintenance with no tool on site

[tender dust]

Amazing. Nice work!

[tender dust]

What’s the ZH-1 project kit? Google turns up nothing.

[feral ice]

It is a DIY project in beta test still

[marsh ridge]

I just realized

A Lego motor for a tiny refractor 💀

[feral ice]

@marsh ridge with tuning :

sorry in french only so far : https://www.instructables.com/Bring-Your-Heritage-to-the-Moon-/

[feral ice]

2 NEMA17 400 steps at 10€ each

[elder hamlet]

Did you reinforce the focuser? If so how?

Looks like 3D printing but what design

[feral ice]

The secondary part : spider, 2ndary mirror holder, and the 1.25 thread canera side are 3d printed

Then we can fix any focuser like the zwo used for camera guiding which is smooth and precise enough for a single speed, and light

[tender dust]

Ah ok, I’ve seen that, I just didn’t know it was called ZH-1

[marsh fossil]

heritage my beloved

[mossy glen]

Really nice!

I have a few clear nights for the coming nights so hopefully I'll take my first real image with my mount

I think I'll go for crescant, here is the quick result of tonights test (500ms because it was windy and 30 minutes total integration)

Also got quite a lot of data from Io's transit (like almost a million frames)

[feral ice]

.5s is short indeed, so less efficient to get the faintest part, as mine to get the blue-ish Oiii all around. The noise is very low, which is à good point!

1million frames, poor computer that will have to manage the processing !

[mossy glen]

Yep haha

[mossy glen]

It's short but honestly not that much as I have a low read noise cam and relatively high bortle

So the difference between 150 x2 sec and 300 sec isn't that big (except for the computer ^^')

[thin marten]

Whaqa

500ms subs

224mc right?

Insane

[mossy glen]

Yes

[modern jasper]

Dad looking for some advice. 🙂 Son has a skywatcher 200p after upgrading from the “toy” telescopes. We have the basic kit and he loves checking out the planets and now wants to take some photos of what he can see. He has an old Sony a200 camera which I bought an adapter for so it fits onto the telescope. Now if my research is right. (Am a complete noob) the camera just slots into the focuser. The issue we have is that we can’t get focus; the focus is just off; it needs to be just a bit closer but the focus is at the minimum depth. Appreciate any help/advice as want to help him with his newly found passion. 🙂

[wind sigil]

Well there are people that are more experienced then me but I think I can give you an answer 🙂 You can't achieve focus with a dslr on most dobs since the light travels father in a dslr (50-55mm) then you need to for getting the focus just right. So there are 3 solutions (of what I know of...: 1: Try using a Barlow lens (a good one), as this will move the focus point further out, and might achieve focus like this it will get you closer and possibly get better footage of planets. 2:get another camera that can achive focus (mirrorless camera ( a more modern version of a dslr) or astro camera (these can be tricky for beginners as you'll need a computer of some sort to run the software)). 3. move the mirror further up in the tube (not sure how to do that (have seen people doing it on the server though), note: that this requires disassembly of the bottom part of the scope. If I where you I'd get a barlow as the other options (that I know of) are tricky or expensive. NOTE: a dob telescope isn't made for photography as the mount is a alt-az (up and down motion) and not a eq (follows the rotation of the earth. this makes it an inefficient way of photographing deep sky objects. However that are the cheapest good ways to achieve good planetary pictures (the barlow will be good for this) these pictures are taken via. videos and stacked in a software on the computer.

You can take still photos of the planets, but however these photos will be blurry as the atmosphere is quite wobbley

that is why many planetary are achieved via. video because the software will select a the best frames in the video (the ones with the least blur) and stack them to get a evened out clearer shot of the planet. astrobiscuit made a video where he uses this technique... I can try to find it 🙂

found it didn't think it was 5 years old lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYsgyL7I8RI

[modern jasper]

Many many thanks for the help! Time to try again. 🙂

[wind sigil]

no problem, clear skies!!

[topaz coral]

@meager hare ive heard dob dso imagers say astropixel processor is superior for dob dso imaging. Cleaner stacks

The astroimaging channel did an interview with a goto dob dso imager pretty good watch

[meager hare]

Perhaps

I’ll have to give the free trial a try

Anyone know how to delete bad frames under a threshold, but still export the result as a video? I want to lucky image, but Astrosurface multi-star has worked best for me so far in terms of stacking success, so I figure I can have the best of both worlds by taking bad frames out of the video before stacking.

[topaz coral]

Run it through pipp to have the bad frames at the end od the avi maybe?

[meager hare]

Astrosurface multistar still gonna stack all the frames tho