Dobsonian Astrophotography

[topaz coral]

Stack in autostackert then select the best %

[meager hare]

Autostakkert doesnt work for me when there are no bright stars next to the target

[frozen flint]

You can select an amount of frames to include in Astrosurface

[meager hare]

Normally yeah but I didn’t see this option when stacking multi-star

[frozen flint]

How do you normally stack?

I thought for altaz you always do multi-star

The derotation thing

[meager hare]

This right?

This is an old screenshot btw, I cant check rn Im very far away from my laptop

[frozen flint]

Yes yes that’s it

You open that and in the options bar at the top you should be able to adjust the amount of frames being included

[meager hare]

Aight Ill try when I get back

[mossy glen]

Well my few days of clear skies turned into one cloudy night, one windy night and one cloudy and windy night :/

[inner stone]

What beginner astrocam would you guys recommend for a Starfield 8 inch dobsonian?

[unreal jackal]

Planetary or DSO imaging?

[stark gorge]

Uranus c. Does great planetary and deep space.

[inner stone]

any videos of people using the Uranus-C with a dob?

can't seem to find one

[stark gorge]

lemme find mine

you want target live views or?

[stark gorge]

deep space or planetary?

[inner stone]

can I do both?

planetary to start

[stark gorge]

sure

lemme find them

[stark gorge]

Can only find 2.

Unless you count ones without my current setup. Eg diy Barlow or no Uranus c

[inner stone]

thanks

what software do you use?

[stark gorge]

Either firecapture or sharpcap.

Depends what I’m doing

[inner stone]

and how do you keep your scope steady on Saturn and the Moon?

I'm guessing you do it manually?

[stark gorge]

tracking

but i used to do it manually yeah

[inner stone]

how did you get tracking on an 8 inch dob?

[stark gorge]

i have a 14" goto now

[inner stone]

ah I see

[inner palm]

Could someone run me through how they process close up moon shots (untracked), I tried following tutorials but none are dedicated for untracked. I shot images of a crater the same way I do with planetary (letting it drift, then starting back up and repeating). I ended up with multiple videos and I tried running it through PIPP and joining the videos together but it doesn't center the crater it just crops a little in and shows it drifting through and repeating while it cycles through the videos. I tried to stack it but it just came out a complete mess.

[elder hamlet]

Have the same issue

[inner palm]

@elder hamlet I ended up just having to put each video into autostakkert, export all the frames, and go through the frames and take out the ones where the crater was not fully visible. Also make sure the crater is roughly around the same position in the screen

I did not end up using PIPP, I just put all those frames together in a file and just stacked it and used registax

[elder hamlet]

ah ok thanks

[meager hare]

Got the galaxy next to m57, albeit I had to absolutely deepfry the image to bring it out, you can kinda see one of the spiral arms.

[unreal jackal]

It should a bit more visible if you correct the tint on the background

[meager hare]

Maybe, still its way too dim to include in the final image

[unreal jackal]

Maybe so, but that one color correction will improve the image as whole.

Really nice detail on the Ring btw

[feral ice]

Cocoon nebula IC 5146
Dobson 15", Player One Poseidon C (2600c), TEPP equatorial plateform, no auto-guiding
RGB uv-ircut 1034x16s, 4h36 at all
Siril (stacking, alignment, histo), PixInsight (BlurXT, StarXT, NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat)

[ebon zenith]

DAYUM how many images stacked together

[feral ice]

1034

[stark gorge]

Went dobbing last night

This one needs work. So does the M16.

[frozen flint]

Good stuff from the new 14”

[meager hare]

very nice

[unreal jackal]

These are insane

[stark gorge]

thanks

[stark gorge]

Fixed up the edits on these two

[stark gorge]

possible target

so rich

ok this is cool

[meager hare]

What exposure and integration?

[stark gorge]

5 mins on saturn and i think 15 on m16 with 160ms for saturn and 1280ms for m16

[frozen flint]

Amazing stuff LMC

[unreal jackal]

This is sick

Gotta try some more serious dob astro when I get a hold of a 533.

[dapper plover]

This is done with Dobson on EQ i suppose?

[dapper plover]

Are you using EQ platform?

[unreal jackal]

With 160ms subs I don't think he is lol

[stark gorge]

Nope just GOTO alt az

The 160ms subs were to try and chase the low frequency seeing. I had pretty odd seeing. Good for a second or so then bad for a second or so.

[stark gorge]

This image was 2.5s subs from memory

[unreal jackal]

Oh lucky imaging I see, paid off.

[dapper plover]

What focal length and camera?

[stark gorge]

1650mm and Uranus C

[stark gorge]

needs better stacking. might try pix

[dapper plover]

Are you happy with the camera? Better value than equivalent ZWO?

[stark gorge]

very. its better value imo

[stark gorge]

Finalised image

[dapper plover]

Nice.
I hope I will be able to get EQ platform for my 16” to get such photos one day lol.

This cam is much more expensive in UK. 540£ 😦

[native ermine]

heres a picture i did with a canon 750d and heritage 150p, the kid can expect something liek this
(i used a live view video method linking laptop and dslr)

[stark gorge]

Really? They do free shipping afaik and the cam is $349 usd on sale. 399 normal

[dapper plover]

20% vat and perhaps other fees too

[stark gorge]

Ah. Worth it though

@rigid stratus how much did you pay all up for your Uranus in the UK?

[rigid stratus]

About £500

[unreal jackal]

That's wild

[dapper plover]

They are releasing cheaper cam too maybe i will get that.

[worldly fjord]

how do yall do astro with dob without trackign

[unreal jackal]

Short exposures high gain and much patience

[worldly fjord]

how short usually

<1000ms?

[stark gorge]

depends on target and if yr dob has tracking. i was doing 80ms exposures on bin 1 with my 8" 1200mm and uranus c

[worldly fjord]

jesus

[stark gorge]

with the goto dob i can do 1-5s

[worldly fjord]

how long did it take to stack

[stark gorge]

20h on my 4th gen i7 laptop

[worldly fjord]

damn bruh 💀

and ur bortle is pretty low too

it prolly take me way more integration to get what u have lol

[stark gorge]

depends on target

some PNs are so bright a few seconds of data is good enough to see detail

[worldly fjord]

yeah true like orion

[ebon zenith]

whats the first image

[dapper plover]

5s ain't that bad.

[stark gorge]

Saturn neb

[worldly fjord]

@stark gorge you use firecapture for capturing?

[stark gorge]

Sharpcap normally. Firecapture for planetary

[worldly fjord]

its free?

[stark gorge]

Yeah

But I bought the pro version. It’s like $10 or something for the year.

Mainly for the solar eclipse.

I highly recommend the pro version for the sequencer feature I used for that.

[dapper plover]

through the 5" minidob

[worldly fjord]

do i need it for dsos tho

necessary?

[stark gorge]

No

[dapper plover]

using it from space?

[dapper plover]

i wish

[dapper plover]

you still must have very good seeing i guess

[dapper plover]

that was the only day ive ever had seeing that good

this was my best saturn before that night

Imagine how boring Saturn would look without the rings though.

fr

[worldly fjord]

yeah tru

ring is disappearing tho so cap while u can fr

[dapper plover]

Yeah

For me it's the most beautiful planet with the rings.

[worldly fjord]

how do you stack with no stars

@stark gorge

[stark gorge]

I get stars in my image

[worldly fjord]

like i can align it using pipp but dss is not picking up more than 1-2 stars

[stark gorge]

Some targets have hardly any and it’s really painful

[worldly fjord]

its one star 💀

[stark gorge]

Use SiriL 3 star or astrosurface 2 or 3 star

[worldly fjord]

oh yeah astrosurface

[stark gorge]

What if you stretch. Your raw data is too dark too

I run my histogram above 30%. Normally 50%

[worldly fjord]

its max gain and the max esp rip

[stark gorge]

Are you running a iPhone 2 or something

[worldly fjord]

im not sure why its dark

it was bright before

i think i just touched something in sharpcap and it became dark lol

bc at max gain it shouldn't be that dark anyway

oh naw

it was pretty bad seeing

pretty bad and wasn't even in focus

[meager hare]

Is it possible to lucky image with astrosurface multi-star? I’m not seeing an option for that. Can someone show me a screen-grab where I could find this if it exists?

[frozen flint]

@meager hare

But yeah I don't think there's an option to use the best % of a file

[frozen flint]

The 1-N button

[meager hare]

But I could theoreticaly sort from best to worst in pipp, and then use a range in astrosurface?

[frozen flint]

Does PIPP do quality sorting for dso?

[meager hare]

Idk, I know it does some kind of sorting, not sure how good it is.

[frozen flint]

If it does then yeah I guess that works, but yeah not sure how good it's sorting algorithm is for dso. I mean it's called Planetary Imaging Pre-Processor after all lol

[meager hare]

Yeah

It does have a lunar closeup mode, so it might work, gonna test it with old data later.

[unreal jackal]

Trapezium Cluster at 1200mm with my QHY 5L-mono (125ms subs at gain 29)

[thin marten]

I always forget you have a dob

[unreal jackal]

Lol yerr

[teal oriole]

Hercules cluster. not the full potential of a 10 inch dob lol

[feral ice]

NGC 891
Dobson 15", Player One Poseidon C (2600c), TEPP equatorial plateform, no auto-guiding
RGB uv-ircut 812x8s=1h48
Siril (stacking, alignment, histo), PixInsight (BlurXT, StarXT, NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat)
Bortle 6

[dapper plover]

I want to be blessed with this platform one day.
It's not being made anymore is it?

[feral ice]

Unfortunately it is stopped, I bought one of the 2 last 😦

I still have to learn about the autoguiding configuration to increase the unit exposure time

[meager hare]

What acquisition program do you use? And do you save your data as video or as individual images?

[feral ice]

I do aquisition and star focus/pushto target/EAA using SharpCap and savings as fits, 8s exposure for this one, but it could be as a .ser if there are 1000s

[meager hare]

K

[feral ice]

I reject about 30% of the images at postprocessing because of the tracking being not good enough

[meager hare]

Manually or does siril do that for you, idk bcs I’ve never used it before.

[feral ice]

Using Siril, yes, and criteria around the FWHM and wFWHM, the curves are linear up to 80% then they increase because of the tracking issues, I cut when it is no longer linear

And I use the Student algorithm to integrate all of the good ones

[meager hare]

Thx

[feral ice]

NGC 7331, Stephan's Quintet and neighbours
Dobson 15", Player One Poseidon C (2600c), TEPP equatorial plateform, no auto-guiding
RGB uv-ircut 1437x8s=3h12
Siril (stacking, alignment, histo), PixInsight (BlurXT, StarXT, NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat)
Bortle 6

[warped comet]

yo, that is insane!

[dapper plover]

Thats a mosaic?

[feral ice]

Not a mosaic but 4 sessions with field rotation, so the crop... The table is lasting for 1h30 before going back, including manual star hoping, focusing, etc.

I should improve and rotate the camera between each

[dapper plover]

Don’t really understand lol

[feral ice]

NGC 7814 (5 arcmin) and neighbors
Dobson 15", Player One Poseidon C (2600c), TEPP equatorial plateform, no auto-guiding
RGB uv-ircut 612x8s=1h22
Siril (stacking, alignment, histo), PixInsight (BlurXT, StarNet V2, NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat), drizzle x2
Bortle 6

[viscid pagoda]

damn

[inner stone]

I know the skywatcher 14 inch dob has a go to mount (with tracking if I remember correctly?). Are there any mounts similar to that one that I could use on my 8 inch dob?

[frozen flint]

A Dobsonian telescope is a Newtonian optical tube on a rocker base. If you want tracking on your 8” Dob you can buy a tracking EQ plate, which afaik are only handmade in small batches in most cases. Another option is installing motors on the rocker base of your current 8” Dob, I think that’s a thing some people do. Or you could get an EQ mount that can support the weight of the 8” OTA from a Dobsonian (200/1200mm I assume?), which will be at least an EQ6R most likely.

If you include accessories like finderscope, eyepieces or cameras and Barlows and stuff like that if you’re going to image with it

[frozen flint]

Also the EQ plates don’t have GoTo. Which means you’ll still have to aim at your target manually. From there on the EQ plate will track that target, generally for around an hour until you have to reset it

[feral ice]

And SharpCap has a new feature that enable easy manual targetting, "push-to" with a looping platesolve & ALT-AZ movements calculations 🙂

You can center a target in 5min even with a long focal length

NGC 6946, the firework galaxy !
Dobson 15", Player One Poseidon C (2600c), TEPP equatorial plateform, no auto-guiding
RGB uv-ircut 1982x8s=4h24
Siril (stacking, alignment, histo), PixInsight (BlurXT, StarsXT, NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat)
Bortle 6

[dapper plover]

Got a link to see more on that?

[feral ice]

Here is the thread, I am not sure it is documented yet : https://forums.sharpcap.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=35967

I suggested it to the dev and he deployed it only some weeks after

[stuck willow]

With 8 inch dob, ASI178MC, and 2x Barlow

[dapper plover]

.. and here's my attempt, I have no clue how you're making those images so beautiful and noiseless but I suspect it's the camera. (ASI224MC user here)

Could also be atmospheric conditions, which were quite great this evening but Jupiter was still quite low on the horizon (25-30 degrees)

this is looking better I think... just decided to reduce the sharpening in registax

[stuck willow]

This was mine from June with the same equipment minus my 2x Barlow lens. It’s mostly about having good seeing and knowing your equipment

[royal badger]

Looks incredible!

Here is my shot of Saturn with the same setup

[feral ice]

PacMan nebula with a Dobson
Dobson 15", Player One Poseidon C (2600c), L-Ultimate, TEPP equatorial plateform, no auto-guiding
190 x 16s = 51min - first time narrowband with relatively short exposures
Siril (stacking, alignment, histo), PixInsight (Blur/Star/NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat)
Bortle 6

[sinful idol]

Thats Some Of them i Made Trough my Dobson

[royal badger]

My best shots so far with my 8" dob

[teal oriole]

fgcy jddjsu

[wary oak]

Does anybody know a good tutorial to make an acurate eq platform for my 12" dob?

[wary oak]

untracked orion core at 0.3 seconds with a 12'' omegon dob, hand tracked

[exotic zodiac]

Just got my first dob

[exotic zodiac]

All set up now

[mossy glen]

Received my 10 inch dob now!

First pic with horrible collimation

[teal oriole]

wow I really should collimate the dob I have shouldnt I

[mossy glen]

Yep it will help a lot! I already improved mine and it looks so much better

[vestal olive]

Took it with my cellphone

[ancient sable]

plaeides with zhumell z100

& iphone 7

[ancient sable]

merope nebula

hyper exposer

[exotic zodiac]

First photo with 8inch dob (+iphone)

[exotic zodiac]

Edited it a bit

[marsh fossil]

from heritage to 10 inch

congrats man

[marsh fossil]

i realized i've been collimating my hertige wrong, yesterday i got very good collimation and could say it was a 50% improvement on resolution

[teal oriole]

ok?

wait darn I'm stupid

[marsh fossil]

you should do it...

[teal oriole]

don't discord while tired

[mossy glen]

Thanks 😁 Obviously I have plenty of clouds now but from the few things I saw it's simply awesome!

The live view on jupiter, even with average seeing and bad collimation, was outstanding

[lean cairn]

do i have to take light dark and bias frames

[thin marten]

Dark no

Bias yes

Lights yes

[mossy glen]

I think it depends on your cam don't you? Uranus C and most recent cams don't have any amp glow but with my 224mc it's quite strong and darks help a lot

Also lights are not necessary IF you're untracked and using a narrow fov (like with a planetary cam)

[mossy glen]

It's been a while btw, how are you doing?

[thin marten]

good, you?

[thin marten]

wait what

oh wait, he might mean flats

but lights are literally your image

[golden kernel]

There are lots of different plans online, i didn't end up using them because they seemed very complex. I made my own using the basic principles and it works ok but "accurate" is the key word. And i am not to confident of the translation to my steps taken to someone else to build / hand it out and then someone getting an "accurate" platform to use. But lots of people have asked on my Youtube channel so i will maybe look to do something soon and just say its not 100% certain you will get 10 second subs at 1500mm but for planetary imaging and most people it will be fine. Hope this helps. All the best. Damo

[wary oak]

Thanks, sounds great! I just wanna track the planets for a few minutes

That’s about it

[golden kernel]

There are 2 videos on my youtube about my EQ platform, have a look and see if that is what you are thinking.

[mossy glen]

Lmao

It was very late

I was very tired

But yeah

Lights are pretty important

Congrats on mega nerd!

[mossy glen]

Not so good but at least I now have a good 10 inch dob

[thin marten]

Oh hell yeah, an upgrade

[mossy glen]

I think the best part is I don't have to deal with the wobbly focuser of the heritage anymore

But the weather is crap...

[static sierra]

I also have something to add finally :D
20" dob + uranus-c on eq-platform. No UV/IR-cut unfortunately

[frozen flint]

Very beautiful

[static sierra]

[hidden berry]

Is your platform diy?

Im planning to try construct one relatively soon for my 12”

[static sierra]

its the spacewalk-telescopes trackie

was 500€ I think

[past crane]

I’m planning on taking a image of the ISS, has anyone here done that with a untracked dob?

[mossy glen]

Yep, totally doable! Having a tracking system doesn't help there (except if you have an advanced one)

It won't be easy though, give yourself a few tries before being disappointed

Try at a short focal lenght, it's easier

[mossy glen]

Beautiful! Btw your tarentula picture is amazing

[past crane]

Ok, thanks.

[mossy glen]

If you need any technical advice don't mind asking, it's been a while since I haven't done it but I've been able to get quite a nice result from my heritage 130p

[dapper plover]

Holy shit

[high hamlet]

Here’s my best effort with a 6” dob

wait the compression is awful wtf

why did it send as a jpg..

[past crane]

looks really good, is that untracked?

[high hamlet]

Thanks! And yeah untracked

[dapper plover]

My heritage 130p could visually make out a weird looking blob

[cinder flower]

I’ve never seen a more detailed image of the core of Orion fr, this is amazing. The solar system is rlly apparent in this image too

[mossy glen]

First DSO light of my new dob! 10 inch at F5 with 224mc. Details are not bad considering the poor seing and collimation

[frozen flint]

Nice!

[wary oak]

Tracked?

[mossy glen]

Yep but 500ms subs

[high hamlet]

looking really swag

[wary oak]

This is my first try at Orion with my dob, but untracked, looks ok in my opinion

@mossy glen

[mossy glen]

For a first try it definitively does! May I ask more infos?(camera, total intergration time...)

[wary oak]

Sure

It’s a single image taken at 1500mm fl f5

At about 0.3 sec exposure

With an imx224

In sharpcap

Not stacked

[mossy glen]

For a single image it's really good, unfortunately you can't get that much without stacking...

I guess it's quite hard to take many frames at this fl untracked

[wary oak]

Yea, it’s super hard

I wanna make an eq platform for it

But idk where to start

I have a 3d printer that could help, and I know how to use arduino

[mossy glen]

I'm talking from experience; it will change your life

[wary oak]

I bet

[mossy glen]

If you have the courage to do its yourself, good luck! I don't think it's super hard and there's loads of online tutorials but it's definitively time consuming
There's also quite a lot of people that offer them around the globe, I got mine from Hungary for 450€

[wary oak]

Where did you buy it from

Hungary is close to me

[mossy glen]

https://tms-astro.webnode.hu/

The guy was really nice and the table is of pretty good quality

Not good enough for long subs (mainly because of periodic error) but still enough to make visual observation a breeze and good lucky imaging (of planets and DSOs) possible

Now I have to go to sleep 😅 Have a nice day

[wary oak]

You too

[cinder flower]

@static sierra sorry to ping you but have u tried doing the iss with the 20” yet?

[static sierra]

not yet, didn't have a pass and good weather at the same time :/

[cinder flower]

Ah, well, hopefully it’ll happen at some point

Here’s my current best and only really acceptable attempt I’ve had on it with my 8” so far

[static sierra]

this is my 8" try 😅

[cinder flower]

Much better then mine fr

[cinder flower]

Btw, what barlows and cam did u use for that? cuz that’s rlly sharp for just a 8” dob

[static sierra]

I think it was just the asi462 at native

I only have a 5x barlow

[marsh fossil]

hey, for those of you using a heritage 130p, is there a coma corrector for it???

[thin marten]

No

Coma corrector are not produced for 1.25" focuser

[marsh fossil]

damn it

[thin marten]

There used to be one but I believe it's no longer in production, even then it was expensive

[marsh fossil]

i'll have to live with the coma

[cinder flower]

“Only” xD Im stuck here with a cheap 2x lol

[exotic zodiac]

Is it possible to get the ISS tracking with my hands

My telescope ain’t robotic

[past crane]

Yeah, most people get it untracked. I’m just waiting until the clouds clear so I can do it myself.

[exotic zodiac]

Bro how

I can barely find objects when they are standing still

[cinder flower]

Iss is rlly bright but you’ll have to have a finder scope or a red dot finder for finding it, once u get the hang of hand tracking it isn’t hard, but most people use a program called satellite tracker which will fixate on the objects which makes things super easy todo

[exotic zodiac]

Mhm gotcha

[teal oriole]

I've found that a red dot is arguably better than a finderscope in that regard due to the larger fov

[mossy glen]

First try at M82, not too bad considering it's only 2 minute of 500ms subs 😆

[elder hamlet]

10inch dob right?

[mossy glen]

Yep

[elder hamlet]

A single 40 second video processed like how I process planetary and i was surprise and how decent it came out

[mossy glen]

I finally mastered my eq platform's alignement
At 400x magnification, I pointed at jupiter and 20min later it barely moved from the center of the eyepiece

[past crane]

On a dobsonian?, how does this work?

[teal oriole]

don't think it's a dob at that point

[cinder flower]

nah, its called a dob still, unless its got a fully different mount, then it would be called a newt

[vestal olive]

Anyone here recommends me to motorize my dobson and if yes give me some tips for it?

[feral ice]

IC 434 HorseHead nebula, IC 435 and the NGC 2024 The Flam nebula
Dobson 15", TEPP equatorial plateform, Player One Poseidon C (2600c)
UVIR-cut 867x4s=58min & 250x16s=1h07 + L-Extreme for Ha 225x16s=1h, 3h05 overall
Siril (stacking, histo), GraXPert, PixInsight (Blur/Star/NoiseXT), the Gimp (lumi, sat)
Bortle 6

[mossy glen]

Yep it's a dobsonian (the 10" ultralight from explore scientific)

I simply put it on my eq platform from TMS astro

[elder hamlet]

What exposures can you get out of it with it

[mossy glen]

Haven't had the occasion to test with the great polar alignement as the wind was quite strong, however with a rough pa I've been able to take 2sec pics which is more than enough for what I want to do

The problem is the periodic error which is quite strong

[feral ice]

M1 for 2h16

[mossy glen]

Nice!

[hazy trail]

Orion untracked 13 min with the 4.5" orion starblast tabletop dob

this was my first attempt with this scope, and I didn't dither at all (hence the walking noise). Plus, I didn't take any calibration frames. I will try again and dither and take cali frames

[vestal olive]

Tucanae 47 with a 2sec exposure only with a samsung A52

[static sierra]

20min of 200ms subs with the 20" :)

[stark gorge]

very nice

[dapper plover]

ISS january 25th 2024.
Not much to say, it's overexposed but it still was an insane improvement.

8" dobsonian(untracked)
Zwo asi 224mc
Celestron 2x barlow
Svbony uv/ir filter.

Only used pipp, single frame.

[mossy glen]

I don't know what it will look like but it may be fun

[heady heron]

update with any results :)

[past crane]

looking very good

[mossy glen]

Clouds...

[woeful acorn]

I know this is the Dobsonian thread but what is "actually" better
A Dobsonian with a field derotator
Or
A German Equatorial Mount

Sure for BIG Mirrors the Dob definetally wins in ease of construction
But for an 8" Primary ?

[tender dust]

For photography, a GEM, easily. A field rotator would just rotate the camera, not the entire tube, meaning the diffraction caused by the secondary supports would spread across the frame as it rotates.

[woeful acorn]

Ah, didn't consider that
Fair enough

[woeful acorn]

I mean technically you could build it to rotate the entire tube but I feel like that's just gonna be overengineering at that point

[mossy glen]

I just tested it and it works just fine! The diffraction patterns are nice except from my spider's spikes that kinda mess it up and it's really beautiful when it's unfocused

[past crane]

You gotta show us.

[mossy glen]

I'll take a picture when clouds will be gone (so in a long long time...)

[stray galleon]

how much of an improvement can a shroud make for a 130p dob at b8

[mossy glen]

I did one for my heritage 130p and even in B4/moonless nights there's quite a bit of improvement

[stray galleon]

hi fellow 130p owner, oh dope ig its time to get crafty

[tender dust]

For the Heritage 130p or solid tube? Mandatory for the Heritage, I’d say.

[old scroll]

Do you have any picture off maybe planets or/and nebulas and galaxies with your telescope to share???

[mossy glen]

Yep! I know have a 10" es dob but I took a few pics with the 130p

All untracked so not so great...

[old scroll]

Can you send pls I just buy 150P hertiage and I want to know what to expect if possible 😅😅

[mossy glen]

Also that's in b4 with a planetary camera

(the 224mc)

[old scroll]

Wow is all that untracked ??

[mossy glen]

Yep!

[old scroll]

WOWWOWOWOW is that the 130 or 250?

Mm

[stray galleon]

How do you combine all your shots into one?

[stark gorge]

Photoshop

[mossy glen]

It's the 130

I've only taken this one with my 250

[stray galleon]

I’ve yet to properly see Jupiter cuz I haven’t gotten my Barlow yet

[mossy glen]

Just sold my 224mc and soon getting my uranus c

[dapper plover]

8" b4

Asi224

[old scroll]

Wow

[dapper plover]

Thanks

[elder hamlet]

Hi, was this using lucky imaging? And how did you process it? Currently I’m using AS4 but don’t know if it is the right program for deep sky lucky imaging stacking.

[static sierra]

Yes thats lucky imaging

I use sharpcaps fwhm filter and live stacking

I collect 60s stacks which I then blink, weight and stack again

[wary oak]

@static sierra do you do lucky imaging by video or multiple short exposure pictures

[static sierra]

Multiple images

[ornate gale]

How, untracked and planetary cam with a 130 is crazy. Do you have a tutorial for the DSO and planetary

[mossy glen]

Well jupiter is from the tracked 250, but the others are from the untracked 130 indeed

I'm planning on doing a tutorial some day but I'm undergoing exams atm

[ornate gale]

Oh okay I was going to say what am I doing wrong if your 130 was getting way better images than my 200 dob. But still the DSO’s are really well done. And best of luck to you with you exams just wrapped up my midterms

[mossy glen]

Still impossible for me to test the tms platform with my dob as over the clouds I don't even have a camera any more BUT I tried tonight with my dslr, 210mm crapy stock lens and rough polar alignement and I was able to take 30 sec subs with pinpoint stars

[frosty eagle]

Holy that is amazing

Like a nasa image

[teal oriole]

zac that was over a year agoo

[frosty eagle]

oh dam

[frosty eagle]

i did not realise

[teal oriole]

lol

[heady heron]

Hey guys, I'm having this issue with my dob. When I align it to my target, the second I let go it drops a couple mm. I have it tightened as much as I can to try and stop it from dropping. Has anyone experienced this?

[elder hamlet]

Try balance it better by adding weight at the right end

[heady heron]

I was using a Barlow and some new lenses for the first time and didnt consider the weight distribution. I'll try again without them tonight and see if I have the same issue. Thanks!

[past crane]

What equipment did you use?

[stark gorge]

14” goto and Uranus c.

[mossy glen]

It's tiiime

[elder hamlet]

Uranus c ?

[wary oak]

Niceee

[mossy glen]

Yep

[elder hamlet]

Beautiful

[mossy glen]

5 minutes of data+ 40kph constant wind+ almost full moon rising+ LOTS of clouds so extremly low transparency+ the worst seeing I've ever seen in my entire life (I could barely resolve JUPITER)+30sec process

Yeah I think I'll have another try before calling it first light

[severe rampart]

AMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZIING

[stray galleon]

thats amazing

[stray galleon]

whats ur secrets to doing so well while untracked

[mossy glen]

Being tracked :)

It was still 500ms subs because my polar alignement was non existent and the wind was just horrful (I was imaging from inside my closed garage...)

[elder hamlet]

Do you take a video in firecapture?

[mossy glen]

I prefer sharpcap for DSOs

[elder hamlet]

What do you do to capture in sharp cap?

[wary oak]

lucky imaging Mizar, with a 12" dob untracked at native f/5 with an imx224

[stray galleon]

whats lucky imaging?

[wary oak]

Taking a short exposure video of an object and than stacking the frames

Or that’s just how I do it

[stray galleon]

isnt that only for planets and moon?

[wary oak]

No, it works for deepsky too

[stray galleon]

oh didnt know

[wary oak]

I think astrobiscuit has a video about it

[stray galleon]

how short of a exposure? cuz im untracked aswell and i do 250ms shots but not vids

[wary oak]

I do 200-300ms

Then take a short capture of 100 frames

[mossy glen]

Looking good so far!

[mossy glen]

5 minute stack

[high hamlet]

Sweet

[mossy glen]

Preliminary process

[frozen flint]

Very nice, did you apply any deconvolution?

[mossy glen]

I used Siril's RL decon

I will ask for someone to BlurX it for me I think

[frozen flint]

Cool

And what sort of exposures & gain did you use?

Looks like lucky imaging

[mossy glen]

2s subs, not enough to have the full benefit of lucky imaging but still an improvement

I don't really have the choice at 1270mm without guiding on an eq platform anyway

[frozen flint]

Ah

Well still looks miles better than my attempt at M51 with 3-6s subs and 80mins integration time lol

[stray galleon]

What does guiding do that tracking doesn’t ?

[thin marten]

Guiding makes active corrections to tracking errors

Tracking is just tracking

[stray galleon]

What’s the name of these guiding equipments?

[thin marten]

You can get a guide scope & guide camera

[stray galleon]

Thanks

[marsh fossil]

less go, i got mine a few months ago

have fun

[bold ridge]

@mossy glen what's your rig

[mossy glen]

10" dob, Uranus C and TMS eq platform

[severe rampart]

this must be one of the best forums out here

[wary oak]

https://www.olx.ro/d/oferta/filtru-astronomic-hot-stars-h-alpha-pentru-ocularele-de-1-25-inch-IDhpZV8.html

Opinion about this filter

For visual astronomy

Is it good ?

[tender dust]

Amazing. How much total exposure time?

[stray galleon]

my first attempt at orions nebula, heritage 130p with touptek imx290 sensor cam at a total of 55min integration time B8-9

[mossy glen]

40 minutes!

[tender dust]

https://tenor.com/view/kto-kounotori-kounotoritoken-lbow-storkholders-gif-25676483

[ebon zenith]

How do you attatch a camera to a dob?

[teal oriole]

you can get an adapter if its a dslr

[ebon zenith]

how much do those cost

[teal oriole]

prolly like 50 bucks or so, (overpriced) or 3d print one

[ebon zenith]

https://www.costco.com/explore-scientific-dobsonian-10"-truss-tube-telescope-black.product.100505499.html
also does anyone have a recommendation for a finder scope for this scope? I wanted to make sure I have a good one as many reviews say that the finder scope it comes with is hard to use.

[teal oriole]

the orion finderscopes are pretty good

[ebon zenith]

k

ty

is the scope good or could I get a better scope for around $50 more?

[stark gorge]

single 2", RD screenshot.

[wary oak]

What scope?

[stark gorge]

14" goto

[wary oak]

What bortle ?

Do you think that I could see it visually in a b4 with a 12”?

[stark gorge]

3

It’s insanely bright btw

Easily visible with binoculars

[wary oak]

Nice

So I should see it

Imma give it a try

[stark gorge]

1h stack

[wary oak]

Damn

Looks insanely good

I will give this a try after I get my Eq platform

What’s this ?

[stark gorge]

Bad sub

[stray galleon]

Has anyone here ever tried using a focal reducer on their dob?

[viscid pagoda]

insane

UranusC?

[stark gorge]

ya

[ebon zenith]

can I attatch a sky watcher flex tube 10 inch dob to a sky watcher eq mount?

[oblique solstice]

what type of sky watcher EQ?

you'd have to fabricate a mounting plate/dovetail I think, which shouldn't be too much work depending on your skill level

something that big would probably need at least an EQ-6 if not heavier duty

yea the OTA alone is 33lbs, plus any kit you put on it would add a bunch more weight

there's probably some forums discussing/trying the same thing

[ebon zenith]

k tysm bro

[oblique solstice]

No problem, just make sure you do a bunch of research so you don't miss any steps if you plan on doing it

[mossy glen]

The background is atrocious but that's to except for 30 mins of data

[old scroll]

Wow

[wary oak]

2 nights of improvement on the same target

Got this as well

12” dob untracked with lucky imaging, and an imx224 1500fl f5 an bortle 4 class sky

[stray galleon]

Ayoo how'd you get that one untracked

[wary oak]

With lucky imaging, I took a 500 frames video, each frame 300ms, stacked them in astrosurface than I processed them in siril

[stray galleon]

i tried finding that same nebula with my 130p and i couldnt find it

tbf i am in b8 so that might be it

[wary oak]

That could be a problem

But it’s quite bright

You should be able to find it

It will definitely be visible with a light pollution filter

[stray galleon]

dont those not do much if you have a different type of street light near you?

[wary oak]

Idk, I don’t really need one, for street light you could use a dew shield

[stray galleon]

i dont rlly have any lights directly facing my scope

[wary oak]

So a light pollution filter would suit you

[stray galleon]

anything specific? or any random one will do

iirc last time i tried i managed to get to the star i circled but then from there i struggled to find it

my sensor is quite small so my fov isnt all that great either, touptek imx290

[wary oak]

I would find it first with an eye pice and than put the camera in

[wary oak]

You need to find that yourself, I don’t really know

[stray galleon]

Oh is that how you usually find your targets?

[wary oak]

Yea, it’s way harder to find them with just the camera in my opinion

[stray galleon]

Is that nebula gonna be visible to my eyes tho?

[sour anchor]

This morning's Saturn, first light from Neptune-C-II

[wary oak]

Probably

[sour anchor]

Mars this morning

[sour anchor]

Mercury

[severe rampart]

holy moly

[ornate gale]

What’s your specs?

[barren merlin]

Hi im kinda new in astrophotography I want to buy a dobsonian in the budget of 1000$ for deep sky object can someone recomand some dobsonians?

[old scroll]

Dobsonian is not the best for astrophotography if it’s not on a eq mount. An 8 inch Dobsonian will do the job tho and it’s relatively cheap (600$) new at least in Europe.

[barren merlin]

What do you think about skywatcher dobson 10 inch?

[old scroll]

Awesome 😎 Atleast from what I’ve seen on YouTube! But one problem with all the big scopes is that you might lose the interest in taking it out every night.

[old scroll]

But as I said, astrophotography with a Dobsonian can be hard

Other from that I think that the 10” is awesome

[sour anchor]

GSO 12"

[woeful flicker]

Miss this guy

Also imaging the sun is a different animal

[novel grotto]

anyone know what could be causing these weird stars on the right side. It’s not my exposure time because the other side is fine.

and it’s not collimation

[stray galleon]

Coma?

[novel grotto]

can that only affect one side though lmao

[stark gorge]

Tilt

[novel grotto]

yeah that’s what everyone keeps telling me

my camera came with a tilt plate i jus don’t know how to use it

[dapper plover]

Asi224mc
ISS
Untracked 8"
Svbony uv/ir
2x barlow
Netherlands
Registax
8" dobsonian

ISS

[elder hamlet]

thats insane

[dapper plover]

Thanks😃 third try already.. I forgot to mention I used a 2x barlow and registax

[elder hamlet]

nice work

[dapper plover]

Thanks. First time it being 3D

[karmic barn]

Now is my time to join the dob family

[wary oak]

3 of my best captures tonight, 12” dob, imx224, gso2.5x, 3750fl

One more

[ornate gale]

What iso and exposure did you use?

[dapper plover]

Don't know

@ornate gale 52 gain 1ms exposure

[ornate gale]

Perfect will try that whenever I get clear skies

[high hamlet]

First moon views/images with the 12

[dapper plover]

😃

[karmic barn]

How in the what were you able to do that untracked with a 2x Barlow?

[dapper plover]

Hand

S

And feet

[karmic barn]

That's super impressive

[dapper plover]

Thanks man!🙂

[karmic barn]

Now you got me wanting to try with my 8" dob 😂 have no idea if I'll get anything tho

[sour anchor]

Planets

[past crane]

Both are Mars though I think?

[sour anchor]

No, the one on the left is Mars

The one on the right too

[celest grotto]

They're both Mars. The one on the right is Mars in IR

[feral ice]

NGC 4631 The Whale & NGC 4656 The Hockey stick in LRGB and near infra-red
Dobson 15" on TEPP equatorial platform
ZWO 2400MC RGB uv-ircut 883x8s=1h58
QHY 268M (2600m) L uv-ircut 1700x4s=1h53
PlayerOne 585c filtre IR-pass 807nm for addiotional Luminance 591x4s=39min 195x16s=52min
Total: 5h02
Siril (stack in drizle x2, histo), GraXPert (Gradient, Denoise), PixInsight (SPCC, BlurXT, StarXT), the Gimp (masks, sat)
Bortle 6

M13 - Dobson 15" ZWO 2400MC & QHY 268M on TEPP equatorial platform
RGB 371x8s = 50min
L 5000x250ms = 21min
Siril (stack in drizle x2, histo), GraXPert (Gradient, Denoise), PixInsight (SPCC, BlurXT, HDR), the Gimp (masks, sat)

[sour anchor]

50 panels mosaic

https://www.astrobin.com/full/pi35j6/0/?real=

[sour anchor]

Full resolution

[elder hamlet]

Beautiful

[severe rampart]

holy moly this deserves hall o fame

[sour anchor]

ask @thin marten

[thin marten]

Holy moly indeed

I'm gonna think about it

The only thing thats bothering me is the line

[teal oriole]

only thing bothering me is its a bit dark

[thin marten]

Oh god it was perfect until I noticed the line

Damn it

I can't unsee it

[teal oriole]

also one on the outside

[thin marten]

Thats not where I'm looking at so I don't care

That depth

Even on the illuminated end

[sour anchor]

I know what caused it, I had to process it in 4 parts separately

My 32gb of ram wasn't enough

[sour anchor]

On astrobin I sent a new, clearer version

[sour anchor]

Division of the dark part of the mosaic and the black background of the image

[sour anchor]

https://www.astrobin.com/pi35j6/

It has a monochrome version too

Blue lake

[silk sorrel]

thats insane

[granite oasis]

im hooking up my pvs 7 night vision to my gf's dob later tonight, is it usually a problem of running out of inward or outward focus travel

for like a dslr etc. i think i have like 44mm of backfocus in the night vision

really nothing i can do if the focuser cant get close enough inward to the focal plane , but i can use parts of 2 barlows as extensions to reach focal plane if thats where it tends to be

[granite oasis]

Well it worked

[severe rampart]

hehe

[barren merlin]

does anyone know how to find objects in the sky more easily?

[signal edge]

Starhopping and stellarium near you

Also, one of the most cursed methods that I used to find countless galaxies is searching satellites that pass trough the object and just wait for the moment to come, go to the approximate position and use low power eyepiece

Harder and more time consuming, but more interesting

[barren merlin]

Ok thanks

[teal oriole]

the website starhopper

tape phone to scope, use app

[feral ice]

SharpCap "push-to assistant" is a killer, platesolving almost realtime (every 2-3s and giving instructions on which direction to move & distance, you need a camera on the main scope or on the finder scope. Validated on my dobson at 1700mm focal length and from a imx585 average size sensor, 533/294 or apsc are better then

[granite oasis]

😮

[celest grotto]

Finally got the 1.25" adapter. So now I don't have to use some weird technique to fit my camera/s to the 0.965"

[remote jasper]

Thinking about screwing wheels into the base of my skywatcher 300p. Might there be any reason not to?

The base is just narrow enough to fit through a standard uk door, so I want to fit wheels directly underneath instead of some arrangement that would increase the width

[elder hamlet]

Another option could be to create or buy a “dolley” as it saves drilling permanent holes into the base which could help selling it in the future?

[stark gorge]

A dolley is a better idea, the base is only cheap chipboard. Wheels might snap off.

But there are holes in the base already.

[remote jasper]

Probably going to make a dolly. Same diameter as the base with cutouts for the legs so it lays flat against the base and is less likely to fall off

[barren merlin]

Hello I have a big problem with collimate my 8 inch dobsonian does anyone know how to fix it?

[elder hamlet]

Laser collimation is the easiest.

[barren merlin]

I have one but its not working

Like if I moved a littel bit the laser move very much

[elder hamlet]

Do you have any pictures of this

[stray galleon]

You have to colimate your laser first

[supple jay]

Any recommended telescope for planetary image?

[silk pasture]

The absolute fattest dobsonian you can afford/carry

[stray galleon]

Or be a giga chad and buy an observatory

[thin marten]

Laser collimation is the least accurate

[dapper plover]

8" dob

eq platform too

[late cosmos]

how can someone understand if secondary too small? arent all these common companies like sky watcher understand which secondary size is supose to be? how they are wrong?

[wraith adder]

Vignetting

Darker corners of an image

[late cosmos]

but for visual usage, any way to tell?

[tender dust]

You can see vignetting with an eyepiece. It’ll be fine with 1.25” but much more noticeable with a 2” eyepiece

[late cosmos]

hm i guess my scope is fine then.. not noticing that

only see vigneting on moon if moon is super low like 10degrees up

[tender dust]

Also you might notice it more with a dark sky, like B3/4

[barren merlin]

Help when I do with my Phone more than 2 sec exposure its getting unfocused do you know what is the problem?

[celest grotto]

your phone could be weighing the focuser down. There should be a screw to lock the focus in, or tighten the screws manually for a stronger resistance on the focuser

[barren merlin]

I lock pretty hard the screw

[novel grotto]

m4 with 10” goto dob
uranus-c
player one uv/ir cut
bortle 5
47 min integration

[elder hamlet]

What are length of subs?

[novel grotto]

8 seconds

[elder hamlet]

Eq platform?

[novel grotto]

no

[elder hamlet]

My 10inch goto dob can barely do a couple of seconds with trailing stars 😦

[novel grotto]

just try to do alignment better

are ur two alignment stars far from eachother

[elder hamlet]

I try to do 3 star alignment, levelling, all the backlash minimising tips and even took the scope apart and regrease and tightened everything.

Do you try to level your scope?

[novel grotto]

nope

i don’t really feel a need to atm

in the future i might try and see if my tracking is any better

[elder hamlet]

Ah ok nice picture anyway.

Also did you use a coma corrector?

[novel grotto]

no

my camera sensor is pretty small so i don’t rly get any coma

well my corner stars are sometimes weird but idk if that’s the problem

[novel grotto]

thank you

[elder hamlet]

Just to confirm you have a sw goto dob?

[novel grotto]

yes

[stark gorge]

That’s pretty good tracking. My 14” sw has pretty jumpy tracking. Probably somewhat fixable with better bearings/grease. It’s just in azimuth it’s bad. Alt is pretty ok.

I’ve tried overvolting and it’s better. It likely just needs some higher torque motors.

[severe rampart]

can you please flip

[mossy glen]

Little preview 😋

Narrowband + lucky imaging= yay

[elder hamlet]

Sheesh that’s insane what narrowband filtrr is it?

Filter*

Also I assume you cropped it to get rid of coma?

[mossy glen]

SV220, duoband osc

[mossy glen]

Just a bit but I don't have that much coma as my sensor is relatively small anyways

Will buy a corrector soon tho

[mossy glen]

40 min of 500ms subs with my 10"/uranus C

[viscid pagoda]

what gain did you use?

usually when I do dso lucky imaging I have to use crazy high gain to see anything

so I do like 2secs 500gain

[mossy glen]

Gain 500 so it checks out

[viscid pagoda]

like usually when you capture do you see anything on screen

what does a raw sub look like

[mossy glen]

I'm in b4 and with a narrowband filter so it matches with your longer exposure

[mossy glen]

Barely anything tbh

I can make out the heart of the nebula but nothing crazy

Depends on the targets tho, m51 has already some nice signal

[viscid pagoda]

Ok makes sense

my stars tend to be bloated to hell as well lol

scuffed

[mossy glen]

Yeah it happens to me too, it's annoying but at high fl you need perfect seeings or short as hell subs to have those nice stars

At least planets are bright af so you can have ultra short exposures but deep sky

[mossy glen]

The seeing was really good on this one, And it's without blurx, just a tiny bit of rl decon

[mossy glen]

Processing m16 rn, it's even worse

[viscid pagoda]

my 3 mins of m16 is a mess

[mossy glen]

I've seen worse

M16 is hard for short exposures

And it's sooo low on the horizon for me

[viscid pagoda]

simply for me its too much of a pain to do lucky dso

every 1 min i have to recenter

if i dont the edges of the livestack get all black and shit

[mossy glen]

You're untracked?

[viscid pagoda]

no

its just my dob tracking sucks

probably due to it being unleveled

[mossy glen]

well I've been untracked so long I can relate

What's your mount?

[viscid pagoda]

hubble optics Ul16 dob

[mossy glen]

How does it track?

[viscid pagoda]

wym its just your usual alt az tracking

but it drifts a lot

[mossy glen]

I have an eq platform

[viscid pagoda]

[elder hamlet]

ahhhh there we go I was wondering why the tracking looked so good. I thought "this is insane for alt az" as my sw 10inch tracking is trash.

[mossy glen]

Yep! Tho eq platforms do have their cons. Mine doesn't track super well at this fl (it's made for visual), I'm limited to 1-2s subs but on the long term it stays on the same place if I aligned it well. Another problem is the tracking cycle which lasts less than an hour, you have to completely reframe the target and redo the rotation every 50min

WIP

[elder hamlet]

Do you mind if I see a picture of it. Just want to know what motor it is and how it’s built as I’m thinking of building one too

[novel grotto]

huhhh

500ms subs with 7nm filter is crazy

i’m in b5 and i was gonna get the sv220 but wasn’t sure if my exposures would be too short

i have a 10” plus uranus c too

usually i do like 8 second exposures

[novel grotto]

here’s my pillars it’s broadband tho

nevermind the image doesn’t wanna send

[elder hamlet]

Is that also 10 inch goto dob?

[novel grotto]

yes

[mossy glen]

Really nice!

[mossy glen]

8 sec is plenty enough, I used 500ms because of my mount and seeing

[novel grotto]

right now all i have is an OIII filter that i use for visual

my next buy is probably the sv220 though

[elder hamlet]

Crazy good

How do you get 8secs tracking and perfect stars??

[novel grotto]

trust me i did not get perfect stars

blurx fixed them

[elder hamlet]

ah ok

[novel grotto]

i will prob start taking shorter subs

[keen orbit]

Orion taken with a 6inch dob and phone

[novel grotto]

im going to be buying the sv220 this week

[uneven moon]

got an 8" dob today, gonna try it tonight best i can in a lot of light polution

[lucid raptor]

what scope

[lucid raptor]

ah 10”

[mossy glen]

Nice!

[sour anchor]

Saturn occultation complete

[novel grotto]

how do you like your sv220

[mossy glen]

A lot, works well for visual, widefield, planetary nebulas, emmision nebulas...

False sho palette from h and o

[novel grotto]

oooooo nice

[novel grotto]

I already have a 15nm oiii filter for visual

i wonder how this will do compared to it

considering its narrower band pass and it has the Ha band

[mossy glen]

Probably a bit of a difference, the narrower band is indeed helpful and even if Ha is completely invisible to the eye for most targets, you can see hints of it's red tint on nebulas such as M42

Nothing huge tho

[wary oak]

My dslr can’t reach focus with my 12” dob, it has to travel a bit more further in to the focuser, moving the mirror doesn’t work, it still needs to go farther in, any tips?

[teal oriole]

a barlow should fix that

[novel grotto]

got it

[thin marten]

q

[wary oak]

I don’t really wanna use a Barlow, is there a diferent way?

[silk pasture]

for what

[wary oak]

To get focus with my dslr and 12” dob

[silk pasture]

alter the mirror position

[wary oak]

It doesn’t work by using the screws

It has to go farther inside

[silk pasture]

Correct.

[exotic carbon]

anyone here serviced a skywatcher dob

if so how does one remove the mirror from the baseplate as i want to swap the mirrors in my scopes

[stark gorge]

Low profile t ring will work fine. Most are low profile. Unscrew the t ring from the 1.25” adapter and screw it to your 2” to 1.25” adapter.

In the end you should have a direct adapter from the lens mount to the 2” eyepiece flange thing

[wary oak]

I’ve 3d printed an adaptor

Still doesn’t work

[elder hamlet]

Remove the 3 retention clips and you should just be able to lift it out

[uneven moon]

First planet I’ve viewed through my new 8” dob

[mossy glen]

Hello fellow big ol'scopers
I've got good news for y'all
The guy that made my eq table (TMS astro) has almost finished its new platforms which are fully metal, more accurate AND support astrophoto: dual axis and ST4 port for GUIDING
He said to me the visual only platforms will cost 500€ so same as before, while the photographic ones will only cost 700€ (of course it's still a bit expensive but way cheaper than the other alternatives)

He showed 600s exposures with an F4 12", no star trailing visible

[elder hamlet]

Sounds pretty awesome, u have a link?

[mossy glen]

https://tms-astro.eu/

[viscid pagoda]

thats actually quite a deal

compared to what i look at with the tepp

[dapper plover]

Thats revolutionary, isnt it ?

[mossy glen]

It's not the first one to do it but at this price point I think we can say that indeed

[novel grotto]

ooooo

[exotic carbon]

thats all well and good just hope your dobs base can handle the angles xp

[keen orbit]

integration time and sub lengths?

[mossy glen]

Final process with slightly better stars

[lucid raptor]

nice job on the palette

[woeful flicker]

Best Saturn so far with a celestron 8 inch dob with 3x barlow, untracked.

[old dirge]

This was the best I have managed for Saturn with my 8" dob so far, I need a barlow with more than 2x mag imo. Open to suggestions.

[elder hamlet]

u could using a space between the barlow and camera to get more than 2x or get a 3x?

[old dirge]

I have a 1.25" barlow so getting spacers is a pain.

[elder hamlet]

do u have two barlows?

[old dirge]

I think I want to get a 2x 2" Apertura barlow and then use the extension that came with my dob for more mag if needed.

[old dirge]

nope

[elder hamlet]

ah ok

why 2in tho?

[old dirge]

cause I have a bunch of spacers I could use with a 2" if necessary

and if I want to put my dedicated cam on the dob to do planetary, I can have more support holding on to the camera

the 1.25" barlow only has a little set screw and i dont trust 800 dollars of camera on one little set screw

Id prefer a compression ring

[elder hamlet]

true xD especially when the imaging train gets long

[old dirge]

yuuuuup

[elder hamlet]

can the spacers go inbetween the barlow and camera?

[old dirge]

I believe so.

[elder hamlet]

ah so threaded?

[old dirge]

Yes

[elder hamlet]

cool sounds like a plan

[old dirge]

Ive used the barlow to hold my DSLR but I dont believe I took my hand off the DSLR

took this photo of the moon with it since i couldnt reach focus any other way

it's meh

this one with my phone and a zoom eyepiece was significantly better

[elder hamlet]

if u want compression rings for 1.25in stuff like i did, you can always get 2in to 1.25in with compression rings to replace the 2in to 1.25in with 1! lock screw.

this thing

[old dirge]

looks like an inexpensive option

definitely a potential alternative

[wary oak]

What gear?

[mossy glen]

Oopsie I forgot to answer

10" dob on an eq mount with the Uranus C

And a duoband filter from svbony

[mossy glen]

8mins live stack, no calibration, uv/ir cut only and a satellite that went through m1 so there's some artefacts from my poor attempt at removing the trail

But that is promising

(also sorry for the stars, completely burned out and slightly elongated from my "long" exposures)

[mossy glen]

M82

Even worse lol

The hot/cold pixels really ruined it

But for 10 minutes...

[sage meadow]

M82 also

150/750 dob with trash mount this thing couldn't even do 10s exposures without trails

I'm happy with it though since it's the first image I was able to get with the new camera since the 3 months ago i got it, all the other times I tried the mount failrd

[high hamlet]

Eq plat WORKS sry about dog barkin

[ornate gale]

How easy is it to make an eq platform? And if it’s not too hard to make build one fast enough to track planets?

[high hamlet]

It wasn’t that hard. Cut some wood segments, put rails for the top piece to slide on, and motorize them. My uncle did all of the cutting and drilling but it seemed like a relatively simple process

Of course you need some specific measurements for your scope and latitude

[high hamlet]

https://youtu.be/Q6oVmOdKPmg?si=Rl3CWSYlCN9Sl-11 this guy’s video showcases the process pretty well

I haven’t tested it with my 12” dob. Only my 6” at native 1200mm

Will do early in the morning though on Jupiter and mars if it stays clear

[ornate gale]

Perfect let me know how it goes and then I may try and do the same for my 8” dob

[pine kindle]

Do u reckon this could work for heritage 130p?

I'm looking for a cheap solution to get into beginner astro...nothing crazy...maybe some ez DSOs and some planetary (maybe if I get my hands on some good barlows)

[tender dust]

I made one for my Heritage 150. It was a journey

They’re not exactly difficult but you do need to be precise. And then a couple of months after I built mine I bought a used eq5 for the same amount I spent on building the eq platform

[pine kindle]

Bruh...only problem with eq5 is the arcseconds...

Or is eq5 enough for this size of telescopes?

[tender dust]

OK for a 6” if tuned, 8” is pushing it

But there are people who do

[pine kindle]

Oh ok that's nice...so u say that just buying an eq5 was much more efficient?

And what about the mods u had to make?

[tender dust]

My EQ5 cost £100 and it was in a state. Cost me about £150 to tune and do an onstep conversion. The eq mount cost about £150 to make, £250 if you include tools and a couple of false starts

The eq platform lets me take 10s images at 750mm if there’s no wind.

[sage meadow]

only 10s?

dang maybe i won't make an eq platform then

i was expecting 1 min

[high hamlet]

Eq platforms typically aren’t meant to be perfect, just to keep things centered for a while

You could make a perfect one

[sage meadow]

i have tracking tho but it is horrible

can't even get 10s exposures without trails

[high hamlet]

I can get like 3 second exposures with my platform and that’s already so much better than before I had it

[sage meadow]

I could barely do 2s exposures without tracking with a 25mm eyepiece, much wider fov than my cam

With tracking i was able to do 20s exposures with the 25mm eyepiece, but again much larger fov

[upbeat walrus]

Did you send your mount to someone to tune up ? Currently cleaning up my mount for the winter

[tender dust]

No I stripped it and regreased it myself. I replaced the motors as part of the onstep conversion and used belts with a higher gear ratio instead of spur gears.

[upbeat walrus]

I’m doing that rn and I found human hair In the thrust bearing….

Long ass hair and I have short hair

[tender dust]

https://tenor.com/view/what-annoyed-pissed-irritated-gif-8543599

[deft raptor]

I am in the process of obtaining my first 8 inch dobsonian, and I have stumbled across this thread

I have to ask... how the HECK are some of you able to get such stunning photos?

Are your dobs sitting on tracking mounts?

[sage meadow]

you can image dsos with an untracked dob but to get results like the really good ones here yes you need tracking

[mossy glen]

The new platform is here! The controller got damaged during delivery but the guy is already sending a new one so no probleme here

[high hamlet]

Damn that looks so nice

[mossy glen]

Ye it's really neat and it can be guided +70kg load

[elder hamlet]

Looks like a beast

[elder hamlet]

Where did you buy it from?

[mossy glen]

TMS astro

It's a prototype, it's still isn't commercialised but I think it's coming soon

[elder hamlet]

Oh so did you contact him and he sent you one?

It crazy how long of an exposure you can get from it tho

Looking forward to see what u can achieve with it

[mossy glen]

Yep! the prototype was a bit cheaper as well

I'll test it next week as I'll be on holidays

[ebon zenith]

Is a sky water synscan a good first dob? i alr have a 80mm travel scope looking for a big one mostly for visual but also slightly for planets and a few deep sky

[stark gorge]

Sky water is typically undesirable for astrophotography

[stark gorge]

Which skywatcher dob are you looking at?

[sage meadow]

reprocess

[past crane]

Imo, it’s too saturated, and too sharp. It seems like your scope might slightly be out of collimation aswell.

[sage meadow]

I check the collimation often tho and it's fine every time

[past crane]

It might just be that the seeing was bad then.

[sage meadow]

i very rarely get good seeing but that night was an above average

in astrospheric

[stark gorge]

Try drizzling.

[sage meadow]

I tried

And like always autostakkert gave me an unusable image

And astrosurface doesn't have it unless idk where it is

[stark gorge]

You need to learn autostakkert then, what are your settings?

[sage meadow]

ill go to my pc to check

[elder hamlet]

I just emailed him about prototype availability. 🤞 Hopefully he has some still..

[mossy glen]

I don't think he has but good luck!

[silk pasture]

i have a use for this thread now

stuff i imaged tonght

[keen orbit]

slight improvemt (same equiptment aka 6" untracked dob and phone)

[stray galleon]

Nice, what phone

[keen orbit]

iPhone 14 pro

[stray galleon]

oh nice

[frozen flint]

Nice improvement

Great image

[novel grotto]

way more than slight 😭

[elder hamlet]

How long were the exposures and how much integration

Looks amazing

[wary oak]

What app

[keen orbit]

astroshader

[keen orbit]

1 second x 3600 in b4

[late cosmos]

blasphemy, your phone shouldnt be more expensive than a telescope

[thorny jolt]

night vision astronomy!!!!

based...

[granite oasis]

It’s amazing

Lol something else that can go here cuz manual dob but this time someone’s 12” f/5

[thorny jolt]

holy

what nebula is that

imagine if we'd have access to pvs31

it would probably be very expensive

like 31k usd

but still

[dapper plover]

cool

[stray galleon]

Bubble nebula

[late cosmos]

i saw rossette nebula

...was not impressed.. at bortle9

[stray galleon]

well b9 is like that

[tender dust]

I’m impressed that you saw it at all

[late cosmos]

i saw without filter, but with h-alpha it become noticable and still not entirely watchable object.

[keen orbit]

y not?

[lucid raptor]

my phone is twice as expensive as my whole setup

[vapid slate]

In a couple weeks I will have joined the dob.. gang? Club?

[thin fern]

Cult

[vapid slate]

🔥

[vapid slate]

Revive

[heady heron]

when the gods decide Ive been punished enough and give me clear skies I will post my images in here

[vapid slate]

Teach me your ways 🙏

[keen orbit]

get a lot of integration

[vapid slate]

How much

I’ve got an 8” dob, iPhone 15, and a phone telescope adapter

[keen orbit]

that orion is 1hour, get as much as you possibly can, do you have the astroshader app?

[vapid slate]

Yeah I downloaded it the other day, haven’t tested it out yet

[keen orbit]

that is the live stacking

set the iso to whats optimal through trial and error

and also set the exp time to the most u can withought star trails

[vapid slate]

Alright, what eyepiece do u recommend using? I have a 30mm one

Probably just use that right?

[keen orbit]

yes

[signal edge]

@keen orbit would you think live stacking is better then normal stacking?

ik its easier and faster