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Old 15-05-2020, 12:30 PM
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Outcast (Carlton)
Always gonna be a NOOB...

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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Cairns, Qld
Posts: 1,285
Hi Wayne,

I'll just add to Alex's information below & advise some specific details & processes to enable you to capture images with what you have.

A tracking mount is not necessarily essential for astrophotography but, without one, the process becomes extremely onerous & for Deep Sky stuff, pretty much impossible.. anyways, in the evolution mount, you already have tracking so, pretty much a moot point.

Okay, on to the good stuff...

Planetary & Lunar imaging on an Alt/Az mount works just fine since, you are not worried about movement of stars in the background. The most effective capture method is video... combined with some particular stacking software, this will enable you to capture thousands of frames & allow the software to sort out the best for stacking. Then, once stacked you can sharpen the resultant image to achieve the sort of results Alex has posted. One of the key things you need to achieve in any photography is pinpoint focus, this is generally not possible purely by eye, a bhatinov mask used on a bright star is the way to go for achieving sharp focus.

Software needed for planetary/lunar imaging:

Autostakkert (free) - processes your video into single frames & stacks whatever you tell it to.

Registax (free) - load resultant planetary/lunar stack into this software & use the wavelets function to sharpen the image.

Photographic processing software of your choice for final colour tweaking.. if you already have Photoshop or similar, then you are sorted. If you do not wish to pay for this type of software, you can download Gimp (free).

Deep Sky imaging with an Alt/Az mount is a little trickier... not impossible but, you do need to keep your expectations realistic. The issue is that the sky is moving & imaging Deep Sky objects involves lots of static images which are then stacked & processed. An EQ mount or a Wedge with your current setup, then suitably Polar Aligned seeks to eliminate this movement (which is what gives you star trails). An EQ mount or Wedge will enable you to capture longer exposures & avoid star trails.

Without an EQ mount or Wedge, you can still capture some deep space objects as Alex alluded to; objects that come to mind are Orion Nebula & Eta Carina but, there are some others. On a purely Alt/Az mount you will be limited to 10 - 15 second exposures before star trailing becomes an issue. Also, with an SCT not using a focal reducer will result in brighter stars appearing somewhat bloated.

To attempt Deep Sky imaging with what you have, you will need the following software:

Deep Sky Stacker (free) if using your DSLR, shoot in raw & load all the raw images into DSS for stacking. Your neximage 5 is best suited for planetary/lunar work.

Processing software, if you already have photoshop, then you are in a position to process the resultant stack from DSS. If you don't have this already, then you are going to have to spend some money on some processing software. I & many others on here use a program called Startools, it runs at about $45. There are other programs, such as Pixinsight, Nebulosity, etc.. but, they can run into the hundreds of dollars. Many of these programs have free trial periods so, once you have an idea of what you want to do & have captured some data, perhaps give the trials ago to see what suits you best...

Have a look in the beginners astrophotography section & also, search the web for 'Astrobin'. Have a look at what results people are achieving, often with quite modest gear, including some fine examples of what can be done on an Alt/Az mount with persistence & good technique. Astrobin has a search function where you can put in the gear ie: Celestron Evolution 6 & it will find images taken through that scope setup.. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at just how good some peoples images are using alt/az setups such as yours however, there is a lot of work gone into achieving those results & it does get a little bit easier (in some respects) if you move to an EQ mount or Wedge.

Once you start getting some images, be sure to post them in the beginners astrophotography area of the forum. It doesn't matter how good or bad you think they are, don't be embarrassed, by inviting critique even on the worst results, you will learn from those who have gone before & gain great information, tips & knowledge on how to improve your results..

Hope this all helps, have fun with it...

Cheers
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