Hi all
New to this forum.
I have a Skywatcher Star Adventurer, also a Nikon D3100 dslr with Sigma 18-250 lens.
Im looking at either a light telescope to mount on the SA or perhaps a 500mm mirror lens, I have seen chat that the Mirror lens are useless, but there are a few clips on youtube that have produced good results they just take patience. I wish to shoot planets and dso
Budget is the biggest constraint being on a pension.
Any ideas would be appreciated
Thanks in advance
Hi Rob
Welcome to the forum.
I know you are looking down the road but if I were you I would work with you have for a while.
You will need another mount and a decent scope for planets.
Wear out your current gear first.
Have you heard about stacking?
You take multiple ecposures and combine them to form one image for processing.
Deep Sky Stacker is free so download it if you have not done so...plus you will need somethung to process the images if you have something like photoshop that would be a start but probably consider star tools..they have a free trial which I suggest would be great to start with.
I do not know what others will suggest but I doubt your mount will handle a ything but a really small scope.
Again welcome and hurry up ad post some shots.
Alex
Iv had my SA for about 6 months now and loving the learning curve.
I would mirror what Alex has said, outgrow what you have before moving up, I have been getting some really good results with the kit 250mm lens on my canon 550d, orion is showing great details for example.
Iv been getting pretty solid 2 min exposures and then stacking them in DeepSkyStacker, remember to combine the light frames with dark frames. Iv been using backyard eos (backyard nikon is also a thing) on a $160 gumtree laptop and its been a great budget friendly way of imaging.
I too have been looking for my first real scope and have been considering the Skywatcher EVOSTAR 72ED thats has (about to be?) released, looks like it will $499. The SA is rated for up to 5kg and I think with this scope only being 2kg, even with camera and such, you should still be under the limit by a good margin.
Just my thoughts, feel free to ask as many questions as you like.
Thanks for the welcome Alex and Chris and appreciate your comments.
I do have dss and many other processing software as well as LR and PS.
I also have a skywatcher 102/500 alas on a altaz mount which i have been using to shoot alas again unguided lol. My wife purchased the Star Adventurer for me for christmas she was told that the 102/500 would be suitable for the SA, but with the Camera added it would be around 3.9kg. To me that would be to heavy hence looking for a lighter scope, the pic below was taken with the 102/500... 20 lights 10 darks and 10 bias processed in dss but have not processed any further.
I might add that im still learning the SA. Biggest problem is alignment with the SCP, I cannot find the stars of octan so going to try the drift method
Hi Rob
You are well on your way.
I polar align by leaving the scope in home position and taking a time lapse so you can see where the center of the arcs should be...adjust until centered.
Pays to make sure polar scope and amera scope point at same spot.
I hope you find that easy...the mount should be turned off and aligned as be you can guess to where CSP may be...It seems to work for me...reasonably fast. .. I like your Orion ad with a better polar align you should do even better.
Alex
Hi Alex
Took your advice after spending a few weeks now trying to find Polaris Australis and polar aligning the SA gave up.
Went to a local astronomy viewing night and was told its bloody hard to find the octans. Better to find out lat, set that and then using a compass with local declination find true nth. I did all that and bingo with a couple of test 1 min shots and some minor adjustment I was able to get a 2 min exposurer.
stacked 10 x 2min lights, 10 x2min darks and 10 bias was happy with what i got.
Only problem is I cant pull any colour out in PS.
I was able to get some colour out of a single unstacked shot on PS
So hoping next time will be better
settings were
iso 3200
2 min exposurer
sigma 18/250mm lens @250mm
Also..how do you focus?
Do you have a focuser mask?
If you would like a project construct a tube to shield stray light..
Have a look at the thing I made "dark tube" posted in the equipment section. I am making a small one for my camera lens to hopefully get better contrast.
Alex
Rob, you should look into using solar noon to align to SCP. Especially if you can lock off or park the tripod setup in position during the day and use ground markings to be able to place it back at night. You may have to think about your gear and what parts you can align and lock off during the day and either leave or return to precisely at night. I used this approach when I was using my CGEMDX as my viewing position could only just see SCP above the roof and octans aligning was problematic.
Hi guys
No mask to focus just use live view on my camera. will look into it alex, I do have a lot of ambient light in the area but have a spot about 10 mins drive away that is nice and dark.
I have found if I set the lat at 33 degrees which is where im at also I draw a line in chalk on the ground set at 168 degrees this gives me true south and line up the SA on it, it is pretty close to polar aligned I just need a couple of shots and a little tweek here and there. Overall im pretty happy now. This is the final processing of the pic I took. Just need to play with Iso and shutter speed
