Hi all

[mitch]

Hey guys,

Made a bit of a newbie mistake and posted my intro in general astronomy :screwy:.
Just wanting to introduce myself myself.
I've always been fascinated with space and starting astrophysics at Uni finally gave me a reason (I told myself I needed one) to purchase a scope and observe the heavens.

My interest lays in astrophotogaphy. I just picked up an Orion ED102 CF and can't wait for this weather to clear to start using it.

My question is:
Will I need to autoguide to get nice detail in nebulas (e.g. Horsehead) or will many many many 60 - 90 second exposures be sufficient?

Cheers,

[Shark Bait]

Hi Mitch,

This is a great place to share information and learn. I have only been a member for a few months and picked up a lot of useful knowledge.

There are a lot of skilled astro photographers on this forum and I am amazed at the images that they post.

[peter_4059]

Welcome Mitch. The answer to your question depends to a large extent on what you are going to be happy with. I started out taking lots (50-100) of 10 sec exposures and stacking them and was pleased with what I was achieving however as time went on I wanted to get better quality images and when I finally got autoguiding working it really opened up what I could achieve. These days anything under 5 min subs seems short. The quality of the mount will play a large part in what you can do without autoguiding.

Peter

[mitch]

Thanks for the replies.

I've been following the forum for several months now and have found it invaluable. About time I started chipping in my 2 cents :)

I'll spend a while taking lots of short subs and stacking them and see how what goes. I'm keen to tighten my money taps at the moment, so hopefully can get by without the autoguider for some time.

I'll be sure to post up my first lights...once this weather clears!

Cheers,