Had some dark clear nights last week coinciding with the new moon so
I've had an opportunity to set up the SW Star Adventurer on the drive.
I should first of all point out that I have no knowledge of the night sky and previous attempts at photographing it have been 14mm views / stitches of the Milky Way.
Night 1.
Polar alignment being done by my Polemaster, even finding the SCP and sigma Octantis took me about 30 mins ! I had the rig pointing roughly south (compass) and set the lat/dec with the wedge adjustment (16 degrees here in Cairns). Ended up with Stellarium open (in night view), looking through bins, looking at Stellarium just trying to find octans, using the Snipping Tool in Win 10 to get a screen shot from the live view from the Polemaster software and plate solving with All Sky Plate Solver.
This usually showed the grid and therefore the location of the SCP.
I also turned on the marker for SCP in stellarium.
Once I found octans it was easy to use the polemaster software to do my PA although 1st night the SCP was in the midst of a load of dead tree branches of dead tree next door and then when I subsequently moved the rig I could only see half of octans above the roof line of the house ! enough to do the PA though as sig Oct was visible.
The joys of living so far north I suppose.
Nights 2 onwards
Enjoying practicing hopping my way around the night sky with the bins, checking against stellarium, looking for DSOs etc. in stellarium and then trying to locate them / nearby stars in the sky.
I began with an 80-200mm f/2.8 zoom, stopped down for sun stars and to allow ISO higher using the L-bracket and counterweight camera on ball head, seeing how long an exposure could be made. Since ditched the ball head and mounted directly on the "L" of the L-bracket for less weight, easier to counterbalance, less wind resistance and better tracking.
I'm getting nice pin point round stars at 2 minutes. If it's windy then probably 1 in 3 subs is trash due to star movement. I have a large aluminium Induro tripod (AT-413) and hand 3KG of weight off the hook in the centre but still getting movement.
I was doing 1 minute subs with longer FLs but getting no nebulosity showing up in the stacked files. Nice dark files with sharp stars but no space dust
I've attached the latest shot of Antares, with 180mm f/2.8 @ f/11, 149 lights, 52 darks, 20 bias frames. Will have to give this another go with better framing, not using the ball head is a bit more of a challenge framing wise.
Are 2 minute subs long enough to capture nebula ? I realise I'm probably getting some light pollution at home so dark skies will help. I know less focal length is one way to increase sub time but not practical for smaller DSOs, any other way to increase sub times ?
Oh, and I'm using DSS > StarTools > LR or PS CC
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4244/3...400167a5_b.jpgAntares 26 May STools by
AndyMacDougallPhotography, on Flickr
Andy