New to astrophotography - Eta Carinae Nebula & Wishing Well Cluster

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

Howdy. I've been a visual observer for years and more recently started doing some EAA observing too. I enjoyed EAA a little too much (as I suspected I would) and have taken the next logical step and bought some additional toys ... yay to having a basic astrophotography setup It's quite a revelation to be sitting inside in the warmth (especially in Canberra) while controlling/working the astro gear outside.

Here are two of my first images after getting everything working well - the Eta Carinae nebula; and, the NGC3532 'Wishing Well Cluster'.

Both images used 5 x 300s subs, and were processed in APP and Photoshop.

Next steps are to produce various calibration subs ... don't yet have any. Also need to get a flattener for the 120ED.

SW120ED
AZ-EQ6
ASI294MC
Orion Deluxe guidescope & ASI 290MM
Pegasus Focus Cube v2

[PaulSthcoast (Paul)]

Alex.

Lovely images.

Seems I am the first to view them.

Off to a flying start.

In my opinion its s a natural progression
to get to imaging from visual via EAA.

I'm certainly proof of that.

Some may say, welcome to the Dark Side.

I say...welcome to The Light !

Nice work.

Looking forward to more.

Paul.

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

Hi Paul, and thanks. I think I’ve been on the dark side for years; nice to finally be on the light side ;-) I’ve been enjoying your images (and all the others too) and getting my head around some of the basics. It’s quite a step-up from EAA; there’s automation and computer control for everything. Setting up the Pi and Stellarmate combo was straightforward for use on my home network (or it’s own hotspot). Learning KStars and Ekos will take somewhat longer as will all the intricacies and complexities of auto-guiding and DSO imagery - it literally took me 2hrs+ to make sense of what Ekos was telling me about the Pegasus Focus Cube lol. I’m looking forward to learning from others.

Originally Posted by PaulSthcoast

Alex.

Lovely images.

Seems I am the first to view them.

Off to a flying start.

In my opinion its s a natural progression
to get to imaging from visual via EAA.

I'm certainly proof of that.

Some may say, welcome to the Dark Side.

I say...welcome to The Light !

Nice work.

Looking forward to more.

Paul.

[Stephane]

Alex, you don’t mess around! For your first images, these are amazing! Focus and framing are very good, as would be expected from your EAA experience. Calibration frames will help immensely. Again, beautiful images, well done.

[AstroViking (Steve)]

As the others have said - excellent work for your first images! Looking forward to seeing more as you progress.

You're not wrong about Kstars / Ekos - it's a steep learning curve to get over.

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

Steve, Stephane - thanks for the encouragement. I’m looking forward making the most of what little time I have to enjoy this beaut hobbie of ours. Especially now that I can do a lot of the work from indoors while outdoors heads south of 0°C! Regards, Alex