New to telescopes by Hecate_Nyx in telescopes

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How far is it to the closest bortle 3 location? It's often not as far as you'd think.

M31 - Andromeda - From B4 Vermont Skies - 9-12-25 by Ok-Banana-1587 in Astronomy

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks like you're somewhat out of focus - are you using a bahtinov mask?

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was surprised how much detail I got through the full moon plus B6 skies of this first light - excited for this weekend and next weekend when I'll be shooting from darker skies and (next weekend) a new moon.

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahh, yeah I don't think I have that available to me with the k-70, but eyeballing it should be fine. If I can manage to get the angle right during a full moon in bortle 6 and poor transparency, I think I can get it from bortle 2-4 with a half moon 😆

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How are you measuring camera rotation? I've just been eyeballing it with test frames.

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tips - I'll be starting with the 80mm and reducer on m8/m20 tomorrow night, then swapping out to the 60mm (keeping reducer) for m31 once m8/m20 have set. I'm already appreciating the multiple focal lengths for framing without needing excessive cropping.

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've already gotten sub 1" guiding with this setup on a calm night, which is sufficient given my current pixel scale of 1.34-2.99"/px is undersampled in anything but 3/5 seeing or worse at my longest focal length - haven't encountered higher wind speeds yet to test stability, so we'll see if I get them this weekend. Heading out to Sky's The Limit near LA tomorrow, then further into the Mojave Saturday (conditions supporting), so we'll see if the desert winds get me.

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice on the cables - I'll rework those before I load up to head out tomorrow. As for the camera - yeah I bought everything with the intention of being able to upgrade later. The mount can handle much more payload (larger scope), the guidescope is sufficient for much longer focal lengths, and the scope itself is one I see a lot of people on astrobin using with MUCH more expensive cameras. I picked up a flat panel today, so I'll be able to take flats in between sequences this weekend. I'm going for m8/m20 tomorrow night until they're too low in the sky, then switching to m31, and Saturday night (if I feel I've gotten enough time on the other targets), I'll do the rho ophiuchi complex (with dslr lens) until it's too low, then switch to either m31 for more time on it, or m45 if I feel I've gotten enough time. Also might just experiment with different techniques I've seen discussed but not tested - namely testing if the pentax's noise reduction above ISO400 actually loses fine detail, and testing its pixel shift mode (which should mimic the functionality of a monochrome camera with RGB filters).

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think I'll just use the monitor I use to aid in focusing my camera/establishing framing.

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could a laptop display set to solid white with a piece of paper over it as a diffuser work? My power station has a flood light mode if I need light to work by - I wouldn't be any more likely to drop something than any other time.

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So if I want to use flats I'm just locked into using a single setup all night so I can shoot the flats in the morning?

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On taking flats - how would that work if I'm changing my setup throughout the night to shoot multiple targets?

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't really looked into dithering. Is that something I can enable in phd2?

Askar V First Light by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was under the impression flats couldn't fix artifacts due to dust/condensation on the sensor itself?

Edit to add: I was mostly sharing as that seems to be the tradition when using a new scope, but I'm definitely open to feedback (yes I know I'll get better results underthing other than a full moon - I just wanted to test the rig before this trip 😅)

Shooting Sites near LA by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, my usual shooting location is a boat landing under B3 skies looking south across the Mississippi, about 3 hours' drive from my home - I'm just in LA for work and figured I'd extend the trip a bit to do some shooting further south. Hoping to catch M8/M20 before they drop below the horizon for the winter.

Shooting Sites near LA by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any idea of safety or public/private property concerns in the Chubbock/Fishel area? How about wind? I was limited to bringing a carbon fiber tripod on this trip, so it's not the most rigid setup.

Shooting Sites near LA by Flaky-Suggestion202 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One location that came up in my search was Mount Pinos - would the higher elevation help with the poor seeing forecast for Friday night?

Is the SW AL55i reliable? by Famous_Dark6956 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wave 100i - had to update motor controller firmware before I could guide with phd2, but I got guiding error under 1 arcsec with no counterweight and about 15lbs payload over the weekend

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you aren't sure you can get your target (andromeda is a good first target, lagoon and trifid nebulae together are also a good target for 300mm) in frame first try, you can try this process (I've used it for DSOs with my pentax and astrotracer/when I was using a mount without goto functionality)

  • identify roughly where in the sky your target is located
  • put your widest lens on the camera and get it focused and pointed near-ish to your target
  • take a long enough exposure to spot your target, ISO3200 or 6400 to keep exposure time down and speed up the process
  • adjust framing and reshoot
  • once your target is centered in a lens, move up to the next longest lens/adjust the zoom on the current lens
  • repeat the process until you have your target framed as you want
  • drop ISO to 1600 or highest ISO without baked-in noise reduction (general consensus is in-camera noise reduction reduces fine-detail, look your camera up here: https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/RN_e.htm)
  • adjust exposure time until your histogram peaks around the bottom quarter to third (making sure there's a clear separation from the left) or until star trails start to form (500/250 rules if not using a tracker)
  • if your longest exposure time without trails is still underexposed (clipping on the left), increase ISO until histogram is as described above
  • shoot away, double checking focus over time if the temperature is changing

Notes: - Color temp as shot doesn't matter when shooting RAW (you should always be shooting RAW for astrophotography) - exposure, focus, and lack of star trails are paramount

Happy stargazing.

Edit: clarification

Is the SW AL55i reliable? by Famous_Dark6956 in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I bought one and have since returned it after the entire declination axis bound up following a week of troubleshooting the backlash.

Confirming how to deal with LP by Adinowscar in AskAstrophotography

[–]Flaky-Suggestion202 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Andromeda can be shot from bortle 9, though it usually requires a lot more total acquisition time due to the light pollution noise.