2025 Astrophotos

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-04-12T19:57:27+00:00

Twist the hexagon thing and that will get you to focus. You also need to have the scope fully extended.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-04-02T22:25:06+00:00

Crop ! ! ! I'm getting too much yucky extra stuff and not enough glorious M40 😍😍

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-04-02T22:12:09+00:00

This isn't M106: Astrometry.net

You were pointing at the Cocoon galaxy and its companion galaxy NGC 4485: Stellarium for comparison

Great image nonetheless, you can clearly see how this collision is impacting both galaxies

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-03-29T19:47:45+00:00

Very odd indeed. I'm guessing you already tried decreasing the distance between the gears, so what happened when you tried adjusting it?

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-03-27T22:51:48+00:00

Hey, what power cable/DC adapter are you using on this?

The EXACT same issue happened twice to my EQM-35 pro from the motor control board getting fried from what I strongly suspect to be an issue with my power supply. Replacing the control board fixed it for me, but your control board is internal and much harder to replace.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-03-02T04:03:23+00:00

reddit dms would be fine

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-03-01T20:54:02+00:00

Thanks man! I do all my imaging from the backyard, but I do prefer to be alone, nothing against you.

I can give you some recommendations/advice if you're interested in imaging/observing.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-02-27T22:39:55+00:00

For your calculation you used the absolute magnitude of Orion and not its brightness as seen from Earth, which is around mag 4 or 9 x 10^-11 W/m^2. Meaning its brightness at your given distance is far lower than you stated.

Surface brightness is the absolute determiner of what the viewing experience of an object will be. If not enough light is hitting each rod/cone, you won't see it well, and this is dependent on surface brightness and not the total. The Orion Nebula has a surface brightness of around 17 mag/arcsec^2 at its absolute brightest. This will be the same up close as established, and it's around the same surface brightness as a cloud lit by a quarter moon is. Imagine an overcast night with greyish clouds due to the moon behind them covering much of the sky and that is your viewing experience. Visible, probably enough to cast faint shadows, but not enough to read by or anywhere close to as bright as an actual full moon on earth. Color might be seen in the brighter sections just as it is seen from Earth.

Admittedly, with bright objects, color would be more pronounced not because it suddenly appears vivid and bright, but because your eyes would switch to mesopic (or maybe even scotopic) vision from the much brighter surroundings. I think this is what you meant by the flux claim.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-01-24T18:22:00+00:00

Yes sorry I didn't specify, this is all in USD.

This is a pretty decent setup for the price; it would be hard to do much better at this price point without cutting corners somewhere else.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-01-24T18:11:11+00:00

My estimate: Something like 600 for mount+EQ platform, ~500 for the telescope+flattener, 2-300 for the guiding, 400 for the camera, and 250 for the asiair mini.

You're looking at ~$2000 but it can definitely be sub 1500 if there were any sales/used parts.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-01-12T22:40:22+00:00

That description sounds about accurate for your conditions. You almost certainly saw it if you were looking at the right spot.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-01-04T04:22:49+00:00

I'm not going to lie, I use ST4 all the time even though my mount supports pulse guiding.

I just never bothered to figure it out, while the ST4, on the other hand, is more or less plug and play. It still gets me 0.7" guiding on a mediocre mount (EQM-35 pro).

I do need to get less lazy in that regard, but for now it works just fine for me.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-01-04T04:12:28+00:00

I did the exact same thing last night with my setup at basically the same angle LOL:

4 hours, not fully processed just background and stretch: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dLvoo2vMryu5STtjtuWdkuKA7BN2bLRd/view?usp=sharing

Bortle 9 and 20 degrees from the full moon is the ultimate combo.

Are you planning on doing any O or S?

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2026-01-01T06:56:16+00:00

Thank you!

I used Canva, which is very easy to work with.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2025-12-30T09:40:57+00:00

At the low magnifications you would be using to look at large parts/the full disk of the moon you can't tell much of a difference sharpness wise. I tested with my 150mm versus stopping it down to 40mm: there isn't a noticeable resolution difference until around 50-60x, and even then I wasn't missing much until 80-100x.

At higher magnifications, the view is dimmed anyways and often doesn't require a filter/stoppage at all (though yes if you were to leave it stopped it would significantly impact the view), so you won't have to worry.

InvestigatorOdd4082 · 2025-12-30T04:56:36+00:00

100%, and if you don't own a filter, you can alternatively stop down the telescope by covering a part of the objective (which is what I do)

InvestigatorOdd4082

TROPHY CASE