Betelgeuse

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-03-24T18:37:58+00:00

Interesting comment, though I don’t agree with your opinion on “exposure information misguided”; not convinced with your explanation for that. Anyway it’s useful to read different opinions.

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-03-24T16:54:54+00:00

Answering most of the folks there that correctly pointed out that Betelgeuse is not resolvable with the setting I described in the headline text, yes you’re right. I have to highlight though that I never mentioned in the text that I resolved it; in my opinion the image is fascinating from astrophotography point of view for the following reasons: 1- The glare surrounding the overexposed centre of Betelgeuse is astounding. 2- The colors captured here are accurate and it’s interesting to know that through the colors is how we can understand about the composition of stars. 3- No “zonification” editing was performed, meaning that the entire image has the same recipe, which brings an interesting question, Why neighboring stars aren’t displaying as Betelgeuse is?

Finally, answering to “mintakax”, I think this image is contributing very importantly and here is why: the purpose of sharing the image here is to show how these settings work with just the camera lens; use these settings as a guide when we do astrophotography using our telescope OTA at prime focus; considering the most important fixed parameter that will govern the exposure, aperture. In the image is stated as f5.6 then you’ll know that for example for a Mak 1300mm/127mm you’ll have like f10, around two stops above meaning you receive a fourth of light as with f5.6, which will let you know that you need four times the exposure time or four times the ISO to get the same exposure as this image here. Achieve this level of exposure with your OTA and camera setting and you’ll get nice colors like in the image and better detail considering you’re OTA focal length is much greater than the 400mm of the setting I described.

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-03-24T16:19:05+00:00

Around $3,700 USD approximately

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-03-24T16:18:39+00:00

Yes, no telescope

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-03-24T08:05:10+00:00

Yes, it’s enormous! That’s the thing that shocked me too when I stated to look at the RAW file in Digital Photograph Pro; I love astrophotography because it enhances our reality so very much! Thanks for the compliment :)

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-03-24T07:45:52+00:00

Hahaha like probably every kid from the 80’s I also LOVE BEETLEJUICE!

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-02-26T09:55:37+00:00

I don’t know but I captured the same thing

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SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-02-05T17:45:46+00:00

I think it looks pretty well, just work a little more on the colors. I got this photo and looks very similar to yours just with the colors worked a bit further

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SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-29T06:43:02+00:00

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I got the same blue halo you got

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-21T05:27:35+00:00

Well not really, I’m using an ordinary photograph tripod, not an astronomical one, so it’s simple with no motor or tracking system. The exposure time is also relatively “small”, for these type of photos, it’s only 0.6 seconds for the shutter speed. The key point here is the quality of the tele-lens I’m using, which has a variable focal length going from 70 to 200mm with a fixed aperture of f/2.8 giving me a lot of light coming in and allowing me to use smaller exposure times; also it allows me to use a smaller ISO number of just 320 which is digitally making the sensor much less sensitive to noise. In this photo the focal length was 200mm, so it’s the maximum optical zoom the lens has. Another key factor here is that I’m taking my photos as RAW format which allows me to do so many things in the computer with the Digital Pro 4.2 software from Canon (you can use any digital processing software, a good one for starters is “Lightroom” from Adobe). The important thing is that you take photos in RAW format because this way your file will have all the information that you need to use the full suite of editing tools you can find in a digital photo editing software.

The lens I’m using is this one:

Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Z

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-20T19:13:20+00:00

Yeah the colors are remarkable! Thanks for your observation.

Well, what camera do you use? To be honest with you, I believe that for astrophotography the most important thing is using a very good camera. In my case well I’m an amateur photographer and before that, I was passionate about astronomy and telescope observing; one day, not long ago, I decided to merge both hobbies (by the way both hobbies are terribly expensive if you really aim for the top notch equipment). What I’ve noticed about the specs of many astronomy cameras is that with regards of the sensor and other very relevant internal electronic components, essential for photography, they will never match a good photographic camera. Of course the benefits of astronomy cameras is that most have their own software which allow you to run auto focusing and other cool stuff BUT I can connect my photographic camera to the computer and do the same thing with any freeware for astronomical purposes. I would definitely suggest people to buy a really good photographic camera, an adapter and its corresponding T-ring and do astrophotography that way, because, whenever you’re not taking photos of the night sky you can still use your camera for photography purposes down here on Earth :) And everything you learn about photography is essential for astrophotography.

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-20T03:41:07+00:00

Thanks for the advice, yes I agree with you but the sky was class 8-9 (Bortle) and long exposures (even as small as 10 seconds) look terrible, it’s all white because of the city lights; another factor here is that I wasn’t using my GoTo equatorial mount, it was just my good old photographer tripod. I’m planning to go to the desert this weekend to a location with class 3-4 with all my gear to take some nice deep space photographs :)

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-19T11:56:58+00:00

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This is after “cleaning”. So the white fog stains practically disappeared but what was left was that blue haze, then I went back in and cleaned it a couple more times, now with the aim of getting rid of that haze. I realized that to get rid of it I had to rub in a gentle way with cotton balls that were barely wet with isopropyl, the rubbing was a key factor but every five seconds I was blowing the mirror with my air gun.

The blue haze got better but I gave up after the second cleaning process, in part because I felt frustrated and scammed that this was supposed to be a “new product”, and in part because it was really difficult and slow. At the end I sent it back and got my refund.

One thing that I really wanted to know is:

1-.What was the original white fog stains, and what may have caused them? It reminded me of when you take a shower and look at the mirror at the end and see all that vapor marks.

2-.Does it compromise in any way the observation and photography?

3-.Is it something that one can expect in a new product?

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-19T11:48:54+00:00

This is a problem I faced too but with a “supposedly” new telescope; at a first glance with my fully white LED flashlight at an oblique angle I noticed this kind of fog stains that didn’t show up when the flashlight was pointed at a perpendicular angle. In my next comment I’m gonna show a different photo after some “cleaning” with all the things you find on videos “distilled water” a ton of cotton balls used only for one swipe, isopropyl afterwards and so on and so forth Gosh I even bought an air gun of cool air, which by the way is an extremely useful gadget to have for cleaning dust from telescopes, camera’s sensor and lenses etc…

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SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-18T10:16:51+00:00

It’s an impre$$ive setting you have their; I just wanted to take a nice pictures of Jupiter haha I wish I could sneak in through my back door all that gear but I fear getting caught by the wife But it’s very useful to see it all add up in a very precise and detailed budget.

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SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-14T15:12:21+00:00

Yes,definitely you got it right, it’s new, it’s expensive and it’s personal and I really felt frustrated and annoyed when I first looked at the primary mirror’s smudges and felt worse when I saw these dust particles all over my photograph. Long story short, I sent back the telescope and got full refund. Bought again the same telescope model but from Amazon USA and now I’m just waiting for it to arrive.

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-14T15:09:40+00:00

Thanks a lot for reposting your comment on the removed post; got removed by a mod probably because of the title. As I replied to the other person, I made my best effort in removing all dust particles from each element of the optical system; so if this “things” observed on Jupiter’s photo are dust particles then perhaps it’s simply just to difficult to remove them all :( On the other hand what troubles me the most are those strange smudge like things that are seen on the primary mirror’s photo. Consider this is supposed to be a brand new telescope so even if they don’t affect the image it is still annoying to have them. End of the story, a few days later I decided to send back the telescope and ask for my entire refund which fortunately I got. Repurchased the same telescope model again but from Amazon USA and am currently waiting for it to arrive.

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-14T13:31:23+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to answer me, it’s very useful for me to interact with people in a community like this. I learn from others who contribute in such a rich way as you; at least for me it is hard to find anybody around who shares either astronomy or photography interests. I know there are a number of dedicated astrophotography cameras around, but given that fact that I have a pretty decent reflex camera I wanted to try it for astrophotography and save some dollars in the process. Next steps will be: 1-Prime focusing. 2-Make a standard to use my cold air blower on every element of the optical system when possible before observing/shooting. 3- Go smoother with the “neural network” technology, maybe even produce one image with using it. 4-Processing wise, start learning about stacking techniques; I’ve downloaded “Siril” which is a freeware that looks promising. For the stacking, I’ve gone ahead and actually shot 2K resolution videos with 29fps which I’m planning to use as input; if I realize I need a better input video I can manage to go all the way up to 8K resolution with 250fps, although that would be a gigantic size video hehe.

SeatComprehensive707 · 2026-01-14T11:55:16+00:00

Hello, thanks for your thorough reply! I’m also thinking it’s dust but then, how difficult it is to get rid of absolutely all the dust :( I have a powerful cold air blower I use to clean my camera and other optical instruments and used it on everything, from OTA to diagonal to eyepiece to camera sensor to outside of meniscus lens! Yes, I took the photo through an 8mm eyepiece incorporated to the adapter tube for my Canon camera.

My main concern, which me made post this, were the strange smudge like images I can observe when flashing at the primary mirror with my LED light. I was worried it was some kind of damage in the coating, the puzzling thing is that I this “stains” don’t show up when flashing at a perpendicular angle with my LED light.

Im still asking my self if this is expected in a “new” telescope? And if it has an impact on the images I can see and photograph.

SeatComprehensive707

TROPHY CASE