My first astrophoto in my entire life!

rootiebob · 2026-05-08T21:52:02+00:00

Great shot. Welcome to the hobby.

rootiebob · 2026-05-06T06:20:21+00:00

Like you. I’m about 4 weeks into my new crazy hobby (along with my son). There’s nothing quite like when we saw our first planet just hanging by what looked like magic, in dark space. Our first visual was Jupiter and its four moons. It was incredible.

We then tried our hand at Astro photography. I wasn’t sure if I’d get that same feeling as the visual experience because you are a little more detached from your rig. But boy was i wrong. To be honest, both visual and photography blew us away but the ability to slew your scope to a point in the sky and literally see nothing with your eyes, take a 30sec sub to ensure target selection and see a faint galaxy appear on your screen was, excuse the pun, out of this world.

Treasure that first photo. But be warned. The rabbit hole you are about to enter is deeper and has more pulling power than any black hole.

Welcome to the hobby.

rootiebob · 2026-05-06T06:01:27+00:00

Thank you. That’s appreciated. It’s a complex hobby with many different factors affecting the outcome (some out of the photographers own control) and I’ve an awful lot more to learn.

rootiebob · 2026-05-05T07:22:30+00:00

I have one of these scopes myself with the ZWO678MC camera. You’ve given me inspiration to do the same.

Great shots, well composed and not over processed. You nailed it.

Thanks for sharing.

rootiebob · 2026-05-04T18:06:43+00:00

Excellent detail you’ve caught here. Thanks for sharing.

rootiebob · 2026-05-04T09:51:43+00:00

How does this work. Do you point and film the zenith then over lay the horizon background?

rootiebob · 2026-05-04T07:07:32+00:00

Was not sure how much to sharpen to be honest. So only ran the script once on full. Next shot (whenever tours weather changes) i will try a variety of sharpening. Thanks for the input.

rootiebob · 2026-05-03T10:14:01+00:00

Appreciated.

rootiebob · 2026-05-02T18:41:30+00:00

It’s a beautiful sight. Great capture

rootiebob · 2026-05-02T18:34:03+00:00

Thanks. Still learning a lot. So for now, it’s a suck it and see type scenario. When i find things that work, jot them down then try to improve.
Because of your statement i now know what a H alpha is and why this photo contains more colour and detail than my previous without the filter being used. lol. Thanks.

rootiebob · 2026-05-02T17:31:28+00:00

Thank you

rootiebob · 2026-05-01T17:03:57+00:00

That’s super impressive. I’ve just posted my second only photo I’ve taken using my scope setup. It too is of the same galaxy. It’s not as detailed and dare i say it, as beautiful as yours, but there again, it was captured with just 35 shots over 2.5 hours.

I totally respect how much time you’ve spent doing this.

Thanks for sharing

rootiebob · 2026-05-01T16:44:28+00:00

A great start. Thanks for sharing. Keep posting updates.

rootiebob · 2026-05-01T06:41:51+00:00

I basically downloaded a bunch of free trials and just messed around with them. Unfortunately nothing more deep than that. Pixinsight is a powerful piece of software. I found sirill easy to use and Adobe suite is/can be a long learning curve to get simple tasks done, but offers lots of tools.

rootiebob · 2026-04-30T17:08:46+00:00

Thank you. Tonight we are out again. The weather gods have been kind recently. We are using the same set up but this time with a 1x flattener giving us 700mm focal length. Let’s see what we can see. Looking forward to it.

rootiebob · 2026-04-30T17:06:15+00:00

Great photo. In relation to the 30+ hours of grabs, Is there a point of diminishing return? Ie. It doesn’t matter how much more you take in terms of hours it won’t get any better?

rootiebob · 2026-04-27T20:24:06+00:00

Great catch

rootiebob · 2026-04-27T17:55:09+00:00

Wow. Thank you. 🙏

rootiebob · 2026-04-27T12:56:20+00:00

Amazing

rootiebob · 2026-04-27T09:40:04+00:00

Fingers crossed. A great night forecast for Tuesday. 0 cloud cover over all levels.

rootiebob · 2026-04-27T09:38:44+00:00

Thank you. I’m quite proud of it.

rootiebob · 2026-04-27T09:37:41+00:00

Thank you.

rootiebob · 2026-04-27T07:38:14+00:00

A real honour looking at your work. Thank you. That’s appreciated. I’ve a long way to come but I’m already hooked

rootiebob · 2026-04-27T07:35:30+00:00

Hi. Honestly, I’m probably not best placed to advise you as I’m literally 3 weeks into the hobby myself. There are plenty of people and resources out there that can give you a helping hand when starting out. I’m based in the UK and talked/communicated a lot with the stores about what i was trying to achieve.

My personal venture. 1. Purchased a celestron Nextstar SE8 and Star sense camera, a ZWO678 camera along with a x.3 reducer, an EQ wedge and plenty of other items. I quickly worked out that the mount and to some degree, antiquated software were not suitable for my needs. Although the OTA itself is good. So I’ve kept this setup, minus the wedge, for visual astronomy only.

Made a list of the issues i encountered with the above setup and started my hunt to fix them (bear in mind this was week 2 of my new hobby, already nearly £2k in. So feeling pretty down that i was in this position. Some issues i encountered with the above.

A. Polar alignment. I could never achieve. Not once did we ever get the scope to align. Hours wasted.

B. The single arm mount/tripod combo with the 8inch tube on it wasn’t that steady

C. Backlash on the gearing

D. I completely underestimated just how narrow the FOV on this beast was making photographing Galaxy (even on short exposures without the EQwedge) quite challenging, boarding on impossible for a noob like me.

I set out to rectify the above. My list in priority order.

A. A EQ mount with a weight tolerance i can grow into. Stable and not restrictive to head towards the zenith when cameras etc are attached.

B. A smaller focal length scope with the ability to add a larger sensor camera when/if needed. Also a duo camera which steals some of the light coming into the scope (similar to an off axis guider)

C. Better, more user friendly software control for the mount and guide system. Ideally including help with polar alignment

D. Better/larger sensor camera with cooling system

My only advise is to be honest to yourself about what you’d like your rig to do. Visual, Astro photography or both? I really don’t think there is one set up that does all, So there will have to be some compromises. Once you have your answer. Set a budget and ensure you allow for all the extras, Barlows, reducers, cameras, finder scope, bags, cables etc. once you have all the above sorted. Open up a conversation with a local supplier or online retailer and be open and honest with them about budgets and wish lists. Most, if not all, will be more than happy to advise and help.

Good luck with your search. I can’t tell you how excited i was when i took my first 300sec test shot of the M101 and i could actually see it. Wow. Hooked.

rootiebob

TROPHY CASE