Cheapie sunpak fluid filled head, Canon R50 w 35mm f1.8 prime, Skywatcher Adventurer GTI goto mount.

Eventually when I can afford it, I’d like to get into guided tracking which requires a single board computer and a spotting camera/scope to correct for backlash errors due to this being a budget mount that uses cut brass gears for movement. Currently I’m limited to about 120 seconds of exposure w a wide lens, about 70 seconds with a narrower 85mm, about 60 seconds w a 200mm lens. Also looking for a dslr to have h-alpha modified so I can pick up more of the reds and magentas that come from hydrogen emissions.

I recently ‘found’ an observation platform at the national park I go to frequently which is a nice compromise between visible light from the nearby city, and not having to drive 20 miles down the beach. Bonus is this place is about 40’ tall so I am actually up above the sea mist coming off the constant waves, and no curious coyotes. Rabies is pretty common in coyotes here and now I don’t have to worry about coyotes, just angry trash pandas for disturbing their spot.

I got some really clear skies last night unexpectedly so I was out way too late and now I’m up too early for work. I’ve been getting my processing chops up to speed and I think the photos I got last night might actually produce some good results. Hopefully they do and I can post them here.

  • CutieBootieTootie [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    12·
    9 days ago

    This has nothing to do with your awesome telescope but I totally saw this wrong from the thumbnail

    Here’s a bad render of what I thought I saw, which was a 2B type robot with a wide skirt holding a sword that was really big and had cool grooves on it.

    • microfiche [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      3·
      9 days ago

      Not a single one. Everything I see travels in a straight line and for the most part can be accounted for. I use Sky Safari on my iPad, and it shows TLE data for just about everything excepting spy satellites put up by the NRO. Nothing has ever been unexplainable. And I do look.

      I do however see 20-50 meteorites a nite when I go out.

  • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    9 days ago

    Hell yeah. I have a 125mm cassegrain telescope with an equatorial mount (a fork on a wedge, not a GEM unfortunately) and tried doing astrophotography with it once. The setup was miserable, took three hours to get the mount aligned and calibrated, and then it was immediately overrun by dew. I did get this neat photo of M13 though.

    This was the only 15 second exposure which wasn’t completely washed out by dew. agony-shivering I find it more enjoyable to take the scope out occasionally and just look through it, but the fork has some mechanical issues I need to get around to fixing.

    For anybody lurking, you can get some really cool photos just by taking long exposures of the night sky on a tripod. An equatorial mount will help keep the stars from turning into lines when shooting >= 15 seconds, but if you don’t give a shit it is still very cool.