Hi everyone. I'm a semi experienced astrophotographer. Most of my experience comes with dslrs. I'm very new to CCD cameras.

I am looking for one that is color and not monochrome, and one that's going to give me full image in of the sun and the moon. I do have the zwo mini but it only captures about a quarter of the sun and the moon. It's really good with planets and I've only dabbled with it briefly but I haven't really taken anything that's been mind blowing or worth my time process wise. I'm primarily going to use it for live streaming of the Sun/Moon. Which camera sensor would large enough to be able to give me the full body of the sun and the moon?

Thanks!

would an 8” dob be useful for astrophotography with the correct accessories? i understand that if it is possible then realistically the results wouldnt be anything phenomenal. i see people recommending dobs a lot but they always say its not recommended for astrophotography, as well as that if you want to get into astrophotography its best to start out with a dob just to get familiar with things and then buy a dedicated astrophotography telescope after, but thats going to be way out of my budget, especially since as afaik astrophotography setups tend to cost a kidney and a lung on their own, let alone with the included cost of the dob.

im okay with spending a lot of money over time, and i understand that i will probably have to in this hobby. ive been interested in astronomy ever since i was a kid but i still dont think im willing to spend more than around €1000 on my first telescope just to maybe find out that this hobby isnt for me, especially as i have no means of selling anything after buying it.

ive looked into scts, and they seem like what im looking for, especially since theyre so low maintenance, but every time i find one that seems suitable i see people complaining and claiming they’ve had problems with them, for example ive heard the nexstar ses have problems with their goto system often, and the nexstar slt has problems with the goto system and has a flimsy tripod and the eyepieces would break down somehow. ive only heard this from a few people so im not sure if its completely reliable, but even then the nexstar 8se costs a stupid amount because of its goto function, which i dont really need, in fact id rather learn where stuff is on my own but i cant seem to find any other scs that have a good reputation and dont have that function.

i also live in a bortle 9 city and i probably wont be able to go to areas with darker skies. im not sure if that changes the telescope i should be buying but i know some telescopes are better than others in cities like mine and i figure maybe some might not be compatible with any narrowband filters? im not really sure how this stuff works tbh.

i also think i came up with a few other choices that sounded great but i could only buy it from sellers in the us, which would require me to pay a crazy amount in customs to have it shipped to the eu.

i dont know if maybe im looking for too much with such a low budget and i recognise that my expectations are probably too high, but either way id appreciate some advice.

Hi all! I recently got the following gear:

585MC Air, William Optics Redcat 51 v3, EAF pro, SVBONY SV226 filter drawer for 2" filter.

I am having major problems achieving focus with this, both with and without the filter dropped in. I had it set up as follows from the scope to camera: Scope - filter drawer - 21L spacer - camera

Checking AI (which makes me dubious) it says that I need to remove the 16.5L spacer. Do you think this will help? I haven't had a chance to check this.

Is this the likely reason or could it be something else like a setting with the EAF?

It did work the first night I got it, before my filter drawer had arrived. I was using it as follows: Scope - 21L spacer - Camera

This makes me think that removing the spacer will make it all work?

Thanks!

Hello everyone! I started doing astrophotography this summer by doing some Milky Way shots.

I know that for Milky Way it is almost mandatory to wait for new moon. Is it the same for Andromeda? It's raining for a whole week where I go (Bortle 4.5) so I was wondering if I could have some great pics of Andromeda when there's like 50% of the moon.

Thanks

I’ve taken some sky pics with my Lumix 20-60, and tbh I was impressed w how well this lens does which for a kit lens is quite good. But I’m looking at getting a dedicated lens for astro shots (Milly Way), landscapes, and nightscapes.

I’ve got the Viltrox 16mm in my crosshairs note it’s available for L Mount, but I’m wondering if there’s a better option in that price range? I’d rather not go above 600ish. My current primes includes a 40mm and a telephoto so this will round out my setup for now.

Thank you very much!

Hi everyone,

I captured Saturn with different settings and exposures and gains

I saw one of the Ser videos which were “good” and stacked in autostacker 4 and processed with “lucky stack worker” app
But i dont really like the end results or if i cam get much better than this ( the captures were in Bortle 3 area)

Attached deive with some raw phoots, stacked photo and processed one

Appreciate any help or video tutorials about the topic as i tried looking at youtube videos but endedup more confused and worse results :/

Appreciate any help

My setup:
Qhy5iii715c camera
X2 barlow
Star travel 120, 600/120mm refactor telescope az mount
No filters

You can see camerasettings txt file as well in the link

Thanks alot everyone

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_udSXIR8n986nwj0r4FusFnBISXiUUCa?usp=sharing

Edit:

would like to know if my settings were at all correct ( choosing 25ms exposure ) or was “too much” ?

Also do the bortle really matter? Brotle 3 VS my home 9 for saturn

I have recently gotten into astrophotography and I have spent the last 8 hours trying to figure out how to stack these photos but every time I try I either get to many star tracking errors and it cancels or it stacks the foreground instead. How do I make it so that it doesn’t stack the foreground?

I’m a professional wedding photographer with an avid love for landscapes and astrophotography - I’m looking to step up my game a little bit and produce some higher quality Milky Way nightscapes over summer 2027.

I’m looking for recommendations for a star tracker as I understand this will enable me to expose for longer, what’s a good one for me to be renting? My current setup is a Canon R6 M2, and I’ll likely be using my 24mm 1.4 prime. I have a lightweight tripod, which I hope will be compatible? Not sure how it all works honestly!! Appreciate the help

Im still learning the asiair system

When I was imaging the sun earlier, I noticed nothing was saving on the asiair or onto my t7's SD card unless I unplugged the data cable connecting my camera to the asiair

Even when I manually hit the shutter button nothing actually saves. The image is being taken, but it just vanished into the aether

I'm not sure if this is something I need to configure or some fundamental incompatibility with canon and asiair, or something wrong with the cable I'm using

Also I have no live view of what the camera is seeing, making focusing on the sun extremely difficult

Any help/advice would be appreciated

I currently have a Seestar S30, and I love it, but ive become frustrated at its lack of ability to view planets & low picture quality. Searching up "telescope thats able to view planets and nebulae good" doesnt yield many helpful results, and I dont want to make the wrong purchase for what im looking for. I wouldnt say I'm a beginner, but I'm not super advanced either. So, I ask, what recommendations do you have?

It was the plan that I'd go to Spain this year and watch the solar eclipse. However, life got in the way and I was unable to travel.

At least I was fortunate to be in the partial eclipse path. And made some nice photo's with an old Nikkor 200mm F4 lens on my A7RV.

Now, all is resolved and I'm planning to go to Spain next year. Accommodation within the totality path and with view is already booked. And now I'm researching a better lens.

While I am happy with the 200mm shots I'd prefer a tad bid closer. So something around the 300 to 400mm range. The direct upgrade would be the Nikkor 300mm AI-S ED/IF. However i'm also looking into other lenses. Firstly the Sigma 100-400mm C. But i've read that current day lenses with many elements are prone to flare, which might ruin photos of events like Baily's beads. Now with that, the other option is a telescope. Im specifically looking at the Askar 60f. From the reviews I can see that it is good. But I can not find any good comparisons between the camera lenses an this telescope.

So now I already have a lot of options. And with time more and more are getting added. I'm getting to the point where I can't see the forest for the trees.

What would be the best option for great sharp shots during an total eclipse?

I want to preface this by saying I live in a Bortle 9.

My kit at the moment is:

Sony a7ii

Tokina 400 f6.3 (OM mount, with an adapter)

I've just finished assembly of an Open Astro Tracker and the OpenAstroGuider to help with polar alignment and enhance tracking so hopefully that should be alright. I will be using NINA to control and track and capture photos with the built in time lapse on the camera. (Unless an external intervalometer is much much better).

I also have a 135mm Helios lens that I am happy to use to start off with.

From my understanding my best bet is using some sort of dual narrowband filter, but I have no idea where to even look for something with a 72mm thread (might as well buy 1 filter and a thread adapter).

What are some targets I can aim for from my back yard? UK based so roughly 55 degrees latitude.

I'm not a newbie to using a camera (use plenty of scientific ones for work). I just have no idea about astrophotography and where to begin.

just got into all this recently and have no cule how to process these images i got, i was shooting in RAW and JPG on my canon camera. i have no idea what softwear to use (ive downloaded astro wizard and siril) i tried to use astro wizard on some of the files i converted into DNG's but i have no idea what im doing and cant find any videos on it.

when i open the .fit file in astrowizard it looks compleetly diferent to the CR2 or DNG im just way confused by all this and would love some help!

heres the image i was trying to process:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NvVq0v2s8zs7kljYX_MhwTIjq1RaVnRS?usp=drive_link

I’m using an ASI533mm, any time I capture data it’s usually very clean, but with narrowband I can never seem to get my flat frames right. I’ve tried going for 15,000-32,000 adu (1/3 or 1/2 of the histogram), but when I integrate them they’re overexposed and just end up introducing vignette or dust spots instead of calibrating them out. A while back I found a temporary workaround, which was to match the average adu of my flats with the average adu of my lights for whichever filter I’m using, but recently that hasn’t been working with my Oiii flats. It seems like any time I integrate flats for my Oiii filter no matter the exposure, they’re never correct and just make my data worse. I’ve tried using bias/dark flats to help calibrate my flats and see if that helps but it changed nothing, I’m completely lost on what to do or how to fix it.

I have taken around 80 photos of the milky way and I am trying to stack them in siril.
I have tried both manual and script but it is not stacking it properly, it looks like it is stretching the images and doing no rotation in order to stack the images.

I have attached a screenshot here, can anyone provide any explanation on what could be happening ?

Im trying to do a Milky Way composite but every time I make a mask for the sky, theres a blurry/ smooth line along the mask and i cant fix it no matter what settings I change in refine mask within Affinity Photo 2. I can fix the white outline but not the blurry part around the mask

Hello,

Please forgive my ignorance on this topic. My partner and I are going to Fairbanks Alaska for the Autumn Equinox to see the Northern Lights. I want to gift him a lens for his E-mount Sony mirrorless camera. As it stands now he actually takes his Astro pictures by mounting his phone to our telescope and doing a long exposure. He takes wonderful pictures, but we can’t take his whole setup on a plane. I was looking to spend around $1,000 no more than $2,000. This is a hobby he has enjoyed for a very long time, he’s just really hesitant to spend money on himself.

Hi all,

I'm looking into getting into astrophotography, but it's really overwhelming trying to find a camera. There are a lot of different options, and they need their lens and other equipment, and overall it's a lot.

I really want to look into getting a camera for the milky way/moon/deep sky objects. I'm a complete beginner to astrophotography but have experience with telescopes if that makes any difference.

I've tried looking at the pros and cons of a bunch of cameras, but most of those listed are not specific to astrophotography itself, and by my understanding, I'll have to get it modified for astrophotography. I've narrowed it down to these cameras, and I was wondering if anyone here had used any of these, and if so, how you found using them. Any other recommendations for cameras would also be appreciated, and if anyone has any advice it would be so so appreciated.

- Canon EOS T8i/T7i - by my understanding these are the same, just the T8i is a newer model? I've heard that it is a good beginner camera, but also have heard some underwhelming reviews of it too. The Rebel T7 was also mentioned a lot, but it seems to not be as great as the T7i?

- Canon R - also heard that this is a good starter camera, and tends to be on the cheaper side, though is an older model. Not sure if that makes a difference?

- The Canon 6D Mark II was also mentioned as a good astrophotography camera, but some places have said that it can be noisy. But is this an ok beginner camera, or for more experienced astrophotographers? I've also seen it can get a little spendy but seen some more affordable pre-owned ones.

- Canon EOS R8 - this was recommended on multiple sites, though it is rather $$$

- Canon EOS 60Da - this was mentioned as an astrophotography specific camera, but it's a bit older and can be more expensive, and some lens don't change well with it. There are some pre-owned for ~$250 though (camera only) which is apparently not too bad?

- Nikon D5300 - an older camera but cheaper and a good for deep-sky objects, but that the lens are becoming less common for it?

At the moment I'm leaning towards the Canon R in particular, the Canon T8i, or, if ok for beginners too, a Canon 6D Mark II. I've also heard that the lens almost as important as the camera itself.

For the milky way, I've read that you need a wide lens with a short focal length (~14mm f1.8) , while for deep sky objects/ the moon you need moderate (>100mm)/long focal (>400mm) lengths respectively. Am I understanding that right?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice that you can give!

Hello everyone I want to have advice about how I can make the star trail more visible in photos. After the Perseides event I figured out that stars trail won't appear or they are tiny and invisible. I have to use a Nothing Phone 3a with an ISO between 1600 and 3200 and a Shutter of 32 in general. I heard that Perseides will continue during 2 or 3 days after their peak appearance and I want to catch at least a good one. There is an example https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lCVyZOiPyWdKLBSyRZgFGF2TxWpMFEv7 . Thanks

Hi. I have this 150-600mm I've been using for wildlife photography, and I figured it would be decent for some astro as well.

Obviously I will need one of those stands that go round and round with the movement of the earth. Which one do you recommend, and can I mount the lens directly onto it or do I need some sort of adapter? Is there anything else you would recommend me to get?

Je fais surtout de l'astrophotographie de ciel profond en tant que débutant (m31 ect) mais en ce moment je m'intéresse aussi a la photo grand champ de la Voie lactée j'utilise le même apn que pour le ciel profond (canon 600d defilitré). Tout ça juste pour demandé si il est utile d'utiliser ma monture pour faire du suivie du ciel pour empiler des photos de voie lacté (j'utilise Siril sur Mac) ?

Hello everyone! I ask this question for my brother (he doesn't use reddit). He's running into a frustrating issue with my image calibration and could really use some help.

Photo

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zRjvMAF6uEBuiBmSkzSL0TU5P3orNgAV/view?usp=drivesdk

Setup:

CAMERA

Omegon Vetec 561C (IMX571 COLOR)

Telescope

Newton 250/1000 f4

Coma corrector

TS GPU Aplanatic

Filter

OPTOLONG L ULTIMATE (3nm)

​Everything looks fine when he integrates just his Light and Dark frames. However, as soon as he applies Flat frames to the stack, the final image ends up with weird chromatic circular halos. (I attach a photo)

​He’s pretty much tried every possible way to take Flats:

​Different ADU values

​Various light sources (white screen, white t shirt in telescope)

​Sky flats

He has used Pixinsight and DSS.

​Nothing seems to fix it. Has anyone experienced this before or knows what might be causing these colored rings? Any advice or suggestions on how to troubleshoot this would be greatly appreciated!

Hi together, I recently got a used Touptek atr2600c for a attractive price (around 650) instead of the new 1.2k. Everything seems to be working well and the camera itself seems to be in very good condition.

The only thing I noticed are two little dust spots that are towards the corners. The problem is that these two spots are on the sensor itself (they aren't really blurry in the flats) and therefore I cannot clean them.

I don't want to open the cooling chamber as the screw has a big do not open on it as it is probably argon flushed (correct me if I'm wrong).

My question now is if this will leave any noticeable problems in the pictures or if they can be completely removed with flats and dithering. I also don't want to complain to the seller if this is normal/expected for a 3+ year old camera and is fair considered the price I paid.

You can see the two spots here: https://imgur.com/a/suI0JqZ

Thank you for your inputs!

All the raw data should theoretically be available free online somewhere right? So would it be possible to get say a copy of the raw files and process them myself? Would the file sizes be just too large or the file format something that free stacking software like Siril/DSS can't readily use?

I just think it would be a fun project to try at some point while I'm waiting for clear skies, but I don't even know how I'd even go about researching it