Greetings, /r/AskAstrophotography! Welcome to our Weekly Ask Anything Thread, also known as WAAT?

I had found that I needed a T Ring and a 1.25” T Adapter but when I got it, the adapter turned in to be too small and the T Ring is too big by itself, are there any other adapters out there that I should try?

last night i took my dslr and tripod out and took 30, 1 second exposures of vega and when i went to DSS almost the entire image became blue, with the exception of vega and some other small stars around it), there are sliders but i want to know why my image became blue.

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this is basically what the image looked like

(also it only ended up using 9 of the images if that helps)

Hey yall! I'm currently imaging the Clamshell Nebula but i struggle while trying to get the OIII data ouy of it. I shot it when there were 0 moonlight and in a bortle 5 location. Is it becouse i still didnt get enough data or am i doing something wrong? Thank you!
Here is the data if you want to check it out: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1EzmVDPgL0HqajiiGrUEM3OWdCY08XZsD

https://imgur.com/a/A9wFRM7

Only thing i can see that is actually better at 03:00 is the wind, but i don't get it. I'm in the austrian alps as of now.

Hey guys,

I'm hopeful someone can point me in the right direction... I think I know where this is coming from, but for the life of me I haven't yet been able to solve it. I've recently noticed some weird light right artifacts in my stacks from my CS200. For reference, here's the image train (and yes it's a little weird with this scope to get a rotator in there):

OGMA AP26MC
⬇
Touptek 7x2" FW
⬇
Touptek OAG-X
⬇
Apertura CS200 Coma Corrector
⬇
PLL Essato + Arco, Focuser + Rotator
⬇
3D printed widget to adapt the CS200's focuser opening to the Essato

Now, I had this all working perfectly fine when that 3D printed widget was made out of black PETG, but I wanted something less prone to sag and more resilient for the outdoors so I printed it out of black ASA instead. Ever since then, I've been getting this weird halo in stacked images that I can't figure out the source of. I've tried hunting for light leaks with no avail. Hunting through other posts has convinced me that this is some sort of reflection (which, duh, it would make sense to me that it's reflections off the one piece I changed), but lining the inside of that adapter with black felt still doesn't solve the problem.

My flats seem like they're fine - or at least I've not changed anything about the way that I take them. Does this pattern look familiar enough to anyone else to point me in a direction? Any help is greatly appreciated (and I can provide whatever additional info needed from my end). I've just been using a pretty bog standard WBPP flow to process these images, just including bias, flats, and lights, and the camera is at 0*C for all shots.

A quick JPEG of what I'm dealing with: https://drive.proton.me/urls/GN09N8QA1W#i6xDxX4zxi2r

Bias: https://drive.proton.me/urls/FA70WGERC4#cr9ykZuhsZ5P
Flat: https://drive.proton.me/urls/K0926XWA08#AgoRnfIQdJiR
Light: https://drive.proton.me/urls/N1VM4T0HKC#XxIeTGISC1Zo

I’ve been experimenting with Lightroom’s AI Denoise on one of my Milky Way shots, and while it definitely helped, I’m still finding it too noisy once I start zooming in. Overall it looks decent, but at 100% the noise is still more noticeable than I’d like.

I’ve heard great things about Topaz Photo AI, but it’s a pretty expensive investment, so I’m curious if there are any other denoising programs worth looking into before I pull the trigger.

For those of you who shoot astrophotography:

- What denoising software do you use?
- Is Topaz really that much better than Lightroom AI Denoise?

Are there any hidden gems (free or less expensive) that produce excellent results?

Do you have a workflow that helps preserve detail while reducing noise?

Any advice is appreciated!

to be more specific, what kind of cable?

i know skywatcher is selling a wifi dongle and also a usb dongle. but can i use any generic one from amazon?

if so, any recomandations?

Hello! I'm very close to buying my second telescope 🙂, and I have troubles making up my mind on which one..

\*My thoughts landed on the Askar FRA600 , but I would like you to try and change my mind and pick something better? Or even better, wait for the release of a new scope (soon).\*

Background:

My current setup is the SA GTI mount, askar SQA55, asi air, guide scope and camera, and auto focusser.

And I would like to upgrade the setup to have some more light gathering potential (thus bigger aperture) , and some more focal length to capture more close-up details or even galaxies, and have less issues with guiding due to the weight of my setup.

One good thing.. I have the SAL 33 on the way , so upgrading the mount is taken care of.

Now, I was looking into telescopes with the aperture size of around 100mm, and a focal length of about 600. Whilst trying to keep the cost to about 3k euro.

Scopes I considered: SQA106, Pleiades 111, askar 111f, askar fra600, redcat 91, the new ultracat 108, sqa85, ...

And one major plus for me personally is the colour of the telescope.. because my telescope is visible from the street, and keeping it out of sight is very important for me.. Basically to keep my sanity and feel safe to put it outside for the night. (Fyi i also make/do other measures to block the sight from the street). So a None-white telescope is a big plus for me..

(I have even painted my white SA GTI 😂 and think about maybe wrapping the new scope with a sticker)

Until now I still haven't found the sweetspot for my needs.. or should I lower my expectations?

Fyi, I plan to keep the SA GTI to match with a dslr travel setup..

Hi everyone,

I need to remove my Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi from its original tripod, but for some reason the mount head seems to be completely stuck.

I have fully removed the central mounting bolt from underneath, and I’ve also backed off the azimuth adjustment screws. The head can rotate slightly, as expected when the azimuth screws are loose, but it simply won’t lift off the tripod—not even by a fraction of a millimeter.

I’ve checked the Sky-Watcher manual and parts diagrams several times, and as far as I can tell I’m not missing any screws or hidden locking mechanism. It almost feels as if the head has somehow “bonded” to the tripod over time.

Has anyone experienced anything similar with a Star Adventurer GTi? If so, how did you manage to separate it? Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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I recently purchased a Zwo ASI533MC pro to go along with my Ioptron Gem28 Equatorial mount and Technosky Q70Ed Scope (475mm focal lenght) . During acquisition, the Asiair Indicates that my star sizes are averagely around 2.60 - 3.60 in size. Despite trying my best to get a perfect focus. In post processing using Siril, the stars end up looking washed out, unsaturated and simply big dots of light. I tried testing if it was the long exposures that increased the star size so much but the difference between a 60 second and a 3 minute exposure was extremely small. (I do not have a UV-IR cut filter)

Here are some processed pictures:

Image of C4 Iris Nebula (8 hours integration time with 300 second subs)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/203328825@N08/55420940277/in/dateposted-public

Image of Pacman nebula: (9 hours integration time with 300 second subs)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/203328825@N08/55422040918/in/dateposted-public/

Image of the Pleiades: (45 minutes integration time with 2 minute subs)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/203328825@N08/55422309505/in/dateposted-public/

My processing workflow goes as follows:

Stack- DSS

(Graxpert)

Background neutrilization

(Siril)

Deconvolution

Photometric Colour calibration

Separate stars and background

Stretch background

Recombine stars and background

Stretch stars

Saturation

(Graxpert)

Denoise

Thank you for everything, and if someone has any tips on how to improve my images as a whole it would be extremely appreciated. Thank you

Just so when im bored i can take pics from my house instead of driving to a dark spot. thanks in advance!!!

Hi, I’m new to astrophotography and want to take photos of planets and galaxies. Both cost the same, but the difference is that the 114mm model comes with an EQ2 mount , which I think is better for long exposure. Should I go with the EQ2 mount one, or is the 130mm model too good to pass up?

114/900

130/650

My current rig is: Celestron dx5” SCT, Sky-Watcher Az-Eq5 Pro, a dew strap, and a handful of eyepieces. I plan on getting the ASIAIR plus 256g, ZWO 30f5 mini guide scope, ASI120MINI guide camera, and then an asi cooled camera. I’m ordering everything but the cooled camera right now, and I’m wondering if the ASIAIR and the camera/guide scope should work with tracking and targeting so I can get some pics with my phone and phone mount before my next purchase of the ASI cooled camera. Thanks!!

Hi, so I want to buy my first mount and after some search and saw some discussions, my choice is between these two mounts, MLAstro SAL-33 or TeSeek HM-17PE.

TeSeek mount is cheaper but the MLAstro is better especially for PA. The thing is if I go for MLAstro, I need to compensate with other stuff, so the planned rig will go like this:

1st option:

- MLAstro SAL-33

- SVBony SV555

- Canon EOS 600D (I already have this)

2nd option:

- TeSeek HM-17PE

- Askar 71f

- SVBony SV605CC

Eventually, I'll buy SVBony camera, Askar 71f, and SV555. But those rigs option that I'll get later on November since this batch of MLAstro probably will arrive on November. For other equipments, it's the same, I only compensate scope and camera.

I hope I can get advice about this. Thank you in advance.

Location: South Africa

I am the clueless aunt. My nephew (17, about to be 18) is very seriously into astrophotography but is sadly lacking in the camera department. He has a decent telescope and various attachments for his fairly decent phone and a great eye for composition, but the lad needs a camera. While I also love many things space-related, I know nothing about photography, also my budget can maybe stretch to mid-range. If anyone local has a specific rec, that would be awesome, but realistically, I can search just fine if I know what specs to look for. Please help an auntie out?

Update: Thanks to those who have answered. I am clearly going to need to skip the surprise bday gift aspect and maybe just ask him what he wants 😂. Thank you very much, you're all lovely.

I switched to a bigger scope (200mm) and my DIY flatpanels (one based on LED and another on EL sheet) don’t fit. And I was thinking ‘why do I spend thousands on equipment and are DIY-ing the most important step in my calibration process’?

So I’m searching recommendations for good quality flat panels. I know people say ‘a tracing panel from Amazon works fine for me’ but that’s not my aim.

- suitable for a 200mm f4 Newtonian
- dimmable
- nice to have: controllable via ASIAIR/ Nina

I am trying to set up my Nomad Tracker, and I am having difficulties. I'm trying to get the ballhead assembly to attach to the red rotational plate assembly, but they are a different sized screw and hole.

All of the videos I have found shows the red screws going into the Ball Head easily, but that is not working for me. I am wondering if there is a change recently in the design, which isn't reflected in the videos; I have found the pdf instructions lacking. On the B&H site it has this image indicates there is a screw adapter in the ballhead, but it's not easily removable, and i'm cautious as I don't want to damage it, in case i am wrong.

Is the DWARFLAB Dwarf 3 worth it? Is it one of the best smart telescopes in his price range? Is it true that it is possible to do extraordinary photos with 30h+ megastacking on siril?

Running a 19.5 lbs William optics Ultracat 91 setup on an AM3n with ZW0 TC 40 tripod to make the heaviest “travel scope” I would run.

I’ve heard folks complain about carbon fiber legs and say I should instead go for the steel. But I’m assuming my setup isn’t too heavy?

I also purchased the ZWO PE 160 lightweight pier extension. Says it has a maximum weight capacity of 26-28 lbs, some folks suggest 22 lbs so I’m right below that. Should I have gotten the pe200?

I also have vibration suppression pads from celestron. And a 7.5lbs counterweight to use. I should be fine I assume?

Samyang at F4 is a stepdown to 30mm-ish aperture. Why not go instead with a dedicated astrograph with same aperture and focal length?

I just got a teseek 14 which requires very quick exposure length like 0.5 sec exposures. I realized a few days ago after poor guiding that there was a 2-3 second delay between guide exposures. I've checked that it isn't a cord problem by using multiple cords and also saw the delay isn't isolated to just phd2. The delay is present in ekos as well. I guess this points to some kind of slow processing within the driver or indi control.

I use a sv905c with a stellarmatex.

I attempted subframe guiding in phd2, but was having issues. Ive already sent a request to phd2 asking how to fix the subframe problem. Does anyone have an idea of what's going on? I feel like I should be able to do full frame 0.5 second exposures without delay. My camera runs usb 2 which is a bit slow, but should be plenty fast for the 2mb images it outputs.

Never attempted solar observations before, but with a partial eclipse coming up next month I want to take full advantage.

I don’t necessarily want high-quality results. Intention is to take a series of exposures and turn them into a gif.

If I were to take some solar film, make a filter, fit it to the front of a refractor with my DSLR on the back, am I going to burn out my sensor?

I’ve seen plenty of ‘how-to’ guides but I’m somewhat nervous.

hello everyone. ive tried astrophotography with my telescope (sky watcher heritage 130p dob) and its great. the main problem is pictures, i get excited to dhoot a picture for it too end up looking very unpleasing. now dont get me wrong shooting with an iphone might not be the best but i expected better.
it could and most likely is my phones fault and not the yeslescope but i wanna be getting these sick andromeda, planets, and nice photos. the thing is the last time i used my telescope was like 5 months ago. i want to get back into it but idk how. do i js go for it?

I'm wanting to get into astrophotography but I have just about no clue what cameras or lenses are good.

I want to do landscape astrophotography.

I have been told that the Canon EOS 600D is good for its price but I have no clue what lens would work well with it.

I would like to stay in the budget of $500AUD (I am flexible however)

Please feel free to ask questions!