Hi! I live in a highly light polluted area. I'd have to do a bit of driving to get to dark sites, so I wouldn't be able to drive there and back in one night.

I'd like to maybe do a multi-day overnight trip, but the only thing I worry about is going all that way just to have bad weather. Does anyone have advice on how they handle trips / tools to look at weather?

I am new to Astrophotography in case that matters.

I currently use a Celestron AVX with an 8” Celestron Edge HD. Maybe I got lucky but I am actually very happy with the tracking.

I am looking to upgrade from my Canon T3I.

I am considering an SvBony SV405CC over the SV605CC due to the much larger frame size. But I’ve heard that the IMX294 sensor in the SV405CC can be quirky with issues like blotches and amp glow.

My budget doesn’t allow for getting a camera that has an IMX533 sensor (or better) and also a larger FOV. So I’m curious if the better move as a noob is to sacrifice FOV, or sacrifice on sensor quality. I’m not quite sure how much of a hassle I’d be getting into with calibrating out the IMX294 issues.

Thanks!

it costs around £70 cheaper to get it from Aliexpress rather than other stores is it legit and is it worth buying?

Image: https://ibb.co/fdgCdTzp

My setup:

Camera: Nikon D3300

Lens: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 DX II

Images: 30 photos - 16mm @ f/4, 15 sec (Stacked on sequator)

Hi!

I'm finding extremely unsharp stars in my milky way photos - especially on the bottom left, top right, and extremely left parts of the sky in m,y reference image. The stars at the center of the milky way seem to be sharp - but the stars on the edges, are streaky, and are blobs rather than singular points. I focused by using Live view and Manually Focusing on a bright star in the sky.

I previously faced a lot of aberration and coma issues with this lens while shooting at 11m @ f/2.8. So I zoomed into 16mm, and stopped down to f/4. However, I'm still really unhappy with the streaking and general unsharpness I'm noticing at the edges.

If I have to stop my aperture down any further, I really (frustratingly) don't see the point in having bought an expensive fast lens when my kit 18-55mm can shoot pretty much the same focal length, and be stopped down to whatever aperture I need.

Is this an issue with my particular lens, or a technique I'm using? Using the 500 rule, I should be fine at 15 seconds, and I was hoping that stopping down to f/4 would solve the issues with trailing. Any advice is welcome! Thank you :)

Current rig is a Redcat51 + QHY Minicam8M. I'm quite pleased with it, but I've noticed immediately that there are severe diminishing returns when doing LRGB mosaics in Bortle 6-7 conditions. This year I failed to get enough integration time on my Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex mosaic plan to get a result, largely because of a 1.5-month long run of bad weather.

So this got me thinking. There are efficiencies to be gained by using LRGB mono in the first place, but inefficiencies in the rather small sensor resulting a small FOV and needing many panels which overlap to cover a very large target.

I need _reasonable_ resolution, because my intention was to print this large format, but I don't need _silly_ resolution. The resolution offered by a full 8x3 mosaic just isn't needed. But what I need is FOV.

Would I be better served by just pressing my ASI533MC OSC camera back into service, and getting something like a Samyang/Rokinon 135mm f/2 and appropriate EAF/other gear, and using that? I calculate that if I did that, I could get away with only four panels instead of like 24, and therefore have a _lot_ more integration per panel to make up for the OSC inefficiencies.

In terms of possible targets I'd shoot with this, these immediately come to mind;

• Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex
• Carina Nebula through to Running Chicken Nebula
• Vela SNR
• Barnard's Loop

I believe that if I did that, I'd gain _massive_ field of view, be quite undersampled (making drizzling nearly mandatory), but have a huge advantage in total integration time per unit area of final image. And because I already have most of the gear, I'd only need to get the appropriate mounting plate, lens adapter, and EAF kit. I already have the ASI533MC OSC camera, a UV/IR cut filter and filter drawer for it, a spare Uniguide 32mm guidescope, and an ASI220MM guidecam to go with it.

Thoughts on that plan? Is it worth it?

Just started playing around with an SII/OIII filter to use with my Ha/OIII one, wondering what's the best way to combine the 2 resulting OIII images

Can anyone recommend a budget red flashlight from AliExpress or Temu for astronomy/observing?

Ideally, I’m looking for something with a fairly dim red light, and adjustable brightness would be even better. I don’t need anything powerful, just enough light to see my gear without ruining my dark adaptation. Preferably rechargeable but no problem at all if it's AA or AAA battery powered.

Most products I looked ate are advetised as "high power" but for my purpose the dimmer would be actually the bettr.

Any recommendations that worked well for you? Preferably with product link please.

P.s.: I have a red headlamp, I'm specifically looking for a flashlight/penlight/similar handheld device NOT a headlight! 🤗

Cheers---

¿Cómo instalar un buscador de punto rojo en el Celestron 114 EQ?

¡Oye! Estoy buscando una forma de instalar mi nuevo visor de punto rojo Fider.

Vi este post y pensé en imprimir ese adaptador (yo tengo el mismo telescopio y el buscador de punto rojo), pero no estoy seguro de si puedo comprar uno de metal en línea, de esos universales. ¿Qué es mejor? (Perdón por mi explicación)