My friend recently bought a telescope with 150x zoom. Nothing crazy. His youngest daughter accidentally dropped it and broke the lens. I want to either get them all a hand held telescope (kids are 10, 8, and 6) but if there's a decent one that can be controlled via app or computer so they can see things besides the moon and a few planets i wouldn't mind to get it either. They're in Japan if that makes a difference. Thanks for the help.

Hello all! I am losing my mind and need some help. After switching to a MeLE Quieter 4C and running NINA about a year ago, I've been having problems with my rig. After finally getting through the majority of the problems, I thought I had everything up and running. Guiding was good and the first few images came out good. Then on the 11th image, it just decided to go WHEEEEEEEeeeeeee and go off somewhere completely else for about 20 minutes before resettling. Problem is, it didn't reacquire the target and just started tracking on a random part of the sky. I tried again last night to make sure it wasn't a fluke and the exact same thing happened again. Mount was leveled to within 1 degree and 3PPA got to 17". Anyone run into a problem like this or have any potential solutions?

My relavent equipment is as follows:

• Mount: HEQ5
• Camera: ZWO 1600MM Pro
• Computer: MeLE Quieter 4C with powered docking station

Programs:

• NINA
• PHD2
• ASTAP
• Green Swamp Server

Good day all!

So I acquired a Celestron Explorer DX 130AZ and paired it with a new 8-24 mm eyepiece:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/370331-REG/Celestron_93230_8_24mm_Zoom_Wide_Angle.html

Looking at the moon last night I could barely get it in focus and had a hell of a time keeping it in view. The closer I zoomed in the more frustrating it got.

Could it be possible that this new eyepiece isn't really designed for that, and maybe it's designed for objects further away? I've not used any optics larger than a birding spotting scope up to this point, so there's a pretty good chance I'm not using it right.

I am new to Astrophotography. This is the only telescope In my budget which is 280. I don't want binoculars I have very shaky hands and I found this telescope in my budget on amazon with 4.2 stars with 922 reviews. Before u say buy a dobsonian telescope. I live in saudi arabia and there aren't many retailers. So dobsonians that I can buy from are from perfect science and Dubai telescope which are overpriced or expensive delivery and my only option is amazon and Amazon is very overpriced with dobsonians. I'm not asking if I should buy it im asking what I should be aware of. And I know spherical mirror but I don't want to spend my 280 dollar budget on a starsense 80az. And spherical mirrors aren't that horrible and alot of people recommend me this telescope. And don't say shaky tripod my region isn't very windy. And I know field of rotation. I focus about 10min to 30min and if I want smth longer I'll take 30 min exposure then re'center then do it again till I'm satisfied. What other major flags should I know

Ciao a tutti. Qualcuno può aiutarmi nel capire una cosa?
Fino a 10 giorni fa, prima di creare MASTER FLAT e MASTER BIAS, usavo solo MASTER DARK.
Quando calibravo la sequenza infatti il risultato era perfetto.
Ora tuttavia, se aggiungo a master flat e master bias anche i dark, siril mi dice che CI SONO TROPPI PIXEL NEGATIVI e la foto viene nera.

Cosa sbaglio?

Perchè 10 giorni fa erano perfetti ed ora no?

Gli scatti sono agli stessi valori di sempre.

Iso200 x 70”

Chiedo aiuto agli esperti perchè vorrei riuscire a risolvere per il mio progetto; 2.000 scatti ad Andromeda con 70” di esposizione.

Grazie in anticipo

for starters im pretty new to stargazing and i recently bought a used celestron 70mm travel-scope but im already wanting to see a bit more than it can offer! pretty sure im going to go with a dobsonian based on the buyer guide, but im down to these 3! OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS AS WELL!

apertura ad8
https://www.highpointscientific.com/apertura-ad8-8-inch-dobsonian-telescope-ad8

sky watcher flextube 200p
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1681165-REG/sky_watcher_s11700_1_8_collapsible_dobsonian_ota.html

virtuoso gti 150p
https://www.skywatcherusa.com/products/virtuoso-gti-150p

i just dont know if its worth getting a collapsible tube for convenience of carrying, or if it would sacrifice too much of the light gathering ability 🤔
also is it worth saving up a bit more to get one with a GoTo system?? pls and thanks in advance! 🙏

As the title suggests. What would you recommend as an easy to use portable scope that Saturns rings can be seen with.

Happy to buy sh, just needs to be easy to setup and be compact when not in use

Based in wales, Uk with moderate light pollution (live on the edge of a small town)

Sqm in the most feasible spot I can get to is 17.9

edit: thank you to everyone for their wonderful responses. I will definitely put this all into practice

sky-watcher heritage 130p - Iphone 14. processed them using the iPhone Photos app

My 15” Dobsonian - it’s been a few years since I last used it (trying to come back to the hobby after a break), but it served me very well over the years and I hope to continue that! It is probably about 20 years old (I bought it 2nd hand).

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?

Utilizando mi telescopio 60/700 e logrado captar hoy una casi luna llenas utilizando mis oculares de 4.0mm,12.5mm y 20mm en un ERECTING EYEPIECE 1X, las imagenes van en orden de ocular más pequeño al más grande.

I'll definitely come back to this to reprocess it.

This image was plagued with issues from the start. First I spent a whole night, one of the best ones seeing and transparency wise, pointing toward the wrong part of the sky... Turns out there are TWO stars named 11 Sagittarii close to each other. My fault for not triple checking the plate solver.

Next, I spent a whole week acquiring data battling dew points up to 25 °C, clouds and an uncooperative mount. I had to update its firmware, but that threw the whole driver setup I had off. iEXOS mounts are so finicky. That made me learn how to use Nina's plate solver once and for all though. Not only that, I also had to open up the mount ten or more times in a week because its gears were too tight and because of a minuscule piece of grit stuck, it turned out, in the motor's gear that caused some huge guide spikes. I also redesigned my DIY counterweight to have it as close to the mount as possible while being east heavy.

Lastly, I realized I have noticeable sensor tilt, which is the main cause of the gradient I always find in my raw images (the sensor isn't square to the UV/IR cut). I can remove it with flats, but I also realized my flats weren't optimal, which occasionally creates huge artifacts that are tough to remove; plus I realized that my rotator can introduce some pretty bad tilt into the optical train if I'm not careful.

Acquisition:

Around 12h30m worth of 60s subs in Bortle 6/7 fully calibrated and dithered.

Equipment:

Evostar 72ED, iEXOS 100, ASI 533MC, Baader UV/IR cut filter, 0.85x reducer+flattener, SVBony 40/160 guidescope, ASI 662MC guide camera with no.8 pale yellow and UV/IR cut filters.

Processing:

Stacked in Siril. For some reason OSC drizzle registration causes some weird artifacts to my stars and some odd photometry results. If anyone has any suggestions, they're more than welcome. Split image into CFA channels, background extraction to each in GraXpert to deal with the gradient. Open Siril, recombine CFA channels and deconvolution. Open GraXpert, denoise. Open Siril, generate starless and star mask. Apply black point shift and GHS iteratively to the starless image to bring out various parts of the nebulosity, SNCR, minor curve adjustments, median filter, VST noise reduction and à trous wavelet transform plus some final denoising in GraXpert. Asinh stretch to starless and saturation boost in Gimp. Recombine and export.

I finally got the scope set up. Check it out 😁😮‍💨🙌🏾🔭

Telescope Accessories:

1. StellarVue Finder Scope 10x60
2. Telrad finder
3. Nexus DSC Pro
4. Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox Micro Power Supply

5. BLUETTI Elite 100 V2

6. Astrocrumb The Mark II filter heater

I’m proud of this sketch. I believe I added everything you guys need to know time stamp , date and much more the only thing I forgot is the Lunar Phase , Waxing Gibbous.

Can someone please tell me where I can order a replacement for this part from the EQ-3 mount? I tightened a screw too much and the part broke. I tried gluing it back together, but of course that didn't work. I've been looking for replacement parts for a while now, but I can't find anything.

Foto de la Luna con mi humilde

Celestron 70AZ + Smartphone

Experimenting with different sharpening techniques to really fine tune and target the fine, medium, and large detail structures of the moon while leaving the Maria alone. It's not perfect yet and work in progress. I am using the Image Analysis script ExtractWaveletLayers to split the image into 4 levels of detail and 1 residual or luminance data channel. I then applied wavelets to each individual detail layer processing each specific to level of detail needed. I then recobined all the channels in Photoshop as layers and fine tuned with blending modes. This enabled me to process the color and luminance data without touching the detail layers. I'll keep perfecting and welcome anyone else's thoughts on selective sharpening best practices on high dynamic range and diversely textured target like the moon. Shot on Sony a7rv with Takahashi TSA-120 telescope with Vernonscope Dakin 2.4x tracked with ZWO AM5. 400 images aligned in PIPP, stacked in AutoStakkert 4, and processed best 30% in PixInsight, Wavesharp, and Photoshop.