New Mount Delivery

[Tri Danimal]

Last night I received my new mount. This mount will be used to track the stars and other space objects across the sky so I can get super long exposures.

Mount and tripod


Up close of the mount, I still need to add a dovetail so I can mount my camera and lens to the mount.

[rpcrowe]

Congratulations Daniel... I am sure you will have a lot of enjoyment from this unit.

My next door neighbor is really into astro-photography. We live at 1400 feet altitude so we are above much of the marine layer and smog that can annoy Southern California astro-photographers. He has shown me some of his work and I think it is quite good (from a total layman's POV anyway).

He and a friend have constructed their own private observatory. The telescopes are housed in a building with a retractable roof which wan be opened on rollers. It is really quite ingenious.

Photography is a wonderful medium of expression because it can be combined with just about any avocation or vocation.

[Tri Danimal]

He and a friend have constructed their own private observatory. The telescopes are housed in a building with a retractable roof which wan be opened on rollers. It is really quite ingenious.

Photography is a wonderful medium of expression because it can be combined with just about any avocation or vocation.

That is awesome. I would totally love to have a built out observatory at home. I recently joined the Riverside Astronomical Society and they have a club house in Landers Ca (near Jousha Tree, Ca) that is open to everyone. Im am really looking forward to utalizing their club house for imaging sessions.

I also agree that photography is a wonderful medium of expression.

[Astro]

Hi Daniel,back in 2016 I started out with a tracker similar to the one you have just got.

I mounted my camera, with a 500mm Sigma telephoto + doubler (ie 1000mm) using a ball head. I did push the setup to it's absolute limit but was quite surprised just how far I was able to push.

Back then, I took some photographs of Jupiter. As I said I was experimenting a bit, seeing what my camera/telephoto combination was capable of.
Strictly speaking the tracker was a convenience since the camera settings were ISO400 1/45s F11, but it meant I didn't have to keep reframing. I took 20 shots with a set of corresponding darks (no bias though).I was quite pleased with the result, but in truth, hardly a great capture as you can see below.




A couple of weeks back, I took another look at the original images, and had another go at processing them using a number of 'new' techniqes I've learnt over the last few years.



I think I might just try Jupiter again later this year!

Have fun with your rig...


ps the point being that you can do a lot with a good camera/telepho combo ... If you havn't considered a doubler it might be an idea. I got mine dirt cheap of EBay and I still use it for Moon shots.

[Tri Danimal]

ps the point being that you can do a lot with a good camera/telephoto combo ... If you haven't considered a doubler it might be an idea. I got mine dirt cheap of EBay and I still use it for Moon shots.

I have looked into doublers in the past, I have figured out Sony doublers are only for their top end glass and can only stack doubler. The Canon EF (my sigma 150-600 and canon 70-200 are EF mount) doublers appear to fit all their glass and a user could stack several doublers if they wanted to.

The doubler might be my next more in a few months after the bank account and Wife recover ;-)

[rudi]

... so I can get super long exposures.....

Hi Daniel,
with this combo (Sirius EQ-G, sony and sigma 150-600) you will be good with exposures up to 60 seconds, maybe up to 2 min ( depending....).
Without a guiding system the results of long exposure astrophotography are usual disappointing.
A lot of objects can be imaged with 50-150+ 30 second subs, but iff you want to do long exposures, I recommend looking into a guiding system.
A guiding system consist off a second small scope (riding on top off your main imaging 'scope') a guidecamera, and a program like PHD (Freeware), connected to the mount and this keeps your object centered.

HTH.

[george013]

Hi Daniel,
with this combo (Sirius EQ-G, sony and sigma 150-600) you will be good with exposures up to 60 seconds, maybe up to 2 min ( depending....).
Without a guiding system the results of long exposure astrophotography are usual disappointing.
A lot of objects can be imaged with 50-150+ 30 second subs, but iff you want to do long exposures, I recommend looking into a guiding system.
A guiding system consist off a second small scope (riding on top off your main imaging 'scope') a guidecamera, and a program like PHD (Freeware), connected to the mount and this keeps your object centered.

HTH.

Just out of interest. The guide camera is making a start image in memory, saves that and continues to make images and compare that with the original and than correct the scope according to those differences? Or something like that.

George

[rudi]

Just out of interest. The guide camera is making a start image in memory, saves that and continues to make images and compare that with the original and than correct the scope according to those differences? Or something like that.

George

The guide camera takes continuously short exposures and 'makes' little corrections to the tracking by mean off the software PHD so that your object stays centered.

[george013]

The guide camera takes continuously short exposures and 'makes' little corrections to the tracking by mean off the software PHD so that your object stays centered.

It was just out off interest. The camera takes an initial shot that will be the "wanted value", makes after a while a second picture which will be the "measured value" and corrects the scope based on the deviation of that image. Guessing from me.

George