The Amateur Astronomy thread

Sinbad said:
I wonder if they'll offer some kind of add on to increase the focal length at some point. 250 is too small for planets
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The target market for smart telescopes is at this aperture, so galaxies and nebula. You can see Jupiter and it's moons and even it's bands but it's not really what this is about.

You can enable RAW and post process in Siril or Pixinishgt and you'll get much better than the live stacking.

The Dwarf and Seestar 30's have a wider field of view but you lose definition, that's why I went for the S50.
 
purrr said:
And this is the not so portable rig:

View attachment 1871375
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Very nice setup. How's that ZWO EAF? I went the Mele mini PC route instead of ZWO to save bucks after splashing out on a TEC IMX533 and narrowband filters. I have a lot to learn. By the time I have everything polar aligned, calibrated and ready to go I'm ready to pull my hair out.

I'm also tempted to order an S50 or Dwarf 3. If only there was something affordable with the S50's aperture and D3's sensor.

My rig before I added the mini PC:

download (13).jpeg
 
Sensorei said:
Very nice setup. How's that ZWO EAF? I went the Mele mini PC route instead of ZWO to save bucks after splashing out on a TEC IMX533 and narrowband filters. I have a lot to learn. By the time I have everything polar aligned, calibrated and ready to go I'm ready to pull my hair out.

I'm also tempted to order an S50 or Dwarf 3. If only there was something affordable with the S50's aperture and D3's sensor.

My rig before I added the mini PC:

View attachment 1871392
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Lol, after building and completing my rig, I have not had a session yet! It is ****ing heavy (40kg) and it's sandy out back, so therefore the plan to build a permanent observatory. S50 is the stand in while I figure it out.
 
Btw, it's my first session so using the amateur mode (alt-az). Tomorrow I'll set it up in eq mode (requires an eq wedge). Then I can go from 10s exposures to 30-60s. (With my main gear I would be able to do 300s).
 
purrr said:
Btw, it's my first session so using the amateur mode (alt-az). Tomorrow I'll set it up in eq mode (requires an eq wedge). Then I can go from 10s exposures to 30-60s. (With my main gear I would be able to do 300s).
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Teach me master
 
Enzo Matrix said:
Teach me master
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The S50 "easy mode" is alt-az so you just need to balance the tripod. Problem with the mode is you can't have long exposures, the view rotates and the zenith isn't possible.

The eq mode allows longer exposures and the view doesn't rotate. You need an eq wedge though.
 
Crusader said:
True, but those would originate from roughly the same the same radiant wouldn't they?
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I'm not an expert but based on our location I think it will streak from all over. Based on a bunch of us and a mushroom trip on a mountain decades ago, I'm pretty sure it was from various angles... ;)
 
purrr said:
I'm not an expert but based on our location I think it will streak from all over. Based on a bunch of us and a mushroom trip on a mountain decades ago, I'm pretty sure it was from various angles... ;)
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It's been years since I did astronomy stuff so I'm very fuzzy. Basically they'd appear to come from the same direction.
 
Crusader said:
It's been years since I did astronomy stuff so I'm very fuzzy. Basically they'd appear to come from the same direction.
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Plotting all the streaks will indicate an origin, agreed.
 
Crusader said:
That's impressive. How many 10s exposures used in the final stack?
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Need to download the pics tonight to process in Siril so will know for sure then. But based on the file name above looks like 562 @ 10s about 1.5 hours.

Overcast today so can’t try the eq mode tonight.
 
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