I really appreciate your approach. I've seen many beginners on astronomy/astrophotography forums ask how to get the most out of their existing setup for astrophotography. So often the responses are negative: you can't take photos with that equipment, you need to spend $3,000 on a GEM and a CMOS camera, etc. But that misses the point: Most of us want to know how to make the best use of things we have (or can readily obtain). I know I my M42 photo isn't going to make the cover of Astronomy magazine, but I love being able to capture it at all (with low incremental expense!), and I love learning how to refine my technique to improve my results. Thanks again for this thoughtful discussion.
Thank you for your supportive comment Matt. This is exactly what I am about. I often say that if an image you have taken gives you pleasure then it is a great image. The knowledge that you have used your equipment (whatever it is) to take the picture means that you can take pride in what you have done.
I already got 45 seconds per frame with an azimuth mount. The results were very good. Obviously wouldn't be a cover of Astronomy Magazine, but helps me to learn how to take better pictures and improve every day. Congrats for the video!!
I like this attitude very much. Very often I also read "this it not possible with that and that mount...." Most of the time it is not black and white. cs
Absolutely agree! I am very happy with my alt-az Celestron 6SE and my dslr behind it. I will upgrade to an eq mount but will always treasure every minute and every picture I had with it! Because I never imagined this would be possible for an amateur like me. It is a struggle sometimes, some evenings it doesn't work at all, and you have to limit yourself to many short exposures, but it's fun!
Thank you for taking the time to watch and comnent. It amazed me what it was possible to capture with an alt az mount. I wish you good luck and clear skies 🙂
Thats very good to hear. If you can find the book I mention its full of very useful information to get you started. The section on Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop are very useful. Good luck in your journey. Thank you for watching and commenting 👍
Thanks for the video. I have the Nexstar 127 mak. Plus I have a couple small refractors of 60 f/5, 65 f/7.7, and 80 f/6. Might have to try this out and see what I can get.
Hi Joe, I think you will have a lot of fun and be pleasantly surprised with what it is possible to get. Thank you very much for taking the time to watch and comment, it is much appreciated. Clear Skies to you 😊
Thank you for your video! Cant wait for clear skies to come and give it a go. Im new at this and actually my first telescope is a Celestron 90SLT with your same mount. I always thought it was too small or not good enough for shooting galaxies or nebulas, as everyone on youtube has fancy eq mounts that made me reconsider having poor judgement on getting it. Your video encouraged me to keep trying with what I have, as I live in a country where amazon and other shipping companies arent available and getting other gear is just painful.
Thank you for watching and your kind comment. I am a fan of trying things out with what you already have before spending too much money. I wish you good luck and clear skies.
Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment, its much appreciated 🙂. I just had a look at your channel and subscribed as it looks like you have some interesting content there 👍
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you very much for your sub. Very glad you like the content. 😀 I also subscribed to your channel after I saw what you're doing on YT. I especially like the mixture of camping/outdoors and astro stuff. I like it very much. There is also a youtube channel from a swedish guy called "Northern Panorama" which might be interesting for you as well (if you don't know it already). All the best and clear skies. 🔭 👍🏼
Just found this video over a year after it was published! After years of visual observing, I'm beginning my foray into astrophotography and currently own an AltAz mount (Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi), as well as an ST80 and a Celestron C90. I've read about this method before, but was glad to see such high-quality images from such short exposures. Not everyone has the funds or the desire to set up a fully dedicated astrophotography rig connected to a PC. It can get very complex, and very costly. While images captured with such a set up can be the best one can get using amateur equipment, this video shows that very good images can be captured with low-cost equipment if a bit of care is put into the set up and processing of the images.
Hi Josh, I'm glad you found the video useful. I agree entirely with your sentiments and hope you have success with your set up. I think now is a great time to try because the Orion Nebula makes a very satisfying first target. The other major hurdle for people is getting to grips with the stacking and processing of your images. I have done a step by step video on this called How to Process your Astro Images - for absolute beginners, link below which you might also find handy. th-cam.com/video/_kknmyqEFTc/w-d-xo.html Best wishes to you for 2022 🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Hi, I’ll need to watch your other videos but interested in your other settings used for the Andromeda example - 50x 13s exposures at ISO 1600 - would you be willing to share your other settings in manual mode? I’m going to be using a similar set up but with ST102 and a manual remote shutter release - hard work but worth experimenting! Thanks, Andrew
@@andrewldownie there's not much more to set to be honest. I shoot the exposures in both raw and jpeg (so that if there is a problem with the raw exposures I still have something). Because I am shooting through a telescope there is no F-stop to set. I leave everything else at default. The only things I play about with is exposure time, ISO and number of exposures. I try a few exposure times out to get the longest I can without star trails. This varies slightly depending on where the target is in the sky, but is usually between 10 and 20 seconds for me. I nearly always use ISO 1600, but sometimes go up to ISO 3200. Mostly my total integrated exposure time comes out to be 30 minutes or less, partly because the field rotation after this reduces the effective field of view after stacking the exposures. The way to get round this would probably be to repeat the whole exercise the following night at a similar time, and then stack both sets if exposures together. I have never tried this though, as getting two clear nights in a row is quite rare for me. The trick in getting the image comes from the stacking and processing. Whilst I'm not an expert at this, I know enough to get reasonable results. If you are new to this, then I did a "How to process your images" video aimed at complete beginners showing the whole thing step by step from start to finish.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thanks again for this detail - finding two consecutive clear nights is certainly a challenge! Lots to try here though and your other videos are proving very helpful for me - look forward to further episodes.
Brilliant video My first scope is on back order Looking forward to starting the hobby. I’ve been learning a lot from many of the TH-cam family astronomers. Thanks
Thanks for this video! I am beginning my journey into astronomy with an F/5 (150x750) 6” reflector - the Orion Starblast 6 tabletop. Already considering the StarSeeker IV GoTo AltAz mount with WiFi. My choice is based on many of the items you cover including ease of setup and maximum object viewing. Being able to eventually dabble in some shot exposure photography will be an exciting addition to the journey. Thanks again!
I really like the video, thanks for making it. I do have an alt az mount... But it's a dobsonian (designed for a 12 inch goto). Won't be putting any small refractors on there any time soon! I'll be sticking to the Moon and planets for now.
I think your kit will be amazing for imaging the planets and moon. I bet its a fantastic scope for visual use also on deep sky objects. The Orion Nebula must look stunning through it.
Awesome video. This is the issue that I am seeing as well as I am new to astrophotography and do not want to spend that much getting started. I hope I can get the same results as you with a similar setup.
Thanks for watching and the kind comment. With a similar short focal length refractor like the Orion shirt tube 80 (or skywatcher equivalent) there is no reason you cannot get 10 - 15 sec exposures. Start with a subject like the Orion Nebula which gives immediately gratifying results (even with a single 10-15 sec exposure. You can then look at things like the nearby Flame and Horsehead Nebula, which will also show in a single exposure. If you take multiple exposures and stack them you will start to see more and more detail. If you get blue fringing around the bigger stars and it eventually annoys you, then you can get a photoshop plug in (called astrophotography tools) which has a function to get rid of it, or you can get anti fringing filters which do the same thing. Good luck on your journey 👍😃
Thanks for the sub and kind comment, its really appreciated 👍🙂. Now is an ideal time to have a go I reckon. Nice targets like the Orion Nebula are perfect for a first go. Even the Flame and Horsehead Nebula are visible in a single 15 sec exposure. Good Luck 👍
Thanks great video and I'll have a look at that book. I'm buying a Celstron 8HD next week to get going and I want to find ways to do Alt/Az DSO photography whilst enjoying my telescope. I'll probably but a cheaper scope as you've suggested for the shorter F/L and get stacking. This is all weather dependent but I like your guidance thanks again. Darren
Wow, an 8HD is some scope, you should see lots of cool galaxies etc with it, and the moon and planets will be amazing. As you say, for DSO's start of with a cheap short focal length refractor to get experience with software etc. You will find the results more immediately gratifying that way. If you can get hold of the book, you will find it very useful, both in terms of encouragement and the tutorials in it on stacking and processing. If you want to take pictures of the moon and planets, then a cheap planetary camera to replace the eyepiece in your 8HD will give great results after processing, much better than any single image. The SVBONY SV105 is a good and very inexpensive camera if you wanted to have a go with that. Initially, though, I would be inclined to stick to visual astronomy whilst you get the hang of the alignment routines and goto function of the scope, and then look onto photography after that. I wish you clear skies and good luck 👍
Well done. I just bought the Sky Watcher SkyMax 102 with the AZ-GTi mount as my first scope. Now you have me thinking about the counterbalance kit for EQ mode. After I learn my way around I just might pop for it.
Hi! Thank you so much for the detailed video. I have the same Skymax 102, but with the AZ3-pronto. Do I need another mount for using let’s say one of the zwo cameras? Thank you!
Thanks for a great video, love your hobbies, I have just started Astrophotography with the planets and the Moon, you given me hope to look for some DSO objects!
The Camping Astronomer I will look for the book you mentioned, I am wondering if I just need a reducer for my 8” AvX or buy a smaller refactor, I guess I can do a few test shots when I get clear skies, have a great day!
@@Starman1959 the book is well worth buying. The tutorial on deep sky stacker and photoshop is worth the price on its own. You can try using your 8" scope next time you are out, but I think that you will run onto the same problem I did. The long focal length meant I could only get a few seconds ds exposure time. A focal reducer will help, but it might be that this costs as much or more than a cheap short tube refractor.
Hi Stephen, I have just looked and subscribed to your channel and noticed that your mount is an Equatorial mount I think. If so, then you may well have more luck than me with using your big scope. I think you have nothing to loose by having a go next clear night. Start of with say 5 sec exposures on a bright deep sky objects (Globular clusters are good for this), and increase this to see what you can get away with. If you have no luck, then you can try a small refractor which will give you great results on your mount. Thank you for your subscription, its hard for small channels to get a foothold, so I really appreciate it.
The Camping Astronomer no problems, I started a Facebook page here in Hong Kong and you would be amazed how many people are interested in astronomy when they see some of the images!
If you have an alt az mount and are interested in doing some deep sky astrophotography, this video shows you how. If you have done some astrophotography already with your mount I would be interested to hear your experiences in the comments section.
Very nice, further, on the same lines I wonder if you use Stellarium plugins and control longer exposure through computer. Small movements might still be able to be in limits of stacking software and help reducing overall number of frames for averaging. Just a thought here.
I know of another scope you can use. You can buy a Orion Skyscanner 10012. It has a parabolic mirror and only 400mm focal length. So it's wide field and has no spherical or chromatic aberration. I did some maths. I subtracted the surface area of the secondary mirror from the main mirror. I found out it has the same total surface area as of a 95mm. Which means you can use it for astrophotography. I plan to buy one soon.
Thanks for the great video and useful info! Did you run into any weight issues when using your DSLR camera with the Celestron 127SLT? I have the same telescope and the mount is listed to be able to hold a maximum of 3.6kgs, however OTA weighs about 3.35kg. I would like to get a cheap DSLR off ebay for some planetary photography, but I am worried it would affect the mount's stability.
Thanks for the comment. In general I was using a dslr with a small and light refractor so I had no issues. When I used a dslr with the 127mm original tube I didn't notice any problems either. However, because of the long focal length of the 127mm tube I was doing exposures of around 1-2 seconds. Equally the camera I was using was the bottom of the range canon (the 1000d I think) which is a plastic bodied camera and therefore very light. I have a Baader zoom eyepiece which I use on the scope (see my video on imaging Jupiter and Saturn for a picture of this). This eyepiece is as big as my hand and weighs more than my camera body, and I get no problems. So, in conclusion, I have not noticed any issues with my set up, but I use a cheap plastic bodied (and therefore light) dslr. Thanks very much for watching, I really appreciate it 😀
Really great video, John. Would be nice to hear you elaborate on the software processing side of this. What are some of the shortcomings of using many shorter exposures versus (fewer?), longer exposures. I presume that these were significant enough to push you towards an equatorial mount finally? Or do you still favor the alt az GoTo mount for accessing dark sky locations via camping?
Thanks for the comment Don. It seems that one 60 second exposure gets you more detail than six 10 second exposures, so I eventually opted for an Equatorial mount. However, I gained lots of experience with the alt az mount for very little expense and got results that really pleased me. The EQ mount is quite a heavy beast (even though mine is considered relatively light) so I use this when in my garden. I can take my alt az mount with me when I camp in a standard campsite, and also use it for planetary and lunar photography (this is the alt az mounts strong point). When wild camping I need a very lightweight set up to strap on to my rucksack, and this is where the Omegon wind up star tracker comes to the forefront (I did a video on this to show the results you can get with this and a dskr camera). An intermediate option is the Star Adventurer mount. This is just about backpackable and can even hold a small telescope. I have a video on this going up on Friday next week. It is often said that your best set up is the one you use the most, and ease of use is very important. There is no wrong set up provided the results you get please you 👍. When I can figure out how to video my computer screen I will do a video showing the processing I do - albeit that my methods are very basic (I have the photoshoo skills if a 9 year old🤣). Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment, I really appreciate it.
Omg I cant believe I found someone with the exact same problem.I have a celestron nexstar 4se and found out it wasn't that good for astrophotography.So I'm thinking to buy a lower focal length scope.I don't know if 600mm is good enough
Thanks for watching and commenting. You might get away with 600mm if you use a focal reducer on your camera. I reckon the closer to 400mm you can get tge better.
Hi love the video, very instructive. One question though - was that mount tracking your target - Andromeda - throughout the whole photo period for each individual capture? Or once you slewed to it it just stayed there and the camera proceeded to take however many photos you needed?
Glad you enjoyed the video 😊. The mount first of all slews the scope to the target. Once there, the mount continuously moves to follow the night sky, keeping the target in the frame for the whole session.
Hi great video I noticed you were using a canon 1300d with a flip tilt screen. All the ones I have seen don’t have this screen. Was it a modification. Many thanks.
Hi Nick, the camera with the flip screen is an 800d which I have press ganged into astro service. I generally used a 1300d but found that the flip screen on the 800d was quite handy as I'm not as young as I was and it saves contorting myself in funny positions to see the screen. Thanks for watching and your kind comment 👍
This is worth trying Andrew, if you can get a focal reducer for not much money. Having said that, I tried this in conjunction with a dslr camera and didn't have much luck. The main problem, I think, is that you still have quite a long focal length and on an alt az mount (like the one on the 127 slt), you would be lucky to get exposure times of better than 5 seconds. Eventually, I gave up trying, but still wanted to use the mount to get deep sky images. I ended up getting an inexpensive 80mm short tube refractor (in my case the Orion Short Tube 80), and put this on the mount in place of the big 127mm scope. I connected a dslr camera to it, and because of the short focal length of about 400mm, I could get 15 second exposures. This is long enough to get images of most deep sky objects. I did a video on this th-cam.com/video/BMfQILy3Ob0/w-d-xo.html This shows what I did and some of the results. The scope was around £100 plus some adaptors etc. You do need a dslr camera for this though, as the SV105 is not sensitive enough for deep sky. The alternative, if you have a dslr, is to mount the dslr on a dovetail rail and put this on your telescope mount. If you have a basic kit Zoom lens (say 100mm - 300mm) you will get amazing results. I get nice results using a focal length of 135mm, and even 50mm will show up big deep sky objects like Andromeda etc. So, there are a few options for you, and if you have a focal reducer, or can get one cheaply, it's worth a go. Don't bother trying with the SV105 though as this is not what it was designed for, and you'll just get frustrated. Have a look at the video link above to give you an idea of what you can do with your mount though. I had abandoned the idea of astrophotography with it until I put the Orion ST80 scope on it, and was astonished at how easy it was to get results (my first target was the Horsehead Nebula, and it was visible in a single 15 sec exposure). Good luck whichever way you jump, and let me know how you get on 🙂
Yes, it is very timely as I just got the 127 Mak/SLT too! A lot of people slate it but so glad you proved them wrong! Great video and thank you for giving me hope as I just got my ZWO ASI224MC CMOS camera and also use an Orion ST80 and a SKywatcher ST102 on the same mount.
Hi Andy, I almost got the same setup. I can't seem to pinpoint the right way to align my mount. When I finished my alignment procedure and slew to another target, it;s always off and never dead center in my eyepiece or camera. What is your experience?
@@uglydude2007 I think this is fairly typical that the target is rarely dead centre. I use initially a 40mm eyepiece and then swap this out for a 17mm one with illuminated cross hairs to centre tge allugnment stars in the eyepiece. This ensures that your alignment stars are dead centre. Also I use 2 star align where I select the stars to use for alignment, rather than the more automated methods. This method is meant to be the most accurate.
R.Woods. Very nice video, I see you have a computerised mount, was the tracking off while the images were being taken, if it was, wouldn't the target have drifted out of view.?
Thanks very much for watching and commenting. The tracking acts to keep the object you are photographing in the field of view of the camera / eyepiece. It would be possible to set the mount up, get it tracking, and then start taking exposures (in my case 15 second ones), then go i doors for an hour or two. When you come back out again, the tracking will have kept the object in the frame of the camera. With an alt az type mount, what does happen though, is that the object appears to rotate around.
Hi, thanks for your video! My name is Martin, from Brazil. I have a question, maybe a little bit out of the focus of the video, but have you encountered any difficulties regarding optical distortions (apochromatic small refractor) while post processing the images? I want so much a small refractor, but dont know if I should wait some time and buy a small triplet. Or maybe the distortions are small and we can solve them at photoshop? This would save me some money.
Thanks watching and for your interesting comment 🙂. The distortions that I had from using a very basic refractor were blue/purple fringes around the brighter stars. Initially this didn't bother me because I was so pleased to be getting any kind of reasonable result. After a while I wanted to reduce these unwanted effects. The cheapest way to do this was within photoshop. In the filters drop down menu is a choice called camera raw filter. Within this there are many possible options including one to reduce purple fringing. I found this to work well and it is free. The next step up is to us an anti fringing filter (baader make one if these called a fringe killer). In the UK a 1 1/4" filter is about £60 and a 2" version is about £100. Using photoshop and / or an anti fringe filter will probably keep you happy with a basic refractor for a year or so. You can use this time to gain experience without spending too much money. Eventually you will become tempted by a small doublet or Triplet with fantastic optics, but by this time you will know that you enjoy the hobby enough to justify the expense. I hope this helps you 🙂
Thank you for watching and commenting. I am a fan of using what you have and seeing what happens. I think that you will be able to get something from your telescope. If you add a 0.8 focal reducer to it you will have an effective focal length of 560mm which will certainly work. As I say, if you already have something give it a go on an easy target like the Orion Nebula.
Thank you, this is very interesting. Is the primary advantage of the refractor you describe the decreased focal length/focal ratio? If so, could you get a similar improvement by attaching a focal reducer to your Celestron? (The price of a f/6.3 focal reducer is about the same as the 80mm refractor, so this may be more about storage space, etc. than anything else.)
Thats right Matt. I used a refractor to get a short focal length and thus a wide field of view. This enables a longer exposure time. I typically get about 15 sec exposure time, but one of my subscribers has managed to get 30 seconds with his set up. In theory a focal reducer should do a similar thing, but I haven't tried this method so can't vouch for it
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you. I just took my first photo (M42 of course!) using a DSLR on a Celestron Evolution 6 with an f/6.3 focal reducer. I was encouraged by the results, especially with the fact that I appeared to get at least 25 seconds without the stars losing shape. Next clear night I'm going to see if I can reach 30. Fingers crossed. Thanks again!
Thank you for the video, I am planning for AZ goto mount as EQ mounts are not feasible as polaris star is obstructed by a building.. should I go with AZ mount of iOptron? Also want to know if balancing by using counter weights will cause any problems for the setup
Thanks for watching. I have not used any Ioptron alt az mounts so you are best reading some reviews to decide if this is for you. I note that the Ioptron AZ Pro comes with a retractable counterweight shaft, which suggests that the mount is designed to work with counterweight (unlike the celestron nexstar mount in my video). To get deep sky astro photos with an alt az mount you ideally need a small refractor telescope. These are generally lightweight, so I don't know if you would need to use the counterweight. Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂
So just reading through the comments, and please understand I haven't made it through the entire video yet, but I will. (My daughter woke up 🤷♂️) Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in as I actually use the ioptron skyguider pro with a william optics redcat51. The counterweight is absolutely necessary, even with a small scope like the redcat51. But once leveled, balanced and polar aligned, 3 minute exposures are no problem. I run everything at 3 minutes and have pushed it to 5 with perfectly round stars. I've never RUN it at 5, was more of a, let's see how well I'm aligned and balanced thing lol. Admittedly, this is my first setup and have only been at it a few months, but I really dont see how the skyguider pro with a small refractor gets any more simple. Its very basic and affordable and very very capable for widefield stuff.
@@TaCtiCaL323 its good to hear from somebody using the ioptron alt az mount, as I have no experience of this unit. Your exposure lengths are fantastic. Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂
Yes that is an option. Wedges are available for some of the nexstar mounts (the 4 and 5se I believe). These wedges allow a rough polar alignment which does help with increasing exposure times. However, precise polar alignment can be a bit tricky, so I suspect that it might be hard to get 60 second exposures for example. The book that I show in tge video does have an appendix at the end covering how to make a modification to the 4se wedge system to make it easier to use. Thank you very much for watching and commenting, I really appreciate it 😊.
During the time the intervelometer is taking the 50 shots, the mount does not move at all, is that correct? So, any movement of the target within the frame is corrected by the stacking software?
Thanks for your question. The mount is actually moving to track the sky and keep the object in the field of view. However, when using an alt az mount the object will appear to rotate, so each individual image is very slightly different. It is this rotation that is corrected within the stacking software. Thank you very much for watching my video 👍🙂
Thanks. In this video I am effectively using a small telescope as the lens on the camera, so it's as if you had a 300mm lens on the camera. It is possible though to take a photo with a 50mm lens and pick up Andromeda.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thanks for the reply. Right I know you we're using your small telescope but I was wondering did it come out that big with at 300mm? No zooming in?
@@budziwizer3169 Aah I see. The Andromeda Galaxy is a big target so pretty much fills the frame of the image. I would have had to crop the edges down to get rid of artefacts caused by the processing, but not by much. Many of the other targets are more heavily cropped. I think the Orion Nebula, for example, takes up about a quarter of the image frame. Some of the other galaxies (eg the Whirlpool Galaxy) are much more heavily cropped.
Thank you for the Video! I have subscribed and liked! I have a question about tracking, I am assuming that Deep Sky Stacker does most of the Alignment for you. When taken multiple photographs, do you have the align the object again or does the ALT AZ mount do it automatically. Ideally I would want to take about 1000 photos of deep sky objects at an exposure time of 1 second and I am wondering if this mount would be any good as I am on a tight budget!
Thanks for the nice comment and sub, that is much appreciated. Your understanding of Deep Sky Stacker is correct. The mount will track the object for you, but because it is an alt az design the object will appear to rotate with time. When you put the individual photos into Deep Sky Stacker, the software will take account of this rotation and sort it out for you. The only downside is that the field of view may be reduced in the final picture to compensate for this. However, if you are planning on 1000 one second exposures then I don't think that you will have enough field rotation to cause much of a reduction in your field of view. I often use total integrated exposure times of 20 - 45 minutes and don't get any issues. So, in summary align your mount at the beginning of the session, use an intervalometer to take your 1000 shots whilst you go inside and have a cup of tea, then come back out, pack your gear up and load your shots into DSS and let it do all of the work for you. If you are new to DSS then the book I mention has an excellent step by step tutorial on it. If you find DSS a bit intimidating then another free stacking programme is called Sequator. This is typically much simpler and faster than DSS. I did a little tutorial on processing your pictures using Sequator to stack and Photoshop to finish off, aimed at absolute beginners. The video was about 6 weeks ago, and may help if you are new to the whole thing. I wish you the best of luck in your astro journey ahead 👍🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you so much for your detailed response, that is really helpful :) I will defo check out the DSS book! I hope you don't mind me asking one more question? Are you able to remove the telescope and attach a DSLR directly to these mounts? Thanks again, you're helping a newbie here! I don't expect fantastic photos as here in Reading UK the light pollution is horrendous! Happy to New year to you!
@@astrobenn_ there's no problem just using a camera if you can fit it with a dovetail plate to go into the mount. You should get decent results with this 🙂👍
Hi Gary. No, my 1300d is not modified. I do have another camera (an 800d) which I had modified a few months ago, but non of the images in this video used it. You can still get things like the Horsehead Nebula etc with a stock camera, which was a bit of a surprise to me. Thanks very much for watching and commenting 👍🙂
One other question: Do you have a list of, say, your Top 10 Short-Exposure DSOs to photograph? I'd love to have a list of items that are within reach of an Alt-Az set-up like yours. Perhaps this is an idea for a future video!
Hi Matt, This is a good idea. For a set up like mine where I use a short tube refractor on the alt az mount I reckon the top targets are Orion Nebula Flame & Horsehead Nebula Rossette Nebula Andromeda Galaxy M81 and M82 Galaxies Whirlpool Galaxy Eagle Nebula Lagoon Nebula Swan Nebula Pleiades star cluster and any of the open and globular star clusters. Cheers John
I’m very new to this, and your video has perfectly explained what I need to understand. Can I check...is it just the camera body that is attached to the telescope? Thanks.
Thanks for your kind comment. You are correct, the camera body only connects to the telescope in the place of the star diagonal and the eyepiece. You remove the lens from the camera and then fit a t-ring and t-adaptor to the camera. The t ring needs to be specific to your camera make (ie they do ones suitable for canon, nikon etc). When you fit these to your camera you effectively have a tube sticking out from the camera instead of a lens. This tube slides I to the telescope. Thank you for watching and commenting. If you have any more questions feel free to ask 😊
Hi John, is this what I should be looking at? www.amazon.co.uk/Orion-Observer-Equatorial-Refractor-Telescope/dp/B0732VG4ZP/ref=mp_s_a_1_34?dchild=1&keywords=60mm+refractor+orion&qid=1599403405&sr=8-34
@@terrireynolds5820 Hi Terri, to do astrophotography you need a motorised mount that tracks the stars. It is also easier if the mount is a goto mount, which means that it will automatically move to targets you select. Something like the set up below www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-startravel-102-synscan-az-goto-telescope.html
@@terrireynolds5820 if you already had an alt az mount then that would be the way to go. However, if you are starting from scratch then the package in the link is a decent start for not too much money. Celestron do a similar package called the Nexstar 102 SLT. I have seen photo's on the internet similar to mine taken with this package. As I say in my video, using mounts like these to take photos won't win you awards, but can still produce nice photos without you needing to spend a lot of money or time. Link to images from this scope www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.astrobin.com/gear/5762/celestron-nexstar-102-slt/&ved=2ahUKEwitrL-x7dTrAhU3TBUIHQQeCZIQFjAAegQIBRAC&usg=AOvVaw0MDUaj_cqgCuB2onYB73g2 Link to the celestron scope www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.celestron.com/products/nexstar-102slt-computerized-telescope&ved=2ahUKEwjK9sTp7dTrAhUdThUIHVK0CqwQFjABegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw2fNpiDK6j5eliJUeijkBoT
I managed to image M42, M51 Galaxy and a few Star Clusters with my Alt Az as well as the moon and Jupiter and moons with a Webcam. I found i could do 25 with Alt / Az before star trailing and then Stack about 30 - 50 images to get detail. Alt Az is capable of decent images starting out.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 if the seeing visibility is really good, you can get 30 secs out of a Alt /Az before trailing. For astrophotography I always pointed the scope north and made sure the tripod was level. Then I did 2 star alignment. I was told that years ago. If you only use for visual then it don't matter if the scope is pointed north or not.
Thans for your comment Adri. On a short focal length refractor like the type I use, it isn't really necessary to use a focal reducer as the field of view is wide, especially when using a dslr. However, if you had a longer focal length scope then others have mentioned that a focal reducer is useful, as it enables you to get longer exposures than you would otherwise be able to achieve.
Thanks for watching and commenting Simon. The photos here were on an unmodified camera. I have just sent my camera away to be modified, so will be doing another video about this shortly (when it stops being cloudy). Good Luck in your astro adventure 👍
Hi Mark. Thanks for the comment and sub, much appreciated. Here is the link Astrophotography on the Go: Using Short Exposures with Light Mounts (The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series) www.amazon.co.uk/dp/3319098306/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_0haGFbBY0F234 Thanks for watching 👍
Having aligned on 2 or 3 stars and got the "alignment successful" message you now use the last alignment star to get your camera into focus. Having done this you now select your target from the handset (eg M42 or M101 etc). The scope will now drive to this object. Now you take a test photo with your ISO set to say 1600 to see what exposure length you can do before star trailing occurs. If your scope is a 70 - 80mm refractor you will probably be able to take exposures of 15 - 25 seconds. If your scope is bigger then it will be less than this. I wish you good luck and clear skies 👍🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you for your suggestion. Shall I have to keep tracking option or sidereal option on. I am planning to use this for dslr and 55-250lens.
@@drkumarharaprasadmisra5562 Ah, yes I forgot you were using a dslr and telephoto lens. I reckon you should have the tracking mode on sidereal mode to compensate for the earth's rotation. With your lens at around 50mm I would initially try exposure times of about one minute and see what happens, with 200mm lens then try 30 seconds to start with. If you get no star trailing then increase the exposure time by 10 seconds and repeat. If you get star trails then decrease by 10 seconds.
I have a EQ3 mount but without a Goto system so my question would be if it is worth spending the money on an alt az mount with goto or spending 300 more for an eq mount with goto? Ill have to add that i dont earn money yet so 300 more is a lot for me.
OK 🙂. An alt az mount will work with a short focal length refractor (up to say 500mm). If you have never done astrophotography before then almost any result will give you a lot of pleasure. I found that I used my alt az set up for about 2 years and then eventually bought an EQM 35 mount. However, the time spent using the alt az mount was very valuable as I learned how to do basic image processing etc. Eventually (if you decide you like astrophotography) you will end up getting an EQ mount, but if alt az is more within reach at the moment it is way better than not doing any astrophotography at all. In this case then, a video I will be posting on TH-cam on Friday evening will be of interest. It shows what you can expect to get with an alt az mount, a short focal length refractor and a basic dslr, using exposures of 13-15 seconds. It is basically a sideshow of about 35 images taken with this set up, and will give you a good idea of what to expect with this type of equipment. You can then decide if the images are good enough for you, and whether they will keep you happy for the immediate future. As I say, this will be put up on my channel on Friday evening UK time. Thank you very much for taking the time to watch and comment on my video, it means a lot to me and I really appreciate it 👍
Hi, thanks for the question. It is a flattener/field reducer. It is actually for a 70mm altair starwave telescope but I also use it on the 60mm scope in this video. It also fulfills the job of a spacer. However, its length is not ideal for the 60mm scope so I get a bit of distortion at the edges which I crop out.
You still cannot do decent DSO for astrophotography as you get field rotation. A GEM allows more detail so will get more detail in your photos, an alt alz wont give you the best, will be good, but won't be great. There are too many trying to do DSO photography with an SCT telescope like the Celestron SE series, its the wrong type of telescope, to slow as the f ratio is to slow and narrow field. At least you did have the sense to buy a refractor that is fast and give much wider fields and will pick up data faster, so get more image detail with less exposure.
Hi Dennis, thanks for watching and the comment. You are quite right in what you say. However, the object of this video is to show people who are thinking about having a go at astrophotography, and already have an alt az mount for visual use, that they can have a dabble without spending lots of money on a new mount. Beginners in this situation would be able to practice stacking and processing to see if astrophotography is for them, and then potentially buy an EQ mount. This is the process I went through before buying an EQM 35 mount. You are correct in that you will get more detail with an EQ mount, but as I say in the video, unless you are trying to win an award, any photo you take that pleases you is a good photo, regardless of what I or anybody else thinks. This would apply whether you are a raw beginner or a very experienced photographer. I want people to have a go at photographing the sky regardless of what equipment they have, and be able to share their efforts with family and friends, and be proud of those results. I wish you clear skies and good luck with your astrophotography journey 👍
Thanks for watching and commenting. I think that if you want to connect a dslr to this mount then you need a dovetail bar that will slide into the mount, onto which you mount your dslr using the screw connection for tripods.
I tried taking pictures of andromeda tonight with my canon 450d but when it's pointed at the sky i don't see any stars on the live view screen so its really hard to navigate do you know how i can fix this?
Hello Noah, what do you have your canon body connected to ? Is it a telescope like I show here, or are you using a camera lens ? Also, is your mount a tracking mount or is it a standard tripod ?
@@thecampingastronomer8554 it's a newtonian reflector on a normal tripod i have the camera body attached to the place where the eyepiece usualy is. I can make pictures of the moon and jupiter just fine but when im pointed at stars i see nothing on thr display
@@noahdeboer1360 I think that is fairly common, I only even see the very bright stars in the display. Normally I initially point at a very bright star (eg Vega at this time of year), then I get the focus sorted out on that. The really bright stars do tend to be visible, but only when the focus is more or less set. Once I have done this I slew to the area where I want to image. I think that you might benefit by upping the ISO to a very high number at this point in an attempt to see some stars. If this works, then when you are on your target you can drop the ISO down again. Are you attempting to find Andromeda manually, or does your mount have a goto function ?
@@noahdeboer1360 just noticed you are using a normal tripod so assume that your mount does not track the movement of the stars ? Is this correct, and what is the focal length of your telescope ?
Hello Matel 👋. There should be more problems doing as I did and fitting a small refractor to your 4se mount. If anything, the mount used for the 4se and 5se is probably sturdier than the mount on my nexstar 127. Thank you very much for watching and commenting 🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Is it possible or not? I don't know how and I would like to know if it is possible because my telescope is a very slow one. And I think that this Orion 80 short tube would be very welcome
@@mateialexandruionut2545 it should be the same as with my mount. You would need a refractor with a dovetail so that it can slide into the slot on the mount where you currently slide in your 4" scope. This dovetail would either come with the refractor or if not, can be bought separately along with some appropriate tube rings to fit round the refractor.
@@mateialexandruionut2545 yes it is possible. You would need to get the version of Orion ST80 with tube ringsand dovetail bar. The tube rings go around the ST80, and the dovetail bar fits to these rings. Then you can slide the dovetail into the slot on your nexstar mount and screw in the bolt on the mount slot to hold the dovetail and scope into place. As I say, the 4se mount is very similar to my slt mount.
You are correct in what you say, however the purpose of this video is to show people who already have an alt az mount (that they bought to do visual astronomy) that it is possible to try astrophotography with it without having to buy a new mount. Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment 🙂
Eq2 is worse. I heard it from long time astrophotographers. They said those mounts are very unstable and that one would need a sturdy mount like eq5. Or else they should put in the hardwork for stacking. That's what they said.
Hi Grace, thank you for watching and your comment. The scope on the thumbnail is a 70mm altair astro refractor. The deep sky images shown in the video were all taken with either an 80mm Orion Short Tube refractor, the 70mm altair astro one shown in the thumbnail, or a 60mm TS Optics refractor shown in the video - ie a short focal length refractor in all cases. Was there a specific photograph that you were interested in knowing which of the above was used ? Best Regards John
Yeah the orion nebula was a great image I have a t7i and a kit lens what u used was it all achromatic I have heard the orion 80 has very bad chromatic aberation
@@graceselvaraniselvarani8773 you are correct in that the Orion 80 produces purple halos around the brightest stars. However, you can buy filters which remove this to a large extent. Also, there is a plug in for photoshop (called astronomy tools) which has a function to remove halos. So, if you want to have a go at astrophotography and not spend much money, then the Orion 80mm is worth a go. If you have the cash though, spending a bit more gives you better optical quality.
This is a very good point. After using my alt az mount for visual astronomy, I drifted into astrophotography in order to try to overcome the light pollution associated with an urban environment. Hence, I was looking to use my existing mount, and take images showing more detail than I can see visually. Contrary to common belief, I realised that I could use my existing dslr camera and mount, and only needed to buy an entry level refractor in order to take images of galaxies and Nebula. Total costs from scratch would have been about under $900, but I already had the mount I was using for visual astronomy, and the dslr camera I was using for normal holiday type photos. Consequently, I only needed to spend about $150 to buy the refractor scope. What I hope to show with this video is that for a total outlay of less than $1000 if starting from scratch, it is possible to take remarkable images. Another video of mine shows how it is possible to use a mechanical star tracker and a dslr, to take images for less than $600 all in all, if starting from scratch. So, whilst it is easy to spend $5000 on an astrophotography setup, it isn't essential to do so. Thank you very much for taking the time to watch my video, and to comment on it, this is much appreciated 😊
I really appreciate your approach. I've seen many beginners on astronomy/astrophotography forums ask how to get the most out of their existing setup for astrophotography. So often the responses are negative: you can't take photos with that equipment, you need to spend $3,000 on a GEM and a CMOS camera, etc. But that misses the point: Most of us want to know how to make the best use of things we have (or can readily obtain). I know I my M42 photo isn't going to make the cover of Astronomy magazine, but I love being able to capture it at all (with low incremental expense!), and I love learning how to refine my technique to improve my results. Thanks again for this thoughtful discussion.
Thank you for your supportive comment Matt. This is exactly what I am about. I often say that if an image you have taken gives you pleasure then it is a great image. The knowledge that you have used your equipment (whatever it is) to take the picture means that you can take pride in what you have done.
I already got 45 seconds per frame with an azimuth mount. The results were very good. Obviously wouldn't be a cover of Astronomy Magazine, but helps me to learn how to take better pictures and improve every day.
Congrats for the video!!
I like this attitude very much. Very often I also read "this it not possible with that and that mount...." Most of the time it is not black and white. cs
💯
Absolutely agree! I am very happy with my alt-az Celestron 6SE and my dslr behind it. I will upgrade to an eq mount but will always treasure every minute and every picture I had with it! Because I never imagined this would be possible for an amateur like me. It is a struggle sometimes, some evenings it doesn't work at all, and you have to limit yourself to many short exposures, but it's fun!
Thank you for your encouragement. AZ is all I have. I’m encouraged.
Thank you for taking the time to watch and comnent. It amazed me what it was possible to capture with an alt az mount. I wish you good luck and clear skies 🙂
Very timely video, just starting out with DSO astrophotography.
Thats very good to hear. If you can find the book I mention its full of very useful information to get you started. The section on Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop are very useful. Good luck in your journey. Thank you for watching and commenting 👍
🙋♀️. Me too! 😊
Superb! Thank you very much! Clear skies in 2022!
Thank you Jonathan, glad you enjoyed it.
Best wishes to you for 2022 🙂
Thank you for sharing amazing results!!😍 I’ll try to capture with my slt130. This gives me hope!! 🤩🤩
Cheers and clear skies!! 😌
Thank you for your kind comment, I wish you good luck and clear skies 🙂👍
Nice pics. Informative exposition.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it 😊
A good and practical video. Thanks
Thank you for watching and your kind comment Terence, it's much appreciated 😊
Thanks for the video. I have the Nexstar 127 mak. Plus I have a couple small refractors of 60 f/5, 65 f/7.7, and 80 f/6. Might have to try this out and see what I can get.
Hi Joe, I think you will have a lot of fun and be pleasantly surprised with what it is possible to get. Thank you very much for taking the time to watch and comment, it is much appreciated.
Clear Skies to you 😊
Thank you for the video ! Calm and clear, you explain very well the process for us, the astrophoto newbies.
Thanks for watching and commenting, its much appreciated. Good luck on your astrophotography journey 🙂
Thank you for your video! Cant wait for clear skies to come and give it a go. Im new at this and actually my first telescope is a Celestron 90SLT with your same mount. I always thought it was too small or not good enough for shooting galaxies or nebulas, as everyone on youtube has fancy eq mounts that made me reconsider having poor judgement on getting it. Your video encouraged me to keep trying with what I have, as I live in a country where amazon and other shipping companies arent available and getting other gear is just painful.
Thank you for watching and your kind comment. I am a fan of trying things out with what you already have before spending too much money.
I wish you good luck and clear skies.
Thank you very much for this amazing and informative video👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you very much for watching and commenting, I really appreciate it.
Best wishes to you for 2022.
Ugh thanks for the video....everyone else told me I coulnt do it with my alt-az mount....thanks again bud.
Good luck with your efforts 👍. Thanks very much for watching and your kind comment, it means a lot to me 🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 thanks to you !! Keep doing what you are doing !! :)
Very good video and very helpful. I like it very much. thank you and cs.
Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment, its much appreciated 🙂. I just had a look at your channel and subscribed as it looks like you have some interesting content there 👍
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you very much for your sub. Very glad you like the content. 😀 I also subscribed to your channel after I saw what you're doing on YT. I especially like the mixture of camping/outdoors and astro stuff. I like it very much. There is also a youtube channel from a swedish guy called "Northern Panorama" which might be interesting for you as well (if you don't know it already). All the best and clear skies. 🔭 👍🏼
Thank you 😊 I'll look for the Swedish channel. Clear Skies to you 👍
Just found this video over a year after it was published! After years of visual observing, I'm beginning my foray into astrophotography and currently own an AltAz mount (Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi), as well as an ST80 and a Celestron C90. I've read about this method before, but was glad to see such high-quality images from such short exposures. Not everyone has the funds or the desire to set up a fully dedicated astrophotography rig connected to a PC. It can get very complex, and very costly. While images captured with such a set up can be the best one can get using amateur equipment, this video shows that very good images can be captured with low-cost equipment if a bit of care is put into the set up and processing of the images.
Hi Josh, I'm glad you found the video useful. I agree entirely with your sentiments and hope you have success with your set up. I think now is a great time to try because the Orion Nebula makes a very satisfying first target.
The other major hurdle for people is getting to grips with the stacking and processing of your images. I have done a step by step video on this called How to Process your Astro Images - for absolute beginners, link below which you might also find handy.
th-cam.com/video/_kknmyqEFTc/w-d-xo.html
Best wishes to you for 2022 🙂
Excellent video, very clearly explained. I’ve just received the recommended book through the post - plenty to read up on until the clear skies return!
Enjoy the book and good luck with your astrophotography journey. Thank you very much for taking the time to watch and comment 🙂👍
PS, thank you for the subscription, I really appreciate it.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Hi, I’ll need to watch your other videos but interested in your other settings used for the Andromeda example - 50x 13s exposures at ISO 1600 - would you be willing to share your other settings in manual mode? I’m going to be using a similar set up but with ST102 and a manual remote shutter release - hard work but worth experimenting! Thanks, Andrew
@@andrewldownie there's not much more to set to be honest. I shoot the exposures in both raw and jpeg (so that if there is a problem with the raw exposures I still have something). Because I am shooting through a telescope there is no F-stop to set. I leave everything else at default. The only things I play about with is exposure time, ISO and number of exposures.
I try a few exposure times out to get the longest I can without star trails. This varies slightly depending on where the target is in the sky, but is usually between 10 and 20 seconds for me.
I nearly always use ISO 1600, but sometimes go up to ISO 3200.
Mostly my total integrated exposure time comes out to be 30 minutes or less, partly because the field rotation after this reduces the effective field of view after stacking the exposures. The way to get round this would probably be to repeat the whole exercise the following night at a similar time, and then stack both sets if exposures together. I have never tried this though, as getting two clear nights in a row is quite rare for me.
The trick in getting the image comes from the stacking and processing. Whilst I'm not an expert at this, I know enough to get reasonable results. If you are new to this, then I did a "How to process your images" video aimed at complete beginners showing the whole thing step by step from start to finish.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thanks again for this detail - finding two consecutive clear nights is certainly a challenge! Lots to try here though and your other videos are proving very helpful for me - look forward to further episodes.
very nice video presentation. Thanks for sharing. I am going to try out this technique.
Thanks for watching and commenting, its much appreciated. Good luck with your efforts 🙂
Brilliant video
My first scope is on back order
Looking forward to starting the hobby.
I’ve been learning a lot from many of the TH-cam family astronomers.
Thanks
Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment Rick, I really appreciate it 👍.
Good luck with your new scope 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment Rick, I really appreciate it 👍.
Good luck with your new scope 🙂
excellent images thanks for the info :) Just bought that book you recommended! 👍🏻🔭
Thank you for watching and your kind comment 👍🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 just missed out on the Star travel i think i saw on ebay.?
@@scopex2749 that's a shame but I'm sure there will be another one up soon. People are often changing their gear.
Thanks for this video! I am beginning my journey into astronomy with an F/5 (150x750) 6” reflector - the Orion Starblast 6 tabletop. Already considering the StarSeeker IV GoTo AltAz mount with WiFi. My choice is based on many of the items you cover including ease of setup and maximum object viewing. Being able to eventually dabble in some shot exposure photography will be an exciting addition to the journey. Thanks again!
Thanks for watching and commenting James, I really appreciate it.
Enjoy your scope and your stargazing journey ahead. All the best 👍.
I really like the video, thanks for making it. I do have an alt az mount... But it's a dobsonian (designed for a 12 inch goto). Won't be putting any small refractors on there any time soon! I'll be sticking to the Moon and planets for now.
I think your kit will be amazing for imaging the planets and moon. I bet its a fantastic scope for visual use also on deep sky objects. The Orion Nebula must look stunning through it.
Well done!
Thanks for watching Matheus, I really appreciate it 👍
Great video. Useful information.
Thanks for watching Joe, I really appreciate it 🙂👍
Awesome video. This is the issue that I am seeing as well as I am new to astrophotography and do not want to spend that much getting started. I hope I can get the same results as you with a similar setup.
Thanks for watching and the kind comment. With a similar short focal length refractor like the Orion shirt tube 80 (or skywatcher equivalent) there is no reason you cannot get 10 - 15 sec exposures. Start with a subject like the Orion Nebula which gives immediately gratifying results (even with a single 10-15 sec exposure. You can then look at things like the nearby Flame and Horsehead Nebula, which will also show in a single exposure. If you take multiple exposures and stack them you will start to see more and more detail. If you get blue fringing around the bigger stars and it eventually annoys you, then you can get a photoshop plug in (called astrophotography tools) which has a function to get rid of it, or you can get anti fringing filters which do the same thing.
Good luck on your journey 👍😃
Great Video!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment, its really appreciated 👍
Very helpful, thanks for the tips 👍
Glad you found this useful Gary. Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂 👍
Just subscribed :) Truly an encouragement to get my AZ mount out there and get started :) : ) :)
Thanks for the sub and kind comment, its really appreciated 👍🙂. Now is an ideal time to have a go I reckon. Nice targets like the Orion Nebula are perfect for a first go. Even the Flame and Horsehead Nebula are visible in a single 15 sec exposure. Good Luck 👍
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Exactly.. planning to get a view of that conjunction coming up too... hopefully 😊😅😊
These are great images!!
Thank you 😊
Love your demeanor and delivery but I’m a bit of an Anglophile…you have described my feelings as a photographer and amateur astronomer…Thanks mate!
Thank you for watching and yourki d comment, I really appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed the video 🙂
Thanks great video and I'll have a look at that book. I'm buying a Celstron 8HD next week to get going and I want to find ways to do Alt/Az DSO photography whilst enjoying my telescope. I'll probably but a cheaper scope as you've suggested for the shorter F/L and get stacking. This is all weather dependent but I like your guidance thanks again. Darren
Wow, an 8HD is some scope, you should see lots of cool galaxies etc with it, and the moon and planets will be amazing. As you say, for DSO's start of with a cheap short focal length refractor to get experience with software etc. You will find the results more immediately gratifying that way.
If you can get hold of the book, you will find it very useful, both in terms of encouragement and the tutorials in it on stacking and processing.
If you want to take pictures of the moon and planets, then a cheap planetary camera to replace the eyepiece in your 8HD will give great results after processing, much better than any single image. The SVBONY SV105 is a good and very inexpensive camera if you wanted to have a go with that.
Initially, though, I would be inclined to stick to visual astronomy whilst you get the hang of the alignment routines and goto function of the scope, and then look onto photography after that.
I wish you clear skies and good luck 👍
Super helpful. thanks!
Glad you found this useful. Thanks for watching and the sub, I really appreciate it. Good luck with your astro journey 👍🙂
Well done. I just bought the Sky Watcher SkyMax 102 with the AZ-GTi mount as my first scope. Now you have me thinking about the counterbalance kit for EQ mode. After I learn my way around I just might pop for it.
Its well worth having a go, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. Thanks very much for watching and the kind comment 👍🙂
Hi! Thank you so much for the detailed video. I have the same Skymax 102, but with the AZ3-pronto. Do I need another mount for using let’s say one of the zwo cameras? Thank you!
Thanks for a great video, love your hobbies, I have just started Astrophotography with the planets and the Moon, you given me hope to look for some DSO objects!
Thanks for watching and the nice comment. It is very much appreciated 😃
The Camping Astronomer I will look for the book you mentioned, I am wondering if I just need a reducer for my 8” AvX or buy a smaller refactor, I guess I can do a few test shots when I get clear skies, have a great day!
@@Starman1959 the book is well worth buying. The tutorial on deep sky stacker and photoshop is worth the price on its own.
You can try using your 8" scope next time you are out, but I think that you will run onto the same problem I did. The long focal length meant I could only get a few seconds ds exposure time. A focal reducer will help, but it might be that this costs as much or more than a cheap short tube refractor.
Hi Stephen, I have just looked and subscribed to your channel and noticed that your mount is an Equatorial mount I think. If so, then you may well have more luck than me with using your big scope. I think you have nothing to loose by having a go next clear night. Start of with say 5 sec exposures on a bright deep sky objects (Globular clusters are good for this), and increase this to see what you can get away with.
If you have no luck, then you can try a small refractor which will give you great results on your mount.
Thank you for your subscription, its hard for small channels to get a foothold, so I really appreciate it.
The Camping Astronomer no problems, I started a Facebook page here in Hong Kong and you would be amazed how many people are interested in astronomy when they see some of the images!
If you have an alt az mount and are interested in doing some deep sky astrophotography, this video shows you how.
If you have done some astrophotography already with your mount I would be interested to hear your experiences in the comments section.
Very nice, further, on the same lines I wonder if you use Stellarium plugins and control longer exposure through computer. Small movements might still be able to be in limits of stacking software and help reducing overall number of frames for averaging. Just a thought here.
That's a good idea, I'll do a bit of research on it 😊.
Thank you very much for taking the time to watch and comment, I really appreciate it 👍
I know of another scope you can use. You can buy a Orion Skyscanner 10012. It has a parabolic mirror and only 400mm focal length. So it's wide field and has no spherical or chromatic aberration. I did some maths. I subtracted the surface area of the secondary mirror from the main mirror. I found out it has the same total surface area as of a 95mm. Which means you can use it for astrophotography. I plan to buy one soon.
That's really interesting to know. Good luck when you get it and clear skies 👍🙂
Thanks for the great video and useful info! Did you run into any weight issues when using your DSLR camera with the Celestron 127SLT? I have the same telescope and the mount is listed to be able to hold a maximum of 3.6kgs, however OTA weighs about 3.35kg. I would like to get a cheap DSLR off ebay for some planetary photography, but I am worried it would affect the mount's stability.
Thanks for the comment. In general I was using a dslr with a small and light refractor so I had no issues. When I used a dslr with the 127mm original tube I didn't notice any problems either. However, because of the long focal length of the 127mm tube I was doing exposures of around 1-2 seconds. Equally the camera I was using was the bottom of the range canon (the 1000d I think) which is a plastic bodied camera and therefore very light. I have a Baader zoom eyepiece which I use on the scope (see my video on imaging Jupiter and Saturn for a picture of this). This eyepiece is as big as my hand and weighs more than my camera body, and I get no problems. So, in conclusion, I have not noticed any issues with my set up, but I use a cheap plastic bodied (and therefore light) dslr. Thanks very much for watching, I really appreciate it 😀
Great video, thanks for they info
Thank you very much for watching and commenting. Clear Skies 🙂
Great job I ordered the book
Thanks for watching Daniel. The book is really inspiring, hope you like it 😊
Really great video, John. Would be nice to hear you elaborate on the software processing side of this. What are some of the shortcomings of using many shorter exposures versus (fewer?), longer exposures. I presume that these were significant enough to push you towards an equatorial mount finally? Or do you still favor the alt az GoTo mount for accessing dark sky locations via camping?
Thanks for the comment Don. It seems that one 60 second exposure gets you more detail than six 10 second exposures, so I eventually opted for an Equatorial mount. However, I gained lots of experience with the alt az mount for very little expense and got results that really pleased me. The EQ mount is quite a heavy beast (even though mine is considered relatively light) so I use this when in my garden. I can take my alt az mount with me when I camp in a standard campsite, and also use it for planetary and lunar photography (this is the alt az mounts strong point). When wild camping I need a very lightweight set up to strap on to my rucksack, and this is where the Omegon wind up star tracker comes to the forefront (I did a video on this to show the results you can get with this and a dskr camera). An intermediate option is the Star Adventurer mount. This is just about backpackable and can even hold a small telescope. I have a video on this going up on Friday next week.
It is often said that your best set up is the one you use the most, and ease of use is very important. There is no wrong set up provided the results you get please you 👍.
When I can figure out how to video my computer screen I will do a video showing the processing I do - albeit that my methods are very basic (I have the photoshoo skills if a 9 year old🤣). Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment, I really appreciate it.
Omg I cant believe I found someone with the exact same problem.I have a celestron nexstar 4se and found out it wasn't that good for astrophotography.So I'm thinking to buy a lower focal length scope.I don't know if 600mm is good enough
Thanks for watching and commenting. You might get away with 600mm if you use a focal reducer on your camera. I reckon the closer to 400mm you can get tge better.
Hi love the video, very instructive. One question though - was that mount tracking your target - Andromeda - throughout the whole photo period for each individual capture? Or once you slewed to it it just stayed there and the camera proceeded to take however many photos you needed?
Glad you enjoyed the video 😊. The mount first of all slews the scope to the target. Once there, the mount continuously moves to follow the night sky, keeping the target in the frame for the whole session.
Hi great video I noticed you were using a canon 1300d with a flip tilt screen. All the ones I have seen don’t have this screen. Was it a modification. Many thanks.
Hi Nick, the camera with the flip screen is an 800d which I have press ganged into astro service. I generally used a 1300d but found that the flip screen on the 800d was quite handy as I'm not as young as I was and it saves contorting myself in funny positions to see the screen.
Thanks for watching and your kind comment 👍
@@thecampingastronomer8554 haha yeah I know what you mean about not getting any younger. Thanks for the info. Pictures look great. 👍
Whats your opinion on using a focal reducer on the Nexstar127SLT to bring its focal length down to around 750-800mm range for deep space photography?
This is worth trying Andrew, if you can get a focal reducer for not much money. Having said that, I tried this in conjunction with a dslr camera and didn't have much luck. The main problem, I think, is that you still have quite a long focal length and on an alt az mount (like the one on the 127 slt), you would be lucky to get exposure times of better than 5 seconds.
Eventually, I gave up trying, but still wanted to use the mount to get deep sky images. I ended up getting an inexpensive 80mm short tube refractor (in my case the Orion Short Tube 80), and put this on the mount in place of the big 127mm scope. I connected a dslr camera to it, and because of the short focal length of about 400mm, I could get 15 second exposures. This is long enough to get images of most deep sky objects. I did a video on this
th-cam.com/video/BMfQILy3Ob0/w-d-xo.html
This shows what I did and some of the results.
The scope was around £100 plus some adaptors etc. You do need a dslr camera for this though, as the SV105 is not sensitive enough for deep sky.
The alternative, if you have a dslr, is to mount the dslr on a dovetail rail and put this on your telescope mount. If you have a basic kit Zoom lens (say 100mm - 300mm) you will get amazing results. I get nice results using a focal length of 135mm, and even 50mm will show up big deep sky objects like Andromeda etc.
So, there are a few options for you, and if you have a focal reducer, or can get one cheaply, it's worth a go. Don't bother trying with the SV105 though as this is not what it was designed for, and you'll just get frustrated.
Have a look at the video link above to give you an idea of what you can do with your mount though. I had abandoned the idea of astrophotography with it until I put the Orion ST80 scope on it, and was astonished at how easy it was to get results (my first target was the Horsehead Nebula, and it was visible in a single 15 sec exposure).
Good luck whichever way you jump, and let me know how you get on 🙂
Yes, it is very timely as I just got the 127 Mak/SLT too! A lot of people slate it but so glad you proved them wrong! Great video and thank you for giving me hope as I just got my ZWO ASI224MC CMOS camera and also use an Orion ST80 and a SKywatcher ST102 on the same mount.
Good luck 👍. You should be able to get some good results. Thank you very much for watching and commenting 🙂
Hi Andy, I almost got the same setup. I can't seem to pinpoint the right way to align my mount. When I finished my alignment procedure and slew to another target, it;s always off and never dead center in my eyepiece or camera. What is your experience?
@@uglydude2007 I think this is fairly typical that the target is rarely dead centre. I use initially a 40mm eyepiece and then swap this out for a 17mm one with illuminated cross hairs to centre tge allugnment stars in the eyepiece. This ensures that your alignment stars are dead centre.
Also I use 2 star align where I select the stars to use for alignment, rather than the more automated methods. This method is meant to be the most accurate.
R.Woods. Very nice video, I see you have a computerised mount, was the tracking off while the images were being taken, if it was, wouldn't the target have drifted out of view.?
Thanks very much for watching and commenting. The tracking acts to keep the object you are photographing in the field of view of the camera / eyepiece. It would be possible to set the mount up, get it tracking, and then start taking exposures (in my case 15 second ones), then go i doors for an hour or two. When you come back out again, the tracking will have kept the object in the frame of the camera. With an alt az type mount, what does happen though, is that the object appears to rotate around.
Hi, thanks for your video! My name is Martin, from Brazil. I have a question, maybe a little bit out of the focus of the video, but have you encountered any difficulties regarding optical distortions (apochromatic small refractor) while post processing the images? I want so much a small refractor, but dont know if I should wait some time and buy a small triplet. Or maybe the distortions are small and we can solve them at photoshop? This would save me some money.
Thanks watching and for your interesting comment 🙂. The distortions that I had from using a very basic refractor were blue/purple fringes around the brighter stars. Initially this didn't bother me because I was so pleased to be getting any kind of reasonable result. After a while I wanted to reduce these unwanted effects. The cheapest way to do this was within photoshop. In the filters drop down menu is a choice called camera raw filter. Within this there are many possible options including one to reduce purple fringing. I found this to work well and it is free.
The next step up is to us an anti fringing filter (baader make one if these called a fringe killer). In the UK a 1 1/4" filter is about £60 and a 2" version is about £100.
Using photoshop and / or an anti fringe filter will probably keep you happy with a basic refractor for a year or so. You can use this time to gain experience without spending too much money.
Eventually you will become tempted by a small doublet or Triplet with fantastic optics, but by this time you will know that you enjoy the hobby enough to justify the expense.
I hope this helps you 🙂
very nice video and clearly explained!! I have a 700mm focal length refractor, please tell is high for astrophotography or just fine?
Thank you for watching and commenting. I am a fan of using what you have and seeing what happens. I think that you will be able to get something from your telescope. If you add a 0.8 focal reducer to it you will have an effective focal length of 560mm which will certainly work. As I say, if you already have something give it a go on an easy target like the Orion Nebula.
Thank you, this is very interesting. Is the primary advantage of the refractor you describe the decreased focal length/focal ratio? If so, could you get a similar improvement by attaching a focal reducer to your Celestron? (The price of a f/6.3 focal reducer is about the same as the 80mm refractor, so this may be more about storage space, etc. than anything else.)
Thats right Matt. I used a refractor to get a short focal length and thus a wide field of view. This enables a longer exposure time. I typically get about 15 sec exposure time, but one of my subscribers has managed to get 30 seconds with his set up.
In theory a focal reducer should do a similar thing, but I haven't tried this method so can't vouch for it
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you. I just took my first photo (M42 of course!) using a DSLR on a Celestron Evolution 6 with an f/6.3 focal reducer. I was encouraged by the results, especially with the fact that I appeared to get at least 25 seconds without the stars losing shape. Next clear night I'm going to see if I can reach 30. Fingers crossed. Thanks again!
@@mattestabrook good luck Matt 👍
Hi,i like your channel....Where your leaving and Bortle Zone?
Thanks Bernard. I live about 5 km from Gatwick Airport, so my skies are Bortle Class 6. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Thank you for the video, I am planning for AZ goto mount as EQ mounts are not feasible as polaris star is obstructed by a building.. should I go with AZ mount of iOptron? Also want to know if balancing by using counter weights will cause any problems for the setup
Thanks for watching. I have not used any Ioptron alt az mounts so you are best reading some reviews to decide if this is for you. I note that the Ioptron AZ Pro comes with a retractable counterweight shaft, which suggests that the mount is designed to work with counterweight (unlike the celestron nexstar mount in my video). To get deep sky astro photos with an alt az mount you ideally need a small refractor telescope. These are generally lightweight, so I don't know if you would need to use the counterweight. Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂
So just reading through the comments, and please understand I haven't made it through the entire video yet, but I will. (My daughter woke up 🤷♂️)
Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in as I actually use the ioptron skyguider pro with a william optics redcat51.
The counterweight is absolutely necessary, even with a small scope like the redcat51.
But once leveled, balanced and polar aligned, 3 minute exposures are no problem. I run everything at 3 minutes and have pushed it to 5 with perfectly round stars.
I've never RUN it at 5, was more of a, let's see how well I'm aligned and balanced thing lol.
Admittedly, this is my first setup and have only been at it a few months, but I really dont see how the skyguider pro with a small refractor gets any more simple.
Its very basic and affordable and very very capable for widefield stuff.
@@TaCtiCaL323 its good to hear from somebody using the ioptron alt az mount, as I have no experience of this unit. Your exposure lengths are fantastic. Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 No problem! And I will continue watching when I get a few more minutes.
It's SUCH an amazing hobby!
What about using a tripod wedge adjustable to your latitude. I wonder if that would help with longer exposure.
Yes that is an option. Wedges are available for some of the nexstar mounts (the 4 and 5se I believe). These wedges allow a rough polar alignment which does help with increasing exposure times. However, precise polar alignment can be a bit tricky, so I suspect that it might be hard to get 60 second exposures for example. The book that I show in tge video does have an appendix at the end covering how to make a modification to the 4se wedge system to make it easier to use. Thank you very much for watching and commenting, I really appreciate it 😊.
During the time the intervelometer is taking the 50 shots, the mount does not move at all, is that correct? So, any movement of the target within the frame is corrected by the stacking software?
Thanks for your question. The mount is actually moving to track the sky and keep the object in the field of view. However, when using an alt az mount the object will appear to rotate, so each individual image is very slightly different. It is this rotation that is corrected within the stacking software.
Thank you very much for watching my video 👍🙂
Your images look very good brother. Did you zoom in with your camera for andromeda? or it's just at 50mm?
Thanks. In this video I am effectively using a small telescope as the lens on the camera, so it's as if you had a 300mm lens on the camera. It is possible though to take a photo with a 50mm lens and pick up Andromeda.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thanks for the reply. Right I know you we're using your small telescope but I was wondering did it come out that big with at 300mm? No zooming in?
@@budziwizer3169 Aah I see. The Andromeda Galaxy is a big target so pretty much fills the frame of the image. I would have had to crop the edges down to get rid of artefacts caused by the processing, but not by much. Many of the other targets are more heavily cropped. I think the Orion Nebula, for example, takes up about a quarter of the image frame. Some of the other galaxies (eg the Whirlpool Galaxy) are much more heavily cropped.
Thank you for the Video! I have subscribed and liked!
I have a question about tracking, I am assuming that Deep Sky Stacker does most of the Alignment for you. When taken multiple photographs, do you have the align the object again or does the ALT AZ mount do it automatically.
Ideally I would want to take about 1000 photos of deep sky objects at an exposure time of 1 second and I am wondering if this mount would be any good as I am on a tight budget!
Thanks for the nice comment and sub, that is much appreciated. Your understanding of Deep Sky Stacker is correct. The mount will track the object for you, but because it is an alt az design the object will appear to rotate with time. When you put the individual photos into Deep Sky Stacker, the software will take account of this rotation and sort it out for you. The only downside is that the field of view may be reduced in the final picture to compensate for this. However, if you are planning on 1000 one second exposures then I don't think that you will have enough field rotation to cause much of a reduction in your field of view. I often use total integrated exposure times of 20 - 45 minutes and don't get any issues.
So, in summary align your mount at the beginning of the session, use an intervalometer to take your 1000 shots whilst you go inside and have a cup of tea, then come back out, pack your gear up and load your shots into DSS and let it do all of the work for you.
If you are new to DSS then the book I mention has an excellent step by step tutorial on it.
If you find DSS a bit intimidating then another free stacking programme is called Sequator. This is typically much simpler and faster than DSS. I did a little tutorial on processing your pictures using Sequator to stack and Photoshop to finish off, aimed at absolute beginners. The video was about 6 weeks ago, and may help if you are new to the whole thing.
I wish you the best of luck in your astro journey ahead 👍🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you so much for your detailed response, that is really helpful :) I will defo check out the DSS book! I hope you don't mind me asking one more question? Are you able to remove the telescope and attach a DSLR directly to these mounts?
Thanks again, you're helping a newbie here! I don't expect fantastic photos as here in Reading UK the light pollution is horrendous! Happy to New year to you!
@@astrobenn_ there's no problem just using a camera if you can fit it with a dovetail plate to go into the mount. You should get decent results with this 🙂👍
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Perfect! Thank you again!
@@astrobenn_ no problems. Happy New Year to you 🙂👍
👍
Thanks for watching 🙂
7:00 What is the Equatorial mount in the background? (left side)
Hi, thanks for watching this video. The EQ mount to the left is a Skywatcher EQM 35 mount.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thanks!
Hi John, was your canon 1300d modified to get these images
Hi Gary. No, my 1300d is not modified. I do have another camera (an 800d) which I had modified a few months ago, but non of the images in this video used it. You can still get things like the Horsehead Nebula etc with a stock camera, which was a bit of a surprise to me.
Thanks very much for watching and commenting 👍🙂
One other question: Do you have a list of, say, your Top 10 Short-Exposure DSOs to photograph? I'd love to have a list of items that are within reach of an Alt-Az set-up like yours. Perhaps this is an idea for a future video!
Hi Matt,
This is a good idea.
For a set up like mine where I use a short tube refractor on the alt az mount I reckon the top targets are
Orion Nebula
Flame & Horsehead Nebula
Rossette Nebula
Andromeda Galaxy
M81 and M82 Galaxies
Whirlpool Galaxy
Eagle Nebula
Lagoon Nebula
Swan Nebula
Pleiades star cluster
and any of the open and globular star clusters.
Cheers
John
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you very much; this should get me off to a good start.
@@mattestabrook ps thanks for the sub, its much appreciated 🙂👍
I’m very new to this, and your video has perfectly explained what I need to understand. Can I check...is it just the camera body that is attached to the telescope? Thanks.
Thanks for your kind comment. You are correct, the camera body only connects to the telescope in the place of the star diagonal and the eyepiece. You remove the lens from the camera and then fit a t-ring and t-adaptor to the camera. The t ring needs to be specific to your camera make (ie they do ones suitable for canon, nikon etc). When you fit these to your camera you effectively have a tube sticking out from the camera instead of a lens. This tube slides I to the telescope.
Thank you for watching and commenting. If you have any more questions feel free to ask 😊
Hi John, is this what I should be looking at? www.amazon.co.uk/Orion-Observer-Equatorial-Refractor-Telescope/dp/B0732VG4ZP/ref=mp_s_a_1_34?dchild=1&keywords=60mm+refractor+orion&qid=1599403405&sr=8-34
@@terrireynolds5820 Hi Terri, to do astrophotography you need a motorised mount that tracks the stars. It is also easier if the mount is a goto mount, which means that it will automatically move to targets you select.
Something like the set up below
www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-startravel-102-synscan-az-goto-telescope.html
Aha..I thought I had to buy the mount and then buy something similar to the Orion as in your video. Thanks. I will get there lol 🙈
@@terrireynolds5820 if you already had an alt az mount then that would be the way to go. However, if you are starting from scratch then the package in the link is a decent start for not too much money. Celestron do a similar package called the Nexstar 102 SLT. I have seen photo's on the internet similar to mine taken with this package.
As I say in my video, using mounts like these to take photos won't win you awards, but can still produce nice photos without you needing to spend a lot of money or time.
Link to images from this scope
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.astrobin.com/gear/5762/celestron-nexstar-102-slt/&ved=2ahUKEwitrL-x7dTrAhU3TBUIHQQeCZIQFjAAegQIBRAC&usg=AOvVaw0MDUaj_cqgCuB2onYB73g2
Link to the celestron scope
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.celestron.com/products/nexstar-102slt-computerized-telescope&ved=2ahUKEwjK9sTp7dTrAhUdThUIHVK0CqwQFjABegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw2fNpiDK6j5eliJUeijkBoT
I managed to image M42, M51 Galaxy and a few Star Clusters with my Alt Az as well as the moon and Jupiter and moons with a Webcam. I found i could do 25 with Alt / Az before star trailing and then Stack about 30 - 50 images to get detail. Alt Az is capable of decent images starting out.
You did well getting 25 seconds. As you say, I think an alt az is great to get people going in astrophotography. Thanks for watching and commenting.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 if the seeing visibility is really good, you can get 30 secs out of a Alt /Az before trailing.
For astrophotography I always pointed the scope north and made sure the tripod was level. Then I did 2 star alignment. I was told that years ago. If you only use for visual then it don't matter if the scope is pointed north or not.
@@acharris77 I'll try the pointing north trick next time and see what happens 👍
Can you use a focal reducer and still get good results?
Thans for your comment Adri. On a short focal length refractor like the type I use, it isn't really necessary to use a focal reducer as the field of view is wide, especially when using a dslr. However, if you had a longer focal length scope then others have mentioned that a focal reducer is useful, as it enables you to get longer exposures than you would otherwise be able to achieve.
Great video, does youre camera got modifide?
Thanks for watching and commenting Simon. The photos here were on an unmodified camera. I have just sent my camera away to be modified, so will be doing another video about this shortly (when it stops being cloudy). Good Luck in your astro adventure 👍
Thanks for the video. Any chance of a link to the book mentioned?
Hi Mark. Thanks for the comment and sub, much appreciated.
Here is the link
Astrophotography on the Go: Using Short Exposures with Light Mounts (The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series)
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/3319098306/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_0haGFbBY0F234
Thanks for watching 👍
Hello Sir. Can you help me. I aligned 3 stars with this set up.Next how to shoot long exposure? I have on the continuous track option in setting?
Having aligned on 2 or 3 stars and got the "alignment successful" message you now use the last alignment star to get your camera into focus. Having done this you now select your target from the handset (eg M42 or M101 etc). The scope will now drive to this object.
Now you take a test photo with your ISO set to say 1600 to see what exposure length you can do before star trailing occurs. If your scope is a 70 - 80mm refractor you will probably be able to take exposures of 15 - 25 seconds. If your scope is bigger then it will be less than this.
I wish you good luck and clear skies 👍🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you for your suggestion. Shall I have to keep tracking option or sidereal option on. I am planning to use this for dslr and 55-250lens.
@@drkumarharaprasadmisra5562 Ah, yes I forgot you were using a dslr and telephoto lens. I reckon you should have the tracking mode on sidereal mode to compensate for the earth's rotation. With your lens at around 50mm I would initially try exposure times of about one minute and see what happens, with 200mm lens then try 30 seconds to start with. If you get no star trailing then increase the exposure time by 10 seconds and repeat. If you get star trails then decrease by 10 seconds.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 thank you . I will try tomorrow. Today I couldn't get long exposure. Thank you
@@drkumarharaprasadmisra5562 in that case, start with the lens at say 50mm and when you have got that working then increase the zoom. Good luck 👍
I have a EQ3 mount but without a Goto system so my question would be if it is worth spending the money on an alt az mount with goto or spending 300 more for an eq mount with goto? Ill have to add that i dont earn money yet so 300 more is a lot for me.
This is a very good question. The answer depends a lot on what telescope you will be using on the mount. Can you let me know this ?
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Right now my only telescope is a 114/1000 reflactor but i also have plans to get a refractor. But first a new mount.
OK 🙂. An alt az mount will work with a short focal length refractor (up to say 500mm). If you have never done astrophotography before then almost any result will give you a lot of pleasure. I found that I used my alt az set up for about 2 years and then eventually bought an EQM 35 mount. However, the time spent using the alt az mount was very valuable as I learned how to do basic image processing etc.
Eventually (if you decide you like astrophotography) you will end up getting an EQ mount, but if alt az is more within reach at the moment it is way better than not doing any astrophotography at all. In this case then, a video I will be posting on TH-cam on Friday evening will be of interest. It shows what you can expect to get with an alt az mount, a short focal length refractor and a basic dslr, using exposures of 13-15 seconds. It is basically a sideshow of about 35 images taken with this set up, and will give you a good idea of what to expect with this type of equipment. You can then decide if the images are good enough for you, and whether they will keep you happy for the immediate future.
As I say, this will be put up on my channel on Friday evening UK time.
Thank you very much for taking the time to watch and comment on my video, it means a lot to me and I really appreciate it 👍
@@thecampingastronomer8554 thanks for the answer im allready doing asteophotography but just with my eq3 mount and my iphone thats it
@@BambooMonkey-en9tp do you have a dslr camera available to use ?
Hi, you have an Altair item between the Dslr and the telescope, is that a flattener or a spacer ?
Hi, thanks for the question. It is a flattener/field reducer. It is actually for a 70mm altair starwave telescope but I also use it on the 60mm scope in this video. It also fulfills the job of a spacer. However, its length is not ideal for the 60mm scope so I get a bit of distortion at the edges which I crop out.
You still cannot do decent DSO for astrophotography as you get field rotation. A GEM allows more detail so will get more detail in your photos, an alt alz wont give you the best, will be good, but won't be great. There are too many trying to do DSO photography with an SCT telescope like the Celestron SE series, its the wrong type of telescope, to slow as the f ratio is to slow and narrow field. At least you did have the sense to buy a refractor that is fast and give much wider fields and will pick up data faster, so get more image detail with less exposure.
Hi Dennis, thanks for watching and the comment. You are quite right in what you say. However, the object of this video is to show people who are thinking about having a go at astrophotography, and already have an alt az mount for visual use, that they can have a dabble without spending lots of money on a new mount.
Beginners in this situation would be able to practice stacking and processing to see if astrophotography is for them, and then potentially buy an EQ mount. This is the process I went through before buying an EQM 35 mount.
You are correct in that you will get more detail with an EQ mount, but as I say in the video, unless you are trying to win an award, any photo you take that pleases you is a good photo, regardless of what I or anybody else thinks. This would apply whether you are a raw beginner or a very experienced photographer.
I want people to have a go at photographing the sky regardless of what equipment they have, and be able to share their efforts with family and friends, and be proud of those results.
I wish you clear skies and good luck with your astrophotography journey 👍
How to attach a dslr with telephoto lens with this mount
Thanks for watching and commenting. I think that if you want to connect a dslr to this mount then you need a dovetail bar that will slide into the mount, onto which you mount your dslr using the screw connection for tripods.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Thank you.
I tried taking pictures of andromeda tonight with my canon 450d but when it's pointed at the sky i don't see any stars on the live view screen so its really hard to navigate do you know how i can fix this?
Hello Noah, what do you have your canon body connected to ? Is it a telescope like I show here, or are you using a camera lens ?
Also, is your mount a tracking mount or is it a standard tripod ?
@@thecampingastronomer8554 it's a newtonian reflector on a normal tripod i have the camera body attached to the place where the eyepiece usualy is. I can make pictures of the moon and jupiter just fine but when im pointed at stars i see nothing on thr display
@@noahdeboer1360 I think that is fairly common, I only even see the very bright stars in the display. Normally I initially point at a very bright star (eg Vega at this time of year), then I get the focus sorted out on that. The really bright stars do tend to be visible, but only when the focus is more or less set.
Once I have done this I slew to the area where I want to image. I think that you might benefit by upping the ISO to a very high number at this point in an attempt to see some stars. If this works, then when you are on your target you can drop the ISO down again.
Are you attempting to find Andromeda manually, or does your mount have a goto function ?
@@noahdeboer1360 just noticed you are using a normal tripod so assume that your mount does not track the movement of the stars ?
Is this correct, and what is the focal length of your telescope ?
@@thecampingastronomer8554 no it does not track the stars. I think the focal length is 1000mm
Hello!
I have a Celestron Nexstar 4SE. Did anybody tried to do the same thing like in the video? Is it possible?
Hello Matel 👋. There should be more problems doing as I did and fitting a small refractor to your 4se mount. If anything, the mount used for the 4se and 5se is probably sturdier than the mount on my nexstar 127.
Thank you very much for watching and commenting 🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 So it is more dificult? Or less dificult? To fit on my mount?
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Is it possible or not? I don't know how and I would like to know if it is possible because my telescope is a very slow one. And I think that this Orion 80 short tube would be very welcome
@@mateialexandruionut2545 it should be the same as with my mount. You would need a refractor with a dovetail so that it can slide into the slot on the mount where you currently slide in your 4" scope.
This dovetail would either come with the refractor or if not, can be bought separately along with some appropriate tube rings to fit round the refractor.
@@mateialexandruionut2545 yes it is possible. You would need to get the version of Orion ST80 with tube ringsand dovetail bar. The tube rings go around the ST80, and the dovetail bar fits to these rings. Then you can slide the dovetail into the slot on your nexstar mount and screw in the bolt on the mount slot to hold the dovetail and scope into place.
As I say, the 4se mount is very similar to my slt mount.
There's no such thing as can't. It just takes a bit of effort and imagination to get worthwhile results whatever your equipment with a stable mount.
Absolutely 👍
Honestly you'd be better off with an eq 2 😂 but actually i think these alt az mounts are too expensive.
You are correct in what you say, however the purpose of this video is to show people who already have an alt az mount (that they bought to do visual astronomy) that it is possible to try astrophotography with it without having to buy a new mount.
Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment 🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 yeah the mounts are great for stuff but i honestly enjoyed the video ablot
Eq2 is worse. I heard it from long time astrophotographers. They said those mounts are very unstable and that one would need a sturdy mount like eq5. Or else they should put in the hardwork for stacking. That's what they said.
Could u please say what scope did u use for this image
Hi Grace, thank you for watching and your comment.
The scope on the thumbnail is a 70mm altair astro refractor. The deep sky images shown in the video were all taken with either an 80mm Orion Short Tube refractor, the 70mm altair astro one shown in the thumbnail, or a 60mm TS Optics refractor shown in the video - ie a short focal length refractor in all cases. Was there a specific photograph that you were interested in knowing which of the above was used ?
Best Regards
John
Yeah the orion nebula was a great image I have a t7i and a kit lens what u used was it all achromatic I have heard the orion 80 has very bad chromatic aberation
Thanks
@@graceselvaraniselvarani8773 you are correct in that the Orion 80 produces purple halos around the brightest stars. However, you can buy filters which remove this to a large extent. Also, there is a plug in for photoshop (called astronomy tools) which has a function to remove halos. So, if you want to have a go at astrophotography and not spend much money, then the Orion 80mm is worth a go. If you have the cash though, spending a bit more gives you better optical quality.
I rather stick to visual astronomy rather than spending thousands of dollars for astrophotography, ain't have money for that.
This is a very good point. After using my alt az mount for visual astronomy, I drifted into astrophotography in order to try to overcome the light pollution associated with an urban environment. Hence, I was looking to use my existing mount, and take images showing more detail than I can see visually. Contrary to common belief, I realised that I could use my existing dslr camera and mount, and only needed to buy an entry level refractor in order to take images of galaxies and Nebula. Total costs from scratch would have been about under $900, but I already had the mount I was using for visual astronomy, and the dslr camera I was using for normal holiday type photos. Consequently, I only needed to spend about $150 to buy the refractor scope.
What I hope to show with this video is that for a total outlay of less than $1000 if starting from scratch, it is possible to take remarkable images.
Another video of mine shows how it is possible to use a mechanical star tracker and a dslr, to take images for less than $600 all in all, if starting from scratch.
So, whilst it is easy to spend $5000 on an astrophotography setup, it isn't essential to do so.
Thank you very much for taking the time to watch my video, and to comment on it, this is much appreciated 😊
TOO MUCH TALKING FOR THOSE WHO DOES NOT FEEL COMFORTABLE IN ENGLISH
Sorry that you found the video hard to follow. Is it possible for you to play the video with subtitles in your language ?