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Tonight was a perfect autumn evening, but bad for pics

pdentrem said:
I am currently working on making a new structure for my 13' Zambuto mirror.
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13’, thats one big mirror…

I purchased a 10” Celestron StarSense Explorer Dobsonian last fall. I haven’t used it very much since I don’t tend to stay up too late and am either tired from work or projects… and on the nights where I’m not tired it’s been cloudy (or I forgot to think about astronomy). I did enjoy seeing the partial solar eclipse and have used it a few times on the deck at the cottage. The StarSense app is Ok, not as useful as I was hoping, so I’m learning to star hop.

No visible aurora’s last evening an hour north of Winnipeg. It was supposed to clear up around 3AM but I don’t need to see auroras that badly…
 
pdentrem said:
It is a SkyShed Pod which Wayne Parker has been producing for a few years now. Inside I have a Sky Watcher 120ED on EQ6 Pro mount sitting on a concrete pier.

I am currently working on making a new structure for my 13' Zambuto mirror.
View attachment 52725View attachment 52724
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Did you mean 13" (inches) rather than 13' (feet)?
I just went to the Zambuto site and if you bought a 13 foot mirror then I want to call you Daddy.
 
I just use WiFi back to the house. The observatory is about 20 feet from the house.

As for a 13 foot mirror, I always found the “ key a pain to use quickly!
 
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The neighbour better take cover. Comet incoming.
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pdentrem said:
I ended up taking about 140 that I need to stack and massage to a final photo.
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I've never tried stacking. I don't have a CCD for my telescope. I bet they are a lot cheaper today. I've taken photos with my phone through a spotting scope and I bet it can be done on a big telescope too. But I've never done it.

What stacking software do you use and will it work with cell phone photos?
 
I use my Canon Ra for the camera. I have not gone down the even more expensive dedicated astro camera, with 4-8 filters, filter wheel, and 4-8 times the time required to shot all those filters!

I use PixInsight for stacking etc. used to use DSS. There are many others.
Pierre
 
pdentrem said:
I use my Canon Ra for the camera. I have not gone down the even more expensive dedicated astro camera,......
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Do you use a standard Canon adapter or some other way to attach the camera to your telescope? I have a Canon digital camera, but I think I'd rather use my phone if I can figure out how to attach it to my telescope given that the phone uses 5 different lenses in different locations. Hopefully, someone else has done this and I don't have to start from scratch.

pdentrem said:
I use PixInsight for stacking etc.
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Thank you. I'll investigate.
 
On my Sky-Watcher 120 as seen in the photo. I have the flattener installed and a 48 mm T-ring to go from Camera mounting flange to the flattener. The other way is to use a nose piece with a T-ring. The nose piece slips in where the eyepiece would normally go. Nose piece are available in 1.25” or 2” depending on the focuser. 2” is always better as it does not restrict any light. The T-rings come in 42 or 48 mm internal opening.
Pierre
 
pdentrem said:
On my Sky-Watcher 120 as seen in the photo. I have the flattener installed and a 48 mm T-ring to go from Camera mounting flange to the flattener. The other way is to use a nose piece with a T-ring. The nose piece slips in where the eyepiece would normally go. Nose piece are available in 1.25” or 2” depending on the focuser. 2” is always better as it does not restrict any light. The T-rings come in 42 or 48 mm internal opening.
Pierre
Click to expand...

Thanks Pierre. Gives me lots to study and learn.
 
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