For a very very VERY long time, I've always enjoyed the night sky.
I guess, most people do enjoy a star ridden sky, and maybe spotting the odd planet, satellite or even the International Space Station when it zooms over.
Last Christmas, I invested in a Skywatcher 200p telescope and an EQ5 mount for me and my wife to use in the back garden. We both love the stars and I thought it would be a nice new hobby we can both enjoy.
Little did I realise at the time, how much time and MONEY this hobby would cost. haha
Within weeks, I was hooked on looking up and REALLY wanting to take photos of what I could see.
Limited at the time, I took some photos with my Mobile Phone of the moon. This wasnt easy as I had to aim the phone camera, down the eyepiece to get the shot I wanted.
This really was a pain.
By the time I had lined up the camera to the eye piece the mood had moved... as the mount didnt track. It was at this point that I decided I needed to improve the equipment to even get a simple photo of the moon.
A week or so later, I had added some RA and DEC motors to the EQ5 and now, when polar aligned the best I could, the moon didnt move off as quick. (The motors move a the rate the stars move, not the moon).
Finally, I had a photo of the moon I was happy(ish) with!
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This is where my adventure began.
In the weeks following, I bought a DSLR camera (Canon 1100D) a remote trigger and started pointing the telescope at everything I could.
On a random night, I found, by luck, our closest galactic neighbour, Andromeda.
Well, I HAD to try and photo it.
Lukily I had spent some time actually getting the mount polar aligned reasonably well, so I was able to use the information I'd found out online, on how to actually photo a deep space object.
Lots of long exposures (I think I managed 2 minutes per photo) where all taken, and stacked together in a software called DeepSpaceStacker.
I was given an image that, wasnt the best. But after even more googling I found out how to process it better and even use Photoshop to process it even more.
I had my 1st EVER DSO object. Andromeda.
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I was over the moon (sorry for the pun) with this. I know its not the best, by a long shot, but I TOOK IT! :)
Over the next few weeks I added more and more equipment to help me, but they where just little bits and bats, like masks to get better focus or a comma corrector so all stars where round and didnt look like commas.
Then I bit the bullet. I bought two little cameras to attach to the telescope and mount. The 1st one, is called a Polemaster. This basically helps you line up the mount to the equatorial north pole. And I'll have to say, its bloody accurate and quick to use!
The second camera, was a QHY5L-II mono camera. With this I could now track stars. I hooked it up to my laptop and the controller on my motors (had to modify the control box, to add an ST4 port!) and the software would now help micro adjust the mount, so stars didnt trail on long exposures.
This was the game changer. I could now REALLY go deep into space, and have longer exposures (upto 5 mins easily).
Anyway. I was looking for a test subject. M51 the Whirlpool galaxy. Its not visible to eye where I live, even with the 200p! But with a bit of star hopping I guessed where it would be and took some long exposures. After processing... I was shocked! And in awe at the same time.
M51, it was there! I did sulk a little bit though, as I had knocked the focus out a little bit, but still.
I had my 1st photo of a beautiful galaxy.
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As you can see, my processing skills are PATHETIC and focus is out, but you can see what I was looking for.
On the same night, I also found the Orion Nebula M42, and took a few shots of that too.
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And that was basically winter. There wasnt many nights without cloud after that.
So since then... I've been waiting. Wanting more.
I've also increased and improved my equipment somewhat too.
I've modded the DSLR with a Baader filter, so can now get some Hydrogen Alpha in my photos, bought a second hand NEQ6 mount (which is AMAZING), a new laptop, some new eye pieces and a better barlow lens. And more things that I have currently forgot about.
This brings me to today.
Its October, 2017. The nights are now getting dark early, my laptop is all ready with all the software, the telescope is out, tested and ready to go.
All I need now, is a clear night!
Next post... when that clear night actually happens! :)
