MnAstro Forums

Scott, regarding the "smudge" statement. This is really in reference to nebulae and not planets. Observation of planets, particularly Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be quite satisfying.

Doug N.

Hi Scott. From your post I take that you are interested in observation rather than imaging. They require different equipment. Also be aware that what you see in the eyepiece is different than what the camera will see. Where the pictures are clear with lots of details, you will probably see a smudge....

Hi Fred, I have two CEM mounts. A CEM40 and a CEM26. My polar alignment process is similar to Mark's. The solar finder works very well. I do have the app you mentioned. It works well. I put it in the saddle to get the altitude closer. Be careful of trusting the compass reading. I think they use magn...

Yes, watch the CGO forum. I will be posting the next training session there. It will likely not be until Spring. In the meantime I hope to have some zoom sessions where the imagers within MAS can answer questions from those wanting to get into astrophotography or better their skills. Over the last c...

Given Suresh's list above avoid the D5100. It has the Exceed 3 software and the camera cannot be controlled through the USB port. A separate cable is needed. That may seem a bit odd for advice at the moment, but you will have found it useful several years from now. Still, I recommend going the route...

Here is my recommendation. Don't by a camera yet. Instead do the following. The society has an imaging rig with excellent equipment on it. It has everything you need to take images. Instead spend your money on a program called PixInsight to process those images. Cost for PixInsight is $300 last I lo...

I will speak to the astrophotography part. The telescopes/mounts recommended will work fine for visual, however the long focal lengths for beginning astrophotography gives you a very large learning curve. Since you own some DSLRs and some lenses I suggest you use those to start the astrophotography....

I use velcro to make sure there is proper slack in all my cords.

I just heard that there was a star party at Cedar Creek Science Reserve recently. I didn't see any postings about it. Did I miss the announcement?

I just schedule an IISP for Monday night, and I was planning on using Casby. The only thing we ask is the judicious use of laser pointers. Particularly on the objects we are imaging. There is room for all, though there may be a pile of snow out there to negotiate.

Doug N.

Great to hear. Good luck. Post if you need any help.

Tugger and I have been talking about this off-line. He indicates that it may be a USB interface depending on the age of the mount. As he indicated you may need EQASCOM installed and running. I remember getting my computer to work with the my mount. There were several hoops to jump through and it inc...

I took a quick look at the manual and it indicates that the connection on the hand controller is RS232. Did you use a USB to RS232 cable?

I have set up the last several and do those through the Imaging SIG forum.

viewforum.php?f=8

Doug N.

Reed, Just a quick note that we cancelled tonight's imager's meet.

Doug N.

Hi Reed: We are having an imagers meet in Baylor Regional Park Park at the Eagle Lake Observatory (7:00 pm on Saturday the 24). Since the moon is bright we are not likely to take images, but I do hope some will come out and set up their rigs. If you can bring your equipment maybe we can help you get...

The 19th is a Tuesday not a Saturday. Did you mean the 9th?

Also, this was a problem just be the migration.