r/AskAstrophotography

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to understand a strange artifact on my setup and wondered if some of you already experienced this.

Setup:

• SkyWatcher 150/750 (with Backyard Universe spider and full black flocking inside)
• SkyWatcher coma corrector
• ZWO ASI533MC Pro
• No filter

On bright stars, I get a weird rainbow/green halo or ghost reflection.
What’s strange is that the artifact depends on the star position on the sensor: when the star moves across the field, the halo changes position too.

It even appears on very short exposures (~3s), so it does not seem related to long exposure blooming.

I’m wondering if this could come from:

• internal reflections between the sensor window and coma corrector,
• absence of UV/IR cut,
• the coma corrector itself,
• slight dew,

Has anyone seen something similar with a Newton + ASI533MC setup?

Thanks!

Hi, I have been wanting to get into astrophotography, and I have been doing a lot of research on cameras and how well they capture the night sky. I've been looking at these 5 cameras: Canon M50, Sony A6000, Nikon D750, Canon 5D Mark IV, and Sony A6400. I'm leaning towards the Nikon D750 because I like the photos it can take, and I can get it used for a good price. The Canon 5D Mark IV and Sony A6400 are a bit too out of my budget. What do you think about the cameras I’m considering, especially for astrophotography? Are there any major pros/cons I should know about, or any other cameras you’d recommend instead? Thank you.

added a guidescope and dithered every 5th frame. exposures were kept to 30" to match exposures from prior nights which were tracked, but not guided/dithered. stacked in sirilic and edited in siril, now I have horizontal wide bands. suggestions appreciated

Hey everyone,

I currently have a Star Adventurer with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II and a 50mm lens. I’ve used this setup quite a lot and now I’m looking to upgrade, mainly to get more focal length. I’m planning to move to a small apochromatic refractor.

I’m aware that the mount is key here. I first considered the Sky-Watcher EQ-AL55i, but I’m leaning toward going straight for the HEQ5 so I won’t need to upgrade the mount again later if I go for a bigger scope.

My main question is about focal length. I’d like something that frames most nebulae well, since galaxies, planetary nebulae, and globular clusters tend to be too small for this kind of setup anyway.

Right now I’m hesitating between:
- Askar SQA55 (264mm)
- Askar 60F (408mm)
- Askar 71F (490mm)

Since I’m shooting full-frame, I’m a bit worried the SQA55 might be too wide. On the other hand, one advantage is that I could still use it on the Star Adventurer (not ideal, I know, but workable), which would let me start using it sooner and save up for the HEQ5 afterward.

I’ve checked a lot of targets on Telescopius, and my impression is:
- some nebulae feel a bit small at 264mm,
- some feel a bit tight at 408mm,
- 490mm looks great for smaller nebulae, but large targets like M31 don’t fit well anymore.

I’d really appreciate feedback from anyone who has used similar setups or these scopes.

Thanks!

Hi

Someone near me is selling an astro setup, and I’m a beginner trying to get into the hobby.

For reference I currently just have a Sony a6700 camera and an 18-50mm lense. I’ve only done milky way photos before.

The main parts of the setup are:
Skywatcher star adventurer 2i pro mount + tripod
William optics z61 telescope
ZWO asi183mc pro camera
ZWO asi120mm guide camera
ZWO Asiair pro
Sybony Guide scope

Also comes with a bunch of accessories, all the cables, and a case.

$2000 for everything

Does this seem like a good deal for a beginner setup? Mostly I’m looking to do dso photos and figure I can also use my Sony on the star tracker for general Milky Way photos.

Any thoughts? And if anyone has other recommendations for a beginner setup I’d appreciate it.

Hey everyone! I've been fascinated by astronomy and astrophotography for as long as I can remember, always stopping to stare at other people's shots of the night sky. I recently started university, and astronomy is quickly becoming a real hobby. Whenever the clouds cooperate, I'm out there stargazing and shooting long exposures with my phone.

Now I want to take the next step into actual astrophotography. At a university astronomy event I got talking to a local amateur astrophotography club, and they told me the basics for a low-budget setup are a decent reflex camera, good lenses, and a tripod. So I started hunting for a low-to-mid budget reflex camera and promptly got completely lost in specs.

I've searched online and asked AI tools, and while the Nikon D5600 keeps coming up as a solid beginner option, I still don't really understand what makes a camera good for astrophotography and I don't want to drop money on something that turns out to be a poor fit.

I also enjoy regular photography, so ideally I'd want a camera that handles both well. I just don't know which specs to prioritize for each use case.

EDIT : I am in Europe, Belgium

Any help from people who've been down this road would be massively appreciated thanks in advance!

I've been viewing the moon and Jupiter through my newly acquired AD8 and have been using a celestron nexyz super fun and easy for the moon. But Jupiter is ridiculously hard to capture. Anyway I got the bug and want to invest a little into a dedicated planetary rig , to take pictures of all the planets. I see used celestron se 4 and 5 and 6 pretty frequently for sale used. But that has me wondering why lol. I don't want to stop using my DOB because It's amazing but I companion scope for pictures would be nice. 1k max budget. Something idiot proof and easy to learn.

Thinking of buying this astrophotography setup budget around 3 lakh rupees (3000 dollars)

• SVBONY SV545 Astrograph
• ZWO AM3 Mount
• ASI585MC Air
• Optolong L-eXtreme
• SVBONY Power Box
• TC40 Tripod

Mostly planning to shoot nebulae and galaxies. Any suggestions in the setup?

I picked up an old Deep Sky Imager CCD from a flea market. I'm trying to get it working on my system but I'm getting confused with the different driver configurations.

Is there any guide to getting this to work on a modern Linux system?

Looking at the AL55i to replace an ancient iOptron SmartEQ Pro. (Got fed up trying to get theis thing to work with NINA and I have low expections that it will guide well, too.)

Haven't found many good reviews online and none seem to address its guiding numbers.

So if you do astrophotography with the AL55i, what is your opnion and what kind of guiding numbers can I expect. looking for 1.0" IN GENERAL.

I will be using an Askar 71f and an ASI585MC Pro. Guide wset up is a 120mm focal length scope and an ASI224mm mini (I think, its in storage right now.)

Hi Guys

I'll keep it short. I have gotten into astro over the last year or so and having originally got a DOB (Skyliner 200P), I realised pretty quickly that it was DSO that I enjoyed, particularly the image processing portion. I picked up an s50 last year and have enjoyed it, but I have since realised that it's had a fault this entire time that I am currently speaking with ZWO on (tracking is a mess, failed subs over 20s and star tracking/blurry photos every 3/4 subs on 10s).

So I have built out a sort of 'dream rig' based on the many recommendations I have seen here and honestly, I am just looking for someone to either confirm it's a good setup to aim towards, or if it's too excessive a jump from the Seestar. This is what I have put together:

• Scope: Askar FRA400 Astro graph - €1325
• Tripod: ZWO TC40 carbon Fibre Tripod - €385
• Mount: ZWO AM5N Harmonic Equatorial Mount • €2212
• Main camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Duo • €1927
• Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus 256GB • €332
• Autofocus: ZWO EAF Standard (5V) • €239
• Power supply: PegasusAstro Power Supply 12V/10A Europe 2.1mm • €79
• Dew heater: NEEWER USB Dew Heater Strip • €30
• Dual-band filter: Optolong L-eXtreme • €323

Any advice would be appreciated. The goal is to focus on Nebula and Galaxies.

I'm looking for a low powered lense warmer that will maintain a minimal internal temperature as efficiently as possible.

I am not an astrophotographer, I just suspect this community will be able to help me.

I will be taking this warmer up 4,000m peaks in the Alps. It will be fitted to a plastic lens instead of metal (thermal insulator, good and bad).

Esencailly,.I just need a warmer that will maintain the lens's internal temperature above the ambient temperature, bear In mind it will be close to my body the entire time. I'm thinking about maintaining 20-30°C would be about right, but I'm unsure. And I'm looking to find something very efficient so I don't need to carry a giant power bank, that will run out.

I also have the strange caveat that it has to be easily removed and attached (as easy as it gets), able to be done 1 handed (with some practice).

I have a H-alpha modified Canon R, but I was wondering how many more stops of light a modification lets in. Has there been any data collection on this? I reckon below 1 stop of light, but that's just a guess.

Hello my fellow astropeeps!

I am a first-year astronomy student, and I am looking for some help with my final project for my Observational Astronomy major.

For the assignment, we need to collect 9 raw deep-sky images (3 clusters, 3 nebulae, and 3 galaxies) and write a narrative about their notable features. We are allowed to use data from the MicroObservatory, take the images ourselves, or ask the astrophotography community for help! (We are strictly prohibited from using Hubble, JWST, or any other space telescopes).

For the images used, we must credit the source with the following details:

- Equipment used (Telescope, mount, camera, filters)

- Full name of the astrophotographer

- Imaging date and time

- Full name of the processor (if applicable)

- Software used

I am planning to work with the following targets, and I would be incredibly grateful if anyone would be willing to share their raw data/sub-frames and these acquisition details with me:

Galaxies:

- Andromeda Galaxy (M31)

- Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)

- Sombrero Galaxy (M104)

Clusters:

- Pleiades (M45)

- Hercules Globular Cluster (M13)

- [Already have one]

Nebulae:

- Orion Nebula (M42)

- Lagoon Nebula (M8)

- Ring Nebula (M57)

If you have data for any of these targets and don't mind sharing, please let me know! Thank you so much in advance for helping a future astronomer out. Clear skies!

I'm putting together a rig based around an SVBONY SV605MC and was wondering if it would be better to go with just a 3nm HaO3 filter or a 7nm HaO3 plus a 7nm S2O3 filter. Cost is a bit of a concern so I'm trying to stick with these cheaper SVBONY filters.

I messed with my screws on my Celestron 6SE and I want to collimate to ensure good focus. I did a quick defocused star check and it looks pretty decent, but I’m skeptical because of the fact I messed with the screws. Am I missing something? Any help is appreciated, and if you need extra information don’t hesitate to ask.

(Can’t upload images so I have the images in a Google Drive folder)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10w-JBbxSrNBWc8PK4536JLiuAGR9wMnt

I got a decent pic of venus (just a white dot but it looked good) but I forgot what I did to get it. Any tips? (I have iPhone 16)