I found 13 seconds is my sweet spot at 1000mm, 15 to 20 secs with my 400mm, got decent results 👍🏼 I like vids with stuff I’ve got/use 👍🏼 I get a bit tired of the equipment snobs to be honest 👍🏼 earned a sub dude 👍🏼…….never mind
cheers for this video i've had an Alt Az mount since COVID and I've been racking my head around how to use it with a DSLR, this has made it make a lot more sense to me cheers.
Thank you! I chose an Alt/Az mount for my first electronic mount(8se). I may move to an EQ in the next year, but this is the encouragement all of us need. I'm starting with planetary first to familiarize myself with my gear, but I have a list of DSO objects that I'm building to challenge myself. I just got some guiding gear and will be learning that next. Again, thank you for your work! Clear skies
Hi and thanks to you for creating this video on Alt-Az imaging. For years I have been advising newcomers to astro-photography to dip their toes into the hobby by considering cheaper Alt-Az mounts coupled to an already owned DSLR and lens if they have them to elp keep cost down. Astro-imaging can quickly become a very expensive pastime. Then if the bug bites you can ore mindfully consider what imaging you wish to pursue, solar, planetary, lunar or deep sky. Learning about the challenges and capabilities of these mounts gives a good awareness of issues like field rotation and of their advantages being often lightweight, very quick to set up and understand their movement. The advent of dedicated CMOS astro-cameras with high sensitivity and low read noise means exposure times can be naturally kept low without suffering penalties in tetms of image quality. In more recent times Alt-Az mount have met more competition by smaller, low cost EQ mounts such as the Star Adventurer but which often lack go-to capability that many Alt-Az mount come with as standard. All strength to the Alt-Az cause.
You don't even need an alt-az mount. Or at least, not a "formal" one for astronomy. A photography tripod will do just fine. I started out with a mirorless camera, a lens and a tripod. Still managed to get passable images of everybody's favourite beginner DSO, M42.
Very informative & helpful, thank you. The myth of not being able to do astro imaging with an alt az mount is seconded only by the other major alt az myth - that you can't use Polaris as an alignment star for an alt az mount, when in fact it's about the best star to use. People who tout this myth a) don't use alt az mounts and b) get confused with the fact that you can't use Polaris as an alignment with an EQ mount. (Well, you can, but your alignment will be a mess.)
Interesting video Harry. I also use an alt az mount for astrophotography (as well as an eq one) and agree with you that it is possible to get results that will please you and amaze your friends (even if you don't win APOD). I have subscribed to you as you cover similar stuff to my channel and look forward to seeing more of your work 😀
This is a very nice demonstration! I’d be very interested in more details on how you constructed your follow-on spreadsheets for planning your best targets throughout the year.
I have a C6-N F5 Newtonian on a steady AZ mount with hand controls, but I bought it for star gazing not taking pictures. If I want to look at pictures I'll look at the Hubble catalogue.
Same is said about fork mounts. Always a way to accomplish what we want. Adaptive optics and software... An equatorial wedge. And obviously high resolution planetary is fun to.
This is the kind of forecast I am interested to learn. What about wedge plates? Field rotation is unavoidable for polar point objects but offset reduces with wedge.
Wedges help yes - giving 2x or 3x the max exposures you can do. Then you have to factor in the costs of a wedge (the official ones are eyewateringly expensive), polar alignment, and the stability/practicality of the scope. With it being on an arm, it's not as stable as a traditional EQ mount. It works better with shorter tubes (i.e. the SE range) then the SLTs.
Another trick is to tell the az alt that you're on the north pole during startup. That way, the alt velocity will always be zero. Then you can set the az under the angle of your lattitude and point it to the north pole just how you would do on an equatorial mount.
Great video.. I have EQ mounts, but I am looking at a possible jump to an alt-az mount as an option for doing both ISS photography as well as DSO stuff. I just found your channel, but one thing I need to research is field rotators and how well they really work. It seems like they can get tricky with flat frames as you'd have to go through each rotation and match those all up lol.
I'm not sure why you'd go from eq to alt az if you wanted to do dso astrophotography? I wouldn't worry with field rotators. Too much hassle for what it is worth.
@@astroharrysastronomyclub1256 well I’ve been eye balling the plane wave L350 mount. They do sell an equatorial wedge for it as well, so I’d have to decide on what options I want to go with. It will likely be the wedge but I think to do the ISS stuff I’d need it in alt - az mode and that’s not a quick swap lol
Hello, i would like to photograph M31 tonight ( September ,05) with my Nikon D5100 (4928x3264 max. imagen resollution, and 4,77um pixel size) mounted on a alt-az goto mount. My latitude is 38º, and M31 at 10:30 h is at 58ºaz/28ºalt. Which do you think would be the maximun exposure time i can use in each shot? ( i want to get at least 30 minutes total exposure time). Thank you.
Up to about 30 seconds. If you wait till later in the night, or later in the month, and get the AZ to be about 90 degrees you can do as long as you wish :)
Great question! Two main reasons: 1) I forgot 2) my personal set up doesn't really lend itself to long exposures > 30s. However here's my last effort. www.astrobin.com/e5gyqm/
@@darrenwilliams414 that's more due to the planetary webcam I use and the mount isn't the best (astro fi) with guiding. I'll do some longer exposure stuff once the weather is better.
This is a way to maximize what the mount is capable of, but would I ever advise a newbie to astrophotography to go buy an alt-az mount? Absolutely not. You're limiting yourself so very much to east/west and lower in the horizon. It's great for those who already bought a mount like this to get their feet wet with astrophotography and maximize the equipment they already own, but the way in which you present this is misleading. The limitations are real, they can be severe depending on your geolocation and where your target is and that should never be downplayed, especially when your likely audience is someone new to the hobby.
@@astroharrysastronomyclub1256 yeah but its no different to tripod astrophotography yes you can get good results with a lot of work but nowhere as good as a eq mount
Alt Az? Rubbish! Useless for Deep space objects. Throw it in the bin! Get yourself a Celestron 5SE. It has a wedge. I'll just keep on wrestling with my equatorial mount.
Cheers dude! I've just ordered an AZ-GTiX and most of the internet seems to think I'm wrong :D Your video suggests otherwise! :D
I found 13 seconds is my sweet spot at 1000mm, 15 to 20 secs with my 400mm, got decent results 👍🏼 I like vids with stuff I’ve got/use 👍🏼 I get a bit tired of the equipment snobs to be honest 👍🏼 earned a sub dude 👍🏼…….never mind
Love this video, I agree with Ian that it’s great to show people how to get the very best from the equipment they have. Great job Astro Harry.
cheers for this video i've had an Alt Az mount since COVID and I've been racking my head around how to use it with a DSLR, this has made it make a lot more sense to me cheers.
Thank you! I chose an Alt/Az mount for my first electronic mount(8se). I may move to an EQ in the next year, but this is the encouragement all of us need. I'm starting with planetary first to familiarize myself with my gear, but I have a list of DSO objects that I'm building to challenge myself. I just got some guiding gear and will be learning that next.
Again, thank you for your work!
Clear skies
Hi and thanks to you for creating this video on Alt-Az imaging. For years I have been advising newcomers to astro-photography to dip their toes into the hobby by considering cheaper Alt-Az mounts coupled to an already owned DSLR and lens if they have them to elp keep cost down. Astro-imaging can quickly become a very expensive pastime. Then if the bug bites you can ore mindfully consider what imaging you wish to pursue, solar, planetary, lunar or deep sky. Learning about the challenges and capabilities of these mounts gives a good awareness of issues like field rotation and of their advantages being often lightweight, very quick to set up and understand their movement. The advent of dedicated CMOS astro-cameras with high sensitivity and low read noise means exposure times can be naturally kept low without suffering penalties in tetms of image quality. In more recent times Alt-Az mount have met more competition by smaller, low cost EQ mounts such as the Star Adventurer but which often lack go-to capability that many Alt-Az mount come with as standard. All strength to the Alt-Az cause.
You don't even need an alt-az mount. Or at least, not a "formal" one for astronomy. A photography tripod will do just fine. I started out with a mirorless camera, a lens and a tripod. Still managed to get passable images of everybody's favourite beginner DSO, M42.
I am living very close to the equator with just 1-degree latitude north. Will try out a longer exposure AP.
Very informative & helpful, thank you. The myth of not being able to do astro imaging with an alt az mount is seconded only by the other major alt az myth - that you can't use Polaris as an alignment star for an alt az mount, when in fact it's about the best star to use. People who tout this myth a) don't use alt az mounts and b) get confused with the fact that you can't use Polaris as an alignment with an EQ mount. (Well, you can, but your alignment will be a mess.)
Interesting video Harry. I also use an alt az mount for astrophotography (as well as an eq one) and agree with you that it is possible to get results that will please you and amaze your friends (even if you don't win APOD). I have subscribed to you as you cover similar stuff to my channel and look forward to seeing more of your work 😀
This is a very nice demonstration! I’d be very interested in more details on how you constructed your follow-on spreadsheets for planning your best targets throughout the year.
Thank you so much. The link is www.saguaroastro.org/sac-downloads/
Excellent work, thank you so much.
Yep. I do 30s unguided exposures with no trailing and sharp crisp stars all the way to the edge of the frame.
great info i have alt az and eq mounts, you have a new subscriber clear skies 👍
Thanks Frank - fingers crossed for tonight actually
interesting concept. There's also barn door trackers which you can build relatively easily and cheap. And it's EQ :-)
Great information.
Thank you
I have a C6-N F5 Newtonian on a steady AZ mount with hand controls, but I bought it for star gazing not taking pictures. If I want to look at pictures I'll look at the Hubble catalogue.
Great tutorial thank you!
Same is said about fork mounts. Always a way to accomplish what we want. Adaptive optics and software... An equatorial wedge. And obviously high resolution planetary is fun to.
This is the kind of forecast I am interested to learn. What about wedge plates? Field rotation is unavoidable for polar point objects but offset reduces with wedge.
Wedges help yes - giving 2x or 3x the max exposures you can do. Then you have to factor in the costs of a wedge (the official ones are eyewateringly expensive), polar alignment, and the stability/practicality of the scope. With it being on an arm, it's not as stable as a traditional EQ mount. It works better with shorter tubes (i.e. the SE range) then the SLTs.
Another trick is to tell the az alt that you're on the north pole during startup. That way, the alt velocity will always be zero. Then you can set the az under the angle of your lattitude and point it to the north pole just how you would do on an equatorial mount.
Tell me more Wesley - I'm intrigued....
Great video.. I have EQ mounts, but I am looking at a possible jump to an alt-az mount as an option for doing both ISS photography as well as DSO stuff. I just found your channel, but one thing I need to research is field rotators and how well they really work. It seems like they can get tricky with flat frames as you'd have to go through each rotation and match those all up lol.
I'm not sure why you'd go from eq to alt az if you wanted to do dso astrophotography? I wouldn't worry with field rotators. Too much hassle for what it is worth.
@@astroharrysastronomyclub1256 well I’ve been eye balling the plane wave L350 mount. They do sell an equatorial wedge for it as well, so I’d have to decide on what options I want to go with. It will likely be the wedge but I think to do the ISS stuff I’d need it in alt - az mode and that’s not a quick swap lol
Where can I get the spreadshets you used?
thank you!!!
Thanks 😊😊😊👍
Hello, i would like to photograph M31 tonight ( September ,05) with my Nikon D5100 (4928x3264 max. imagen resollution, and 4,77um pixel size) mounted on a alt-az goto mount. My latitude is 38º, and M31 at 10:30 h is at 58ºaz/28ºalt. Which do you think would be the maximun exposure time i can use in each shot? ( i want to get at least 30 minutes total exposure time). Thank you.
Up to about 30 seconds. If you wait till later in the night, or later in the month, and get the AZ to be about 90 degrees you can do as long as you wish :)
Great Video & Cute Kids!
Datt Mamon: I'm going to have to shit the science out of this!
Wouldn't sensor pixel size also need to be considered?
I thought so but didn't see it in the maths I found. I'd imagine it is - at least this gives you a rough guide.
why did you not show the results
Great question! Two main reasons: 1) I forgot 2) my personal set up doesn't really lend itself to long exposures > 30s. However here's my last effort. www.astrobin.com/e5gyqm/
@@astroharrysastronomyclub1256 yeah your getting egg shaped stars at 8 seconds 30s wont work i will stick to a eq mount
@@darrenwilliams414 that's more due to the planetary webcam I use and the mount isn't the best (astro fi) with guiding. I'll do some longer exposure stuff once the weather is better.
It's cheating! Very smart cheating indeed!:))) I'll try it. Great job!
Hey it's using the science. Like Matt Damon on Mars.
This is a way to maximize what the mount is capable of, but would I ever advise a newbie to astrophotography to go buy an alt-az mount? Absolutely not.
You're limiting yourself so very much to east/west and lower in the horizon. It's great for those who already bought a mount like this to get their feet wet with astrophotography and maximize the equipment they already own, but the way in which you present this is misleading.
The limitations are real, they can be severe depending on your geolocation and where your target is and that should never be downplayed, especially when your likely audience is someone new to the hobby.
Yes it limiting but not the write-off it's made out to be in some quarters
@@astroharrysastronomyclub1256 yeah but its no different to tripod astrophotography yes you can get good results with a lot of work but nowhere as good as a eq mount
Alt Az? Rubbish! Useless for Deep space objects. Throw it in the bin! Get yourself a Celestron 5SE. It has a wedge. I'll just keep on wrestling with my equatorial mount.
Thank you for your feedback
Nothin worse than a q jumper or a constant uhmmmmmmmer No kin need …..The guys not even an American