You've inspired me with my SLt130, just got the Sombrero Galaxy and am happy with the results. Do you edit the TIFs in deepsky stacker? I didn't think you could edit only stack with that?
Update: I’ve prime focused my Celestron and the results are amazing! I just have one last question for vignette on the deep sky stacker. I keep getting lots of light on the bottom left on the image any tips? Thanks
Nice! As for the vignetting, it is caused by some other light shining on and into your telescope. It is hard to get rid of when your around stuff like streetlights but you can minimizing it by positioning and blocking out stuff where able. Beyond that Vignetting can be fixed in post processing like photoshop or rawtherapee. Some paid stacking software will take care of this (as far as I know Astro Pixel Processor) but I haven't tried them yet.
You can only see the core in read time. But, if you take many images and stack them together, then you can get a picture of galaxies like Andromeda. You can do this with alot of zoomed out telescopes or telescopes able to track a target.
Fantastic! Saw one of these scopes on Amazon during prime day for $300, but they sold out so fast I couldn't get my hands on one ;( so wish I could get a scope, but they're just so hard and expensive to get ahold of right now! >.
Yeah this stuff can get pretty pricey. If you shoot from light polluted areas, a filter is pretty important too. There is kind of a used market though.
I use Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) for the combining of the shorter frames into one. Then I take it over into RawTherapee which is a Photoshop-esque program for some final touchups.
I wasn't planning on making a video about it, but it's as simple as undoing the set screws, rotating the camera to keep the same/original framing, then tightening the set screws to re-secure the camera. At the moment, I forget if it's clockwise or counter clockwise, but you should be able to tell either visually or by looking at the images. *Don't adjust or unlock the focuser during camera adjustment* In my case, if I had a big target with a width greater than the height of the camera frame, or if I wanted to give the target the special treatment, I would rotate the camera by about 3.75 Deg every 15 minutes, derived from : Angular Velocity of Earth (w) is 360/(24*60) = 0.25 deg/min
İ have a 130 slt and we take photos with xioami mi 9t and deepskycamera app. And we use deepskystacker but we cant do this photo. Which cam u use? Can u help us? Good shot bro..
It's a Prime Focus mod, which moves/positions the mirror further forward in the tube so you can get focus with a DSLR without a barlow. Here's the link I used showing how to do the mod: ua-cam.com/video/jDpSXPNCnS0/v-deo.html
I use Dark and Bias frames in addition to the Light frames of the target. ~15 mins of darks to handle the noise, and ~25 bias to handle the camera pattern. I should also use flat frames to help with the vignetting but haven't been.
Would you recommend to buy the 130 SLT telescope to use with my canon 200D Mark 2 DSLR? Also what is the max exposure time per pic that we can get considering the limitations of AltAz mount?
Depends on your budget and patience for the hobby. The way that I am doing it is obviously very scrappy compared to simply getting a more expensive computerized eq mount. I was able to get mine used precovid but the prices have gone up a little bit. Afterwards I did the mod which is very simple. Would definitely recommend going used and waiting for a good deal if budget is a big factor. The hobby also takes alot of time so do be aware of that. The max exposure times that I can get on it is 30s but it is inconsistent so I regularly shoot at 20s. I am unsure what the theoretical limit is for altaz. If you don't have great alignment options then 20 could be reduced significantly.
@@kylemccaslin I am budget constrained, but can afford this telescope. Can't go any higher for now. Would you still suggest to go with a 2nd hand scope instead? Also I should mention that right now I am using the zoom lens with my DSLR itself to capture some objects and was able to get some not-so-good pics of orion nebulae, milky way, and few others after stacking the very short 2 sec pics. That's why I want to upgrade to a telescope to get much better pics after stacking them on Deep Sky Stacker.
@@abhishekanand7918 I would definitely suggest atleast checking the used market first. Telescopes on the used market are generally in pretty good condition due to many of them being sparsely used (assuming they aren't really old). Also heavily recommend the prime focus mod for the telescope. It is really simple to do and makes things much easier. You can image out of the box if you have a barlow and adapters but at the higher magnifications, you need to use shorter exposures. 20s at prime focus, 10s for a 2x barlow, etc... Do see the rest of my stuff. I've built up a pretty good amount of info between the youtube channel and website detailing exactly what my process is like using the scope. If you do buy one and have some questions about the process, troubleshooting or whatever, I'm here to help. Just shoot me an email (found on my website).
@@kylemccaslin Thanks a lot Kyle, appreciate you taking the time out for replying. I will check for 2nd hand scope market here in India, if not I'll probably buy first hand and do the prime focus mod as you are suggesting. Peace :)
Great image! I've got a couple of questions. I just bought a 130SLT, did you have to mod your mirror for your DSLR? Secondly, have you ever tried to polar align your 130 and use the eq tracking mode?
Yes I had to do the mod to allow prime focus with the dslr. Its pretty simple and the video on it is pretty thorough. I have not tried the Polar alignment strat but you still would have to deal with frame rotation due to how it only simulates EQ
I tried and work pretty fine. I self maked a wedge and i used the north equatorial polar alignemnt reaching 30-45 seconds of exposure with good results and without rotation of the images. Isnt simple but for me works better than altitude-azimut alignent.
@@stefanosoriano Thanks Stefano! I have a spare tripod I can build on, so I'll have to try that. But for now, I'm waiting on the hardware to move my primary mirror closer to the front so I can use my DSLR with prime focus.
@@imightbiteu I also suggest a coma lens corrector. I buyed BAADER 2" MPCC V-1 MARK III and worked pretty well with the scope mod for prime focus. Good price/quality ratio.
I've done a little bit, notably this (ua-cam.com/video/T9-94B2-K8c/v-deo.html) and the great conjunction video. Should give you an idea of what kind of results the scope can get.
I tryed with Jupiter and Saturn with canon 1300D and a personalized tecnique of video capture to improve resolution. Good results.I'll try to link some picture if you are intersted on.
DeepSkyStacker for the stacking of the subs, and RawTherapee for the post processing. Both are free and very good though there are better paid software suites.
Hey mate, awesome shot. Just looking for some tips and pointers as I just got started with astrophotography and got the same scope. Any recommendations on lenses I should buy?
I am actually just prime-focusing with my DSLR. Had to move the primary mirror up a bit in the tube but the set up doesn't actually use any lenses. The other videos on my channel and on my website (kmcaesium.com) may help if you are thinking of going a similar route to me.
i read on cloudy nights and sky searchers forum that a zoom eyepiece 8-24mm (i have the svbony 7-21mm zoom lens) is a great start. youll spend more time observing rather than switching out ep's. the upside to individual ep's is a zoom ep degrades the light just a bit. nothing very noticeable but thats the only caveat. the zoom ep im starting cost me $51 on amazon and looks darn stellar. if you can spend a little more get a baader but be ready to spend over $300. join a forum and ask away. there are a lot of kind people in this hobby thankfully.. cheers.
@@kylemccaslin hey mate, was reading through your website and honestly been very helpful. Im just wondering if I dont move the mirror up in the telescope like you have do I require lenes and a T adapter to attach to my camera to get focus out of images. For example last night trying to take images of the moon, I could see clear as day through the 9mm eye piece but when I remove the eyepiece and attach the camera like you have set up all I can see is blur. Is this due to mirror positioning? And what ways can I get around this if I dont move the mirror forward? Thanks mate!
Hey Kyle I can’t locate the Andromeda Galaxy or Orion Nebula. Any tips on how to find them and how do you find them. All I can see are stars and planets. Thanks!
The Orion Nebula should be pretty easy to locate. It's in Orion's Sword which is visible to the eye: stardate.org/sites/default/files/images/gallery/orion_shield.PNG If you don't have one yet, I'd recommend a celestial map app, Stellarium is the one that I use to plan and help locate. When looking through the telescope, the Orion Nebula should look something like this: secureservercdn.net/192.169.221.188/y72.fa0.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Capturke-1024x682.jpg It may vary a little bit based on the light pollution, but that is a 20s sub from my set up. I don't recall if you said you have the mirror mod or now. It will be larger in the frame if you don't and are using a barlow. The Andromeda Galaxy is a bit harder to locate as you can only see the core in real time, not any of the dust bands unless you are in optimal conditions with a big aperture scope. The core is kind of near Cassiopeia and Mirach and looks something like this: external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fqph.fs.quoracdn.net%2Fmain-qimg-923f15c77562e097546ceb27339c4c67&f=1&nofb=1 This is another person's picture but its relatively representative of a live view with our scope. Hope that helps.
@@CrazyAsian1 Many nebulas are heavy on H-alpha, the emission is very close to IR and is often blocked by camera IR filters. That doesn't mean that it blocks all of it though or that at all nebulas have it exclusively. Some nebulas should be easily doable without a camera mod. The easier ones that come to mind are: The Pleiades, The Great Orion Nebula, The Trifid Nebula, The Lagoon Nebula, The Eagle Nebula, The Flame Nebula, and The Rosette Nebula. The mod opens your options up and is kind of an amplifier across the board but isn't necessary, especially if your just starting and don't know if you want to commit to a mod yet.
Enjoying the channel. When you say you shot it for 50 mins, is that 100 30 second exposures? Ive heard with that Alt-Az mount you cant do more than 30 second exposures. Still getting my head round this.
@@jamesw5713 could be alright. Doesn't a mod to shoot at native focal length. The big question will be how long of exposures can you get at that focal length without star trails
This is accomplished with long exposures and stacking. That is to say, I get many many 20s exposures of the galaxy with my DSLR, then have some software align and combine the images into a single longer exposure. It's not the most eloquent way to do this but I've got some results that I am happy with. Some disclaimers though > In order to get Prime focus with a DSLR, I had to modify the position of the mirror, pushing it forward in the tube. I wouldn't really recommend trying Nebula and Galaxies without it. > For my DSOs, I have historically driven out a little ways to a darker site. Having a dark sky is really really nice for DSO imaging. You can simulate a darker sky from a light polluted area with filters and some more software processing but I'm not very adept at that. Other content creators do it way better. I do have a full process video and a website that goes over this in detail if you are curious. It's kind of alot though. ua-cam.com/video/-s3Vc7k5E1o/v-deo.html kmcaesium.com/ Let me know if you have any more questions of if there is something I can clarify or help with!
Hey man I need help with tracking it seems everytime I track with the 130 slt it moves slower and andromeda slowly shifts out of screen causing my pictures to have trails
Going to need a little more detail on that tracking issue: How long are you exposure that are getting star trails? How long does it take for something to move from the center to outside the fov on average? It sounds like a alignment issue. In order to make sure you get a good alignment: make sure the bubble level is excellently done, make sure you update your coordinates & time each time, and absolutely make sure that you are using far apart alignment stars ( they should be as far apart as possible and ideally directly opposite each other in the sky)
For the pictures I have a DSLR with a remote shutter in manual mode for 20s exposures on the telescope at the Prime Focus. Achieving Prime Focus takes a relatively simple primary position mod which pushes the mirror slightly forward and thus the prime focus further out of the tube to a spot that can be reached with a regular T-adapter. If that sounds a but obtuse I explain a little better/more on my website: Kmcaesium.com
@@kylemccaslin Thanks I’ll try to align with stars opposite of each other cause I would always use vega and Altair for alignment since they were so bright lol
I generally tend to prefer budget DSLRs with live view but there is a lot that goes into this decision, most predominantly Cost, Targets, and the Telescope. I go over this a bit on my website: Kmcaesium.com
That's a really good question and I'm not sure I have a straight answer for that. I'm sure it's still there in my images to some degree but with the equipment and parameters that I've been shooting with, I haven't found it to be particularly troublesome. As far as intentional general mitigation factors, I do Bias and Dark calibration frames. Technically, since the tracking on this scope is both Alt-Az and isn't the best, I may be benefiting from a little unintentional dithering as well. Since tracking errors & corrections to the frame are made in "X & Y" instead of a slightly more controlled RA & Dec, it may be seeing some dispersal of that walking noise in a way that it doesn't become a noticeable pattern.
Hey Kyle me again everytime I try to align my scope it’s seems to be off the target by like half an inch to the left. I’ve done everything right idk what it could be :( Tracking is so difficult because my scope isn’t tracking the dso precisely. So basically after taking like a 20 second exposure the dso moves slightly and isn’t at the same spot and after a long time it moves out of frame and when I try to stack the deep sky stacker can’t align the stars because they are in different spots every photo. I’ve been thinking of purchasing an Equatorial mount for the 130 slt
I’ve culminated the scope , leveled the mount , centered and aligned my star pointer, centered and aligned with two stars opposite of each other I just don’t know why I can’t track like you do 😔
@@yourlocaldennys by not zoomed in as much do you mean you are using a barlow? If you are you would need to reduce the exposure time yes. The logic in that last comment is correct.
@@kylemccaslin Yeah I am cause the camera adapter I’m using needs a x2 Barlow + 30 mm eyepiece in order to fit into the telescope. but I think I’m considering modifying the 130 slt now to get prime focus.
Good video. I wish you better places on UA-cam
Keep shooting brother. Andromeda looks amazing!
Awesome shots! I want to get into astrophotography at some point
Do u have a video showing how u set up everything and how to stack? I've never heard of it. Thx. Awesome video.
way to go kyle! shes a knockout isnt she? youre right, the andromeda is quite nice for a first timer on dso!
You've inspired me with my SLt130, just got the Sombrero Galaxy and am happy with the results. Do you edit the TIFs in deepsky stacker? I didn't think you could edit only stack with that?
Yes, you can edit in it though it. It has a bunch of the important adjustments, but not everything.
I know this was quite a long time ago but do you know what your camera settings and exposure time was for these shots
My favorit scope modell
Update: I’ve prime focused my Celestron and the results are amazing! I just have one last question for vignette on the deep sky stacker. I keep getting lots of light on the bottom left on the image any tips? Thanks
Nice!
As for the vignetting, it is caused by some other light shining on and into your telescope. It is hard to get rid of when your around stuff like streetlights but you can minimizing it by positioning and blocking out stuff where able. Beyond that Vignetting can be fixed in post processing like photoshop or rawtherapee. Some paid stacking software will take care of this (as far as I know Astro Pixel Processor) but I haven't tried them yet.
@@kylemccaslin What does it look like through the eyepiece with the naked eye?
I think from this telescope another galaxy we cannot able to see right I read it in Amazon.?
You can only see the core in read time. But, if you take many images and stack them together, then you can get a picture of galaxies like Andromeda.
You can do this with alot of zoomed out telescopes or telescopes able to track a target.
Fantastic! Saw one of these scopes on Amazon during prime day for $300, but they sold out so fast I couldn't get my hands on one ;( so wish I could get a scope, but they're just so hard and expensive to get ahold of right now! >.
Yeah this stuff can get pretty pricey. If you shoot from light polluted areas, a filter is pretty important too. There is kind of a used market though.
Hi what is the program that you use ?
I use Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) for the combining of the shorter frames into one. Then I take it over into RawTherapee which is a Photoshop-esque program for some final touchups.
Would it be possible for you to show how you turn the camera and how often?
I wasn't planning on making a video about it, but it's as simple as undoing the set screws, rotating the camera to keep the same/original framing, then tightening the set screws to re-secure the camera. At the moment, I forget if it's clockwise or counter clockwise, but you should be able to tell either visually or by looking at the images.
*Don't adjust or unlock the focuser during camera adjustment*
In my case, if I had a big target with a width greater than the height of the camera frame, or if I wanted to give the target the special treatment, I would rotate the camera by about 3.75 Deg every 15 minutes, derived from : Angular Velocity of Earth (w) is 360/(24*60) = 0.25 deg/min
İ have a 130 slt and we take photos with xioami mi 9t and deepskycamera app. And we use deepskystacker but we cant do this photo. Which cam u use? Can u help us? Good shot bro..
I used a Canon EOS 450d (Rebel xsi). It's a cheap old DSLR, but I did have to modify the telescope in order to get focus with it.
Which eyepiece are you using? bacause I can't see objects like Mars, jupiter, saturn and all that
What modification do you have on that telescope and how do I do it
It's a Prime Focus mod, which moves/positions the mirror further forward in the tube so you can get focus with a DSLR without a barlow. Here's the link I used showing how to do the mod: ua-cam.com/video/jDpSXPNCnS0/v-deo.html
Great shot! Which calibration frames did you use?
I use Dark and Bias frames in addition to the Light frames of the target. ~15 mins of darks to handle the noise, and ~25 bias to handle the camera pattern. I should also use flat frames to help with the vignetting but haven't been.
Would you recommend to buy the 130 SLT telescope to use with my canon 200D Mark 2 DSLR? Also what is the max exposure time per pic that we can get considering the limitations of AltAz mount?
Depends on your budget and patience for the hobby. The way that I am doing it is obviously very scrappy compared to simply getting a more expensive computerized eq mount. I was able to get mine used precovid but the prices have gone up a little bit. Afterwards I did the mod which is very simple. Would definitely recommend going used and waiting for a good deal if budget is a big factor.
The hobby also takes alot of time so do be aware of that.
The max exposure times that I can get on it is 30s but it is inconsistent so I regularly shoot at 20s. I am unsure what the theoretical limit is for altaz. If you don't have great alignment options then 20 could be reduced significantly.
@@kylemccaslin I am budget constrained, but can afford this telescope. Can't go any higher for now. Would you still suggest to go with a 2nd hand scope instead?
Also I should mention that right now I am using the zoom lens with my DSLR itself to capture some objects and was able to get some not-so-good pics of orion nebulae, milky way, and few others after stacking the very short 2 sec pics. That's why I want to upgrade to a telescope to get much better pics after stacking them on Deep Sky Stacker.
@@abhishekanand7918 I would definitely suggest atleast checking the used market first. Telescopes on the used market are generally in pretty good condition due to many of them being sparsely used (assuming they aren't really old).
Also heavily recommend the prime focus mod for the telescope. It is really simple to do and makes things much easier. You can image out of the box if you have a barlow and adapters but at the higher magnifications, you need to use shorter exposures. 20s at prime focus, 10s for a 2x barlow, etc...
Do see the rest of my stuff. I've built up a pretty good amount of info between the youtube channel and website detailing exactly what my process is like using the scope. If you do buy one and have some questions about the process, troubleshooting or whatever, I'm here to help. Just shoot me an email (found on my website).
@@kylemccaslin Thanks a lot Kyle, appreciate you taking the time out for replying. I will check for 2nd hand scope market here in India, if not I'll probably buy first hand and do the prime focus mod as you are suggesting.
Peace :)
Great image! I've got a couple of questions. I just bought a 130SLT, did you have to mod your mirror for your DSLR? Secondly, have you ever tried to polar align your 130 and use the eq tracking mode?
Yes I had to do the mod to allow prime focus with the dslr. Its pretty simple and the video on it is pretty thorough.
I have not tried the Polar alignment strat but you still would have to deal with frame rotation due to how it only simulates EQ
I tried and work pretty fine. I self maked a wedge and i used the north equatorial polar alignemnt reaching 30-45 seconds of exposure with good results and without rotation of the images. Isnt simple but for me works better than altitude-azimut alignent.
@@stefanosoriano Thanks Stefano! I have a spare tripod I can build on, so I'll have to try that. But for now, I'm waiting on the hardware to move my primary mirror closer to the front so I can use my DSLR with prime focus.
@@imightbiteu I also suggest a coma lens corrector. I buyed BAADER 2" MPCC V-1 MARK III and worked pretty well with the scope mod for prime focus. Good price/quality ratio.
Kyle are you using a Sky Tracker with the 130SLT?
I am not using any additional tracker, just the computerized system in the 130slt mount.
Can you try some planetary imaging?
I've done a little bit, notably this (ua-cam.com/video/T9-94B2-K8c/v-deo.html) and the great conjunction video. Should give you an idea of what kind of results the scope can get.
I tryed with Jupiter and Saturn with canon 1300D and a personalized tecnique of video capture to improve resolution. Good results.I'll try to link some picture if you are intersted on.
What software do you use?
DeepSkyStacker for the stacking of the subs, and RawTherapee for the post processing. Both are free and very good though there are better paid software suites.
@@kylemccaslin Thank you Kyle very much. 😀
I really wanna know how to image stack if anyone could please help that would be awesome
ua-cam.com/video/eXCCck9zKGA/v-deo.html
@@kylemccaslin thank you!!
Hey mate, awesome shot. Just looking for some tips and pointers as I just got started with astrophotography and got the same scope. Any recommendations on lenses I should buy?
I am actually just prime-focusing with my DSLR. Had to move the primary mirror up a bit in the tube but the set up doesn't actually use any lenses. The other videos on my channel and on my website (kmcaesium.com) may help if you are thinking of going a similar route to me.
i read on cloudy nights and sky searchers forum that a zoom eyepiece 8-24mm (i have the svbony 7-21mm zoom lens) is a great start. youll spend more time observing rather than switching out ep's.
the upside to individual ep's is a zoom ep degrades the light just a bit. nothing very noticeable but thats the only caveat. the zoom ep im starting cost me $51 on amazon and looks darn stellar. if you can spend a little more get a baader but be ready to spend over $300. join a forum and ask away. there are a lot of kind people in this hobby thankfully.. cheers.
@@SONICBOOM-117 thanks mate ill fote sure check it out. Have you got a link to a forum?
@@benhischar7987 google cloudy nights humma kavula in cloudy nights. Cheers
@@kylemccaslin hey mate, was reading through your website and honestly been very helpful.
Im just wondering if I dont move the mirror up in the telescope like you have do I require lenes and a T adapter to attach to my camera to get focus out of images. For example last night trying to take images of the moon, I could see clear as day through the 9mm eye piece but when I remove the eyepiece and attach the camera like you have set up all I can see is blur.
Is this due to mirror positioning? And what ways can I get around this if I dont move the mirror forward? Thanks mate!
Hey Kyle I can’t locate the Andromeda Galaxy or Orion Nebula. Any tips on how to find them and how do you find them. All I can see are stars and planets. Thanks!
The Orion Nebula should be pretty easy to locate. It's in Orion's Sword which is visible to the eye:
stardate.org/sites/default/files/images/gallery/orion_shield.PNG
If you don't have one yet, I'd recommend a celestial map app, Stellarium is the one that I use to plan and help locate. When looking through the telescope, the Orion Nebula should look something like this:
secureservercdn.net/192.169.221.188/y72.fa0.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Capturke-1024x682.jpg
It may vary a little bit based on the light pollution, but that is a 20s sub from my set up. I don't recall if you said you have the mirror mod or now. It will be larger in the frame if you don't and are using a barlow.
The Andromeda Galaxy is a bit harder to locate as you can only see the core in real time, not any of the dust bands unless you are in optimal conditions with a big aperture scope. The core is kind of near Cassiopeia and Mirach and looks something like this:
external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fqph.fs.quoracdn.net%2Fmain-qimg-923f15c77562e097546ceb27339c4c67&f=1&nofb=1
This is another person's picture but its relatively representative of a live view with our scope.
Hope that helps.
@@kylemccaslin ok thank I was just wondering because I live in a light polluted area (San Diego) and I wasn’t sure if I could see them or not
@@CrazyAsian1 Andromeda may be a bit hard. Orion though should definitely show up
@@kylemccaslin also one more question, is it necessary to get a camera mod to photograph a nebula?
@@CrazyAsian1 Many nebulas are heavy on H-alpha, the emission is very close to IR and is often blocked by camera IR filters. That doesn't mean that it blocks all of it though or that at all nebulas have it exclusively. Some nebulas should be easily doable without a camera mod. The easier ones that come to mind are: The Pleiades, The Great Orion Nebula, The Trifid Nebula, The Lagoon Nebula, The Eagle Nebula, The Flame Nebula, and The Rosette Nebula.
The mod opens your options up and is kind of an amplifier across the board but isn't necessary, especially if your just starting and don't know if you want to commit to a mod yet.
What camera are you using
Canon EOS 450d / Rebel Xsi
How can i mod my celestron NexStar 130 slt
I followed this video:
ua-cam.com/video/jDpSXPNCnS0/v-deo.html
This let's you get prime focus with a DSLR
Broo keep making these videos there amazing 👍👍👍👍
Enjoying the channel. When you say you shot it for 50 mins, is that 100 30 second exposures? Ive heard with that Alt-Az mount you cant do more than 30 second exposures. Still getting my head round this.
More like 150 20 second exposures but yeah thats the general idea
@@kylemccaslin - Thanks for the quick answer. Just acquired its SLT 127 Maksutov cousin. Thinking its going to be pretty bad for this job.
@@jamesw5713 could be alright. Doesn't a mod to shoot at native focal length. The big question will be how long of exposures can you get at that focal length without star trails
How do you do this? This looks amazing you got these images from a celestron 130slt?
This is accomplished with long exposures and stacking. That is to say, I get many many 20s exposures of the galaxy with my DSLR, then have some software align and combine the images into a single longer exposure. It's not the most eloquent way to do this but I've got some results that I am happy with.
Some disclaimers though
> In order to get Prime focus with a DSLR, I had to modify the position of the mirror, pushing it forward in the tube. I wouldn't really recommend trying Nebula and Galaxies without it.
> For my DSOs, I have historically driven out a little ways to a darker site. Having a dark sky is really really nice for DSO imaging. You can simulate a darker sky from a light polluted area with filters and some more software processing but I'm not very adept at that. Other content creators do it way better.
I do have a full process video and a website that goes over this in detail if you are curious. It's kind of alot though.
ua-cam.com/video/-s3Vc7k5E1o/v-deo.html
kmcaesium.com/
Let me know if you have any more questions of if there is something I can clarify or help with!
Hey man I need help with tracking it seems everytime I track with the 130 slt it moves slower and andromeda slowly shifts out of screen causing my pictures to have trails
Oh and how exactly do you take the pictures? Is it manually or do you set a timer? Is it a video??
Going to need a little more detail on that tracking issue: How long are you exposure that are getting star trails? How long does it take for something to move from the center to outside the fov on average?
It sounds like a alignment issue. In order to make sure you get a good alignment: make sure the bubble level is excellently done, make sure you update your coordinates & time each time, and absolutely make sure that you are using far apart alignment stars ( they should be as far apart as possible and ideally directly opposite each other in the sky)
For the pictures I have a DSLR with a remote shutter in manual mode for 20s exposures on the telescope at the Prime Focus. Achieving Prime Focus takes a relatively simple primary position mod which pushes the mirror slightly forward and thus the prime focus further out of the tube to a spot that can be reached with a regular T-adapter. If that sounds a but obtuse I explain a little better/more on my website:
Kmcaesium.com
@@kylemccaslin Thanks I’ll try to align with stars opposite of each other cause I would always use vega and Altair for alignment since they were so bright lol
Do you have any suggested cameras for beginners?
I generally tend to prefer budget DSLRs with live view but there is a lot that goes into this decision, most predominantly Cost, Targets, and the Telescope. I go over this a bit on my website:
Kmcaesium.com
Have you astromodified yiur DSLR?
Yes I have
How did you deal with walking noise
That's a really good question and I'm not sure I have a straight answer for that. I'm sure it's still there in my images to some degree but with the equipment and parameters that I've been shooting with, I haven't found it to be particularly troublesome. As far as intentional general mitigation factors, I do Bias and Dark calibration frames. Technically, since the tracking on this scope is both Alt-Az and isn't the best, I may be benefiting from a little unintentional dithering as well. Since tracking errors & corrections to the frame are made in "X & Y" instead of a slightly more controlled RA & Dec, it may be seeing some dispersal of that walking noise in a way that it doesn't become a noticeable pattern.
@@kylemccaslin Thank you for this valuable answer I appreciate it!
Hey Kyle me again everytime I try to align my scope it’s seems to be off the target by like half an inch to the left. I’ve done everything right idk what it could be :( Tracking is so difficult because my scope isn’t tracking the dso precisely. So basically after taking like a 20 second exposure the dso moves slightly and isn’t at the same spot and after a long time it moves out of frame and when I try to stack the deep sky stacker can’t align the stars because they are in different spots every photo. I’ve been thinking of purchasing an Equatorial mount for the 130 slt
I’ve culminated the scope , leveled the mount , centered and aligned my star pointer, centered and aligned with two stars opposite of each other I just don’t know why I can’t track like you do 😔
Could it be cause you use prime focus? The dso moves much slower cause you aren’t zoomed in as much???? Therefore you use less exposure time 🤔🤔
@@yourlocaldennys by not zoomed in as much do you mean you are using a barlow? If you are you would need to reduce the exposure time yes. The logic in that last comment is correct.
@@kylemccaslin Yeah I am cause the camera adapter I’m using needs a x2 Barlow + 30 mm eyepiece in order to fit into the telescope. but I think I’m considering modifying the 130 slt now to get prime focus.
I’m just kinda scared of messing with the mirror lol
Here before 1k
Filter ??
No filter, just a relatively dark sky
Hey Kyle what iso for 20s exposures did you use?
Iso 1600
What camera are you using
An Astromodified Canon 450d aka Canon EOS Rebel Xsi