@jdlbt this is great to hear! Now that I’ve put a half year in in my new Arizona home, and having (extensively) looked at weather trends for each season, I was sad to realize that we have awful cloudiness (at least for astronomy) in summer — that I remembered — but also winter, leaving fall and (eek) galaxy season. Finally realized if I don’t want to be out of luck for half of my good weather in the year, I need reach for galaxies. Should be plenty to shoot at 518/600 (depending on corrector)

@jdlbt I’ve heard horror stories about collimating and light leaks, but it might be more appropriate for galaxy season under light pollution than an SCT at f/8 even after using a reducer. Still pondering!

@jdlbt I really like the hyperstar! It’s incredible once you get it figured out. A little temperamental but then all fast optics are.
I’m not sure I’m going to keep it, just because at 300mm it is kind of in a weird place reach wise compared to my 135mm samyang lens. If I want Widefield, I’m always going to want to go wider; if I want reach, I feel like I need more than this. I’m debating selling it in favor of working to tame a fast Newtonian at 600mm focal length

Hi! Long time no see. Finished a project I’m pretty proud of—14 hours on IC 63, the Ghost of Cassiopeia. 4 hours shot in the total dark at the Tucson Amateur Astro Assoc’s Chiricahua Astro Complex in far southeast Arizona, the other 10 shot in narrowband in my Phoenix backyard, on a Hyperstar C6 rig, with an ASI533MC Pro. Really proud of how I kept Gamma Cassiopeiae under some degree of control at least by hyperstar standards. #astrophotography #astrodon

@noom if / when you're buying I really like the Hyperpod 135 on Etsy. Astrodymium is I guess more popular, but if you’re using an EAF, the belt system it has makes it super tough to rotate for framing. The Hyperpod uses a gear ring that you can kind of just slide up to rotate, then when happy slip back down onto the EAF's teeth. Works great on my Roki cine

JWST is a fancy telescope designed for science. So while it can produce very beautiful images, it's not quite a point-and-shoot camera.

Here is an image of the Pillars of Creation that I downloaded from the MAST archive. Notice how all of the stars have black centers? That's not what the stars actually look like — it's an artifact introduced by the NIRCam detector.

A 🧵 on #JWST image artifacts.
1/

Learn more: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/articles/how-are-webbs-full-color-images-made

#astronomy #Space #Astrodon

@noom mosaics are so exhausting! the one i did with my scope drove me to buy a wide lens so I don't have to hurt myself again

Still, looks great! broadband shooting is so much more tough!

@jdlbt @walker I’m hopeful that with enough exposure I’ll be able to overcome the much lower QE of the dslr and maybe maybe pick up the Witch’s Head near Rigel too.

@jdlbt as far as this too, star reduction and removal is such a crucial piece of my toolkit. Shooting stars later at a much slower f stop and using starxterminator and blurxterminator saves me a ton of energy from having to have micron level accuracy on the back focus. Such useful software!

@jdlbt @walker meanwhile, shooting this region makes me want even MORE range, eyeballing a 2600! 🤦‍♂️

Will try out my dslr in the winter on an ultra wide mosaic of Orion!

@walker thank you!! I love this little light bucket

18 hours of Sadr Region, HOORGB palette, shot on my Rokinon 135mm Cine lens at f/2.8 (f/4.5 stars shot in RGB)! This was so fun to shoot and my first serious project with this lens. They are so temperamental -- spent three nights dialing in my back focus and tilt -- but when you look and see tight stars in the corners, it so pays off to get to shoot this wide this fast! Love it! Full quality and shot details available at: https://www.astrobin.com/full/rjnt6h/0/#

#Astrophotography #Astrodon

@stfn love NA nebula though! I need to get back to it. Since sadr is to its west I’ve been prioritizing it now, maybe later this week I’ll switch back to NA.

@stfn I’m so addicted to widefield! I remember thinking it was somehow boring when I just got started. Now all I want to do is get these huge sweeping shots

just got started on a (hopefully) four-night project, shooting the Sadr Region in Cygnus with my Rokinon 135mm lens! Getting back focus right at f/2.8 is nerveracking and don't think it's perfect but will swap in stars reshot at f/4 or f/5 when I’ve gotten all my narrowband. Very interesting region. This is one 5-minute sub with my IDAS NBZ filter on my ASI533MC pro. Love seeing the crescent nebula this far out, in its ocean of other stuff. #astrophotography #astrodon

@malcircuit Depending on what you're shooting a great getting started filter for DSLRs for all the horrid moon and LP nonsense is the L-eNhance! They make a clip in version of it! It's what I got at the beginning and it did a great job sifting out DC's horrid light pollution and made me not have to skip full moon nights! I still use one with my astro camera. Just only works on emission nebulae!

@jdlbt the FMA135 looks hilariously cool, sticking it in the end of an Astro cam looks like you put a drinking straw on the end of the camera but it produces great images and would be such a great travel rig!

@jdlbt for real. I’d have given up on this purchase entirely if I were still living on the east coast wasting rare clear skies on stretchy stars. At least here in AZ I’m OK throwing out a few clear nights to test (and monsoon season is so unreliable to plan, I would never start a multi night project! Good to test gear. But for real if I had one more strikeout I’d have bought an Askar fma180 and given up on f/2 :)

But lots of ppl on CN are willing to give you exposure samples if you ask!

@jdlbt I bought this lens used after two times in a row of getting a bad quality control lens on Amazon—they’re amazing when you get a good one but prone to a lot of qc problems on individual copies when used for Astro. Decided buying from cloudynights classifieds where someone could vouch for the quality and provide Astro pictures was vital. In my case the good one turned out to be a cine so will roll with the smooth stopper!

@jdlbt for one they’re a pinch cheaper! That wasn’t my reason in this case but it is one. The next is that they’re designed to have the focus and aperture stopper operated by geared devices so they have cogs on the outside (which I haven’t seen an Astro 3d designer yet leverage) and — importantly — the aperture stopper is smooth and continuous — no clicks. This is a downside since you can’t stop the lens exactly. You can just roll w that or buy stopdown rings to use on front of lens instead!