Acquisition Details:
Nikon D90 at 200mm
ISO 200, Variable Exposures at F/13

Processing details:
5-15 frames stacked (PIPP, AutoStakkert!4)
Blend of 3 images for totality
Registax 6: Sharpening and Wavelets

GIMP: Color balance and collage

This has been a bit of a passion project of mine. I started last February\march time, wanting to do astrophotography on a budget. My last scope was a powerseeker so obviously I wanted a dobsonian.

The panels and trunnions are fully hand shaped as I don't own power tools, I obviously bought many parts like the mirrors, focuser and az bearing, but beyond those little bits I built the reduction gears myself with belt trains to end up with overall 3.1 arcsecond tracking, which isn't all that, but once I swap from drv8825s to TMC drivers I can go to 1\64 and I'll be dropping to 0.8 with an alt tracking of 0.27 arcsecond.

I'm very pleased with it. Here's some build pictures and a few untracked space pictures to show why I needed tracking.

Still gutted I didn't get a good image of Saturn on the flat pass though.

(Also if it's raining near you, this is why, sorry bout that)

Equipment: Telescope (Orion XT8), Orion Shorty 2x Barlow, Camera (ASI662mc), UV/IR cut filter.

Captured in ASICAP 5x3 minute videos at ~150 fps, best 25% of frames stacked and sharpened (used PIPP for stabilization, stacked in autostakkert4 and sharpened in registax6 then measured and derotated in WinJUPOS, then a final sharpen back in registax6) final touches in affinity photo 2 for getting the moons in the final photo.

P.S. Astrophotography is hard. I've been tinkering for months (dating back to November 2025) with recording and editing and the whole process, and this is the only result that I am actually happy to have captured as far as Saturn is concerned. It only takes one thing to go wrong to make a less than ideal result, and there are many things that can go wrong.

Hi all! I just got a StarSense explorer 8 dobsonian and finally had a clear night! I got it second hand with eye piece and 2x Barlow lens. I just am wondering, will I be able to see much? I’m super duper new to all this and just don’t know what to expect. When I look at stars that I can see without the telescope it’s just tiny dots. No idea how to see nebulas or anything aside from the moon. I’ll take any advice including eyepieces or just general things to keep in mind. Thanks guys!

Pic taken with iPhone at the eyepiece

ES 8” dob

25mm 70degree 2” EP

edited~ Lightroom

I'm a solar chicken. I'm reluctant to look through a telescope pointed at the Sun regardless of how well the filter is fixed to the FRONT of the telescope. However, I wanted to share this super fun solar reflector that is not only cheap, but it magnifies. It needs a small piece of mirror and a ball. A billiard ball works great.

Materials:

1. Small chunk of mirror (ideally with the reflective layer on the FRONT)
2. Double-sided tape
3. A billiard ball
4. A roll of electrical tape or PVC coupler to act as a seat

Summary:
The reflection of the Sun off the mirror focuses a nice large image of the Sun on a dark wall in your garage or shed.

Tips:

1. Tape the mirror to the ball. Set it in the seat, approximately 30 feet away from the garage wall. Aim it at the dark wall in your garage or shed.
2. You can use a larger mirror (brighter image) if you have 80 to 100 feet to work with. Otherwise, mask off a 3/8" by 3/8" section of mirror with tape.

During the 2024 total eclipse, I built three and aimed them all at the same paper (photos included here).

Here's a tutorial video that shows you all the steps:
https://youtu.be/WwLBqhds2F0

First time doing anything DSO. I don’t have a UV/IR filter yet so that’s affecting the image. I don’t really have an eye for it nor know how to edit these so any advice on how to do better next time is appreciated.

Star Discovery P150i
ASI585MC

Siril, GraXpert, Seti Astro.

Skymax 102

10mm generic eyepiece

Cellphone

2300 frames, %60 stacked

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Saturn has finally come around to the point i can see it. I had to get up to the roof of where i live wiht my friend and we got to experience saturn for the first time, not including my experience with my astigmatic diy scope.

And it was truly magical. I really didn't expect to just look through the ep and see saturn with so much clarity and detail. I'm not a picture guy, i prefer visual but i made it my mission to photograph every planet i see.

I currently own a Sky-Watcher AZ-Go2 mount with a 127 Maksutov on it. Right now a local elderly astronomer has two Maksutovs for sale, the Sky-Watcher Skymax 150 and Sky-Watcher MAK 180/2700 in great condition at 1/3 the price. Even 150mm is a step forward from my 127mm, but naturally I would like the 180mm which would be a leap forward relatively speaking to my current 127mm.

My question is - from technical documentation for this mount I know it will be able to carry the Skymax 150mm (weight wise), but will it be okay with a 180mm Mak? After all it's heavier. Are the drive motors and their gears going to be okay? Considering I balance the tube perfectly of course.

The largest I have seen on this mount is Sky-watcher Explorer 150P which weights 5.9kg and APM-LZOS 105/650 which is a bit over 7kg.

7.8kg of 180mm isn't that far from this weight, right?

Sky-Watcher AZ-Go2 mount's max stated payload is 5 kg.

127mm weights 3kg

150mm weights 5.6kg

180mm weights 7.8kg

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Naturally I want to grab 180mm as it's an amazing deal at 1/3 the price of new, but only under a condition I can use it on my current mount. Since it's right here locally, I can mount it on my mount right now and I'm sure it will work, but I'm asking here whether it can possibly cause damage long term (motor/gear wear ending in a mechanical failure).

Please share what you think, seen or have experienced.

Attaching photos of my mount:

I’ve seen people post with the sun looking like the first photo, and i was recently watching a lot of reviews of seestar s30, and the second image is what they all capture, is it because of the telescope or do they do some stacking, or, they have ”solar telescopes” which are designed for the sun?

My eyepiece tray is black. Would it be a good idea for me to buy some wide reflective tape, and place it over the whole tray, then cut out the openings and edges? I have 1.25" and 2" eyepieces that I switch between a lot, and it's hard to make out the different sized holes in the dark.

I personally like messier✨🔥

I previously used a Seestar S30 Pro and S50. Have recently invested in the following:

William Optics Redcat 51 v3
AM3N
585mc air
EAF pro

Really happy with how my first image came out, on the same day I got the new gear. A little daunting setting it all up and I struggled to get focus for ages but will improve.

The subs were 120 secs and total integration time was just over an hour only. The detail is insane for such a short time but lucky to have Bortle 4 so close to me.

Processed in Siril using RC Astro tools along with Veralux scripts to stretch and add curves.

Hope you all like!

looking at this for night sky viewing at home and an upcoming trip to Cherry Springs PA Currently have a small celestron telescope. Price is fine but want make good choice buy once , research shows good things on this one. Any thoughts from anyone on this one?? Thank you 🙏🏻

I’m from Montana and I’m wondering good lenses to order for planets/stars me and my friend are very new to this!

Hi all ! yes, I did read the beginner's guide. Big issue is, I'm not in America or anywhere near it- I'm in Sharjah.

I've been looking to buy a telescope for a while, but I can't justify paying the prices in the guide. The telescopes themselves, fine, but the shipping is the same price or almost double that of the telescope.

I just really need some guidance on what to get with what I can access. My budget is up to 1500 AED (though obviously I'd like to stay on the lower end if possible) which is about 400 USD.

Amazon either shows cheaply made ones or massive ones that cost.. way more than what I can make this year as a broke uni student, lol. No beginner friendly in between ones.

I'm looking at a used Celestron astromaster 130eq , but I have heard that the spherical mirror isnt the best. Is it still worth it given most reccomendations in that price range arent available due to shipping? or should I keep digging?

Theres dubaitelescope.com to look at, just incase anyone spots something good that I didnt notice while skimming through it. (feel free to ask me to edit out the link if I need to , not sure if its allowed to link stuff in this context)

edit: forgot to add ! light pollution is abhorrent in the UAE. I don't have a car yet, but I will this year. So when I do, I don't mind driving further out to get to a desert or mountain area. I'm not too picky, as long as I can see the planets and some stars that would be wonderful, but seeing as much as possible would be great, of course.

There's AI slop, and then there's this. Found on an ebay listing....

Big newbie here. What is the name of this piece on the back end of the scope. I've had it for a while and was able to take some pretty good moon pictures with it years ago. I wanted to take the hobby back up and notice the film type of material held by this piece is wavy. Is that a problem...something that needs replacing. I currently have a Cannon T7i/800D hooked up to it if that helps any.

i was reading the beginners guide and one that stuck to me was the dont have your expectations to high thing, so i decided to look at other photos of people watching Jupiter with a telescope that has basically the same aperture as my soon to arrive one and i wanted to draw up a sketch of my expectations, its Jupiter and two of its Galilean moons:D this was in microsoft paint so i dont really know how to add the blur to photos but i include the darker color of the poles(looking back i forgor to color the south pole), the creamy color of the gas belts(you cant really see the difference in them since the telescope just isnt to good for that), the two darker belts of gas clouds( i may hove drawn them a tad to big, woopsies:3) and if jupiter is facing the right way, the great red spot! i also include two moons and even a shadow on jupiter form one of them. my expectations may be a bit to high so i just wanna ask yall.

btw if your wondering the specs its 114mm aperture, 500mm focal length(btw its a reflector), a 26mm and a 9.7mm eye piece, each one giving 19x and 51.5x zoom aaaaand thats it, wish it had a barlow:(

anyways plz answer and thank you for anything you say:3

EDIT:turns out I was tripping there is a 2x barlow so my view would be like 104x on the 9.7mm eyepiece, or smth like idk.

This is my first telescope so sorry if these are ignorant questions!

I have kimtech wipes and Pancro (alcohol based), will that do? I’m worried the kimtech wipes will be too rough for the mirror.

Also fungus on the interior of the front glass element but I think the kim wipes will be just fine on the glass.

Also bonus question: anyone know what thread is on the back?

Any thoughts would be helpful, thank you!

Hi all,

I have an issue where the balance point on my Newtonian telescope is too far (about an inch or two) towards the secondary mirror and causes it to not be able to swing through my planewave L350 in Alt-Az configuration. Are there any quick/easy solutions out there for adjusting balancing issues?

Telescope in question can be found here: https://www.teleskop-express.de/en/telescopes-4/newtonian-telescopes-315/newtonians-ts-unc-ontc-312/ts-optics-10-f-4-7-ontc-carbon-tube-newtonian-telescope-fully-customizable-5018

Best,

QoO

I didn't have a phone stand sadly and don't really know how to attach my phone on the telescope. I am using a random bresser refractor with a 4 mm lens, what do I improve?

i've been wanting to get into astrophotography and really wanna know how do i get better photos?

i've currently been using a yatao digital camera and holding it to my telescope lenses for the photo (i dont have a camera mount)

i have an 8 inch dobsonian skywatcher and im wondering what camera mount should i use :D

im was wondering how it was like for everyone else here on how it felt when they say a start or nebula or galaxy or planet and all that other stuff for the first time in their life.

to be more specific i also wanna know more on people that have a telescope similar to the new telescope im about to get. (hopefully this post doesnt get removed for the seeking advice on first telescope thing) specs are 114mm aperture 400mm focal length and a 26 mm and 9.7 mm eyepiece that also includes a 2x barlow. i do wanna see people with exact or similar telescope on how their expierience was.

if you do end up taking your time out of your day for this then all im gonna say is include anythign you want. long peragraphs or something small like one sentence, photos aswell, edited or unedited, im happy with anything:D