a nearby ruin

[stuck]

I didn't want to carry my (heavy) DSLR camera around the walk my wife and I did this morning but this snap from the camera on my phone turned out OK. The ruin is part of Kirkham Abbey.

Ken

[HansV]

Great post-processing!

[stuck]

Thanks, but I can take little credit. The post-processing magic is a 'preset', i.e. it takes only one click to convert an image into this style. The preset was shared by its creator on the forum of the photo editing software. As you've seen from other images I've applied this to, it works well on old ruins.

Ken

[HansV]

Anyway, I love it!

[StuartR]

Very nice

[BobH]

If it works well on old ruins, I'll tell my portrait photographer about it.

[stuck]

If it works well on old ruins, I'll tell my portrait photographer about it.

You're OK Bob. It doesn't work well on that sort of old ruin.

Ken

[Graeme]

Looks like a sketch!

[RonH]

Nice one Ken.
The capabilities of many post processing 'apps' these days is brilliant. Won't be long until A1 captures images for us so we can ... do nothing

[Graeme]

Nice one Ken.
The capabilities of many post processing 'apps' these days is brilliant. Won't be long until A1 captures images for us so we can ... do nothing

Nearly there!

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginn ... ripod.html

[stuck]

Nearly there!

Interesting, but is it any good? Or is it a bit of a gimmick, to part fools and money?

Ken

[Graeme]

They're not bad. But they don't follow the rotation of the Earth like an equatorial mount does so the exposures need to be very short.

Here's an example: https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.p ... 45&t=34915

Graeme

[Graeme]

And for those that are either concerned about the field rotation caused by using an alt azimuth mount or are just fans of fun spreadsheets, there's this:

https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.p ... 34#p277134

Graeme

[stuck]

They're not bad. But they don't follow the rotation of the Earth like an equatorial mount does...

Could that limitation be removed by mounting it on an equatorial mount? If so, how much would that add to the cost?

Ken
EDITED TO ADD
Just looked again at the link to the S50. Under the heading 'Auto GoTo and tracking' it explicitly says it does compensate for the earth's rotation.

[Graeme]

They're not bad. But they don't follow the rotation of the Earth like an equatorial mount does...

Could that limitation be removed by mounting it on an equatorial mount? If so, how much would that add to the cost?

Ken

If you mount the S50 on an Equatorial Wedge then the problem of Field Rotation goes away.

EDITED TO ADD
Just looked again at the link to the S50. Under the heading 'Auto GoTo and tracking' it explicitly says it does compensate for the earth's rotation.

Yes, it has an auto goto function and it tracks the target by compensating for the Earth's rotation but it is mounted flat on the ground (without the wedge above) and the Earth is tilted at 23° and a bit from upright so the individual images that it captures are all rotated a little bit from the last one, ie. Field Rotation

HTH

Graeme

[stuck]

...then the problem of Field Rotation goes away...

Except, having done a search on 'equatorial wedge for seestar s50', it turns out the S50 has to be flat, it won't work on wedge without a lot of faff, see this topic for example:
    https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/8987 ... atorially/

Ken

[Graeme]

Who knew! I started reading that thinking, "what they on about EQ mode? It's not a mode, it's an orientation!" But then it turns out the S50 needs to be level.

Post #12 is an interesting solution.

At the end of the day the EAA route into astrophotography is an excellent way to start. It has it's limitations but it can achieve good results with a minimum of fuss. If one tried it and got into it there's always the route of upgrading to a small telescope on an EQ mount.

And this is how the AP black hole sucks you in!