The Orion Nebula (taken by me)


Orion Neubla - btlz3k.jpg


This is one of my older shots of the Orion Nebula , but on this one I stacked about 10 images and replaced the center of the nebula with one of the original images. I could get some better shots to work with , but I still like how this one came out. Hopefully wanting to get some better shots will inspire me to finally get back out there again.

It's probably been about a year now at least , since I've taken my telescope out. A while back my controller for my mount broke , so I set up an old computer to control the mount instead , which at the time I was pretty exited about , because I had wanted to do that for a while.

I had gone out a couple of times controlling the mount with the computer , but could not get the mount aligned for anything , and each time it had taken so long to just get set up. That was extremely frustrating and I haven't been back out since. Hopefully one of these days though , I can find the time and the energy to get back out there and give it another go :)

If you like this content , consider giving us an upvote / resteem / follow.

Thanks and remember to take it easy out there.

All words and images I post are my own content unless otherwise stated.

Sort:  

Great image @betelzeus
It's great to control the mount with the computer. This offers many new possibilities. I have no idea how the alignment on the southern hemisphere works, but maybe @terrylovejoy can help you.
For centering the target or telling the mount the exact position you can now use plate solving ("All Sky Plate Solver" or AstroTortilla). That was the main reason why I build my Astro-PC.
I hope you will have the time and energy to give it a new try in future. :-)

Hey thanks @astrophoto.kevin . Previously I've aligned manually just using the polar scope and got decent results , but for some reason any time I had tried any software polar alignment it just doesn't seem to work for me. (Probably me doing something wrong in the end though haha).

And cool man , thanks for mentioning those apps , I hadn't heard of either of those. I went and had a look and they look like they would be quite helpful :)

Polar alignment can be a tricky thing. On the northern hemisphere, we have the luck to have Polaris. But if I don't see it, it's very complicated to make the alignment.
I think the fastest way would be to use something like QHY PoleMaster or SharpCap if you have trouble to see the constellations in the sky through the polar scope. I have some marks on the ground after I had an acceptable alignment, so I just need to put the tripod on the marks and it is roughly aligned.

You're welcome :-)

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by betelzeus from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.