NEQ6 Pro Sky-Watcher & EQM 35 GOTO Sky-Watcher

Three shots stacked together that miss fired as I did not know I had moved the camera from Bulb to 30". The night did not go well could not line up the tracker nearly gave up and came home after 3/4 hour just trying to set on the Octans which I just could not see at all. I gave up in disgust but tried the unit out no matter what very happy the way the unit works. I can see this being much better tracked properly and stacking 30 shot First shots. Single shot 30 sec Iso 3200 @200MM. A shot Ko has been asking for ,next time I hope to do it correctly makes a stunning background on a 25" screen. PIP is the white dot on the top.

The night did not go well could not line up the tracker nearly gave up and came home after 3/4 hour just trying to set on the Octanes which I just could not see at all. I gave up in disgust but tried the unit out no matter what very happy the way the unit works. I can see this being much better tracked properly and stacking 30 shot First shots. Single shot 30 sec Iso 6400 @200MM en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carina_Nebula

This will have to be revisited as it looks very interesting once I can find the right star to track with. I must have been very close at 60 sec not much trailing as the others. the night was ruined by the remote that had a mind of its own I believe a broken wire. PIP an up to date look at this cloud.

I picked up the tripod with the tacker on it and walked closer to the trees from the middle of the granite rock. Not totally lined up south but very close. You will note that Carina Nebula and the Magellanic clouds are much brighter.

The northern Hemisphere has it easy one star " Polaris". In the Southern Hemisphere it is 4 faint stars. this is a crop and edit darker of the shot from Fiiday night next door 88 sec on the tracker to make the shot look like a night sky that our eyes see. remember the camera see more stars than we can by eye and the case out in the black of night. Top lines start from Becrux from Southern Cross To globular cluster 47 Tuc Middle line is the star Birdun just on the other side of milky way to the front of the SMC Bottom line Top pointer star Hadar to the front of the SMC From left to right X OctanIs, Polaris Australis, CG Octanis and T Octanis. the southern pole is left and to the top more of the Octan Pattern this will give you an idea how hard it is to see. How I find south for star trails Equilateral triangle on the LMC and the SMC. I only was able to get this after down loading Sky Safari to my IPad this was not the first try this is the 5 th the last 4 not saved but start again. as I slowly moved across the sky to find the star patterns that matched sky Safari in the photo. This is why I believe the Green Laser Pointer will be the real answer to finding the stars. May be this will help some one else in the southern hemisphere make sense of this.. PiP one shows the 14mm shot of the sky this came from, now find the stars your eye cant see. PIP 2 the only real way to see the southern polar point.

These shot where taken last night after a few night trying to find the Octans to no avail . you can see them in a shot but are not visible to the eye. I set up south plus magnetic deviation and set latitude. This is made up of 57 shot ISO 5000 20 sec F4.5 with a 3 second shutter delay 70-200mm F4. this is stacked in Deep Sky Stacker with the back shots of 200 dark frames , 200 light Frames and 200 Bias frames. As I am a true beginner here I have tried to edit to what I saw on the net as I have no idea at all. A night and a days work . Enjoy a true Southern view. A closer view.

These shot where taken last night after a few night trying to find the Octans to no avail . you can see them in a shot but are not visible to the eye. I set up south plus magnetic deviation and set latitude. This is made up of 60 of the total 130 i took. shot ISO 5000 20 sec F4.5 with a 3 second shutter delay 160mm 70-200mm F4. this is stacked in Deep Sky Stacker with the back shots of 200 dark frames , 200 light Frames and 200 Bias frames. As I am a true beginner here I have tried to edit to what I saw on the net as I have no idea at all. A night and a days work . Enjoy a true Southern view. Post Script This is a new shot I chose not to add but to replace . This is all 130 images Stacked In Sequator once I learned how to set it up a far cry from what Deep Sky Stacker could do. I feel a little happier I can get the shots I want .

These shot where taken last night after a few night trying to find the Octans to no avail . you can see them in a shot but are not visible to the eye. I set up south plus magnetic deviation and set latitude. This is made up of 44 shot ISO 5000 20 sec F4.5 with a 3 second shutter delay 160mm 70-200 F4 . this is stacked in Deep Sky Stacker with the back shots of 200 dark frames , 200 light Frames and 200 Bias frames. As I am a true beginner here I have tried to edit to what I saw on the net as I have no idea at all. A night and a days work . Enjoy a true Southern view the cross is laying on its side. the Black just below and right is the Head Of the Emu in the milky way.

We loose Orion very fast from our skies so this is next months target . This was shot first night out with the tracker but it sits over the city light plume. next month this is due east out of city lights so I want to try my 150-600 lens. Remember past the equator it is no longer Orion but the "Pot" as its up side down. 200mm lens. From top to bottom Orion Nebula Top Running Man Nebula Horse head nebula my personal fav. Flame nebula At the bottom. I hope I can get a still night no wind to bring these to life I am following Ko here. I only wish I lived in the northern hemisphere to set up the tracker properly.

I went out to try and get better. PiP shows the 14mm view. 56 shots stacked in Sequator with the matching back files all up 200+ shots used to get this. Hardest part I find is then having to edit the photo as we cant see this detail by eye at all. Surpasses my first few shots. I feel happier with the method of set up on this and how it turned out. no I did not look for the 4 stars I looked for the stars trailing and moved to reverse it 5 goes I was happy pin points 2m 35sec and no tracking @ 200mm. BUT pays to lock the head back down so I went to the old ways to try a beat the clouds coming in.

60 shot with the 600mm Lens en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Centauri PIP inside the bow next to the pointers.

A second look at the inconic clouds that we see all the time out in the "Dark". On a night of total disappointments I came away with this set of shots 61 photos 200mm lens tracked on Sky watcher unit.

The night was a total disappointment nothing worked the way it should. i saw the bow was very high but had to have a go. With the wrong tripod head I tried to make it into a normal head I would use to shoot a Milky Way Bow. This is a tracked shot @ 30 seconds where as I am shooting 20 sec - 25 sec for my normal Bows. it was cold just me stars and kangaroos. Pips are all the deep space photos from the sky this time of year.

To all intense and purposes this is not much of a photo but think out side the square. In all my Time with the tracker it Was a case of not being able to line up so time to think out side the square. This a shot 200mm F4 For 9 min to get the stars to trail so I could then, see which way to adjust the head to get the circle in the center of the frame( lined up to the stars I cant see). This is the third shot and as you can see its perfect in the center- lined up to the southern point that I cant SEE. The rest of the night went down hill after I turned the Tracker on the stars raced across the frame and out of the picture. I racked my brain why could this be happening. NOT ALL BATTERIES are equal I had a new set of batteries with me 4x AA the tracker worked properly and I thought at the end of the night to prove all this works I have to up the time . 1 min perfect 2 min perfect. It is a case of never give in, trust yourself after all this time I have now bought a 16H storage battery so I can plug into the tracker and never rely on AA batteries. Look at the next shot the very last of the night 2min @ ISO 800.

High up on Sullivan Rock so I was above the trees. At the very end of the night I took this at ISO 800 2 min time just look at the single shot detail. I have no bias files for this shot as it a one off but its been processed through Lr. Kind of as per-normal. I thank my wife who can out for an hour but left after Midnight as she saw the things unfold before her eyes like me to get to this shot. PIP well worth the look and the read.. PIP 2 The Horse. look out the next cloud free moon less night.

Setting up the polar alignment this shows that it works even 5 min exposure you could not tell till you looked full screen there was slight trailing. Setting show you how it changed From ISO 5000 15 sec exposure once you get it right.

This will give you an Idea how this method really does work, why its worth thinking outside the square. Remember I can not see these with my eyes just on the camera sensor. A 9 min shot to get the stars to trail around the pole. A real world photo of the same areas detailing the parts .

I set out to find my limits for single shots tracked I started with 20 sec then worked up to 1 min by 10 sec intervals. So I stayed within the trees so I had a reference point. 40 sec looks ok as long as you dont look at the trees very close I believe 30 sec is the real limit but still not as crisp as a static 20 sec shot in truth. Any thoughts ???