General Celestron NexStar 8se

[Tracy]

For those that may have one of these telescopes and just getting into imaging, I made one of the typical new owner mistakes. Was playing around and decided to use a QHY5L-II-C (bought for a tracking camera on my Williams Optics tube). I "assumed" that you simply placed the camera in the diagonal like you do a regular eyepiece. Well, the old saying about assuming bit me.
What I ended up doing was using the diagonal/eyepiece to locate the object (in this case Jupiter) and focused in on it using a 9mm eyepiece. Then I discovered you have to remove the diagonal and eyepiece and attach the camera directly to the scope. I was using SharpCap and my screen for live view was black. Slow adjustment of the focusing knob resolved that issue.
The viewing that night wasn't that great as we had a thin layer of upper level clouds and a lot of dust in the air. This is a single exposure photo that I got of Jupiter, with minimal processing of any type. If you look closely, you can tell it is Jupiter.

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This is the very first photo I have taken with a scope... and I'm at the very beginning of my journey. I hope that the batter camera I have on order will do a better job than the $100 QHY5L.

 

[OhNo]

I own a 8" SCT, the first mistake is learning to do AP with this scope. The Focal Length makes is difficult to guide. Not to mention it being f/10 (aka Slow) at gathering light. Once the principles of how AP works with the gear and capture software is is do-able.

But I guess if the equipment budget is tight....... AP as a rule is expensive. The best bang for your buck starts with a GOOD mount. Ypu are off to a pretty good start, admitting you made a boo-boo is quite a few steps into the AP rabbit hole! LOL

 

[Tracy]

But I guess if the equipment budget is tight....... AP as a rule is expensive

The NexStar (or the orange tube line) have been around since the early 80's... and I was familiar with them. It was primarily purchased for use only with solar objects, which even the NexStar base can track well enough for the exposure times used for planets and most other solar bodies.

I grabbed this image from the NexStar using my ASI585MC - but it didn't have enough spacers to get the suggested 105mm back space.

Image from first series of the Moon

• Tracy
• August 13, 2022

This was taken with a NextStar 8se and an ASI585MC camera. I only have 22mm of backspace on the...

It doesn't help that the QHD camera was a low cost one, and originally purchased for the 50mm guide scope on my WO ZenithStar 103mm (upgraded that camera to an ASI290mm).

The best bang for your buck starts with a GOOD mount.

The Williams Optics kit came with a decent beginners mount.. the EQ35M. It's right at the borderline of weight for the size scope it is... but so far it's working well for simple viewing. Once I put the other stuff on will be the tell-all.