Mars & Lagoon Nebula

CRAZY shot!

Think I may need to add a tracker to my "want list"

No tracker Chris
Just DEC and RA drive motors and a polar alignment scope.
I'm managing 2 minute shots at 600mm. Should be able to get better.
But yes a star tracker would make it easier.

WOW! I need to learn how to do this

Desertraptor wrote in post #17236197
No tracker Chris
Just DEC and RA drive motors and a polar alignment scope.
I'm managing 2 minute shots at 600mm. Should be able to get better.
But yes a star tracker would make it easier.

Cost me about $2000 Aussie. US should be around $1500-1700 I would expect.
For 2K US you could get a full goto telescope where you just tell it what you want to see and off the telescope goes. Obviously the more you pay the better to quality. Which directly impacts tracking ability and precision

Great shot there Peter ! Now is this still adding to your first image of M8 ? You got some excellent color on Mars !

Thanks Ron
Tried stacking 30 minutes worth of shots but alas Mars moves rather quickly so after stacking was a streak. So I took a frame and added to my previous stack and hey presto.
Oh and I'm learning more about colour balance so the BG is looking more normal

Very nice!

Thanks Jim

Desertraptor wrote in post #17236807
Thanks Ron
Tried stacking 30 minutes worth of shots but alas Mars moves rather quickly so after stacking was a streak. So I took a frame and added to my previous stack and hey presto.
Oh and I'm learning more about colour balance so the BG is looking more normal

In your stacking could you not choose your best single image to be the top layer and hide Ghosting ? What did you use to stack with DSS or PS ?

DSS for stacking. that is basically what I did. Just with a previous 1.45 hours stack and layered single shot in PS