I'm 100% new to this, and have so many questions

[SkyHiker]

]
I'll give it a try, building a Raspberry Pi sounds like a good idea, just watched a tutorial on that (G6hUf5L_Scw, kbvdxa_qeow), as soon as I get clear skies I'll try it.

You should be able to use the Ekos binary on your Mac right away to try it.

Building Ekos from source on a Pi is easy once you find find the right directions, let me know so I can send them to you.

With al, the talk about ASTAP etc, it comes with Ekos. Also, its autoguiding is identical to PHD2 just a different GUI that I like better. It has a great support and developer community.

[UkDave]

Just a tip for anyone using ASTAP for platesolving it doesn’t like long exposures 2-4 sec usually is enough for good results.

Dave

[Jnicholes]

Welcome to the forum!

I wish I could help, but I don’t have much experience with your issue. However, I saw that you want to do longer exposures.

I use my IPhone mounted to the eyepiece to get all my photos. I use a special app called NightCap. It allows you to take longer exposures, and adjust the settings like ISO. I have taken many great pictures with my set up, which is in my signature, and just with my iPhone.

It might work for you, it might not. I’m just throwing it out there as a potential option for you to get longer exposures.

Of course, this will only work if you have a mount that can track an object, like a computer goto mount.

Here are some examples of photos I’ve taken with just an iPhone and mentioned app.

Total Lunar Eclipse

M13 Globular Cluster zoomed in

Lagoon Nebula

Orion Nebula zoomed in

If you do have a mount that can track, then this option might work for you for getting longer exposures.

Then again, everyone here has offered great advice so far.

I wish you luck with this, and welcome to the forum!

Jared

[rodrigopolo]

Small update…

Finally I had better weather than the previous days, the perks of living in the tropic… and finally, I was able to try N.I.N.A.'s Three Point Polar Alignment, which I was again, doing it wrong at the beginning, then I realized about the focal distance error. ASTAP worked as expected, finally here you can see it working:


After aligning, I was able to take a picture of Betelgeuse and Messier 42 (The Orion Nebula), which was the only two object I had in mind after all the hassle it was to get the whole setup outside:

Sadly, even tho the sky was clear of clouds, humidity and transparency were not perfect, I'll try on Nov 28:

But I'm truly happy to know that the Three Point Polar Alignment works, I live in a place with no access to Polaris, and poor access to any horizon here is the Stellarium landscape I made using the Insta360 X3 from the place I take images, so you can see how difficult it is to have a piece of clear sky:
https://rodrigopolo.com/downloads/Boca.zip

Thank you all for your advice.

[rodrigopolo]

Just a tip for anyone using ASTAP for platesolving it doesn’t like long exposures 2-4 sec usually is enough for good results.

Dave

You are right, the default exposure time of the alignment plug-in has a 5s exposure by default, and it wasn't solving, after changing it to 1s it worked great. Thank you.

[rodrigopolo]

Another update: Finally I was able to do the Three Point Polar Alignment, select a target, and loop taking pictures of the target using the imaging tab, small windows of clear skies here, now I'm learning how to do sequences on N.I.N.A. and how to post-process the images with Siril, which is an amazing app, here are some of my first attempts with only 20 x 15 sec exposures of M31 with tons of humidity:

But I'm struggling understanding something… N.I.N.A.'s sequences are in two flavors, legacy and advanced, and it is truly advanced I wish I had all the astro equipment listed there, but I only have a DSLR, a mount and a DSLR lens… currently 3D printing a focus mask.

If I understand correctly, without a guider, the target will drift over time even having a really great polar-alignment, if that is the case, It is there any instruction I can put in the advance sequence to check if the target is centered every number of exposures?

And dithering, does it work without a guider?

Thanks a lot to all of you for your advice.

[rodrigopolo]

If I understand correctly, without a guider, the target will drift over time even having a really great polar-alignment, if that is the case, It is there any instruction I can put in the advance sequence to check if the target is centered every number of exposures?

And dithering, does it work without a guider?

Never mind, I found the answer creating a sequence, I need a guider in order to get the dithering, and a trigger can keep reviewing if the target is on center:

[Graeme1858]

Hello Rodrigo

Looks like you found your own answers!

The Legacy Sequencer used to be called the Simple Sequencer. If you send a target to it from the Framing Tab, there is a button at the bottom of the screen to send the sequence to the Advanced Sequencer. I started using the Advanced Sequencer this way to help me understand how the Advanced version worked!

The Center After Drift Trigger is the way to keep your image on target. It does a Plate Solve in the background so as to not waste time but if your Polar Alignment is good, with 15 second exposures, you probably only need to run it every 10 subs or so.

And yes, you need a guider for Dithering.

Sounds like you're developing a good understanding of NINA. Your M31 is excellent.

Graeme

[rodrigopolo]

Hello Rodrigo

Looks like you found your own answers!

The Legacy Sequencer used to be called the Simple Sequencer. If you send a target to it from the Framing Tab, there is a button at the bottom of the screen to send the sequence to the Advanced Sequencer. I started using the Advanced Sequencer this way to help me understand how the Advanced version worked!

The Center After Drift Trigger is the way to keep your image on target. It does a Plate Solve in the background so as to not waste time but if your Polar Alignment is good, with 15 second exposures, you probably only need to run it every 10 subs or so.

I tried the sequencer, it works great, I do not have an excellent tripod or the one designed for the mount, which makes leveling the mount a little bit complicated, but after trial and error, I have managed to get it right and be able to have from 8 to 15, even 30 sec exposures after doing N.I.N.A.'s 3 point alignment, sometimes twice. I'll change the plate solve to 10 exposures, thank you for the advice.

And yes, you need a guider for Dithering.

Indeed, I guess I'll have to save some money for a full kit I recently saw a video from Peter Zelinka, it is all about the gear if you want a smooth capture: https://youtu.be/BNQmrSB1ybA

Sounds like you're developing a good understanding of NINA. Your M31 is excellent.

Graeme

Thank you very much, I'm a fast learner, thanks to channels like Patriot Astro, Nebula Photos, AstroBackyard, Cuiv-The Lazy Geek, View into Space, Nocturne Astro, Damon Scotting, Deep Sky Detail (who made a very encouraging video about this endeavor), Deep Space Astro and ScottCastrophotography whom show how to work with Siril, great complement of Nico Carver tutorials, and a quite interesting introduction by CosmicCaptures.

Living in Guatemala, the tropic, has its perks because the weather, and close to the city, a sky Bortle Class 6 and without a clear sight to Polaris, that is why I discovered N.I.N.A. 3 point alignment, it rocks.

I got interested in astrophotography after trying to get a picture of the last Blood/Red Moon, I couldn't believe that I couldn't take a photograph of the red moon without noise, and I couldn't slow down the shutter even with a tripod, that's when I discovered the equatorial mounts, and got one, then I discovered all that can be done, and I waited until this month that has some clear skies, but this week we had a full moon and as AstroBackyard showed, it is not the best idea to do astrophotography during a full moon, but I did it before moonrise.

My Tamron 150-600mm has a lot of vignetting and it is hard to focus, I bought a 3D print for a Bahtinov mask, works great. Closing the lens beyond ƒ/8 isn't a good idea, I get trailing stars above 15 to 30 seconds, I'll get a guider as soon as I can to prolongue the exposure time. I also realize I need a dew heater for the lens, you have no idea how humid the climate is here at the end of the night, all the equipment is wet as a soda can during summer, so my stacks show a weird circle when I stretch the images, I'm not sure if it is because the vignetting, the dew or the haze combined with the city lights and the moonshine, or everything all at once but boy, the background cleanup Siril does, is out of this world.

So I guess I'll get first, the dew heater, then the guider, a proper tripod, and some time in the near future, a good telescope with a good astro camera with a focuser and a filter wheel that is all I wish

Here are the images I took yesterday, I'm taking the same spots as an exercise before going to a place with a dark sky:

Thank you all for all the advice, I truly appreciate it.

P.D. 1: I forgot to share with you the links to this great Bahtinov Mask for DSLR Lenses
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2823413

P.D. 2: I'll research how to avoid the highlight clipping in the center of M42, I wasn't able to avoid it during the stretching of the image, and I guess that worst scenario requires some kind of bracketing, I'll keep you posted.