August 2015 Astro Images at Cherry Springs Dark Sky Park

[@freddyacosta2358]

Hi Gary, thank you for posting these beautiful photos. What are the settings you use in your camera to take these photos. For example ISO and exposure time. Do you use some sort of stacking software or your photos are just long exposure without the need of having to take several photos of the same one? Thank you.

[@ghonis]

+Freddy Acosta Hi Freddy, For all those images I used ISO 1600 and six-minute exposures. You can see how many I stacked for each image here: GaryHonis.com/081215CS/081215CS.html I use the free software DeepSky Stacker for calibrating and stacking images.

[@freddyacosta2358]

I was checking your photos as we speak. You say you're using a 5" Refractor for these photos? I have a 5" Celestron Reflector with computerized tracking but it must be pretty bad since I can't take photos longer than 30 seconds, after that, I get trails. Any tips to improve this situation? Thank you again.

[@ghonis]

+Freddy Acosta Hi Freddy, I took astro images for six years with a 5" refractor. For the last two years I have been taking images with a 12" RC. Are you using autoguiding with a guidescope? With autoguiding and good polar alignment you should be getting better star images, especially if your scope is well balanced.