DEEP SKY Astrophotography How To (Using a DSLR Camera)

[@iancraig2507]

And I am a 66 year old beginner astrophotographers it also means watching all your videos I can find. You have been such an inspiration.

[@suspats7868]

[@rooftopastronomer2697]

Hey old man. Don't respond/do what these spam replies from bots tell you to.

[@TheWhaddeva]

Go Ian, all the best and enjoy :-)

[@thiy4gu]

Good luck man👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@Doctoberfest]

You've been at it for a year how are things going?

[@hotflashfoto]

I watched this a year ago and here I am watching it again. I wish I could give it a second like! I'm slowly getting my stuff together and trying to find opportunities to get out more. What I lack at this point is a laptop for auto-guiding. I really appreciate the patience you exhibit toward your craft, and the way you explain things for noobs like me.

[@aemyttyastro]

For Me Being A Beginner 11 Year Old Astrophotographer Means Watching Your Videos A Lot,! Keep Up The Great Work Trevor!

[@AstroBackyard]

That's why I keep making them. Thank you for letting me know! All the best and clear skies my friend

[@ant9944]

AstroBackyard currently starting out untracked. It is helpful to learn processing, although I hope to buy a small tracking mount for my camera soon. (It’s just a Nikon d90 and a 70-300mm zoom lens)

[@gamechecktvbauloewe]

11 Years old? My hope in the upcoming generation is restored.

[@saahilsinha5558]

AE Mytty yeah do that not Fortnite

[@AV_204]

AE Mytty I started when I was 11 years old too

[@AncalimeNL]

1:19 shooting deep sky objects using 'beginner' level gear. Oke, I am interested. I am a beginner. Ffwd to 2.09. What do we see: an expensive tripod, a computerized goto mount with hand controller. A 73 mm apochromatic William Optics Zenithstar 73 refractor telescope with F/5.9 as main scope, paired with a smaller William Optics as a guidescope (with camera of course. A Canon 60 DA (optimised for astrophotography) a dew heater and a laptop. Oke Trevor, I really like you videos, I really do. They are quality, and it's videos like this that made me pick up my old astronomy hobby in times like this, but, I really have to say this: This is by far not a beginner setup. Yes it is a setup I am interested in for sure, but it is really really really not a beginners setup. The amount of cost going into this is huge! I am financially good, but I can not buy this in one go. I am more looking towards a redcat 51 with a skygyuider pro, a good tripod and some other stuff. Even that combination is just south of 2000 bucks. No, I disagree with you in this video. That's not to say that as I mentioned already I think you are a great guy, make great tutorials and videos, but in this case, you have missed the ball...... sorry...

[@snakegodtod164]

true

[@iwaswrongabouteveryhthing]

Learn what you can, be greatful

[@bradley8418]

Don’t fix the counter weights. It’s iconic to Astro backyard. You show real results from humble beginnings and prove that one doesn’t need to break the bank to produce great photographs of space. Keep up the great work.

[@Wheeljack678]

I've been dabbling in Astrophotography for barely a couple of years. I learn something new with each of your videos, keep. I really appreciate you "dumbing it down" (in lack of a better term) and over-explaining what perhaps is considered of many to be basic minor details. It really does help.

[@MilkyMatterCore]

all I can say is thanks! Waiting on my first setup to be delivered now. And I've poured through so many of your videos for either education or inspiration! The APT tool is gonna be my best friend. Automate all the things!

[@michaeloberly6129]

Thanks for doing this very detailed video. It's hard for me to believe how far astrophotography has come since I was dabbling in it 30+ years ago, and it's stunning the results that you and others get from your back yards in city environments. You have what looks like a perfect yard to set up this stuff, anyway. (aside from the mosquitoes -- always a peril of this activity) If I decide one day to seriously get back into this, I'll definitely be using the instructional material you provide here.

[@lyndonvickery2589]

Coming across your videos has brought me back to the night skies.. Having had a 6" reflector of somewhat dubious Russian origins many years ago just visual observing and showing the 'kids' another view of our world was always awesome. Now having seen what you can do from 'your own back yard' with the advances in technology I am again hooked. As usual Trevor a great video. As an aged newcomer some details on physical connections between pieces of kit would be useful . Keep up the great work

[@hossome1]

Still just dreaming about getting into AstroPhoto, but I value the time and effort in putting together this video. Thx for the work!

[@stevefpv7249]

Hey Trevor! my first passion was viewing thru my Celestron C-90 way back in the 80's. Have a Sky-Mentor 10" dob in the garage that I just dusted off after about 15 years thanks to stumbling onto your vids. Re-realize how much I love it:) Thank you!

[@WaltherMekkie]

The ending of this video sums it all up perfectly. The sky after sunset, how your busy with it all and the results. And a perfect piece of music along with it. Even my 20 month old daughter is watching it with me...hope she will have the astrovirus as well someday 🙂

[@dianagalaxy7928]

A Red-Shouldered Hawk! They are so beautiful. Oh, astrophotography, wonderful work and demo.

[@wardastrophotography5098]

Man.... Your videos are extremely informative and helpful and very enjoyable to watch, I really appreciate the hard work that goes into them and the quality is second to none! 🙌🔭👏

[@maurizioangelo64]

I love your feeling for the nature, for the sky, I love too the sunset, that thst you show to us was so beautiful!! Thanks man!! All the pictures of the sky are very very nice!! Have you a great holiday!!

[@AstroBenni]

really cool videos Trevor ! I really enjoy looking them. i like the way you explain things ! I´m quite new in Astrofotographie but with your videos there is no way not to make it :) Thanks buddy !

[@Gigglesgirl2000]

Thank you for suggesting to enjoy the view and getting to know the sky first. I just starting watching your great tips. I wondered if you ever just enjoyed viewing the sky. You did your lens to one eye time. I am currently happy finding simple things I have not seen before and taking pictures of my new discoveries with my cell phone. But I want better quality. Got a little Nikon. So not yet a astrophotographer. Just want to remember that enjoyable moment. Thanks again Trevor!!

[@radpunch]

Watching this while my scope is outside imaging the Iris nebula, the first time I mustered up the confidence to leave my equipment alone outside lol. I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for you Trevor, so thank you for introducing me to this wonderful hobby.

[@AstroBackyard]

Thank you Jordan! Yes, I know that feeling! Cheers

[@Lessgetbrootal]

This channel is amazing. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us Trevor, it's inspiring

[@AstroBackyard]

Thank you Zach!

[@ccasche5088]

You have a gift! Thank you for getting so many of us and me started.

[@niklasonne2509]

Great video, and great results Trevor! I bought my first telescope recently and am starting to get into astrophoography. Your videos are always inspiring and it is nice to see some videos for us newbies as well. Kepp up the good work!

[@HobbyJoe]

Everytime i see you with a light shining on you im like.. How is he not swatting mosquitos! Also having 2 little dogs myself I really enjoy seeing your bond with Rudy, dogs are THE BEST!

[@simonworger]

I followed some it last night but it was quite late in the UK so just finished watching the rest. Love the final image, great colours and no noise. I have a few CMOS cameras, cooled and non cooled but I still like to use the dslr.

[@BKBees]

The dust trail is so cool on that image. I thought the cocoon nebula was too small for my 80mm but seeing this makes me want to give it a shot.

[@JackMack465]

All I can say is, "wow". The final image left me speechless.

[@JohnCollins-qo2bb]

Thanks very much, Trevor, for the very clear and well done Videos. I have 50 years photography experience and one week in Astro, but I'm feeling the passion and looking forward to learning with your help!! Best in All from outside of Boston!

[@shawnewaltonify]

This is high quality content you are producing. Really well done. The Cocoon Nebula is very beautiful. Thank-you as always! I am going to focus on observing for now and get a dobsonian, and maybe come back to astro-photography. I'll be watching here.

[@kevinashley478]

Wow! Great video and as an absolute beginner, this answered some of the questions I had in a comment on another video of yours. Just a couple here: How do you power the rig when you are not at home? Does the software save the images to your laptop vs on the camera card? Once you are polar aligned and tracking, why would you need to use the autoguider for sharp stars? Once you are focused, polar aligned, and tracking at sidereal rate, why would your images show trailing or any tracking errors that would require autoguiding? I hope I am not being a pain in the ass with all my questions. You are an absolute inspiration and it is great and motivating to see someone who is teaching others that is as passionate about the subject as you are. You should be very proud of what you are doing. Thank you.

[@Sergeant_Nugget]

I am buying my first home really soon and I really want to give Astrophotography a try. I bought my first DSLR camera and trying to get use to it. I am hoping to buy a telescope by next year and start giving this a go. This video will help me out. Even saving it to get back to this easily.

[@AstroBackyard]

The best of luck Neftali!

[@marcagostini3051]

18:30 I think I can tell you what's happening there: Electroluminescent foil or LED based Flat field generators have a certain frequency, usually about 100 Hz; If your shutter speed (like 1/1600s) is faster than this frequency, you will get rolling shutter effects in your flatframes. The way to mitigate this is to lower your flatfield generators light output by putting some sheets of white paper between the panel and the scope so you can take flats at shutter speeds longer than let's say at least 1/50s. Maybe you could get rid of that Artifact that way. Would be very glad if I could help you, as I learned most of my skills from this Channel :)

[@13_cmi]

It’s definitely there with electronic shutter. But with a dslr or mirrorless camera shutter it’s much less. I don’t even think you can see it.

[@andyhello23]

Amazing man, what an average person can do with this stuff today. Just found your vids, and great to see someone trying to help out those beginners. I always think, one of the most beautiful sights in nature, is a clear nights sky. You have a great hobby there, and nice to see how much you appreciate all this.

[@philipgelsheimer5705]

Hey Trevor, great video as I am glad you went back to reintroduce your old equipment and techniques 'cause I am exactly where you were. As I am just 'down the road' from you and part of the Halton Outdoor Group, I can share that when it comes to those mosquitoes I live by 'Great Outdoors' by Watkins. You can get it at a dedicated Hiker shop or even on Amazon. The bugs go from driving me batty to 'what bugs?'. Cheers!

[@dslrnightsky]

I’m looking forward to watching this! Keep up the excellent work! 😀🔭

[@83jbbentley]

DSLR Night Sky love your vids!

[@dslrnightsky]

josh bentley83 Thank you for the note. I’m glad you enjoyed the videos. I’m grateful to KZbinrs like Astrobackyard, they are a inspiration and an excellent resource for all of us. Best regards! 😀🔭

[@AstroDenny]

Hi Trevor- I use the same rig you showed here for 80% of my imaging but I started using IndigoSky to run everything, It drives my camera, mount, and guiding from a Raspberry Pi and makes an ad-hoc wi-fi network to remote control it-- No wires to trip over between your gear and the computer! I'd love to hear your take on that software and maybe do a review? Keep up the great work. You are a huge influencer in the astro community.

[@NG-VQ37VHR]

Dennis Ruzeski I have a couple pi 3b+’s and an Arduino uno laying around and had been wondering if I could set them up to handle guiding. You wouldn’t happen to have a link to any of the resource material you used to get your setup going, would you? Thanks.

[@eirikkittelsen9787]

Another great video Trevor! Have just purchased all equipment needed. ASI Air, asi 183mm pro, skywatcher eq6 r pro and all required filters. Now just waiting for nights to get dark here at 60 degrees north in Norway 🇳🇴!

[@briannichols118]

Thanks for the video. Just a minor technical note for folks using a DSLR camera with a fixed display (doesn't angle outward)--try a DSLR controller app for your phone/tablet to get almost full control of the camera including image viewing from the device. In addition, if the camera doesn't have WIFI (camera/tablet attaches via USB cable) the right DSLR controller app will turn the attached device into a hot spot to transfer camera control and imaging to a remote device. Battery consuming but handy.

[@edwardoliver2086]

Does the built in hdmi work as well

[@briannichols118]

@@edwardoliver2086 If I understand the question correctly, sadly I've never had the need to view HDMI output from my camera while controlling it (via USB) from an external device, therefore don't know whether HDMI output is affected.

[@edwardoliver2086]

Thanks anyway

[@briannichols118]

@@edwardoliver2086 For slaps and giggles I researched the question using my ancient and still unmodded** Canon 7D used primarily for astrophotography. Experiments showed that simply connecting the USB output of the camera to a live device (tablet, phone, PC) shut down HDMI output and none of the apps I use to control the camera both in still picture and movie mode via direct USB connect to mobile devices and a couple of PCs changed that. This seems consistent with a footnote to page 177 of the manual for the Canon 7D that I finally stumbled across; namely, "The camera's terminal and terminal cannot be used at the same time". Therefore, using both USB and HDMI outputs simultaneously appears impossible with my setup and a cursory Internet search didn't turn up any claims by someone who had managed it with any setup. Bottom line, a null Internet search means little and since it appears to be a camera issue we can't rule out there may be a brand out there that can do it. **remove the IR/UV filter between the sensor and the optics of a stock DSLR camera

[@kevinf9423]

Absolutely incredible info! Thank you so much! Great pic of the bird too! ☺

[@Zhimbo-WoT]

Trevor, I really love your videos. You provide a great service to the astrophotography community. Just one thing (lol) - as a former astronomy teacher and planetarium director (34 years, I'm retired now), sidereal has four syllables, not two (si·​der·e·​al | \ sī-ˈdir-ē-əl ). Blame the teacher in me for finding your pronunciation a bit jarring, :P Keep up the good work.

[@cdkslakkend5742]

Enjoying learning from your experience. Very excited.

[@fusion-music]

Love your "mistakes" video and this dslr basics. Glad you are seeing it as important to cover these things.

[@DonGoddardAllAboutPaint]

Another spectacular video and a great tutorial as well. However, you're about 3 weeks too late. LOL I've chugged through most of this using your other videos as guides and enjoyed it. I would suggest others do the same, even if there is a huge portion of what you need here. The individual videos go more in detail and you get to see more of Trevor's images. Great job, Trevor!

[@DirbyOne]

Wow!! Just wow! Well worth watching all the way through.

[@merbella4201]

Hi, thanks for an awesome video. I am busy researching what I should invest in to start in astrophotography and your videos and website have been refreshing compared to some tech-heavy videos/websites that I've looked at. You explain things very well. I know I have a ways to go but I feel better informed with every article/video of yours. Thank you.

[@johnr1960]

As always, another great, educational video to help all of us that are just starting out. Thanks Trevor.

[@MattsAstrophotography]

Looks great Trevor and thanks for these videos, you have helped me alot over the years so never quit making the beginner to intermediate videos with a ton of info.

[@davidmurren4644]

Trevor, is that an Artesky flats panel? I have one, their nice! Tip: dont take flats with it during the day. The ambient daylight can be stronger than the output of the panel, depending on the voltage, and can light up the opaque material in the panel causing strange gradients on the flats. I found this out myself when trying to take daytime flats with the panel. My mount and scope was by a window and my flats were brighter on one side than the other. You need to use the panel either at night or in an environment where the panels output is stronger than ambient.

[@neilsmith5883]

excellent video, just what i need to help me decide what gear to start off with.

[@RagMama123]

Excellent informative video. Thanks.

[@richardgrudzien2798]

A great video, so helpful for those like me who are just starting out with guided DSLR +telescope astrophotography. Much appreciated, Trevor!

[@jalenab2374]

I absolutely adore your videos!! I LOVEEEEE astronomy and I have a telescope but it’s not meant for deep sky. I’m saving up a telescope and I watch your video to know what the best thing is to get I’m thinking of getting the setup you have in this video!! I love love loveeeeee the picture you take they’re breathtaking!!!!!! Keep up the good work! 😁😁😁

[@amp2amp800]

Very clear and complete. Been looking for this for a while. Thanks! I thought your final piece of advice was going to be.... insect repellant!

[@emanuelacostagutierrez2255]

Your videos always motivate me to try new techniques I'm gonna start to save money to buy that APO telescope

[@benscrobunges]

Nice Championship T shirt Trevor, flying the colors. Congrats to the Raptors, i guess your wife was filming a raptor, very popular type of bird right now in your area.

[@AstroBackyard]

Ha! You noticed.. I was waiting for that! 😊

[@LysdexicGamer]

Literal chills at the end. Great work!

[@Michael-Gill]

Great video. For the bugs I recommend a mic cover and a decent fan a few feet away. Then noise cancel. Mosquitoes are weak fliers so they get blown away in the air stream.

[@AstroBackyard]

Great point about the mic cover - thats why I couldn't run one while filming - Thanks Michael!

[@LifeIsPlug]

You should do a video on setting your polar scope. I had trouble with this and still dont think I perfected it but would be a good video for beginners.

[@patrickwynne6666]

fantastic video clip!! i am just beginning to understand how it's work!! thanks mate :)

[@AstroBackyard]

That was exactly what I was hoping to hear! Thank you!

[@ReeWrayOutdoors]

Really enjoyed the music track you used with the final image sequence. Great match! And excellent information!

[@cruikshank]

Thank you again for an excellent video that is informative & entertaining. Your video production gets better with each release.

[@davegibson6604]

Good video for fairly advanced equipment, but I'm a very basic equipment owner: 130 mm reflector on a cg3 mount with a clock drive, and a Nikon D7100 camera. It's not very sophisticated and it was a lot of work to get any kind of reasonable results, but I didn't have to take out a second mortgage to try my hand at astrophotography. I just wish there had been a video on how to use gear at this unsophisticated level. Topics like equipment setup, manual polar alignment (no polar scope), and how to navigate the sky and find targets (no goto controller) would be very useful for those of us on a limited budget.

[@scottcameron393]

Glad to see some beginner videos. Thanks!

[@tigercloud6945]

I'm glad I stumbled upon your site please keep it up it is very helpful.

[@wayneparker9782]

It nice to see you again....i have watch other videos when you are useing a DLSR camera. Why do you unscrew or screw the camera and the flattner on together instead of using the adapter for the camera. That way you would just click the camera on or off the flattner.

[@eightmilesupwind9030]

OMG. This video is SOOOOO good! Thanks!

[@sleeplessingc]

great, great video. top notch. A beginner tutorial on the software would be cool. mention the things that the other guys don't say anything about.

[@LukeSmith-pp4hn]

Great idea and video your new house is really lovely mate!!

[@LukeSmith-pp4hn]

Actually im on the verge or going ccd would you please do a vid on the ins and outs of a dedicated astronomy camera...want to make the jump just want to know what im getting myself into. Cheers mate best channel on KZbin!

[@rudycajuso29]

Very nice video, well explained making it easy to follow. Love the image. Keep them coming along with your pod cast, love listening to them on my drives into work. I wish I had skies like yours unfortunately I live in a Bortles 9 area and not too many clear skies.

[@robertocarloscaruso6840]

Trevor i'd love to watch a video about gem or cem mount balance. Have you already done it?

[@hkanderful]

Thank you for sharing this great video!!

[@ME2K23]

Thanks very much Trevor! Really appreciate this type of tutorial. Indeed, very few of us have the knowledge, let along the gear but I can bet many of us want to know what can be done with the basic gear they own, or could get as a startup kit. 👍🌟🔭📷

[@curronhill2744]

Really cool video for us new folks. Thanks for making it. Loved the final image. It is amazing what you get in your backyard. How much processing time did you have in it? Do you have any teaching videos on doing the processing? I have mostly been a visual observer, but now want to dabble in this as well.

[@paulgarrod1066]

You are clearly very expert in this field and your final shot was breath-taking, stunning, beautiful and amazing. Sadly I don't feel any more knowledgeable after watching your video, in fact the reverse. Not your fault as clearly I need to study hard basic basics!!!!!!!!! Many thanks and sorry about the biting bugs

[@curtishustace]

Im just starting out. This video is very interesting, but looks really advanced. haha. Im going down that rabbit hole pretty fast! Sheese!

[@taine5883]

Getting my HEQ5 next week, can’t wait! Clear skies

[@christophergemeinhardt3404]

taine that’s a great mount. Great choice! Mine works perfectly out of the box and I can easily achieve 900s+ guided subframes.

[@taine5883]

@@christophergemeinhardt3404 Great to hear :)

[@AstroBackyard]

It's such a great mount. Mine's been to hell and back (frigid winters - blistering summers, travel) and keeps on ticking.

[@taine5883]

AstroBackyard sounds like I made the right choice, thanks Trevor 😁

[@frankw7266]

Don't know if you'll catch this 2 months later, but I've been seriously binge-watching your channel, and you've been quite the inspiration. I've been into birding photography for nearly 35 years, have had a trusty old 10" Dob for about 20 years, and have long dreamed of putting the 2 hobbies together. Couple questions I do have, if you see this & don't mind answering, and it would be regarding the Skyguider Pro... I see that it's payload capacity is 11lbs, would this be including the bracket and counterweight? And up to what focal length would you consider it to be accurate with while using a guide scope/camera? I have numerous lenses, but the reason I ask is that my largest is a 500mm f/4, which is a pretty good chunk of glass (with a TC14, that takes me up to a 700mm f/5.6). Total weight with camera is pushing around 9lbs... so if the 3lb counterweight is included in payload, and possibly a second one for that size glass, that would put me a bit over.

[@Broccoli_32]

Great video Trevor, One of your best!

[@troubydoo]

Would you put this scope on a SkyGuider Pro? The pro goes to 11lbs and this comes in at 5.5.....or is this too much scope for that mount? Great Great videos!

[@phcalama]

Hi. I'm new to astrophotography and hope you will take a moment to answer what likely is a simple question. When you mounted your guide scope did you go through a procedure to align it with your main scope or is that not required?

[@rishikeshparmeshwar5904]

Thanks for a very informative tutorial. What are the options for an in-camera narrow band filters for Nikon DSLRs? Most of them listed on Amazon are for Canon.

[@stevenbeaucaire1161]

Just started following you On youTube. This is something I really want to start doing. As I always say, you are never too old to start a new hobby. However I do have a question. In another video, you showcased a beginners telescope. AD8. I know it’s manual etc. However are you able to attach a camera to it ?

[@AndrewRockYoutube]

Thanks for your videos. I just came across your website/blog while starting to do research on purchasing a telescope. I already have a Canon 80D so your website was extremely useful for details on how to build a set-up for astrophotography off a DSLR camera. I will be completely new at this, so do not even know how invested I would be but I already enjoy photography all the other time so why not space? I will definitely be using your website and channel to learn more to figure out what my overall plan will be for a set-up and will reach out with any questions along the way. Thanks again and definitely subscribed. Andrew

[@AndrewRockYoutube]

Watched your entire video. Very informative and covered everything to get a good understanding. A lot to process. But, a nice way to start...

[@lmo3154]

great video using a cheaper set up just what us beginners need keep up the good work

[@TrickshotSchuppi]

Thank you very much for this video. I learned a lot.

[@kevinlamberg9724]

Very helpful video-thank you!

[@BeautifulL1fe]

Thank you for this very informative video..

[@robertlennox681]

Trevor, thank you for this video. I am just getting started in astrophotography but so far have not been able to make it past the star alignment stage. You inspired me to buy a WO Zenithstar 73 with field flattener and I have been trying to use it with a Canon Rebel EOS T3i which has nearly identical specs to the Canon EOS 60D you used in the video. However, my experience has been very different from your experience as depicted in the video. Even under a Bortle 3 sky I could not see anything in live view. I thought this was initially due to it being far out of focus. I could only do the focusing "digitally" using EOS Backyard. When it was in focus I still could not see anything in the camera's live view. I believe my settings were the same as yours except I didn't set the shutter speed to bulb. I tried shutter speeds up to 30 sec. I'm wondering if this is a problem unique to the T3i? The T3i live view uses something called Exposure Simulation ("ExpSim") so the display is a simulation of what the image would look like given the selected ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop. It looked like the 60D in your video didn't have ExpSim (?). In any case I haven't been able to find out how to turn it off. Another possibility is that I may have not been pointing to a star that was bright enough. This could be related to problems I was having getting the telescope to point to a selected object such as Arcturus, which should have been bright enough to see if it was actually in the field of view to begin with. This would be an entirely different problem related to my mount and not the camera.

[@dekemp1986]

Good work Trevor. BTW, it is SiDeReAl rate the RA axis is tracking at, from "rotation rate of the stars", not "side real" as you say. Just a minor tip ;)

[@microreniassance2929]

Dude, run inside and get some DEET. You're making me itch, just watching you😅 Honestly great videos. And thanks for putting them out there. Lots of us benefit greatly from them.

[@abramians1]

As always, great information! Love the final image!!!

[@wearywanderer]

I am taking my first steps... would you be able to create a video on setting up the flattener out of the box and between the DSLR and telescope?

[@YTMegiddo]

haha, "Staying put like a boss!" I love it.

[@iancoates2506]

as a very beginner I wish I had someone like you nearby to get one to one information from

[@Sbach342Guy]

Is the 50mm guide scope a good combination with that sized main scope? I’m looking to upgrade from the 30mm guide scope I have on my GT71. I think my guiding could benefit from a better guide scope

[@calleywilkinson2371]

I should have added what my set up is, Canon 700D, Skywatcher Evostar 80ED & Field Flattener, EQ6 Pro, 50mm Guide scope. Just setting up, have not started taking photos yet, hopefully shortly. Thank you for all your videos i have learned a lot, which i will be putting into practice shortly Calley Wilkinson

[@wpherigo1]

Nice vid! Thanks from us newbies! Off topic - how do you get the stripes in your yard? Do you set the lawn mower to not be quite level?

[@ralphwatson7036]

I love your enthusiasm for astro! Thanks for this video. Would your process/settings/results been different with a darker sky, e.g. Bortle 3?

[@Theastrocody]

I was wondering the same thing. I guess youd just have to play around with some settings and see what works! Clear skies mate!

[@rexcao4454]

Hi Trevor, many thanks for this video! I am curious if we do the three-star alignment to improve the polar alignment, plus the guide camera further improves the accuracy. Is it still necessary to do an additional drift alignment?

[@GTFreeFlyer]

Great channel. Got a question for ya: If aperture is everything, why do you routinely use your smaller refractors rather than the bigger SCT’s that you have? Wouldn’t the larger aperture help gather more light in shorter exposures? Just curious why you choose one over the other.

[@iphoneawesome123]

Large scts tend to stay in the garage. You are more likely to bring out the small refractor for a good session. Maybe someday I can permanently mount a sct in my observatory but for now that's a pipe dream.

[@cliveroberts415]

I use the live view function with the crosshairs in APT for alignment, much easier than the DSLR screen.

[@markattardo]

Good timing! Just dug my scope out and need to start learning again.