Astrophotography Beginner

I think you are asking a lot of your gti

I used a similar scope with a 533 and my GTi and got decent ish results.

Give it a go and see how you do. I would keep your subs to 120 sec max.

Some ok examples of what you can do, here, but beware you will have a smaller fov

your stars will have less blue halos though :)

📷 17811083354735622066364829527053.jpg📷 178110838100997058006154171972.jpg📷 1781108511294436264746439620815.jpg

I agree with the above. I suggest you weigh your rig and see how it compares to the 11lbs limit of your mount.

Then try it and see what kind of guiding you can get. Take the time to balance things and get a near perfect polar alignment.

If PA is average your guiding will be too.

alpheratz06 · Jun 10, 2026, 06:41 PM

The three most important components for astrophotography are :

• The mount

• The mount

• And the mount

The star adventurer, imha, is not fit for such optics.

It's definitely not the best mount, but with a similar payload mine did roughly 0.8 to 1.5 arc seconds with round stars. Had to throw away quite a few subs though :(

My pixel scale was about 2 arc seconds though, his will be maybe 1.2, so likely have to throw away many subs too :(

Still, we use what we have :)

Robert Nicholson · Jun 10, 2026, 10:08 PM

Hi Alfie,

You have enough equipment there to start collecting image data. I suggest the next area for you to focus on is getting Pixinsight and learning how to use it. The learning curve can be steep, but there are plenty of youtube videos out there to learn from. Some that I have found helpful include:

• Introduction to Pixinsight - series of videos produced by the Pixinsight team

• Adam Block’s videos

• Peter Zelinka

• AstroBackyard – Trevor Jones

• Sky Story

There are lots of others, I am sure you will find your favorites. For youtube videos keep an eye on how recent the material is, processing tools and techniques are constantly changing.

Kind regards,

Bob

I haven’t seen sky story and Adam Block, so I’ll check them out.

I definitely agree with AstroBackyard and Peter Zelinka. Zelinka’s videos are so easy to digest and (also being a beginner) and really accelerated my jump into the hobby.

@OP, when you’re balancing your gear after mounting it, Peter Zelinka indicates that having the weight push slightly eastward will help reduce backlash in the gears. IF you’re pushing the limits of the mount with your scope as others say, balancing is something you’re going to want to pay extra attention to.

TiffsAndAstro · Jun 10, 2026 at 04:23 PM

I think you are asking a lot of your gti

I used a similar scope with a 533 and my GTi and got decent ish results.

Give it a go and see how you do. I would keep your subs to 120 sec max.

Some ok examples of what you can do, here, but beware you will have a smaller fov

your stars will have less blue halos though :)

📷 17811083354735622066364829527053.jpg📷 178110838100997058006154171972.jpg📷 1781108511294436264746439620815.jpg

Thank you, I will give it a shot.

TiffsAndAstro · Jun 10, 2026 at 08:56 PM

alpheratz06 · Jun 10, 2026, 06:41 PM

The three most important components for astrophotography are :

• The mount

• The mount

• And the mount

The star adventurer, imha, is not fit for such optics.

It's definitely not the best mount, but with a similar payload mine did roughly 0.8 to 1.5 arc seconds with round stars. Had to throw away quite a few subs though :(

My pixel scale was about 2 arc seconds though, his will be maybe 1.2, so likely have to throw away many subs too :(

Still, we use what we have :)

That’s true, I will most likely upgrade in the future. Thanks.

NoncarbonatedClack · Jun 22, 2026 at 03:00 PM

Robert Nicholson · Jun 10, 2026, 10:08 PM

Hi Alfie,

You have enough equipment there to start collecting image data. I suggest the next area for you to focus on is getting Pixinsight and learning how to use it. The learning curve can be steep, but there are plenty of youtube videos out there to learn from. Some that I have found helpful include:

• Introduction to Pixinsight - series of videos produced by the Pixinsight team

• Adam Block’s videos

• Peter Zelinka

• AstroBackyard – Trevor Jones

• Sky Story

There are lots of others, I am sure you will find your favorites. For youtube videos keep an eye on how recent the material is, processing tools and techniques are constantly changing.

Kind regards,

Bob

I haven’t seen sky story and Adam Block, so I’ll check them out.

I definitely agree with AstroBackyard and Peter Zelinka. Zelinka’s videos are so easy to digest and (also being a beginner) and really accelerated my jump into the hobby.

@OP, when you’re balancing your gear after mounting it, Peter Zelinka indicates that having the weight push slightly eastward will help reduce backlash in the gears. IF you’re pushing the limits of the mount with your scope as others say, balancing is something you’re going to want to pay extra attention to.

I appreciate the tip, thank you. I think balancing will be crucial for my setup.

Alfie Ratty · Jun 25, 2026 at 02:58 PM

Chuck Korenic · Jun 22, 2026 at 07:06 PM

Welcome to the rabbit hole!

That is a very capable beginner setup. However, I would agree with others on the mount. I bought a GTI when I first started, and for me, it is a borderline hobby killer. I know now that I have a particularly bad unit. So, your mileage may vary, but I can say it is definitely the weakest thing in your setup. I would go with short exposures like others suggested.

In my opinion, you may still have a couple more things to buy. I might get a little pushback for this next statement, but for me, PixInsight is about as close to a must-have as it gets in astrophotography.

If you are unfamiliar, PixInsight is an image-processing platform built specifically for astrophotography, and in my experience, it is still the strongest option by a pretty wide margin. There is free software out there, and a lot of very talented people put real time and effort into making those tools available, so I don’t want to dismiss that. You can absolutely get started with free options. That said, once I started using PixInsight, it became pretty clear to me why so many people eventually end up there.

After that, the next software I would suggest would be Russell Croman’s tools: BlurX, StarX, and NoiseX, probably in that order. From there, I would start thinking about a better mount, but you still have plenty to learn and work with using the gear you already have.

A few YouTube channels I’d recommend checking out:

• Nebula Photos

• Astrobackyard

• Peter Zelinka

• Astrobiscuit

Other suggestions, in no particular order.

• Take notes each session

• Organize your captures and develop a system that keeps you focused on the good stuff. You can waste a lot of time with unorganized data.

• Learn your software. NINA, Pixinsight, Photoshop, PHD2.

• Learn your hardware.

This is a hobby that consistently knocks you down and then picks you back up. If you are up for the challenge, it is incredibly rewarding.

—

One more thing, I’m not sure if you bought the GTI new or not. Either way, I know you spent your hard earned dollar on it. So, I just want to reiterate that it is a capable, popular mount. I still use mine with my traditional mirrorless Canon camera and lenses to this day. You can use it until you outgrow it, then modify the gears (as I did) or add a better polar scope for less frustration (like I did). There are ways. The important thing is that you are doing it.

Have fun!

CS
Chuck

I’ve heard alot about Pixinsight and the other processing softwares so i’m definitely going to try and practice with them soon. Thank you for your channel recommendations and suggestions, I really appreciate it.

And yes I have spent my money on the mount which should be… capable… but I don’t really mind if i have to do short exposures it’s just doing astrophotography to a decent degree that’s what I want.

Thank you!

No problem, anytime!

That’s a great attitude to have. I had quite a few attempts before recently getting my first photo, so patience is key.