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Yes, I generally tought it has more swiss people here….

Hi Swiss guys

My little story: First, I'am 37 years old and I started with visual observations with an Schmidt Cassegrain 8" scope before 5 years or so, which I borrowed from a working-buddy. No Goto-Control, everything manually. I observed about 2 years with it, most of the time the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter. But no astrophotography. He wanted the telescope back someday and after a while I decided to buy my own telescope in May 2015: a Skywatcher Explorer 130P SynScan. After a few nights with it, I wanted to photography all this things in the sky.

After a few tests I realized that this scope definitely is not for AP… It has an azimuthal mount… I really had absolutely no idea about AP 

In August 2015 I decided to start with the Star Adventurer and a 200mm f/2.8 lens.
And here I am: I still use the Star Adventurer mount, but auto guided (RA only), now a 400mm f/5.6 lens on my modified Canon EOS 70D(a).

I think, for the next time I will countinue use this setup, I love this little Star Adventurer mount. Very fast setup time and with the auto guider and a good polar alignment very accurate.

Probably some day an EQ5 or 6 mount and a newton telescope 

Good night, bonne nuit und gute Nacht ;-)

Karol from Derendingen, Solothurn

Hi Fabio and Carol,
so now ist on me.  am 48 and from Riehen BS.
Started with astrophotografie exactly 1 year ago. I alway was fascinated by astronomie, but never get the kick to start with. Then i was with my wife in a restaurant on the Grimsel, and after the dinner i went out and saw the milky way, like i never saw it only by eyes.
Got my camera, so this was my kick. Target was from beginning to do astropgotographie, so 2 months later i was in Bern to buy my first equippment.
It was an Skywatcher 100ED refractor and an NEQ6 Mount. After some unsuccessfull session to align it correctly (always made som moon shots when i failed ), the 4th session i managed it, and my first deep sky Picture of Orion was catched.
you can see it on my page here, but i really want to see the difference to the next one, probably next month
Well in the last time i sold all my beginning equippment and replaced it with an EQ8, an 80/480 and a 107/700 Refractor. right, on the Limit for mobile but works fine, and the EQ8 is really incredible…
Just thinking of a Little more focal lenght for next year. The mount is no longer the Problem

Fabio, very nice to see you have all, i thinking about. i had 3 options. Newton, an RC or an SC.
The newton was out very early (because of my limited Knowledge) and only the SC and RC were in the race, yes focal lenght was the reason. I compared a lot of pictures here, and also because of dew Problems, the SC was out. So since 2 months i am checking the RC options. Until i checked the Pictures here a Little better.. now the newton came back. And i found moe reasons what speaks for the newton. F4 or 5 compared of F8 (or better 9.25). And i found nor that the sharpness and contrast of a good photonewton comared to an RC seems to look better.  A 1500mm  f5 newton is my faforit at the moment.

I really like the refractors, but a 1200mm potografically usable with <f7 is more than 10k… really too much.
So nearly all RC pictures i found here, are a Little bit, how to say, not unsharp, but like washed… and Spikes are also there. The newtons seems to be more sharp, near to an refractor i found the last days…
The other Thing. f5 or F9.25… this is nearly 3-4 times more exposure time… At the moment the main reason i tend to an newton, because i run always mobile…
Ok, with reducer also the 10"RC has f5.35 but only 1340mm, but still the newton Pictures looks more sharp.

Fabio, i saw you have all of them. What do you think about this? I think the newton you dont use photografically. How is your feeling with the RC?

Today i checked a Little the newtons, and this one looks really nice to me. TS ONTC 303 mm f/5 Newton, or TS ONTC 303 mm f/4 Newton
1200-1500 mm fits perfectly. ok 1500 i prefer, and f5 , still good…

Regards
Thilo

Hi Fabio. Thanks for your words. Yes, I've a astro modified dslr. My last 4 images are made with it. Interesting thread here Clear sky, Karol

Hi Fabio,

you are absolutely right. I have the 8300, and the pixels are too small for this long focal lengt and the 8300 sensor has a Problem in binned mode, so this is no option.
The Asi 1600 i only use for widefields. Binned mode is perhaps possible there, but i need to check first. ist pretty new and i only used it a few times.
Dont worry, i do not forget the RC i think it will still need a longer time until i can buy a new one, because the WAF is a Little bit low today. waf? "womens acceptance factor"
A the moment both are in the race. RC hast some Advantages, focal lenght, build (easier to handle with the focuser on the bottom), smaller, also a good point, theoretically no flattener neccesary, but i think in 80% of all cases i will use an reducer.  The newton, f, Picture Quality, exposure time. but very long and focal lenght is smaller, and i want to use it mainly for small objects and galaxies.
Yes really hard.  The result always change. Both are available in truss design, i think also an advantage for mobile users. At the moment i prefer the short exposure time of the newton, one of my real most important points at the moment , but….. 
Well lets see what happen. At the end also an 150mm or better 160mm refractor is an option, but this really would hurt in my purche oh yea, a TAk or TEC would be nice 

And i will check your photos tonight, was too late yesterday. Perhaps there i can find some nice RC Pictures .

Cs Thilo

Hello Jan

Same here, the weather is  really terrible (I'm from Derendingen, Solothurn)… since weeks…
With your mount it would be worth to take time for accurate polar align. Then you can push your exposure time to a few minutes per image.
It would surely make a difference.
To your Orion picture: you have to check the color balance in a image editing app to remove the pink tint (Lightroom, Photoshop, PixInsight…

Greetings from Solothurn

Karol

Grüezi again,

first of all, thank you for your warm welcome!

For sure, both of you are right… polar alignment is critical. I just had to hurry to get some shots in between the clouds, next time I will take more time for that. If there will be a next time, still sitting under fog.  I chose M42 as a first object because with the millions of beautiful shots it is a worthy target to compare your result to others. I am currently playing around with Photoshop and also got the trial version of Pixinsight, I realize now that you spend at least the same time in front of your computer.

Best wishes,
Jan

PS: I enjoyed your photos, amazing work!