Hey everyone,
Some of you might know me from around 10 years ago when I was a club member then. I had always wanted to get my hands dirty in this expensive, and sort of difficult at times, hobby. So, I have finally jumped into the deep end of the pool.
I got my first successful session under my belt and wanted to post the first image I generated. My setup:
OTA: 120mm / 1000mm focal length f/8.3 (Meade LX 70 R5)
Mount: EQ6-R Pro
Camera: Nikon Z6 II
Tracking Hardware/Software: Asiair Plus
Guide Scope: ZWO 50mm F5 w/ ASI220mm Mini Camera
Post-Processing Software: Siril 1.4.4
I took this image of M27 in my front yard with lots of light pollution.
ISO800, 60s EXP, 19 frames, only dark and bias masters used, no flat
There is a lot I learned from this, such as needing longer exposures to pull out more detail of the faint nebula gases around the nebula, playing around with ISO settings, needing a better workflow on how to generate flat frames, learning that I have to polar align before attempting plate solving and micro aligning mount (wasted a LOT of time on that one, lol), and many other things.
I am pleased as a first picture generated from what is probably a pretty modest scope.