Nice pic of the flaming star neb. I’ve continuously am impressed with what the S50 can do (I have one myself).

Thx. Weather has not great here either. Fingers crossed for clear skies on the exact night!

Yes, soon in terms of astronomical times. Soon meaning a million years or so. That’s a blink of an eye for the universe. Cheers,

You might be right. I’ve read both, and think S&T is a little more techie. I get Astronomy - quick read. The pic I used from them was a pic I shot from the mag. Sure color was washed out. Does show the exquisite detail the photographer got. I didn’t match that, but I’m shooting in Bortles 7.

Thanks. I have bottles 7 skies, and I’ve struggled to get details of M31. I was particularly pleased that in this image, I was able to get the bright nebulae to show up. Not as clearly as the Astronomy Magazine image, of course, but nonetheless, it made my day.

I would loved to have the chance, but so far, I’ve been confined to the Northern Hemisphere. Would be an interesting object to image.

Thx. It’s taken a while to learn how to do this kind of photography. 😀. Glad you enjoyed seeing them.

Gene, thx for the kind comments. I started into astrophotograhy with an SE-8. Have been trying different scopes ever since. It does take a long time to master digital photography, but your C8 will be great for the planets and for planetary nebulae. Cheers, Doug

Thx much for the kind comment!

Meant to say: …..binary star with a “black hole” as its partner.

Impressive for 30 sec. For sure you would need to mount it on an equatorial mount and add a guide scope. I started with an SE8 and 30 sec exposures. It got all of hand after I got an equator mount and camera. 😀

I’ve got a friend with a vintage 9”Takahashi SCT. It too has wonderful optics, but the baffles designed to increase contrast, in turn restrict the width of the field of vision. I’ll bet you may have a similar experience. That said, there are plenty of objects that the scope will be perfect for.