M101 14X82s

Are you using a magnifying eyepiece for these?

No sir, these are all taken at prime focus with my Canon T2i DSLR. I do have some more recent planetary images, and a couple of planetary nebulae, that I have gotten better at imaging with my 2X Barlow lens, but still sitting the camera at prime focus.

I've got the equipment to do it (for my SCT anyways, maybe not for my reflector), but just haven't attempted it yet - it always seems so difficult to set all that stuff up and learn it all over again!

You have a nice scope.  I have the same and am very happy with it.  My photo album is titled "fairhavens" and is usually on the front page.  Pages 1-3 were taken with a Meade LXD75 10" and the rest were with the Orion.  I have a Losmandy G11 mount, Orion automatic guider system.  Perhaps we can open a dialog and I can share with you all that I have learned so far.  My phone is 520 780 4022 and my email is fairhavens85602@gmail.com  You can see, in my album, some of the modifications I have made to make live easier to live!  I haven't found too many Orion f/3.9's so I'm looking forward to use trading ideas.  I am located just east of Tucson with some beautiful dark desert skies.  Looking forward to stimulation discussions.

Pat

 

You have a nice scope.  I have the same and am very happy with it.  My photo album is titled "fairhavens" and is usually on the front page.  Pages 1-3 were taken with a Meade LXD75 10" and the rest were with the Orion.  I have a Losmandy G11 mount, Orion automatic guider system.  Perhaps we can open a dialog and I can share with you all that I have learned so far.  My phone is 520 780 4022 and my email is fairhavens85602@gmail.com  You can see, in my album, some of the modifications I have made to make live easier to live!  I haven't found too many Orion f/3.9's so I'm looking forward to use trading ideas.  I am located just east of Tucson with some beautiful dark desert skies.  Looking forward to stimulation discussions.

Pat

 

Hey Pat (Gork)!

I've been down for a few years - lots of astrophotography problems steadily built up and put me "out of business" until I could get it fixed. Good news though: I have an appointment with a very knowledgeable electronics person that's determined to help me get my first-generation Celestron CGE mount back up and going again using Gary Benett's cable mod instructions! 

Right before things kind of went down hill, I purchased and started using a 100mm ED Refractor... The images and views were pretty amazing through it when I had it going - where I image at, the huge 10" Orion is very susceptible to wind since it's in the middle of a power-line right of way. The 100mm refractor offered a much lower profile and the star sizes had gotten down pretty tiny on it when I compared to the Orion. Right now, I have the Orion setup on a Dobsonian mount that I custom-built for it that I frequently take out to view the planets, but if I could just get my mount working again, I would be so happy to just put anything back on it again! 

The last problem that got kind of frustrating was with my latest purchase - an Orion StarShoot DSCI Pro v2. The camera cost me around $500 and worked great for a few pictures, then started giving me problems. First, it completely quit working so I sent it back to Orion after talking with their support department, they found some problem with it and offered me a replacement "used, repaired" camera for half-price ($250 ish). So I hopped on the train and purchased that camera too, they sent both back to me and I started having problems again. This time, the issue was a little different - it could be caused me some weird reflection, I'm not really sure. It's most apparent in this image of the Christmas Tree nebulae that I captured around December 6th 2015: https://www.astrobin.../full/230904/0/

As you can see, there are "streaks" to the left and right of the brighter stars in the image. I contacted Orion support, sent them the images and a few others they asked for and they had me send the camera back to them. They then sent it back to me after "checking it out" and said nothing was wrong with it. 

About that time is when I started having more issues with my DEC cable on my CGE mount, so I just kind of put things down for a few years. I really hope to be back in business here before the end of this year - if it would ever stop being cloudy here in East Texas... 

I look forward to hearing some of these ideas you have about our scopes! 

-Duane