Stacking images vs. Longer exposure time

The LPI is the "Lunar and Planetary Imager", so its not going to be of any use on deep sky stuff. There are reviews on the web that indicate that the philips toucam pro webcam is actually a better planetary imager.

ALL of the best images on the planets on this site are all taken using the toucam.

The dsi is what you want in starting off in deep sky, as for the wind, go buy yourself some good wind breakers, like ones you'd use on a beech.

Wind is a big factor if you have a mount that isn't particularly stable. Don't forget, the big fellas on Mauna Kea regularly work during heavy winds (well, heavier than we are used to!).

I guess if you want to really get into deep sky imaging in a way that doesn't involve:

1. Chucking more than 75% of your images away due to trailing
2. Chucking all of your images away due to wind
3. Being disappointed at your M42 image of 1000 stacked 3 second exposures

etc

then you're gonna have to spend a bit of money.

The best advice that I personally took and that I'd give to anyone wanting to get into deep sky imaging is spend your money in this order:

1. Mount
2. OTA
3. CCD

You can have the best OTA and CCD in the world - stick them on a flimsy mount and you will always be disappointed....

Anyway, back to your question - yes, to avoid losing too many images due to wind, you'll need to shorten the exposure length and stack them. But the more you shorten the exposure, the less detail you will get - no matter how many you stack.

Its a bummer, I know, but there's always trade-offs in this game. Depends how much you want to trade for quality...

Cheer and HTH

Dave

The ETX-70 isnt good for Deep sky so i dont even going to try that. But i want to try planets.

Dave that sounds good, ill go for the webcam. I have a quickcam from before, is that any good?

I found the toucam pro on a site posted here some time ago, with adapter, do you know if you get the standard lens too? And how easy is it to change between adapter and lens if i want to use the webcam as normal?

I would have wanted to try deep sky, but for a good setup its to expensive. Ill try something that should be posible with my etx first.

Eirik - the ETX70 OTA is great for deep sky - just that the mount isn't up to it... With the ETX mounted on my AP1200, the deep sky images were great!

If you come by a bit of money, get a good mount but keep the ETX70...

Cheers
Dave

but wont i still need a guidescope + guidecam?

If you get a good mount and have it accurately polar aligned, you'd get at least a couple of minutes worth of exposure with the ETX70 without any guiding.

I don't guide at all And that's with a C8!

Concentrate on the mount first - worry about guiding later. One thing I've learned is one step at a time...

Cheers
Dave