I photograph Saturn on a budget of £75 from my roof in London with a cheap telescope and a webcam. We take on Nasa’s $1.4 billion Cassini mission and get Saturn's rings, we also manage to capture the moon and Jupiter. Enjoy!
I love your series of videos. You've given me so many ideas. Here's one for you. Astrophotography using only Open source software. A Linux OS like Ubuntu or, PeppermintOS, a stacking program such as Siril. RAW file processing, using either Rawtherapee, or DarkTable and GIMP instead of Photoshop. All free and Open source and free to download and use however you want. I know how you feel about the sodding mosquitoes. I used to live in basement flat on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. It was all very nice and very beautiful except for one thing. The bloody mosquitoes around the Prinsengracht are the size of chinook helicopters. If I left a window open on a warm summer's evening, the next morning I'd need a blood transfusion. Just hearing them in your video, has me all twitchy and wondering where my electric tennis racket is 🔭🤣.
@@Astrobiscuit That's really cool. I'm really looking forward to seeing your tutorials. Linux is piss easy, especially Ubuntu and Ubuntu based OSs. Debian and its direct derivatives are also easy. Linux is a lot of fun and it's ethical and super safe to use. I'm just getting back into astronomy after a long hiatus. When I lived in Florida back in the '80s, I had a Bushnell 4" Schmidt-Cassegrain. It got damp when I moved back to the UK. Mould grew on the mirrors. The damn stuff actually etched the glass. That was the end of that scope. I now have a Sky-Watcher 102/1300 f13 Maksutov with a motorized EQ2 mount. I've a nice selection of Omegon Super Plössl eyepieces and good Celestron Omni x2 Barlow. I'm very pleased with the rig. I'm looking for a used Canon EOS 600D with a low shutter count. I now live in The Netherlands, so the main issue I have, is finding high ground. Anything above sea level is considered Alpine here 🤣.
Oh btw nowadays Linux is pretty much plug and play, just create an installation medium for whichever distro (I recommend Ubuntu for newbies) you want and press okay a few times through the install (there's loads of tutorials on RU-vid) and then reboot once it's done after like 10mins and use the app store to install all the stuff you need
I'd love to see a crossover with you and Colin Furze. Not sure what you'd do together, though...? Measure the speed of light over London's skyscrapers? Make a rocket powered star tracker?
I knew it! You work in television, that totally makes sense. I reckon it's possible to do Saturn for £30! Years ago ASDA were selling some astro suitable webcams for £1.97. I bought one and modded it and it worked. My latest camera is a Logitech 720C which cost £12. Total after modding with a proper nose piece was probably close to 20 quid but it's served me well for the last year or two with really nice results :)
Ha yes... But id prefer to do this full time😜 yeh your right about webcams athough i think mobile phones and dslr cameras are better now although obviously more pricey and require less enginuity
@@Astrobiscuit Well I certainly think you've got a shot at doing YT professionally Rory. You're really starting to blow up now! (well done for 10k in advance!). As someone who also make content between work and family life I have no idea how you've managed to fit the time it takes to make such good content? Your last video especially must have taken soooo long! I might pick up a Canon DSLR to mod. I've not done one for a few years but would like to test one against my Fuji mirrorless which seems to have an inherently weak IR cut filter. Looking forward to more content dude, and maybe you can do a line of glowing red bunny merch to help with the dream.
Love this wee series! Good to see Astrophotography within a budget for most people, not the thousands of pounds telescopes and cameras, should encourage more people, love to see more episodes like these
Ha, thx, I'm actually about to export part 2 off the computer... then I can upload it tonight, lets hope it works and I don't get dragged into helping the kids with something ;-)
I've been out and bought 2 grand worth of scope and mount (heq5 + 200mm reflector bundle) since watching your videos 📹 after not even touching a telescope for 20 years
Looks like my typical evening with a scope, although now I really can not stand the cold. Fortunate enough to have a small place in Spain where in 1 night have observed more than 10yrs in the north of UK. Highly recommend to save your cash from the VERY expensive scopes and buy a house abroard, only now covid stops me going, there is always somthing! That Orion (UK) scope should be decent quality!
Such photos from a backyard in London! That's just great. I did some astronomy when I was young, but I am really surprised about today's technical possibilities, especially when you're on budget.
Rory, I really love your videos! Especially your low-budget-projects... ;-) I also grabbed an unused webcam and want to give it a try. Which cam-software would you recommend?
Can you show us how to set up a goto mount so that it's easily done each time we take the scope out. I use a compass and always set up with scope facing due north and zero elevation.
@@will2see Used a batinov mask last night with an 8 inch newt and I did find it useful. With other scopes I've found simply 400percent digital zoom on the computer and focusing by eye works well (in fact its more reliable than using the FWHW computer aided focusing routines like you find in sharp cap) but with the dodgy focuser on this particular newt the bat mask was a god sent. Not sure you should be using it for planetary tho. Damien peach doesn't use a BAT mask. FYI I am now better/ more experienced than most now but 3 years ago i wasn't.
I always worry about buying second hand telescopes because of my lack of maintenance experience. I'd rather buy a new telescope for peace of mind. Any recommendations on some really budget friendly telescopes? Under £150 kinda thing
Well you could check out my jupter saturn and mars £100 mission. That set up would get you uranus too, neptune wouldn't look much more than a dot though. 😃 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pYsgyL7I8RI.html
Why are people so afraid of cleaning mirrors lmao bruh literally just soap and water and agitate it and blow the droplets and dab with cotton ball literally clean my 4.5 a lot just for the fun of it......nothing has happened don't be afraid or actually know what yall stay scared and ill open up a mirror cleaning shop
