AstroCrescent
Welcome to my astronomy & astrophotography site. I'm KGB and among other interests, I'm an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. My interest started when very young and now years later I practice astronomy and astrophotography in my back garden at home in the crescent. Primarily, my site is aimed at beginners who need help with this obsess-, er, scientific pursuit and also the focus is on the modern CMOS cameras as regards astrophotography. I am hoping to show what can be done with modest gear and very bad UK skies, as opposed to £14,000 cameras and a 18 inch remote telescope in a desert. I hope you find this site useful.
KGB.
GEAR USED FOR ALL IMAGES ON THIS SITE:
William Optics ZenithStar 81 APO Doublet Refractor (Unless mentioned otherwise, all images since the 24th April 2024).
Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED DS-Pro. (Images up to 22nd April 2024).
SkyWatcher HEQ5 PRO SynScan GOTO Equatorial Mount.
ZWO ASI 533MC-PRO USB 3.0 Cooled Colour Camera.
Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Micro.
Optolong Dual-Band L-eXtreme Filter.
Optolong L-Pro Light Pollution Broadband Filter.
ASIAIR Mini Hardware & Software.
PixInsight (Software).
Astrophotography
Please click on the photos for more information. The photos contain information such as gain and exposure settings which you can copy and use with your own camera. This info is very useful for beginners.
Star Charts
While I acknowledge that if you have a computer controlled telescope, then you do not need a star chart. Personally, while I now have the luxury of a go-to mount, I learned my way around the sky using star charts and a 60mm telescope, that was if nothing else, a teacher of patience. I also find star charts fascinating in their own right, so I include them here for those who feel the same way.