SierraWolf117
The extent of my gazing was the eclipse and the awesome Wolf Moon we had... pathetic I know, but I do really like space and and would love to actually travel out there one day. Thanks for the pics of setups and cool shots, it's inspiring.

Welcome to the forums!!  I won't be seeing the lunar eclipse next week, It happens when the moon is below the horizon in the morning. 

Looking at that picture reminds me of the fact we are but a speck of dust on top of a bit bigger speck of dust spinning and flying around in space.
Are we really alone, I highly doubt it.

M100:

 
High Res:https://i.imgur.com/EPUQHYG.jpg
 
 
 

nateman_doo
First look at M51 with what I tried to do:

 
Full res:
 
M100:

 
High Res:
 

I love these photos, please do more. How powerful of a magnification and resolution would you need to get even closer while keeping detail?
 
P.S. And an EVGA senpai noticed me? Thanks very much for welcoming me

Wow just noticed this tread. Man some of these shots are amazing. Please keep posting more! ^^

nateman_doo
The weather is starting to get cooler, so I am getting back into Astronomy.  I realize I haven't really posted much of my other passions, so I thought I would share and hope to draw out my other fellow closet Amateur Astronomers. 
 
Here is my new setup:

14" Dobsonian.
 
Some pictures of what it can do:
See the island in the middle of the picture? (1100 feet away)

 
Here it is at the minimum magnification:

Tree top
 
Left side of the island:

see the rock at the bottom left corner?
 
Lets go to max magnification with what it comes with (no barlow):


 
Here is the high tension wire tower behind the island.  About 1.5 miles away:

Max magnification.
 
See the red arrow?

thats a light fixture at 500 feet.  It was the closest object I could see with max magnification.
 
Want to see who makes it?

Good ol' GE
 
 
 
Now on to some "Astrophotography." I use the term loosely, because I used a cell phone held up to the lens.  It is a pretty high speed cell cam as you have manual control over many functions, which has allowed me to take the following pictures.
 
The moon/lunar surface:


 
 
The Pleiades:

 
Polaris:

 
And one of my favorite objects to see:

Can anyone guess what it is?  
 
Please feel free to post whatever you like on the subject.  I am planning a Messier Marathon next weekend in the Catskills NY.  The only "blue zone" in 300 from my house (minus going out to sea)  
 
What to see how bad (or good) your location is?  Have a look here:

I live in a red zone outside NYC 

My uncle has an amazing telescope he dished out like 60k for and always shows me amazing nebulas and such when I go to visit him.  It really is a different experience than just seeing a picture.  It feels more "real" I guess.

for us to think that were along in the vastness of the universe is absolute idiocy! and not to bring up religion but i'm a believer and to think that only we were created is ridiculous as well.

Love,
its really hard for me to recommend things to people in terms of telescopes.  Simply because in the course of less than a year, i went from visual observing, to astrophotography.  You can get away with SO much for general observations, but you can't with astrophotography.
 
The biggest difference between the 2 is for visual, you can get ALT/AZ mount.  If you want to take pictures that is not a good mount because the object you are looking in rotates.  Doesnt really matter for visual as you wont notice it rotate while you are watching it.  for that you will need an equatorial mount.
 
The best bang for the buck is a Dobsonian mount.  (like my very first post in this thread).  But at the budget you listed I would go for something like this: https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Telescopes/GoTo-Computerized-Telescopes/Orion-SkyQuest-XT10g-Computerized-GoTo-Dobsonian-Telescope/rc/2160/pc/-1/c/1/sc/15/p/102020.uts
its under $1500 and if you align it perfectly (comes with illuminated reticle eyepiece) all of the heavens will be within reach.  And the best part is as soon as you enter in an object, it will track it.  So you can walk away from it and go off and find someone and show them too.  
 
First step would be to not spend any money and download Stellarium.  Its a free program that you can just browse the heavens and see the night sky as you would see it at your location.  If what you see in the program interests you... then get a telescope.  You have to remember though... when you look up an object on-line or in a program, you will likely see a hubble view of it.  Your view will be considerably different.
 
For example, i am sure everyone has seen the crab nebula: 

 This is what people expect to see in a telescope. 
 
 
 
 
However this is how it will look in real life through your telescope (or my 8" telescope I should say):

 
One was seen through hubble and had a team of scientist and photo editors make that image, the other was just me taking a picture with probably a 30 second exposure.  Once you realize this your reality vs expectations wont be as shocking.  Plus if you get a 4" scope you might not even be able to see it (depending on how dark the skies are). 
 
However if you looking at the flame nebula in Orion's belt you will actually be able to see deep and beautiful reds.  Even when looking at galaxies, like Andromeda for example.  It will look like a smudge.  A blur in your eyepiece.  in reality you are looking at a mass of billions of stars, which in its own right is pretty incredible.  You will love open and globular clusters though.  You can't go wrong with those.  Stars no matter how big your scope will always just look like a pinpoint of light.  So having so many dazzling pinpoints of light in your lens looks amazing no matter the size of the scope.
 
Let me know if you need me to go into better detail on anything.

What NASA puts out are doctored to hell and back to give them the best image for humanity. You're not going to see Hubble quality images that have been photo edited out of a back yard telescope. You, as well as I, are well aware of this.
This is something that is probably a couple years out. Probably end of 2019. Looking to buy another gun before I do any of this. AR Rifle, suppressor, optics, for a 300Blk build I'm looking at $3,500 at the most.
Why do our hobbies cost so much?
 

Check out this picture of M1: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/M101_hires_STScI-PRC2006-10a.jpg
Mine will look VASTLY different.  Will post later today.
 

Knightviper
I powder coated bits for the James Webb telescope
 

What kind of parts?

nateman_doo

Swats
 
 Nateman or anyone else if you wanted to have a friendly competition of picking a deep space object and see how the pictures turn out.

clear skies tonight (so far).... what are you game for?  
Going to try some new stuff to try like the backyard EOS. and see if I can get PhD to work.
 
Moon is going to be annoying, so perhaps a star cluster would be best?

I have had cloudy nights here and working late into the nights. I have never tried M81the Bode Galaxy and M82 the Cigar Galaxy is beside it. If you want to try something else I am game. I just picked M81 because it is close to Polaris and out of the moons path.
P.S. If you have not tried Stellarium (Free) I would suggest get it to identify objects and plan your nights.

nateman_doo
First look at M51 with what I tried to do:

 
Full res:
 

 woah.... Is that two galaxies about to collide?  :O
 

nateman_doo
That is the going hypothesis, that they are colliding:

 

wow that's awesome.  Too bad we won't likely see any of it's progression in our lifetime.

NICE!.....

Chaos_21
NICE!.....

Thanks!
 

ssj92
With dark clear skies, good long exposures (tracked) and proper image editing (pixinsight etc.) you can get some very nice images. 
 
Biggest issue is light pollution probably. Hopefully when I have some time I can try some better imaging. 

Yes, please and thank you.  There are so many programs I am just dumb too.  
 
M3: 

 
(high res: https://i.imgur.com/dAb2JqZ.jpg)