102mm National Geographic Telescope, 25mm Plossl eyepiece with phone mount (26.4x magnification).
Untracked, 40 seconds of imaging before re-centering the target.
Samsung Galaxy S10, 12 MP 1/2.55" sensor, ISO 800, 1/2 Second Exposure, pro mode with DNG frames.
Stacked and processed in Siril 1.4.1 with 1270 lights and 164 darks using the Mono_Preprocessing_WithoutFlat script and debayer option ON.
Bortle 8 location.
102mm National Geographic Telescope, 25mm Plossl eyepiece with phone mount, untracked
Samsung Galaxy S10, 12 MP 1/2.55" sensor, ISO 800, 1/3 Second Exposure
Stacked and processed in Siril 1.4.1 with 1538 lights and 212 darks using the Mono_Preprocessing_WithoutFlat script and debayer option on
Bortle 8 location
On March 30 I created a channel where I upload my gaming highlights of a specific game, Battlefield 1. Initially, I uploaded 2 shorts per day, but now, I only do 1 per day to better study their performance and see what works and what doesn't.
So far, for content, I have:
Performance:
As I've found out through testing, the clips perform best when they're scaled to fit (from a 16:9 to a 9:16 aspect ratio). The titles themselves don't really matter that much, but I try to keep them minimalist with lowercase and no emojis for less visual clutter. I also save my strongest clips for the weekends, which is when the site is most busy.
As of last week, my stayed to watch percentage is 46.9% with the highest stayed to watch short at 67.7%. Most of these shorts uploaded over the last 7 days managed to surpass 1k views, which is decent performance for me.
I upload my shorts at 7:00 EST with my views initially peaking at around 11:00 PM EST and then continuing to be gradually recommended for the following days. I plan to upload them earlier to better fit the US east coast schedules since I think that's where most of the potential audience is, but it will probably take YouTube a while to adjust and recommend my shorts at that time.
So that's my report. I plan to make my first community post to celebrate my first 50K views and engage with my audience, asking them what they want to watch more of.
I'm wondering, is this good progress? Is there something I could improve upon?
Thanks for your advice!
102mm National Geographic Telescope, 25mm eyepiece with phone mount, tracked manually
Samsung Galaxy S10, ISO 800, 1/3 Second Exposure
Stacked in Siril with 1007 lights and 80 darks
Bortle 8 location
I'm planning to get myself started in proper astrophotography by purchasing a tracking equatorial mount.
The mount that I plan to get is the iEXOS-100-02 PMC-Eight from Explore Scientific due to its relatively low price and tracking capabilities. Here is the link to the product's website:
https://explorescientific.com/products/iexos-100-2-pmc-eight-equatorial-tracker-system
The telescope that I plan to pair it with is my National Geographic Sky Assist 102, made by Explore Scientific themselves. This telescope is a 4-inch achromatic refractor with a focal length of 660mm. I'm aware that this is not the best telescope type for imaging due to achromatic aberration and other characteristics, but I'm OK with using it as long as I'm learning.
So, my question is: is my telescope's dovetail standard and compatible with the mount?
It seems to be a vixen-style dovetail with a width of 42.5 mm, but searching online, there are so many variations and styles that I'm unsure myself.
Here I attach some photos so you can tell me whether it is or not:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ewiiSqStENb41jBjON86YcYlOgSjtaR2?usp=drive_link
Weight shouldn't be an issue, as the telescope weighs 4.8 lbs while the mount claims to have a maximum capacity of 18 lbs.
For capturing the images, I'll be using my phone as I've done before (Lord willing, I'm also able to get one of those Xiaomi Ultra's with 1 inch sensors). An astro camera will be the next step, but I want to figure out the EQ mount and tracking first.
Thanks in advance for your help and advice!
S: Would happily play a 24/7 server of those maps.
A: Maps that scratch the the itch perfectly.
B: Would vote for any of these maps over the others that are below this tier.
C: Nothing special gameplay-wise.
D: Bearable maybe once per day.
Remove from rotation: For the betterment of humanity.
Reddit tier: Jarvis I'm low on karma, post about how Nivelle is underrated.
Taken on April 26 2026
102mm National Geographic Telescope, 25mm eyepiece with phone mount
Samsung Galaxy S10, ISO 50, 1/909 Second Exposure
Cropped and flipped using Photoshop