> Deep-Sky Hunter Star Atlas
http://www.deepskywatch.com/deep-sky-hunter-atlas.html This is an amazing resource. Detailed atlas of all the sky with NGC and IC objects. All stars up to 10th magnitude. It is more detailed then any of the software available so far. I use it to plan observations and locate fainter objects.
You can print it and have it in your hands. Such an old school feeling! :)
If you have PC on hand during your observation, other good resources are the astronomical databases such as SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/ but you need to be more specific in what you are looking for and it is therefore for higher level use.
Another good and more popular resources are Word Wide Telescope and Google Sky. For Mobile, I use SkyEye a very nice app but it shows stars up to 6th magnitude.
Here is one of my shots of M22 Globular cluster in Sagittarius and crop of the same filed from the atlas. Shot is taken in "Kara Tepe" one of the darkest sky in Europe with 200mm f5 telescope and single exposure of 30s and ISO 25600. The smallest dot is a 10th magnitude star. You can see that on the actual photo there is countless stars much weaker then 10th magnitude.
As this is a part of the Milky Way the most fainter stars dissipaters in the noise grain. As stated in the previous article the fainter star is much weaker then the limited magnitude of my 200mm telescope and will go even to 16 - 18+ magnitude.
This is a comparison of my not modified Pentax k5 DSLR and the same, but modified one without IR-cut filter.
Astrotracer is a great way to take advantage of the Pentax DSLR camera in-body shake reduction mechanism. It is available since Pentax k5 and track celestial bodies by moving the sensor. Here is what is it ablout:
Staying at my home inspires me to make some documentation of my experience. I got a dedicated drive for my astrophotos and start reorganize them by objects. Here is an article of the most recent process I use on my photos. Enjoy: )
For a few months from now Betelgeuse (Alpha Orion) dim so much, that it looks as bright as the stars in the Orion belt. This is not so disturbing and does not mean that cataclysmic events are happening with it.
For my last trip to the Rodopa mountain I decided to cross the limits and to target an object that is hard to believe that a non-professional equipment could catch.
