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Post by Dragon Man on Sept 28, 2020 14:42:15 GMT
A very good friend of mine contacted me and asked if this place was still functioning as there hasn't been any posts since 15th September Here you go Tim, I'm making a post But where is everyone else? The weather has been disgusting here for ages so we haven't been able to get out and do any astronomy until last night! We finally had a stunningly clear night, but too much Moon for DSO's so I did a short study of Saturn and its Moons. Looked great. I forgot to get some happy snaps as I was trying a new wide-angle Finder scope camera and lens and once I had it working right I shut down and went inside because it was minus 2 degrees. It was only today I realised I didn't save pics Oh well, there's always next time
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Post by davy on Sept 28, 2020 16:15:02 GMT
Apologies for being quiet,, nothing Happening my end due to really depressing weather,, Covid has shut Scotland down a fair bit Again,, but it's not slowing the work at the garage,, place is booked solid for about three weeks all the time,, after a day at work,, I feel like 102 years old,, dinner,, shower and bed for 9pm,,as I know it's groundhog Day every day at the garage. Image at top is from a 100 frame video clip,, last night as moon cleared horizon and ran smack into cloud coverage,, as good as it gets, Evostar ed80, canon 600d, backyard eos on planetary setting,, heq5,, Camera control on one laptop, CdC ran on second machine with eqmod, As good as it gets with post editing in photoshop
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Post by davy on Sept 28, 2020 16:21:31 GMT
Still to get first light with my skywatcher esprit ed80 on video and ap,, have it Ready to go mobile with my eq3 Pro and panasonic toughbook as soon as I get a few nights of clear sky,, Hoping to get some nights out with other astronomy Scotland Facebook group folk in the area,, Had the diagonal and 28 let eye piece on it last night and was impressed by the glass
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Post by fondofchips on Sept 28, 2020 18:39:10 GMT
I had similar problems viewing the moon last night Davy, I live near East Midlands airport and a combination of thin cloud & aircraft vapour trails that had spread out meant I couldn't get a clear view. However I got some more practice in setting up, ready for better conditions. The clocks will change soon for the winter and then (cloud permitting) it will be game on.
Stay safe.
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Post by davy on Sept 29, 2020 8:59:18 GMT
This is an ap image,, video wise the seeing was all over the place,, an my fov from flat wasn't great,, Moon filter used
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Post by Dragon Man on Sept 29, 2020 11:10:50 GMT
Total cloud again tonight
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2020 14:06:51 GMT
Have had all the time in the world with lockdown,but lousy weather .I need a calming night of VA away from the endless sermons from our dictator premier.We have to wear a mask if we are out of our homes. Had a clear night Sunday but a 2 hour zoom meeting with the family. Now back to clouds cheers Paul
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2020 21:23:37 GMT
Got the lx90 10" out on friday night to do some eye piece visuals on mars. I was hoping to see ice caps .No hope. The little red blob in the sky became a big red blob in the scope and a couple of filters didnt help. The moon was very close and very bright. I might have to give sharpcap a go and try to get an image next clear night .There are not many clear nights cheers Paul
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Post by Dragon Man on Oct 5, 2020 4:49:52 GMT
I've been checking out the planets too Paul, which is extremely rare for me! We had a lovely clear night 2 nights back and I had some great views of Joop and Saturn and all their Moons. The camera picks them up nicely. It seems a rare occurrence to get a clear sky, and when we did the Moon was near full
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2020 5:18:30 GMT
Yeah Ken, Jupiter and Saturn were far enough away from the moon to get a decent view. Hopefully we get another clear night soon so I can have another go at Mars. I occasionally get the eyepieces out but only for planets . I havent had much success with cameras and planets.Maybe it is time to try again. cheers Paul
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Post by Dragon Man on Oct 6, 2020 9:45:44 GMT
Paul, planets actually image better in the daytime just after sunrise or nearing sunset. If you can't manage those times try get them at dusk before the sky gets too dark which will be easier now with daylight savings time. Once the sky gets dark the extreme contrast plays hell with imaging planets, whereas we need extreme contrast with DSO's
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2020 14:12:36 GMT
Ahh,didnt know that Ken.I get the big lx90 out every now and then just to show someone who hasnt looked in a telescope and wants to see saturn.I havent had much interest in them and found them hard to image. So I have set a task of seeing and imaging the ice caps of mars. cheers Paul
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2020 13:20:28 GMT
I've been checking out the planets too Paul, which is extremely rare for me! We had a lovely clear night 2 nights back and I had some great views of Joop and Saturn and all their Moons. The camera picks them up nicely. It seems a rare occurrence to get a clear sky, and when we did the Moon was near full Ken,did you have to process the images of the planets ? Is there any way of getting an image of the planets without having to use Autostakkert and Registax? cheers Paul
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Post by Dragon Man on Oct 10, 2020 11:56:44 GMT
I didn't image them Paul, I just viewed them with the IMX178 in a reflector.
But to answer your question, you could image the planets with a single frame shot but they always turn out disastrous!
I don't know what Autostakkert is so I can't comment on that, but Registax is great, and easy. Simply record about 5 - 10 seconds of video then open it in Registax and use Auto process tab. Save the final stack and then play with it in PhotoShop. Usually a quick tweak in levels, and a touch of sharpness is enough.
Here's my video showing how bad the Planets and Moon look without stacking and quick processing, then with:
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2020 6:16:58 GMT
Thanks for that Ken.You make it look straightforward. I am impressed you got good images with the ED80. It shows you dont necessarily need a long FL. I will try it first on the sct with a FL 2000. There has to be some use for that scope cheers Paul
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Post by Dragon Man on Oct 11, 2020 11:20:37 GMT
. . . I am impressed you got good images with the ED80. It shows you dont necessarily need a long FL. . . . . Paul Thanks Paul. a Barlow helps
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Post by southernskies on Oct 15, 2020 6:12:32 GMT
A little while ago I succumbed to the siren call of getting a larger fov than the 54 x 41 minutes that I can manage with my tried and true IMX178 and effective f/3.4 Newt combination. A ZWO ASI294MC Pro duly arrived. When mated to the same f/5 'Scope (no focal reducer this time) it delivers a fov of 1 degree 28 minutes x 1 degree. Good. Also it has larger pixels which should help to reduce exposure times for EAA work. Again good. And it works well with the Baader MPCC 2” coma corrector. Good yet again. BUT it won't talk to ToupSky so I have not only to learn the ins and outs of the camera itself but also how to handle a new camera control and image capture program. SharpCap seems to be the usual choice so I opted for that. All of this this has kept me busy (and mute) for a while now. Presently still near the start of a fairly severe learning curve but slowly getting there. Here's a test image using SharpCap's live stacking feature. It's a small stack of 30 second exposures. By no means perfect but not too bad for the first cab out of the rank. A couple of nights ago I retreated back into my comfort zone and had a crack at Mars with the IMX178 + f/5 newt and a 2x Tele Vue barlow. Although the sky was clear and there was no dew the seeing was quite bl**dy and the on-screen view was terrible but I did mange to extract a few frames from the saved avi file using RegiStax. David
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Post by Dragon Man on Oct 15, 2020 12:13:52 GMT
Nice detail on Mars David! Well done.
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