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Aurora alerts just gone red

Fantastic, thanks for posting.

The Arp catalogue given out Dr. Halton C. Arp between 1961 and 1966 is named the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. Arp 299 (aka NGC 3690) is the central group in this image and probably consists of at least three interacting galaxies. Arp 296 is the two interacting galaxies to the right of Arp 299, described as "double galaxy with long filaments". There is no interactions between Arp 299 and 296 since Arp 299 is approximately 130 million light-years away while Arp 296 is much further away (approximately 800 million light-years). The image also show some very faint tidal trails stretching out upwards and downwards from Arp 299. By pure chance I also caught a supernova during my exposures. I had no idea that it was there but then I noticed this recent post by Thomas Rox on Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/4aw6t3/. It is the blue dot near the top right edge of Arp 299 and is named SN 2023 wrk. It was discovered on 4 November 2023 and it is a type Ia supernova. It is clearly still shining quite brightly. I took this image taken with the Margareta Westlund Telescope in southern Spain, owned by the Swedish Amateur Astronomical Society and available remotely to its members. It is a Planewave CDK17 with an ASI6200MM. 65 x 2 min lum and 20 x 2 min of each RGB, so 4.2 hours. Processed in PI and PS. Please zoom in, there is no shortage of galaxies in this image. Is it only me that see a face in Arp 299? Cheers, Göran

If you're quick the offer SF is now an even better price.

Great images, uncooled 585 is top of my list to upgrade my dslr

Oh no Kostas! Something else for me to try 😂. Fantastic images. Was this using Baader solar film?

I got another look in just now in Ha with the SM125, after a bit of re-learning the Quark recently I'm getting it dialled in again, plus I tried it for the first time with a 55mm plossl keep the magnification down and it is looking to be a very promising set up. A big broad prom was fanned out over the horizon near 3664, and 3664 itself was full of complexity.

After you do a goto and plate solving has confirmed target is centred you can do a "sync to mount" which "should" sort it out. I've never done it as plate solving takes the need out of it.

I don't follow this. Visual images in budget refractors tend to be better in slower optics and this kind of telescope is possibly the worst of all options for imaging, with pretty well everything wrong. Poor colour correction, a lot of field distortion, a sag-prone focuser, etc. Olly

I very much hope you've tested the east west heavy balance as my experience trying to make the smallest tripod for compactness taught me the tripod can't be too short or it'll fall over.

That’s brilliant! We use to go quite often. First time must be just over 25 yrs now. Then we had our daughter… of course there was COVID. Last year we went for 2 weeks when many of the nights were during a full moon. Not my decision, but have to fit things in with my wife, holidays, when the dogs can be looked after etc. So on that occasion I took binoculars. Now, I like binoculars and they have their uses but a small telescope will still be so much better - if you can get it out there!

I thought the group were big enought to see naked eye and when I held up my Solar film to check it before putting it on the scope I was amazed to see just how large the group looked. It was very obvious. Cheers Ian

Plan B has landed in the form of a camera cold shoe adapter. The 85mm telescope was a little too heavy for the tripod with the counterweights so going to give this a go. Can't wait to try it out now, got it all lined up with the laser, next step focus the guidescope, pa then see what the lens gives me 😃. It's sitting on a seestar tripod so with the seestar and this little setup should make for a great grab n go. Wouldn't be the same without a birds nest of wiring 😉

Looks like a Teddy bear in free fall ??🤔🤔 John

Thank you all, --- What medium did you use to sketch this? Is this with pencils? --- I have used black pencil on white paper. Scanning on the PC and editing by increasing or decreasing brightness/ exposure/ contrast etc.The sketch in the circle and finally the information and notes. Digital notepad on the kitchen table. In the mornings, I'll usually leave a note 😀

I got one of these 😁 Which enabled me to do this....... And yes that is the seestar tripod, cant wait to try it out now

Visiting Carmathen Cameras in West Wales today. Some interesting wood carvings outside as seen in the pictures.

That's what I usually do for planetary, put it through pipp but I always struggle to get it a surface anchor to work at pipp, unless I do something odd😂.

I should have added that I was using an Asiair, daft of me to forget that!

Another once in a lifetime thing so had to try 😁

Amazing images. That first one is breathtakingly beautiful. except for the moon and sun it looks like nebula. Do you mind if save a copy and share it with the members of my local astro society? They'll love it.

Bedfordshire may just be ok until it's dark, but a lot of cloud is likely in eastern areas.

Wow. You were lucky. Super images. Dave

Also, I am just using the stock focusser manually. I'm finding focus not too hard with an AsiAir.

That's very nice. Moody describes it well.