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What EQ platform is that below the 12", @Mr Spock?

Finally I was able to get out to image my first milky-way of the season. Following the rain of the evening that as forecasted passed over and led to clear skies from 12am right though the night. I set off at 2am to my best milky-way imaging site overlooking the village quarry. Though the moon was just past the first quarter and bright, I had time to take in the perfect silence and wildlife noises of the owls, foxes, bat's and scurrying rabbits. I took my static tripod and dslr and as a quick experiment my alt az az with dslr bracket to see if I could get 1min exposures with no star trails on my samyang 14mm f2.8 lens. Success so something to work on next time for the core. I then set up my static tripod, Canon 600D with Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens and took some long exposure foregrounds whilst I waited for the moon to get lower and the milky-way to rise higher as the moon was really blowing it out. Eventually the moon set enough to crack on. I have manged to capture 3 landscape panoramic panels and 1 portrait panoramic panel for processing. The latter finishing imaging just as the dawn was beginning to try and end the darkness up in the east. So probably around 30 minutes of good darkness before that happened. It was lovely to see Scorpio and Antares, the teapot asterim, the great rift through Cygnus, Aquila and Lyra again after such a long time. It's even better now looking south, that the town 3 miles away in that direction now turn off almost all their streetlights at night. 😊 So I packed up and headed home for a coffee to warm up, with the dawn chorus starting up and the belt of Venus in its early stages. Though chuffing cold by the end of it and lots of dew, good job the dew heater did its job admirably. A most enjoyable session though I'm going to be knackered later at work. Thank you for getting this far on my ramblings. Clear skies. Lee

What to do when you wake early! Well today I thought go for it it was gone 4 am but I managed to get the obsy open camera mounted and fired up, hoped the focus was good from the previous session as there was no time for an auto focus run. Set NINA for M27 hit slew and centre 20x 60s ... I got 5 mins before the sky got too bright. Now its all packed away again, I've had a play with PI and it's still only half 6! Breakfast calls....

Brand new William Optics carbon dura bright 2" dielectric.

The only other equipment I now have is very s very cheap 60mm refractor from the 80's. Star test was so bad it showed two airy disks. Yet no sign of flaring. But as another member pointed out, it could be due to exit pupil. I also have a pair Zeiss Victory 10x42 bins that show pinpoint stars.

That's a cracking image and lovely seeing that line of craters. Not seen that before. Thank you. Lee

Hope you feel better soon Mike, lovely images and report. Lee

Thank you 😊. Hopefully next time you'll get the Aurora. I would of stopped by 11pm if I didn't see the alert on Auroa hunters uk on crapbook. Maybe a couple more opportunities before darkness ends soon. Good luck and clear skies. Thank you Paul you're far to kind 😊though I wouldn't go as far as legend haha (maybe next time I'll remember to put the iso up 🙄) but I'm slowly learning and get a lot more joy from Widefield imaging and the inspiration you provide me. Also I now use the long exposure noise reduction on the foreground images as you describe in your journals and much easier, thank you. I'm looking forward to your next one. Clear skies and hope you're all well. Lee

Another superb set!

What exquisitely subtle and detailed images Steve! Despite the constant limitations, presented by weather and seeing conditions. You are the master of full disk, white light, solar imaging. Those who wish to improve their own imaging. Need look no further than your work. As their ultimate goal and shining example of what is possible. Your ability to constantly repeat this incredibly high standard. Is proof enough of your skill, dedication and determination. ☺️

Looks like you started the same way I did. My neighbor is a teacher. His school bought a telescope that could be a dead-ringer for yours. They couldn't get it to focus, so he gave it to me. I determined what was wrong -- an easy fix. Of course, I became hooked. Got a couple more eyepieces. Added a cellphone holder. Seeing the moon and planets on the cellphone got my wife hooked. Led to better equipment. Now I'm delving into astrophotography. Take it slow. Listen to folks and do your research. Think in terms of what you want to do, what kind of stuff you want to "shoot." Makes a big difference on the kind of equipment, and saves you from spending money on things you really don't need. Also doesn't hurt to join a club. Cheers.

The Altair Astro version is heavier than 331g. In an early thread about the green eyepieces, someone quoted the actual weight, but, alas, I can't remember what it was. The APM, with aluminum lower barrel, is 331g.

I sold APM eyepieces for years. On my gram scale the 24mm UFF was 331g without eyepiece caps.

Where did you read this? I have read numerous reviews stating that there's no aberration at > 300x with the triplet Askars. I would like to read this report. I'm about 90% in the SM 125ED camp at the moment in any case.

This is a mystery to me. This image has 1 hour of data (12 300 sec Ha). I don't understand why it looks so nice. Generally, I need copious data to avoid a stippley background. But not so in this case. Conditions were not great, as is common, and the Moon was about 75%. I botched the framing somewhat, as I wanted the soap bubble and the Crescent to be displayed. The soap bubble can just be seen near lower left margin. TOA 130 with ASI 1600. 1 hour Ha.

Of course, you are right, but why my Askar denies the following rule? I think it's because it's closer to a lens than to an astro refractor. Focusing by rotating a ring (OK, WO Cats also have it) while its objective moves in and out. Anyway, after many attempts I applied around 1.2mm spacer in total and I still have a small coma interchangeably with a radially elongated star in corners. I think it's a point of compromise. They are visible after stacking while an affected by LP background is still there. But the goal is to remove the background, then the distortion isn't visible. I made 30x30s F/1.8 for IDAS LPS-P2 and L-eXtreme filters, now I repeat the same for F/1.4 to see any difference. In the meantime, my main setup captures a Lion Nebula in SHO...

From tonight.

Can't afford it, it's all invested into astro.

I just tried one of the best, sharp daytime lenses, though a more affordable FE lenses for my APSC Sony, it's an FE lens so built for full frame. Does it coma... It sure does! It's a similar star elongation issue too, you'd think with a crop sensor it wouldn't show it. I've found most lenses are quite poor for astro, especially if you want a sharp flat field. Regarding the odd BS issue between the Sigma and Askar, I'd presume most companies only do batch QA, so you will find manufacturing variance between items even if they have been made to a BS specification, it'd be within their manufacturing and QA tolerance spec.

Better take up golf, lol !

oops, thanks.

I hate my south roof... there's one directly north too. And a lamppost directly east...

It's been discussed, see:

And 90% of the great objects are in the south quadrant so if it takes the horizon too high a SS'er will miss out on a high number of dso's ! In the summer Scorpius, Sagittarius, etc. and a lot that goes alongside them ! Hopefully not but ......... ?

Hmm, this is very interesting! those with better knowledge of cameras related to AP would be able to make a better judgement. Pegasus Astro SmartEye (ontariotelescope.com)