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  1. I had another bash on Uranus and I managed a decent image despite ongoing collimation issues (I am not happy yet). Uranus with its five moons and norther polar hood. Captured with IR 742 filter and false coloured. Skywatcher 300P (12") Flextube Goto, asi462mm, IR pass 742, 2.5x televue powermate. This is a 10min capture and stacked the best 25%.
    41 points
  2. Or plain and simple: Abell 1185 in Ursa Major I spent two nights gathering data for this one. Two nights ago gave me 10.5 hours of RGB, and I completed the data collection yesterday night with 6 hours of Luminance. Abell 1185 is a group of galaxies, some 400 - 450 million light years distant in the constellation Ursa Major. One of the more interesting members in this field of view is ngc 3561, which actually consists of several galaxies, ngc 3561, ngc 3561 N, and ngc 3561 Irregular. Equally interesting is that there are more galaxies in this images than there are stars. Most of the background "gnats" are distant galaxies and quasars, up to 6 billion light years distant. As always, I used my trusted 190MN and ASI294MM with Optolong LRGB filters Processed in PixInsight. I drizzled the Luminance master, so even this crop is quite a large size. And by the way; that isn't Saturn in the lower right corner. It's ngc 3536, 500 million light years distant. It has a very nice double ring structure.
    36 points
  3. Here are three images of old favourites M81 M82 and surrounding area at different scales put together out of data collected over the last 5 years from Esprit150SX46LRGBHa (20hrs), Esprit100ASI1600 RGB and Ha (20hrs), GT71QHY600 Lum (6hrs), GT71ASI2600mc RGB (6hrs) Samyang135ASI2600mc RGB (13hrs) and Askar200QHY600 Lum (12hrs) all from my Bortle4/5 backyard observatory. Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop. Thanks for looking Dave
    33 points
  4. A brief window opened up through the clouds last night and I took the opportunity to try and grab a comet shot. The star tracker was not required but my Canon6D and Sigma Art 50mm lens was. I managed 50 (8 second) quick fire shots at ISO800 f2.2 at the Holyhead Mountain Quarry Park on Anglesey . The foreground was shot at 60secs over the lake. Images (and calibration frames) were initially run through Siril and then processed in Photoshop Lightroom and CS. Nice to see a couple of galaxies here too. Hope u like. CC’s welcome.
    31 points
  5. Hi all, Had an extensive break in the weather last night which managed to bag me 71 x 300s exposures on M51 with an additional 15 x 300s from a previous session. This was imaged at 2800mm @ F10 with a Celestron Edge HD 11" on a ZWO AM5 mount using a 2600MC. Image was software binned in Pixinsight 2x2 and optimised with BXT and NXT. Conditions were quite difficult as the first part of the night was slightly breezy and of course at this FL guiding can be a pain, but it calmed down later in the night and am very happy with the results. Overall pleased with the outcome and am really enjoying imaging at this focal length, it's possible to frame some really small objects. F10 is a bit of a pain but absolutely workable if you have dark enough skies (I'm currently in a B4 area). Next target is M101!
    31 points
  6. I can't say that I am "over the moon" with this one........but it looks OK on Facebook 🤣 Tak FSQ130ED with Extender (FL 1040) and shot at Bin 2 (1.2 ArcSec/Pix). Total 96x60sec LRGB (1 Hour 36 Mins) M3: This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is estimated to be 11.4 billion years old. It is centered at 32,600 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered on May 3, 1764 and was the first Messier object to be discovered by Charles Messier himself.
    30 points
  7. Cant describe how i feel right now . so many failed attempts and everything happened tonight
    30 points
  8. Caught 12P again last night. Still challenging, 20 degrees alt and not full astronomical darkness, using the 533 OSC this time. Processing is a headache I struggled with combining a comet stack and star stack, so this is just a star stack 15 minutes, so some drift with the comet
    28 points
  9. We have entered now the Galaxy season and the narrowband targets are limited so, a target that I have never imaged before was the Leo Triplet. I am still in the process of learning how to image galaxies through my mono camera - while I was busy with work, the night sky was really good and for that reason I decided to just take as much data as possible. Using my wide field rig (RedCat61 + 2600MM), I managed to capture: Lum: 254 x 300 sec RGB: 273 x 120 sec Used flats, darks and bias Integrated and processed with PI & PS I am sharing the cropped image.
    26 points
  10. A deep dive with Paul Kummer (capture and pre-processing.) This had 9 hours in the RASA 8, equivalent to about 40 hours in a fast refractor of comparable focal length. After 3 hours we were going well but 9 hours brought out more structure and, of particular interest, the uppermost spiral arm winding anticlockwise in this orientation. This arm is a new one to me and was an exciting find in the processing. Edit: please scroll down for a version using TEC140 data to enhance the core. This is a close crop and is presented at one-to-one here: https://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Galaxies/i-sgC3bGn/A Olly
    24 points
  11. As per the title, cannot let these things pass without having a go capturing them. It's sinking further and further down very slowly and might be obscurred from view for me later on so decided to try now, fortuitous opportunites with broken clouds this week has spurred this on. Didn't process it as much as last time (E3/ZTF), wanted to capture the unique tail in this one which is shaped by solar winds I believe, must be great from a dark site. Enjoy!
    23 points
  12. Went out earlier, and despite me seeing no stars lower than Jupiter and 12P/Pons-Brook in that direction, the Seestar S50 managed to obtain some frames to stack. Despite indicating 13mts of exposure, it was only 5mts 40 seconds. I noticed that cloud had completely enveloped the comet only when I had a message saying that it could no longer enhance the image as there were too few stars visible! I thought the S50 had frozen when in actual fact it was waiting for the stars to come out again, which they didn't! Lucky to get 5mts worth. Looking at the nucleus of the comet it looks quite elongated. It almost looks as if it may even be breaking up or perhaps sending out material in different directions? Perhaps the elongation is the movement of the comet due to the S50 tracking on the stars?
    22 points
  13. Here it is, sadly on the table and not on the mount. I will try and get better pics when I get to use it.
    22 points
  14. Another aurora image from last night 3rd March about 20.30. I have a 'commission' with the owner of The Tan Hill Inn (Britain's highest public house) to take nightscape images featuring the pub 😀! A long term project owing to the exposed location and our weather. This was the first session, no wind and frozen snow patches. I get to turn out external lighting as necessary. This is the best composition featuring the aurora, pub and inevitable clouds. Cheers, Paul.
    22 points
  15. After years I finally got it. toa 130 about 10 hours
    21 points
  16. Well blow me down with a Feather(touch). Thanks to @steppenwolf, my SV 140mm refractor will before long be adorned with the ultimate focuser. Not sure what to do with the extant one, SV native 3.5” I believe, but it has very much the feel of Baader Diamond Steeltrack about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s made by the same. Also @bosun21 for the Morpheus 12.5, which may well oust my Ethos 13. And a couple of eBay delights, a BCO 6 and an old “25x” Zeiss microscope eyepiece that cost very little. Magnus
    21 points
  17. Whilst setting up to get more Oiii on IC443, I spotted that 12P was above the western horizon on Skysafari, so I managed to get a few frames in mono between the trees. Unfortunately still twighlight Forgive the gradients etc, it was a case of 'run what you brung', managed 10 frames at 30s
    21 points
  18. The postie brought me a shiny new (to me) OTA. A Celestron C9.25 - I am very happy !!!
    21 points
  19. Care package from SVBONY arrived today. No SV215 though. Already got that eyepiece. Got a swanky new handle for the 102ED, a finder shoe, and a cannon m48 adaptor so I can try imaging with the DSLR again. Standout so far is the SV223 2" twist lock dielectric diagonal. Very little information on it, but given the quality of most of their recent gear I figured it would be worth a punt at £98. It appears to be the same as the "ALTAIR PREMIUM POSITIVE LOCK DIAGONAL DIELECTRIC 2" Have to say that the build quality is fantastic. The twist lock feels very competent, the inside looks very dark too. Minimum clear aperture is about 43-44mm using a bit of paper and a ruler to check. Very happy with my haul.
    20 points
  20. Skies cleared up unexpectedly around bedtime so ended up staying up a bit later with the Moon for company
    20 points
  21. I had an unexpectedly great night last night 15/3/24. The fritters drove past and shortly afterwards the clouds cleared. The Moon was well over in the west by this time and normally from my location the seeing is poor towards the west. This night was very different from the norm', as the atmosphere was as steady as I've ever seen it. I had an 18mm UFF & 10mm UFF to give a proper test run. I was using my FS128 and the Moon was breataking in both the 18 & 10mm. Intricate detail was easily seen as sharp as sharp gets in the floor of Theophilus even in the 18mm at 58X. The 100mm giving 104X was spectacular as its field encompassed the entire Moon with room to spare, but giving nothing up to the laser etched detail on show. This eyepiece in the FS128 would make a wonderful addition to any outreach eyepiece collection, but also will hold its own alongside any top end eyepiece costing considerably more. As the seeing was so amazing, I moved onto the SVBony 3-8 zoom to see how it performed with the Moon being at such a relatively low angle. It did not disappoint! At every focal length the 3-8 zoom gave sharp and comfortable views. I like the fact that I could fine tune the magnification by using the focal lengths between the click stops. Eventually the Moon dropped behind the tree line and so I changed target. Hercules was rising on his side in the north east, and looking through the scopes finder I saw M13 was looking good. Starting with the 30mm UFF the Starfield surrounding M13 was littered with tiny diamonds. Through the 18mm UFF M13 was a misty ball covered with a dusting of tiny stars. Even at this relatively low power, I could see variations in the placement of the globulars stars, giving the impression of uneven brightness and a dark lane cutting through the cluster slightly off centre. Then changing to the 10mm UFF the whole cluster came to life in almost 3D. I was observing from inside my observatory and from under a blackout hood so the only thing I could see was the starlit field through the eyepiece and the cluster of tiny stars set against a misty backdrop. It was gorgeous, and it had me looking forward to viewing M13 when its at an even more favourable angle. Again I had to try the 3-8 zoom and it delivered admirably, showing a sharp, contrasty view at every click stop. I'd only observed these two targets this evening but had spent about one and a half hours doing so. By this time I was pretty chilled as I'd been observing in my PJ's, and so called it a night. 😨
    20 points
  22. Very happy to have received a Scopetech STL-80A, 80mm F15 refractor. A telescope I've wanted for a very long time! Ever since FLO imported them. So when one came up for sale here at a good price I couldn't resist. Can not wait to use this! Will be interesting to find out if it will best the Towa 339 80mm F15 and Vixen P-80L 80mm F15 I used to own.
    20 points
  23. The Winter Milky Way over Gogarth Bay on Anglesey. Taken on the 6th March 2024 from South Stack Lighthouse Lookout on Holy Island to encompass Gogarth bay and North Stack fog station to the right of the image. Canon 6D astro-modded camera with a Samyang 24mm lens and Star Adventurer 2i. The sky was tracked as a two row panorama (11 images in each) at ISO1600 f4 60secs. The foreground consisted of 5 landscape orientation images at ISO800 f2 60secs with myself as a single shot at ISO3200 f1.4 10secs. The images were stitched together in PTGui and processed using Photoshop Lightroom and CS. The light pollution on the horizon is from the city of Dublin, Ireland. The yellow light on the right side of the image is from the Skerries Lighthouse. The Milky Way over Gogarth Bay;
    20 points
  24. NGC 2403 with 214 x 120s to a total of just a bit over 7 hours: Taken this week under decent seeing on 6.3 and 7.3 from an SQM 21 ish location with my usual kit: 8'' newtonian, TeleVue Paracorr, RisingCam IMX571 OSC camera. Processed in PI and Photoshop. Target for this galaxy was 20 hours, but it looks pretty good already. Might still put in the extra hours to improve the faint outer regions if weather allows for this year, but we will see as only 6 weeks remain until summer. Feedback welcome -Oskari
    20 points
  25. I seem to remember someone on here saying these aren’t too shabby, so thought I’d try
    20 points
  26. It was a glorious day here yesterday, but come late afternoon the clouds rolled in. I phoned my mate Paul just for a chat and he told me it won't be clear over night. As luck would have it however, it did clear sufficiently for me to have an hour and a half observing the Moon and so, because he was clouded out and because I'm a true friend, I sent him this: (I think he hates me!) I spent my time playing with my ultra flat's and a Barlow, as well as my amazing SvBony 3-8 Zoom. The following pic's are through the zoom using a hand held phone camera. The camera lens may not have been perfectly clean and there was an annoying thin cloud covering the sky that varied in thickness. All things considered however, I think it turned out not too bad.
    19 points
  27. Well ladies and gentleman the scope is fixed. I am very surprised that the arrows both point the same way on the glass but its working now. Thank you everyone that has replied and helped really appreciate it. Paul
    19 points
  28. It's been a while since I've posted an image, only because it's taken so long to get enough subs to process I couldn't quite fit the Rosette nebula into my field of view, so rather than swap from my FLT120 to my Redcat51, I decided it would be a good time to try out a mosaic. This image was a simple 1x2 mosaic captured with Antlia 4.5nm SHO narrowband filters and my QHY268M monochrome camera. There's an almost 50/50 split between panels for total imaging time: Panel 1 = 8h50m Panel 2 = 8h25m The OIII data was quite noisy, so it really helped waiting a month of rain and cloud until I could dedicate an entire night to capturing more. It was well worth the wait as the final OIII data was looking much better and the noise between panels was more balanced. I used the "PhotometricMosaic" script from John Murphy to assemble each monochrome panel which resulted in three master lights (S, H and O). I then created the SHO image using the "NB Colour Map" script within PixInsight using guidance per Adam Block's YouTube channel. Hue and intensity values were assigned to each monochrome channel and a histogram transformation applied to control the amount of blend between the SHO channels. After running colour calibration, the resulting imaging can be somewhat considered as colour accurate (well, more so compared with traditional narrowband palettes!), which is great as you can see more natural red (Hydrogen) and blue (Oxygen) hues from the Rosette nebula. Sulphur is shown as light orange, which can be seen on the tips of Hydrogen gas but is more visible towards the centre of the image around NGC 2244 and NGC 2246. I may have another play around with the process, but otherwise I'm really pleased with how this project has come out! Comments and constructive critcism are welcome Image acquisition details are on my astrobin per the link below: https://www.astrobin.com/z36geu/
    19 points
  29. Photo made to compare how many small craterlets can be seen with a photo taken on Earth 350 thousand km away and another taken by LROC which orbits the Moon 50 km away. I counted about 70 craterlets on mine, but there are more!
    19 points
  30. I went to Penistone Hill Country Park again as it has a better horizon to see 12P/Pons-Brooks. They all the same pic with a couple of quick enhancements using the camera phones software to bring out some of the detail in the tail. Time and exposure at bottom of pictures. Pic with the Seestar S50.
    18 points
  31. With my dual-RASA rig I recently stumbled upon some mysterious bluish structures in Cassiopeia (https://www.astrobin.com/cnvp2s/), which turned out to be a never before imaged "Interstellar Shell" GSH 122+02-77 (http://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=GSH+122%2B02-77&submit=SIMBAD+search), whatever that could be. I have now processed what my piggybacking Samyang 135 was capturing the same night, allowing me to show these structures in relation to some of the more iconic objects in Cassiopeia, including the Ghost and twelve Sharpless objects. I also realized I could add a second panel (to the right) that I had in store to make a two panel mosaic that also includes the rarely imaged supernova remnant G126.2+01.6. So the mosaic is based on two Samyang 135 images to which I have added ca 50% RASA data to the main features. Totally 33 hours of data. All through IDAS NBZ filter (Ha+Oiii dualband). Here is my post with the RASA image:
    18 points
  32. Not really very interesting as the background is quite boring, but this was my 128 looking at a thin crescent moon through thinning cloud. It gave me a chance to look through my recently acquired Altair 10mm UFF. Its gorgeous, as was the beautifully detailed lunar terminator. It was a very mild night too, so perhaps this is a sign of things improving. Shortly after my look at the moon, Jupiter made an appearance, so I changed from the 10mm UFF to the 3-8 SvBony Zoom for a very nice view. Soon though, cloud covered the sky again, but I'd still had a good time. FS128 Comfortable observing is nice too! And a hand held greasy phone camera pic of the moon through encroaching cloud.
    18 points
  33. After my recent Vixen cull I'm left with just this one setup for now, SD81S atop the manual APZ on APP-TL130 tripod with 1/2 pillar and a set of SSW's, not too shabby😁. Can't remember the last time I only had one scope to choose from, but it does make life a lot simpler, I like it!
    18 points
  34. You will often see Tegmine / Zeta Cancri named as a target in observing reports around this time of the year. It is a fine triple star and also presents an interesting challenge for the 4-5 inch aperture scope. The close pair currently has a separation (source: Stelle Doppie database) of 1.098 arc seconds. The 3rd member of the group is separated from this pair by around 6 arc seconds, so relatively easy to split from the close pair. The close pair are of magnitude 5.3 and magnitude 6.25 respectively. The challenge for the 4 inch scope is that the Dawes resolution limit for that aperture is 1.14 arc seconds. The, perhaps more realistic, Rayleigh limit for a 4 inch scope is 1.36 arc seconds. So theoretically a 4 inch scope cannot show the close Tegmine pair as clearly split, whichever limit you choose to apply. These figures apply to stars of equal brightness I believe. What a good 4 inch scope can do however is to show this close pair as resolved. I am using the definition illustrated below by David Knisely: Tonight my 102mm F/6.5 refractor clearly showed the tight Tegmine pair as a resolved or notched pair of apparently touching airy disks. I take this to mean that the scope is performing to the Dawes limit under the fairly steady seeing conditions. When I observed Tegmine a few nights back with my 120mm F/7.5 refractor I could see that elusive sliver of black between the airy disks - the pair was split and the additional aperture was doing it's job. I have seen reports of the close Tegmine pair being split with a 4 inch aperture scope. I guess a sharper eyed observer than me, observing under excellent conditions might be able to see the pair as split. Or maybe the terms resolved pair and split pair were being used differently 🤔 Anyway, I've never been able to quite see a clear split with this pair with either my 3.9 or 4 inch refractors but I was quite happy with my resolved / notched pairing with the 4 inch refractor this evening. The scope is doing it's very best, especially when the slightly uneven brightness of the close Tegmine pair is taken into account🙂 Incidentally, I found 221x magnification the optimum for this target tonight. I tried more but the definition of the close pair didn't get any cleaner. Lower magnifications made seeing the "notch" effect harder. Another interesting factoid is that the name Tegmine is derived from the latin Tegmens, which means Crab's Shell, which is apt of course 🙂
    17 points
  35. I hesitate to post this as I'm dubious about the quality, but heigh-ho. In any case it's yet another silk purse effort. The data was collected over 9 (!) nights between the end of Sept 2022 and the last week of Jan 2023, though not all the data was useable as I had cable dragging that caused massive trailing. And of course all the subs have that horrid corruption from reflections. Graxpert helped but I still had to use a masked histogram stretch and multiple rounds of single colour attenuation in AstroArt 8, in addition to all the PI magic pixies. 69 mixed 5 and 10 min Lum subs (Accidental, not intentional), 11 17.5 min Blue subs, 19 10 min Green subs and 17 10 min Red subs (G2v calibration). Yes, there's a horrible green halo around the upper left star, no I can't be asked to remove it, plus a touch of Unsharp Mask and another slight Red reduction in the galaxies. Feel free to tear this apart, I won't be offended.
    17 points
  36. Finally, I have managed to produce an image this year after the awful weather. I initially started this in broadband capturing 3 hours of data, but then with the Moon period and clear skies, I decided to capture data with the l'enhance filter and have persevered this week with several nights of clear skies. In the end, I have captured 16 hours of data for this one, including 3 hours under a Full Moon. In the framing I wanted to pick up NGC2261, Hubbles Variable Nebula which makes an appearance in the lower left. Stars were processed separately, applying SCNR, and then after Inverting the colours, a further run of SCNR and inverting back again, a saturation boost and it's able to bring out oranges and blues in the stars for a broadband-ish colour to the stars. Not perfect by any means, but some additional colour other than the boring "white" of narrowband I think works well here 🙂 Usual Starfield 102 + Canon 800D (modded) on HEQ5. 200 x 300s frames at ISO-400. Comments welcome as always And as an added bonus, last week I picked up a Samyang 135 f2 lens, and sat it atop my scope for one of the sessions. I was blown away at the amount of nebulosity this picked up in 3 hours! Not the best of framing, but being sat on top of the scope...it kind of is what it is. Imaged with my 585mc at F/2 and an Askar Ha/OIII filter, this is a quick edit with no noise reduction. There are horrible halos with this filter, so I will need to investigate something else. Not sure if it is suffering with tilt or backfocus here, but aside from that, really impressive lens.
    17 points
  37. Here’s a couple of recent images I took of the PonsBrooks comet in western Norway, framed with Andromeda and M33 in the case of the landscape shot. That was nearly not to be as at the point of my composition the comet was washed out by some unexpected Aurora. In the end I couldn’t not attempt a blend of the comet stack and the foreground with Aurora. I think it still looks good? The landscape shot was with an EOS R and Sigma Art 40mm. Sky was tracked with 30s exposures with 30mins total exposure. The foreground was a single 30s exposure. The final image was blended and cropped. The other image was shot with the same EOS R and a Samyang 135. Sky tracked with 15s exposure for a total of 26min. All images were processed in PixInsight and Photoshop
    17 points
  38. Hi pixel peepers! I’ve spent the last few weeks putting together my “Galaxy Season” rig for some close up work on some familiar targets My rig consists of an old Meade 12” lx200 coupled with a Starizona LF reducer/flattener, giving me a focal length of 2084 and a f ratio of 6.8 A modified Meade zeroshift focuser with the motor replaced by a Pegasus Astro focus cube keeps the focus under control A newly introduced deep sky dad rotator allows consistent framing A tsoag9 with a zwo helical focuser and 220mm mini guiding the rig snug in front of a QHY CFW3 containing 2” Antlia LRGB V Pro broadband and SHO edge4.5nm filters connected to my QHY 268m that I am still getting to know all balanced on a skywatcher eq8 that is behaving really well since I threatened it with replacement by buying a second hand Mesu! Being in a suburban area I generally Image in Narrowband so I’m not skilled when it comes to broadband acquisition and processing I feel like a novice, starting out again! This project has tested me, I’ve had to learn how to get my rotator to not only work with Nina but share it’s position with PhD2 which took some research I have had a weird conflict between my Pegasus Astro UPBv1 and a new (to me) Pegasus Astro focus cube v2, I have to have the focus cube disconnected when connecting my laptop to the UPBv1 or my laptop cannot see it! I have reached out to Pegasus Astro and so far they haven’t been able to help me so I just have to make sure I disconnect the focus cube before connecting to the switch?! I am also now using the advanced sequencer in Nina so I can take advantage of features such as centre after drift which is awesome! Anyway, we had a couple of clear nights during and just after the last full moon and this gave me the time to sort out some issues and start collecting data I experimented with a few sub lengths, gain/mode etc and settled for mode 1 gain 56 offset 26, 60s broadband and 180s ha Processing has been hard… you get into a pattern with processing, using the same tools make them familiar but a galaxy has such a wide range of brightness from the core to the outer edges it’s a tricky balancing act. I have loads of respect for people producing awesome Galaxy shots, it’s not easy! This is my best attempt so far It’s a mix of 2 versions, one stacked in WBPP the other in APP consisting of roughly 2 hours each LRGB and 4 hours ha (I need more LRGB) One with a tamed core one with a brighter core Sorry for the long post Thank you if you read it, it’s a solitary pursuit and there aren’t many people who would understand let alone care about the hurdles involved Thanks for looking and any pointers would be greatly appreciated Bryan 😊
    17 points
  39. Orion Rising over Classiebawn Castle in Co. Sligo, Ireland, Benbulben can be seen looming in the background. Night of March 7th Nikon Z7ii + Z50mm f1.8 Sky: 24x30sec @iso800 @f2.2 Tracked Foreground: 2x1min, 2x2min, 2x4min, 1x8min @f5.6, HDR Merge Calibration and Stacking in Pixinsight Foreground HDR Merge in Lightroom Sky & Foreground Merge and finishing touches in Photoshop
    17 points
  40. Captured back in January on my 130mm f5 triplet. Forgot to post here at the time but quite pleased with the result- just wish I got another night or two to add data to it.
    17 points
  41. I had another good session last night. The transparency wasn’t as good as previous nights, but it was clear so was worth heading out. I caught Jupiter early on but didn’t spend too much time on it. The seeing in that direction didn’t seem brilliant and there wasn’t much on show other than a nice big festoon. The inevitable M42 next. I viewed it both filtered with a Lumicon UHC and unfiltered, both nice views. More contrast and internal detail with the filter but stars not as nice. I haven’t used a filter for a while so it made a pleasant change. Moving onto some doubles and triples, Rigel first was ok though fairly ropey seeing as it was getting lower by then. Alnitak was much better, clean split though I can’t recall which eyepiece I used 🤪. Tegmine was beautiful again, clean split in a range of eyepieces, all the way down to 2.4 which is x433! I love seeing the tiny airy disks and this time the first diffraction ring was a little clearer. Beta Mon added a second triple. Much easier this one but still nice, beautiful airy disks. 32 Orionis and 52 Orionis completed my doubles for the night. Both clean splits with separation, 52 being the harder of the two, good to split a 1.0” double though. I ran round some of the same galaxies and clusters as before, with M51 in particular looking better than last night. I spent some time on this and whilst it wasn’t obvious, it seemed clear to me which side the bridge was on and when I checked just now I was correct so that was pleasing. M81/82 weren’t as good as the previous for some reason, just lacking contrast although I was intermittently getting fogged up eyepieces by this stage so that is a possibility. M101 was a firm no, nothing there that I could see. I tried some clusters in M36 and M37, but around this something went awry with the scope and mount which pushed it off track. I think the scope slid back in the clamp, pushing the balance right off so I had to tighten the clamp, reset back to south and level quickly and start again, all quite easy. Then onto M67 which is becoming a bit of a favourite, with a bit of power in the Docter it really comes to life. I know it’s an oldie, but I then spent a long time on the Double Cluster using the 31mm Nagler. This framed it perfectly, I was seated and with the scope tracking perfectly I could just take it all in through that huge porthole view. The stars were pinpoint across the field (we often say that but they really were!), and my favourite thing is picking out the tiny threshold stars in the middle of the cluster, just a really wonderful view. It did make me wonder whether I should try a 21mm Ethos again though 🤪🤪😬 The Leo triplet were only a doublet last night, NGC3628 was elusive, probably due to the poorer transparency. Wanting to try a glob in this scope, M3 was the only one I could see available and it was still a bit low down. At lower power it didn’t resolve at all, but upping the mag gave me a sparkling ball with averted vision. Globs are better with more aperture but this was a decent view still. I then went on a trawl around Markarian’s Chain to see what was possible from here and in this scope. I need to get the Dob on them really, but I caught M84/86 and the fainter NGC4388 arranged in a triangle. Pleased with 4388 as it was quite faint and diffuse. NGC4435/4438 were also just visible though very tough. I popped over to M87/M89 which were there, but unremarkable, then finally moved on to the Sunflower and Whale. I could see the different shapes, the Sunflower being rounder with an extensive halo and the Whale was a longer edge on galaxy with offset central bulge making it look a little whale-like. I finished on a fail which was the Needle galaxy so wanted a couple of successes instead so popped onto Izar which was lovely as ever and finally my first ever astro target Mizar which I always enjoy. It was getting chilly by the end, soaking scope and frost forming. Still didn’t stop me being in shorts and crocs though, not even any socks this time 🤣🤣🤪. Packing away was about six trips into the garden room (conservatory type thingy) which is a bit of a faff, but separating the mount and tripod does make it much more manageable. Overall, it’s just nice to be out seeing stuff again! I just need to carry on expanding the objects I observe as I tend to get stuck on my old favourites.
    17 points
  42. My collection at PAS , of a beautiful Vixen SD115S means that I am done, happy, and contented, for sure, and for the rest of my natural etc,etc At the moment I still have my ED103S and felt the same with that, but I was always aware of the bigger sibling. I had a hand in Dave's ( F15 Rules ) acquisition of his , quite without knowing it, and he has reciprocated because he had suggested how good it would be to find a discounted one at the show. On the strength of that I rang Bresser and asked and to my amazement they did, at a tremendous discount. They are both in perfect balance and a spell of decent sky will allow me to align them accurately. Dave liked it, even the ' blingy thingy ' on the Vixen, he said , but I like red, my car is red, unfortunately not a ferrari red ferrari....🤣
    16 points
  43. Nicely placed for observation were the mountain ranges encircling Mare Orientale. There was a lot of detai over a large area which makes it difficult to sketch, but its not every day these features are on view so I gave it a go.
    16 points
  44. Not really what the postman delivered but I collected my 2nd Askar 120 APO from PAS on Saturday and now building a framework to support the pair on my CEM60. One will be fixed the other will have a small amount of adjustment to get them both on the same FoV..,.
    16 points
  45. A fantastic couple of hours sat on the banks of the Moon just fishing. Lots to see and admire, with a spectacular display of wrinkle ridges along the terminator, and an endless amount of incredible detail wherever I looked. Eventually a tiddler got hooked on my line as the fine detail within Scheiner grabbed my attention. I haven't drawn the Moon for quite a while, so thought its time to catch this detail in a sketch. My main interests are crater floors, as hidden gems lurk unappreciated there, often outshone by spectacular terracing. It was the slender fine rill with a tiny crater pit that first got my interest and I pondered for ages trying to decide if I had the stamina to sketch this. The Moon is my arch nemesis as I feel like I've taken on something much stronger than I am. Scheiner. 20/03/24, 19.43UT. Takahashi FS128, prism view. ~120X max bright ll binoviewer. Seeing II Antoniadi.
    16 points
  46. I played courier myself with a trip out. Got myself a very new OOUK VX6, in pristine condition, very pleased and just need first light…. So I will report back by 2026 😉 The reason for a 6” Newtonian, well convenience, weight, the extra aperture and I can sit in a position that presently suits my back issues that are ongoing. Sometimes a change is made for us by circumstances, but sometimes it’s a good change anyhow and I expect this one to be so.
    16 points
  47. According to Wikipedia: "NGC 2782 is a peculiar spiral galaxy that formed after a galaxy merger in the constellation Lynx. The galaxy lies 75 million light years away from Earth, which means, given its apparent dimensions, that NGC 2782 is approximately 100,000 light years across. NGC 2782 has an active galactic nucleus and it is a starburst and a type 1 Seyfert galaxy. NGC 2782 is mentioned in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies in the category galaxies with adjacent loops." This image was taken during a gap in the clouds on March 11. Despite the fact that the sky was clear during the entire night, I could only collect 4 hours of data. After the meridian flip, my mount broke down, and now I'm waiting for a replacement RA motor. Nonetheless, the data was collected with my SW 190MN and ASI294MM camera RGB: 1.5, 1.5, and 1 hour Processed in PixInsight
    16 points
  48. A couple of weeks ago we had a forecast break from this perma-cloud that seems to have descended across the UK. It was a Sunday evening, with an early start for work on the Monday, but I couldn't let the opportunity go to waste, especially as the aurora data was going bananas (very impressed envious by all the images caught across the north and west of the UK that night). An initial trip to a location I'd scouted a few weeks earlier ended up being a dud, as I decided (possibly unfairly) that the lone tree was also not a particularly attractive tree. So I headed a couple of miles away to another of the dishes at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory outside Cambridge, somewhere I'd shot earlier in the year. This time I was at the impressive 32m dish that's part of the Merlin array (along with Jodrell Bank), which is still in-use and on the night was whirring away as it collected data from distant sources. Unusually for me, I ended up meeting up with a few other astrophotographers from a local WhatsApp group, one of whom had obtained permission for us to enter the grounds of the observatory to get more favourable compositions. A stubborn frontal cloud dissected the sky for much of the night, leaving a decent window from the north west to the south east; unfortunately the north remained obscured for most of the evening, and none of the outstanding parts of the aurora display were visible (though I caught the weak remnants at the very end of the night on the way home). But that meant we had a great view of Orion from a site that was surprisingly dark given it's only 5 miles from the centre of Cambridge (although not immune from poorly directed security lights!). My focus was on some simple compositions including the magnificent dish; definitely somewhere at which I'd like to spend more time. I also made a Nightscape Journal of the night, which you can find linked at the bottom. As always, I'd welcome feedback, suggestions and comments! Ordinarily I'd give my images a name, but I've really struggled with these so if you have any suggestions I'd be all ears! Enjoy. 😊 ✨MERLIN AND ORION✨ 📷 Canon 6D (astro-modified) with Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4 lens and Skywatcher StarAdventurer for tracking the sky 🔧 Sky (tracked): 6x60s exposures at f/2.8 ISO 800. Foreground: 1x10s exposure at f/4 ISO 2000 (LENR on) 🎞️ Sky stacked in DSS. Edited and assembled in PhotoShop. ✨MERLIN AND ORION (UNTRACKED)✨ 📷 Canon 6D with Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4 lens 🔧 18x10s exposures at f/2.2 ISO 2000. 🎞️ Stacked in Sequator. Edited and assembled in PhotoShop. ✨MERLIN AND THE LION✨ 📷 Canon 6D with Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens 🔧 Sky: 1x20s exposure at f/2.8 ISO 2000 with Kase Starglow filter. Foreground: 1x20s exposure at f/2.8 ISO 2000 🎞️ Edited and assembled in PhotoShop. ✨DYING BACK✨ 📷 Canon 6D with Samyang 35mm f/1.4 lens 🔧 Single 10s exposure at ISO3200 and f/2.8 🎞️ Edited in PhotoShop.
    16 points
  49. Uncertainty over the conditions tonight has led to a very lightweight approach. I can carry this 70mm setup in and out with one hand 🙂 In between the clouds, the views are rather nice 👍
    16 points
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