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Hi, A bit of light hearted fun as there is nowt doing astronomy wise Bordem Level 1 - Completely clear skies all night, no wind, Perfect. Astronomers are frantic with activity. Never recorded in the UK this year, at least not recently. Bordem Level 2 - Mostly clear skies, little wind, Excellent. Astronomers are running about, looking at things or pouring over images. Seldom recorded in the UK this year. Bordem Level 3 - About 20% cloud cover, small amount of wind, Very Good. Astronomers are hailing this as the best day ever, unless they have just had Bordem level 1 or 2. More chance of th

This image from 16th/17th July. Pentax K5 Pentax 12-24mm f4 DA ED AL IF lens Exp 25 secs iso 800 Aurora from Kelso, Scottish Borders July 16th 2012 by mikeyscope, on Flickr

Sometimes we find our images scattered in unusual places on the Internet but I was rather pleased to find one of mine included here and for a rather unusual purpose!

Hello, This one I needed to get it! Discovered by amateur astronomer Nicolas Outters in May 2011 it is the most difficult object I ever photographed! I let you here the catch and I hope to continue to collect some more photos this week :-) You may google for OU4 in Sh129 to find more about it! Tak FS102NSV @ f/6.3 + QSI 532WS-M1 @ -10ºC (due to the very high temperature here in portugal...30ºC at midnight). 210 min in OIII and no darks or flats for now! Regards, paulo

Morning all, Im looking for tips on the finder scope on the 200P. For those who dont have it, it 'locks' in position by 2 screws you tighten to position it. However, on mine i cannot get the object centred into the viewfinder, the main scope with both screws tightened, and stop the finder from wobbling in the bracket a bit, so that when i move the scope, it moves and is out of line again. Is this just my scope that this happens, or am i missing something obvious and doing it wrong, or is it worth replacing with a better quality one. Any info would be good.

Hello all! I passed from theory to action in astroimaging. After my ring nebula unsucessfull attempt due to the fact that i was using a 25x eyepiece when what i really wanted was prime focus, i finally gave it a go to prime focus. I aimed at the laguna nebulae, m8. I have a lot of light pollution and no filter. My setup is what i can afford for now, so i'm trying the best out of it: skywatcher 130mm, F=900mm, EQ2 (polar aligning is a challenge), 4x r.a. motor, Canon 1000d at prime focus. I stacked in DSS, 2 different stackings: 1st, 53x20s subs, 25 darks, 20 bias... the final TIFF file was som

I currently have a Skywatcher 10" Flextube which, in one sense, I am more than happy with, but now and again I keep getting a severe dose of aperture fever and longing for a bigger scope. I am 52 and weight is an issue with me. I can currently manage the 20kg of the base and 15kg of the tube but I am not getting any younger and minimise lifting as far as possible. I do take the scope to dark (within a reasonable travelling distance) sites and it does increase my enjoyment as I normally live in a city. Does anyone know of any large aperture, lightweignt (obviously within reason as I know mirror

Hi Here we go http://www.harrysastroshed.com/HDR%20comp.html Harry

Hi Guys, I put out a couple of wanted ads for a flip mirror, and at £70.00 each I wasn't going to buy a new one, especially as its only for the guide scope, so after both ads went without a single reply, i thought I would have a go at making one, and purchased two diagonals, one from ScopeNskies 'astroboot for £2.50, and another one from UK astronomy for £10.00 (Thanks Tom) which had all metal and filter threaded holders, these and a blue chopping board from the £shop got me up and running. As you can see from the pictures and I hope you agree it all worked out very nicely, I attached the mirr

What I did with PI is to use: * registration to get the images in the same locations (for long and short exposures) * the range tool to create a mask * use the mask to remove the core * process the outside * process the inside * use the mask to separate the inside * then use pixel maths todo insideImage + outsideImage and bingo a combined image

thanks sara. i'm goin to bed now...yet another cloudy night here in blighty, but will look up this link before lights out lol. also thanks for your appreciation tingting! cheers bob

Check out this thread http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=3872.msg26577#msg26577 on the PI forum where I asked something similar. Seems like you can thrown in all manner of exposures in the HDRComposition tool.

Have you thought about making one? Here is a simple wooden mirror grinding stand: http://www.stardazed.com/MirrorGrindingStand.html The [removed word] Parker referred to in the website runs mirror grinding classes here http://mirrorworkshop.mtbparker.com/index.php Good luck, Mark PS The thought police have removed the word that is short for Richard!!!

this book is considered a must read, worth looking at before you start on the long, long, long road that is astrophotography. http://nightskyimages.co.uk/making_every_photon_count.htm i would certainly put that webcam to use though maybe starting with some nice lunar shots.

these guys do the canon mods http://www.astronomiser.co.uk/eosmod.htm

Hi John, all being well I will be attending Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Not quite, but I get your point James

Srri didn't realize your mount wasn't a EQ, forget the Polar aligne, just get it level and pointing north and bear in mind its motors will affect a compass so keep this a good yard away.....

£45 is definitely a very reasonable price for an illuminated reticle eyepiece. Just remember to turn it off James

Google throws up a new price of £76 delivered from Telescope House. So £50 is OK I guess if it's in really good nick. Edit: 1 minute too slow !

Looks good to me they're listed at £76 at Telescope House new.

I'd go to the pub! You may get a "real" barrel if you ask really nicely - but they do hire them from the breweryso maybe a dead end idea......?

I am currently downloading an image of everything in the NGC catlog. I then plan to do my own report sheet, where theres a sketch of what I've seen in my binos, and the actual NGC catlog image, and my description. 7,000+, guess it'll take me a while to compile. Eddie

You can use sidereal for the planets as well. The barlow EP combo would have yielded about 0.4o field at 130x magnification (assuming it was plossl eyepiece with an apparent field of 50o). So you can see how the moon would have started to drift across the field given its relative motion versus sidereal motion over the timescales you talked about. Clear skies,

If you need portability, and want a scope that has a very happy user base, then go for a MAK127.

Are you "Like Broom Lynn?"

three things affect the appearance of galaxies and other faint objects : dark skies getting out under dark skies more aperture under dark skies Just in case I didn't mention dark skies, they are quite important too

Sad I know - but I was thinking about this post on the way to work this morning and I must say I really like your 'take' on the two sets of doubles and the beauty of the Struves over the Epsilon partners. Sometimes it's nice to forget the 'challenge' presented by splitting a double (double) and just admire the view!

The easiest way of getting the whole of the moon onto the camera chip is not to do it. Instead, take a series of overlapping images which, after processing the individual stacks in Registax,,can then be combined into one larger image using Microsoft ICE. Peter

nice pics

Good early days start I do like you top moon image. How are you taking these ?

They good them moon pics awesome and the star pic is super.

Excellent stuff, gentlemen and thank you for your time and input. My own dovetail looks exactly like that linked to, so I guess I ought to purchase another and the spare will come in handy if I upgrade on aperture during the winter months or next year. Although folk have said an EQ is often 'complicated' to use, I found it quite intuitive, so the AZ4 will be a nice new toy to figure out. Thanks again, Jules and Mal.

Well actually Prof Cox is correct, the UK has paid about the equivalent of funding a small uni in to CERN (£70mpy) as has most of the other partner countries, private companies have put in a great big chunk too. Britain pay's £10billion per year (0.7% of GDP) in foreign aid, £280mpy to India in aid funds to help the poverty stricken, but India has 2 aircraft carriers in service, one under construction and another planned after it, and they have a space program, and to cap it all India has the 3rd largest GDP, we are 8th. The Home Office budget meanwhile, which pays for policing and counter-te

I'll pass on the best bit of advice I have ever been given on the subject.... read this: http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm Astrobaby's guide is possibly the definitive guide to collimation and will help you through pretty much any issue. The offsets in your photo looks like it could be in collimation for a fast scope but I am not an expert - all is explained in AB's guide. Hope this helps, James.

Just found this while sat browsing. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/880837561/skycube-the-first-satellite-launched-by-you?ref=users A company looking to crowd-fund a micro satelite that will tweet from space I've pledged a few dollars, since I'm a massive geek and cant resist the idea of controlling something in orbit NM

Hi! Your collimation isn't terrible, but there's room for improvement. Here is a collection of useful links: http://www.physiol.ox.ac.uk/~raac/collimationLinks.shtml The second link (about secondary placement) shows you what to look for in the eyepiece. You'll get that darkening in the centre of field regardless. The third link down most clearly explains the steps of using a cheshire/sight-tube tool. It's normal to see the secondary obstruction during the day. You are using lower power eyepieces which produce a large exit pupil and so a large image of the secondary obstruction. Your pupil is

Looks like a 'lift-off' roof then

3rd attempt: http://stargazerslounge.com/gallery/image/13464-laguna3/

my bucket runneth over :clouds2:

Today, july 12 has been selected as Amateur Astronomy Picture of the Day one of my photos of the ray system of the crater Kepler the ejecta ray system and blanket of Kepler strongly contrast against the dark basaltic material of Oceanus Procellarum. When the asteroid impact, the ejected material reflect the stratigraphic sequence: the original surface materials become deposited far awy from the rim of the crater, however, the deepest materials at the very bottom of the transient cavity are dopiseted near the rim. Thus, the rays of ejecta can be interpreted as a geological survey. What we foun

Recoat the mirror. As others' have said, that big scope in a dark sight will be amazing!

This is incorrect, there are far fewer marae on the far side of the moon but there are some marae there

No. I didn't fiddle with the wavelet sliders. That's what I've been doing tonight. Thanks for the tip wyx, I'd just worked it out myself, but you were bang on. So, here are my two images (ISO 100, 1/25sec): 84 images stacked Full size image: 3456 x 1944 99 images stacked Full size image: 3456 x 1944 I'm rather pleased

That is fantastic, thank you for sharing. I have huge admiration for those with an artistic talent such as yours. I am a proper numpty in that area.

Strange my images have vanished so here they are again: