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stargazerlily

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Posts posted by stargazerlily

  1. 36 minutes ago, saac said:

    I think those two blobs are exactly as you suspect Pete , two of Jupiter's moons.  Love your photograph all looks nice and sharp. You must have found one of the few locations in the UK that had a clear sky. Ironically the sky here is now beautifully clear but earlier it was a blanket of cloud. 

    Jim 

    Thanks Jim.  I took the photo last night.  It has been raining pretty much all day here :(

    Pete

    • Like 1
  2. Hi everyone,

    Been a while since I last posted.  

    Thought I would try to capture the Jupiter - Saturn conjunction with a basic widefield set up.  I used a Conon 1000D and a Nifty-Fifty lens; 2 second exposure per image;  14 lights and 5 darks and stacked using DeepSkyStacker (I didn't go completely mad with the exposure etc. as I'm re-learning the camera set.  This was just a trial run).  Bit of tweaking with GIMP (non-linear stretch, levels etc.).  The first image is the resulting shot, which isn't too bad.  I decided to play around a bit and zoomed up the conjunction part of the image and tweaked the levels a bit more.  The second image is the result.  I know you can't see anything of Saturn or Jupiter apart from blobs ... but it is the two fainter blobs at the 10 o'clock position of Jupiter that caught my eye.  I wondered if these represent two of Jupiter's moons.  I did a quick check and indeed Callisto and Ganymeede were in that approximate position at that time when I took the images.  Am I clutching at straws thinking they are the moons? 

    Thanks

    Pete

    jupiter2.png

    jup-detail.PNG

    • Like 2
  3. Evening all, hope you've all had a fantastic Christmas.

    My OP was entitled ... "A tale of two implants".  This is the squeal ... "A tale of two lasers".   

    Yep, not long after having my two cataract operations both my eyes started to cloud over again.  It was like being inside a car looking through a steamed-up windscreen!!  Started approx 6 months after the original operations (which was a bit on the early side according to my specialist).  So a few months ago I went off to see the specialist again who diagnosed cataracts in the lens capsules (the bits that were not replaced in my original operation).  I think the correct term is Posterior Capsule Opacification (PCO).

    The solution ... a series of blasts from a YAG laser in both eyes to cut away a small hole in the back of the lens capsule (it's the same process as drilling a series of small holes around a circle to make a larger hole in wood or metal etc.).  The small bit that is cut out sinks to the the bottom of eye ball.  Like with the original operations, the result was instant (the time it took to walk from the treatment room to the eye test room).  Perfect vision again.  Hopefully that should be it ... no more sequels (fingers crossed).

    Happy New Year

    Pete

    • Like 2
  4. On 09/02/2019 at 18:17, Unklewhale said:

    There are many many causes of cataract - trauma can bring one on rapidly.

    They tend to cause a blue shift in colour perception and it is often colour that people report afterwards.

    The fact that surgeons can aim to make the final prescription as near zero for distance vision as possible is great for  us types. 

    Most cataract operations are carried out under local anaesthetic (drops sometimes), rare for full general.

    (maybe info overload, but I am a retiring Optometrist !)

     

     

    Yes ... very true about the blue colour.  Before my Op, the gas flame in a cooker was a pale, washed out blue colour.  Now it is vibrant lilac colour.

    I had my Ops done under local ... several rounds of drops to dilate the eye followed by several rounds of local anaesthetic drops.

    The hardest part is to lie perfectly still looking into a light ... knowing full well what is going on.  Luckily I had a nurse to hold my hand :)

    Pete

    • Like 1
  5. Hi everyone,

    I'm sort of back after an absence of over a year or so.  Had problems with my eyes ... got two new implants and can see the stars again.

    Having sold all my kit ages ago, I have a faint hankering to do some more wide field imaging.  I have a Canon D1000, a nifty-fifty lens and a Manfrotto tripod.  Also got a tablet and DSLR controller.  I'm all set to go ... however.  Just had a thought about something.  

    Assuming I going to take 100 exposures of Orion's Belt at 2 secs per exposure.  I'm leaving 2 seconds between each exposure for the sensor to cool down etc.  That means there will be 300 seconds (100x2 + 50x2) or 5 minutes for which the stars to move across the field of view.   As I'm planning to use the nifty-fifty ... should I be worried about problems with the stacking of the images?

    Many thanks

    Pete

  6. Good luck with your second op Ron.

    I had my left eye done in mid November last year.  My eyes are quite sensitive with my left more sensitive than my right.  Needless to say the op was a little more involved compared to the op on my right eye.  I was told a very important trick ... keep both eyes wide open under the covers.  If you close one (I was closing my right eye under the cover) it almost forces the other eye to close.  I'm back at the specialist on Monday as I do have a slight issue with my left eye. 

    Pete

  7. Thank you everyone for your kind comments.   

    Good luck with your operation John.  Mine was a bit scary as it was done under local anaesthetic.  Very strange.  I just kept on saying to myself ... tea and cake afterwards. 

    One thing that I did think about was whether looking through the telescope at bright objects such as the moon, Jupiter etc. actually caused the cataract in my right eye to get worse.   I never did ask the consultant about that.  Might do that next week when I see him again about my left eye issues.

    Pete

  8. I've not posted on here for over a year now ... here is the reason why.

    In October 2017 I sold all of my astro-equipment ... scopes, books, filters ... power packs ... the lot.  I decided to sell my gear for two reasons.  The first was that I was becoming more involved in other things ... also I needed the money to fund car repairs ... and I had lost all of my motivation for all things astro (oh, hang on, that's three reasons). At the time I was struggling to do the basic stiff like focusing my scope on stars and planets.  I was wearing glasses at the time, and had been since primary school.  Without my glasses, I just could not focus on anything ... with my glasses it was a major struggle.  In short, it was just no fun any more.  

    Forward to April 2018 ... a regular 6 month visit to the opticians.  The optician was concerned about my deteriorating eye sight. My right eye was significantly worse than it was 6 months previous.  I could have gone along and splashed out several hundred quid on new specs with stronger prescriptions .... but luckily he referred me to a specialist.  So off I went.  Less than two minutes into the examination the specialist diagnosed a particularly bad cataract in my right eye and also one in my left eye.   The diagnosis explained a lot ... and I began to wonder what might have caused the deterioration (according to the optician I'm a bit on the young side to get a bad cataract).  

    Forward to October 2018 ... cataract operation on my right eye.   The difference was ... and still is ... utterly amazing, totally breath taking.  From not being able to see anything long distance before the operation to seeing pin points of light that are stars in the heavens a day or so after the operation  I won't bore you with the details of the operation (as some may be squeamish) ... needless to say it is a bit of an eye opener.    

    November 2018 ... operation on my left eye.  To be honest, not as dramatic a change compared to the right eye (that's actually a known physiological response ... doing the worse one first dramatically increases the positive response).  I can see long distance in focus but still have a few issues with the left eye.

    Now when I look into the dark sky without glasses, I see stars as they are meant to be seen ... pin pricks of light.  The down side (if there is one) ... having clear implants has increased my light sensitivity.  Seeing stars is fantastic but car head lights at night, especially when coming straight towards you, can be a bit awkward.

    Do I miss not having my gear anymore ... TBH, yes ... Am I going to buy some new gear ... probably not as the lack-of-cash situation has not improved.   I still have my trusty Canon D1000, a descent tripod and a nifty-fifty lens.  I've a faint hankering to do some more wide field shots in the future.

    Pete

     

    • Like 31
  9. Hi Nigel,

    Thanks for your very informative post :)  

    Another point to add to your "make sure the mount is level" part ... ensure that the lever or catch on the extendible legs is fully closed to lock the legs in their extended position.  I had a situation recently when I didn't follow this simple rule.  One of the tri-pod legs started to shrink in size throwing the entire set up out of kilter.  For a moment I thought the leg was going under ground until I realised what was wrong.

    Pete

  10. Another twist on the SW auto-focus theme ... I busted mine again last night.  The wires that connect the battery lead to the circuit board are so flimsy that any heavy handedness changing the battery can dislodge one or both wires from the circuit board ... which is what happened to me last night.  I think it is a combination of a very tight battery compartment and flimsy wires.

    This is the second time this fault has happened.  I don't know why a small clamp can't be used to hold the wires firmly on the circuit board as the glue that is used isn't up to the trick.  

    I feel a bit of soldering and fixing coming on ... again :(

    Pete

    • Like 1
  11. Hi John,

    Thank you for your advice. I'll try again but with much shorter exposures (8 seconds). I forgot to mention previously that I had set the aperture to f1.8 and the ISO to 800. Are these settings still ok for such short exposures?

    I'll certainly take a look at the thread you mentioned. Thank you.

    Just want to say that apart from the Nifty which cost £80 new, the only other expense to use the camera on the tripod was the cable remote at £6.50. I did buy a short dove tail at £12.50 and a two-way 1/4 inch screw at £4.50 but those are for mounting the camera on the HEQ5 mount.

    Cheers

    Pete

  12. Hi John,

    Took my first ever set of photos this evening (Canon 1000D on tri-pod, with Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. Exposure controlled using remote release). I took 10 lights at ca. 30 seconds each, and 5 darks at same settings. I've done a quick process in DSS but not sure what to do next. I've saved the DSS image as a TIFF file but it's big at 58MB. I've run it through GIMP played a bit with the 'Curves' (again, no idea what I'm doing) and saved as JPG, attached below.

    Looks like 30 seconds was too long an exposure as there are star trails.

    Sorry this is a poor image. Any tips or pointers to tutorials as to how to process the files?

    Many thanks

    Pete

    post-11866-0-84368900-1359583523_thumb.j

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