Neil_104

Wow, amazing. I love the blue reflection off the dust above and to the left of M45. It's easy to think of deep sky objects as being isolated in the sky, but images like this showing them in their wider environment is just fascinating 👍

It's annoying that niggle isn't it 😄 But if you're happy with the results from the ES then perhaps it's only the extra bump in mag that would be worth considering swapping it for the PM. I bought mine as I needed more power from my 60mm (360mm FL) for double star observations. I agree that the 4.5mm gives plenty of magnification at 714mm FL - that's about the limit of eye floaters becoming too distracting for me. This was another reason I went for the PM - so I can use my existing WO binoviewers  and get the best possible image and lessen the floaters!

Did you go for the PM in the end? I bought an ES 2x to begin with but I had that same niggling doubt that the TV would have been the better option. So I sold the ES and bought the 2.5x PM. I wasn't able to do a side by side or anything like that, but just getting rid of that niggling doubt was enough to justify the PM for me. I've been very happy using it ever since!

Glad to hear that 👍 What had happened to your mount prior?

Nice image for your first attempt! You've really caught the faint outer dust surrounding the main nebula well. It's always nice to see alternative interpretations of some of the more common objects. I agree about how sometimes artefacts such as halos can actually add a uniqueness to an image. I took an image of the horsehead a couple of years back that had a massive star halo "flash" from Alnitak right across the image and it really made the image look quite dramatic.

BTW, if you are concerned about the halos in future, I believe reducing the exposure time should help to control them more.

Nailed it 👍

Ah I see - bold project to attempt, love it! In that case I think I'd probably be more inclined to give it a few tweaks with the processing (even if only adjusting via something like camera raw in PS) and then move on. It's not like you've skimped on imaging time so far!

Nice image - lots going on! I'd be inclined to try to increase the contrast a bit & to try to darken the background a little to make the galaxies themselves stand out more. There's quite an un-evenness in the background and reducing this would make it less of a distraction for me. If doing this reduces the excellent tidal distortions you've captured then more imaging time it is! Overall though I really like it - it's nice to see something a little different rather than yet another image of M31 (like I've just done 😆). Not in any way being negative here - just how I see it 👍

Thanks for posting Geof - as we were discussing just the other day, I've been comparing a sketch I made at the time to your first image. Nice to see what was actually responsible for the detail I was seeing. Great images 👍

Excellent images Geof, thanks for sharing. The third image with Io's shadow so close gives a fantastic 3D effect. I managed to briefly observe Jupiter last night at opposition, but just at 1x!

It's great when someone posts a planetary image and it confirms details that were seen on the edge of detection on the night - had that happen a lot during the Mars opposition last year 👍

I had a look at a couple of doubles in Cassiopeia earlier this evening. Sky conditions weren't the best and it was difficult fine-focussing at times with explosions going off all around me...

Eta Cas
=>Easy split and best seen with my 7mm DeLite (51x). I saw the colours as yellowish-white and reddish-orange. Very nice, and the red secondary really was striking. Interestingly my 12.5mm Morph (29x) displayed the secondary as orange - no hint of red. Having done some reading up since on Eta Cas I didn't realise there were so many additional (but non-gravitationally linked) stars in the vicinity so I'll augment my sketch with the fainter members - at least, the ones I can see - the next time I'm out and see how faint I can go. I believe I've only caught component G (mag. 9.5) in my sketch so far.

Phi Cas
=>I've observed this cluster (NGC 457, the ET Cluster) many times in the past but until my recent foray into double star observing I had never really considered it a double star as such. Before, it was a star cluster with two bright stars. Now, it's a double star with associated cluster 😄 This one never ceases to amuse me, especially when ET is upside down and generally just larking about in space. I saw a yellowish-white primary and orangey-grey secondary, again with the 7mm.

Glad to be underway in Cassiopeia. Starting a doubles hunt in a new constellation feels a bit like pouring a new beer.

Bad analogy? Probably. Oh well 😄

On 24/10/2023 at 11:03, MalcolmM said:

Trying for Doubles in Cassiopeia

Doubles is not my first choice, but I'm keen to get more experience at it, as it is less constrained by light pollution. So, this report can be seen in it's context as a beginner's 🙂

My goal was to try and observe all the doubles in Cassiopeia mentioned in "Turn Left at Orion", with my FOA60Q on an iOptron AZMP; a very stable setup. I do not use this in 'goto' mode, I prefer the pain of star hopping! There is a great feeling of satisfaction in star hopping to a dim target and actually finding it!

The night was clear and very steady but poor transparancy. The main 'W' of Cassiopeia was visible with Kappa and Achird only just visible naked eye and Iota occasionally out of the corner of my eye.

First up was Achird as it is very easily found. This was an easy split with a 28mm Erfle (x32). The primary was a definite yellow, but I could not discern any colour in the secondary (according to 'Turn Left at Orion' it should be red). I swapped the 28mm to a 6mm (x150) Abbe Ortho and a third star appeared, roughly six times the distance from the primary as the secondary is. This third star, very dim and no colour, is not actually part of the Achird system but is shown in TLatO roughly SE of Achird. With the 6mm, the secondary was still showing no colour.

Next was Iota which, not easily seen with the naked eye, was easy in the finder. Nothing was visible in the 28mm. Using a Tak Abbe Ortho 9mm (x100) I could see a small right angled triangle of stars. The inner secondary (B) was sitting on a diffraction ring and looked smeared out along the ring a bit. The outer secondary (C) was very dim sitting outside the diffraction ring. No colour was obvious (I guess that makes them white which ties up with TLatO!). Putting in the 6mm, 'B' was less smeared in the diffraction ring. A Kokusai Kohki 5mm (x180) Orthoscopic dimmed the image such that 'C' was very difficult to see.

On to Struve 163 which proved tricky enough to find using the little triangle of stars just beyond Epsilon Cassiopeia. I recorded the primary as very red, which contrasts with the orange as mentioned in TLatO. The 'B' companion was easy to spot using the 28mm but I was not able to see the 'C' companion at all, in any of the eyepieces.

Next I tried for Burnham 1. Using the 28mm eyepiece and the little star char in TLatO, I was convinced I had the correct star but was unable to see any of the secondaries. There was a very dim star roughly 1/10th the FOV away from the primary. This would possibly tie up with the pair of stars to the SW of the primary in the 10' circle diagram in TLatO, but this is a complete guess.

This failure and the fact that I'm trying to navigate at roughly the zenith and getting quite cold persuaded me to call it a night. Very enjoyable though and I'm looking forward to trying for Struve 3053 and Sigma Cassiopeia another, hopefully more transparent, night where the colours are more obvious and I can see deeper.

Malcolm

 

Enjoyed reading your report Malcolm, and you certainly have a very nice scope to join in the fun with! I'll give all of these a go myself soon as well - Cassiopeia is mostly un-tapped doubles territory for me. I say soon - I kind of have to divide my 60mm time between imaging and double star observing. Last time out, Imaging M31 won the battle 😄

Probably a bit late to the party here but I have a pair of 9mm X-Cels and I think they are excellent for their price. I use them in my WO binos and they are a perfect weight and size, not adding too much weight. The twist up eye guards are the best I've encountered thus far, I just find it a very satisfying mechanism! Oh, and I think the view through them is very good also 😄

What has been your experience in using them so far sojourneyer?

Really nice image Rodd. I like the subtle diffraction spikes on the brighter stars as well - did you add these in post-processing?

I imaged M13 back in the summer myself and need to get round to processing it. I took it with my C6 at a focal length of 1225mm, so got in good and close. I find processing globulars to be very satisfying as you can ramp up the sharpening and just reveal more and more detail in the core.

Nice capture! Mostly cloudy here but I did manage to snap this with my bridge camera through some lighter clouds.

Do you get these odd artefacts when not using the L-Extreme filter?

To me they almost look more like some kind of image corruption (bad bits), rather than anything physically captured. What stacking/processing software did you use? Might be worth trying out some different programs on the same data to see if the artefacts remain.

Hello Ocean! Welcome to the SGL forum. Tell us a little about yourself - are you new to astronomy itself, or like me have you been around the sky a few times and are just a newcomer to SGL?

For me it's looking a little over-done in terms of the colours and processing, starting to look a little false, but I don't meant to be negative, we each have our own preferences and you've captured some great detail in the clouds. Io has totally knocked it out of the park though - great capture of surface details. It looks like a mini-Mars! 👍

Fantastic. The animation is truly mesmerising 👍

Very very nice images👍 Are you going to travel to the path of totality for the total eclipse next year?

The boring side 🤣 Must admit I can also find myself a little dejected when observing Jupiter and the GRS is round the other side! Great image 👍

Very nice! The Jupiter animations are superb to watch.

Really nice. I love the colourful star field that M56 sits in and you've captured it really well there.

Wow, simply astounding! Very well done.

Nice to see confirmation of how I was seeing the GRS appear on Saturday morning.

You went in for the long haul there and have been deservedly rewarded - fantastic image! I love the contrasting colours 👍