MalcolmP

So something changed between you 'doing' TCrB and M81
Could be either 1: on the 'scope, 2: in the camera, or 3:in DSS.

To test #3, have you still got the TCrB subs ? Go back to them, make copies** in a new folder and attempt to rereg/restack them.

As  @michael8554 said post a sample sub,, pref raw, one working from TCrB and one fail from M81

** so as to preserve originals with their stack info txt files just in case

5 hours ago, Pat Curran said:

Nice work Malcolm.

Is the bottom screenshot Stellarium?

Thanks Pat,

yes 4 Stellarium shots stacked in Gimp ! Two to show both Pallas and TrB selected at the same time, red for Pallas and the white bull's-eye for TCrB, two more to give orange markers in the Calculator for 1June & 1July. Then I annotated in green. Kept me busy one rainy afternoon
 

While we are waiting for TCrB to do its thing we can watch the approach of asteroid (2)Pallas, not far away in Hercules at the moment and will be a photo op in late June when it will be about 15' (1/2 moon dia) from TCrB.
Though at ~mag10 it may get lost in the glare of the ~mag2 nova !
 

dup

Continuing my simple experiments with a Canon 60d and 135mm lens on a tripod (very quick to set up between clouds !) here we have asteroid Pallas in Hercules heading towards Corona Borealis and a close encounter in late June with T CrB., (see Stellarium plot below)
I first caught up with it on the night of 14/15May, with 5 more captures of it passing close to HIP80641. 

15 minutes ago, Elp said:

Over 1000nT now higher than the one at 11 but don't really see anything now

I was thinking the same, , ,  until just now when I am seeing pinks increasing again in the S and SW  (I dont have a view from home of the N  )

A short time later >
  I checked your jpg in ASTAP and it ID a few pixels as possibly IC4617 as well !
You might be able to pull a bit more from the orig. ?

2 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

 I was quite surprised at the result.

There is a small "smudge" going towards the top right corner, could that be a galaxy?

Nice result

Yes NGC 6207

T CrB brighter tonight(28-29 April) than it has been since early March
Mostly I have had it about m10.3 +/-, on a par with BAA comparison HD 143128 @ m10.3
but tonight I have it just shy of BAA comp HD 143256 @ m9.8

Clouds as usual terminated play, before I could decide if this was significant or just a blip !
Worth a look/check anyone with a clear sky and still awake  

4 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

3 times longer or at three stops lower that will compensate?

I'm noob but genuine question. Zwo do a osc camera for under £400

I am an imaging noob as well (with 60d astromod and a 60d unmod), so this is a genuine attempt to sort things in my own head as much as suggesting things for you to watch out for !
Or to confuse the heck out of us both ! lol!

3x longer -or wider on the lens stops- has implications for the correct exposure of the rest of the *spectrum (the oft quoted 1/3 histogram rule depending on the light pollution) That 75% +/- is relative to the rest so liable to overexpose everything else.
If it is 3 stops lower on the camera exp. compensation this is a fudge on the gain of the camera electronics which affects the sensitivity as well as the dynamic range, so depends on your desired target.
If you filter out the *rest of the (unwanted) spectrum with a narrow band Ha filter then 3x longer or wider-stops is then sort of ok but not good to chuck it all away in the existing stock filter    Very bad for the SNR. 

I have not checked the prices recently but under £400 will probably be a much smaller size of sensor area than the crop sensor in the 600d. So it "depends again!" on your desired target/scope/lens combo. & on pointing accuracy, ability to find target, need for mosaic etc&etc , ,  !

My brain cell is starting to hurt

36 minutes ago, Elp said:

Aurora watch has just gone red since 1500h. As with any aurora opportunity for tonight though, as usual it's blanket cloud.

A monster red as well, perhaps enough to burn off the clouds ?!  :} 
Shame about the bright moon.

EDIT :  bright =FULL ! Where is the earth shadow/eclipse  when u need it ! 

25 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

The ecliptic doesnt have anything to do with Geostationary, but still looks like its not exactly over the equator.

The equator crosses the ecliptic not far south of it so could be a geo or a stray geo run out of station-keeping.  But my money is still on asteroid (4024) Ronan   

Not at all sure about this, but for what it might be worth ! :-

I am just looking at my images from last night of NGC 4216 and was trying to see if I had imaged (4024) Ronan close by.
So I tentatively offer that as a possibility,
cant explain the shape !  but is in the right place for about 10 or 11pm??  I think I have it a short distance away on the same track  at 1 or 2 am.

will post images later.
 

PS I say "or" in my timings because I have just discovered that my image time stamps seem to be still on BST ! eeek 

A new 4Tb  usb drive.
DSS has just announced " ,,needs temporarily 121Gb ,, only 22Gb available"   
 

27 minutes ago, Ags said:

Pictures or it didn't happen!

I think a woodcut or a gargoyle would have to be acceptable ?  
 

Clouds !

Yes, I've lost them
the sky is all dark with twinkly things in it  !
I'm off, behave yourselves while I am gone  >>>>
 

A happy couple of hours spent learning how to drive LibreOfficeCalc and plot pretty graphs therein
Nice exponentials.

27 minutes ago, DaveS said:

When astro kit arrives late-ish that's just a bit annoying, but when hospital appointment letters arrive after the appointment or not at all, that's disastrous and happens too often. Once is too often.

swmbo and I were discussing that yesterday,
We decided (prob cos I said so !!) that it is a failure of the hospital system to implement back-up plans for mission critical events.
Lost mail has been a well known problem since the penny black !
 

John Bortle was writing his visual description for S&T (Feb2001)
It has little point in the moisture laden atmosphere of the UK.
 

I'm surprised that I didnt get a 'removed word' for my effort   !

Beetlejuice is easy to remember, and being being a combo of two other common words less of a dyslexical nightmare, To speel the real word needs looking up, copy, paste. plava to avoid an error and chastisement by pedants ! Whereas Beetlejuice is an obvious attempt at humour as is this post ! Anyhows I am neither an Arab nor an ancient Latin so I dont bother with correct possessives and genders neiver.
 

and  say soder when they are solderng their electrical bits 

5 hours ago, saac said:

You got there before my fat fingers could correct it Malcolm  

Sorry !  
It was the prospect of the results of Mr V encouraging, via 'tube, people to experiment with electrickery that had me in fits of laughter.
 

3 hours ago, Paul M said:

he's opening the average punters

48 minutes ago, saac said:

a flow of electrocutions carrying charge

Nice one !

What's the use ? =
better than Bortle5 gives bragging rights and street cred on sgl
reporting worse than B6,  you're just looking for sympathy and a shoulder to cry on.