John_D

I've just checked on my D3100 and you get a "Lens not attached" message in any mode other than M. I've never seen the "Press shutter release..." message on mine.

For the last photo I'm imagining the cat saying "So, Mr Bond ..." 😁

Even industrial Birmingham looks ( slightly ) better under a rainbow Taken a few years ago on my phone from an office window where I was working at the time.

This is something I've been thinking about for a while but never quite got round to so I'd be interested in the details, thanks.

The star trail is amazing. I noticed the slight shift in camera position in the video when you changed the battery. That must have added to the processing fun! I've been looking for a way of powering my DSLR from an external USB battery pack but not come up with a cheap & reliable solution yet. ( That big radio telescope is unused you say. It would be just the thing for cloudy weather. Do you know how well it's bolted down? 😁 )

Milliways? First round of Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters is on me 😁

NASA's done most of the heavy lifting on this one but as I haven't had a decent view of the moon for a few weeks I thought I'd have a go at some 3D models of the lunar surface. A lunar Digital Elevation Model ( DEM ) is freely available and this model is of the Kepler crater at a resolution of 256 pixels per degree giving about 118m per pixel. This is a screenshot from Meshlab but you can see and interact with the actual 3D model at my Sketchfab page - https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/kepler-crater-d8b9a61e57ca4e5b97f871573d3c28db. ( The model was created by modifying some software that I'd previously written for parsing LiDAR data into 3D models ) Similar data with additional image overlays to improve the surface texture are also available from https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=4720. These are at lower resolutions and at the lowest resolution it's possible to create a model of the whole moon but, as might be expected, the detail is disappointingly low. However anything above that resolution gives an absolutely gigantic model that my PC struggles to display. To give an idea of the different resolutions here's a comparison of the Kepler Crater: ( The next plan is an Etsy shop where you can buy 3D printed models of all the main lunar craters. Like a sort of Lunar Pokémon - Gotta catch 'em all )

Could be but any released software comes with maintenance and support costs. My guess is that a bean counter with a spreadsheet said "no" so that was the end of it ☹️

I couldn't find it on the ZWO website so I contacted them directly and got the following response: Hi thanks sorry we don't have this available any more - its no longer supported or available unfortunately thanks Simon After some more digging it is possible to find the APK of the latest version ( 2.0.5 ) on various Android archive websites. I guess it depends on how much you trust a random website not to inject malware. I certainly wouldn't install it on my phone but I have an older tablet that I would mind testing on. The trouble is that it isn't USB 3 and I don't have a suitable OTG cable for it so it's currently low priority.

Thanks, I'll have a look and report back.

Can I ask where you got the ZWOASI Android app from? It seems to have disappeared from the Google Play Store.

You could also try the free ASI Studio capture software. It's quite basic but I've used it successfully on a low powered laptop where other software gave me trouble.

Great composition but I see what you mean about the artifacts. Have you tried pre-processing with PIPP before using Autostakkert? I've no idea if it would make any difference but it's free to try and reasonably easy to use

One final thought is that when you do get the eyepiece in a comfortable position then, inevitably, the finder scope is then awkwardly placed. So rotating rings would be useful for that as well. And while we're at it the finder scope on a Newtonian needs a star diagonal as standard because it can be a pain so look along the telescope to use it. ( Such a thing is probably readily available 😁 )

Thanks for that, I'll have a look. If you Google for rotating rings then you end up at either expensive items or dead pages.

Thanks for this information. I have an additional problem in that the surface finish of the outside of my elderly TAL is more like that of a T34 tank that's been through the battle for Berlin ☹️ Rotating the tube is not easy even when the clamps have been loosened. I may need to get some PTFE tape and wrap it around the tube first and hope that the clamps still fit. ( I'm slightly surprised that there are no aftermarket kits to do this. )

Never mind planet X, I'm still holding out for Vulcan, Einstein be damned 😁

Excellent, thanks, the boat is my favourite. Also thanks for adding the exposure details, they may not work in all cases but it's useful to have a starting point. I've subscribed to your YouTube channel so looking forward to catching up on the previous content as well.

I've just done a highly unscientific survey with Mrs D and she says that the bottom one is clearer but looks more artificial. She prefers the top one because it's more natural looking and also because it's at an angle. I think that I can see what she means 😁

Same here. I made a custom attachment for an old EQ1 mount that bolts in place of the rings. The hardest part was finding a small enough counterweight 😁 I also motorised the EQ1 mount with a stepper motor controlled by an Arduino and it tracks remarkably well. 30s subs are no problem. ( I really must get back to that, I've been distracted by the purchase of the TAL 😁 )

Is that a single exposure? I like the way that the moon looks to be passing between the two trails 😁

I believe sailing is described as "standing under a cold shower while tearing up £20 notes". I suppose the astro equivalent is "sitting in a fridge while tearing up £20 notes" Let's face it most nights around here I'd see more stars in a fridge 😁

I bought a pair of Sorel Caribou boots on a half price sale a few years ago, mainly for winter jaunts to cold places for cross country skiing. They're great but, on mine, the rubber part on the upper split on where it flexes while walking. This was after minimal wear and looking online this was a common problem at the time. I'm not sure I'd wear them in deep snow any more but they are very nice on a cold night at the telescope 😁

An animation of Jupiter and its moons. It's 30 frames, each produced from a 2 minute video and taken at 5 minute intervals. Ganymede then Europa pass in front of the planet followed by Io behind. Each frame is displayed for 200ms giving 5 fps for 6 seconds. Video was captured using my TAL 2M 6" reflector, a 2x Barlow, an ASI120MC-S camera and ASIStudio running on a Linux laptop. Processing used PIPP, Autostackert3, Registax6 and GIMP.

Thanks all for the encouraging words. Of course having posted an image to the forum I'm now in the mandatory week of cloud purgatory Still it gives me time to look at the software,