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After getting all of my old AP gear out and verifying that everything works during a quick observing session, I decided to finally buy a camera for use with my WO ZS61 (that I used to use as a travel scope) as a guidescope. Now that I've acquired all the necessary screws, everything is ready to go, but as soon as everything arrived (~3 weeks ago) the weather turned horrid, and there isn't a clear night in sight. The neverending curse of buying new gear. Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6 (controlled via handset) Imaging scope: Skywatcher 80ED Imaging camera: Canon 100D DSLR Guide scope: William Optics ZenithStar 61 w/ field flattener Guide camera: ZWO ASI120-MM Camera controlled by EKOS; guider controlled by PHD2. I also have some dew heater bands (not shown) that I bought from Rother Valley Optics back in the day. (The fruit in the background isn't part of the imaging setup) Next steps will be a field flattener for the 80ED and a cable to connect the mount directly to KSTARS for pointing control / polar alignment etc. Cheers, Luke

As @Ouroboros says, in the situation you describe (starting two stars at rest without any other perturbing factor), they will invariably collide. If instead you initialise them in a circular orbit - i.e., with angular momentum / orbital velocity - they will orbit around their common centre of mass. If the masses of the stars are equal, this centre of mass will be located exactly between the two stars. Luke

Amazing work - I always love seeing images of active galaxies! Great point about the star formation. It's also worth mentioning that active galactic nuclei also produce a lot of Halpha emission (both from the nuclei themselves and due to them ionising the central regions of the galaxy), so I'm guessing that the Halpha subs will bring out even more central detail in the main galaxy. Looks like you captured quite a few background galaxies too! Luke

Incredible stuff! There appears to be some red + blue emission to the south of the galaxy, near the bottom of the FOV. Is that real emission from a foreground object, or noise from the camera? There's definitely a lot of stuff going on in the background - looks like you've managed to resolve quite a few other galaxies. Brilliant work! Luke

Thanks! Feels a bit like cheating since it isn't my telescope, but I've just posted it in that thread 😅 Luke

I was directed here from a Welcome thread. I'm very jealous of everyone's setups! I feel like this is cheating since it isn't 'my' scope, but just for a bit of fun, here are a few pics of me observing with the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma, taken while I was working as a telescope operator / support astronomer there. Opened up just before sunset to allow the dome to cool and get ready for twilight sky flats: The control room after everything has been set up, and the first exposures of the night are being taken: To give a sense of scale, here's a selfie taken near prime focus, just after filling the CCD enclosure with liquid nitrogen after a full night of observing. Luke

Thanks all! Feel free! I'm always up for it. I didn't - moving the instrument / optical plane itself was a massive job that required a team of technicians and a big crane inside the dome, so I left that to the engineers. That being said I did have to change photometric filters and spectrograph gratings (sometimes in the middle of the night in an open, dark dome), the latter of which involved tilt and rotation correction of both the CCD and the gratings, which isn't super unlike collimation. I also had to fill the CCD enclosure with liquid nitrogen (at the start of the night and at the end, sometimes as late as 8am!), among other things.

Well, I never had to polar align the INT 😅But yes, while operating a research telescope and setting up your own equipment are definitely different skill sets, they do have a lot of overlap, conceptually at least. Thank you! Luke

Hi all, Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself - I've learnt a lot by reading the threads and advice on SGL over the years, and now felt like a good time to make an account and get involved proper. I'm Luke. I started with amateur astronomy in 2015, and then astrophotography later that year. However, I didn't make much progress before heading off to uni to study physics and astronomy, where I couldn't take my gear with me due to living in student accommodation. That means that I've been more-or-less away from back garden astronomy and astrophotography for 8+ years now. That being said, as part of my degree I spent a year working as a telescope operator / support astronomer at the 2.5m aperture Isaac Newton Telescope at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, Spain. I did have my own small imaging rig that I took up to the observatory occasionally, but I never got any images out of it I was super pleased with. Currently, I'm finishing up a PhD in observational astrophysics, investigating the link between supermassive black holes and galaxy evolution. In my research, I've used data taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and ALMA (a radio / sub-mm array in Chile). While I absolutely love my work in professional astronomy, it's very different to being under the night sky, taking images or looking through eyepieces. So, recently I got all of my astro gear out of storage and have started to get back into it. I'm looking forward to (hopefully) contributing here, although I suspect I'll be mostly asking for advice more often for the foreseeable future 😅. Although, if anyone has any questions about astrophysics, feel free to drop me a message - I'm always up for science talk. Here is an awful picture of a (very) tired me and the Isaac Newton Telescope after a full night of observing: Cheers, Luke

Thanks for the clarification Phil; I had assumed that was the case. I was referring instead to the fact that I'm supplying my mount with 12v, not 13.6v (I believe, I'll need to check the adapters I'm using in detail). Thinking about it now though, it's entirely possible it's slewing fine - I haven't used it in 6+ years, so I could be misremembering the slew speed. Luke

Hi all, I hope this is of interest to some. I'm currently working my way through Star Noise: Discovering the Radio Universe by K.I. Kellermann and E.N. Boutone. It covers the history of radio astronomy in good detail, starting with Karl Jansky and his detection of radio emission from the galactic plane in the 1930s. I've found it to be very well written, and despite having a good level of technical detail, entertaining. I knew the brief version of many of the events covered in the book before reading it, but the inclusion of anecdotes and stories (backed up by an extensive bibliography) really adds life to them. If anyone was thinking about giving it a read - or is interested in the history of radio astronomy (or astrophysics across the last century in general) - I'd definitely recommend it. Do note that there is a certain level of assumed knowledge, probably around the late undergraduate / early-postgraduate physics/astronomy level, but I think an enthusiastic amateur will be able to follow everything without much problem. Cheers, Luke

I got all of my gear out tonight to take advantage of the intermittently-clear skies, mainly just to verify that everything (that has been in storage for 6+ years!) still works. I used the advice in this thread to power everything via mains: an IP54-rated cable reel plugged into a mains socket via RCD adapter, with everything (including 12v converters for the mount + dew heater controller) inside a heavy-duty plastic box. It worked a treat - the electronics inside the box kept dry, and despite the cable being 20m long, the mount worked fine. Although, as mentioned by Michael, the slewing was a bit slow. Thanks all again for the suggestions - I very much appreciate you taking the time. I did, however, quickly remember how much I hate polar alignment. Thankfully, my guide camera and dovetail for my guidescope arrived today. I keep buying the wrong screws (🙄) to mount it to my imaging scope, but once that's sorted, I'll use a plate-solving method for the PA with the guider. Cheers! Luke

Thanks all, much appreciated. To address a few points: Thanks Michael, that's good to know. I'll give the manual a read over. Regarding the voltage drops due to cable length, i'll measure the distance from the mains outlet to the place where I normally setup my tripod + mount and estimate the voltage drop. I'd be fine with slewing etc. being a bit slower, as long as the tracking is alright. Unfortunately I'm renting at the minute, and will be for the foreseeable future due to somewhat frequent relocation for my line of work, but I'll have a think about maybe getting a semi-permanent (but reversible) power solution in place the next time I'll be somewhere for 2+ years. Maybe a mains extension from the house out to the observing site with silicone insulted cable. Luke

Hi both, Thanks a lot - really useful stuff there! I'll definitely pick up a heavy-duty box to manage the dew. Looking around, I've seen several suggestions to get an RCD adapter, which I'll also definitely pick up. Can't be too careful. Michael, regarding the 13.8V supply, in what way does your mount perform better on the higher input voltage? Is the tracking better? Cheers, Luke

Hi all, I'm coming back from a (very long) break from astrophotography, and looking to power my Skywatcher NEQ-6 with mains power. I used to use a powertank, but I was hopeless at remembering to charge it, so I'm looking at something I can just plug in and wheel out of the house when the skies are clear. Does anyone have experience with using an outdoor-rated cable reel to provide power to a mount in a back garden? The idea being I'd wheel it out through the window and plug my NEQ-6 and dew-heater band controller (with 12v adapters) into the cable reel. I'm a bit concerned about damp/dew forming somewhere in this chain and potentially causing a surge which could damage the mount electronics. I'm thinking of something like this for the reel: https://www.diy.com/departments/masterplug-2-socket-grey-outdoor-cable-reel-20m/33670_BQ.prd?fbt1=true ; i've just bought two of these 12v adapters for the mount + dew controller: https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/universal-mains-telescope-power-supply.html Cheers, Luke