Radman40

I see WO have brought out a limited edition black and white version of the RedCat 51. Whatever next.....tabby cat perhaps? A dog range maybe? A chihuahua 50 at one end and a Great Dane 156 at the other. Personally I would go for something in the middle like Retriever 81 (in gold).

Great image!. Which camera did you use and what exposure?

Well who could believe it last Friday night.   One of those rare nights. I was not knackered from work, it was actually clear in the NW, the seeing was not too bad at all, various members of the family were not demanding my attention and it was not too cold or windy. Incredible! I was able to make one of my few trips into the garden to enjoy the moon. Here are a few images.

All taken with ASI385 10% of 2000

The first one is Mare Humorum with 250mm VX10L 

Second and Third are Aristarchus and Schroter's Valley, first with an 80mm frac and then with the 250mm Newt. Both are about the same focal length. Thought the resolution would have been better with the 250mm TBH.  I am sure there is a reason but I am not knowledgeable enough to know why. 

Final image is Aristarchus and Schroter's Valley using a 2.5x Powermate. Interesting looking at all the features around the valley as the emerge from the morning gloom.

250mm prime 10% 2000.tif 80 mm x3 10% 2000.tif 250mm prime 10% 2000.tif 250mm x2 10% 2000 x2.tif

A very well put together image. Thanks for posting.  I note the relative lack of colour in many of the stars. I have this trouble. I think it is a DSLR saturation thing with long exposures.  I wonder if stacking short exposures taken with a higher camera speed would help at all?

9 hours ago, FLO said:

More models are planned for StellaLyra and StellaMira but currently we are unable to share details. 

 

We watch, wait (and save) with interest!

Very nice. Any plans for 100mm? I will be in the market for one of those before too long. 

I was just looking at a really good picture of the moon taken with a smart phone. It caused me to reflect back on when I used film with an SLR and my newt 35 years ago. The phone  image was better than the images I used to take then and there are no trips to the chemist with my roll of Ektachrome 400 and then the wait for processing. We get an instant result now. All much better but I do miss the sense of excitement and anticipation when waiting and going to collect my slides.   For all the gains there are some losses!

Extraordinary. This is far better than what I was producing with a SLR camera on a telescope using film 35 years ago. So much has changed in that time. Best thing is you don’t have to send the film off for processing though I do miss the sense of excitement and anticipation when going to pick up my slides. 

Sinus Iridum is always a crowd pleaser. The shadow at the northeastern end of the Jura Mountains is caused by a mountain feature called Cape Laplace and is 2600m high.230121 20% 5000 Prime.tif

Beautiful!

Like the opening to a Star Wars film!

I tried to buy a set of pans the other day and had the same problem.  Everywhere out of stock.  Roll on the vaccine. This is our only way out of this. 

Just wondering how you would look through the polar scope to align🤔🤔🤔 My eyes were on stalks when I saw this. Looks like they would need to be to look through this unless I am missing something (which is more than likely).

Thanks....I will have another fiddle with the software and see if I can get anymore out of the image. 

Amazing image. I am totally blown away.  That fullerscope is a total beast.  I have been so impressed with your images of Venus and now this! 

I have been trying to get some decent images of the apollo 15 landing site for years  and I have never come close to getting anything like this. I was out last night also using a 250mm f6,3 newt and this is the best I could come up with.  Like you the seeing was poor and the wind was blowing the scope all over the place.  This was taken with a 2.5x powermate, 10% from 4000 frames using an ZWO385MC and a filter.   I wonder if i should acquire more frames?  I see you  gathered 10K.  I used 10% from 4000.

Thought it may be fun to compare my WO 72mm Megrez refactor with my OOUK 250 mm f6.3 Newtonian to see what the difference in resolution may be.  I tried to keep everything as equal as possible e,g, focal length, image acquisition parameters, processing etc. 

You can certainly see a difference but I thought it would have been more marked.  The seeing was 'average' at best so I guess the newt was not operating at its full potential.  

The target is the Theophilus/Cyrillus/Catharina trio which was well paced last night.   Both scopes are easily able to resolve 8km craters but the the 72mm cannot resolve the 4km craters in Mare Nectaris which the 250mm is just managing (though it may not show in this compressed image).

Makes you wonder that for the average guy like me, who enjoys a bit of back garden astronomy under light polluted UK skies, a modest aperture scope will go a long way to . Certainly cheaper and easier that lugging large aperture scopes and their mounts in and out of the garage.   I hear so often on SGL that the best scope is the one you use most often.   I think when I get too old to haul the Newt around I may settle for a 102mm refactor.  

I shall repeat the exercise under good seeing to see how things stack up.

Nice...why do I never get bored of looking at the moon.  

The Earth must be really bright and amazing to look at from the moon at night. I think I read somewhere that it is like having a 40 watt blue light bulb suspended a couple of meters above your head.

Fantastic....amazing detail with a 150mm objective. Shows what can be done.

Here is my offering for the 11% moon yesterday evening.  I normally cant get my main scope on a young moon as it always  behind the house. I was lucky last night as it was visible in a small gap between my house and the neighbours.  I had a 45 min window to get the image and just made it.

Looking at the image there is an interesting bright feature  on the terminator toward the bottom of the image. This caught my eye when I was looking at the moon before imaging.  You can seen this on Bizibilders image also (above).   I think this is the rising sun catching the walls of the crater Biela.  Virtual Moon Atlas says  this crater has steep walls.   Its amazing how much light can be reflected from ab object that only reflects back 12% of the light incident on it.

This consists of 5 panes. 10% of 2000 images.

I totally agree. I have never been able  to come close to photographically capturing the beauty and atmosphere generated by a crescent moon with a bright planet close by.  I have told my kids to make sure they put me in a care home (when the time comes) with a good western or eastern horizon. I may not be able to use a telescope then but hopefully I will still be able to enjoy that whilst sitting on my commode!

It is interesting when reading the forums how folk (and I include myself in this) spend a lot of time agonising over which camera or scope to use in seeking to produce the high quality images of the moon and planets we all drool over. We hear of ‘aperture fever’ and all feel slightly inadequate when the next new camera comes to market which pushes our own towards the scrap heap of obsolescence.

Having gained a little experience I am starting to think that we should not spend too much time worrying about some of the factors that impact on the quality of imaging as their impact is marginal compared to others. 

I have therefore produced a list of factors (in no particular order) which impact upon the quality images. It would be interesting to see the views of the views of the community as to which factors they feel are the most important when it comes to imaging the moon and planets. Place the factors in order of importance (high to low) and give each factor a score out of 10 which indicates how much impact  that factor has (10 high impact, 1 low impact). Feel free to add, modify, remove or combine factors at your discretion. I have not included cloud cover for obvious reasons. 

Exposure time.

Pixel size.

Sampling.

Instrument Focal length.

Choice of image acquisition software.

Collimation  very slightly out.

Collimation more significantly out.

Chance imaging/stacking etc.

Choice of image processing software.

Seeing conditions.

Altitude of object.

Aperture of instrument.

Quality of Barlow etc.

Type of computer used to acquire images.

Image processing techniques.

Filters (state type).

Colour vs b/w camera.

Being dressed properly.

Ease/time of setting up equipment.

Motivation following a day at work.

Sensor size.

Demands of family.

External Temperature.

It will be very interesting to see how much agreement there is in the lists! 

Nice images. It is such a shame that you can be right in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales and still be affected by the dreaded light pollution. Is that that you have to get about 50-60 miles from a town to really escape it?

Excellent work. Nice colours in the image. 

Well so far the real crowd pleasers  so far seem to be total solar eclipses, Hale Bopp, seeing the sky from a really dark site, and first experiences with a half decent scope. 

I had dipped out of astronomy when hale bopp was around in favour of paying attention to my new wife and career. Both of those worked out very well so it was time well invested but I do really regret not making some time to observe it properly.  

I really must go an see a total eclipse. We are very lucky on earth to be able to experience these the way we do.  

Seeing a really really dark sky is something that is difficult to achieve these days. Getting all the ingredients in place is not easy. Weather, no moon, time off work, the need to travel, family commitments etc etc.   Persistence is required here!