saac

@AstroNebulee, totally get where you are coming from Lee. I've followed your DSO imaging and it's always been a pleasure to see what you produce, for what it is worth you have been a great advocate of what is possible with the little AZGTi mount. I have one myself and I'm always looking to find out what you have been doing whenever you posted images up.  I agree with you on not selling anything, your situation may change in a few years and you may well find you have better access to a garden or you may decide to do a bit of wild astro photography at some stage, so yes hold on to everything for as long as you can.  My big limiting factor at the moment is weather windows - I've pretty much resigned myself that if I can get 4 hours on target than that is probably the max in one sitting.  It can be frustrating but my attitude is be content with what astro imaging/observing you can do with your limitations. Some amazing folk here are working from balconies and heavily light polluted areas like London !!!  Ok so park the DSO imaging for the moment and enjoy what you can in a more comfortable way, good luck. 

Jim 

Isn't that beautiful, lots of activity and features. Nicely done. 

Jim 

I love the shot next to the cup and beside your Newtonian. Lovely model.  

Jim 

@paulh235 I use a ZWO auto focuser on my Esprit120.  As Olly and Laurin have suggested, I also have it mounted onto the course focusing side.  I haven't used it much in anger but from what use it has had there have been no problems, it operates well. 

Jim 

2 hours ago, tomato said:

If the RASA is a cloud gun, mine is shooting blanks…

The condition seems to have spread to other telescopes too, maybe we have another pandemic on our hands  

Jim 

@BrendanC you've probably already looked through the PixInsight resource section I guess but I wonder if this routine is of any help?  Other than that it may be worth while asking on the PixInsight forum, it's a really good knowledge base and somebody will certainly have the definitive answer.  

https://pixinsight.com.ar/en/processing-examples/mask-background-stars-35.html

PixInsight Community Forum

Jim 

Not good, last thing you want at the start of the year.  On a positive note you now have an opportunity to re engineer to hopefully stop that happening again and give you peace of mind.  Relief that the scopes weren't damaged.  Good luck with the rebuild. 

Jim 

Now that is lovely, great capture. 

Jim 

Looking good Budgie as you say some nice detail in there.  I think we shared the same clear sky last night for our last run of the year, conditions here were surprisingly good until well after 3am.  I went for the Garnet Star in IC1396 (an itch I had to scratch). Pulling darks and flats now for processing this evening - certainly won't be imaging -  there is sleet and rain forecast    

Jim

Have you used historical solar sunspot data to test your software prediction against known solar events. If so how well do your predictions correlate to known events?

Jim 

Well played, you could make it professional  

Jim 

I doubt it will have any affect so long as it hasn't in any way interfered with how the primary mirror is held. Looking at the photograph is does not look that it has affected the mirror cell.  Easiest way to confirm is to stick it on the mount and take a look at some targets but I suspect all will be ok, assuming you have done a visual on the mirror to confirm it is ok.  Let us know how you get on.  

Jim  

That is a lovely image with lots of subject interest. 

Jim 

Cracking image there, love the colour pallete   Merry Christmas when it comes. 

Jim

Tbh this high speed camera technology has been demonstrated before by MIT about 5 years ago. The previous video that I recall showed a high frame rate capture (trillion frames per second) of a single pulse of laser light propagating through a cola bottle and washing over an apple. It had been linked to a camera technology that was able to see around corners being able to capture then render minute amounts of reflected light. 

Jim 

The chaotic cavity is mesmerising. Cool video, raises more questions in my feeble mind than it answers lol  

Jim 

On 10/12/2023 at 23:06, Elka said:

Is this one any good to start with? I would love to get something decent enough so he doesn’t get disappointed and helps him grow his interests (happy to upgrade if he stays interested) but not too expensive in case it ends up forgotten in a month or two…

knowing my son he would love the Hubble one 🤪 but a one on a tripod will have to do for now x

@Mr Spock

@doublevodka

For a first telescope for a 12 year old I think you would be hard pressed to do any better - it has everything that any 12 year old would want from a first telescope. Importantly, it is at a price that should hopefully keep things manageable. It will deliver what your boy is looking for -  bags of fun, excitement and learning.  He will get decent views of the moon and if he is persistent in his searching and use of the Star Sense app he will find Jupiter and Saturn. This scope will show Jupiter as a small white disc around which will appear small points of light which are the innermost moons of Jupiter as seen by Galileo. Likewise, Saturn will appear as a small white disc and, while the rings will not appear clear and distinct, he will notice that something unusual is there.   If he sticks with it and really gets good at searching he will find star clusters and even a sense of the Andromeda galaxy (it will be a very faint washed out cloud like feature - but a galaxy it will be!). For a 12 year old it is the imagination that will be fired by a telescope like this and to be honest that is way more important at that age and stage than the capability of the scope. I wouldn't look to  spend much more at this stage - see how he gets on with it first.  Remember to come back to SGL for help on setting it up, using it and finding targets.   Take a look at First Light Optics for some comments on the scope - their list price may be a little higher but their customer service is exceptional.

Jim  

On 14/12/2023 at 16:59, DeannaRose said:

I wish I could leave my mount outside in one spot-aligning every single time takes forever. However, with 12 acres of land about 2/3 of it is cedar trees and the only place I can stargaze is in the driveway/parking lot in front of the house. Can't leave my stuff out there unless I want it run over because my nephew pulls in like he's finishing a race. Maybe I can convince my mom to let me clear some more trees out for a decent astronomy field of view.

You need to buy your mum a nice Christmas present and work on convincing her to let you clear a space for your telescope. Having a permanent setup is a game changer, it's the best upgrade you will ever do.  Get her a one of those framed pictures showing the constellations visible on her birthday.  That may just just swing it your way - good luck  

Jim 

24 minutes ago, Fegato said:

I think "push a button" is a long way off. After all, we'd all want a different button! (take the same base data, and we all produce and want to produce something slightly different)

Anyway - BlurX does a marvellous job of leaving all the tiny galaxies alone, as does StarX. I'm in the middle of a hell of job trying to mask these all before some heavy stretching to avoid super bright / saturated galaxy blobs all over the place! I need GalaxyX please....

I'm holding out for Cloud X

Jim

3 hours ago, tomato said:

If you get your rig sorted then data capture is pretty straightforward, although my unattended sessions rarely deliver data as good as those where I sit with the scopes throughout the session.

Like it or not, I think the time where we can let the software alone deliver an optimum image from the data supplied is fast approaching. But that’s Ok, I can choose to do that or not, just as I can choose to manually find the object or focus during the data capture. 

Totally agree, I don't think we are that far off the likes of ZWO offering an ASiAir type of product that manages data capture, completes processing scripts to deliver a "finished" image. The ASiAir (as others) already offers stacking and production of master image files. Like everything else with astrophotography you can decide what level of activity you wish to engage with - nice to have the choice. 

Jim 

11 minutes ago, tomato said:

As someone who started out with emulsion film and manual guiding, it is just another technological advance as far as I am concerned. I wasn't really around AP when the digital revolution got going, but was there a backlash against the principle of stacking multiple frames to improve SNR, or did folks just embrace it?

Now photographing astro with wet film is not something I would have taken to - you have my respect   From a scientific view point reducing SNR in idata in such a way  as stacking does is a pretty standard routine (legitimate if you want to use such a term) . I cannot imagine why, from a technical perspective anybody could have grounds to be concerned. Too be honest, I would be more concerned that it was not being exploited  when the technology permitted it. I guarantee that professional astronomers would have welcomed the digital revolution with open arms.   

Jim 

21 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

Much as that is impressive, with all the new tools we will get to the point of loading subs and let the software (AI) process it for you. Yes, I use PI and BXT, but there is an element of guilt. Part of the challenge of AP is good data collection and processing. Maybe it is getting too easy?

Really depends on what you personally want to get out of it. When I listen to music I don't want to build the amplifier myself nor do I fully understand the electronics that sample and convert from analogue to digital. I'm not interested in that - I just want to listen to the music. So I guess it depends on what you want out of your processing activity.  How many of us actually understand what any of the processing tools are doing and to what depth of understanding.  From my own point of view I'd be happy so long as I know that my data is not being added to , in effect producing something that was not there.  With that aim in mind then I'd be happy for it to be made as simple as possible.  I can well understand though that for those who really enjoy the art of processing they may chose to use a different set of tools. 

Jim 

1 hour ago, Mandy D said:

Before I jump in and state the obvious answer, what is the exact wording of the actual question on the exam paper? I'm assuming it is not what is printed on the picture presented, here! No, i cannot go and look at the video at present.

That looks so cool, well worth a visit.

Jim