kirkster501

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I will tone it down a bit and repost later, I think I need to do likewise with my M31 from the other day. I need to put a sign up on my desk saying "Steve, resist your urge to have very vibrant colours on your astro pictures" !!!!!!!!!

I love these globular clusters. Well done Alan, I like it. I agree with Steve about the red. You've also got a slight gradient on the right. In my (very limited) experience, getting rid of - or minimising as much as possible - gradients is one of the most important things you can do to get better at AP and improve your pictures, not that I am an expert, far from it. It is not always easy and sometimes impossible and people want to rush on to the next stage. But time spent removing gradients here is very well spent. I really like your picture

100% go with the EQ6 or preferably the NEQ6. Get something that has the ability to cater for your possibly increasing aspirations. The NEQ6 will leave you a lot of runway for these changes in the future and it is a very capable mount and tracks accurately. I regularly used to image and observe with an ED80 on my NEQ6. Yes, maybe the NEQ6 was overkill for the ED80 and camera. But that is never a bad thing. I second Laser Jock. NEQ6 (or EQ6) a superb mount and before I had my observatory my previous NEQ6 was out under a BBQ cover for three years without the slightest bother. Indeed, I am currently building a "Todmorden" type peer and my current NEQ6 will likewise be similarly permanently outdoors. This will render the issue of taking out and setting up every night irrelevant other than the initial getting it onto the peer in the first place, which is easy enough.

Very familiar with the roads around there from the cycling times when I was younger. Some steeps bits alright.... !

Yeah, maybe with arcsin stretch - have to be very careful with that tool. I do like vibrant images but one can over do it.

Well done. Such a fabulous area. As I said on the observing section when I was in Lanzarote, we miss so many fabulous targets stranded in the UK.

Have not got any Ha yet but here is 4 hours of luminance and an hour each of RGB - all 5 min subs. TEC 140 (with flattener) and Atik 460. Cropped about 50%. I do like bright and cheerful renditions of objects, something I know I need to tone down a bit. I may have slightly overdone the arcsin stretch leading to slightly red stars. It is also a tad noisy so I may revisit. Anyway, putting out there for critique and commentary. Steve

Would love to go down and meet Olly in person and learn some new stuff, meet some new people and do some biking around there. One day soon hopefully! :)

Thanks for sharing.

What laptop is that please?

Thanks Olly, yeah, I'm sure the data is fine and it's my processing skills that are lacking somewhat....... I will tinker about a bit more.

I am going through this paralysis by analysis too and can never make my mind up what to do.....

Well done - a good 18 months. As I am sure you have come to realise, you have to make the most of every opportunity in the UK since we can go for a couple of months sometimes between imaging opportunities. Visual astronomy is less demanding as you can cloud dodge what to observe.

Think I need to tone this image down a bit - it's a bit "in 'ya face"....... Maybe a slight blue cast to it as well. I shall return......

I agree. He presented it almost as a fact that Mercury suffered a glancing blow when it was out near Mars, then within two minutes he said it was a possible scenario.... I liked the special effects though, they were marvellous. Overall, I enjoyed Episode 1 and will watch the others.

Not normally a fan of BC but he was much better in this. Less of his wistful gazing into the distance than his other series. A good watch.

Very nice, M13 and M15 amongst my favourites. This is a much harder target than most realise IMO. In your version you have lovely small stars in there so you must have had a very steady night and good tracking and guiding. You've lost control of the bright stars at 5 and 10 O'Clock though. What happened?

Need more Ha and more Luminance but thought I would process this data and throw it out there. I always love a M31, whether mine or other people's. Would like to add more to this project. Would like more detail half way out from the core. Atik 460 on a FSQ85. Three hours L and 90 mins each RGBHa.

Very sad to read of his passing.

You'll enjoy it very much. Scorpio and Sagittarius will be even higher and I urge you to make the most of looking at Centaurus first because it is low even in Lanzarote - and never visible in the UK - and was on the Meridian at 11PM when I was there (with it getting dark at about 9:45) so it will be quickly getting past its prime. This area of the sky is so fabulous to observe. It is a very great pity we do not get to see most of this well from the UK. We get to see bits of Scorpio and Sagittarius sure but always very low. It was clear for 8 nights out of 10. 5 of them the seeing was fabulous. Was great to do this from the hotel room balcony straight over the southern sea horizon and very little light pollution. I must get to Namibia one day.

Having a week in the sun in Lanzarote. Evening meal and a few sherbets and when back at our hotel Room, dark and facing south, I get the bins and star map out. Spent some time on Centaurus, which is low in the south even in lanzarote. Great views of Globular cluster omega Centauri even though only 10 degrees or so above the horizon on the meridian. Very obvious in bins and no effort at all to find it. Much more obvious than M13. spent time in the Antares area and bagged messier globulars that are very hard to see in UK. Corvus, Libra and southern Ophiuchus. Lovely to see Jupiter at a reasonable altitude in Scorpio. I’d forgotten what it looks like almost, it’s been so low in the UK for seemingly ages now. lovely to have clear nights regularly. Shall miss this when I come home to the grey and wet.

Sorry for slight thread hijack but does the title thread reflect this special sketch? So funny...

Unless you can get clear skies to make the most of the aperture you'll be largely disappointed in what a bigger scope can do on Deep sky objects vs the practicality of wheeling it out. I have had magnificent views through the 8" Dob we had in Bortle 1/2 skies. It was breathtaking. I cannot even see the same objects in a 14" scope in Bortle 5 where I live. It's like saying a bigger engine is always better. To a point that's true. But don't forget affordably and practicality as well. Scope size increases HUGELY the bigger they get. A 12" Dob is quite a beast whereas a 8" can be lost in a corner behind the rocking chair. "But it's only 4" bigger you say. Sure. But physically it is MUCH bigger than that 4" increase in aperture might suggest. Just sayin'.....

I can highly recommend the Baader wedge. Works a treat with my TEC140.

I have the AstroPhysics CCDT67 for my 14" ACF. I have yet to try this reducer since I bought it off of ABS two weeks ago due to other projects and cloud out. Others have used this same reducer on the ACF 10" scope successfully. I can't think why the 14" should be any different so I have taken a punt on it. https://astrojolo.com/gears/acf-10-and-ccdt67-telecompressor/