jonathancd

The telescope I used is a TEC140. It is quite a high end triplet refractor. It is good for planetary imaging, particularly when the seeing is less than perfect, to extend the focal length I also used a GSO 2.5x barlow lens

Here's another from about an hour later, same equipment as above. Mars

After two weeks of cloud and rain, I was really pleased to get out tonight to image Mars. Seeing was reasonable too so managed to get some nice surface detail. Imaged using an Altair GPCam3 290C and TEC140 with 2.5 barlow. Processed with Autostakkert3 and Microsoft photo, best 5% of 4000 frames. Thanks for looking. Mars

Dan, I have been keeping the gain low for these planetary images (around 200 in Sharpcap) and a shutter speed that gives me around 40 frames a second.

Hello, Just wanted to share my images of Mars, Uranus and Neptune from last night. All images were using a C9.25 and an Altair GPCam3 290C. They were processed with Autostakkert3 with wavelets in Registax. Mars is looking good and showing lots of detail now, really pleased to have some colour on Uranus and Neptune though no details! Managed now to have imaged all the planets now this year which is a first for me! Mars Uranus Neptune

Here are images of the two active regions on the sun at the moment in white light. They were taken using my TEC140 at prime focus, Baader Herschel Wedge and an Altair Astro GPCam3 290M. Each image was a the best 15% of around 2,500 frames process in Planetary System Stacker and Microsoft photo. First time using this camera for solar and please with how the granulation has come out. Good to see the sun seems to be moving out of solar minimum.

Fabulous prominence today along with separate solar disk surface image. Captured with GPcam3 290m and processed with Autostakkert.

Lucky to get another night out using Sharpcap live stacking and my Altair GPcam3 290c. Telescope was again my TEC140 with a Meade 0.33 reducer (at about 0.4) so the scope was operating around F2.8. The globulars were 15 second exposures and the nebula 30 seconds all the stacks were 5-7 minutes in total except for M16 where I went for 15 minutes. They were saved as seen PNGs then tweaked a little in photoshop. The new camera has helped me fulfil an ambition to image the Pillars of Creation. M13 M92 M16 M27 M11 M71

Hello, I live in NE London (Walthamstow) under Bortle 8 skies though these do not cause too much of a problem when imaging the brighter planets thankfully! Jupiter and Saturn are still very low at the moment (about 16 degrees above the horizon at their highest) so looking forward to them getting higher and better for imaging over the next few years. Mars will be good though in October and will reach around 40 degrees at opposition. Yes it is a colour camera. It is an Altair Astro GPCam3 290c. the ZWO ASI 290c is more or less the same camera. thanks for the positive comments.

First night of imaging with my new planetary cam, an Altair GPCam3 290c, telescope was a TEC140 with a 2.5x barlow. Each picture is the best 15% of frames from around 1 minute, 2500 frame stacks. Stacked in Autostakkert with wavelets sharpening and colour balance in Registax. Seems a really versatile camera as I was able to use the same camera and scope to do some DSO live stacking (pictures in the EAA observations section). Thanks for looking. Jupiter with Callisto shadow transit Saturn Mars

First night out using Sharpcap live stacking and my new Altair GPcam3 290c. Telescope was a TEC140 with a Meade 0.33 reducer (at about 0.4) so the scope was operating around F2.8. The globulars were 8 second exposures and the galaxies and nebula 18 seconds all the stacks were 5-7 minutes in total. They were saved as seen PNGs. I tweaked them a little in photoshop but I was pleased to see how low the noise was without any calibration frames given it was a mild night. Really versatile camera and I look forward to using it more. Also took some pictures of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with the same camera but with a 2.5x barlow instead of the reducer, I am putting these pictures in the planetary imaging section. M2 M15 M27 M31 core NGC891 NGC7331

In my view refractors probably are best for splitting doubles. In your top category, my current main scope is amazing with doubles and manages mediocre seeing very well allowing splits down to 1 arc second. If you can afford one a TEC140 is hard to beat.

Just a couple from me to add. Just as good as yesterday but a bit too tired today to make a night of it. Remains an awesome sight!!

Hello, whilst I was waiting the Comet Neowise, I images Jupiter, Saturn and Mars last night with my C9.25 and Canon 70D with EOS movie record. Stacked in Autostakkert and gentle wavelets in Registax. Thanks for looking,

Amazing night with great views of the comet. Even got my wife out of bed at 3am!! Here is my picture from NE London.