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Ant

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Everything posted by Ant

  1. That looks good! If I get something like that, I'll be well happy
  2. This will be the first astro image in a number of years, and also the longest exposure I've ever done! The Solarcan is strapped, south facing to my guttering downpipe. The exposure has started. Alarm set for December 22nd to stop it lol Ant
  3. Hello all, Long time Hi @Steve yes, we need a catch up! It started broadly at the timescales mentioned above. It was indeed a Yahoo group. Russ and I were both members of "UK Astronomy", we kept getting told off for talking about imaging. So Russ started a Yahoo Group called UK Astro Imaging (or UKAI). This gained traction fairly quickly and we moved to basic Forum Software, and started to incur small costs - a member (and by then a fellow admin of UKAI) started to cover these costs, and eventually wanted it all to himself. He booted Russ and I off. We moved to forum software that was free, with limited features and adverts. I did indeed come up with the name Stargazerslounge. I was lucky enough to meet Grant through work. Grant's a bit clever you see, and has done wonders ever since. Steve/FLO have been forum sponsor for a long time now, and really enable us to do some great things. All the star parties, competitions etc. I hung up my boots a few years back, my job seems to take it all out of me and the thought of "staying up late" is exhausting... let alone ACTUALLY staying up late. From what I can see Steve, Grant and the whole mod team are doing a sterling job with my baby 😛 Ant
  4. Congratulations @John Your knowledge and enthusiasm are part of what makes SGL great! Keep up the good work mate. I look forward to reading more of you posts! Ant
  5. Happen to glance out of the window last night and saw a nice albeit low display, Tried to capture some images with the Canon, but its been so long that I couldn't really remember how to take manual pictures, and secondly couldn't find the tripod!!! This images was taken with my S10+ handheld, everything on auto. Amazing what these phones can do these days.
  6. Damn, that's a nice image! Well done!!
  7. Fantastic, nice one! congratulations. Ant
  8. ha ha ha - that stayed on topic about 0 posts lol I have no clue how you may have got that. Looks kind of nice though
  9. When i sell something I ask what I want for the item. Its really quite simple. That is a condition of using our classified section. End off issue really. If you would prefer to use a 'proper' classified section as you put it, you clearly know the address for it. Please feel free. If you want to use ours put a price in the advert. Ant
  10. This was from a much earlier version of rhe forum software, these don't really exist anymore ant
  11. Thanks for a quick easy deal My recent purchases include a new (to me 500D), picked up for £90. Missing the mains charger - had to get a charger (£6 amazon). A rather nice camera lens dew strap, powered by 5v USB (i use a power tank to power). That was about £15ish. and lastly a new EQM-35, which when it arrived I was informed by Jane that one of the other mounts had to go... hence the sale to John above lol Ant
  12. Welcome to SGL Steven. I have a fondness of Texas, have some astro friends there. I spent three weeks in Houston / Davis Mountains 30 years ago (damn thats a long time ago). Attended the TSP with some member of the Houston and Fort Bend Astro societies. Also observed from the Mcdonald Observatory. That was really good fun. Stay safe Ant
  13. Ha ha - I've also forgotten how to process images.... Ant
  14. Still seriously impressed with the ASIair, and the ASI120mini...! The EQ3 only has standard drives, but does have the enhanced handset with the ST4 port. I was always a big fan of the Lodestar, but I'll be honest and say that I've never seen so many stars available for guiding. Usually there was only a few to choose from, there are loads in that screen grab. While I didn't polar align properly, didn't focus properly and the framing could have been better lol This is the result of the ED80/400D, 33 x 30s and 2 x 300s. It wasn't dark enough for the 5 minute subs, but who cares, the stars are round What an amazing bit of kit. After months of many wasted nights, fighting with drivers / leads / windows / software... this just worked. OK the dSLR was just doing its stuff, I hadn't added this to the ASIair (not sure the 400D is compatible). But I will be testing that out in due course. Because the ASIair is controlled by an app, there is none of this focusing while trying to see the laptop screen - its there to hand, you instantly see affect that you're having. I got the finder focused in about 2 minutes. I had a couple of false starts with the guiding, but I think that was because the standard drives ont he EQ3 have a fair amount of backlash, and that needed to settle before the calibration and guiding. But I think it was 15 - 20 minutes from first touch - to guiding. Next time will be quicker as I know what I'm doing. Here is my M31. Ant
  15. Yes, i quite like that too ant
  16. Thanks guys. I have to say had a LOT of fun this weekend. Hope you all got to see the comet too. Ant
  17. Not a great evening with regard to the Comet, last night. It should have been better really as it was a little higher. But alas no, not for me. I think that there was a layer of high stuff around, because the sky was quite milky, and then some low cloud in the North took it out - so I moved to something else. But I did get one single 10s with the 400D on the ED80. Minimal processing as it was a single sub, but what processing I did do was probably too much! Chuffed to pieces to get even this Ant
  18. That is really nice Michael. I'm loving the detail in the tail. Lovely tight stars too. Ant
  19. I'd all but given up on imaging. Night after night of frustration... I have a vague recollection of Grant mentioning an new bit of kit, but i really wasn't in the mood for shelling out more money. I sold everything except my ED80. Well slowly the bug got hold of me again, Grant again mentioned the ASIair, ill be honest i doubted that it would work with the EQ3, (NOT the goto synscan model). But he assured me that the ST4 port was all I needed. Well I got the Mk1 a few days ago, and OMG. I haven't polar aligned, but within about 15 minutes I was guiding. I'll be the first to admit that it's not the best guide graph I've ever seen. But dammit its quiding. I couldn't be happier. No laptop... it runs happily on my phone, or on my really old android tablet (it shouldn't but it does). A very happy chap. Ant
  20. and a little video as well... which I'd taken more, but the NCL made me move the camera! Uploaded a better video - this one is 720P rather than 360P...
  21. I think I had a bit of luck last night. Set the alarm for 1:45, but really didn't want to get up. I looked out of the window (half hoping for cloud, yeah I know ). But to be able to see the comet from indoors through net curtains, really made me stop and stare (and I live in a bungalow). I have only one word - WOW. I actually don't think I've ever seen a naked eye comet before. So this is an incredible sight for me. I had the car packed already as I didn't think I'd see it from home, so took a very short drive. Again Wow. I may try from home tonight and set the camera up piggy back and just let it run all night. Here are three images - I have hundreds. I think a nice animation of the widefield one, I just managed to get Venus rising at the end of the capture - then I spotted the NLC and had to move the camera - thus ending the animation. So three images, one of the first of the evening with me trying to be a bit arty, and lightling up the trees in red. The second is the NLC and the third is the widefield with Comet Neowise, M45, Auriga and Venus. I also saw the moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars (stoopid planet). Thanks for looking. Ant
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