Scott

am I right in thinking that if you plan to use vnc without a modem,the a null modem cable is required?

http://www.tekroninternational.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/crossover-vs-straight-through-cables.html

I have only been here a short while and I have arthritits, I typo frequently and need to edit posts regularly.

Why on earth do you force newbies to post 250  times before they =cam edit?

No other forum does that and th einhabitants here seem reasonably intelligent and well mannered enough that editing a post would not be a problem.

Daft rule.

Hello Jefrs, Sorry to hear of your problems with arthritis and your need edit (although we all make frequent mistakes). If you click the "more options" button at the bottom of your post before sending it, you will see a "preview post" option which may help.

The reason for the restriction in editing is because there were many people abusing this option, posting inflamatory/rude posts and deleting them before they could be brought to admins attention. We hope by the time someone reaches 250 posts they have proven themselvess to be serious about obeying the forum code of conduct.

Nobody really cares too much about some spelling mistakes, and if you type something that is wrong (eg "I do care" instead of "I do NOT care") contact a moderator and we'll sort it for you.

Thank you for your understanding

Back in a big way then Rob. quite a post you've made and as always, a pleasure to read. Hope things settle for you and yours quickly

A Medley of Mods too, we have our own Choir you see. Mostly all tone deaf at present, but gradually getting 

there, somewhere, anywhere. We are rehearsing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at present   . 

Ron.

With yours truelly on the triangle

I'm not one for conspiracy theories BUT.... I've heard mention (in some of the darker corners of the internet) that first light optics (in cohoots with torchwood/nasa/holidaysinthesun.com) are now controling the weather. Far be it for me to cast aspersions but I'd like to point out that they are now selling more solar set-ups than ever. Coincidence?.........you decide  

auspom, just noticed your a fellow stokie, where abouts you from mate?

Alsagers Bank Gareth,

I'm still waiting to get along to one one of the North Staffs Imaging nights

My bad...... I swear I read to take flats at the lowest ISO, I've only done flats twice so far, but from now on will indeed do the flats at the same ISO as the lights

As above, I (and I'm guessing many others) use dss and shoot flats at 100 iso. No problems. Whether or not there is a technical reason for not doing this, I don't know but if it ain't broke, I'm not gunna fix it

apart from the instruction from DSS FAQ? they stare to keep the ISO the same and the software asks the same when before stacking, if your using DSS to stack id stick to what they suggest, if stacking with other software then whatever floats ya boat

I use dss and shoot flats at 100 iso. No problems.

I certainly wouldn't argue with you Gareth, your images stand up for themselves. I'm merely saying that 100 works for me

i suspect there is no such thing as a perfect polar alignment anyway, since the axis of rotation of your scope is different to the axis of rotation of the earth (by the earth's diameter at your latitude) and the axis of scope rotation is also rotating around the earth's axis !

Mind you, I think I'm over-thinking it now and the error distances are literally astronomically small.

Anyway, polar scope with Polaris in the little circle works for me.

Providing your little circle is in the right place

All these equations confuse me . 

What I do know is that I spend a bit of time and effort getting pa as good as I can and a mate just plonks it down aiming the mount northish.

His Images beat mine every time and I'm starting to hate him for it . Well apart from the hating him bit, the rest is all true and I just don't get it. (both scopes are guided).

Here is my first ever DSO.

It is 17 exposures of 5 seconds manually tracking by hand for each exposure as i dont have motors for my mount yet.  Stacked in DSS and edited in PS Elements to drown out the light from the almost full moon.

Far from great but im happy for my first ever attempt

Orion 16bit 2_edited-1.jpg

huge effort mate...kudos

I know a bloke who owns a JTW 1100d (serial # 001) and he seems to be getting some pretty fantastic results. having said that, they cost a damn sight more than your standard 1100d   .

It always comes down to money .

loving the op Quaila, It'd be nice if this could automatically get posted on "which scope" type threads. Having suffered from deteriorated discs in the lower back for 20+ yrs, my heart goes out to you. hang in there and get well soon.

Scott

Nice one Ian. gonna help a lot of people . starting with me

Scott

Age is a pain, I hope my retinas don't become detached

I see what you're saying, well I would if I could find my damn glasses...........I'll stop now

I thought I was cheesy

Haha...maybe you are, I'm just cheesier

Sounds like something from Jeff Waynes' 'War of The Worlds'

C'mon Oily... the chances of anything coming from mars are a million to one (they said). .

Sorry mgg505, can't help I'm afraid.

Okay, here's my first effort, rather poor compared to the standard of some of the photos above, but I didn't think it was too bad as the second photo I've taken with my scope, and my first effort at something deep sky!  I'd thrown the scope together quickly after the cloud suddenly cleared a couple of weeks ago, so polar alignment was almost non existent and the longest sub I could manage was 20s!  Only six subs were usable, stacked in DSS with dark frames but no flats.  Canon 400D at ISO1600 on my Tal-2M.

Ian

 Thats pretty cool Ian, although you seem to have made a common mistake that I'm quite often guilty of. short on time so I rush focus . No matter what, get the focus right or the rest will suffer. It's a steep learning curve hey, but a cracking start none the less .

This was my first DSO and AP image ever if you don't count some short test shots of random stars...

Gosh - just two years ago and to think how much kit I've bought since then not to mention over £600 on timber and several hundred on concrete and other stuff for my observatory TBH I don't think I've done too badly in improving my techniques and building stuff in that time either. I've been thinking I should construct a history of purchases and building. I should be able to get all the info from what I've posted here - proper chatterbox I am Should be interesting To me that is I doubt others would have much interest.

always had a mild interest in science although never enough to actually do anything about it. Then in 2011 a combination of circumstances put me in a position that i could get a scope and i realised i didn't need an observatory type scope to see things so I took the plunge. My biggest regret is not the fact that I was 50 yrs old when I started but that I missed the aussie skies I had growing up with. I was lucky enough (in a round about sort of way) to spend 4/5 mths back there last yr though

Good food for thought there - thank you I have yet to try DSO imaging - now it doesn't seem as daunting as I thought

Thanks again

Gina

I actually have managed to get some "noise" from a DSO in the past but this is my first ever chance of actually capturing a DSO. My first scope was a Celestron 127 slt, complete unsuitable for DSO imaging, especially with a small web cam chip.

But now I have upgraded,

Skywatcher 200PDS

NEQ6

Canon 1100D

Philips SPC900NC, currently filling the guiding role.

My "first" DSO M51:

My first one is from quite a way back (January 1996, if I am right)

Hand guided for 15 minutes using the Celestron off-axis guider and Kelner illuminated reticle EP.

Camera: Contax RTS II

Lens: 8" F/10 SCT,

Method: prime focus with focal reducer to f/6.3, Celestron LPR filter used to reduce light pollution

Exposure: 15 min on 1600 ASA Fujichrome Sensia film

Corrector icing up caused a bit of blur, otherwise I was quite pleased at this first effort

Scott

Some interesting 1st astro-pics here. Here's my oldest surviving pic in Comet Mrkos 1957 via Finetta cam+Ilford HP3 as shown. My first LRGB was M57 in 1996 via Celestron PixCel CCD [=SBIG] posted on Compuserve astro-forum at the time. Hadn't heard of LRGB so called it a "hybrid merge mono+RGB" by overlaying the mono image

to boost a faint RGB image

ok, you win