Scooot

Great, many thanks Ian.

Hi all, I wonder if someone could explain something that’s been bothering me. I’m currently guiding and my right ascension is 0.71”, my Dec is 0.43” and the total error is 0.83”. Can anyone explain how the 0.83” is calculated from the RA & Dec figures? See the screenshot below. It’s not that important but I’m just curious.

Smashing image. I wish M45 looked like that naked eye when I look at it.

Hi, I had a problem with my Long exposure darks after I’d purchased my new camera. It turned out to be a light leak in the extendable spacer I was using to set the correct back focus. I discovered where on the spacer it leaks and I’ve now taped it up with masking tape which fixed it. It took a lot of testing to find it though.

Just seen the results, well done to everyone, fantastic images 😀

Many thanks Peter, I increased the saturation slightly on the whole image before I stretched it, then didn't do anything to the stars after a masked stretch. I'm not sure they're as round as they could be in the corners.

Clear Skies and no moon earlier in the week so I managed to take 98 3 minute subs with my little Tak and Asi2600MC pro and Asiair. I still haven't used the camera much yet, 1st time since April apart from the moon. I had to reject 45 images which I think was mostly because the scope hadn't settled after dithering, which I was doing every other image. I still have trouble with the brightness as images are always a little dark on my Ipad in comparison to the PC monitor so I've tried to balance them.

Just an idea but I wonder if your polar alignment is moving when you move the scope to the target. I used to have this problem sometimes. Are the altitude adjustment screws on the star adventurer very loose, if so the mount could be moving a tad in RA when you move the scope? . And I realise it doesn’t guide in dec, but if I over tightened the dec lever on the little mount it would also move that slightly.

This is my favourite, taken during a Luna eclipse.

I caught this whist it was still reasonably high on Saturday evening. It’s a stack of 30.

I'm quite pleased how his came out with a 60mm scope. I took it yesterday evening at F10 with the 1.7 extender. Its a stack of 30 quite heavily cropped to increase the image scale but it seemed to be able to take it.

I had a nice clear view as it began to set yesterday evening so took a small stack of 30. I’m not sure it’s as sharp as it could be, and the camera could have been aligned better but I haven’t seen it much lately.

Hi Mike, I assume you’re talking about searching by pointing you’re phone at the Sky with the Sky Safari compass on. Switch to horizon mode if you’re not on it already, tap top left. Then wave your phone around in a figure of 8 for a bit. Point it roughly North and see if the indicator top left is showing approximately N360°. If so you should be good to go. If not I’m stuck I’m afraid.

This is the Nexus to go for as @faulksy mentioned. https://www.astrodevices.com/shop/index.php?product/page/8/Nexus-II Its a stand alone box designed to be used with Sky Safari etc and a phone or tablet. It doesn’t have its own Sky catalogue or OLED display. All you need are the encoders and mounting kit. I have an older model but it’s been superb.

One of my few galaxy images this year. M81 & M82 Camera: ZWO 2600 MC Pro Scope: TakFS60CB 375mm F5.3 with flattener Mount: Skywatcher EQM-35 Pro Goto Guiding: ZWO 30mm mini scope, ZWO 120mm mini camera ASIair Exposure: 168 3 minutes, Zero Gain (0.778) Processed in Pixinsight

Last weeks Crescent which I’ve just got round to processing. It’s a stack of 30, taken with my baby tak and asi2600, slightly cropped. I think the sky was probably darker than this but I quite like seeing the shadow of the rest of the moon. Unfortunately the sky looks daytime blue on my PC but more mauve on my iPad.

Thanks David, it was good fun. I got up in the early hours to polar align and focus and it paid off as the Sun was in my fov on the first attempt. It was actually cloudier after 11 but I think it helped my exposures as I can’t go faster than 1ms with Asiair, it’s obviously not designed for the Sun.

I took these with my baby Tak & Asi 2600 MC Pro using the Asiair. The last one is a screenshot from a short video. Like most people I was battling the cloud but these are the best of a bunch. I've increased the contrast quite a bit to get some interest in the background clouds. Hope you like them.

They’re tremendous images, I enjoyed looking at them.

I think these are great, I like the colours, they create a dramatic effect.

Great to see it from start to finish. You did well to catch all of those with the clouds.

Thanks Paul, I’m not used to imaging the sun and it’s only the second time I’ve tried the Asiair video mode so I’m very pleased with these considering.

I had some clear patches earlier on but the cloud built up as time went on. I managed to get a couple of videos with the baby tak and Asi2600. Hope you like them. IMG_4390.mp4 IMG_4387.mp4

I think Plan has been added in the last update, I haven’t looked at that yet.

Hi it’s here, at the bottom.