nytecam

Thanks guys for the HH likes !

Here's M42 in bief exposures of 1s, 3s and 9s with Trapesium burnout in 9s !  Data on images.

Nytecam

Moon from last night just before cloudover - 2-pane, rotated and reduced size.   Exps = 1ms + obsy shutter blocking scope by >90% ;-)

Nytecam

Very nice work Paul - I'm surprised at the exposure duration needed for f/3.3??  Perhaps my monitor needs adjusting !

Nyte

HH in 60s unfiltered from Thursday evening under the London lightdome - colour dumped for cleaner mono image.  No chance for visual hereabouts but my cam easily can - data on image  ;-)

Nyte

ps: playing with my new HP W10 netbook further discounted from Black Friday sales !

2 views via Lodestar-M and Cx2 of comet in e-finder w/a and 1m fl @ http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/260641-catalina-last-night/?p=2854138

Nyte

Thanks Hawksmoor - better luck soon ;-)

Here's a w/a 10s shot via my e-finder - the red filter over lens exagerates red stars - as marked !  Pesky cloud [in corner !] troublesome across fov all evening ;-)

in the main scope live-view the comet could be seen moving NW in the 30s between exposures  ;-0 

Nytecam

Been waiting for the comet to rising in the evening sky and clear last night but slill lowish in the NE in the London lightdome - here's a prelim in 20s exp via my Meade 30cm @ f/3.3 = 1000mm fl showing the bright nucleus and large coma;-)

Nytecam

Could you do a sketch of your garage roof design - can't visualise the description :-)

Nyte

This is what I had in mind below.    Plan B involves some origami but a simple threaded bolt could serve as a 'bridge' with probably a 6-spike diffraction from bright stars ;-)

Nyte

Thanks, Nytecam.

I'm sure that's what the diffraction spikes are from. I read someplace that you get double the number of spikes from the interfering object. Maybe SX can design a wireless Ultrastar in it's next version.

Don

Prior to a wireless/Bluetooth camera link, you could try a simple harness for the USB cable bent into a semicircle arc between centre and edge of corrector plate ! The diffraction pattern in any particular direction is minimised - it's the brighter stars that are the offenders :-)

Nytecam

Thanks Jeremy - good wishes for your stewardship over the new two years for the Association :-)

No Olly - that would be impolite - he's our resident unintentional joker that we humour :-)

Nytecam

Marvellous results Don - the Ultrastar+ Hyperstar are a perfect match - well done :-) Do I assume the flare is caused by the USB cable across the scope corrector?

Nyte

Suggest, if interested in what a large SCT can do, you check Rick Johnson's galaxy work on CN ;-) 

Nytecam

One of my favourite winter targets in M1 from tonight ;-)

Nytecam

On Friday night I gave a PowerPoint illustrated talk to my local Society [Ewell AS] here in SW London on astro imaging.  It went down quite well and hopefully more members will try their hand despite the high levels of LP hereabout ;-)  This is a rundown of topics... 

astro-imaging for everyone !
1 – choose your camera
2 - shooting the day/night sky with a digital camera
3 - ‘Barndoor’ mount to track the stars
4 - afocal imaging eg camera coupled to ‘scope eyepiece
5 - webcam on ‘scope for sun, moon and planets
6 - deepsky imaging of faint galaxies and nebulae
7 - my kind of deepsky viewing & imaging !
8 - parting shot – science fun (and fame!) for the amateur

I naturally gave a plug for my type of deepsky laptop viewing and imaging in very brief exposures suited to suburbia !

Most of our members are not observers and a couple questions afterwards highlighted that.....

"Was my pics of distant Eris down to luck ?" - no very carefully planned ! 

"The quasar at extreme range of 12 BLY - they're gone now?" - most probably they're still there but we're uneasy about things surviving our mortality on a major scale ! 

We're planning our society's 50yrs anniversary in October - my own membership is short of that by just 18 months. 

Do you give talks to your society ?

Nytecam

Thanks Martin - presumably the sightings due to material 'blazing' as it finally crossed the event horizon into the black hole. Worth keeping on the to do list :-)

Nyte

Very impresive Adam :-)

Nyte

Good start Neil - very nice - so exposure = ~12s :-)

Nyte

Here's M42 in very brief exposures of 1s; 3s & 5s - the huge dynamic range needs some fancy processing to avoid blowing the Trapesium area hence the brief exposures.  It's also too large for my set-up of 1m fl onto the Lodestar but interesting in colour ;-)

Nytecam

Lightweight structures needs anchoring to the base perhaps :-)

Nyte

Thanks Gareth & Rob;-)

Here's HH in 3m =6x30s

Nyte

Last night was clear - a rare event in the last two months of almost continuous cloud and rain but at least we avoided the terrible flooding like northern England and Scotland that still continues. Local rivers are swollen.   

But the obvious thing I forgot was humidity from so much rain and wondered why the downloaded images were so dim.  Had to get the hairdryer out to clear the corrector plate a few times. 

Here for starters is M1 in 90s - data on image and pulsar "engine" marked.  Not my best but better than the last session.  It's nice to slew the scope directly "upwards" in Dec from M42 Orion Neb - they're on the same RA - for equat mounts ! 

Also included is Horsehead in 30s reduced in size which I've never seen visually so very pleasing. Will also post the longer exposures !

Nytecam

Well done Stu - it was very clear here in London suburbs but with family present gave it a miss :-)

Nytecamvg

That's because I interpreted the original post as him wanting high quality images.  

Carole

Carole - I did think the OP was somewhat ambiguous but posted in the intended (video) forum but could be wrong. Disappointingly he hasn't responded to the 'advice' herewith so perhaps he's over (or under) whelmed !

Nytecam

Carole - what you're referring to is AP - eg supreme quality from [inordinately] long exposures and as you say it doesn't come easy or cheap  ;-)  Video [or EAA as I prefer] is for me a substitute for eyeballing that reveals more and in colour with a permanent record and a lot of targets in a session - not sure image perfection is the aim !

This 20s shot was taken immediately after the above Dumbbell shot but typical sodium lit cloud intervened -ugh !   The colour correction/LP s\w filter was 'off' ;-0

Nytecam