Steve Ward

I'm pretty sure that's a Bird-Jones design with a built in Barlow giving the nasty CA . A renamed Powerseeker 114eq.

Very quick grab before the clouds rolled in ...

Appalling wibbles and wobbles up there today , but with cloud approaching fast I kept pressing the shutter button and then selected 49 lovely frames from the 800 shot ... I was seeing a small but distinct bright ring in the area between ARs 13311 and 13314 during capture , I'd love to know if that area was flaring , sadly SDO 304 is not caught up past midnight yet , the shots were taken between 07:30 and 07:45 UTC. My final image shows it clearly when you zoom in ... 😉

Lovely sight of the 16.5% illuminated crescent Moon and Venus against a clear blue evening sky. Single frame snapped with the Canon EOS 2000D and the Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary (at about 400mm FL)

A brief gap in the grey gave me a break from pulling up thistles and rewarded me with a couple of dozen lovely frames to play with , from the quickly rattled off 400 shot .... 😉

Have you thought about the new Altair 2nm G-Band filter from Altair Astro ? I've just read Alexandra's review on Solarchat and the results are pretty amazing , might just treat myself as a very early Christmas present. https://www.altairastro.com/altair-2nm-g-band-solar-contrast-filter---125-4303nm-13245-p.asp https://solarchatforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=40811

Had to wait a while but was rewarded with some more wobbly views eventually ... Even managed a very quick grab with the 174MM before the clouds returned ... 😉

Stunning work sir ...

Still plagued by bad seeing but I'm getting used to it now , but a tad bored with it ...

That's exactly what it is , I just "invert" the standard mono image in Gimp. I find it helps emphasise the faculae which can sometimes get a little lost otherwise.

Pretty ropey seeing but at least there was a clear blue sky ... 😉 Even tried getting a little closer for a change.

Lots of thick cirrus to shoot through and poor seeing late afternoon .... blah , blah , blah ... Found some nice frames amongst them though ... 😉

Works for James Webb ... 😉

Try WEX or MPB for a replacement DSLR if you go down that route ... 😉 https://www.wexphotovideo.com/used-dslrs/?p=categoryPath%3A"used>used-cameras>used-dslrs"&filter=brand_uFilter%3A"Canon"&sort=sellingPrice asc&rows=12&start=0 https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/category/used-cameras/dslr-cameras?filterQuery[modelBrand]=Canon&sort[productPrice]=ASC

A dew shield would be a better bet surely ... ? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dew-prevention/celestron-dew-shield-for-c925-c11-otas.html

Doesn't work for me either , just plain silly.

Plenty out there ... https://www.google.com/search?q=solar+eclipse+lunar+eclipse+apocalypse&tbm=isch&chips=q:solar+eclipse+lunar+eclipse+apocalypse,online_chips:shirts:aRWnQ9IW0RU%3D&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9uqW9jvn-AhWsmicCHcT3AmgQ4lYoCXoECAEQNw&biw=1349&bih=625

Weight-wise there's not a lot in it , about 500g with the dummy battery supplying power for the Canon and 320g for the fan-cooled 174 , the Tal focuser's not the best but its been shimmed pretty solid. The camera , mount and focuser are all controlled via the laptop at the end of 5m cables , none of this sitting out in full sunshine under a blanket for me. The camera is controlled via Canon's EOS Utility software giving full control of settings and monitoring the Liveview on screen. The focus is run via one of Dion of Astronomy Shed fame's focus motor boxes controlling a Skywatcher Focus Motor (https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/205489-autofocus-motor-to-tal-100rs-quick-and-cheap-and-simple/#comment-2178986 ) And a long extension lead on the HEQ5Pro Synscan handset lets me tweak framing should my alignment be a little off , as is usually the case having plonked the tripod down roughly pointing N-S ... !

Very poor seeing out there but grabbed a few anyway for the record ...

Hi Chris , I used to plod away shooting one at a time in RAW but of late I've been getting lazy and shooting in continuous mode in JPEGs. There's not a whole lot of difference between them and it saves the messing about converting things in order to get PIPP and AS!3 to play along. I have an Altair174MM sitting here ready for when I get round to taking the plunge into H-alpha , but I haven't got round to playing with it for Whitelight as it would mean faffing about with mosaics to get a full disc image with the 'scopes I have ( the 1920 x 1200 sensor doesn't come close to the 5184 x 3456 of the 550D or the 6000 x 4000 of the 2000D ) I will get round to trying it for some close-up stuff one day , whenever the weather clears up and gives me a decent bit of blue to play in that is ... will only get a few moments again today unfortunately.

Thanks Dave . Flitting backwards and forwards between a 1000D , 450D , 2000D and for this one a 550D. Looking to move up the scale to a Bresser 150/1200 soon (and possibly a Quark) so still experimenting ... 😉

Finally got round to unpacking all the gubbins after a bit of a hiatus. Nice to be able to sit and relax under the Sun again. Stack of 25 jpegs , Tal 100RS + Canon Eos550D + Baader ND3.8 + Oiii.

Managed to find a small bit of blue and got to snatch a few frames with the other new lens. A Sigma 150-600C that I got mainly for wildlife but I hoped would double up as a grab and go Solar/Lunar tool too. A 2x TC at the back and a 95mm Baader ND5.0 filter up front on the Canon 2000D off the everyday Manfrotto tripod. I need to mount a dovetail on the lens tripod collar so it'll fit the HEQ5Pro as 1200mm on a triopd's no fun with a moving target ... Single jpeg shot 1/500s @ f13 ISO 100. Just cropped square and tweaked in Gimp.

Not my quote ... 😉

I'll pass on that , but if it were "gnat's knackers in a microtad" I'd be OK having been a carpenter for 'donkey's years' .....