Steve Ward

Battling with the poor seeing and gusty wind this morning , disc's OK but the close-ups were too poor to post ... 

"Patience is a virtue ... " and all that ... 😏

Eventually the showers abated and let me have about five minutes of varying views , grabbed 29 frames with not 'too many' clouds and greenery included and ended up with this ... 

18 hours ago, John said:

Here are a couple of pics of my TMB/LZOS 130mm F/9.2. My main reason for posting them is to bump this thread so that folks get a chance to have a look at @stuy's magnificent 228mm F/9 LZOS a few posts back up the page - it's well worth a look - there are very few around, anywhere 😁

 

 

 

Thank you for bumping this John , a thread that had passed me by , a truly astonishing collection of glass on display throughout.

I shall remain happy with my humble new Evostar 150 Achro however , but continue to follow this thread in awe.

First glimpse for ages , hardly recognised him ... 😄

I was very impressed by the Stellalyra dobs at the IAS this year (on the FLO stand) 

The roller bearings made the action silky smooth , much more refined than the Skywatcher I used to own.

If I were after a new Dobsonian it would definitely be the Stellalyra I'd opt for.

Caught a lovely steady 10 minute's worth before it all turned to mush again ... 

And the SDO/HMI Continuum for comparison ... 

1 minute ago, Mandy D said:

I had a look last night about 11 p.m. and it was only just clearing the rooftops if I stood on tiptoe. I only had my 200P on it's original Dobsonian mount as the Skytee 2 has gone back for repair. I wanted to capture it with the thin clouds veiling it, but no chance. I did get a great twilight Moon on the 27th, when it was much higher and the sky was clearer, so I'm happy with that until the Moon comes back to the evening sky next month.

Given how low the Moon was last night and how poor the seeing was, I think it's a good image. You've got some nice depth to the bigger craters.

Thanks Mandy ,

It was so splendid just hanging there above the Belt of Venus I couldn't help but point a 'scope at it ... 😉

1 hour ago, PeterCPC said:

Thanks Steve but Solar observing has never appealed to me.

It never did to me when I first got started with a telescope , but two completely grey nights/sunny days winters made me get a sheet of Baader film and I was hooked.

It's such a dynamic object that there's always something new to see , especially at the moment when it's so active , there's only so many times you can sit squinting at a faint blurry object that looks exactly the same as the last time you looked at it ... 😉

https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/sky-watcher-evostar-72ed-ds-pro-ota.html

Or alternatively a good S/H prime camera lens to fit your camera .

Sorry to here this Peter .

I'd suggest maybe trying the daytime side of things and maybe do some solar observing , much more going on on a minute by minute basis to keep you amused and it's much more fun sitting out on a nice sunny day in the warm rather than the cold , dew covered nights you're used to ... 😉

Everything against it really , too early , too low , dreadful seeing ... blah , blah , blah ... but I started so I finished ... 

EOS 6D + Evostar 150 + 2x Barlow , stack of 80 frames.

Interesting how you've ended up with 'limb brightening' rather than 'limb darkening' ... ?

Brutal seeing meant a wasted morning trying for close-ups , settled for a decent disc ... 

Had to pull the mount to the far reaches of my USB cables and remove a couple of offending branches , but it paid off as it let me catch the one small patch of blue that floated across my FOV ... 

Used my EQ3-2 for solar , lunar and planetary with no problems but wouldn't have contemplated using it for long exposures .

HEQ5 and upwards is what you need ... 😉

Unexpected last gasp capture after work before he slipped from view ... ☺️

Rattled off 300 frames in atrocious seeing and found a couple of dozen decent ones to play with ... 

Well at least I didn't have to mess about selecting and stacking multiple frames today ... 😂

Two bites today , a very brief window gave me just 18 frames for a scruffy disc ... 

I judged the next gap big enough to grab a set of close-ups rather than get a cleaner disc ... made it in the nick of time ... 😉

Had no right to get a shot today , but even the slightest brighter patch of cloud is worth looking at sometimes ...  😆

The GIF is from the frames I stacked , for all the purists who think you need 100% blue sky and 5/5 seeing to pursue their hobby ... 😉

Without doubt the prettiest and 'busiest' disc I've seen for a long while  21st July 2023 - 06:00  BST ... ☺️

A beautiful brief session before work and clouds stopped play ... ☺️

Super seeing for the disc at lunchtime but pretty ropey for the close-ups come 16:00 ... 

Know the feeling well , am presently sitting waiting for a little gap to appear ... 😉

Early captures , late posting ... I hate it when you have to leave a blue sky just to go and graft ... at least I caught a few close-ups today ... 😉