Stargazer33

Lovely colour in the galaxies too.

They're four images to be proud of. There is nothing there to be 'not too ashamed of' at all! After only two months, I think you're doing exceptionally well.

Nice; really shows off the central bulge well.

Hi Gary and welcome to SGL. It's great to hear that you and your daughter will be starting this journey and experiencing the 'WOW!' moments together. In order for people to give a more informed suggestion as to a 'scope, could I suggest you let the forum know what sort of budget you had in mind and what your intended targets are? Are you interested in the Moon and planets, or deep sky objects like nebulae and galaxies, or both?

You could just bridge the switch contacts with solder or a short piece of wire and then install your in-line switch of a decent quality. Saves buying new if the unit works well enough for you.

It could still be droop. Either in the focus tube, DSLRs are heavy, or the camera itself if you are using a nosepiece. Also it is not unheard of for the sensor to be tilted in the camera. Have you tried rotating the camera and seeing if the corner most affected moves?

As long as they don't have to self isolate as soon as they land! 🤪🤧😷

I wondered where all those little crabs on the beach came from! So they grow on trees! Making jelly from them sounds a bit icky though! 🤪

Both very nice images. Well worth the wait I would say Lee!

Lovely sharp images Craig! I'm going to have to upgrade my Windows XP computer so that I can download updated software.

I believe you need to change the properties of the folder that your subs are in. Right click on the folder and then select 'Properties'. Then uncheck the box that says 'Read Only'. I think that is right? HTH

That's a very nice image! Pin sharp detail on the full image. I'd say you don't need to do anything more than you are doing now!

Nice surface detail in your images Paul. Especially the ejecta from Copernicus, wrinkle ridges and crater chains.

Glad you're enjoying your astronomy again Chaz! It takes me over an hour to set my equipment up so I know what you used to go through. Unless I really make the decision early that I'm going to go out (not easy with the poor forecasts) I can't be bothered half the time.

Not a book, but this lecture is very informative: Hope this helps.

Wow; what 'scope are you using? I don't think I've seen M81 filling a frame like that before. Real shame about your RGB data. I hate it when you think you've got good data only to find out that's not the case.

You're welcome. I know it is very hard to step away from something. You always think 'if I just do this or tweak that...' and that's when the wall falls down! I believe that is a big problem for artists (painters etc.), knowing when to stop.

I think I prefer the one you posted on Tuesday with the tweaked palette and dynamic range to be honest. It looks more natural. The artifacts around the red giant towards the right hand side are also more apparent in the latest image.

I know what you mean. It seems like you should post the same day, or certainly within 24 hours of obtaining your subs sometimes. Normal day to day life comes first though, as it should. As long as I can get something that I'm not too unhappy with, I'm not too fussed about how long it takes.

Very nice image Rodd! Certainly sounds like you had a bit of a battle of attrition to get your subs! I think the end result justifies your sticking with it. As for 27 hours of subs!!! I dream of 27 hours view of a single object.

I think most things in this hobby are 'no pain, no gain'! It takes me, probably, over an hour to set up my equipment and then it quite often clouds over just as I go out after letting the 'scope cool down for an hour or so. Either that, or it remains clear, but my equipment doesn't want to communicate between its various parts. I had a look at your Flickr pages. You have some lovely shots of the various phases of the Moon. Good definition even when zoomed in. Despite using a Bahtinov mask and 'Bahtinov Aid' in APT, I think my focus is a bit on the soft side. It was, however, the first time I had done any serious astrophotography for such a long time that I decided to post anyway.

Lovely sharp images Steve!

A couple of mosaics of the Luna terminator from the 6th of Feb. I kept the roi quite small to obtain about 80fps and captured 5000 frames in each video. These were then sorted in pip, stacked in Autostakkert2, wavelets in RS6 and stitched in MS Ice. C9.25; CGEM; 0.63x reducer; ZWO ASI385MC

So sad to hear this news! I remember Heather Couper from the TV in my youth. She was so passionate and engaging about science and astronomy. A sad day. My thoughts and condolences go to her family and friends.

I've used a couple of layers of self-amalgamating tape on my particularly nasty Celestron CGEM mount knobs.