Hals

The rugged great crater chain of Walther down to Ptolemaeus. 16.04.24

A really rugged area.

Poor seeing with added heat and smoke from next door deciding to light a fire didn't help but you have to take what you can get.

Edge 8HD at native FL, no barlow.

Pete.

Just checked 12:58 and it's working for me! Has had a lot of issues lately though.

Definitely Cooper's Cone ! No doubt about it 😉

Spectacular!  Very atmospheric. Well done.

Pete.

Superb image. 

Excellent image, very nice. Astounding that the quality of pictures taken by amateurs in our backyards and gardens can almost rival a spacecraft in orbit. 

My first foray into planetary imaging. 

The seeing was horrendous after very heavy rain all day but I had to have a go before these two get too low in the West for me.

Just happy I managed to get something from the bouncing, shimmering blobs I was looking at!

Simple set up, x2 Barlow ASI120MC-S via Skywatcher 200P. 1500 frames on Jupiter, 1000 frames on Uranus. AutoStakkert, Registax and PS.

Pete.

Great start! Nothing wrong with those. Lucky imaging with a 9.25 will definately pay dividends as that extra resolution will really show. 

5 minutes ago, PatrickO said:

Excellent. May I ask what you use for processing.

Just the usual stuff... Autostakkert for stacking, Registax for the wavelets and I usually finish off in Photoshop. Does depend on the quality of the data though as to what actual steps I take. I may need to use, say, Camera Raw filter in PS on one image but not another.

Lying in the South polar region is the massive walled plain of Bailly, 188 miles in diameter. It's a pity it is so foreshortened from Earth.

The three prominent craters in front of Bailly are (L-R) Kircher, Bettinus and Zucchius.

Taken at 22:00 on 22nd Feb, unfortunately I was plagued by thin high cloud and this was imaged through that cloud.

Pete.

This image is dominated by the impressive walled plain Schickard.

To the south are the trio of Phoclyides, Nasmyth and the strange plateau Wargentin (actually a crater completely filled with lava).

The crater mostly in shadow is Inghirami. Also of note is the elongated Schiller.

One of my favourite areas on the Moon, especially when the libration is favourable.

Pete.

Some interesting formations in this area.

The very bright Aristarchus with Herodotus alongside with the winding Schroter's Valley below always reminds me of a cat's face.

Notable craters are the lava filled and eroded Prinz, Schiaparelli lying between Herodotus and the impressive Seleucus and along the limb Lichtenberg, Briggs and illuminated walls of Russell.

ASI120MC-S via Skywatcher 200p, x2 barlow.

Pete.

Thankyou.

Taken 22nd Feb 22:40.

Best 20% of 2000 frames through some high but very thin light cloud.

Seeing was moderate.

Pete.

Outstanding!

Taken 19th Feb just after midnight.

I'm still learning AutoStakkert and Registax, certainly makes a change from deep sky.

Best 12% of 2000 frames. ASI120MC-S via Skywatcher 200P and x2 barlow. 

I'd have liked more detail especially some of the rilles in the area but the seeing wasn't too helpful despite the lucky imaging.

Pete

6 minutes ago, PatrickO said:

Beautiful image. I'd be proud of that. What mount did you use?

Thanks Patrick. Its a HEQ5.

Thanks Roy.  I don't think I quite nailed the focus and it's a bit over processed to compensate but it's nice to pull detail from the bubbling mess I was looking at! 

Rupes Recta (The Straight Wall) and surrounding area.

Best 10% of 3000 frames stacked in Autostakkert and processed in Registax and PS.

Skywatcher 200P, x2 Barlow, ASI120MC-S.

00:32 19.02.24

Pete.

Hiding among a rich starfield in Lynx is NGC 2418, a distant globular orbiting our milky way approx' 240,000 light years away. First thought to be not gravitational bound to our galaxy recent studies have shown it is...with an orbital period of around three billion years!

Widefield image and a crop. 

LRGB image, a hair over 4hrs integration time against a 55% Moon.  Clear skies are as rare as clear skies these days.

Pete.

First session for ages with this years poor conditions, a two hour LRGB image of reflection nebula IC348, located next to the bright star Omicron Persei (Atik), part of the Gingrich 1 complex.

1 hour 20 min Lum, 20 min each RGB so needs more time but I'm just glad for anything at the moment!

Captured on the night of 26\27 May 2023 from East Yorkshire.

Just a hair over 1.5 hrs LRGB so I have a record of it as I was originally going to image NGC7129, then the high cloud rolled in...

Thought I'd try my luck with the Iris Nebula during the recent very nearly full Moon.

148 x 60s Luminance, 30 x 60s RGB.

Whilst it is nowhere near what you could obtain for the same integration time (just under 4 hrs) with no Moon I was pleasantly surprised.

Just to show that you can still obtain reasonable images when really you shouldn't.

Pete.

Thanks!

I routinely plate solve my images it's amazing all the "small" (I should say background) stuff that turns up.

M51, six hours total integration time LRGB.

Due to the very poor weather and work commitments it took nearly two months to accumulate the data.

Poor seeing and guiding problems nonwithstanding this was about the best I could do. 

Pete.