alan potts

That's very nice Francis, one of the most disappointing visual objects in my view but you have done it proud.

Alan

A very nice image for first efforts, you will soon get the hang of flats and dark flats, he says still struggling with everything else. The trouble I find with them is move the camera and you need to redo them, this is not so bad for me as I have a permanent setup.

Alan

23 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Great result.

BTW You're in the Observing section here, rather than the Imaging. You should get more replies in Imaging.

Olly

Appears to be in the correct place now, i didn't notice Olly, no surprise really. My cousin was a famous record producer and I thought he produced Led Zep, (wrong info from mum though he was involved with them starting out) it was in fact Genesis VDGG Lindisfarne  and Queen, I had 12 of his albums and never even noticed until we got back in touch 7 years ago, probably also accounts for why I failed in Police 🙂.

Alan

Another very nice shot from you, must try more galaxies. Need the cloud to clear off first though.

Alan

That's a very nice shot, did try this one with the Canon on the 805mm apo but felt something longer was needed in F/L and time. Maybe try again soon, it's in a good place now by 8.00pm.

Alan

Mine sounds like this though it is a while since it has been used, so maybe it will not move at all now.

Alan

Never seen a close up shot of this so good, really good. Looks a completely different object like this, stunning work.

Alan

I have 6 in total and they are all much of a muchness in so much as centres are decent but edges are poor. The Sky Watcher ED finder from FLO at 159 quid is head and shoulders above the others I have. One of which is the Baader Vario Finder at twice the price and half as good.

Alan

I rather like the FSQ myself and would like one. As much as I can afford one, my wife could well have a use for one of my knives in the kitchen to do some filleting and I don't mean fish. Not in the same class but the Borg 77Ed ll impresses me with how fast it collects data for a reasonable image. The only thing is with using it with the 071 the field is wide and there is quite a vignette. Sadly I still have not got anything to deal with gadient.

Alan 

I look at my brighter stars and thought for a long time they could be better and need a lot of work but I see mine now about the same as yours, notably the blue and the deep orange ones, so thats sort of pleasing for me, I don't get as much colour into the stars though. Probably because i don't collect enough data,. Two hours and I want to move on and see something else. I can see me going longer in collection when I have sort of done a year round the sky and then go back for more data. I don't dump any that is good so it keeps. Do like the core on these shots of yours you have managed a very nice translucency to it.

Alan

Nice to see a close up, like the control over the Trapizium, always a challenge stopping it burning out.

Alan

I personally like both of them, your work is always of the highest quality, M31 is not as easy to process as some may think, I have 5/6 batches of data from different nights on two or three different F/L's and Masking and stretching never seem to come out the same twice. As Long as I get a half decent picture I'm happy, just try to get a bit closer to the likes of you and Olly, maybe one day.

Alan

As much as I like the mono image do you intend to add colour, I feel it will look rather nice.

Alan

A very nice shot there, a difficult subject I am sure, and really needs a bigger scope I feel. It has to be about the most disappointing object I have looked at in the sky, even with my 18 inch Dob.

Alan

Its a very nice shot and i like to see the two together, however in my opinion it is over saturated and would be even better toned down a little. I would love to get a shot like this but my shortest scope is 330mm and still too smaller FOV at that

Alan

Superb image of yet another I have never seen before, great shot Peter.

Alan

I had a play at this the other night and wondered why I could get anything out of it, guess 1 hour don't cut the mustard even at F4.3. Very nice mono image and a nice image from you Carole.

Alan

The moon does not make things easy but as said you have some nice colour coming through there, I shot a single sub of the area last night, took one look and pointed the scope a long in the opposite direction.

Alam

Lovely image with nice detail, rather like the close-up shot where as most of the time most or all of the heart is shot.

Alan

9 hours ago, Rodd said:

Your focus seems pretty good--the stars are small.  The core of the satellite galaxy is clear and sharp.   Sometimes I struggle with focus unendingly it seems until I give in to the fact that seeing just won't let me get it  to where I would like it.  Then again I am just going by FWHM as reported by the software--teh stars look focused and the B-Mask is dead center.

I use these FWHM read outs too but with one difference, i don't know what I'm doing Rodd. I bought a mask for the 805mm APO but I just can't get the hang of it, don't have one for the Borg.

Alan

Ron, looks like we have alien chickens over here too, not something you see every day.

Happy free roaming chickens, seem to like my garden too.

Alan

42 minutes ago, astro mick said:

Nice one Alan.A lot of detail in this image.You know about the gradients,but it looks like the black point has been clipped.This will cause loss of data.

Still very nice.

Mick.

Indeed I did Mick, but as i didn't know how to repair the situation I didn't want to ruin what i thought was a fairly reasonable image. I feel I clip the black point most things I do. I need to study my processing better and not trust to my eye so much, they are not as good as they were 20 years ago.

Alan

52 minutes ago, barkis said:

I'm a bit perplexed about Helen Sharman's statement concerning Aliens, their likely existence, and the likelihood they 
are already here on earth.  
I, and many others will agree, that their probably will be other lifeforms in the universe, due to the countless  number of
stars, with planetary systems similar to our own.  
Guesswork isn't enough to indicate the existence of others in the Universe, it would be more  sensible to wait for absolute proof.
I hope the sale of tinfoil doesn't  go through the roof 😁.
Ron.

Ha ha, I was watching Who wants to be a Millionaire last night on the Net and she was one of the questions as to what she was, ie first woman from UK in space. BTW she's right, I'm an alien Ron.

Alan

12 minutes ago, PeterCPC said:

Very impressive for such a short integration time Alan.

Peter

Peter,

Time to put hands up and and admit I mad a mistake, it is 21x 4 minute subs not 3mins. Still impressed though as it was a collection of 4 minute subs I used on my 805mm at F 7, time on that one was just short of 3 hours.

Alan

Still have not sorted the spacing exactly and still do not have anything to deal with gradients yet but I was rather shocked what 63 mins, 21x 3min subs pulled out on M31 with Moon at first quarter. I was far from a good night with frost playing and annoying part and my wife's hair dryer coming to the rescue more than once in this short time. The Borg used on this is I believe F 4.3 and as I see it collected a lot more data than my F7 did in more than twice the time. Anyway pull it to bits or offer advice.

This is a heavy crop of the Image from my 071, I guess this is about 40% of the full frame.

Still struggling with the focus on this scope, I do not like this helical focus system, I feel I may try and get the Feather Touch for it 

Alan