nephilim

12 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Just another drop in the ocean i would say. People are not complaining about glow from Jupiter ruining their exposures, so why worry about this?

People are overreacting to the whole satellite thing in terms of how much it effects (amateur at least) astrophotography. There could be 10 satellites on every subexposure you take and they still get clipped out just fine in the end!

Bringing easier to access internet to the world is an overwhelmingly net positive thing in the grand scheme of things anyway, so i say go for it and build the giant eysore.

I dont think you can really compare a bright artificial light moving across the sky to Jupiter (which, compared to a satellite is pretty much seemingly stationary) .
I'm also quite sure that the majority of visual astronomers wont be very impressed by a bright light flying across their fov when trying to observe some faint object.
These may not be a massive issue right now but in 50 years or so they will become more than just 'a drop in the ocean'.

I fear there will come a time in the not so distant future that we amateur astrophotographers will only be able to benefit from solar AP if  monstrosities such as this proposed eyesore are anything to go by. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2337336-huge-satellite-could-outshine-all-stars-and-planets-in-the-night-sky/

9 hours ago, Steve Ward said:

Or for an even wider view this new Sigma lens looks amazing ... there's an 85mm f1.4 too.

 

 

@Steve Ward Although a bit too wide for me that looks a very nice lens for those milky way shooters.The manual focus lock switch also sounds good,  it would be nice if this started to become incorporated into Len's with a narrower FOV aswell 

If your after a fairly wide FOV & wanting to move away from a reflector, another option would be a lens.  In particular I'd highly recommend the Canon version of the Samyang 135mm f2  ED UMC manual lens. There's a VERY long thread (quite rightly) singing it's praises here

Cost wise its way less than a decent triplet, very friendly weight wise for the mount & it's capable of producing excellent images. I took this with mine.

Very nice indeed. Zooming in on this, the star field is processed perfectly.

I definitely don't think denoise would have added anything to it, more likely it would have done the exact opposite.

As mentioned by a few so far, an 8" Dobsonian is a great place to start, it's not too big to be carried to the garden or to the car (for visits to dark sites), it's very easy to set up & use and will give you good enough views  to keep your interest.

Also as mentioned above, don't worry about collimation, it's not that hard to do & once you've got the hang of it it becomes second nature. The majority of reflectors don't need to be constantly collimated unless you start looking at very fast newts &  (f3 & below but these are mainly used for imaging) the likes of a Skywatcher 200p Dobsonian @f5.9 is fast enough to gather plenty of light but not so much that collimation will be an issue (my old SW 200p f5 newt was with me for 2yrs & travelled in the car with me all over the place & I collimated it twice) Also don't worry about cool down times, a 200p newt will take around 20mins to cool to an average night time temp of approx  5c, it's only really Maksutov-Cassegrain & some of the bigger (10"+) newts that take a bit longer to cool down.

steve

On 11/08/2022 at 10:32, cajen2 said:

As said above, you'll get 100 different answers as people will tend to recommend what they own. The two most important questions are:

- what sort of budget do you have in mind?

 - are there any areas of astronomy you're particularly interested in (planets, moon, deep-sky objects like nebulae and galaxies, etc)?

The answers to these will narrow down the choice. Also, is it easy to get from where the scope will be stored to where you'll be viewing from? If the answer is yes and you want to spend your hard-earned on the scope itself rather than a mount, the recommendation for a dob is a good one. Check out the StellaLyra 8" (well built, engineered and equipped) or if you need something smaller or cheaper, the Skywatcher 130p or 150p.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-telescopes/stellalyra-8-f6-dobsonian.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/sky-watcher-heritage-150p-flextube-dobsonian-telescope.html

Obviously, the larger the scope, the more light it'll pick up. Please don't worry about collimation - it's very simple.

47 minutes ago, AstroMuni said:

And before I forget, it was a pleasure dealing with @nephilim. Thank you Steve 🙂

@AstroMuniThanks for the kind mention Pramod. 

It was good to do business with you, a nice uncomplicated transaction. I'm glad your happy with the camera & I think you'll get a lot more use out of it than I've had due to work etc.

Judging by your first couple of images (which btw are very nice) with it it looks like you've got the hang of it very quickly.

I look forward to seeing your future images.

Kind Regards 

Steve

The EQ5 is a good solid mount. Years ago I had my Skywatcher 200p mounted on one so it'll handle your 150P-DS easily. If your only going to dabble in a bit of planetary photography its easy enough to move the scope by hand so the EQ5 will be adequate for a bit of that . DSO's on the other hand are completely different to image.
For planetary you ideally need to film the subject (large numbers of short video clips & then run it through a program such as Sharpcap). For DSO's you ideally need a motor driven EQ mount to take long exposures (in fact i'd say its imperative to have one if you want to make a very involving hobby a little bit easier). 

What you really need to think about is how much photography you think you'll do. This is an impossible question to answer though in reality. The reason I ask though is that you dont want to buy the EQ5 & realise you really want to give AP a decent go & you then have to buy a good mount for AP such as your aforementioned HEQ5 (Which in my & many others opinions is a very good, capable mount for AP) Equally you might buy the HEQ5 try AP, decide its not really for you & then you've spent £££ on a mount thats really over the top when its only used for visual.

So i'm afraid theres no real answer I can give, its really up to you & which way you want to go. What I would strongly advise is buying this book (Link below) which will give you a great deal of info for someone starting out in AP (it will also potentially save you money buy advising not just what to buy but also what NOT to buy). The worst thing you can do & I think pretty much everyone on SGL whose been down this path before (myself very much included) is to not do enough research first. Its very easy to make the wrong purchase when it comes to AP & believe me, AP can be a VERY expensive hobby meaning purchase mistakes can be equally as expensive.

Good luck & heres the book https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html


Steve

11 minutes ago, Daf1983 said:

This was waiting for me when I returned from my holiday this afternoon. Thanks @nephilim. Clear outside is forecasting a couple of clear nights aswell😁

Glad it got to you safely.

Steve

23 hours ago, woldsman said:

Thanks! Do you use a guide camera? Just wondering where it would go. Having the EAF mounted below on the dovetail would free up a perch for a guide scope on top. 

@woldsman Here is my Samyang setup. I'm also looking at ways to mount the EAF. I'm posting this to give you another idea of Samyang/Guidescope mounting options.

Steve

21 hours ago, Alanc154 said:

Hi Folks, A BIG shoutout to Nephilim for his fix on getting the ASIAIR connected to the PMC-Eight. How on earth you discovered that is mind blowing. Six weeks of searching and I did not find the answer, until I saw your post here on SGL. Fifteen minutes later and my system is running entirely from the ASIAIR pro via a USB to Serial cable. Interestingly, I can also adjust the mount/PMC-Eight simultaneously via wi-fi.   Clear skies?.

 

Brilliant, thats great to hear. It took a fair bit of trawling forums & a fair few moments of frustration but it was worth the grief in the end. Good luck with it & clear skies.

Steve

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

Thank you Steve - for so little integration time they turned out far better than I expected - truth is I expected nothing - certainly nothing worth sharing.

Those are definitely worth sharing.

Lovely images there Adrian 🙂

More parts arriving for my upcoming PI dedicated PC build. 32 GB of RAM came yesterday with another 32GB in the post, a total of 64GB RAM @3600MHz should certainly see an increase in performance compared to my old build with 16GB. We're still having unbelievably bad weather up here in the Lakes with the very rare clear nights since December either been too windy or the early 4am starts for work  which I do alternately are typically falling the morning after any clear night 🙄

Its these inactive nights that get my brain thinking of projects to fill my time with whilst not imaging & this has resulted in the new PC build. I recently came across a YouTube video all about a small very niche hobby which I didn't  know even existed, never mind actually been a 'thing' & thats custom build mechanical keyboards, these keyboards can cost well over 3k (Yes you read that correctly £3K 😱)...... i've been sucked in 😂 My first board arrived yesterday, its at the cheaper end of this market so I could see what the fuss is about & I have to say that typing on it is a surprisingly nice experience. I've ordered custom keycaps, buying them is a minefield as each brand has a certain weight, sound etc (Sad I know 🤣) so i'll be spending the weekend stripping the board down, sound proofing it & lubing the switches....Don't ask 🤣 Anyway, its keeping my brain busy.

Steve

 

Just now, Sunshine said:

I have changed the original post so as not to sound abrasive which is never my intention.

Sorry, I wasn't having a go I was just joking. I didn't think for a minute there was any negativity in your comment 🙂

17 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

A wonderfully detailed image! as for the core being blown out, where? meaning that tiny point in the centre where even if it weren't so bright there would be no detail visible in such a small point anyway. I'm not an imager and no offense intended but i do think that imagers sometimes love to split hairs a hundred ways, it is a beautiful image!

I prefer splitting the hairs 500 times.....Just to make sure 🙂

Another new part has arrived today for my upcoming, mainly PI centred PC build. This is the water cooler for keeping the temperature of the CPU down, a water cooler is far more effective than the standard air coolers. I do a bit of gaming & tend to overclock which can see temps skyrocket. The unit will be top mounted (horizontally) & the fans on the radiator should do a good job of exhausting heat out of the case.

Upon opening the box though, I realised they had sent me the RGB version of this cooler, I ordered the non RGB mainly because I'm not keen on a PC that resembles Blackpool illuminations, it was also £30 cheaper than the one they sent (I've only been charged for the non RGB though). After a rethink regarding RGB, I've decided to use it but only have it set to a nice dim, warm orange glow, 2 LED strips came included with the case so they can also have the same orange glow. I think it could look rather nice if it's understated & the geek in me quite likes seeing all the components in there (one side of the case is a tinted tempered glass panel ). My memory sticks arrive on Tuesday, I've gone for 4x16gb of DDR4 RAM (The new DDR 5 is absolutely extortionate atm & won't make any noticeable difference for my use) @ 3600 MHz for a total of 64gb, this should show a good improvement with speeding up PI processes compared to my current PC build which only has 16gb. 

On 24/02/2022 at 00:34, Adreneline said:

Whilst still trying to fine tune (still some way to go) and get used to my new AZ-EQ6 I decided to point the 6" RC at M81.

This is 24 x 300s with the RC + ASI294MC. I think I need to add some Lum and some Ha; I might need to attach the ASI1600 to the RC next time it's clear.

 

I think I also need to fine tune my flats for the RC - and tweak the collimation if I dare.

Thanks for looking.

Adrian

Really nice image there Adrian & good to see what the RC 6" can do. I'll DM you later this evening 🙂

22 hours ago, Astro_Dad said:

It’s a good Friday when an ES 2” eyepiece arrives in the post - maybe at some point the clouds will recede sufficiently to actually get to try it! Note the posts above about what to do with so few clear skies  - love the PC project from @nephilim! Enhancing my start to the weekend further, enjoyed a superb talk hosted by my local (York) astronomy society this evening on the stellar origins of the chemical elements. Nothing observational but fuel for the brain… Happy Friday!

@Astro_Dad Cheers, it'll keep me busy for the next couple of months. Thats a nice EP by the way, I dont do any visual these days but i'm pretty sure there will be a time when I get back into it.

Steve

Since just before xmas we've had about 4 clear nights & they have all been accompanied by gale force winds. This lack of 'things to do' on an evening is proving quite expensive  🙄 I decided I needed a 'project' to concentrate on.
Back at the end of 2017 I built my first PC, its getting on a bit in tech terms now & has only got 1TB of storage which is split into 2x 500GB M.2 nvme SSD's & i'm rapidly running out of space as I didn't quite realise just how much storage image processing takes up (I've only started imaging this last 8 months or so). My motherboard only has room for 2 M.2's so in a moment of thumb twiddling boredom I decided to look at SATA SSD's to add for more storage. Whilst looking at those it quickly turned into looking at CPU's. I do a fair bit of gaming on my PC but I also do my image processing on it using PI & a bit of tweaking in PS, my current PC is very slow when it comes to PixInsight (and newer title games) so a faster CPU would speed things up. My PC uses the intel 7th Gen i5-7600k so I decided to go for the latest 12th Gen i7 12700K. I then found out that the new 12th Gen CPU's have a different form factor, the new Alder Lake CPU has more pins than all the previous iterations meaning they need the latest motherboard, the Z690 😒.

After umming & ahhing for all of around 30 seconds I decided to throw caution to the wind, go the whole hog & build a new PC. I'm buying a few parts each month & it should be finished around June. Last month I bought the MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk motherboard & the Be Quiet Dark Base PRO 900 Rev 2 Full tower case. The motherboard has capacity for 4x M.2 nvme SSD's, & a load of other high tech stuff I wont bore you all with. The case is massive compared to my old one & extra storage wise has the capacity for either 7 HDD's or 15 SSD's so storage wont be an issue ever ever ever again 😂 

I was going to sell my old PC but realised, as tech loses value so quickly I wouldnt get even a quarter of the price it cost to build. I was wondering what to do with it & saw a video about turning an old PC into a NAS (Network attached Storage). It means I can use it as a mass storage device which I can also access remotely from anywhere, its basically my own personal cloud server. I'll be running RAID on it but have yet to decide whether to go for RAID 1 or RAID 5.
This is also going to save me a fair bit of money in the long run. Online cloud storage from the likes of Amazon, Google, iCloud etc varies but is approx £8-£10 per month per 2TB, they all do deals but this is an approx average. So thats say £100 per year, 10TB £1000, we can all do the maths (The cost of 50TB for a year will cost me more or less the build of my entire new system. Not that theres enough clear nights in a lifetime of uk imaging for that but you get the general idea , thats how im justifying it to myself, so before anyone comments, please let me have that🤣)......Anyway not cheap by a long shot.
I've never done the NAS thing before so I'm really looking foreword to the process plus it'll keep my brain occupied whilst all these grim storms continue battering the uk (theres yet another going on now). Anyway, I apologise as I realise i've been rambling which is a symptom of my weather induced boredom at the moment 😂

Here are some photos of the case, motherboard & my current set up (not very exciting to most people but VERY exciting to me 🥳), in the set up photo the new case is there to gauge space i'll be needing, my present PC is the glowing thing sat underneath the desk. Next Friday i'll be ordering my water cooled CPU radiator, power supply unit & a 3rd monitor which will be bigger than the other 2 & used as my main screen with the smaller 2 monitors at either side. Photos of those to follow but without the encyclopaedic narrative 😴😴🤣

Thanks for ploughing through this

Steve

I've only used the ASIair Pro & its made AP so much easier for me but as mentioned you are limited to the gear you can use with it.

24 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

I know Cuiv had a video about issues with the Baaders but I can't recall which ones specifically. I suspect it would be the fast ones but may be worth a watch if you haven't seen it already...

This is it. Quite shocking really as the majority of us have no real (convenient) way of testing these manufacturers claims. 

17 hours ago, Adreneline said:

Thank you Steve. Trust all is going well with you.

Adrian

HI Adrian, all good with me. I've sent you a brief DM.

2 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Found another gem. These are clearly the best telescopes for beginners out there, i mean it says so in the video! (affiliate links down below, please buy so we get paid)

Also i find it funny that this video is titled for 2022 but was released in december of 2020 😂. These used to be easy to spot as nonsense by just looking at the amount of dislikes on the video, but since YouTube removed the feature to show dislikes to viewers, these are harder to spot for newbies.

 

Wow, I couldn't even watch till the end it's that bad. Even the voice is false (I'm seeing or rather hearing more & more of these automatron 'voices' in adverts these days). This advert is beyond words & those 'scopes'.....well, the less said the better.

I think with the recent launch of the James Webb, there are going to be an abundance of con artists selling tat such as this 😒