nephilim

1 hour ago, saac said:

Ah Edinburgh , I went to Strathclyde across in Glasgow, mid/late 80s so sounds like similar timescale.  Heriot Watt always had a good reputation for engineering and still does; we send a good number of pupils onto their engineering courses each year .  Gosh computer science courses in the 80s did they even exist.  I remember Strathclyde giving out ZX Sinclairs to their science students. In the Mechanical Engineering department we used the atari - it was the first computer I came across with a gui - what a difference that made.  With your electrical engineering maths you will be well versed in imaginary numbers then , now that is a bit of maths that always eluded me .  To be honest I was happy when we were allowed to drop maths in our final year.  Our maths lectures would be delivered by pre recorded video - some talking head with a lime green shirt and massive collar , looked like an OU video from the 60s - not exactly inspiring . Happy days nonetheless  

Hey not arguing , just a discussion like we would have in the pub  

Jim 

I studied computer science in the 80's 😂 We were on BBC computers & Commodore 64's. I remember I spent a large part of my time playing Elite & Repton. In fact my sole reason for recently building my gaming PC was so that I could play the new version of Elite although I tend to spend most of my time at the moment with it banging my head against the brick wall that is PixInsight 😬

3 hours ago, Viktiste said:

Cool! Were is that if you don't mind me asking?

@Viktiste The first & third arnt Alpine, first is on the way up to Helvellyn & third is topping out of Pinnacle Ridge on St Sunday Crag, both the Lakes. The second photo is crossing the Bergshrund on Mont Blanc du Tacul on the way to Mont Blanc summit via the Three Monts Traverse route & the fourth is below the Epron des Cosmiques heading to climb the Rebuffat Pierre route (Chamonix) This one is me on the actual Rebuffat route itself. You can make out my friends shadow on the glacier belaying me & i'm just left of the centre on the route

3 hours ago, Craney said:

..and you can combine Alpine mountaineering with astrophotography.....

This is taken under the Pigne D'Arolla in Switzerland.

Nice. I've climbed a fair bit in the Valais region including the Dent de Perroc and the Aiguille de la tsa which is near there. 7 Skiers tragically died on the Pigne back in the April of 2018, we were there that July & it was a sombre affair.

Steve

55 minutes ago, Ags said:

I just went for heavy planting, some celestial pearl danios and a couple of snails. The fish are breeding so they obviously like their home.

  

On the subject of giving up astronomy, I lose motivation from time to time but always come back. Nothing beats sitting outside in the dark, being bitten by mosquitoes, squinting at the sky hopefully!

Nice little set up there @Ags 🙂 I'm similar with astronomy but now I've finally (after many years) got an AP set up i'm very happy with my enthusiasm is back again. 

3 minutes ago, Mike73 said:

I haven't got a clue about mountaineering or fish but at least its taking my mind of the clouds 👍

Yep, its still thick cloud up here. In fact I think its actually always been thick cloud & my very few imaging sessions are just fantasy.......

26 minutes ago, Viktiste said:

Totally going off topic here: 

Beer brewing (in the glass). 3D printing - the DIY feeder on the top and the flag inside the aquarium. CNC macining - the  PCB inside the DIY feeder. 

Sorry  AstroNebulee  - just goes towards thinking there is more than one hobby

Nice tank there. I look at AP as my nice brain engaging hobby & my mountain biking as the opposite, then theres the alpine mountaineering 😂

6 minutes ago, Ags said:

@nephilim My little 30 liter nano tank actually gives me the same satisfaction as my 700 liter monstrosity of former days.

@Ags I agree with you there, I just kept wanting fish that needed a lot of space, then there was the whole compatibility issue with certain fish definitely not allowed to be kept with others. I did enjoy it though, I could feed my Niger Trigger, Porcupine Puffer & snowflake eel by hand although my Clown Trigger would have had my hand off 🤣

2 minutes ago, nephilim said:

I agree, my 1400ltr was 7ft long & took up a big part of the living room, it was rather big 🤣

11 minutes ago, Viktiste said:

I wanted to go salt water , but (luckily?)  I didn't. I have an 450 liter fresh water Aquarium. The kids said: Dad can we have an Aquarium?  I said yes, and I went BIG (stupid dad). I don't think the kids expected the size of it. But it's been a good hobby for several years.

I agree, my 1400ltr was 7ft long & took up a big part of the living room, it was rather big 🤣

20 minutes ago, Viktiste said:

Definitely need to look at this hobby in the "long haul" perspective. And  don't let it be the only one. In my case: 3D printing, beer brewing, gardening and  lately CNC machining. And fishing of course.  And aquarium fish keeping. 

@Viktiste I went down the salt water fish keeping road a few years ago. I ended up with a 1400ltr aquarium with live corals, Trigger Fish, Puffer Fish & the rest......Now that is a time consuming & expensive hobby.

22 hours ago, daemon said:

I've been using one I bought from FLO for an ED80. I tthink it cost about £16. 

I know that masks should be optically matched in terms of focal length but I have found I can get perfect focus with the ED80 mask on the Samyang 135. 

Might save you a few pounds.

Cheers,

Steve

@daemon Thanks Steve, I've only just seen your reply & have literally just pressed the button on the WO one (It must be made of unicorn tears for the price) I very nearly emailed FLO to cancel but then realised it'll also fit my upcoming Sharpstar 100QII so its not all bad 🙂

ATB
Steve

Thanks to @Mike73 for the heads up on this. 

A good budget way of taking flats. At only £17 its definitely worth a shot. Very lightweight, flicker free & adjustable brightness. Unfortunately this cant be charged & has to be plugged in via USB to use but I can plug it into one of the USB ports on my ASIair Pro so it's ideal if you have one of those or just a spare USB port which many of us will have 

I'm actually excited about taking flats although I'm sure that novelty will rapidly wear thin 😂 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07GPRGKPY/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_4DYT38QH9YRN5NJ4F4QB?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1. 

When I first started out as just a visual amateur I used to get very frustrated when the clouds rolled in but now I've started with AP which is far more faff than setting up just to observe, I've come to just accept its not always going to work out. I wont set up though unless theres pretty much a certainty that it'll be clear for at least two hours. I tend to just try & switch off when its constant cloud for days/ weeks on end although I do obsess over forecasts which are never right anyway.

As for processing remote data, getting the practise in is a good thing as I'm only just starting to get to grips with PI (a fully consuming hobby in itself 🙄) but I could never just do it for the sake of processing images that others have taken data for or that I hadn't had hands on work with. It is a massive monetary investment for what would seem to an outsider very little return. For me though, I'm still amazed (and always will be) that we can capture these targets in the first place, the distance & size of them astounds me & the thought of capturing light photons that have travelled for thousands & sometimes millions of years on my camera sensor to create an image of them makes me feel like a kid on xmas morning 😁 

All i've written here is really just a way for me to try justifying spending very hard earned money very shortly on a Quadruplet Refractor (Its galaxy season soon so it's pretty much the law that I get one). If I keep repeating everything i've said to myself above over & over again then everything will be fine & dandy 🤣

My other main hobby is mountain biking (Yet another bottomless money pit) so that keeps me going, although I can foresee that both hobbies could interfere with each other as Its usual that I'll have a big ride organised with a couple of friends on a weekend but suddenly the evening before the sky will have  cleared. I'll end up imaging most of the night (it's only happened once so far as i'm pretty new to this but it will keep happening) then grab 2 or 3 hours sleep before heading out for anywhere between 8 & 12 hrs on the hills, all the while i'm riding thinking 'I wonder how good that data is.........' 🤔

Steve

I'm in the same position as I'm also looking at Sharpstar. I think i've settled on the 100Q II Quadruplet which has very good reviews. Not having to buy a separate flattener  helps & also theres no need to worry about faffing around with spacers etc for back focus with a camera.

I'm at the foot of Cross Fell (Northern Pennines) & 10 miles from the Lakes so I'm blessed with around 1,000,000 different weather systems, any and all forecasts are usually wrong. When its clear here the skies are pristine (thats what keeps me going and sane) but in AP i've certainly chosen a 'challenging' hobby as far as needing clear skies goes.

3 hours ago, MARS1960 said:

You could try this If you want to keep it cheap Steve.

http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/make-bahtinov-mask.html

Cheers for the link mate but i'm useless at making things 😂 I think i'll go with @Space Oddities one.

3 hours ago, Space Oddities said:

 

I'm using this one from William Optics. It's pricey, but it's solid and has the advantage to be transparent, which makes spikes more visible than opaque masks. It can also be used on your other scopes with a diameter up to 110mm, which is quite practical  

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bahtinov-focus-masks/william-optics-bahtinov-mask-for-dew-shield-diameter-75mm-to-110mm.html

I'd seen this one but forgotten where. Thanks for that 🙂

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a good quality Bahtinov mask that will fit my 135. I bought a 3d printed one which cracked so I dont want to go down that road again (I wouldnt trust anything 3d printed really as my printed mounting system cracked as well a few weeks ago 🙄)

TIA
Steve

All of the above is good advice, I'll add my two penneth.

As has been mentioned previously, I cannot stress enough how important the mount is. Buy cheap, buy twice is a phrase I've heard many times in the forum & it's very true. Several years ago I tried to image on the 'cheap' with a EQ5 & the after market motors but all I achieved was a headache 😂, there's enough to learn without having extra issues with unsuitable/ sub par gear.

This hobby is very rewarding but it can also be very frustrating & (I speak from experience unfortunately) it's always best to get it right first time around with the best gear you can afford & if the gear you need is a little out of budget save until you can buy it (You'll be glad you did in the long run)

I'd go for the HEQ5 then you'll be future proofed. Buying a mount that is right on the edge of its weight limit for your gear or trying to match a scope to the mount just to save money wont be a good idea as at some point you'll maybe upgrade your scope, with a bare minimum mount you'll end up having to also upgrade the mount which will be an expensive job.

Steve

9 minutes ago, scarp15 said:

If you are prepared to travel a little further north and east and away from the crowds of the Lakes, there are excellent spots along  / near to Hadrian's Wall, that are popular with astro photographers. 

 

Yes that is a good point, the res carpark is quite downwards in the valley but maybe not wet sleddale then, due west should be dark sky (unlesss some light dome from Kendle in S/W.

As mentioned earlier, Swindale will be a good bet just over from there.

1 hour ago, GalaxyGael said:

Hi Steve,

I guess my reply to you is my first post!

I had the 86SDQ version of these scopes. Great in principle but here is my advice. In my case, it suited the asi1600 with 1.4"/pixel as far as I recall. The 533 has the 3.76 um pixels so you're at slightly better resolution at the longer focal length (mine was 464 mm). Its a nice combination for a square smallish sensor size. You might be able to get away with flats and darks for a while.

Ask for a bench test before shipping, although FLO will likely do one?.  Mine had pinched optics in the main cell, and these are made a little better than before so the lens cell is not a twist off, but a series of push-pull screws that I did not want to play with.

Focuser is excellent, although a little backlash in the fine focus I found. Check too that none of the oil or adhesive moved onto the lenses. It did in my case so I assume that lens installation is common to these models. Now, I may have had several unusual one-offs all happening at the same time to be fair. 

Color correction is fine, but mine was FCD100, not quite as good as FPL53 and its was a pair of doublets instead of a triplet with single lens inbuilt corrector. I found blue/red fringing on many stars, especially if low in the horizon, and is common with these petzvals.

One good alternative is the 94 EDPH with flattener. Considerably cheaper and runs at f/4.4. with 414 focal length, maybe that is too wide for you? Good reviews of this model too out there.

Petzvals handy though, and I have a TS version of the 71 f/4.9 that is really good and flat. It too had pinched optics, so definitely get the bench test at FLO for peace of mind whichever you go for. 

@GalaxyGael Hi,  thanks very much for such good info. I'd read a thread on CN re pinched optics although it was from a while back. I'll definitely ask FLO to carry our a bench test etc. A Fl of just over 500mm is what I'm after really for the likes of the Leo Triplet etc, I think @414 mm the EDPH is a little too wide although it's certainly one to keep in mind.

I've a month or so of saving to do & also to continue looking at all other options around this quality & price point.

steve

1 hour ago, Lee_P said:

Good job, that's one to be proud of. PI does get easier 😛 Adding in some Flats may make removing gradients a bit simpler for you. Looking forward to seeing more of your pics 😃

@Lee_P Thanks 🙂 I've just started getting my head round flats but they will be added from now on, thanks for the advice. I've a fair way to go be be at the standard your producing but I'll give it a good go 😂

I'm sticking with PI as I'm picking more & more up each time I use it.

Steve

Hi,
I have my eye on the above scope  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sharpstar-telescopes/sharpstar-100qii-f5-8-quadruplet-apo-astrograph-telescope.html for some winter galaxy AP & was wondering if anyone has this scope & is it worth the price? (Also would it suit my ASI533MC-Pro?) I'm particularly drawn to the fact that I wont need to faff with backfocus when changing filters. Am I correct in thinking that a quadruplet doesn't need a flattener or is that just wishful thinking?
Any images taken with this scope would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

14 minutes ago, osbourne one-nil said:

I second the chips suggestion, if only to cheer yourself up from being in Shap. 

I lived in Shap for 6yrs & fully agree with that 😂 Although Wet Sleddale is a good shout, its called wet for a reason plus theres  LP from the nearby steelworks & Shap also suffers from what locals call the 'Shap Cap' due to its position its regularly cloudy but half a mile in every direction its totally clear.

1 hour ago, powerlord said:

nice. must be tricky dragging that ladder around 🙂

 

Good training for been a high altitude window cleaner 😏