bomberbaz

I would go for a zoom but use it with the hyperion 24mm as your next eyepiece. Baader Hyperion Zoom Eyepiece | First Light Optics

Something I notice no one has asked, are you using a bog standard diagonal or a dielectric version.  Personally I found the dielectric versions offer a much cleaner image on planets and marginally brighter response, especially on dimmer objects. 

Something to consider.

Steve

7 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi Ags! Yeah both of those were mentioned above. The thing is I've already got so much equipment and I don't really want to add even more to the pile! I'm only in a 1 bed flat so don't have a lot of room. I really want to be able to use the eq3 pro (pictured above) which I can just about manage to carry. Having said that, I'll have to try and see if I can carry it down the stairs and back up again,,, If that's ok, and as I said, I think I might try the Synscan wifi first and see how I get on and if I can get reliable wifi communication ok.

Louise

have a spring clean out sale Louise, but first spend sone time figuring exactly what you want then gear yourself around it, I will give you my pre-requisites that led to my choices.

• Lightweight overall
• Able to carry good payload mount (without counterweights, refer to point one) and also lightweight itself (only 5kg)
• Reasonable aperture (150) and suitable for suitable for spectroscopy
• All in one system able to operate via tablet/phone
• Simple to operate

I am no expert, anything but however my setup allows me to do what would be unthinkable a few years back, especially to a novice such as I. Given what you say, I feel points one and two above should be of particular interest to yourself. Not sure about the rest but that was important to me.

Oh and my powertank is Lithium/Ion type, much better in cold weather and no charge memory issues.

Cheers

Steve

20 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

The pic helps! But what mount is that? How does it work? It looks a big load on something small...

 

It's a HEM15 louise, very capable little mount which carries quite a good weight with no need for counterweights. iOptron HEM15 Hybrid Harmonic Drive Equatorial GoTo Mount (without iPolar) | First Light Optics The lack of needing a counterweight up to 8kg I think is one of the things that really attracted me to it, Down side, pricey compared to eg EQ3 but it suits my purposes.

16 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi Gazers!

After quite a long hiatus, I may be back in the game! Having settled in a new (to me) flat I'm looking at possibilities for astro imaging again (I miss it!). Unfortunately, I'm still on the second floor, now have double glazing, and am even nearer to the brightly lit city centre, as well as having lots of local artificial light   On the plus side, there's a possibility of carrying my EQ3 Pro downstairs and it might be possible to set up at the back of the flats.  I won't know until I try, and that will only happen if there's ever a clear night! I'd still only have a limited view of the sky which would be roughly WNW to nearly North. Again, on the plus side, I'd be able to see most of the Meridian/Zenith. On the downside, no Horizon - buildings all around. So not ideal, but at least it would be outside. I don't know if I'll actually be able to see Cassiopeia / the pole star - I'll probably still be limited to brighter stars cos of the light pollution. Next time it's clear I'll pop out and have a look and see what I can see. So Polar aligning may be a problem though it never stopped me before! 

Sooo... I'm thinking in terms of setting up standalone i.e. with a dslr/without a computer or, maybe, remotely via wifi. I think the mount would be in the region of 35-50 feet away from my living room or could be a bit closer from the kitchen I've looked at the Synscan wifi module - could work, but I'm not sure about running up and down the stairs to keep an eye on things. Any thoughts on that? Also looked at the Staraid Revolution B. On the face of it, it would do a lot of the functions I'd need - albeit at a price! Might be worth it, though. Not sure what view of the sky it needs - anyone know, had experience? I'd also need a lightweight battery. I've powered the EQ3 with a Chinese DC1298a '9800mAh' battery before. I still have a couple of but not sure whether they can still hold a decent charge. One seemed to charge ok, the other charged a bit too quick... I'll try them out when I get a minute. They are only about 250g each and were quite cheap when I bought them in 2014/15, but they're a lot more expensive now... So I could be looking for an alternative lightweight, but hopefully rugged, 12V battery   This mobility scooter battery is only 1.5kg and looks like it would last longer than me! https://ecotreelithium.co.uk/product/12v-12ah/ Thoughts?

Thanks for any responses

Louise

I use one of these Celestron Lithium 13.2 Ah LiFePO4 Powertank Pro | First Light Optics not cheap but holds a lot of juice and is reasonably lightweight at 2kg.

I am now using a 150p quattro, hem15 atop a skywatcher tripod Sky-Watcher Tripod for Star Adventurer | First Light Optics with asi air and ZWO cameras and can carry the whole set up out as one. Not sure I would like to carry it all downstairs though.

The tripod is very light so I put the powerbank on the utility tray to add stability.  Using this setup I track circa 0.6-0.8.

Not sure whether any of this is suitable to your needs but there as an idea.

To me it looks like it could possibly be gas (HB and OIII spring to mind) that has been blown off during the merger and left behind as the merging galaxies have moved away from it. 

A lot of imaging programmes remove excessive green noise and this would point to why it hasn't been picked up before.

Was this done under dark skies or were you subject to LP at the location?

I would try gathering data again from another location and see if you can recreate this phenomena. If it is recreated with the same amount of data and processing techniques, you may have discovered a new nebula! 

Available on BBC Iplayer, might also be on youtube.

Just watched it and frankly the technology that went into this project is mind boggling, a stupendous collaboration of teams and countries together and incredible technology. AAA* 

Think it might be a rerun, still worth a watch again.

BBC Four - How to See a Black Hole: The Universe's Greatest Mystery

slightly concerned about my trip now given the latest eruptions. I would welcome the opportunity to witness ( at a very safe distance) volcanic activity as seen on tv, just a tad worried regards travelling via air being affected like back a few years since when ash grounded flights to iceland.

5 hours ago, josefk said:

How cool, that adds something very interesting over the S&T article @JeremyS - it would be fascinating to catch sight of the flickering visually before the main brightening. 😎

It would mean clear skies from now til possibly 2026 (although it is likely to be sooner if what I read is correct)  and you being glued to the eyepiece at every waking (and dark) minute. So nice thought but  highly unlikely. 

I do share your enthusiasm for this event though, will be very interesting.

given one option it would be my dob. It is superb on nebula. and galaxy work, best galaxy was 420mly away. Stopped down ( not that I have one) it could be made a nice F15 star spotting bit of kit and it has already been successfully used to get the HH and a couple  of billion LY plus blazars, so utilised properly it cover all my bases.

19 hours ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

I hope you have a fantastic time Steve and I’m sure your wife will be there with you in spirit. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that you see some aurora.  You will certainly see fabulous scenery and you might end up ‘collecting’ waterfalls - they are all so beautiful! If you can, stop at Bruarfoss waterfall - the water is blue!. Also Sólheimajökulsvegur glacier - well worth the trip down south to see it. 

 

 

Thanks for the heads up, I shall look at the map and see which of the days these are best likely to be viewable on and add to my viewing list, I already have 5 waterfalls on my list on things to do, don't think the one you listed is on it (yet)

many thanks

steve

2 hours ago, Bivanus said:

In a lighter tone 😄

Ah well when I was checking my data I did get some links coming up to shall we say, less reliable or  sources who are likely to be more of a cut and paste approach to researching, so I was pleased when I found the S&T details and being a more reliable source of data.

All booked everyone, I am having 11 days so praying for the sunspot gods to be active during those days.  It was a little more expensive than I thought it was going to be but it is unlikely I will be going again.

It is something of a pilgrimage for want of a better word. My late wife and I had planned a visit there but her doctors advised against it so we never went through with it. SO I will be doing this with her photo close to my heart and a hope that she visits me in the form of an aurora. 

Steve

Sorry if this has already been posted up else where, I haven't seen it but then my visits have been less frequent than they used to be.

Is T CrB About to Blow its Top? - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope (skyandtelescope.org)

A decent source for this so thought it worth reporting on. Very easy to find in just a degree below epsilon Crb in Corona Borealis but type in T Crb into stellarium will highlight where it is, also available under same search in Sky Safari 7.

A quick overview is this went Nova almost 80 years since, previously it went nova in the late 1800's and has recently brightened nearly a full magnitude plus has started shining with a more bluish tinge indicating it is heating up, so if you get a clear sky worth a quick shufty.

Once it blows it will shine at c+2 magnitude for around a week before fading rapidly.  Unless it has gained the magic 1.4 solar masses in which case it will be far more dramatic. Whichever it will make a dazzling object to observe and will be a fantastic spectroscopy imaging object. 

Steve

Hello all. I am sure this question has been asked before but I am sure people won't mind imparting their views again so here goes!

I am planning visiting Iceland later this year, beginning of 2025 depending upon what views and/or opinions are on here.

The trip will be an 11 day self drive tour of the Icelandic circle and as you might expect I am hoping to see aurora as well as some of the beauty of this volcanic island.

I am thinking either October 24 or March 25 will offer the best opportunity of reasonable weather for sight seeing and with skies still dark enough to see aurora. 

Any advice gratefully received.

Steve

very impressive image, I envy the skies you must have to image such tight data, I grow tired of my garden results and yearn for such as you display here.

Loving the intereacting galaxies too, these cosmic dances impress me on a number of levels, well done!

2 hours ago, AKB said:

Turns out that this is easily added in Stellarium using the Solar System editor and importing it from the MPCAT list of numbered objects.

I added in stellarium already, used that to track it across my image, just not enough stars to figure with which to make a decent comparison to my image.

The other problem I have is the observatory haven't provided exact time the image was taken so I needed to run a detailed comparison with a starmap and the DSS2 map on this Aladin Lite (unistra.fr) provided it.  Hard work but worth the effort.

On 03/02/2024 at 12:55, Xilman said:

Turns out to be remarkably easy for something that bright, unless the field is very crowded..  Head over to https://aladin.cds.unistra.fr/AladinLite/ and type in the co-ordinates of the target. Zoom in to a field less than a degree across. In the default DSS2 image stars down to about g=21 will be shown. Switch on the Gaia DR3 display and you can find the magnitudes of the stars in the field. If you then image and stack as you go until you can see stars at least as bright as your target you will be able to identify it in the final stack because you can then do heavy duty contrast stretching.

Actually, I do that before starting imaging. No use even starting if the predicted position is too close to a star as bright or brighter.

 

finally found it amongst the other stars, thanks for the link, that really helped.

I plotted a line of the asteroids course over 3 nights and then used this to compare to the maps in the link you provided. 

cheers

steve

Yes I have just checked and can confirm I did indeed clip it. Having reviewed what I did I figured it out. I tweaked the black levels in exposure to darken the background and this is where the clipping took place.

I have quickly redone the image from the base stack but this time I ran graXpert before any gimp tweaking and it allowed me to retain all the data without clipping.

I do think some data from a dark site would help an awful lot though.  See below

5 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Your image doesn't look obviously clipped, to my eye. Sometimes it can happen at the conversion to JPEG. Maybe have a look at your last 16 or 32 bit image prior to JPEG conversion for the web?

Olly

Edit: I have tested, several times, a screen grab against its original JPEG to be sure that the screen grab itself doesn't introduce any clipping and I have never found that it did. I think the screen grab does represent the original JPEG, therefore.

I have been guilty of black clipping myself in the past but not so now. I watched a nebula processing tutorial online which basically mirrored what your saying @ollypenrice

However having just checked the image above, it seems Gimp histogram shows it is black clipped but I am sure it wasn't when I processed it. I shall have another look at the master image and see if I can get something back out of it, strange.

steve

10 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

I agree that the stars are tighter in your image. Do you think that's because of the filter choice or because you were taking more and longer exposures?

I'm doing EAA so I'm much less particular, and I need to keep the exposures short which I'm not sure would be possible with a really narrow band filter. I have thought about getting an L-eXtreme but I think it would cut out too much light for EAA. The L-eNhance certainly reduced the star brightness. You should have seen it with no filter!

What I liked about the image I posted was that it showed the whole of the nebula in context.

Yes the whole image did look nice I agree, however mine is what it is with my scope I am afraid.

Someone on here tested the enhance, the extreme and my askar db filter on the same dso, same exposures etc. In the test the extreme had the tightest stars and best detail, followed by the askar  (there wasn't much difference between these first two, but the price tag and askar being available 1.25 made the decision for me) then the enhance. I also seem to remember the enhance gave to halo's around sone brighter stars

EDIT: apparently the extreme is available in 1.25 now but I am not planning changing, results speak for themself.

5 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

NGC1499 is a great target, but I think it really needs a widefield setup so that you can see it in context. I had a go at it in mid-January using an Askar FMA135 which gives me almost 5 degrees. Here's what I managed with 58 x 15s frames and an L-eNhance filter, plus some (very basic) post processing.

owever some 

 

Don't tale this the wrong way peter but the stars are much tighter in my image. The L-enhance was the goto when first brought out but personally I think the latest range of filters, including my askar and the L-extreme have taken over in tersm of tight and tidy stars.

It's a personal think but when imaging nebula, I like more  colour, and less star. 

3 hours ago, TerryD said:

Give GraXpert a try.  It can work miracles and it's free.

I did, I am impressed.

Just used default settings, tweak on dark levels and saturation in gimp but wow, massive improvement

EDIT. I think this looks like a squids head, tentacles left to right. I claim as mine unless previously mentioned.

On 26/02/2024 at 18:53, Ags said:

I was quite impressed I could guide at 0.5s. 

 

Same here, just checked it again and it is consistantly guiding at under 0.8 and sometimes as low as 0.5.  Bearing in mind I only have a 120 FL guide scope I am pretty impressed with this. 

1 hour ago, TerryD said:

I'm not familiar with Siril.  Does it have any type of background extraction tools?  Your data looks good but getting rid of the gradients would really improve things and make further processing easier.

It dioes yes but the problem as I see it is most of the image is nebula so does make it a little difficult. The gradient is from hotel lighting adjacent to my garden, blooming nightmare it is.

I also have GMic & Py astro installed in gimp and I am sure there are tools in there for removing gradiant.

As mentioned though, this was a 5 minute bash, nothing more as there is insufficient data to get carried away.