bomberbaz

How do you do this? I use SS6 for pretty much all my observing these days and often cram a bit too much on my lists so having them displayed on the map might help me be more organised and structured in my viewing whilst saving me printing off a list that often ends up sopping wet in dew.

Not actually into planetary imaging myself but though I would pop this up for those who are. APM Telescopes. Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (apm-telescopes.net) Specs seem very good and I presumed it imaging related due to the 2 M42 fittings rather than 1.25" male/female. I do think this is for the very serious people though as it is likely to push around £2K after import and vat costs. 🫢

Thanks for clarifying, it wasn't exactly clear. However both @StevieDvd & @900SL have answered in the manner I would have. Basically it's fine.

Can you elaborate on what you mean please, what scope are you referring to and mount, plus is this for visual scope or imaging ?

got bins on standby but doubt thay will be needed

That is a rather obvious but brilliant piece of advice. Too often I have finished after an unsuccessful hit attempt at something difficult and thought, " what the hell, home time". Better to think, "wow, that was good, time to head back". thumbs up!

yeh but tomorrow it's lunar eclipse day 🙄

alas I fear the weather gods will be conspiring against me on that night!

Seems us older chaps adopt similar, my biggest exit pupil are at 5.3 (age [cough] 60) as a future proof should see me good for circa 10 years. But this wasted light discussion brings us back to my rationale for adopting a larger exit pupil in the opposite way, maximise your light grasp when needed (when using light limiting filters) on dimmer nebula dso.

Just to help here it was I who suggested a reducer for increasing the exit pupil for use with narrowband filters in a different thread. The op was looking at viewing the eagle nebula and was struggling to see it with no filter and a 25mm ep at 2.5mm exit pupil. It was suggested by one commenter that a uhc filter would help but I chipped in with reducer for the larger exit pupil or a 40mm plossl as an additional measure to improve results. My personal experience points to a 5mm exit pupil being optimum for line filters with 4-5mm being ok for the more forgiving uhc when used on diffuse nebula. I have read numerous articles in various forums and have yet to find anything to convince me otherwise. So if you can live with the vignetting to have a strong response from a dim object at the centre of the eyepiece then it is still something to consider, a 40mm plossl is the other contender.

@ONIKKINEN many thanks for this, I shall have a bash at this with what data I have and see what I come up with. In the interim I found some excellent tutorials on YouTube by one guy who covers a broad range of subjects and goes through them with a Janet and John style for relative novice users to follow. My only problem is trying to remember them all🤣

Up to this point I am fine and it is easy enough to follow, I have done script editing so this is all stuff I am familiar with. It is the stuff below where we are getting into pixel math where my head starts to hurt. However, I think I shall give it a whirl first before I start asking for further help as I am keen to learn new methods. Above you mention that this is a relatively simple operation to carry out with [photoshop, do you know if similar functionality is available within gimp or not? If you have a video link to the photoshop version I may be able to translate it over to Gimp! Cheers and thanks for the help thus far, very much appreciate it. Steve

I can confirm old age is well and truly set in with me. I was going to save the cruxis link to my favourites but when I tried my browser informed me I already had it saved. Make way for me an the nursing home 🙄😂

And as often happens I have opened an astro Pandora's box 🤣

So it does, my bad missing it. Cheers stu

Yes the idea of modifying the script had passed my mind but given the above, where do I go from there? What program would you use for stacking the data as one or is there another process you could suggest. I mean I could use a universal exposure but this leads to other problems too! This (stacking data) is a science in itself and I am struggling with some of it, well actually everything 😭🤣🤣

Thanks John and @Stu for these. I agree entirely with the altitude being a strong consideration but also and as mentioned by @Mr Spock, localized lp. Stu's cruxis.com calculator asks for either brightest star at zenith or sqm at zenith. Now this is great if you have a fairly even sky in all directions, but if like me you have really bad light pollution in one direction but reasonable skies in the other your going to run into issues as you hunt out you object, more so as you drop down in altitude where I think once you get below 45 degrees it gets increasingly problematic. So either I stick to one half of my sky or take multiple sqm readings and in doing so add another layer of complexity before even looking at John's atmospheric calculator! There really is no easy answer to this I am afraid. Cheers all Steve

Thanks Stu, I shall have a play later on my pc

Ok I know as do most seasoned observers that light pollution has a huge impact on nearly all objects bar lunar and some planetary. I no longer even bother with any local deep sky observing due to light pollution and even narrowband viewing is not particularly rewarding and not really worth the effort. Also I have lost count of the number of occasions I could have had impromptu sessions in the back garden when forecast and weather haven't agreed or just a couple of hours of clear weather have graced the evening. It is such occasions I think I need to be taking more advantage of. So I think I will encourage myself to target more planetary viewing using the 100ED and also think I will join in the 60mm frac double challenge that I have been loosely following on this forum. But what I want to know is, what is the guide / formula etc that provides the following: "magnitude = aperture - bortle less local light pollution" (if indeed such exists) so I can segment as it were my viewing list(s). No doubt similar queries have been thrown out before, and tbh feel I should know better myself but it is always good to get a fresh take on such things so any help will be gratefully received. Tia steve

There you have 4 replies and all different and none either right or wrong, it is all a matter of personal taste. As you already have a Barlow you have that flexibility already so a fixed length eyepiece could be used to cover your needs we with the added advantage of doubling your focal lengths with said Barlow. You have not given a budget so @Spile's zoom suggestion is both low priced and very good in quality department. I personally am a big fan of zooms and if your budget is larger then the baader Mk IV zoom is a superb bit of kit in all departments albeit a little pricey.

Mine came with an 18mm pair supplied so I bought 10 & 24 to supplement them. I also got some 30mm plossl but these were purchased for the exit pupil size (5mm) as they work well with nb filters. Next I got some 8mm starguiders as these offer the highest recommended useable magnification (x58) without dodging into CA territory of plus 60 but have to say the 24,18 &10 get most usage. The 8's may yet go.

If u ever get the chance of a uff 24, get it. The uff are on another level, I use them in my big bins and my dob, they are superb.

I recently downloaded the one shot colour stacking script, it is a massive time saver for me and tend to use it. I am preferring it as my go-to now but have a query. If I grab multiple exposures data at eg 120 seconds with ha filter and 30 seconds at luminance, will it pick up both sets of data and stack or just one? Tia Steve

Rude

Agreed, I had one of these, still have the 9-27 version and it's a great bit of kit and under budget giving up to x210 which is close to the limit for the 127 anyway. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/hyperflex-72mm-215mm-eyepiece.html