CraigT82

Hold up a spirit level to the front of the tube and look through the focuser with no ep so you can see the level and adjust it to horizontal. Mark the horizontal level you can see on your focuser with a pencil and that's your null point alignment for the ADC. Won't change from there for a alt az newt. The bubble is useless with newts as the horizon as seen through the scope won't be parallel with the true hotizontal More useful info from Martin Lewis here... http://www.skyinspector.co.uk/atm-dispersion-corrector--adc

Fantastic images Peter! Shows how useful an IR lum channel is on saturn. Did you collect the IR data with the 224c?

Monochrome images still benefit from ADC usage as there is dispersion within each colour band. The moon in your second image is showing clear red/blue fringing which is atmospheric dispersion.

Barlows for me, modular ones. Can fine tune the power by placing the element closer or further from the camera. I use the APM 2.7x coma correcting barlow but the Baader VIP modular is also excellent. However don't expect changing barlows to transform your images. Seeing and atmospheric dispersion is your enemy! You can combat the dispersion by using and ADC, but there's not much to be done about the seeing apart from getting out every possible opportunity to make sure you catch the good nights

Steam bending would give the best results and Ash is great for this. It would result in the least amount of residual stress in the legs. There's lots of video on YouTube about DIY steam bending. May not be the ideal solution though if you don't have any of the kit to hand. If the bend at the end of the legs isn't too steep then you could probably do it using a jig and clamps (no steam) and just bending it bit by bit leaving a few days for the wood fibres to stretch between bends. Making a laminated leg may also be an option and would allow easy bending. Could alternate the grain between strips for maximum strength.

You want the barlow ahead of the ADC rather than on the EP.

Sounds like a nice project Ade! I've got some spiked feet you can have if you want them (bought from Berlebach). I don't have the rubber covers but I think you can buy these separately? Anyway let me know if they can be of use and I'll send them on.

Thanks for sketching that out Mark! Much appreciated. sorry the dimensions are a bit of a guess, I need to go out and measure the width of the dovetail and the tube rings (pic is just random one from google)

Hi Robindonne and Mark, thanks for the replies. The 3D printed blocks seem very quick and cheap, something to consider. I'm slightly concerned about the strength of the nylon for scope mounting components, it is a big heavy scope!

I'm looking to see if anyone can do some machining for me, paid of course. I need a pair of aluminium radius blocks to enable the attachement of tube rings to a dovetail... something along the lines of the ADM ones in the pic below. Dimensions would be roughly 75mm long by 25mm wide and about 10mm high. Radius of curve to be 125mm. Drilled for two bolts per block. If you would be ably to do this for less than the £50+ that it'd cost for the ADM ones please let me know! Many thanks Craig

Looks good. Was it bang in the centre of the field of view?

Fantastic image. Definitely the best I've seen, thanks for posting

Yes the term 'resolution' is used for different things confusingly. For astrophotography the resolution of an image is how much area of the sky each pixel covers (in arcseconds per pixel) and is governed by focal length and pixel size. The figures 1920x1080 and 640x480 are referring to 'image sizes'. For the planets you only need small image sizes as the planets images are so small there is no point collecting the full sensor's data when most of it is just black space. On the moon you may want to image the largest amount of lunar surface you can, and so using a larger image size would be better, but generally the larger the image size the slower the frame rates you'll get.

The resolution you're referring to is the number of pixels used to create the image - horizontal by vertical. Ie the portion of the sensor which is used, also known as region of interest (ROI). Jupiter is small and will probably occupy only a few hundred pixels on the sensor so no need to use the full HD. 640x480 is more than enough.

Lovely images, loads of detail to see on both. Nice work 👍

Yeah a planetary camera certainly won't hurt, and will stay with you as you upgrade the rest of the kit. Look for a USB3 model which will give you faster frame rates (as long as you have usb3 on your computer of course), the 224c (various manufacturers) is a great planetary camera and can be picked up fairly cheap used.

Very nice. Always lovely to see the waning phases! Don't often get up early enough to capture those. My only criticism would be the one or two blown out areas near the limb. Are these blown out in the raw data or during processing?

Those shots really aren't bad, I don't think you're doing much wrong! Planetary imaging does take a lot of practice, particularly with focusing and data processing. Collimation and cooling of the scope are important to master too. Half of the effort behind a good planetary image is just having the motivation to get out there night after night in order to catch those nights of good seeing which really allows the equipment to show what it can do. Next time you're out you could try capturing more frames which will give you more options for the processing.

Ah yes... I live in Bedminster so should have guessed Bedminster Down!

Fantastic image, was that taken from Ashton Court?

Fascinating thread. Would the Sodium be responsible for the golden/orange apparent colour of the comet?

Thanks for the comments all. Haven't slept since 1.30am but still buzzing after a fantastic night of looking up 😁

Magnificent night! Drove 30 mins and hiked a mile in the dark to the top of Blackdown Hill in the mendips but the panoramic views all round were really something else. Just with the naked eye there was beautiful NLC, a once in a generation comet, the milky way, the Pleiades Jupiter, Saturn, Mars the moon and Venus. Tons more with the 8x50 monocular. Carlsberg don't do stargazing nights, but if they did.....

Set my alarm for 1.30 this morning, drove out into the mendips and dragged by backside and gear up to the highest point, Black Down Hill for panoramic views over Bristol. The beautiful comet and NLC display made it very worth it! Comet was easily naked eye and filled the FoV of my 8x50 bins. Pics with 1200d and Sigma 18-200mm.

Keep extending! They do focus quite far out. Are you using the stock 2" to 1.25" adapter? Some pics could help