CraigT82

Very nice! Great shadow transit plus moon... good work

This is normal. The colour of the filter you see as you look at it is the product of the colours it is blocking (reflecting), but without white light. E.g blue filter looks yellow - as per image below

I agree that its the back side of the coatings on the front of the mirror that you can see from the back, as opposed to the actual back of the mirror being coated. I shouldn't think it's any problem. If it bothers you a half hour with some wet and dry wi give you a nice frosting!

I'd echo Pete's comments and consider the cheaper 224c for planetary. The 385c I believe is a similar sensor just larger, but you don't need that extra sensor size for planetary. I use an Altair gpcam3 224c alongside a gpcam3 290m and am very happy with both (Note: the altair 224c comes with an integrated uv/ir cut window but this can be swapped for a clear one if needed for IR imaging). At your latitude, with a OSC camera and a larger aperture scope like the C11, an ADC will be absolutely essential. I'd also suggest that you have a good think about how to thermally manage the C11 before/during imaging as this will be crucial to image quality, much more so than the choice of camera and barlow. Craig

Very nice set of images, nice work 👍

Some nice shsrp details visible there Victor, well done! Those little 72mm fracs are very versatile.

This is true, but refractors are not immune to collimation issues, and as you do get coma with newts you get field curvature with fracs (well, and pretty much all scopes really, to a certain extent)

Haha I only do lunar/planetary I've no idea... sorry!

OK thats the ZWO 850nm longpass filter. Probably not as useful as an Astronomik 742nm bandpass or the Baader 685nm longpass, but you could still give it a go and see what you think of it.

Which IR pass filter did they send you? IR pass filters are very useful for imaging the planets and the moon as the longer wavelength is less affected by atmospheric seeing. It's common to take a normal RGB image of, say, Jupiter and to use an IR image as a luminance channel (or as a replacement for the red channel) to sharpen up the details. Also imaging the moon in poor seeing through an IR filter can yield good results. The IR filter can also be used to darken the sky and increase contrast on the moon when imaging in a blue sky. The RGB bayer matrix filters on the camera you have all let IR light through equally, or thereabouts, allowing the camera to operate as a mono camera would, with all pixels receiving the IR light.

Just another thought, could stop the lens down more and go with longer exposure. That should sharpen things up and get you a longer ISS trail

Maybe could try a HDR composite with long exposure for ISS and shorter for moon and bridge? You've already got the long exposure for ISS so could go back to the same spot next month at same time with moon in same position and grab a shorter exposure?

I also love looking at these 'trails' of craters, my personal favourite is the chain that lies on Rima Hyginus, although they are collapse pits related to the Rima itself (a graben) rather than impact craters. They range in diameter from 4km down to 1km so challenging visually.

Nice work John... be careful, this imaging lark is addictive!

Dont worry you got the mount you have paid for. Have you polar aligned the mount?

Thanks for your comments that's very kind 👍. Comparing your image to mine I don't think there's a whole load of difference to be honest. In general everything that is visible in mine is visible in yours too. I'd always advise more frames, for any target! I'd also advise to try different sharpening methods on each image. Generally I use both imppg and registax and see which one works best on that particular image. I always do a little extra unsharp masking in photoshop just to really crisp things up but careful not to clip any highlights doing that.

Got a couple of vids last night around 9.30pm but the seeing was pretty poor and only bothered processing this one. Found it hard to focus even with the red filter. My intended target was the lava dome to the SE of Beer crater but that was still deep in the darkness and contrast there was very low. Nevertheless is was still a good first light for my new ZWO filter wheel (EFW mini). I enjoyed just effortlessly flicking between filters and comparing the views for far too long! 8.75" Fullerscope with APM 2.7x Barlow, altair GPcam3 290m and red filter. 10k frames collected and 1k stacked. Cheers

That's caused by the alignment points in autostakkert. Try using a different number/size of APs (use the place automatically function?) If that doesn't work you could tick the global setting on the left hand side, instead of local.

Nice effort! Well done

Scroll up a little bit

What a result! Looks pretty good to me... I mean theres no real reason a scope tube should be round anyway!

The bigger one is the m12 to m10 thread convertor. That would go on the top of the central bolt if you had one. The other one is used to secure the adaptor to the tripod as long as there is a corresponding hole in the tripod top. It's not strictly necessary as I uses the adaptor perfectly fine without that bolt in.

Ah I used the adaptor on an EQ6 fit Berlebach planet which didnt have a hole opposite the pin... and hence my confusion! TBH if you cant get hold of a central bolt it's useless. You could try ebay for m12 bolts with a hand knob, but if you're doing that you could just buy an M10 bolt with hand knob and do away with the adaptor as the whole purpose of the geoptik adapter is to allow the use of a m12 to m10 thread converter. For a north pin just use any bit of stud that fits (m10?), put a nut on it to hold it fast and file the edges square

I used one a few years ago and IIRC the adaptor just sits on top of the tripod, and a supplied m12 to m10 thread adaptor goes on the end of the central tripod bolt. The mount then tightens down onto the tripod+adaptor in the normal way, with the screw tension from the central bolt keeping everything in place. You will need to remove the north pin from the tripod and add it to the adaptor, (cant remember if the adaptor comes with a north pin or you reuse the one from tripod) IIRC the adaptor comes with a big black bolt and I dont think I ever figured out what that was for!

If it's any consolation, I buy quite a lot of stuff from ukabs and now I'll remember the guys name and avoid him in the future!