neil phillips

Hi Mike as you can see from my pbase stuff i was obsessive about excessive highlights. As i get older it seems to bother me a little less. Often more detail can be seen and a more vibrant image will come from pushing histogram a little more, either at capture or post processing. Or even both. Of course we can always change our minds again. (I often do) But dull images do not excite me as much these days, maybe because of the scope sizes i am using i am not sure. As usual smooth silky detail in these. And certainly not dull. Maybe your headroom is a little reserved on some of this. Think there is more hidden detail in there. But better to under sharpen than over sharpen i guess. As we have said everyones mileage is different. Certainly think your understated style is a breath of fresh air. Just getting that balance can sometimes be tricky. You may not agree. Regardless you ooze quality thats for sure

Cheers Dave

Hi Peter good to see you around. Hope your well and doing good. Cheers for the comments

Sounds great dont expect great things immediately often takes work. more blur than your 8" but good seeing good collimation and a IR 685 should do well. Good luck your backs going to need it.

I prefer smaller version too cheers Mike

True about the exposure time Roy. But there are numerous examples of larger scopes producing better resolution. Btw what 16" is it ?

As Crag said lovely detail that 16 " is pulling out lots on the Floor Ptolemaeus

Thanks for saying that Craig. Been putting in a lot of effort to come back to astronomy recently. Money too. Some of of which is yet to see the light of day. When i first started i couldnt control this wobbly EQ2 mount. or wayward cheap RA drive. But practice makes perfect. As you know i have been banging away for weeks now. So yes your right everything had to come together. Enjoying my astronomy again. Appreciate the chats we have had. Congrats on the camera i am enjoying mine. I am sure you will too. Though i do want a 290m again for sure. When you getting the 300p ? If you ever want to pm. No worries. And yes UV IR CUT Cheers

Still some daylight creeping into the image becoming darker later, so not perfect. But seeing good. This small Newtonian really is super sharp. i got good collimation this night. Could see down to the level of pin pricks live on screen. I absolutely adore this little scope. doubt i can do much better without better equipment. Cheers Nik

Celestron powerseeker 114 Newtonian. EQ2 Mount economy RA Drive. QHY 462 C camera. Celestron Omni 2x barlow. F16. First is 75% downsized. Second is 100% Around 20 panes with lots of overlap Greyscale More happy with the balance of this one

lovely result Trevor

Cheers for that Roy, as you say so many possibilities probably will never know, but seeing did seem more stable here on the 20th interesting it was the opposite for you. Probably some regional difference. Having said that it wasnt awful on the 19. just more heat but with IR 850 ? Which seemed odd

Good report. look foward to seeing what it can do under good conditions

Lovely 8 there Stu must be superb. I see tracking there too

Hi Nik not noticed it yet, but if i do see it, should be able to post at some point. Long focus Newts are killer for lunar. Sky watcher do a 6" F8 for a good price that i would like to try. Infact FLO sell a Bresser 6" F8 Dob that can also be split for imaging. I saw on there website

Some good detail on those Roy

A good assesment of what i was seeing last night too

Thanks Vineyard much appreciated

100% agree with that. You have a good eye Craig i didnt notice it at first. Some show it more than others. But Mike should not get too drawn into it i dont think. Possibly try and trace it. But clearly that scope is Awsome the resolution and detail is astounding. Some of the best at this size i have ever seen. The processing also looks sublime. Inspirational infact.

Cheers Stu yes as mentioned to Craig a first for me with this size scope. Seeing was pretty stable last night. Sounds like you had good seeing too ?

Hi Craig getting the Rille surprised me. I have never got it with such a small scope before. A first for me. Spent time tweaking collimation last night both the secondary (preferring to use a coli cap than my laser) and the primary with a cheshire. Collimation was def better i thought. What with the good seeing Very pleased how the little scope performed. Sentimental to me too, as it is my daughters 15 year old birthday present. (We are very close love her with all my heart) Was in a bad way but recently flocked it. cleaned and centre stickered the primary. Hiluxed the secondary

was tired last night forgot to add was using a 2X Omni Celestron Barlow in the imaging train. Getting better at tweaking this cheap economy manual RA drive (powered with a 9 volt battery) Then when i first started. You set the speed with a little rotary dial. fine for a bit then its off again. But spending a lot more time tweaking this variable speed setting. Which has allowed me to up the focal length to F16

Hi Roy not sure what you thought ? but on the 19th i captured a whole mosaic in IR850. Yet on screen there is clearly a lot of heat ripple. Which IR is supposed to to reject especially at 850nm. But last night. shooting in Colour with just a IR UV block. The image was almost (not quite) dead still. Just wondering did you notice more heat disturbance on the 19th compared to the 20th ? Cheers for any feedback

Pretty good seeing tonight. Too tired to process. Need my big scope running. But this little 114mm Newt punches way above its weight. EQ2 mount QHY 462c converted to greyscale

Good detail was a nice night out there