neil phillips

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Excellent shots Neil. Hadley Rille was looking very good last night which you’ve caught in your last shot. 

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 ?

2 hours ago, CraigT82 said:

Superb Neil! Even got a clear view of the rille in Valles Alpes. Hadley Rille looking lovely 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 

1 hour ago, Roy Foreman said:

Very nice detail and quality. Well done. I have yet to process my images from the 19th and 20th !!

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 

Nice capture lovely natural processing

Yes Mike totally stunning. Now where talking. Nearly fell of my chair when these started popping up. That new scope looks seriously good. Just totally awsome.

Detail and processing looks quite magical to my eye. Ringing can sometimes be difficult to get rid entirely.  Though Craig is correct there is some double ringing and is helping you out drawing attention to it. In the past sometimes i found it difficult to trace. Seeing can cause it. processing too. With this level of quality it really doesnt hinder the quality in the slightest in my estimation. Lovely work Mike. Man i need a 290. Your tickling my lunar senses here big time. way to go. Inspirational comes to mind. Your teaching me now i think

Again in daylight. Getting better at controlling this wobbly EQ2 Mount. Hand positioning each lunar pane. Also getting better at controlling drift on this Economy RA drive  Now with a barlow.

Lower contrast because of the light. But seeing not too bad. Celestron 114. F8 Power seeker Newtonian. Celestron Omni 2x barlow. QHY462c IR850

14 hours ago, BRADLEY 1953 said:

Great image Neil. Have you tried counting the numerous craterlets in ptolemaeus !

Cheers Bradley There is so many right on the edge of detection. Makes it almost impossible

Good result lovely detail

37 minutes ago, WestCoastCannuck said:

Nice little disc!   And daylight no less!   I am rarely happy with my daytime efforts.  LOL.  And yes, have several IR filters.  Cheers

A bit wishy washy with lots of day light. low contrast too. 

1 hour ago, CraigT82 said:

Lovely image, perfectly sharp at the limb which is hard to achieve with an achro. 

How are you finding the QHY 462? I've got a 462C on my shopping list but not sure about ZWO or QHY version.  I think QHY because I prefer the shape of them... can be slid right down into the focuser if needed.

The QHY is a great work horse. Very sensitive. Though the claimed see through bayer pattern doesnt hold true for me in IR 850. Luckily a frequency domain filter i use. locks onto it and subtracts it very effectively. Still its not the see through claims we have had,

is what i am finding. Perhaps small AP boxes on autostakkert are locking onto it. i am unsure presently ? I also prefer the shape over ZWO it has less of impact especially on smaller setups

Cheers

Very nice Mike, showing quite some resolution there. Excellently processed. Interesting using the Green filter. I always leaned towards red. But i know of some great lunar imagers of days gone by, who also used green filters to good effect. That refractor looks like its doing some seriously detailed work. With your silk touch, a lovely combination.  Also Interesting about the barlow. Look foward to your thoughts about it in the future.

5 minutes ago, wouterdhoye said:

Pretty image. Ir-pass filters do wonders for daylight imaging. 

Certainly do. Was hard to nail focus with the glare. But fun trying Cheers Wouter. Loving your website BTW quality. 

SW Capricorn 70mm refractor F12.8 EQ2 mount Economy RA drive QHY462 C IR 850

Love this little  scope. Shooting in daylight 

14 hours ago, wouterdhoye said:

The whole purpose is to take lunar shots. 😀 It’s supposed to be an alternative to use until my big CFF cassegrain is recomissioned. 

Just looked at your big CFF cassegrain shots. lovely work Wouter. As soon as you get any lunar with it please post up. I keep thinking about this scope also

1 hour ago, CraigT82 said:

Will go on EQ6 for now (on short pier). See how I get on with that. It's heavier than my fullerscope but crucially it is shorter

Edit: just ran the lever arm calcs and the 300p comes to 78Nm whilst Fullerscope is 61Nm. Will be quite a bit more difficult for the old EQ6 to throw around 😕

My Neq6 pro could take it but might not have liked it. Regardless rules are there to be broken if you can get the result. Anyway good luck. And cool that sucker with fans big time. i had one at the front and the back for a primary fan sandwich 

1 hour ago, CraigT82 said:

Well... I've gone and bought the old blue 300p that was in the classifieds. Really excited to get it pointed at the moon! 

Congrats Craig what mount you got in mind ?

Think it needed more frames. i may tweak it later.

20 minutes ago, wouterdhoye said:

Thanks everybody for you comments and impressions of these cassegrain telescopes. Based on your and the opinions on other platforms I decided to order mine. It was even in stock. So probaly somehere after the weekend I should receive my new gear.

Apologies for any clouds the next few weeks 😉

Wouter

Congrats. Try some lunar imaging Wouter. Been waiting to see some good lunar images with these designs

Thanks Stu

30 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Wow that is a real stunner Neil.... such fine detail being resolved. 9000 alignment points must have took ages to run in Autostakkert?! 

Not too long actually Craig, i am using a 8 core AMD Ryzen 7 chipped lappy got it nearly a year ago. These can be faster than a Intel i 7

Cheers Craig. Even my Orion struggled to get this kind of resolution. If you can lift them and mount them. worth getting secondhand.

58 minutes ago, wouterdhoye said:

Sweet image. Excellently processed too!

wouter

Thanks, its a lovely area of the moon isnt it Wouter. With its crater chains and fractures one of my fav lunar regions

1 hour ago, Dazzyt66 said:

I miss Astroboot! Got my 150 dob and my Heq5 from there - both brilliant 😊

Wow didnt know they did items as serious heavy duty as a HEQ5 good catch. I got the EQ2 Head here for about 30 or 40 Quid. If they ever sell to the UK Again. i would seriously buy another of these 70mm fracs just as a backup. They are that good. 30 quid is giving it away.