johnturley

Very good for a first attempt, shows Syrtis Major quite nicely.

John 

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

Carole, I'm no expert, but would assume that the request / order for a website to be closed down would need to come from the police / trading standards and possibly needs a court approval to enforce closure.  Chances are the website is hosted externally to HOUK so the application would need to be made to the ISP/Host 

This reminds me of a rogue airport parking company near Manchester Airport based in Styal Cheshire, and that pose as the Official Airport Parking.

There have been numerous complaints about them to Trading Standards (including from me), the police have been involved on a number of occasions, and they have also been featured on Rogue Traders and similar TV programs.  They should have been closed down, and their website (which looks like the Official Manchester Airport site) taken down, yet they still continue operate and advertise their services. 

John 

17 minutes ago, Westmoorland said:

Celestron 9.25 XLT. I haven't even got anything to frame the lunar disc at present.

You won't get a field of view any wider than that with a Tele Vue 55mm Plossl at about 1/3 the price of the Masuyama 60mm 

John

20 minutes ago, JimFR said:

Recently getting back into planetary imaging given the improving (for me) location of Jupiter, and the very favourable Mars this time around.

I’ve changed laptops since 2016, and noticed when rebuilding that Registax is pretty ancient now, but AS! doesn’t do wavelets.

So, got to wondering what people are using these days?

I’m capturing with SharpCap from a webcam FYI… 

Most observers seem to use a combination of AutoStakkert (for stacking) and Registax (for wavelets)

I find that Registax can be very slow during the Aligning and Stacking processes if you have taken an AVI video of around 10 - 20,000 frames, taking up to 20 minutes for each, and that is even with using a laptop with an i7 processor and 16 GB RAM, whereas AutoStakkert does it in about 2-3 minutes for each.

John 

I obtained my best image of Jupiter so far showing the Great Red Spot last night, Europa can also be seen close to the Jovian disc, just before the commencement of the transit.

Also imaged Mars, not much detail visible, suspect as others have mentioned, possible dust storm activity reducing detail.

Image taken through my Esprit 150, ZWO ASI 462 Planetary Camera, 2.5x Powermate, Baader UV/IR Cut Filter.

35 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

The Nagler 11 is a very nice EP.
I was using mine in the Mu 210 last night observing Saturn 

It's the one I use most with my 14in Newtonian. I purchased one of the last available new a couple of year ago, can't understand why Tele Vue discontinued this model along with the 26mm.

John  

On 05/10/2022 at 13:20, sorrimen said:

Asi462 from @Knighty2112 (thanks again!). Going to test against the 224 as I’ll be more properly sampled.

 

Would be interested to see how they compare, I purchased an ASI 462, and wondered after viewing some comments, whether I would have been better off with the 224 due to the larger pixel size, and resultant longer optimum focal ratio.

John 

Nice image, strange how the image of Io appears smaller and elongated compared to its larger round shadow.

I found that the disc of Io (as opposed to its shadow) was easy to see when near the limb of the Jovian disc, but became difficult as it moved further onto the Jovian disc.

John 

24 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

The 180 is very slow, only f15, probably nearer to f20 if you take the adc and flip mirror into account.

Chris

I usually use a 2.5 x Powermate with my Esprit 150 (f7), so similar sort of focal ratio at f17.5 

John 

18 hours ago, Adam J said:

My research says that while darker la palmer is less likely to have clear sky's than Tenerife. Teide is at 7000ft or so, higher then the highest point in la palmer so is more accessible. Also I lost interest in the Tenerife stargazing trips when I saw that they where using some very  cheap looking equipment. 

The summit of Mt Teide is actually around 3,700 metres (12,000 ft), but the Parador Hotel is situated on a plateau below the summit at around 2,300 metres (7,000 ft), it's still very cold at night up there though.

As far as I am aware there is no equivalent sort of accommodation available for the tourist on La Palma, when I went to La Palma as part of the Halley's comet trip in 1986, I understood there to be only 3 hotels on the island, all situated near the coast around Santa Cruz de La Palma, although I am sure that there are a lot more now. 

When I went on my last successful stargazing trip in 2016, if I remember rightly, they had a Vixen Refractor (around 4-5 in), and a Skywatcher scope. Vulcano Teide's website now appears to show a Celestron CPC, and when I asked Kieran of Night Skies Tenerife, he said that they had a couple of Celestron scopes. There are no telescopes permanently rigged up for these trips, so they have to bring something fairly portable with them to rig up. I wouldn't really expect to see anything better than I can see through my telescopes at home on Jupiter and Saturn, part of the attraction is to view the spectacular section of the milky way through Sagittarius, which you can't see properly from the U.K.  

My problem however has been the reliability of the companies offering these observing trips, it appears that some of them don't want to take the risk if it might be cloudy, and appear to be too ready and willing to cancel the trip if the weather forecast is not ideal, hence my thoughts about booking 2 nights at the Parador Hotel out of a 10-14 night stay on Tenerife, and bringing a telescope of my own. 

11 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

ASI120 MC, gain at max ....May explain some of the noise, but I can't get down to 5ms otherwise.

Chris

That's surprising, I usually operate at around a Gain of about 300, and an exposure time of around 5ms, when imaging Jupiter with my ASI 462 through my Esprit 150.

John

12 hours ago, Live_Steam_Mad said:

Would La Palma (Airport code SPC) be a better choice than Tenerife?

Regards,

AG

Not really, not much tourist infrastructure there, or direct flights from the U.K.

John

8 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Seeing was better than the other day. Still not great but certainly a lot better. trans was good. Just kept going out of focus. Though there was enough moments at the end for some detail to come through

Orion 245mm Newtonian. QHY462C ZWO ADC. Baader UV IR CUT. Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow. SW EQ5 PRO

6 min vid de rotation. Two different types of processing 1.5x then downsized to 90% The moon is IO

22:57 UT

Interesting that the disc, as opposed to the shadow, of Io is difficult to make out while near the centre of the Jovian disc, whereas in the case of Ganymede, you can make out the disc quite easily throughout. 

John 

2 hours ago, Westmoorland said:

Amazing bubbling swirls around Jupiters belts. Also the bright white disc of one of it's moons as it appeared to touch the edge of Jupiter's disc, before becoming a shadow.

The disc of Io does not become a shadow, the disc and the shadow are quite distinct, although they are close together when Jupiter is near opposition. The disc appears bright white when close to the edge of the Jovian disc, but appears to fade, and can be difficult to make out as it moves away from the edge, whereas the shadow is quite easy to make out throughout. 

John 

Got a good view of the shadow transit of Io on Jupiter last night, I found that the disc of Io (as opposed to the shadow) showed up quite well while near the limb of Jupiter, but hard to make out when near the centre of the disc. Viewing conditions were a bit mediocre, so image came out a lot better than I was expecting.

I then had a look at Mars, and took my first image of this apparition, I was no longer able to discern the south polar cap, which I was able to make out visually during August/September. 

Images were taken through my Esprit 150 using a ZWO ASI 462 Planetary Camera and 2.5x Powermate, processed in AutoStakkert and Registax.  Both 2-minute exposures of approx 20,000 frames giving about 160 fps, stacked best 25%. 

Has anybody been on one of these trips recently, would be interested to hear about your experiences, I have been on a couple of successful trips in the past, but more recently been unlucky either with the weather, and/or the trip organiser cancelling the trip at the last minute.

UK Travel Agents such as JET2 or TUI offer a trip in Tenerife called 'Teide by Night' (which you can also book locally) and which is aimed mainly at normal tourists (and which we have done in the past), and now also includes viewing through telescopes, or you can book a trip more aimed at astronomy enthusiasts such as with 'Night Skies Tenerife' or 'Vulcano Teide'. 

On my last visit to Tenerife before my most recent, I booked an Observatory and Stargazing trip with local trip operator Vulcano Teide, but thy cancelled at the last minute supposedly due to poor weather, but around sunset the summit of Mt Teide was clearly visible from Playa de Las Americas (where we were staying), indicating that weather conditions would have been ok. To make matters worse they only tried to contact me regarding the cancellation via an email which I did not receive, so we waited over an hour for their coach which did not turn up, during which time a coach for the 'Teide by Night' trip pulled up at the same pickup point, so clearly their trip was running. 

This September after the poor experience with Vulcano Teide we booked a trip with Night Skies Tenerife, on the day of the trip weather conditions in Playa de Las Americas had admittedly been a bit variable, but in the afternoon, it had started to brighten up, so I was optimistic that skies would be clear up on the mountain after sunset. However only ½ hour before our pickup time, I was contacted by Kieran of Night Skies Tenerife to say they had cancelled the trip because they could not guarantee clear skies. I was later to find out from someone who had been on a Teide by Night trip the same day, that their trip had gone ahead, that they had good views. The only alternative date that Night Skies Tenerife could offer us whilst we were still in Tenerife was 25 September, however a hurricane (which did not materialise although it did rain quite a bit) was subsequently forecast for that date, so not surprisingly it got cancelled again.

With hindsight I made a mistake by booking the trip several weeks before going to Tenerife, and my advice would be to leave making any booking until you have had chance to look at the weather outlook in the Mt Teide area on the day. Don’t be misled into thinking that you will be above the clouds and get clear skies every night, YOU DON’T, although the percentage of nights with clear skies is probably a lot greater than in the U.K. It also appears to me that the Teide by Night trips offered by the U.K. holiday tour operators appear to go ahead unless the weather is particularly bad, and those by Night Skies Tenerife and Vulcan Teide get cancelled if there is less than about a 50% chance of clear skies. As mentioned, the latter two will offer you an alternative date if the trip gets cancelled, but often this will be for a date after you have returned home.

I accept that I have probably been unduly unlucky on the last 2 occasions, I seem to bring the rain with me wherever I go, how may U.K. tourists can say that they have been in Luxor Egypt when it rained. However I am now thinking along the lines that the best solution to do a bit of observing whilst in Tenerife in future, would be to book a couple of nights out of a 2 week stay in Tenerife at the Parador Hotel up on Mt Teide, and bring a telescope of my own, I know that some SGL member such as GavStar stop there on a regular basis.

I am more of a planetary observer, so did have some thoughts of getting a scope such as a Takahashi 100 DZ to take out there (also maybe use for the 2024 Mexico eclipse rather than my cheap Opticstar 80 mm Refractor), but worried as to how easy it would be to transport such a scope out there, in particular the risk of it getting damaged on the aircraft, and would be interested to hear about any experiences and/or advice from other SGL members.

John  

2 hours ago, Astro_Nic said:

Now you've got me worried I'll spend all of this and not be able to focus and it will all be a waste!  Is there a way to find out prior to I spend a small fortune?

Personally, I wouldn't bother with an ADC for now, the advantage on Jupiter and Mars now they are reasonably high up would be marginal, plus it adds complications putting one in the light path, and it's likely that you would have insufficient in travel with a Newtonian Reflector. The ZWO ADC for example adds about 40 mm to the light path, so you would need this extra amount of in travel available, although you can reduce it by adding a 2" In Travel adaptor and/or replacing the 1.25 in barrel on the ADC by a male/male T thread adaptor which will connect directly to a ZWO camera. 

On the other hand, you should be able to reach focus with a Barlow, as they typically add about 20-30 mm out travel distance, but I can't guarantee it, so maybe a good idea to check with a cheap camera first.

In addition, if you purchased the camera from FLO, and found then you couldn't reach focus, I think that they would allow you to return it for a refund. 

John 

5 hours ago, Stephen_M said:

 

My main purchase over the summer was a Morpheus 4.5mm, which gives magnification of x270, and in combination with my 10" dob gave a great view of Jupiter and the moons. I was wondering if the dark spot was a trick of the light, or a shadow of one of the moons, so thank you for sharing that photo. I could just about make out the main equatorial zone, but it was difficult to make out any other details. Presumably this is due to the 10" capturing too much light, would I benefit from some sort of filter for this?

Here's a blurry smartphone pic.

 

A 10" Reflector if it has a good mirror and is well collimated should provide excellent views of Jupiter, have you seen some of the images of Jupiter Neil Philips posts taken with his Orion Optics 10" f6.3 Newtonian, far superior to mine. 

I also find the view of Jupiter very bright through my 14in Newtonian, and sometimes this can 'wash out' some detail, you can improve the contrast with a filter such as the Baader Neodymium or Contrast Booster filter. Personally, I prefer the Neodymium, as I do not like the yellowish cast the Contrast Booster gives.

John  

34 minutes ago, Stu said:

Nice shot John. Your image proves the fact that Ganymede has a lower albedo and is more easily visible when over the Jovian disk. I would be interested to know if anyone spotted it visually last night?

Yes, I could spot it visually when it was near to the centre of the Jovian disc, it was easier through the 14 in, but the Esprit seems to give sharper images most of the time, and it is easier to attach the camera, Powermate etc., to this scope.

John 

Jupiter, showing both the disc and shadow of Ganymede on the Jovian disc, taken at 23.40 last night through my Esprit 150, 2.5x Powermate, ZWO ASI 462 Planetary Camera, and Baader Neodymium filter. Processed in Autostakkert and Registax, plus  a touch of extra sharpening in Lightroom

I was quite lucky in so much as during the February gales this year, a tree was blown down in the neighbouring school grounds, improving my south-east horizon.

John 

5 hours ago, Kon said:

I have been away on holidays and it seems I missed some of the nice seeing recently. I was eager to have a go on imaging last night despite the gust of wind. Seeing was not terrible. Saturn in colour looks a bit messy. A combination with IR seems to tidy it up a bit. 8" Dob, manual, asi462mc, 2.5x TV powermate, UR/IR cut or IR pass filter. It seems that my whites are a bit overexposed although capture histogram was ~70%. Drizzle 1.5x and downsized to 80%. Order of images: colour, IR and IR-colour combined. I am quite pleased with the Cassini division as it is usually a mess.

 

Nice images, notice that you also have a ZWO ASI 462, and a 2.5 x Powermate.

Are you pleased with your ASI 462, FLO recommended it to me over ASI 224, but wondering whether I made the right choice.

John 

I don't think 2 - 2x barlows or a 4x barlow would give enough amplification for planetary imaging, with most DSLR's you would need to use eyepiece projection, unless you have one where you can crop the capture area. 

John 

14 hours ago, neil phillips said:

As Vlaiv says Use ROI During capture. It has more than one benefit from frame speed being faster. To smaller file size to get more storage out of your laptop. And to avoid display size confusing  you in the future just crop around the planet. It will prevent the display size from making your perceived images small. You will see the actual size of your planet image.  I never realized you didn't know larger surrounds resize the image to fit the whole image on the display.  How do you think it would fit it all in without doing that ? Hopefully now you can work on getting that 14" singing

Trust me in the right hands Jupiter would look stunning With that scope. If I had both your Esprit and the 14" to image with. For sure I would use the esprit. But the 14" would have the most potential by far. Good call from Vlaiv realizing you was confusing display size from planet size. That's such a given it didn't occur to me that you hadn't realized this. 

Neil

Although I'd taken a few images previously reducing the capture area from 1936 x 1096 to 800 x 600, I didn't appreciate until yesterday that although this gave a larger size on the laptop screen when imaging, when saved back to a file on my laptop after processing, Windows was shrinking the images so that they appeared to be the same size as if using the full 1936 x 1096, only they weren't. I hadn't before yesterday tried loading an image taken at 800 x 600, as they didn't appear any better, and I mistakenly though that at this smaller capture area, I would be losing definition. Yesterday after reading Vlaiv's comments I tried loading a 800 x 600 image, and found lo and behold it was approximately 2.5 x bigger, I previously though that imagers must be using programs like GIMP to increase the image size. So in fact I don't need GIMP at all (the results looked a bit washed out), although it might be useful if I was to want to load an image taken with my Canon 6D Digital SLR, where you can't change the capture area. I get the impression that you need to use a combination of optical amplification (with a Barlow or Powermate), and electronic amplification for best results. 

Maybe I should try an even smaller capture area (down to around 400 x 300), I am fortunate perhaps that my equatorial mount drive system (1980's technology 720 teeth brass RA wheel driven by synchronous motor and Variable Frequency Oscillator cf £25,000 Paramount Taurus mount has I think 480 teeth aluminium wheel) which at this amplification can keep an object fairly central on the laptop screen for at least 10 minutes (the Jupiter image above I think was about a 7 minute run time).

I have done a bit of imaging with the 14in Newtonian, but I couldn't say that the results were any better than through the Esprit, however that night atmospheric conditions were not great. I will try it again when atmospheric conditions are good, I think another of the advantages of the 14in, is that the brighter image allows a faster frame rate with the ASI 462.

I gather that some people prefer to image in RAW8 rather than RGB 24, as apparently this also allows a faster frame rate, but then you need programs like PIPP and/or Autostakkert to Debayer the images back into colour, I tried this once, but the colours ended up yuk, looks like you need to do quite a bit of image manipulation to get good colours doing this. Some people also prefer Autostakkert to Registax, I've tried it a couple of times but was not over impressed, although I can see the advantage if you image in RAW8, so each to their own.

John 

21 minutes ago, TheycallmeRiver said:

The only Nagler I've used so far is the 16mm, and I absolutely love it.

I bought the 3-6 zoom earlier this week but I haven't used it yet, and I'm hopefully picking up a used 31mm T5 tomorrow morning for £400.  Really excited.  Should complete my eyepiece collection. 

The 3-6 mm Nagler zoom is great for high power planetary viewing depending on your scope (it worked great on Mars in 2020 with my Esprit 150), at 4mm it was as good as, if not better than my Vixen 4mm SLV, and gave a wider field of view.

John