Paul M

1 hour ago, Leo S said:

Here is a good resource to help help identify less common ice halos.

Thanks for that.

I used to read up on these things and have forgot most of it!

I think a lot of the stuff described in your link was visible and although I did have a look all across the sky, I didn't see any of the Sun opposing features. Perhaps some of them were there but I was walking back from the village pub at the time 😍

Today's sky looked very similar to yesterday's early on, but it's very clear now. No bows or arcs.

The broad "V" shaped arc appears to be a Tangent Arc:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangent_arc

There was a Sun Pillar as the Sun finally set but it didn't show in my photo so no point posting it. All the images I took were un-enhanced, direct from my phone camera.

I'm wondering if the sky looks like there might be noctiluscent clouds later. I expected some the other night but didn't happen. It's getting that time of year though!

Wow! That was a bright display! 

Just a couple of sun dogs left now.

There are some features there that I don't think I've even read about, let alone seen.

The saddle type feature below the circumzenithal arc? What's that called? 

50 years of sky watching and today was my first circumzenithal arc plus other stuff.

Sorry for the big image dump. I got trigger crazy.

Circumzenithal arc right now in Penrith.

Photos to follow. 

13 hours ago, barkis said:

l have seen called GS Server  may be required to be installed.

Hi Ron,

GS is Green Swamp Server, a funny name for software that can be used in place of EQMOD.

It gets rave reviews, but if EQMOD is what you've used before and nothing else has changed then it should continue to work. It's just an alternative interface between ASCOM and your mount control software.

There is a lot of info on the Web about GSS on the Web. I don't use it so can't offer much help in that regard.

That's a stunning image of my favorite DSO. I'm no expert but I've got a feeling you've even captured an optical element of the pulsar's shock front. I don't think I've seen it in any other armature images.

https://spaceplasma.tumblr.com/post/64675752636/the-crab-pulsar-look-carefully-at-this-animated

You have picked out the pulsar and other field stars very clearly so it's easy to orientate the gif in the above link with your image. The feature I'm looking at is the persistent band at the 2 o'clock position in the gif.

How bright was this for you guys?

I saw a bright object on a possible trajectory at that time. But I thought it was too bright and, perhaps, a little early based on the last graphic I saw. It was less bright than ISS but still "wow" bright. Went into shadow in the SE.

I last imaged M101 in March. I left the rig Taking 30 sec subs all night and went to bed.

Just imagine if someone had done that during to initial brightening phase of this eventvand caught a real time animation of the emergence of a SN?

Maybe someone did.

4 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Visible from here, quite bright, but the video doesn't do it justice.

Well done! 

What time was your observation?

Did you discern 2 separate objects?

12 minutes ago, skybadger said:

yep, his answer was to use the hotspot from your phone as the internet connection. Thats  poor answer and the reason for connectify. 

 

Oh, I thought he'd downloaded some applications from github to make the PC's hotspot;  1) launch on startup. 2) persistent.

I must pay more attention!

Well, I saw ISS, bang on time. Good job British Rail don't run it! 🤣

Unfortunately the Space X coverage was less informative and ended earlier than usual. 

The graphic showing the vehicle's position over the ground would have been good for timing spotting opportunities. But it wasn't there when needed. So I went outside when the live stream ended and the Crew Dragon was still mid-Atlantic. I watched a lot of satellites, some too bright, some too soon, some too high, one incredibly bright but in a polar orbit. You get the idea.

Nothing I saw was right. I hoped to see 2 objects, the Dragon, with thruster blooms and the second stage trailing behind, all spent and dejected.

Perhaps the biggest take away from this late evening's observation is that I probably should have set my scope up to grab an image of the new supernova in M101. It's clearer than the forecast suggested although not yet astro darkness. Too late now, the gin o'clock bell has already sounded.

At about 22:37 BST Space X is launching a Crew Capsule to meet up with ISS.

As it'll be chasing down ISS it'll pass over some time after ISS's next pass. I suspect it might be visible, particularly if there is activity from the second stage.

At the time of launch, ISS will culminating for me, passing just below Arcturus. So it's not Whacky Races! Crew Dragon will be some while later, so maybe in shadow by then?

Anyway, worth watching the live graphics for updates on position.

Cuiv, the Lazy Geek did a rundown of this very subject recently. The early part of this video is all about sorting out RDP. I only watched it out of general interest and was surprised how much "fiddly" stuff was needed to maintain the hotspot.

I don't use RDP, VNC via home wifi or phone hotspot is my way of doing it.

I'm in the group that just wonders "why"?

There is, surely, over supply of global Internet already?

What we see here is bandwagon jumping and the fight for market share.

We are in an area of the country where "6G broadband" is being rolled out. It's government money behind it, for some reason. There is already oversupply of broadband here. We currently have Fiber to Cabinet. We could have fiber to the house if we wanted.

But suddenly there were hundreds of new telegraph poles being erected. They run down our street, all over the place. Hundreds of them. So on investigation found that a new system of broadband is being installed. The poles carry fiber cables to transmission masts that then beam internet to subscribers via a small active antenna on their roof or chimney.

We have a similar system at our Luxury Cumbrian Villa, but it's rural, no other infrastructure.

The masts for this new 6G are hideous. Luckily we don't have one down our street, just the fiber cable zigzagging around the existing phone lines and poles. The system is designed to be fully independent of Openreach infrastructure. The reviews of the product from early adopters are pants.

The masts are a dystopian vision. They were erected under a "Statutory Notice". No planning and no public consultation.

Not sure what's the driver, it's costing millions of pounds. But you might actually need your foil hats this time! 

Here is our neatest one. Give me satellite trails any day! 

18 hours ago, John said:

Well I got the quasar !

Well done John.

I've been reading you quasar quest with interest. It's been a fascination of mine for as long as I've been interested in astronomy - some 48 years or more.

3C273 is way beyond my home sky for visual and maybe even beyond my observing skill, but it was one of my first targets when started imaging. It's not a difficult target for imagers, just very boring to most! Even so I was thrilled to capture it. I didn't get back to it this season, I got side tracked by a few ultra deep-sky targets.

One day though, I will capture the jet. Then maybe I can lay 3C273 to rest

17 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Not sure about the Speedos in upstate NY in April 2024

Ah! That's no problem! This isn't me, I can't play guitar. He is a "thing" though : 

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB995GB995&sxsrf=APwXEdc8WIytDsPnpaDyUs4ILeIgVrtw5g:1684079780797&q=times+square+guitar+man&tbm

And remember, what goes on honeymoon stays on honeymoon. 🙈🙉🙊 

1 hour ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

If and when I get to see them (next year for my 50th), I certainly won't have my eye stuck behind a camera. 

It's Lorna's 50 birthday gift to me.

Way to go.

I've seen 2 total solar eclipses, both with just my eyes and eclipse glasses (outside of totality).

We travelled to Turkey for our second eclipse. Right on the center line. I booked 12 months in advance, having done much homework.

We walked down to the beach for totally, where we saw the Sky & Telescope eclipse  expedition set up on the beach. Loads of fancy kit and cameras. All poised for those few minutes of immersion in the Moon's shadow. Anoraks and wooley hays abound.

Me, bare feet on the sand in my Speedos, seeing it, feeling it.

Some things have to be experienced, rather than recorded.

3 minutes ago, k4kv said:

I had no idea that ASTAP can do an LRGB stack.

To enable LRGB stacking, go to the "Stack method" tab and check the "Classify by : Light Filter" at the bottom of that screen.

I've never used it but there is some further info in the text box on right side of the screen and in the online user guide.

My eyepieces are all packed away, but I can watch Ed Ting all day.

I think he does a good job of such a subjective er.. subject. Very personable and humble.

I'm no image critic (not withstanding this critique!), I'm just an interested party. But M33 is maybe my favorite galaxy, so if only aesthetically, my view might have value

The top image is certainly M33 but as already noted, it's a bit "cold".

The "old image" is every bit M33. It's the kind of image I can look at for ages and just marvel at. It's natural and easy on the eye and beautifully presented!

The final, Hybrid, image looks too "dusty", and maybe a bit cold again?. I know, I know! Things have moved on. But I'm an old romatic.

Oh, dear, I've known it for a while but, I'm really not going to get on with many of the modern processing tools. Particularly those of the more recent AI stylee. 🙈

APT foe me too. Whatever limitations my imaging are, they aren't caused by lack of functionality of APT

I started, initially with Astroberry on a Pi 4 , but it was never stable and I never, ever got more than 2 subs in a sequence before it crashed/froze/rebooted etc.. Then tried KStars/Ekos on a mini PC running Ubuntu. All worked perfectly during dummy runs and set-up, as did Astroberry, but on its first outing under the stars it played up. So not wanting to spend another 3 months trying to find and solve whatever the cause was, I just went to APT. Other than a rare glitch here and there, it's been stable on the same mini PC that didn't like KStars under Ubuntu.

I don't do LRGB but I'm a big ASTAP fan so like to learn new things it can do.

So, currently you use ASTAP to produce a aligned and stacked file for each filter. You then only process those further in other software?

You have have seen that ASTAP can produce an LRGB stack? But that's all channels combined.

So in my mind, to get ASTAP to align the channels, how about loading the 4 channel stacks back into ASTAP and selecting "align only". Then update their fits headers. Would that put alignment info in their headers to be used by other software?

That's a great image, I particularly like the framing, M106 displaced to make way for the "friends". 

Plus, it's "old school".  Easy on the eye. That is, not processed to such sharpness that you could cut a finger on it...

I'm neither a great visual observer nor great imager, so there is no perfect telescope for me in a practical sense. I'd not stretch any scope to it's limit!

So I'm with Jeremy, Questar!!  As a boy I had a single (loaned) copy of Sky & Telscope and fell in love with the Questar scopes being advertised. I would be happy for it to just sit in a display cabinet but I'm sure I enjoy actually using one!

More realistically (?), it would be desirable to have a scope ready to go at a moments notice. So notwithstanding the Questar fantasy, I'll go with my existing RC10, but in an observatory at a dark site!