Paul M

Yes, the image has asteroids down to mag 22 annotated by ASTAP. As you'd expect, none of them are detected. ASTAP uses MPC's MPCORB.DAT, master file, which I now know contains (229762), so there should have been a warning alarm going off in my head that it hadn't been picked up by annotation.

That's nice! I could crunch the numbers but, I guess that M33 isn't an easy object from NZ?

Absolutely. This session was a shakedown after a long summer/autumn weather layoff. I'm still getting to know my RC250 scope! So there was no fail in that respect. I got a unexpectedly deep image, full of faint fuzzies that I'm still inspecting with Simbad and other online resources. And this is the stuff that interests me. I do like big, beautiful images of the deep sky favorites, but image processing isn't my thing. I like the hunt, pulling resources together to identify things and dig deep for the oddball stuff. Cosmic Horseshoe being a particular object of interest that you pointed me towards. I am still playing with the "Not !Gunk" image, it's quite attractive as a non-descript deep field. That's where I'm happiest! Here is the colour image:

I'll post this here for anyone wanting to have a go in the next 3 weeks That might be me!

My subs ran between 01:19 and 03:58 on 01/12/2023 I got the position from SkySafari using a central time (not that it matters over the span of the subs) 02:07 giving: RA= 05:22:46.12 DEC = +03:58:32.2, which is where the box is. It seems that I didn't verify my coordinates with MPC or any other source. Looking at Stellarium it gives coords much closer to those you give from MPC and had I used them the target would have been in the field. It's a definite miss, but if the camera had been rotated 90 deg then !Gunk would have just made it into the frame, waiting for you to correctly identify it! I just know it would have been there.... Oh well, a lesson learned. But SkySafari has been reliable in the past.

I finally got a suboptimal chance to try for (229762) Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà I shortened it's name to Gunk in my subs... Anyway, here I present another episode in my ocassional series; "Not..." This is Not Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà. Close but no cigar. 31 x 300 sec with the RC250 + 0.8x flattener/reducer ASI071MC Pro. The moon was a few days after full, 01/12/23, so the sky was marginal at best for tracking down a mag 19+ TNO. My image goes down to 19.1 but I don't think I got it. A close up of the indicated loaction shows a pixel or 2 above the noise just on the r/h edge of the box but I think it's noise. I referenced DSS images to confirm all other objects in the field. Close crop of the area of interest. Not Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà on this Moonlit ocassion.

I've popped out a few times since. Looks like it peaked already. I'll try one more time before bed.

I'm at my darker sky site tonight. Beautiful sky, a bit of auroral activity and even more moonlight. But Orion shines brighter than both. Seen here with my Samsung phone camera, perched over a derelict bird table. If I was Orion, that's exactly what I'd do, hang round looking handsome.

My firstvaurora image! Taken from rural Cumbria but overlooking the bright lights of Penrith.

Arrived at our Luxury Cumbrian Villa this evening to be greeted by a stunning sky. Reports of auroral activity from much further south. All I got was a possible red glow. So I doubled down on the rising moon. I went to great lengths to find the right shot. I even to the village pub. That turned out to be a source of inspiration as on the way back I was taken aback by the glory of this little Cumbrian farming village in a deep frost. Taken with my Samsung phone in night mode, propped against a dry stone wall.

I say it isn't a plate solving issue, more an issue with APT/Ascom failing to drive the mount to the required coordinates. I've had issues with APT doing odd things ocassionally. Including events like yours. Shutting down and restarting APT or even a full reboot usually returns normality. I've got bogged down, over thinking problems in the past. But now just bite the bullet and restart. It's likely that you won't even be able to replicate this particular problem on your next outing!

I can imagine the excitement for those lucky enough to be along the ocultation path. I'm not sure I organised enough to collect coherent data, but I'd love to have a fast camera rolling and get a light curve, maybe. Good luck to those that are involved! As boring as it might be, there's value in negative observations on the edge of the path too!

Last night was my first outing since April, with the Moon being a killjoy, I just used the ocassion as a shake down. The evening was strewn with difficulties but I eventually got going. I chose a subject away from the Moon that would be visible for most of the night. IC342 is quite a large galaxy, this is uncropped, but low surface brightness. Nothing much else in this frame other than a couple of barely detected galaxies. 26 x 300 sec, ASI071MC Pro, RC250 with 0.8x reducer/flattener, atop my trusty old NEQ6 Pro. Borg 60ED guidescope and ASI 120mm mini guide camera. I took some flats this morning, in the cold light of day. White T shirt job, but the flats worked very well, until I started stretching and found the flats had frost marks on the sensor I'd cooled the camera too quickly. So I took a new lot as dusk approached but they don't seem to have been the best. Darks and bias also applied. I usually try to get away with using only flats but at that length of exposure and sky brightnes, the ammount of stretching needed also called for a full set of callibration frames. The data has been stacked by various means, none were great. This result is from stacking and stretching in Siril. Not my prefered tool but it does make a better job of (my) poor data. Other online images have this area awash with IFN but that is way beyond my skill and sky and, anyway, I've manged to clip the black while losing all manner of artifacts. Look, it's not my fault! I wanted to go after a very obscure Trans Neptunian Object in Orion, but with that glowing cheesball sat on top of it..? 🤣

Indeed, The guide scope could do with a focus tweak. But that aside, I have seen another "fuzzy" in my current guide frame while I'm imaging IC342. I've got a screen grab to see if I can solve that. Maybe another very red star? Interestingly, X UMi must be near the max of its range 12.5 - 18.4. I can measure that in ASTAP, later.

Tonight is my first outing since April. It's taken a nearly full Moon at the top of the ecliptic to burn the clouds away! So I'm rusrty!! I set up my RC 250 c/w 0.8x reducer/flattener. Many teething problems along the way, including working out why PHD2 was sulking. Then I remembered I hadn't polar aligned. Still it was within 3 deg of the pole So I use the Drift Polar Alignment tool in PHD2. My guidescope is a Borg 60ED and ASI12O mini. I had no idea what field I was looking at but noticed a brightish "fuzzy" curious as to what it was, I took a screen grab in the hope of plate solving it later: You probably don't need my directions to the fuzzy, but just incase, its below right of the green box. The line and box are just clutter from the polar alignmnet tool. The image did solve but I had to delve into Simbad to identify. And it aint no fuzzy. It is in fact X UMi, a Mira type variable: https://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40317174&Name=V* X UMi&submit=submit It isn't a momentary abberation. I chased that thing all over the frame for some time getting aligned. It remained a distinct fizzy. The images I can find online don't seen to show any nebulosity in the area, What's going on? Any ideas?

I think the most critical point are, that the secondary/primary distance is correct and that the axis of the secondary is aligned with the center spot of the primary. This only needs an accurately collimated laser. As Clarkey says, the rest is best done on a real star. The fancy collimator I linked to earlier is perhaps more of an educationally tool! It helps you understand just how much is going in within the optical train. I haven't worried to much about tilt adaptor for the focusser. Life is short and contains a very low proportion on clear nights! If you find yourself drifting into the higher echelons of visual observing or Imaging, then yes, it matters. But worry about getting a better focus first!

It sounds impressive but, it don't look impressive. Thanks to @Xilman for pointing me in that direction. It's an interesting area for those, like me, who's deep sky images always look like a child has thrown a tantrum in the art room 🤣

When I finally got my first proper scope, the Fullerscope's 6.25 Newt, about 1983, Pluto was closer than Neptune and relatively accessible in the area between Arcturus and Spica (had to check back on that, my memory isn't that good!). But it was still mag 13.7. I remember sweeping for it, forlornly, in the knowledge that I will have seen it's location if not its faint light. It's nearly hopeless now. Rarely is my southern sky good enough to even image it. Anyway, Pluto Schmuto, I've since bagged my second TNO, Makemake earlier this year.

Yes, it's a cold, almost heatless reality. What saddens me most is that Pluto had already been demoted before I tracked it down for myself. By the time I had a scope big enough, its declination and distance had put it beyond visual observation. So I've got a few grainy images to call my own.

There's a whole universe of ideas here! I'd design the system with my planet in the Red Dwar's L2, I know, I know not stable enough, but this is artistic licence.. 😁 So the Red Dwarf would be permanently superimposed on the primary star. It would make for some interesting imagery. I wouldn't want the planet's rotation tidaly locked either. No, a habitable planet with sun(star)rise and set. And butterflies, any alien world worth inhabiting would need butterflies.

Excellent! I'm amazed how much imaging of Uranus has evolved in just a few years. No longer a boring green/blue disk! Well, it is to me. I haven't got the nack of planetary imaging. I have terrible rows with Firecapture. It's like we are from different planets.

Ha! Welcome to the slippery slope... 🤣 That's a very nice Moon shot by the way. I've only ever had junk from holding my phone camera to the eyepiece. There are bespoke phone carriers for exactly that purpose. There are cheaper options available but this one looks "nice": https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/celestron-nexyz-3-axis-universal-smartphone-adapter.html

RC's are usually described as an experienced user's scope. I got a 10" RC this time last year. I'm no expert but quite comfortable with collimation Newtonians. But still, I was cautious of the RC. They have a reputation! There are some good tutorials on line for collimation of these things and I watched them all a few times! Mine was out when I checked it using one of these: https://www.365astronomy.com/ts-optics-2-led-collimator-for-rc-telescopes-and-all-other-types-of-telescopes?path=119_416 I know now that such a fancy peice of equipment wasn't necessary but it was easy to use and reassuring. It's not easy to diagnose your problem remotely, for me anyway. But you have confirmed that back focus is not the issue. Normally the inside and outside focus images would be quite different if there is significant tilt or off axis aberrations. I'd recommend watching a load of YouTube guides. This is the route I followed:

It's only half a halo up here in Cumbrishire. No chance of seeing an aurora so settle for this:

Wow! Just Wow!