tooth_dr

That’s really great. Thanks for sharing. There is so much nebulosity in that region in Ha, and I think widefield works really well here.

Brilliant job - nice detail and that polar cap is really shrinking. Mars is peaking out here now after torrential rain all evening.

Thanks for the detailed replied. As much as I don’t mind collimating now (since becoming owner of Tak Epsilon a year ago) I don’t like the thought of having to fine tune the collimation. I had hoped at F8 it may not be as critical but I am wrong it seems. What are the alternatives?

Steve I appreciate the honest and experienced answer. It’s a beautiful scope to look at but I fear that you are correct - perhaps I’ll just stick with my old reflector for now.

Hi Paul. I can’t see any images?

Having tried to guide with a webcam my suggestion would be continue with the finderscope method (which is excellent for keeping weight down) and buy a used ZWO120MM for the camera. It will work 100%

Guys I looking into a longer focal length scope, and the 10” F8 RCs look pretty nice. Couple of questions - is there much field curvature? How big of an imaging circle can be imaged? What do star shapes look like - same as regular Newtonians? The 0.75x reducer would give 1500mm/F6 which seems ideal for me. But is it enough of an upgrade from 1200mm/F4.7. My guiding with the 1200mm scope using OAG is usually around 0.5-.6 but could probably be improved, as this is just standard setting in PHD2 and I’ve made no attempt to fine tune it. My camera has a pixel size of 5.4um. Any input welcome Adam

I decided to stick the lunt on the mount today after reading about the new sunspot yesterday. Nice to see some activity albeit short-lived with the weather. AR2778_28102020_4x.mp4

@Hawksmoor some results from Topaz ^^^

I decided on a spot of visual last night, so much less stressful than imaging. I just looked at mars and the moon. Binoviewers with 2xGPC and 12.7mm EPs on the 10” reflector.

Thanks Geof, and thanks for all the pointers and help you gave me. I took some videos last night, not as good as I hoped, but planetary imaging has a learning curve too, and isnt directly relatable to deep sky stuff. Cant help but see a face here

Hello all I think this is the first time I've imaged the Moon close-up like this since June 2018. I had the 2x barlow fitted, which yields a 3.3x magnifcation, whilst waiting for Mars to clear from behind some clouds. The Moon wasnt clouded over so I just moved around the surface of the Moon, and chose craters that looked interesting. I dont know the names of the very many craters, so if anyone can help me out with the last two I would be very grateful, I think it's Longomontanus and Bullialdus. Very interesting and enjoyed this session of lunar imaging. There are a few processing artefacts in the images. Regards Adam.

Very nice indeed! It’s an ideal area for that focal length.

An neq6 is a very decent mount, suitable for imaging. As an imager, and having owned an EQ6 for ten years, you won’t really go wrong at all. It has a good payload capacity, tracks well, is widely supported online, has many users, and is easily controlled via a pc If imaging isn’t your plan, then perhaps there are better options! But since I’ve never observed I cannot give you advice there. Godd luck!

I was able to grab this IR image through some hazy cloud last night at 21:41. 500/5000 frames. Are the focal length figures accurate in FC? Any comments re capture parameters? Thanks! Adam. FireCapture v2.6 Settings ------------------------------------ Camera=ZWO ASI290MM(57777461) Filter=IR Profile=Mars Diameter=21.18" Magnitude=-2.36 CM=26.5° (during mid of capture) FocalLength=4050mm Resolution=0.15" Filename=Mars_214109.ser Date=241020 Start=214023.874 Mid=214109.527 End=214155.181 Start(UT)=204023.874 Mid(UT)=204109.527 End(UT)=204155.181 Duration=91.307s Date_format=ddMMyy Time_format=HHmmss LT=UT Frames captured=5000 File type=SER Binning=no ROI=408x376 ROI(Offset)=480x472 FPS (avg.)=54 Shutter=18.26ms Gain=94 (15%) Gamma=100 (off) HighSpeed=off AutoExposure=off USBTraffic=100 (off) SoftwareGain=10 (off) AutoGain=off Brightness=0 (off) AutoHisto=75 (off) FPS=1000 (off) Histogramm(min)=0 Histogramm(max)=144 Histogramm=56% Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a Limit=5000 Frames Sensor temperature=19.8°C

Very nice images. I’ve always been intrigued by CaK.

I dusted off the Mintron camera, and purchased the PC control cable. It wasnt supplied with software, and I cant find much on my searches. Would anyone here be able to point me in the right direction for this software? Many thanks Adam.

Pretty amazing, 400s 😮

Sounds similar to me. Going to find Nina a try too. In fact I recently went back to APT and I really like it more than SGP too

Possibly, I've seen this when I tried flats in the day time, so now I always do them at night in the dark.

I followed the advice above and used a combination of a toothbrush, cotton buds - dust free ones that came in a photograph cleaning kit - and a cocktail stick, with some alcohol lens cleaner. These arent fragile pins ( having said that I havent tried the camera again to see if it's working yet! )

During the 14 day clear spell in April I got lots of data. I still have 450GB of solar videos to process 🤪 Since then not so much

It’s really funny I just posted about 15 minutes ago saying that I have one 🤔 I haven’t set mine up yet but I can’t imagine, from looking at it, how a smart phone would accurately replicate it.

Thank you very much 🙏🏻 I think it’s 4. I do have an SQM I just haven’t got round to fitting it yet 😫