Knight of Clear Skies

Just to be clear, that's the accretion disk around M87. A forum member took a picture of the jet emanating from it the other day.

As a warm up, here's a wider view (about one-by-two degrees) of the Sgr A* area from the MeerKAT telescope. Taken from here, where there is also a good write-up of what's in view. Sgr A* is the bright source just right of centre, there are also molecular clouds, SNRs and mysterious filaments in view.

No problem, I've added a few more details to my posts. There are also a few tips on using it in my first post to this thread.

@Rush - Are you sure that image of the Pleiades and California was taken with the Samyang? That looks more like a 50mm shot to me.

Here's 2h22m (2 minute subs) on the Rosette and Cone with the 1100D, after a struggle. (Next step is to see if I can blend in some more Ha into the red channel, using my mono version.)

Just a thought, would this thread be better placed in the 'Getting Started with Imaging' sub-forum?

Here's my most recent effort, 46 minutes on the Rosette and Cone in Ha with my modified 1100D. 2 minute unguided subs, no darks or flats (used GradEx to reduce the vignetting). It works even better with the very small pixels of the 1600MM cool, showing details such at the dust pillar in the head of the Pelican. The above is just 22 minutes of data in 1 minute subs, fully calibrated. In most cases, I'd recommend this lens to most people starting out at AP ahead of a small scope, especially when working to a budget or trying it out. The focal length may be only 135mm but most beginners start out with small-pixel DSLRs - unless you can track very accurately and gather a great deal of data, you won't be able to make full use of their resolution with a scope. The lens also holds its value well on the used market, so could always be sold on at a later date. I find it very easy to use, I find I can focus accurately on liveview by placing a star a third of the way in from the corner and making it as small as possible. When I check focus with a bahtinov mask (ones designed for small scopes will fit) it's usually spot on. To keep the dew off I've taken to wrapping a sock around the end of the barrel with a foot-warmer pack in it, held on with rubber bands. I've mostly imaged with it using an Ha filter, would be interesting to see more colour starfields to see how well it holds up on those. (Uranium235 has a very good one above, but I expect it took a lot of processing to get to that point.) I've had some trouble stacking RGB data in DSS, possibly due to the density of the starfields.

Where did you get this please?

It's a tricky question and depends on what people want to image. I would recommend the Samyang F2 for anyone starting out in AP. Tracking is more forgiving at short focal lengths and higher signal-to-noise ratios will make for easier image processing. The lens also holds its value well, so it could always be sold on and replaced with a scope later.

Here's a couple of efforts with the EQ3. A kit lens shot on the left, while the closer view showing the Eagle and Omega nebulae were taken with my 135mm f2 lens and an Ha filter. Interesting technique, even without tracking you've shown the camera can be used as an enhanced viewing device.

That sounds like a very high number of hot pixels, how did you go about counting them please? (Just to be sure, I take it you are disabling the display when shooting.) Dithering and a sigma clip is a good technique for removing them if you aren't already doing that. For comparison, here's a 4 minute sub with a modded 100D (unfortunately, not full resolution, and I'm not sure if the DPP software conversion to jpg tries to clean hot pixels).

Thanks for the heads up. I've been using your maps to track down quasars and galaxy clusters in my Virgo cluster mosaic recently.

If Mr Magellan had taken that advice he might have survived the famous circumnavigation. (I find it odd that he's remembered as the first person to travel around the world despite dying at the halfway mark. While somewhat harsh, I'd have thought that would be grounds for disqualification.)

I also know it's almost impossible to get a cat on an airplane, due to quarantine issues. The whole thing is very fishy (unless the giant cat has eaten them all). You could be on to something there, the Klein bottle could explain the water cycle. This evaporation and precipitation business always sounded like voodoo to me, a quick pour makes so much more sense.

“Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler. And brush your teeth regularly.” - Albert Einstein On a flat Earth, there must be a very complicated arrangement of lenses so that the Sun appears the same size to everyone.

"To slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the face of Tesco Finest Pinot Grigio." Can you imagine trying to explain the cosmic distance ladder to Dougal?

The scale is well off in that picture - the bottle of wine should be a similar size to the cat.

I went for the unmounted 31mm filters in the end. It probably doesn't make much difference but I wasn't sure if the mounted ones would cut into the light path and affect the size of the airy disks when using fast lenses, I want my stars to be as small as possible. I might go for a 1.25" mounted for Ha, where the stars are small anyway - to make it easier to swap in an OIII later (my filter wheel has 5 positions). @Gina gets very good results with the 1.25" filters and fast optics, but I think she mostly shoots narrowband? She says the vignetting is easy to deal with, I'm just not sure whether star size would be affected significantly.

Here's a couple doses of stupodity. First up, crescent Venus hand-held with £10 charity shop lens through double glazing. (PrinzGalaxy 400mm f6.3 lens at f8, Canon 700D, 1/500th second at ISO 100, heavily cropped.) And for dessert, Orion the Hunter caught in a sodium holocaust. (30 second exposure with a fast lens, pointing towards London. There was a point to this, I took a set of identical exposures to compare the skies in SE Hertfordshire and Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.)

These are probably my best efforts from 2016. M42 & Running Man (~1 hour with an ED120 and modded 100D_. A wide shot of the Milky Way taken with my Samyang 14mm lens. Heart, Soul & Double Cluster with an old Super-Takumar 135mm f3.5 lens (38 minutes, modded 1100D). Cygnus in Ha (35mm lens at f2.4, modded 1100D ~45 minutes). Orion in Ha (50mm lens at f4, modded 1100D, ~1 hour).

I posted up the same thing but then had to edit it out a couple minutes later after googling a bit more. Apparently newton often gets credited for the introduction of milled coins but they predate him, although he did have to sign a document swearing not to reveal the process used.

It's an appropriate tribute as Newton was first a warden and then the master of the Royal Mint. He also liked to play detective.