paulastro

It also includes info re a comet which may be a bright naked eye object in the Autumn.  Its well worth watching.

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

Truly awesome Alan. Thanks for sharing it, it really makes observing it visually so much more fascinating. Your image is exactly how I see it visually through my 4" refractor! With a large dose of imagination of course!! 

Mike, I'm glad it wasn't me that suggested you use a large dose of imagination in your drawings 😂.

Just watched this - it's particularly good for Pons-Brooks.  Well worth watching. 

On 02/03/2024 at 19:40, JeremyS said:

With some used copies advertised for hundreds of pounds, interesting to see a second edition coming out on March 28: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atlas-Messier-Objects-Highlights-Deep/dp/1009364065/ref=asc_df_1009364065/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=676254667576&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17469961942042792447&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046502&hvtargid=pla-2274295531430&psc=1&mcid=b34805ab066a3a99a579cd6ff30ebd8e&th=1&psc=1&gad_source=1

Thanks for posting Jeremy.  The 1st edition has always been the first book I pick up for Messier object information.  It sounds almost like a new book, I must order it, damn! 😅

Went out earlier to catch Pons-Brooks and grabbed a pic at 8.09pm before it was lost to cloud.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/416019-comet-12ppons-brooks/#comment-4466303

Went out earlier, and despite me seeing no stars lower than Jupiter and  12P/Pons-Brook in that direction, the Seestar S50 managed to obtain some frames to stack.

Despite indicating 13mts of exposure, it was only 5mts 40 seconds.  I  noticed that cloud had completely enveloped the comet only when I had a message saying that it could no longer  enhance the image as there were too few stars visible!   I thought the S50 had frozen when in actual fact it was waiting for the stars to come out again, which they didn't!  Lucky to get 5mts worth.

Looking  at the nucleus of the comet it looks quite elongated.  It almost looks as if it may even be breaking up or perhaps sending  out material in different directions?

Perhaps the elongation is the movement of the comet due to the S50 tracking on the stars?

Got up at 3am this morning to take some pics of a few summer objects in the early morning sky with the Seestar S50.

It sort of reminded me of summer - except it was -1C and I was frozen!

I had an hour or two clear weather forecast between eight and ten earlier this evening and it turnedout to be correct!

I took advantage to take a pic of the Rosette Nebula with the Seestar S50.  It was nice to have a comparatively dark sky with no moonlight - the best for some time.

The Seestar is certainly a useful 'scope' to have when conditions may not be worthwhile for visual observations.

A bright Moon and some haze, poor seeing, frosty.  Cleared at 1am as forecast surprisingly.  Though- this was too late for some objects I wanted to observe.

Pics of a few I intresting objects below. First NGC2266, a small triangular shaped 6' OC in Gem.  It contains many red giants, rather a colourful little cluster.

NGC5907, m10.3 edge on galaxy in Draco.  The Splinter Galaxy, 12.9'x1.3'.

Couldn't resist snapping M13, Hercules Great Globular, and the E Veil NGC6992 as they rose into view.  Pleased with the results in the conditions, particularly the E Veil.

PS  The Splinter Galaxy would have been better, but I left the deep sky filter on after using it on the pic I had taken before.  It didn't do it any favours..

1 hour ago, Geoff Lister said:

I agree almost 100%. I have found that if the target is close to the almost-full Moon (comet 62P a couple of nights ago) I was getting some reflection from the Seestar's plastic causing a brightening of the image on the opposite side to the Moon. The Moon was below-left about 12 degrees away. If you look closely, you can just make out the comet.

A month earlier, much better:-

Geoff

Thanks Geoff.  Do you use a lens hood?   I do and I have had no problems with reflections.

Well, it actually probably doesn't.  It just seems like that because you get more used to how good it is the more you use it.  It seems hard to find any sky conditions in which it won't surpass my expectations.  I've learned that the bright Moon is not an issue.

For those who haven't tried it, and probably don't own or use any specialist astronomy/deep sky software, it's worth learning to use your phones' camera software to enhance your images.  A little tweak can make a big difference.

The pics below were all taken over the last two/three nights, and all have benefited from a little enhancement.  I'm no expert so almost anyone should be able to do it!  Hint - always save any alterations as a new picture rather than changing the original.

All the pics below are full frames, (uncropped) so have  the date, time, object name and exposure in minutes imprinted at the bottom.

On 26/02/2024 at 20:49, RobertI said:

The other thing to factor in with the Skytee is you will probably want to buy a replacement saddle; the stock saddles had a habit of failing and the scope falling off (happened to me). I think they have been improved and probably much better now, but many people (including myself) replace one of them typically with an ADM. Perhaps other people with more recent Skytees can chime in here. 

I bought the StellaLyra version of the Skytee11 about two months ago.  Tried both tube clamps and neither of them sprung apart.  I was concerned about this myself having used a Skytee Mk1 many years ago.  I bought the StellazLyra version as I thought it might have some better componenents specified than the Skytee versions, though I haven't been able to compare them directly.  The FLO version was thirty pounds cheaper than the SkyTee11 when I bought it, and came with two counterweights instead of one.

I did buy a longer ADM clamp for one side, but this was because the longer clamps are better for balancing heavier scopes - such as my Askar 103 apo triplet which is f7.  Having said that, it did seem secure on the two shorter clamps also.

They have an app on Google Play !  

Just now, MalcolmP said:

I  have swlive now, perusing ! Dont spoil your meal, the spot will keep

Already done it 😊  See new post.

Malcolm. I can't do a link for some reason, it's called SpaceweatherLive which is part of a Belgian group of websites.  One of them is about Solar activity and it goes into far more detail about the solar activity than spaceweather.com  It too has a live stream of the current WL disc plus lots more.

Can I suggest you do a Google search and Im sure it will come up.  Let me know if it doesn't.  Paul

PS Malcolm - just went on Google Play and they have an app !

11 minutes ago, MalcolmP said:

Dont want to cause alarm, but my lights just dimmed twice in the last 15m !!

I'm being interrupted by haddock & chips ! but I still cant find that page, are we on the same spaceweather site ! like https://www.spaceweather.com
 

Er, no, sorry.  About to eat, but will try and post a link for you later.

21 minutes ago, MalcolmP said:

Thanks Paul, I looked on SW earlier but missed that page, I'll go back with my glasses on this time so I can click on the (?) to see the units - I have a couple of candidates  for my spot of  summer 56 or summer 57 or thereabouts ! (memory is not what it used to be !!)
 

Thanks Malcolm.  I remember a huge spot from the early 70s which I drew and had it published in TA if I remember correctly.  I'll have to track it down to see how big it was.

46 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

  Have you ever wondered - What's the point of the Bortle scale?

  The only reason I'm asking is that our local skies are what our local skies are, and there's little we can do about it. So does knowing where you are on the Bortle scale put you off trying? Does knowing have a negative psychological effect that affects your zeal and your potential?

 I'm a purely visual observer, so the Bortal scale may not be anywhere near as important to me as it might be to an imager, but for decades I've just assessed the night on the night. On most clear nights I can see the milkyway with the naked eye from my doorstep so I'm happy. I've seen IC434 and the tiny notch of the horse head through my 4" refractor  from my site, but that's because I largely ignore the general consensus about what can and what can't be done. So do scales such as Bortle bother you, slow you down, or stop you in your tracks?

I believe I'm a Bortle 5 spot!

Mike  there is an obvious use of the Bortle Scale to anyone who doesn't always choose to observe from home. 

Observers who wish to, can go to a better area for a clearer  view of  fainter deep sky objects inparticular, and more transient objects like brighter comets, aurora displays and meteor showers etc etc. 

It's not the case people go elsewhere because they don't try to get the best of their home conditions, but because its sometimes good to travel somewhere the conditions are better to obtain a better view, or an image.  For this use the Bortle Scale is very useful.  

Of course for your main interests of lunar or planetary work this is not so important.  However, even your excellent deep sky drawings would show more detail if you did them from skies with a better Bortle rating if you wished to - or even a bigger telescope 😅

Its not a weakness or admiting defeat to sometimes seek darker skies.  That's why I've been going to Kelling for about twenty or so years .  Unkind people might say I need to with my aging eyes 😊.

55 minutes ago, MalcolmP said:

Nice images, thanks for showing
Is NASA or anyone giving area in millionths of the disk ?
I was going to suggest the big one that I saw during the monster 1957 cycle, mind you my eyes were a lot sharper back then.
I dont remember the Carrington one !  
 

Malcolm

This is from spaceweather.  It shows the number of spots per day and its size each day.

It's more than doubled in size in the last five days by the look of it.

Youre welcome Stu.  I agree, I had to dodge showers today - lucky I had a cover to hand to throw over the S50 😊.

Info below from spaceweather.com today.

The pics below were taken on Sat 24  before midday and today, 26th, at 1.58pm between rain showers.

All taken with the Seestar S50, single frames and crops.

Went out last evening to try the Seestar in poor conditions to see what it would come up with.  The Moon was 98% illuminated.

The pics and exposures are M42 19mts, Horsehead Neb 14mts, and the Flaming Star Neb .7mts.  The exposures were all shorter than I intended due to clouds, it was -1 deg C with an icy haze, particularly low down.  I did a little processing of all of them with my phones camera software except the Moon which was caught as it went into a cloud bank at the end of my session.

It should perform very impressively in a dark sky.

I think one that a few people said was reliable and worked was the Samsung A8.  I'm not certain though, if you do a search on this site it will probably come up.

Thanks Stevie, I was wondering who would notice this first! 😊.  I'm a big fan of Starsense too 🙂.

Of course, pretty pics are the fun bit, but there's far more to it than that.

I bought mine partly to be able to have a near real time 'view' of things I had no chance of seeing in my 10 inch scope (and others) in my Bortle 5 skies.

I ventured out into the frosty weather last night with the S50 to see what it could do on the night of full Moon.

I took the pic below of The Owl PN, M97,  which wouldn't have been hadly visible in most of my scopes in the conditions.  I checked on Sky Safari to see what magnitudes of stars it would show.  I easily found some stars of the 17th mag, and there might have been fainter ones, I only checked a few.  More interesting was that I also found a couple of galaxies of the same magnitude.  The central star (16th mag in one source, 14th in another!) in the PN is also just about visible.

I then had a pleasant few minutes with the Cambridge Atlas of the Messier Objects which has some great info re M97 and some of the faint nearby galaxies.  

It's not like a telescopic view of course, and this area is still my forte.  However it is a great way of spending an evening when I'm not likely to have bothered getting a scope out.

I've plenty of projects in mind as well, for which the S50 is emminently suitable.  For the price it's a great buy and will extend the type of Astronomy I can do.  I wish it had been available fifty years ago!