paulastro

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!

Used the Seestar S50 to look at this active group this morning.  Well worth taking a  look if you have the chance.  Sunspot Number 116.

Pic below taken with S50 at 10.57am.

Well done on your first light with the S50.  The first of many I hope.

Just click on the button when you have the pic you want  and it stops and sends a jpeg of it to your phone.  Generally the longer exposure the better the picture.

You'll find the jpeg in your gallery if you're phone is an Android.

36 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

All this talk about community and helping each other has  given me the courage to ask one question.

 

Can someone lend me a fiver until Saturday....................................?

 

 

🤣

Laurence, I'd be glad to lend you a fiver.  You'll just need to collect it from Oakworth, West Yorkshire 😊.

23 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Hi Paul what’s the FLO version of the Skytee 2 and how does it differ from other versions?
Until an affordable quality replacement comes along I’ll soldier on with my 8 year old ST 2. 

Hi Jock.  From memory, the only differences are it comes with two counterweights and has StellaLyra written on it in a coupleof places.  I think it's also about £30  cheaper.   You can check it out on their website.

7 minutes ago, Elp said:

M33 is quite a difficult one as it is reasonably large and spread out and we're sort of looking at it at an angle near head on so the spirals are quite faint, even with AP equipment it takes a while to gather the data to bring the detail out. I'm sure with some perseverance you'll get a decent result.

Yes, I realise it's a difficult object.  My point was how well the S50 did to bring out what it did in such conditions. In a good dark sky I'm confident it will be quite impressive.

I went out last night desperatel to be able to use the S50 on deep sky for the first night for a month.   Clear at 6pm but cloud forecast by 7.00pm.  At 6pm took a snap of the 72% gibbous Moon, so at least I'd get something..

Then out again at 6.30, still 50 mts until darkness arrives and few stars visible, but still clear.  I started an exposure of M33 about 6.40, despite the lack of stars and bright Moon.  In such conditions I wanted to see how the S50  would perform, if at all.

Anyway not long after starting, it started to miss stacking some frames as clouds were rapidly building up. By the time Ihad accumulated 7 mts of eposture time, M33 was only just visible on the phone. I was surprised I got what I did as by this time I could hardly see any gaps in the cloud. I ended the run.

Inside I just messed about with the phone's software to see what I could get out of it, without much optimism.  Now, of course the processed frame is of very poor quality, but I was surprised it showed up so much.  Comparing it with a photo in the Cambridge Messier Atlas it shows the extent of the arms to some degree, and several of the brighter star forming regions.  Quite amazing really in the conditions I thought.  It should show a lot in a datk sky with an hour or so exposure.  Below is the Moon shot, and the unprocessed and processed M33 exposures.

.

5 hours ago, quasar117 said:

Would the Starfield benefit from being mounted on Skytee2 rather than AZ4? I'm aware I'd be losing the slomo control on the AZ4. I'm just concerned under high magnification vibration might be handled better with the Skytee2.

 

Yes it would.  My Askar 103 apo triplet ( a bit heavier than the Starfield) was not good at higher powers on an my AZ5 or AZ4 which I tried it on - I couldnt use the Askar to its full potential at higher powers, VERY frustrating.  I had a Tecnosky (the Starfield is a rebadged version of it)  which gave the same problem.

I bought the FLO version of the Skytee11 and it really is steady as a rock with either of these scopes.  The slow motions are very good.  

I've posted this in another forum, but thought it may be of interest here also.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/411484-what-did-the-postman-bring-v2/page/37/#comment-4460142

If you're a binocular enthusiast (or thinking of buying a pair) you'll want this book.  I ordered it from Amazon as soon as I saw the review (by Steve Tonkin) in the March edition of the Sky@Night magazine.

I picked it up last night at midnight for a quick browse, and didn't get to bed untill 2.30 am.

I warn you though, by the time I had put the book down, I had already found three binoculars I'd like to buy - and I already have six or seven pairs!  The book is good value in my view despite the cost (it's a hardback) - but it could end up costing you quite a bit more 😊.