DaveS

I use Maxim DL as my capture software which has a Warm Up button as well as the Cooler On and Cooler OFF.

Does your software have a "Warm Up" button?

When I was a kid I went to boarding school in rural Dorset, and remember nights when it was so dark and transparent that familiar constellations were buried in a sea of stars. This would have been just at the turn of the '70s when LP was very much less. I reckon it must have been Bortle 2. Moving here from London in late '18 I had a similar though less intense experience, walking out onto the patio on my first night, looking up and seeing the milky way glittering overhead. The difference between SQI 18.25 and SQI 21.66 is substantial.

Ugh, badly formatted, comes of posting from my 'phone after snapping the pic. *slapped wrist* Corrected.

OTOH this is a bit more grab 'n' go .

Um...not very

Wow, stunning M81 there Adam.

Although I do take separate flats for each filter I would only take a new set if I had dismantled the imaging train for whatever reason.

That really is a stunning M31 Peter. Never seen that H-alpha in the foreground before.

Baader say they don't cut to size, but coat pre-cut blanks.

WOW!

Resistance is futile

Hi and welcome. I spent most of my life in light-polluted London until I made my Escape to the Country a few years ago.

Like Francis above, I'm essentially an imager, but once the subs start coming in I like to grab a pair of bins or a small 'frac and just look around. Living in a fairly dark location helps.

Lots of detail in there. I have that on my hit-list for the ODK rig but my FoV takes in Stefan's Quintet as well.

Best thing to cover the noise of a camera clicking away, Marshall Stack and Black Sabbath

My Megrez 90, the first 'scope I bought (As opposed to cobbled together) when I got back into astronomy

This QHY Camera might be an interesting alternative.

Well done to the winners. Must raise my game.

Yep, got one of those. @Datalord and I got the last two available, his was new, mine was Rupert's ex-demo from E-EyE. And yes. it's a fantastic bit of kit.

S@N is *supposed* to have at least a tenuous connection with amateur astronomy. After last month's, which provoked some ire on these boards, but was at least about new developments we have an hours worth of retrospective. If they have to have a retrospective (perhaps for budgetary / logistical reasons) at least let it be about amateur astronomy, and the progress in, for example, equipment available. The cooled CCD / CMOS cameras have totally revolutionised amateur astrophotography.

We only get S@N once a month so is it really necessary to waste an hour's "Special" just to say "We don't know".

A one hour "special" starting at 10 o/c looking back at 60 years of S@N episodes on aliens / ET etc. Gah! Total waste of an hours programming.

FLO is saying 15-20 days, but TBH I got fed up waiting for an original Baader 4.5nm [OIII] so ended up sending the whole LRGB+NB set back to swap for Chromas. As far as I'm concerned they are vapurware until FLO says In Stock.