Grant

Our latest released of data from the Ikarus Observatory project - I don't mind sharing that I always find M81 and M82 very hard to process for some reason so I look forward to seeing all your entries and seeing any tips / tricks people have to share.

The small print:

• We will be releasing all public data from the Ikarus Observatory project under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence. What this means is you are free to share, copy and redistribute the data as you see fit and adapt, remix, transform and build upon it but you must attribute 'Ikarus Observatory' as the source of the original data and must not use it for commercial purposes - i.e. no sticking images on the side of mugs and selling then 

Beyond that, enjoy and have fun!

You can find out more about the IKO project here including details of the equipment used, observatory site etc.. This image was processed in the Pixinsight Weighted Batch Pre-Processor and comprises:

• Luminance 360x 5 mins
• Red 120x 5 mins
• Green 120x 5 mins
• Blue 120x 5 mins
• Ha 120x 20 mins
• Bias 101x
• Flats 21x for each filter
• Darks 21x 5 mins and 21x 20 mins

These have been stacked and calibrated in Pixinsight. The raw XISF, FITS or TIF files can be downloaded here.

Details of the processing competition are here.

Enjoy!

Turnout was quite low at our first try of a Wednesday talk so we are thinking some more and will have a gap in August now but will try to restart again in September / October as the nights start drawing back in again.

We are hoping to spend that gap arranging a full program of speakers for next year so we can be prepared ahead and give people plenty of notice about upcoming speakers - if you have any suggestions for speakers, please do let us know.

Starting in 2 minutes 🙂

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We're back 😄

Our guest speaker this week is Keith Townsend from http://www.astronomymatters.co.uk/ to give us his talk Here Comes the Sun.

Keith's childhood interest in astronomy developed into telescope ownership some 25 years ago and imaging became a large part of this around the turn of the century. Hee never made it off the slippery slope and continue to suffer the consequences to this day!

Keith was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2016 and have been delivering talks to a wide range of groups for almost 10 years.

One of his passions is to try to unlock the fascination many people have for the night sky, but don’t realise it.

This months talk is 'Here Comes the Sun': The sun sustains life here on Earth but to astronomers it is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V) informally referred to as a 'yellow dwarf’. Recent missions are massively expanding our knowledge and understanding at an incredible rate, so what's it all about? 

This talk explores some basics, details the latest findings and includes some fascinating images and animations.

This talk is our first after a bit of a hiatus and the first of our new monthly format - we will see how it goes before picking a permeant recurring slot but to begin with, we are going to try the second Wednesday of the month and may try to squeeze in a Sunday session at some point as well.

Hope to see you all Wednesday 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP47 - Wednesday, 14th July 2021 7:30pm BST - Here Comes the Sun by Keith Townsend
Time: Jul 14, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85986089826?pwd=UGp5SmN6aFVpU3RKOFFNU0dMTWlYUT09

Meeting ID: 859 8608 9826
Passcode: 142936

It's been a long fun day so far 🙂 We've got two events left:

19:00 BST  Introduction to solar imaging

       Join Gary Palmer for an introductory talk on how to capture incredible images of the Sun.

20:00 BST  Solar image processing

       Gary continues his presentation on solar imaging with a session on how to process captured data.

21:00 BST  From Herschel to Hawkwind

       We round off the day in style with Astronomer and Musician Peter Williamson and his presentation “From Herschel to Hawkwind”.

Watch live on the Go StarGazing's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1922895184526013/

Hope to see some of you online 🙂

28 minutes ago, iapa said:

I think I can speak for all of your historical customers that we are very impressed with the company‘s service record and are appreciative of the efforts you have gone to to keep us updated in the difficult times.

so, where is my stellalyra 8” RC 

sorry, couldn’t resist 

seriously I’m in no hurry as I have plenty of maintenance to do on existing kit

Currently halfway between Malaysia and Sri Lanka heading towards the Suez Canal 🙂

15 minutes ago, DaveS said:

I've found the Zoom talks to be the highlight of my Sunday evening. Only skipped two, the astro sketching / artwork (Due to having zero drawing skills) and the latest PI talk as it looked PI specific and I don't use PI.

But that's just me. 

Thanks Dave - that's really nice to hear.

We don't have a StarGaZine booked for this coming weekend.

StarGaZine was setup at a time when most astronomy societies were no longer meeting, not even virtually, and a lot of astro speakers were suddenly finding themselves without any bookings. We wanted to help and to provide some entertainment for the astronomy community during lockdown, with FLO's help paying the bills 🙂 

As we come out of lockdown attendance for the last few sessions has understandably decreased so we are considering, is there still a need for StarGaZine ongoing?

Should we continue organising StarGaZine talks and, if we do, should we make some changes to frequency, day of week, time, content, etc, to attract more people and ensure the effort / cost remains viable?  

Some thoughts I had:

• Switch to fortnightly or once a month
• Rejig the format to be more like a traditional astro society evening - a speaker followed by some sort of news update, or sky guide for the next month or show/tell where members can share their work, ask questions etc.. So we have less talks but we make more of them with more interaction after the speaker.
• Consider switching to a mid-week slot - I suspect Sunday nights are not the best for people, most societies meet mid-week and this may work better for us as well?
• Stop altogether except for more specialist events / talks so we stop a regular slot but have intermittent more specialist workshops / topics that a regular astro society might not consider, e.g. a Pixinsight workshop wouldn't suit a regular society.

It strikes me over the almost year we've been doing this, the most popular talks have been either practical ones to do with imaging and particularly image processing or, ones where a member has given us a talk so perhaps we should concentrate more on those areas?

All feedback welcome, good or bad but please be constructive 🙂

Thanks,

Grant

11 hours ago, JulesH said:

Hi Grant. I was passed this link by Dave at Pixel Skies. I would be very interested in purchasing a complete set up, what have you got please?  I used to have a 12.5" Planewave CDK at Nerpio and I am very interested in getting back into it.

Thanks

Julian

Hi Julian,

You can find info about the current setup here:

And you can see all the data releases so far here: http://ikiobservatory.com/data

We are intending to at minimum swap out the telescope and potentially the mount so it might make more sense for us to start with a new slot and built the new rig hence why we wanted to see if anybody is interested in taking over the existing setup.

If it's of interest, please drop me an email: info@ikarusimaging.com.

Huge thanks to Adam - what a super talk!

Don't forget to check out his website for more tutorials and videos: https://www.adamblockstudios.com/

Thanks everybody who took part in this competition - lots of amazing entries making judging tough as always!

You can see all the entries here, the data is still available here if you want to have a play.

The winners are:

Winner - Xiga

Runner Up - Happy-Kat

Runner Up - Spongey

Well done everybody!

Next data release should be in the next couple of weeks.

If anybody is interested in a remote setup of their own like this, we are having a swap around with our kit out in Spain so our current rig is available to buy / rent: 

Cheers,

Grant

Due to the change around of StarGaZine this week (it was tonight, not Sunday) we will announce the winner of this Monday PM.

Starting in 45 minutes 🙂

5 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

May i ask, very respectfully, why a Skywatcher 200p Dob that was retailing for around £290-£300 last year is now retailing for £399 ? That's a huge increase, and one would have assumed that selling many of them would make the prices come down, not go up ? Normally when something sells well, the seller can reduce prices to reflect higher income through increased sales volume, thus maintaining his/her profit margins ? I understand demand makes prices go up, but conversely increased sales volumes make prices go down, i always assumed my friend ? Thank You for in advance for any help regarding this issue. 

Sincerely, Wes.

There is more info specifically about the Sky-watcher price increases here:

Margin is also a percentage, if you sell more then to maintain margin then the price has to stay the same regardless of volumes unless the volumes enable you to purchase the items in volume for a discount and then pass some of that on to the consumer whilst still maintaining the margin - this isn’t the case with most astronomy products.

We've had the IKI Observatory for around 18 months now and have been really pleased with the experience with gained, the raw data we've published and the interest this has generated. The plan was always to swap out the equipment on a regular basis so we could test new kit and try different things.

Our intention is to expand the current setup, probably with a multi-instrument setup so we can do some planetary / lunar work as well as some wider field work. This means we are either looking to add a second setup or potentially have a swap around so we can have multiple instruments on one mount - we also have some new goodies on their way that we would like to send out to Spain to get them collecting some photons.

More details on all of these will be announced over the coming months.

Before we start swapping anything around, is there anybody out there who might be interested in taking over our current setup as a going concern? There is a few options here, an outright purchase and take over of the slot with Pixel Skies and we will then setup a new rig in a new slot or, a short/medium term rental arrangement with us to cover usage of the kit as well as the remote observatory space rental.

The great thing here is everything is up and running ready to go so if this is something that you've been considering, this might be an easy way to get up and running.

If this is of interest, please drop me a PM or email: info@ikarusimaging.com and we can talk through the possibilities.

Cheers,

Grant

We have a special talk this SATURDAY where we will be joined by Adam Block of  https://www.adamblockstudios.com/ to give us a talk looking at more advanced calibration concepts in Pixinsight.

Adam has been at the forefront of Astroimaging for many years, having received his first telescope from his parents at the tender age of seven! His work in astronomy led him to the University of Arizona to study Astronomy and Physics, and soon after graduating, joined Kitt Peak National Observatory to run nightly observing sessions for visitors, and eventually to create the Mount Lemmon Sky Centre at the University - now a firm fixture on the tourist trail in Arizona!

His passion for bringing astronomy to people through his pictures has never diminished - his list of published images and APOD images is extensive, and his articles are published across the spectrum of astronomical journals. He has discovered an asteroid (Williamson - named after Dr Richard Williamson), has a minor planet named after him (172525 AdamBlock) and has had an image of R Aquarii used by CHANDRA Space Observatory as a reference image!

Adam has written and published tutorials in Photoshop - which culminated in the very successful Making every Pixel Count - and of course in Pixinsight.

Adam has developed a whole set of training videos and content for all levels of astroimager - you can see samples and details at http://adamblockstudios.com

In this talk, Adam is taking us through some of the more advanced concepts of calibration in Pixinsight - such as Selective Rejection and Manual Calibration versus the new WBPP script.

If you want to take the next steps in calibrating your images and ensure they are the best quality data possible, then this will be invaluable!

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP46 - Saturday, 8th May 2021 7:30pm BST - Pixinsight - Advanced Calibration Concepts by Adam Block
Time: May 8, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/93738573334?pwd=NytQb2t1VVNKTStDRkpCcElqNUJTZz09

Meeting ID: 937 3857 3334
Passcode: 069681

Many, many thanks to Mary for a super talk 🙂

Talk starts in 50 minutes 🙂

We have the pleasure of welcoming back Mary McIntyre FRAS of http://www.marymcintyreastronomy.co.uk/ this week to give her talk 'A History of Women in Astronomy'.

Mary is an amateur astronomer and astronomy communicator based in Oxfordshire, UK. She is a keen astrophotographer and astronomy sketcher and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. She has a busy talks schedule and also writes for Sky at Night Magazine and the Yearbook of Astronomy, is a co-presenter of the Comet Watch radio show and recently joined the Astro Radio team.

”A History of Women in Astronomy” – historically, astronomy has been very male-dominated. Throughout history there have been a number of trail-blazing women, such as Caroline Herschel, who worked to change that. But in addition there were countless less well known women who were doing astronomy, many of them needing to be taught by male relatives and mentors. This talk is a celebration of women who worked in astronomy during different periods of history and some of the challenges they have faced.

I am looking forward to this talk and finding out more about some of these forgotten figures in astronomy history. Hope to see you all there 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP45 - Sunday, 25th April 2021 7:30pm BST - A History of Women in Astronomy By Mary McIntyre
Time: Apr 25, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/96503215412?pwd=c1pUM0dBMkdyUVJuQUhpYzJSTFVVQT09

Meeting ID: 965 0321 5412
Passcode: 304724

12 hours ago, Space Hopper said:

@Grant missed this as i was working.....

It it available to watch on any other platform ?

Will PM.

Talk starts in an hour 🙂

This week we are very pleased to welcome back Paul Money of http://www.astrospace.co.uk/. Paul is very well known for his extensive talks and as review editor for BBC Sky at Night magazine. He also publishes his yearly 'NightScenes' sky guide - an extremely useful book!

Paul is going to give us his talk 'Why there are no green stars'. This talk explores how we see and perceive colour and why when we view the stars, there appear to be no green stars out there!

Paul is one of my favourite astro speakers - If you've not seen one of his talks before you are in for a treat, there are few more passionate and energetic astronomy speakers out there! This should be very interesting and entertaining, hope to see you there! 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP44 - Sunday, 18th April 2021 7:30pm BST - Why There Are No Green Stars By Paul Money
Time: Apr 18, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/96807175682?pwd=YnV5dnRWVWJhVVlPRzlrWU5lSUJSdz09

Meeting ID: 968 0717 5682
Passcode: 153177

We've just released the latest set of data from the Ikarus Observatory project here.

Following the wonderful entries from the first and second processing competitions we are running another to see who can get the most from this data and create the 'best' image! The winner will receive £150 of First Light Optics gift vouchers and two runners up will receive £50 of gift vouchers.

Details below:

• Closing date: 3rd May 2021 @ 22:00
• Please post your entries into this thread
• Please only use the data we've released - don't blend it with other data or add to it with other sources
• Use what ever processing software and techniques you like, potential bonus points for sharing your workflow and techniques with others - that way, we all get to learn as well 
• Multiple entries are allowed but, please refrain form posting multiple attempts that are very similar - better to update an earlier attempt if it's just an incremental improvement but, it would be interesting to see totally different attempts using different narrowband blends etc...
• If you win or are a runner up, we would really like to use your creation in future marketing materials, on our website etc.. so by entering the competition, you are giving us permission to use your image in this way.
• Judging will be done by a small team of judges from the FLO team - It's completely subjective  but will be based on what image(s) we think do the best job of extracting the most from the data released and, look the 'prettiest' 
• We will announce the winners by the 9th May 2021 live on StarGaZine then on SGL

Thanks all and look forward to seeing your entries!