Alien 13

10 minutes ago, andrew s said:

 But it is not science it's just posing and being a celebrity. I know I am being a science snob!

Its the way of the world I am afraid but does have benefits, Albert Eisenstein was the biggest celebrity in the world of science and am sure he inspired those that followed... and most importantly the general public.

Alan

I like the padding, the staring into the distance and most of all the soundtrack although that seemed a bit toned down this week, its called engaging with the masses who dont yet realize they have an interest in science...

Alan

33 minutes ago, Kn4fty said:

I enjoy his presentation. He really seems to enjoy what he does and it bleeds over to the viewers. Hope to get more of his material on this side of the pond 

Rob

I agree, he would certainly be near the top of my list of people I would love to have a drink and chat with down the local pub (bar).

Alan

3 minutes ago, catburglar said:

They are cropped images... There were a couple of issues I couldn’t easily fix at the time:

1. I could never get the flats sorted, so I always had complex gradients that I couldn’t seem to process out if I didn’t crop.

2. The PC i was using to process the images was a bit under specced  for the job, so it was easier/quicker to process cropped images.

I soon moved on to a modded DSLR, so don’t have many example images with the unmodded cam that are relevant to the thread.

Thanks, gradients are a pain with widefield lenses especially if you have localized light pollution.....

Alan

5 minutes ago, catburglar said:

I used a Samyang 135mm lens- typically 30-60 second exposures at F2 and ISO800

I am confused as to the scale of those images, did you do massive crops? and why would you crop so heavily with such a lovely widefield lens...

Alan

No one has mentioned it but you can make a very safe dedicated solarscope by removing the silvering/aluminium from the primary and secondary mirrors of a "small" Newtonian scope, you would need an ND filter and perhaps a IR cut filter too for observing but should be fine without for imaging.

Alan

Well that was enjoyable, gave me a real feel of what Mars has gone through in its life.

Alan

Just now, Gina said:

On now - BBC TWO.

Watching, I do like Brian Cox as a presenter....

Alan

As above just general fresh air and daylight will do the job even if its cloudy, make sure the path of the Sun doesn't go down the tube...

Alan

Plenty of daylight will normally stop the growth but in bad cases its worth stripping down and cleaning with a "lens cleaning" solution as the fungus will etch the glass if it takes hold.

Alan

I would second all the advice given but would add that reflectors are not suitable for solar projection as too much heat will hit the secondary, most reflectors also have the option to use a filter over the whole aperture or just by covering the additional small hole in the endcap....

Alan

6 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I do absolutely need the one marked, Hello darkness my old friend. Where do I look????

lly

Lots of them here......

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hello-Darkness-Friend-T-Shirt-Black/dp/B01KZPBNMI

Alan

The site seems faster once you are in but takes much longer than before to load up....

Alan

On 29/04/2019 at 08:53, Scooot said:

How about, The Moon with a foreground. 

I like this, would suggest Moon with clouds too....

Alan

14 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I'm agreeing with you, not saying the opposite. I just think I'll probably die like a dinosaur, that's all!

Olly

Sorry Olly I misread your post, exciting times ahead....

Alan

10 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

If I were younger I might think differently but I suspect that I may turn into a CCD diehard dinosaur.

lly

I am sure that the same was said of photographic plates but look at how a relatively tiny scope can now easily out perform the great 200 inch monsters even with a DSLR.....

Alan

I imagine any new camera tech will quickly appear in mobile phones first as this is the biggest market and the price will come down very fast..

Alan

11 hours ago, JamesF said:

Apparently NASA has proposed using a "railgun" type technology to launch vehicles:

https://www.universetoday.com/73536/nasa-considering-rail-gun-launch-system-to-the-stars/

James

Its amazing that "Fireball XL5" had the right idea all those years ago 

I  dont know the exact figures but a very large proportion of a rockets fuel is used up just getting it to Mak 1.....

Alan

On 17/12/2018 at 21:36, heliumstar said:

Unfortunately there are no collimation screws at the back. FLO arranged to send it back and I did. I received a new unit which was 100% collimated.

The Mak and SCTs for that matter use spherical mirrors so it makes little difference to where they are pointing, any collimation has to be done at the front end...

Alan

33 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

This remote arrived this morning. Hoping to use this camera on my SA mount with as few leads as possible.

 

Looks good not seen that model before so had a peek online and it was nice to see it uses standard AAA bats, I have something similar with the giga t pro but it eats the expensive CR2 batteries so does not get used much. I do agree with keeping leads down to a minimum on portable mounts.

Alan

47 minutes ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

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

I thought that too as its where the 130pds and ED80 threads reside.

The Samyang is one of those products that is so good in that it is ideal for beginners with a DSLR on a tracking mount and experienced users that want to go very deep....

Alan

I am loving the Samyang images, the only thing I can think of that might be better than this lens is an array of 2, 3, 4, 5 or more of them 

Alan

28 minutes ago, Uranium235 said:

Hmmm.... Im thinking that there may be enough users of this particular lens to start a showcase thread (similar to the 130pds or 80ED thread).

I am sure there are lots of users and with the popularity of camera trackers now like the SA it is an ideal match...

Alan

29 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

If starting from nothing the az-gti mount would be much better 

I have considered one of these but it offsets the camera which might be fine for widefield panos but limited for my closeup work so would need major modifications too. 

Alan

Interesting project, I have thought about getting a virtuoso as the basis for a DIY camera mount but would need to have it operate over wi fi and reduce its size to a minimum....

Alan