tomato

Loving NGC 7549, that’s a proper barred spiral galaxy.

If all the imagers on SGL who are getting pi**ed off with the UK weather sold up and pooled their funds, just think what a rig we could have set up in Spain, New Mexico or Chile. But I suppose we would never agree on the scope/camera configuration or which object to image…

I change my scope/camera configuration regularly, and I quite often get connection reliability problems when I first start up, but after a few cable unplugs (USB and power) they usually settle down. The one exception is an Atik EFW2 which can take a few sessions before it will connect up reliably. I fix this by connecting the wheel directly to the laptop port (always works) and then working out towards the scope a connection at a time. I am putting this down to the USB connections starting to become worn but who knows?

For the last 3 days I have been patiently waiting for the Southern edge of this cloud bank to move 100 miles North. I don’t think it’s going to happen. Remote imaging is getting ever more attractive…

Good to hear. I'm sure some of my issues arise from the ADM adjustable saddle I'm using. It is a nice piece of kit but it isn't really up to having a 6" refractor riding on it. I'm sure @Tomatobro could fire up the milling machine and make a Cassidy clone, but the bracing plate idea was a whole lot simpler and cheaper.

A real class image and I love your rig! Do you have any special measures to control differential flexture between the scopes or are they OK in this respect? Without a top mounted bracing plate my Esprit 150s will part company a lot over the course of a 5 or 6 hour session.

Thanks for the heads up, alas it only achieves 7 degrees altitude from my location.🥴

I think the second version is slightly sharper, but not overdone, great image.

Time and money, powers most things these days.

In a previous life I was often required to do training presentations on a whole variety of topics which for the most part, was quite enjoyable. What I didn’t like was presenting on a subject which I knew little about, even if my audience knew even less. I have heard the adage about the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind, but I always felt I was on a rickety rope bridge and my next utterance would send me crashing onto the rocks below.

Great NAN @Clarkey. I too am from the “Press and Guess” school of processing. There are very accomplished imagers who will understandably frown on this practice, stating that you should know what you want to change on the image and understand the processing tools sufficiently to choose the right one and know what to adjust to make the change happen. The trouble is the software interface is so designed with sliders that it is very hard indeed to resist giving them a try, there is an undo button after all. Even PI, that bastion of rigorous, numbers based processing, allows you to do this. I don’t think there is any real harm done doing processing this way, as in time you will learn what works and what doesn’t, even if your quantitative understanding of what is going on might lag behind. If I have good data I will always feel there is a better image to be had and sometimes I do go back and find it, but I am much more likely to push mediocre data too far. Ironically, that’s why I like the Xterminator suite of tools so much, there isn’t much to get your head around with regard to the user interface although what is going on inside the box is another matter.

That is Clear Outside, powered by First Light Optics, no less.

BBC Weather says yes, yes yes! (Doesn’t it always), Clear Outside and Scope Nights say no, Sat 24 looks 50/50 so as usual I’ll stick my head out of the door as it gets dark and take it from there.

Double Jupiter like planets ejected from the parent star. Ate we sure nothing jarred the scope during the exposure?😉

Great capture of proper stellar motion. It’s hard to believe that our seemingly eternal constellations are transient on a cosmological timescale, but there goes your proof.

Great colour and detail on the galaxies. I’m not a fan of images where the IFN takes precedence over the galaxies, but it is nicely balanced on your image.

One thing is for sure, if you need to take frequent and extended breaks from AP, the UK weather is perfectly suited to this approach. Spare a thought for those pour souls in New Mexico and Spain who feel obliged to set up their kit night after night. Seriously, if your enthusiasm has waned I wouldn’t let it get you down, find another hobby that sparks your interest and follow that for a while, the Cosmos will still be there if or when you decide to come back, to be enjoyed with as much or as little equipment as you choose to use, when the clouds disappear…☺️

That's a stunning M31 Steve, like you I love to come back to it, although I have missed it so far this season. Who says CCDs can't cut it any more? The background looks a little bit magenta on my monitor, but it could just be my kit?

You might want to consider the SW MN 190. No coma corrector required, you only have to look at @wimvb’s images taken with this scope to see what it is capable of.

It’s a close up of NGC 6822, Barnard’s Galaxy in Sagittarius.

Amazing, you surely must go on and fill in rest of your hemisphere (as and when). How are you coping with projection effects? I seem to recall APP does something clever with these but I have never come close to doing a big enough area of sky to worry about them.

Sorry, it might make more sense if I post the image, rather than asking folks to go and find it.

Take a look at this image, the 2001: a Space Odyssey quote from David Bowman was all I could think of, "My God, it's full of stars!"

Great capture! It looks a bit like a Phoenix, which might be quite at home on the Sun.

I would have gone for the HEQ 5 with the belt mod, although that brings it into price range of the smaller Harmonic hybrid mounts of which I have no hands on experience. I think their main advantage is their relative light weight and compactness, hence easier for a portable set up. The HEQ 5 is tried and tested and they regularly come up on the second hand market. The belt modded example I used would guide at 0.5" total RMS with a an 102mm APO riding on it.