tomato

Just checked my logs, I'm in for 21 sessions YTD vs 23 last year, but this year seems much worse than that. I have had more aborted runs due to glitches this year, which might explain my gloomy take on things. April last year was great so here's hoping.

Thanks for your kind words. I know I'm never going to achieve the APOD resolution but I'm sure it could be better than my result so far. I just need a run of transparent, steady, cloudless, moonless nights, surely not too much to ask from rural Shropshire? 😅

The Ha cloud on the right has pretty much the same centre of curvature? There is a lot going on in the image.

If you like capturing distant objects, have a go at this one, the Wiki facts about this quasar are something else:

I imaged these interacting galaxies back in 2021 and the rather muddy result convinced me that at a peak elevation of 40 degrees, they were never going to be a decent subject from my location. However, inspired by the sublime APOD of 02/03/23, I decided to give them another go. Combining the old and new sets of data make 10 hrs of integration, all taken with the Esprit150/ASI178 LRGB rig, imaging at 0.94 arcsec per pixel. It's better than my first go but you can see why these objects are best done from a dark, clear sky site with giant apertures. The APOD describes NGC 3169 as a ball of Cosmic yarn unravelling, mine is more like a very fluffy ball of wool.🤭 Please check out the APOD if you want to see what they should look like...

There is a thread on Cloudy Nights on this topic: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/689275-rasa-11-back-focus-takes-no-prisoners/page-2 The RASA11 back focus is 72.8mm and it appears you need to be very close to this (+/- 0.5 mm) to get good star shapes right across the field.

Agreed, I can see how gripping the collar will allow you to unscrew the adapter plate, but how can you tighten the lens assembly collar if you can’t grip the other end of the lens holder?

I’m gradually going through my old data, applying SPCC and the RC suite of processing tools, but I do get mixed results with the colour using SPCC. A lot of my images are of small galaxies with a small FOV, so I suspect the limited number of stars available for SPCC is the problem.

Great image! A lot of wide, deep images of this region seem to have the IFN overwhelming the galaxies in my opinion, I think the balance on your image is much more sympathetic.

A while back I had the lens assembly come loose on my RASA8 when trying to unscrew the collar on the camera adapter plate. After due deliberation I decided to leave the corrector plate in place and instead I removed the mirror cell from the other end of the tube. This was just a case of unscrewing the four retaining screws and making sure the cell went back on in the same orientation. Once the mirror cell was off it was a simple case of putting my hand up the tube and holding the baffle to enable the adapter ring to unscrew. Then it was a case of tightening the lens assembly collar back up, still holding the baffle with my arm up the tube. One good thing about reflector F2 scopes, your arm is long enough! Once the mirror cell was back on, initial collimation was done with an Ocal collimation camera, then attaching an ASI120 to the RASA to allow adjustments on an out of focus star. This was the first image captured after the remedial work was done.

It’s a shame you have the OSC version of the 8300 sensor and not the mono, but you have to go with what you have. You have a dark sky so 10 minutes sounds like a good figure to try if your guiding is good enough.

Ah, a chess game coded into 1 k of memory, I guess that kind of programming skill is an endangered species.

Great 2 panel image, vibrant colour, another fine vista from the RASA.

Before I got a permanent observatory I used to set up and take down, there was no way I would leave all that kit outside without being in a 'secure' structure, but that's just my personal view. I regularly change cameras and scopes etc in the observatory, but being retired I have the time to do this. I always seem to get a couple of hours of clear sky after a change to realign the cameras etc, that's the advantage of the permanent observatory again.

Yes, the post wasn’t meant to be in any way negative towards the guy on ABS. Based on the user details, he took the name about 12 months before I joined SGL, so I’m the duplicate. I am just trying to prevent any confusion between the two usernames.

If you have an older dome that isn’t compatible with Pulsar’s current drive system, then you have a couple of options: Try and find one of the older Pulsar motorised systems which is ASCOM compatible, they do appear in the ads from time to time, or: Build your own motorised system which is ASCOM compliant or use some form of bespoke controller. I use the latter, which uses an encoder and software rate control, based on a calculated azimuth rate for the chosen object and/or laser beams either side of the aperture which triggers a predefined dome nudge when the scope tube breaks the beam. I have to say this is not my handiwork. My brother @Tomatobro on here, who is a retired mechanical/electronics engineer, designed and built the system. After a couple of years of fine tuning it now works very well and allows unattended imaging sessions.

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this post. A couple of SGL members have recently PM’ed me thinking me to be the same person with the user name ‘tomato’ on AstroBuySell UK. I just want to make it clear this is somebody else on ABS, not me. Apologies for any confusion caused.

I think you can get reasonable colour combining Lum with OSC data. This is 212 x 2 mins with the Esprit 150/QHY268mono and 193 x 2 mins with the Esprit 150/QHY268OSC. I saved the Lum stack as an RGB file and stacked this with the OSC file, it seemed to give a better result than combining them as LRGB.

Kodak Ectachrome 400 ASA was good for 15 mins exposure under a dark sky, but that was back in 1988, I don’t even know if it’s still available.

Could have done with that back in 1988, but I doubt I will ever give emulsion film another go for AP.

Unless it is a major hassle to exclude light from your set up, I would always take matching dark flats right after taking the flats. Exposure time and sensor temp should then be the same.

Never seen this one before, I would call it the Embryo Nebula. Looking close in it has some red filaments which are separate to the background Ha?

To be fair, they do not appear to be as prominent on my processing monitor, and of course once the brain has 'seen' a pattern, it is hard to reset it. Apologies for messing up your wonderful image with these yellow lines, but this is where I thought I was seeing them. I don't think they are artefacts in your image, more likely artefacts in my head...

Great collaboration, a real best of both worlds result. On my IPad screen I’m seeing a couple of reddish concentric rings in the dust pretty much centred on the galaxy, what do you think?

I’ve just watched presentation on YouTube by Grant about the FLO observatory in Spain. Apparently they make good use of Starlink for internet connectivity, so there are some benefits to the astro community.