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dannybgoode

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Everything posted by dannybgoode

  1. The place to start as a frustration free journey into AP isn’t the mount or telescope but worth buying a copy of Making Every Photon Count - available from FLO. There is just so much to it and it can be overwhelming. Other than that number 1 rule - the mount is everything. Spend as much as you possibly can and over spec out for your current set up.
  2. Superb. I’m learning to draw at the moment and am itching to have a go at some lunar obs. If mine are even a fraction as good I’ll be happy.
  3. Thanks for the report I’m beginning to get quite sucked in to all this lunar malarkey. I’ll add this region to my list of areas to spend some proper scope time on So many interesting features to visit.
  4. I had considered a 9 or 11 but I have a 12 already so 11 may be just a bit close. I do like ES eyepieces though. I have the 1.25” 16mm and 2” 24mm MaxVision and they’re lovely
  5. Had been looking at the SLV range. Are they nice and sharp. I like eyepieces that are sharp and contrasty
  6. I have a fairly motley assortment of EP’s and have most focal lengths covered but after my monster lunar session the other night I could do with a nice 10mm. I mainly used my 12mm in my Meade 10” SCT giving me just over 200x but I could have done with just a little more and think a 10mm would be spot on. I did try my 4.9mm which worked surprisingly well given I was at 500x and clearly overdoing things! So, what 10mm mainly for planetary and lunar but one that would also work for general viewing as I’ve also got scopes with a 650mm and 750mm FL? Budget is £250-300 max although I’d be very happy to spend much less of there are some good cheaper options
  7. I have some photos of it from a night a while ago. I’ll dig them out and see if they are similar to what you saw. Like you I’d never seen anything like it before.
  8. Nice report. I had a similar session last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can see this lunar observing becoming a bit of an obsession
  9. I have always had a fascination with the moon (not uncommon I'm sure) and of course I've looked at it through binoculars and telescopes many times but until last night I've never spent a good couple of hours studying particular features and really spent time studying the terminator for any particular moon phase. Aware also I was getting frustrated trying to nail imaging and had neglected any visual obs I decided to give it a go. So, armed with the rather good Moon Globe app, a Meade 10" SCT and a variety of eyepieces and of course a nice clear evening and a good bright moon I set up early and waited eagerly for it to clear a tree at the back of the garden and then got to work. My main aims were to a) identify a good number of features and just start learning the lunar surface in general and b) look for features that I will come back to in the future and study more closely. I'll post a full list of targets I successfully identified at the end of my report but for now I will just give an overview of my meanderings and highlight any features that I found particularly interesting. First job was to get orientated and locate exactly where I was using Moon Globe. As I mentioned it's a really nice app and you can set the moon to either be a traditional globe or to match the current phase and age as it will be seen through the scope. In this mode it automatically labels the main features you will see on the terminator as well as other major features visible on the moons surface. You can also flip N/S and E/W so having tried to mentally flip everything around I decided my brain wasn't nearly capable enough to do this I orientated the view on Moon Globe to match that of the eyepiece and I was away, Starting at Gassendi I started off with the sequence Gassendi, Merenius, Leibig, Cavendish, Henry, Henry Freres etc. It took me a while to really nail this in my head and then I promptly forgot it all but It was a nice start. Trying to verify all the features by looking for other features nearby got me really concentrating on pulling out the detail and looking closely at view in the eyepiece. I had also decided on my 12mm BST as my primary eyepiece. In the Meade this gave a magnification of 200x. I would have preferred a 10mm to be honest by I don't have one - a situation I have to rectify. With orientation sorted and my eye 'in' I decided to wonder slowly south toward Schickard and really enjoyed the detail of the overlapping craters. It was here that I found the first feature that I will definitely be revisiting and that is the 3 craters, Wargentin (with the bonus this is a lunar 100 target), Nasmyth and Phocylides. Wargentin really standing out against the others as appearing as a completely flat tableau juxtaposed against the cliffs of the edges of Phocylides which looked spectacular right up on the terminator. I spent bit of time just identifying various craters etc and noting them down before heading North and it was here I stumbled into a bit of trouble as I could definitively identify where I was and it was at this point I realised just how hard I was concentrating and how sucked in to it all I had become. So I centred back on Gassendi and worked North more slowly so as to keep a tab on where I was. I then spotted what I think must be my favourite crater on the moon - Billy. Partly because it is a nice distinct crater and of some visual interest but mainly because I met my wife in a club when her sister dragged me across to their table and introduced me as Billy (as in 'no mates' as I was down the club on my own). He is also a good reference point for perhaps the part of the 12 day terminator I found most interesting and that is Crater Siralis, Rimae Siralis and Rimae Darwin. I could imagine scrambling over the cliffs and diving into craters and the sun's lit the area just perfectly. A real sight and I could see why people spend so much scope time studying the terminator at various phases and could sense it would never get old. Working further North I found myself getting drawn East as well having spotted the contrasting craters of grey Herodotus and the brilliant white of Aristarchus and then as my eye settled I began to notice perhaps my favourite feature of the night Vallis Schroteri and the surrounding area. Again, as with the cliffs of Rimae Darwin my imagination took over and I found myself exploring the great rift as it tore through lunar surface. It is a fairly subtle feature but the detail just kept resolving and I was lost in the scene. Again, a quick check off a few more features and I carried on North. Here I took in the mighty Herschel, Babbage ad Pythagoras with the latter looking particularly spectacular sat as it was right on the terminator. Some of the cliffs a brilliant white and others various shades of darkness and all giving a serious sense of detail. The central peak too was really set off well. One feature I really wanted to find was Mons Rumker so from Babbage I worked out where I needed to go and found it - another subtle but very interesting feature and one that I would have like to chuck a bit more magnification at and certainly one to put on the list of targets that I will spend a lot more time on in the future. By now I was getting tired and was beginning to flag mentally so I headed back to where I had started with Gassendi and more specifically the area that looked like stacked coves in a beach, that being Damoiseau. I spent a good ten minutes again just taking in the detail and just letting it resolve as much as possible. A real favourite and again somewhere I will be revisiting many more times in the future. I decided to end the night with some nice widefield views so dug out my 2" Skywatcher SWA 32mm and my 2" 24mm Maxvision, both of which are tack sharp and give gloriously contrasty, widefield views and spend some a few minutes taking it all in. It was at this point I spotted Plato and remembered I hadn't ticked Montes / Vallis Alpes off the 100 list so popped the 12mm back in just for a positive ID before putting the 24mm in for a final view. By now the clouds were gathering, the scope was dewing up and I was getting tired but overall I was delighted with the night's viewing and I am a confirmed lunatic I think and will be spending many more hours at the eyepiece studying that terminator. I think though for the next session I will unbox the TMB and give the Vixen Planetary 2.4mm a run out and really try and dig right down to the finer detail. Full list of targets identified and a handful of dirty phone held to the eyepiece photos: Gassendi Mersenius Leibig Cavendish Henry Henry Freres Vieta Fourier Drebbel Schickard Lehmann Nasmyth Phocylides Wargentin Noggerath Rost Segner Zucchius Bettinus Kircher Schiller Bayer Lacus timoris Hainzul Capuanus Cichus Billy Hansteen Darwin Rimae Darwin Di Vico Rimae Grimaldi Damoiseau Reiner Marius Rima Suess Kepler Enke Aristarchus Herodotus Schiaperelli Seleucus Vallis Schroteri Prinz Angstrom Dorsa Argand Rimae Prinz Montes Harbinger Rima Artsimochiv Krieger Van Biesbroeck Ruth Rocco Rimae Aristarchus Rupes Toscanelli Toscanelli Plato Herschel Pythagoras Babbage Carpenter Sharp Mairan Louville Mons Rumker Oenopides Markov Sinus Roris Montes Recti Montes Teneriffe Sinus Iridium Harding Montes Alpes Vallis Alpes Mare Humorum
  10. Pythagoras was indeed quite a sight tonight. A really interesting area in general. Not had a proper lunar session until tonight and saw so much. Agree, the more you dig into the detail the more you get lost.
  11. I have these in 10x50 and they’re excellent. Well made, great optics and a decent all rounder so good for boring and the like too. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/classic-binoculars/pentax-sp-50mm-wp-binoculars.html
  12. @han59 sorry only just seen your post. When I next set it up I’ll have a look at see if I can spot where the error is.
  13. Assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere it really doesn’t matter how the reticule is orientated. It’s just a circle so it matters not whether ‘6 o’clock’ is at the top, the bottom, 2/3’s of the way round - whatever. Just use an app (I use PS Align Pro for iOS) and make sure Polaris is at the right place on the ‘clock face’. The app already has the orientation sorted out etc. I only do a quick visual PA and have excellent visual and astrophotography results with guiding error less than 1”.
  14. Thank you. Yep, no one said it was going to be easy and at least I have some worthwhile data to built on. A Bahtinov mask is on the weekend shopping list but I think the next session is now going to have to wait until the moon has gone. Nowt I can do about the bottle bortle 8 skies for now but once I’m happy I can get the rig set up properly each and every time I’ll take a drive out to somewhere darker.
  15. Another attempt at a galaxy. This time Messier 81 - Bode's Galaxy. Happy and not happy - I blew the focus on the Red and Luminance channels so still mono and even with what I have got focus is a little out. So just integrated all the G & B data (14x200" for each) and worked with that. Plenty of detail though so reasonably satisfied but annoyed because with hindsight I did notice the focus issue and ignored it. At least I have plenty of B & G data to build on though so all is not lost.
  16. @han59 I have the JNow button pressed and it still does not make a difference - still shows out in Stellarium and CdS (tried this just to be sure. May be I am missing something. I am due to rebuild this laptop anyway so will be doing a complete reinstall of everything so will see if th problem persists after that and if it does I will have another fiddle with things. Thanks everyone for their help so far.
  17. Thanks all for your replies. Is there a reason why an image doesn’t show quite correctly in Stellarium once solved? For example the screen shot I have posted of Stellarium shows where it thinks the scope is pointing when it is quite clear from the actual sub that the galaxy core is more or less dead centre. I blind solved the sub and hit ‘show’ in Pointcraft and this is what shows in Stellarium?
  18. Thanks all. I’ll have a fiddle. As I say when I solve an actual image it shows out in Stellarium and it thinks it’s centred doing a blind Goto and it’s actually out by the same amount. I’m nearly there so hopefully won’t take too much to resolve
  19. Depression. Can take the fun out of just about anything. Couple that with a night when you actually overcome the mental darkness only for everything to go wrong that could go wrong and it’s as sure fire recipe to put you off for weeks if not months. By the time the motivation returns I’ve forgotten enquiring I’ve learned so cue nights of frustration trying to get everything working. I was even considering selling the TMB at one point but know I would have regained it later so just stuck everything away until my mood changed. A change of meds has improved things greatly though as has the fact I can now pretty much get everything set up and working as and when required so sessions are not wasted. Still have the odd hiccup but hopefully will get a good season’s imaging under my belt and tick off some more of the lunar 100 as and when Mr Moon gets in the way of stray photons.
  20. Here’s a screenshot of Stellarium. M81’s core is pretty much dead centre in the frame looking at actually images.
  21. I’ve got APT, ASPS and Stellarium all just about talking to each other however whenever I blind solve or use Goto ++ the target is not quite central, or conversely the software says it is central but it’s a touch out So for example tonight I used Goto ++ to centre on M81 and whilst the software said it was bang centre it clearly wasn’t. Luckily I could see the core in live view so could centre naturally but now when I blind solve as a test Stellarium is saying the core is toward the upper of the frame. Doesn’t matter too much for galaxies but if I’m going to rely on it for Nebula etc then I need it to be a touch more accurate than it is otherwise I’m going to end up missing targets. Any ideas?
  22. Give it a go from your current location. I’m in Sheffield and can get passable results - certainly good enough to make the effort worth it. Plus it’s a good idea to have a couple of goes at it at home as it rarely goes smoothly at first and it helps to have somewhere warm to decamp to whilst you troubleshoot it all.
  23. If my experience of the 150P you’ll get pretty horrible coma regardless of what camera you use without a corrector.
  24. I’ve got a dirty great big 30amp 12v supply I use for my amateur radios. No way is that thing ever getting overloaded Its also entirely impractical for anything but home use as it’s a proper transformer and not switchmode so weighs in at 10kg or so. Proper beast it is...
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