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MattJenko

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Everything posted by MattJenko

  1. MattJenko

    coathanger

    From the album: Sky Images

    1 sub through thunderous cloudy skies
  2. Fog is my fault. Second hand astro-modded 450D arrived today. No more getting stick for messing up the settings on my wife's Pentax! Happy days.
  3. MattJenko

    Modded 450D

    From the album: Viewings

    No more getting stick for messing up the settings on my wife's Pentax!
  4. Source: Cassiopeia Double night
  5. MattJenko

    M13

    From the album: Sky Images

    Taken outside NEAS observatory on my HEQ5 and Evostar 80ED. Used the society Canon, controlled by APT. What an excellent piece of software and the whole Canon thing is so much easier than the manual 30sec limitations of the Pentax. Not sure if it is just the fact the image is 60 sec exposures, but the quality seems better.
  6. I recently picked up a second hand 10mm TV Radian from a fellow SGLer and have finally managed to give it a proper outing. I have been out a few times before now to try it out, but that was from my back garden and mostly curtailed work nights or nights when I have been concentrating on imaging. Last night however was a proper session with the 10'' Dob at a darker site (albeit still a 'school' night) Also at the site was a C11 so I had something to compare to. My first few uses of the TV had been quite impressive, but not earth shatteringly so. Tonight was slightly different. My finding skills with the Dob are now much better, so after a few swaps with a 2'' 28mm eyepiece, I simply left the Radian in and managed a few objects without the need for changes. No night of mine is complete without a good look at M13 at the moment, so this was the first target. The scope had been out for a bit, so fully cooled. The cluster was very nicely sized in the field of view, with enough space around it to give a really pleasant composition as well as enough space to allow decent viewing time before a move was needed, thanks to the decent width the EP gives. After a few moments, the individual stars resolved into pure pin-pricks within the cluster, like a frosty morning spider's web and the overall effect was the best I have seen of this object, and I have looked at it quite a bit! Some people came out from the dome where the C11 was and were commenting the view was actually brighter and clearer in the Dob, and I couldn't disagree. Next were a couple of nearby nebulas, the ring, which was clearly visible, but still very small and then the dumbbell. This proved to be much more impressive and the ghostly egg timer was also nicely framed in the EP and gathered equally impressive comments from the people present. I certainly haven't seen it better than that in any scope/EP before. A few doubles followed, the head of Delphinus (gamma I think) clearly seen as a very pretty little coloured pair, with the orange (dare I say a hint of gold) and blue partners clearly visible and pleasantly split. Albireo was very colourful and split as far apart as to almost make it look completely distinct from each other. I also saw a very nice one in Casseopia, with a tiny orange star next to a much brighter whiter neighbour, a very nice contrast and a great object for the EP to show off with. All in all, a really impressive outing for this eyepiece, which has obviously been well looked after. This has put my mind at rest regarding second hand items, and thanks to Simonfromsussex for selling it to me and taking good care of it. The eye relief on this EP is perfect for me as a glasses wearer, and thanks to all here in this forum for such a wealth of information, without which I would never have acquired this lovely little eyepiece on my own and would have ended up with something inferior and almost certainly more expensive.
  7. MattJenko

    M29 CoolingTower

    From the album: Sky Images

    ~50 x 30 second subs of the Cooling Tower in Cygnus. This actually has the first hints of nebulosity that I have ever captured, so in an attempt to pull it out, I have overdone the stars, so need to find out how to do the same without the drastic colour bloat I have introduced. I will be doing more work on these subs, but it appears that I need more data from the sky to really tease out the nebula data from the DSLR noise.
  8. Finally took a picture of my slowly increasing collection. Still want a few more things (who doesn't), along with a bigger case, but this serves me well at the moment!
  9. MattJenko

    Eyepieces

    From the album: Viewings

    My eyepiece box. MaxVision 28, TV Radian 10, Baader Zoom, Barlow, OIII/Moon filter, Cheshire, illuminated reticule and couple of Skywatcher plossls.
  10. MattJenko

    DoubleClusterObs

    From the album: Sky Images

    Double cluster, but it is hidden against the star field and I have overdone the colour + saturation.
  11. From the album: Sky Images

    Double Cluster. No saturation, just squeezed the A + B in a lab colour stretch. Less contrast to try and bring out the cluster against the background.
  12. MattJenko

    M31 take 3

    From the album: Sky Images

  13. MattJenko

    M31 colour

    From the album: Sky Images

    Same image as other M31, but took some advice from IanL - much better overall and not as washed out.
  14. MattJenko

    First M31

    From the album: Sky Images

    Taken from garden over neighbours house.
  15. From the album: Sky Images

    M39. SW 80ED. Pentax K500.
  16. Managed to get some first lights as it appears to be called! Friend popped down to collect the 130EQ he is taking off my hands. We had a little star party in North Essex. The skies were not overly kind, so left the HEQ5 to its own crazy non aligned weirdness and concentrated on the newtonians. Saturn was found in both to great effect and we did a few doubles before the moon demanded attention. This was cloud obscured, but some great views and a very pleasant (albeit short) evening. Another day later in the week, I took the 80ED along to the NEAS observatory and put it on the NEQ6 on the outside pier. A proper first outing, as the skies were wonderfully clear in comparison. Saw the ring nebula for the first time, and took in the glorious colours of Albireo and the double at the head of Delphinus. A couple of globulars and then went home to spend another hour or so looking intently at the moon with the Dob. Am seriously enjoying our big satellite. Managed to see some craters down to 7km across with the 8mm end of the Hyperion zoom. Some amazing mountain ranges. Lots more to see!
  17. MattJenko

    IMGP2512

    From the album: Viewings

  18. MattJenko

    Apology due

    There seems to be a definite consensus in these forums that there is a strong positive correlation between new astronomical purchases and less than ideal weather conditions. I am hereby giving due notice and apologies for my splurging of large chunks of cash and inviting the clouds in. After much deliberation, I have decided to birthday treat myself to a full astronomy kit upgrade from my starter 130EQ. I am now sufficiently hooked and certain that this is not a fleeting affair, so have taken the plunge. My goals involve being able to take images as well as doing some proper astrophysics, so a decent mount was a priority. This ended up a choice between the Celestron AVX and the HEQ5. Both look to be great mounts for the price range I could go to. The AVX also has the bonus of coming with decent and cheap OTA options as well, but the EQMOD factor and my desire to observe as well as image at the same time has led me towards a bit of a Skywatcher love-in: HEQ5 Evostar 80ED Pro Skyliner 250px This gives me the ability to practice tracking, aligning all the other good skills an EQ mount requires, along with PC control and a scope designed for imaging. Once set up with a DSLR and subbing away however, what is one to do with oneself? Why, use a Dob and get observing of course! As a cheeky bonus, I also bought a pair of B&S binoculars, the 8x56 ones on offer at FLO. I must thank them for my avalanche of questions they dutifully and uncomplainingly promptly answered. Again apologies to all, but believe me when I say that if the purchase/weather correlation is accurate, no-one will be more frustrated than me.
  19. MattJenko

    Drunken Binos

    Friday night. Had quite a few drinks. Took my dog out just before bedtime and lo and behold. The stars are out. Got the sunlounger lined up at the summer triangle, got Stellarium on my MacBook in night mode, got a rug for my dog, and a blanket for me and with a set of 10x50 binos borrowed from NEAS went to work. Very enjoyable. Reminded myself that I still remembered the star names in Cygnus + the various stars around the triangle and through to Arcturus. Meandered around Hercules and spotted M13. Fuzzy, wobbly, but still great. Realised from Stellarium that there were 2 more Messier objects in this area as well. M29 + M39, both open clusters. Found M39 nice and easily. Nice line of standout stars pointing right at it. Looks good in binoculars, more than just a fuzz. Familiarised myself with that area before hunting for the more elusive M29 which was duly found. I also looked out for the various local nebulas and with some averted vision managed to convince my drunken self that I had found them. I think a second confirmation session is required before I can tick them off when I ever get round to doing proper logging of my sessions, no matter how inebriated. Split Alberio, just and then after some more simple wanderings around Delphinus, called it a night. I do wish the skies were like this more often.
  20. Another one: Meteor detection through the humble act of listening for them. Awesome.
  21. There seem to be lots of ways to contribute to the human database of knowledge as an amateur astronomer, which is one of the main reasons I am so keen on this pastime, alongside the fact that the skies are just so mesmerizingly touching. I have just discovered another: Double Star measurements. This involves measuring the separation and angles of double stars and submitting them, and/or peer reviewing other people's submissions. This all sounds very acceptable! There is also photometry, which seems like a lot of hard work and difficult for amateurs (ie me) to contribute in relation to the others. The other area I have seen is spectroscopy, which to me sounds like a perfect blend of astronomy, astrophysics and achievability. I love the idea of being able to find out crucial information about objects incomprehensibly far away, purely through the application of skill with your equipment and rainbows. Lovely, and this remains a big motivational factor to learn and master what is available to us humble amateurs. It's good to have a variety of short/medium and long term goals, and this one ranks high as a long-term biggie. I feel I am nothing if not overconfident in my abilities involving something I am a rank beginner at, but if you don't aim high, you are never going to hit high. If anyone knows other avenues to contribute to the fountain of human knowledge, please let me know. I started a thread about it: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/219146-enlarging-the-noosphere/
  22. MattJenko

    Collimation

    Next on the learning list is collimation. Tried to follow the 130EQ collimation instructions without a collimating tool and ended up just fiddling around with the various knobs and screws. Managed to make all my stars a very sparkling, eggy smear. Not a perfect start, but not to be deterred. Went to the society observatory and dug out a laser collimator. Fiddled around a bit, but came to the conclusion it was out of batteries as there was certainly no laser. A kind guy there helped my try to do it manually by staring down the barrel and then doing the out of focus star donut approach. This worked to a degree, but think the main issue is with the 'experimentation' I performed on my secondary. Far, far too much allen key action. I read a very good guide on the interweb : http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/169 and am now going to attempt the unthinkable and dismantle the telescope to put a ring binder sticker on my primary mirror. Oh the advances in technology we have made. I am also going to get hold of my very own Cheshire collimation tool. I will report back on this surgery when I can get over from laughing at the reality of what it is I am actually going to do.
  23. Excellent effort, thanks! Thinking about possible additional features, I echo Lawrence's suggestion above about midday to midday and also, the ability to have multiple locations or to customize which of the many indicators to display/sort.
  24. Busy night. Installed the Atik software on the society laptop and managed to take some grainy pictures. The installer has an ordering problem in that the apps fail to install correctly as the drivers don't install before them, and the driver install that happens after doesn't work or doesn't install the right version. Using the 'update driver' feature from Device Manager and choosing the unzipped folder directly installed everything fine. A little later, after dark, I managed to get into the dome and get the C11 pointing at M13 using a low power eyepiece. I then swapped in the Atik and tried a few 1 second shots to try and get focus. After quite a bit of FF (focus fiddling), I started seeing some star formations, much more magnified than expected! I also saw a truncation, but the realised the dome wasn't in the right place either and was cutting a bit off. All in all, it proved that it works and I will have a more formal go at a later date as I had to leave at that point. Also, I got a chance to see through a refractor, a Williams Optic FLT110. It didn't have a finderscope, so it was plonked on an NEQ6 on an outdoor pier and roughly polar aligned, kindly done by one of the other members. The planets looked great, as did the doubles we managed to snag, however I was underwhelmed by the visual aspect on the DSOs we looked at. I realise now by experience that there is no one wonder scope, and that these scopes might make fine imaging scopes for DSOs, but last night, it was nowhere near as visually impressive as the C11. Also, a very old 4'' Tal was dug out of storage and set up as well, with some members going on long nostalgic trips meadering about Hercules. Couple of ISS passes and all in all a great, albeit cut short night at the observatory as I had to get home. When I got back, I set up my Astromaster with my new Hyperion and set about double hunting and to find M13 to compare against the much more expensive refractor from earlier. Directly overhead is more trouble than one might imagine it seems. Albireo looked great as always and I am loving the new eyepiece. I am slowly getting to grips with my scope and the new eyepiece has come at a good time, as I really appreciate it now, as I probably would not have as much a few weeks ago. M13 was a big smudge when found, but at least I found it. Will do a more formal learning viewing of the heavens from 'Turn Left at Orion' on the next available night from my garden. Happy days, aren't clear nights nice. ps, i really really don't get on with the 130EQ starpointer. might invest in a laser pen or even more extravagently, a finderscope.
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