Ibbo!

Good catch.

Sun put in an appearance here, but "we" had a hospital appointment.

You of course have to be very careful doing this while the sun is above the horizon,.

I have a fixed setup so I can use goto but even so I always check the sun is not in the FOV while doing this using a solar filter and a the camera.

NO HUNTING BE VERY CAREFUL.

another trick is to use a wall to block the sun

I managed this run in March 2017.

FS 102 and Blacfly cam

And this in 2018

WO 132 and Chameleon cam

This year I would like to get venus over a longer period of time and with more f/l.

I also have another filter on the way.

From yesterday afternoon.

I find it easier when the sun is above the horizon.

35 minutes ago, NenoVento said:

I've come across with info recomending the 642 nm for SCT of 8" and smaller, and the 807 nm for 10" and bigger, I suppose due to the heavy light filtering that they do. However, you are using an 80ED so maybe the 642 nm is a better option, which you will probably get to notice if you use a barlow, for instance.

NV

I've read that as well.

With the SCT I would have to do some stitching and I have been known to miss bits 🤣

Still definitely not doing the moon.

A couple of Luna shots with the Ed80 using ir 807 and 2nd IR642 filters

and not much between them.

IR807

IR 642

2 minutes ago, Merlin66 said:

The ITF (Induced transmission Filter) is usually the filter element placed before the final narrowband blocking/ sort filter in an Ha set-up.

These are subject to failure.....luckily we found a suitable replacement from Maier Optronics.

 

Mine was supplied by Lunt.

Next stop will be a Maier.

1 hour ago, GreatAttractor said:

Looks great & uniform. What's the telescope?

60mm Lunt double stacked with a Coronado rich tuner 1200 blocking filter and a point grey research chameleon cam.

Gathered with Genika stacked with AS3 processed using ImPPG (thank you very much) and photoshop

36 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

Looking good. What’s an ITF?

Its the blue filter before the blocking filter - it can go cloudy

It would have been the Starlink satelite group.

Well done for your perseverance.

It has been 3 weeks since I managed a shot of the sun.

The promised sunny xmas day did not happen here, there was supposed to be a window today, again a no show.

Tomorrow looks good.

I have got a new ITF filter for my Lunt and I am really wanting to see if the image improves.

8 hours ago, Mike JW said:

Dower House - that takes me back. Mike

It was an early one as well as we were all in the bottom field.

I remember seeing this at Dower House (original equinox star party venue) it must be over 20 years ago.

I think it was an 18" (maybe 15") and it was not my scope or found by me.

It was very faint and I had to use averted vision to see it to start with.

I made a note of it and imaged it later with ccd.

Depends on the camera back focus.

I looked at the 200mm and decided that the 25mm back focus was an issue with the cameras that I already have.

I only took 1 O3 and dropped O3 once I saw the downloaded image.

Using APP I blended in a bit of Ha and S2 on the 1 O3 sub.

Then in PS I used the selective colour method based on http://bf-astro.com/hubblep.htm

And final noise reduction in Topaz denoise.

As its NB I reckon it is reasonable work around 😉.

1 hour ago, Craney said:

Thanks everybody.    I might have some Copper-ease lying around.   Subliminally thought it was for copper !! (Doh!!).

I think I will avoid any aerosol based applicators...... I can see some optical surfaces getting a coating  !! (Double-doh!!)

Good plan  avoid aerosol stuff.

I have tried a small smear on the threads and it does work.

2 hours ago, xtreemchaos said:

me too, the weathers stagnant here still. great image as allways Steve. charl.

Thanks Charl, it has been a drought.

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Too low here now, what happened to the minimum ending in 2019 ?

Dave

Yes this one was bouncing along the top of the garage roof even with the extension on the tripod.

I have a spot marked out round the corner once I have the mobile solar rig fully sorted and it is over farmland once activity picks up.

Not done one of these for a while.

Lunt 60mm & Coronado DS with PGR Chaleon cam

500ish frames of 2200 stacked in AS3 prodded and poked with IMPPG and PS

clicking might get the full res mage

Very nice first prom.

Still not doing the moon

Might need a click or 2 for full res.

200mm Meade SCT using 2 different cams mono and colour

Mono Chameleon cam

Colour with the ZWO 178

I use some Wychwwod Carp  fishing boots with the liners.

Recently I got some marino socks from mountain warehouse which are quite good.

do not excede what i call "crictical sock mass" by squashing too many socks into your boots and losing the insulating air pockets.

1 hour ago, william123 said:

 

Steve:

Let me make sure I understand:  You believe the focusers on new FLT132's are alright?  Are the retractable dew shields on new 132's still a bit floppy?

I'm not finding much information about the 132's on the web.

Thank you.

William

Hi William Yes I believe that is correct.

The dew shield on mine does not slip back down the tube it just sags a bit.

Drop an e-mail to FLO I am positive they will set your mind at rest.