Space Cowboy

As Kon says the filter is not the issue it's the scope that's very unsuitable for UV imaging. Even a 5" Newtonian would struggle. You might have a chance of some detail with a 462 mono but I wouldn't bet on it. I've seen good UV detail using the 462 colour cam but only with a much larger scope.

When intelligent input is lacking I always fall on the humour 🙂 At the end of the day you want a scope that provides a knockout punch even if there are a few wobbly moments on the way.

Nice captures Neil. Considering the sub 20 degree elev. Must be very pleasant out at that time in a morning.

Nicely done Neil. Warming up the Stella engine 😉

Fantastic collection Kostas! Love the presentation! Beautifully processed and skillfully captured.

I'd been looking at your mono Lunar Neil and came to this and was struck by the green. Must be my eyes or the heat! As you say the sky wasn't dark during capture. Need to get back to processing the f17 full crescent mosaic. Unfortunately processing each pane individually produces variable colour balance. I need to get more familiar with gimp as it seems the only program on my system that can handle the beast as a whole.

I must be going colour blind as this looks so green.

Phenominal level of detail!

I would certainly recommend the 462 mono 🙂 Even at the oversampled size the gain was below 50%.

Thanks Kostas but I'm sure if you had a bigger DOB with tracking you'd be looking down at my level 😉

We're starting to get into some proper Saturn meat there Neil!

My first light with the qhy462 mono was at approx f20 and that was smaller than your image. I then swapped to around f14 and the difference was striking. Bear in mind the 462 sensor is much more sensitive to UV than the 290 so if f20 is too much for the 462 it's going to make the 290 really struggle.

I can't do any better Pete. Your image scale is very large at least 30% larger than what I've been shooting at and your scope is smaller than mine so your signal is very weak. I think thats the main issue.

Cheers Michael! When the weather is good anything is possible.

Thanks Neil! Hopefuly it wont be another 10 years before I get seeing this good again 😉

Possibly the SCT is not helping but I think there is more in that image. I'd be interested to have a play with a stacked TIFF file straight out of AS3 if you like. 🙂 Quite often I've been initially disappointed with my UV shots.

Cheers Kostas! I could have got another 30 mins on the 4th darn it. Didn't realize the clouds moved that much. The 3rd was the thicker blanket type cloud we saw on the 7th.

Just a matter of contrast adjustment.

Couple of animations from the 3rd and 4th. These were taken with the Skywatcher Auto Flextube 250 Dobsonian & QHY462 mono + bessel U filter. A 2x ultima barlow was used with an extension tube. I'm guessing fl was around f14. Elevation was between 39 and 26 degrees. June 3rd was captured between 19.41 & 20.26 ut. June 4th between 19.02 & 19.52 ut. 45 mins and 50 mins :

You've been a trailblazer these last few weeks Kostas. I've been inspired by your work on Venus and have spent a lot of money as a result but its been worth it! Completley echo what Neil said about your remarkable collection of images. Seeing was horrendous last night but we can look forward as you say to the big 2 later this year.

Yep, like blasting the secondary with a hair drier. I packed up without even attempting to image lol Looks clear again next week after the weekend thunder.

You've done well there Neil. I've never seen such bad seeing as there was for Venus. Impossible to focus.

Cheers Kostas! As Forrest Gump once said "Venus is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get" 😉

Thanks! I've been surprised by how much Venus has had to offer. I'd never bothered before with UV.

Yes, I wondered if the limbs were going to be burnt out after sharpening! The crescent is developing fast now. We've been so lucky to have the good conditions when there was still plenty of surface area.