matt_baker

Going to head out tonight and hopefully get another successful mosaic with the moon high in the sky. Fingers crossed it works

The next two days are clear and the moon is high in the sky, so should be very good for a compilation of the moon phases and some more high res mosaics! But my hard drive might be a bit full with the amount of panels I'll need for a 50% moon

1 hour ago, vineyard said:

That is beautiful.  There's an excellent sense of vertigo (as if on a v steep mountain face) when looking at the left hand side in closeup (10 o'clock-ish).  Only Q I can come up is that when you zoom in on the big mar (if that's what it's called?), there are little black dots - are those features or is that something on the camera or the processing.  It's a beautiful piece - you could sell prints of that!

I'm pretty sure they're craters, I hope they're not dust specks!

Taken with a Celestron C14 pier mounted on a CGE (old) and QHY5L-II M @ 30fps 1280x960

23 Panels in total 

Stacked in AutoStakkert! 3, stitched in ICE and processed in PI and PS

Could have done more sharpening but I felt like it'll be too unnatural, especially up close.

Final PNG came out at 8272x4108 or 33.9MP

CC is welcome

Matt 

Is there actually any difference in sensitivity between a modded 60D and a 60Da?

1 hour ago, CaptainShiznit said:

Asking here for 130PDS owners rather than start a new thread. What coma correctors are people using and would recommend?

Baader MPCC MkIII since the Skywatcher one causes reflections on very bright targets such as the horsehead

4 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

The 60D is actually far better than the 600D, It has many more features including a custom option on the mode dial that lets you lock in any AP settings you want to use, it also uses the Canon "pro" camera batteries so if you ever add a 5d/6d/7d it will use the same ones.

Alan

 

Apart from the pro batteries, I'll be controlling the camera using APT

1 minute ago, michael8554 said:

Both camera are DIGIC 4, so I wouldn't expect much difference in performance. 

However the 60D is much heavier, which might have a bearing on focuser sag.......... 

Michael 

That's what I was thinking, I actually went ahead and bought the 60D so we'll see. 

54 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

As reiterated elsewhere, the lower the numbers in a Canon camera series, the better the camera... 

So the 60D(a) will be better than the 600D(a) camera.

I'm just wondering if the price difference is justifiable between either waiting for a 600d or going for the 60d now, especially in terms of noise difference

Just now, Davey-T said:

D you mean 60d and 600d ? the 60Da is a dedicated astro' camera from Canon.

Dave

Sorry yes I mean those two but both modified for astro. And when I say 60D I mean one that's been modified, not the 60Da by canon themselves

I've got enough money to spend on a new camera which is going to be astro modified. I just don't know if I should wait and get a 600Da and get one for about £225 or buy a 60D that's been modded right now for £300 with a CLS-CCD filter included with it?

M45 - The Pleiades

50*180s 2.5 Hours Intergration

Nikon D5300, 130PDS, HEQ5 Pro

Processed in Pixinsight

Had my first go at processing some data from the Liverpool telescope, and what better way than to start with the M1 Crab Nebula

Processed in Pixinsight, combining Ha with RGB data and following Warren Keller's workflow

9 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

Congratulations on your 1st prom!

Thank you!

I did a test with my dad inside but not near the scope and it seemed to not dew up at all but the next night comes around, he's up there and it dew's back up again.

Might be the issue I think

Here's an edit just showing the prominence

I got myself a QHY5L-II the other day and today was clear so I decided to give it a shot and hey ho, I guess it worked

I used a Lunt LS60THa to capture this with a 2x barlow and Sharpcap. Processed in photoshop and PixInisight

7 minutes ago, vernmid said:

Just the standard one that came with the scope.

Fair enough 😃

Sorry should've clarified, I meant for the guide scope

8 minutes ago, vernmid said:

I think I beat this with a bin bag and rubber band 😃

What dovetail bar length is that?

I'm not sure if this is total coincidence but I tightened up the corrector plate a tad on all of the screws and the dew seems to have disappeared on the inside while in use?

Does that mean there's a seal on the inside that was a tad loose and allowed moisture to creep in?

It was at about 30 degrees for me last night which is much higher than it has been over here.

I think when I know it's clear, I'll go over and open up the dome and scope to let it acclimatise and cool to ambient(ish)

How much would having the dew heater turned on hinder the seeing, since I've been having issues with the inside of the corrector dewing up?

Not sure if these are much of an improvement but I managed to get out last night and take these

Also since it's a mono cam and all it has is a clear window, what filter should I be using for the moon?

This is what the inside of the corrector looked like tonight

When not in use, I point the scope down and have the desiccant cap on, but this just doesn't seem to be working

I have no idea at the moment how to rectify this, it could be to do with the atrocious weather we've had over the last few weeks.

Matt

I was thinking what about circulating the warm air out by using a hairdryer on a cool setting by sticking it up the drawtube

I have a dew heater placed behind the corrector on full power, plus a 2 inch desiccant plug on the visual back whenever not in use, but still everytime I fire the scope up in the obsy, the inside of the corrector plate will always dew, right by the secondary expanding outwards 

Any ideas to help fix this?

Getting a dehumidifier maybe?