MarsG76

This is a personal opinion and I clean my glass and mirrors this way..... I think that touching or "scraping" glass and mirrors will compromise the coatings over time so the best way to clean the optics is not to touch it.... what I do is first blow off any dust or bigger particles with a blower and when that's done, I wash down the optics with distilled water out of a spray bottle....than wash the surface down with 100% isopropyl alcohol and than lastly wash it all down with distilled water and let it dry naturally. Make sure that you use distilled water otherwise the minerals in regular water will dry on you optics. It dries streak free and very clean, and touching it is not necessary...

I think just like other aspects of astronomy, what seems to be out of the reach of amateurs now, can and most likely will be proven wrong in the future... I mean amateur astronomers come out with images today that were thought impossible outside of the professional realm... quite often amateur images are better than what the pros come out with..... Comet impacts on Jupiter were mainly spotted by amateurs in the recent past too.... so its very interesting.

I'm sure that it wouldn't be the only one...

Definitely.. when I'm in that part of the world I'll be visiting Jordell Bank... Get some drone aerial shots.

Thanks.

??? How???

As it should be..... I

;-/ Sun being very quiet... can't wait for the Solar Maximum....

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.... that is some good [removed word] hot proms right there....

+ vote for APT..... awesome astro tool

Now that is a testament to the quality for that Canon lens.

I got my hands on BBC Planets 2019 by Brian Cox series and I was lucky enough to source HD 1080p version with DTS audio... I liked it.... I didn't find the lens flares (as mentioned here) too much at all and thought that the CGI was very good and very crisp on a 75" screen... I enjoyed the series.... I know that I'm "Jonny come lately" but thanks you for the heads up.

Never know what I might do in the future.. but right now I'm happy with what I have.. the only thing I can do with more is telescope time....

Yeah exactly... Its just a hobby not a religion.. just do what keeps people happy and satisfied in amateur astronomy, even if its of differing opinions...

Ultimately a RP is still more gear in the chain... and SP pro is still running on "dreaded" windows... might be beneficial if USB cables need to be so long that they are problematic and you can use a RPi as a "buffer"... but than you can also setup USB over ethernet.... more than one way to skin a cat, really... all to their own.

I disagree... I did look into it, the whole "control" computer in a small package that I could just VNC into... this was appealing but I have my system working how I like it, its stable and I'm going to give Pi a miss.... perhaps later a Pi like device will be made that windows compatible, or when I need to upgrade than a mini PC kind of setup looks more attractive to me. Look, everyone to their own.... would be boring if everyone had the same interests and equipment.

When you say "Internal size" do you mean the area you would need to store the scope?

NO.. and as far as I can see when I read about using the Raspberry Pi for astro when you have a dedicated astro laptop of computer, is that using a Pi is just another piece of equipment in the chain, another link for something to go wrong and I do see how it would make astronomy/astrophotography easier or more reliable.

Very cool.. who said that space isn't "green"?

I love that detail.. there is a staggering amount of detail in those shots..... awesome spheres.

Hopefully in the next couple of nights (when I'm off from work) I'll have a nice high pressure atmosphere with zero atmospheric winds and will be able to get my 2019 keeper shot.

I remember when I was putting my imaging system together... those companies, along with OPT Corp were great help.... I was able to get my system together with very minimal unnecessary extra expense on bits and pieces I didn't need.

Have you got a photo?

I wrekken you nailed that Pelican.

Nice work.