Yawning Angel

Thank you! For a reference point this was taken with the same scope, 6 years ago

Thank you!

toned this down a little. It was, to my eyes, a little pinker than it should be

Thank you!

During this planetary season I've tried to focus on getting my C8 to perform to a level I'm happy with. It's had an external focuser and motor, the Celestron dew rings (great bit of kit!) and a new camera. I even put a handle on the top rail! Lavished it with care, only for disaster to strike in the form of somehow managing to strip the aluminium threads out of one of the collimation screw holes! After some panicky Googling and a fruitless search for a replacement secondary holder I bit the bullet, drilled it out and tapped it M4. After rebuilding it I was dubious (and started window shopping for a C11😇) but it collimated up remarkably well with the OCAL (oh, that should have been on the list too) Star testing brought it to a point I was happy with so on the 30th I tried it out on Jupiter (and later Mars) to see if it was behaving 26 x 120 sec on Jupiter until the clouds moved me away, 5ms @ 350 gain and about 200fps giving around 24,000 frames per file. Seeing wasn't dreadful, which is good by the standards of NW England - some passing haze and thin clouds Batch stacked all of them at 50% with the intention of making a short animation, but on review the small pause to refocus was really noticeable, so I thought to experiment with derotating the lot and seeing what WinJupos could make of it I'm not sure I can expect much more from 8" 52 mins exposure time - Celestron C8, ZWO ADC, TS x1.5 barlow, IR/UV filter / Player One Mars C ii

Thank you! I think there were 6 contiguous panels that could be combined

Thank you! I had to recheck the frames for Io, because I thought it vanishing early was a stacking error 🙂 Kind of you to say so, thank you

Thank you!

So much data! 45 minutes of captures, 15 videos, 135gb. 18000 frames per file via FireCapture. 10% stacked in AS!3 Processed in PixInsight, animation in Photoshop Io rotating behind and Europa just after a transit Celestron C8 / x2 Powermate/ Player One Mars Cii

Cheers! I was quite happy with the colours in this: I've not previously got the same balance from OSC that I could get with mono

Thank you!

Not a massive resolution, but some detail clearly showing - aided I think by a ZWO ADC Celestron C8 / x2 Powermate / QHY5iii462c + IR/UV cut

Not the clearest evening on the 17th, but a shadow transit and the GRS was a powerful lure! 71 frames (before the weather interrupted with finality!) compiled into the bounce animation in PS Celestron C8 / x2 Powermate / QHY5iii462c + IR/UV cut

During the evening of the 17th I was noodling about with some Jupiter imagine, with a side excursion to the Moon and Mars. This is an accidental mosaic assembled from my random snapping away at interesting features - I only noticed opportunity when I processed them as a batch I've been very disappointed with the C8 for quite a while, as it gave very soft images no matter how I tweaked the collimation - and then I replaced the Bob's Knobs with hex cap bolts. Absolutely night and day the difference. It actually holds alignment from night to night! Oh, and the Celestron dew heater rings work really well and are very tidy 👍 Celestron C8 / x2 Powermate / QHY5iii462c + IR/UV cut

Thank you! The start of the GRS transit was blocked by trees, and any further capture after that was blocked by the need for sleep 🙂

Thank you. The air was very wet, but seeing did marginally improve into the wee small hours

Cheers! So much data rendered down to a 25 frame gif 🙂

Thank you!

Jupiter from last night. 25 frames derotated from 75 capture (90sec RG and B each, 117gb!) files over about 2 hours Celestron C8, x2 powermate, Player One Apollo 174m

Celestron C8 / x2 Powermate / asi178mm bin2 Fighting a bit of a windy evening, but pretty chuffed with how this turned out. 3000 frames per channel - IR bandpass + RGB, 15% stacked

Celestron C8, asi178mm (bin2), Powermate x2 - 4000mm f20 1500 frame each in RG and B plus IR bandpass (ProPlanet 642). AS!3 Stacked 25% Aligned in imPPG Sharpened each channel with PixInsight RestorationFilter LRGB combination with the IR as Luminance Finally a slight curves adjustment to saturation

I was away when this one kicked off, so I assumed I'd not have a chance - but it lingers on Imaged twice, for limb and surface detail. Clouds spoilt the last panel, but hey ho

Imaged this morning at 700mm, since I was about to pack up from an evening on the Veil nebula. LRGB filters / asi1600mm roi 640 x 480 then resample up x2 for visibility. Use what you've got (mounted) 🙂

Captured during the clear spell this week, amounting to 10 hours of exposures APM 107/700 - asi1600mm - Baader filters - iOptron CEM60 48 x 5min Luminance 24 x 5 min each RG&B Very much a version 1 process of the data - I'm used to brighter targets 🙂

Thank you!