fireballxl5

Although I'm lucky and my SM125 is not affected, I'd like to know which polish is recommended should maintenance be required in the future.  Not that I abuse my scopes lol, accidents do happen when you're tired early in the morning🙃

Nice detail Mike.

I also had good views of Saturn last night, not so far away from yourself in Preston using my SM125. 

CS, Andy

The FS60CB and its extender make a great portable rig for solar eclipses...

I used Cuiv's guide to install the CUDA bits & pieces for GPU acceleration. This works under Win10 Pro with a GTX980 here. 

Ten-fold speed improvement for the one comparison test I ran when 1st installed👍I'm easily convinced lol

A brief chance to use the scope last night before the cloud rolled in and it gave some pleasant views of Saturn low in the SE at around midnight. I managed to capture some video and produce this image. A little noisy, though not surprising given the planet's low 20 degree altitude.

SM125 / TV PM2.5 / UVIR-cut / ADC / ASI462MC

Best 75% of 6000 3ms subs

After "first sunlight" yesterday afternoon the skies stayed clear for a regular first light last night. 

I had time for a reasonable session,  selecting mainly binaries, but also M13, M92, M27 and M57. The DSOs were a challenge owing to lack of proper darkness here at 53°N  so the binaries really showed off the performance of the scope.  Using a TV 3-6mm zoom,  stars were tight balls of light with nicely formed diffraction rings.  Star colours were obvious and reminded me why I prefer visual observation with a refractor🙂 The colours in Almach and Albireo in particular were rich and bright.  Lots of others gave similarly fine views. Excellent scope,  I'll be keeping mine👍

CS, Andy

Received mine today after ordering on Friday afternoon.  Close inspection found some glue on the tube from the felt liner on the rings after fitting and adjusting the rings, nothing major.  

Quick look at the Sun and very impressed by the view, showing fine surface detail and nicely resolved sunspots.

Will check nighttime performance over coming weeks.  Looking good so far👍

14 hours ago, GTom said:

Can't find many other 12-13Ah (150Wh) LiFePO4 units.

They fall outside your range so don't maximise the allowance or exceed it, but I've been using the 7Ah and 16Ah models of this Tracer battery for 5+ years now.  They've given excellent performance with a range of astro gear. I've also taken the 7Ah unit on flights a number of times without issue. When I bought the 7Ah airline allowance was only 100Wh.

https://tracerpower.com/products/batteries/tracer-12v-16ah-lifepo4-battery-pack/

Milky Way as seen from Rhossili beach last Wednesday evening, looking out over the Worm's Head.

Canon 6D @ ISO6400 / Samyang 14mm @ f2.8 / fixed tripod / 180x20s (total elapsed time approx 1h10m)

11 hours ago, WolfieGlos said:

I don’t see the Lion

I defo see a lion,  hind legs (in blue) on the ground,  upper torso rearing up (in red, also tail). 

11 hours ago, WolfieGlos said:

never mind Brian May 😆

Here's Brian,  cropped and enhanced on my phone... I think that it's the hair that makes it for me 🙃

11 hours ago, WolfieGlos said:

Great image though.

Thanks!

Does anyone else see Brian May in there?

My most recent shot using my Samsung S22U to image the Sun.  Also first opportunity to try out my pre-loved Lunt 60mm with 50mm double stack unit resulted in this image. 

Afocal single exposure; 8-24mm zoom @ 24mm with 3x optical zoom on the phone. Mounted using the Move-Shoot-Move phone holder. Processed on the same phone using Snapseed.

CS, Andy

I managed to capture it later in the afternoon using a borrowed Lunt35 - thanks @moriniboy - and an ASI585MC camera / x2.5PM.

Best 500 / 2000, processed in PIPP / AS!3 / DxO PhotoLab4

Animation showing appearance of SN2023ixf in galaxy M101 last month using two images, first captured in March-April 2018 and then with the supernova on 21st May 2023 (image in original post here).

2018 image captured using a 6" refractor and 'old school' mono-CCD with LRGB filters over 4 nights, with 2023 image using a 6" RC and OSC CMOS camera.

Colour balancing between the two isn't perfect but the result isn't so bad IMHO...

Bright sky here with some haze, but managed to capture untracked shots at high ISO using my DSLR/Zoom lens.

28 subs stacked; 1/4s, f7.1, ISO25600

How lucky am I? My image was used by ITV News in an article describing research by Dr Joanne Pledger, an astrophysicist at the University of Central Lancashire.

The local society (PADAS) that I'm a member of has strong links with UCLan through use of the Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory on Moor Park in Preston and public outreach activities. 

Article link:

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2023-05-28/astrophysicist-identifies-star-that-exploded-21-million-light-years-away

Just a download from a Facebook post I made, so not the best quality, but still cool 😁

On 29/05/2023 at 21:33, MKHACHFE said:

Excellent work

Thanks. 

On 29/05/2023 at 21:33, MKHACHFE said:

your noise reduction seems a touch too high

Owing to the bright sky here at almost 54°N the background was pretty noisy though I thought that I'd only applied a moderate level of noise reduction using NXT.

Imaged last weekend on Sunday 21st May, the supernova in M101.

RC6 / ASI533MCP / IDAS D2 LPF / 24x300s (2h) / 20230521

This new Borg 125FL sounds interesting if,  likely,  expensive

Open star cluster NGC2175 is embedded within nebulosity Sh2-252, commonly known as the Monkey Head nebula (or NGC2174), over in Orion.

Imaged on 3rd Dec just gone from my backgarden in the suburbs of Preston.

3h 40m (22x600s subs) using my 4" refractor (Borg101ED) and OSC camera (ASI533MC) with a dual-band filter (IDAS NBZ).

Processed in PI using BB's HSO and ColorMask scripts to create this tear in the space-time continuum 😁

CS, Andy

On 08/03/2023 at 18:20, mikeDnight said:

Yellow snow is always bad

Yes,  never eat yellow snow is my advice😉

My 15x50 IS have been great for tracking progress of the "green comet"

Yes,  for public outreach it's almost all visual though we have started to get some imaging gear together for society use.  Still missing a camera...  There are a few members who are keen imagers using their own kit, myself included😗

3 minutes ago, YusufS said:

Can I WhatsApp you or Instagram?

There's a messaging system on this forum. It's just for details of how to get your car down to the observatory if you have your scope...

5 hours ago, YusufS said:

have you been to one before

Oh yes,  I'm on the committee of the society and so an active member.  I'll be there tomorrow. DM me for details.