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Whistlin Bob

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Posts posted by Whistlin Bob

  1. It was my first time out for a couple of weeks tonight, and really felt like summer-  a cheeky twenty minutes before bed sat outside in the quiet and warmth with a light jacket on is a true joy.

    Just a few nice bright targets tonight in the 8" dob:

    Venus - lovely half disk, seeing very steady, takes 4mm/300x quite happily. 

    Castor - miles apart at 300x!!

    Mars - it's gotten really small- but nice clear orange disc easily seen. Tried but couldn't make out features.

    Arcturus - there's gold in my eyepiece!

    Izar- not too hard a split at all.

    Cor coroli - Blue and white beauty

    Not many better ways to finish a day off than that!

    • Like 10
  2. I ordered a Quattro 150 last year which arrived in early March. It comes with a dedicated Coma Corrector, and it's taken a little while to get the everything dialled in. It's still not quite right (seems very sensitive to back spacing, and I need to mask off the mirror clips) but I'm pretty pleased with how it's going.

    This is M106 from Thursday night:

    M106LRGB230413.thumb.jpg.d723ae946b85b9b6976fd8dbd8ac462f.jpg

    I like this bit of sky because of all the other little galaxies - here they are in the l image, with the stars xterminated!

    M106LNoStars230413.thumb.jpg.9b73c8a2ecddf3d3439c99e8506d461e.jpg

    and here they are annotated:

    M106Annotated230413.jpg.0d4d8ad86efb5263a72147ee7c1604f3.jpg

    Here's a crop of the main galaxy- which I'm really pleased with. This was my main reason for getting the scope- fast optics (f3.45) and ok sampling (1.55"/pix) means I can do lucky imaging. The l image is the best 60% of 400 15 second images.

    M106LRGBCrop230413.thumb.jpg.d076773d00f28c2bf26ab0483c91de73.jpg

     

     

    • Like 9
  3. 38 minutes ago, josefk said:

    what a fantastically cool spot to be set up observing!

    Yeah- it was pretty awesome. One of those nights when it all comes together. I had it to myself for a few hours, then a guy showed up wanting to photograph the stones against the night sky. Initially we both scared each other, as neither of us expected to be sharing the site in the small hours of a cold October night- but it was good for both of us. His first view through a telescope was m31 in a 14" dob, and I got to learn about light painting from a pro! 

    • Like 3
  4. Here's mine.

    We name stuff in our family- so this is Henrietta - named for the astronomer who first enabled us to measure the distance to galaxies. She's at least third hand: the previous owner bought her to strip the DSCs for an atm project he was working on- not a problem for me as I like star hopping. He thought the previous owner was a London cabbie. She's been with me for five years now, and I very much hope for many more. She fits me perfectly: at zenith, the eyepiece is nicely level with my eyes, at 80kg she's not light, but will fit happily into a medium sized hatchback with the back seats still up.

    I've seen things with her that make me sound like Rutger Hauer. Moonrise over Jupiter. The pup of Sirius. The fossil light of galaxies dancing in the Permian period. If there really are attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, then I'm pretty sure she's gonna get them too. And then share it with anyone fortunate enough to be nearby at the time. 

    Here she is doing her stuff at Castlerigg stone circle a few years ago, the first night I saw the Horsehead

    IMG_7985(2).thumb.JPG.f9aacae07bb3d76298a608d7969a3a7c.JPG

    • Like 17
  5. Just for once, the sucker holes let me play for half an hour. My log is telling me it's the first time out since 23rd Feb. March has been pants!

    I was going for the planet alignment with 8 inch dob and nirvana 4mm ep, but was a little too late for Jupiter or Mercury. Venus was showing beautifully though with a nice bit of phase. It was an easy hop then to Uranus- with green showing nicely even against the twilight.  Next onto Mars- blimey it's gotten small! Like Venus though- it was nice to see a bit of phase.

    Finally over to the moon. At 300x the seeing was a little in and out, but in the best moments the view was spectacular. I scooted up and down the terminator, then lingered on Theophilus, which had it all: the terracing emerging from the shadow looked awesome and the central peak looked like you could reach out and touch it: really superb. Unfortunately the clouds then drifted over- so that was it, but it still felt great to be back in the saddle. 

    • Like 7
  6. It's that time of year when I find myself going to back to M42 again. It's just too tempting, no matter how much I tell myself to explore the enormous number of fresh targets available, I can't resist the lure...

    This is 10 mins of 10s subs for the core, 40 mins of 1 minute RGB subs for the reflection, and then 2 hours of 4nm dual band in 3 minute subs, taken on an SVBony 405cc and blended in Pixinsight.

    My 130pds will be having a holiday for a little while now. 5 years of sterling service from the little newt have convinced me to double down: I've invested in a 150 Quattro which I'm  just having my first steps with. When I get time the plan is to mount it as a dual rig with my 130, but that's a little down the track at the moment...

    M42Composite230226.thumb.jpg.587ca9931712d7e22670705a17c6e528.jpg

     

    • Like 6
  7. On 27/02/2023 at 15:24, carastro said:

    on how ethical it is to present images where all you did was  buy the downloaded data from a hosted site  in the dessert somewhere and all you did was process it. 

    I do a bit of this- it's good fun. I ventured that opinion on a Facebook group and it didn't go too well! I do find it less satisfying than images I've acquired from my own kit, but there's the compensation that it winds judgemental people up 🤣🤣🤣

    It's strange to me that folks can get so animated about how other people choose to enjoy themselves- so long as it doesn't harm others I really can't see the problem- it's comforting that lots of others on here seem to be similarly relaxed.

    • Like 1
  8. Been a busy few weeks for the 130pds.. Firstly, here's a mineral moon- this was 100 shots taken with a Canon 100d stacked in Autostakkert and then saturated enomrously...

    MineralMoon230205.thumb.jpg.17be443815711f721d86714d69d5e653.jpg

    The  it was my weapon of choice for the visit of Comet 2022 e3 ZTF, caught here on 14th Feb flying past NGC 1647 (alright- it wasn't, but you know what I mean!!!). This is 2.5 hrs of 1 minute exposures on an SVBony SV405cc:

    Cometc2022e3ZTF.thumb.jpg.e3440c8d6a2651af538f425ea99ff5ad.jpg

    Finally, here's M78, from the 23rd- this is around 90 minutes of exposures on the SVBony.

    M78RGB230223.thumb.jpg.58f70d31f0bb3d1fc3817ebd9447fa83.jpg

     

     

     

    • Like 3
  9. Work is very busy at the moment, and looking back through my logs I realised I've not yet had a really decent extended session with my 14" dob yet this year. Tonight gave me a really welcome chance to put that right.

    Comet 2022 e3 ztf-  With time (adaptation?) a really good view emerges, NGC1647 visible and comet tail just about there with averted vision (I think... maybe ..)- convinced myself by moving the bright head out of fov. Lovely.
    Rigel for practice on Sirius- lovely clear split at eleven o'clock at 400x mag. 
    Sirius- purple below, red on top and dancing like a glitterball. No pup. Kept thinking I saw it then realising it was a reflection. 
    M42. Trap but no e or f in 4mm: too much magnification. Then first light for 17mm acquired from @azrabella really nice view. Sky definitely murky, but lovely pin sharp stars and great detail on the brightest bit of the nebula. Just about catching e and f. With Oiii lots of detail in the cloud. Running man also easily visible as a big patch with a dark bit in the middle Awesome 😎.
    M1 just the faintest shadow. Could just about discern it with no filter. Oiii didn't help all that much. Really quite tricky.
    Abell 12. Nope! This is a planetary nebula very close to Mu Orion that a mate has been imaging. Tried in 17mm and 8mm with and without Oiii filter- not a hint of it.
    Back to m42 at 8mm. Trap nice and wide, e and f stars winking in and out of view nicely. Main nebula is now just a patch without much texture.
    Christmas tree - lovely view- perfectly fills the Baader zooms 24mm fov.
    Mars- quite small. Just hints of detail. Phase clearly visible
    Then finishing with a couple of stars.
    31 Orion lovely orange, plus faint companion
    Cor coroli blue and white nice

    What a really good satisfying session!

    • Like 5
  10. Glad there was another post to highlight this project- looks great 👍

    I mucked around with a Tair a couple of years ago: lots of fun, but you've taken it much further than I did. 

    Not sure how your getting on, but an important learning for me was that it performed much better at f5.6 than it did wide open. Hope you're having fun with it.

    IMG_20190921_095441413.thumb.jpg.7dba603fd7e4c5bf5912ba1c1da817f6.jpg

    SoulHa200203(1).thumb.jpg.234e4db4fb6ee75c517e658fcfc416bc.jpg

    • Like 2
  11. That's a really nice review. 

    I recommended one of these scopes to some family friends after reading good things about them, but was a bit anxious as I'd never used one myself. I needn't have worried: they brought it round and I helped them set it up and was properly impressed with the views it delivered on a wide range of targets. A ridiculously good piece of kit for the money.

    • Like 2
  12. Thanks @FLO- perhaps the real issue is making impulse purchases at 2am!!! 🤣

    Funny thing is, I would suggest that whilst it may not have been optimal, it did perform pretty well, and yielded some very enjoyable views that I otherwise would not have seen.

    I accept, as a retailer on this forum, you need to guide towards best practice, so I understand the reason for your comment. For everyone else, though, there's fun to be had breaking the rules a little and seeing what happens! 

  13. Interesting thread.

    I bought a 45mm one from the classified section of this site a couple of years ago. The reason for purchase was a 2am decision after a brilliant night using a 30mm Aero in my dob and thinking "yeah- let's go wider" rather than any careful consideration of the lens design or attributes.

    I've tried it in 4 scopes:

    8" f6 dob. Yields wonderful rich field views of the milky way. Not quite as immersive as the 30mm due to smaller afov, and also seems a touch less bright, but better corrected edge to edge. 

    14" f4.7 dob. Edge correction seems to really break down at this speed, but is well restored with a coma corrector. I especially remember startlingly good views of the veil using a coma corrector and Oiii filter where I could easily see huge chunks of the object in one field of view.

    127mm Bresser f9.5 frac. It's much more comfortable at this speed: bright, colorful rich sharp views. Scanning the milky way in summer with this is a joy.

    Sw 72ed. Annoyingly will not reach focus!

    Overall, it's a nice eyepiece. I prefer the 30mm aero because of the wider afov, but for low power observing it's still a fine eyepiece to use. 

    • Like 2
  14. These are all mono only, there's a definite step up from my DSLR, which is a comparatively geriatric 600d. I agree about old lenses: you need to try a few, but this one has been great, and I've got a plastic canon nifty fifty which performs excellently.

    The others I've tried (Chinon 200mm, Paragon 28mm, Tair Photosniper 300mm) have all been a little more flawed, but none have been outright bad.

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