Hypernova

Thanks guys, I'll have to keep trying if we get any more clear skies. There a humpback railway bridge nearby where I think I may be able to get a better view of the comet from. If love to practice more with different exposure settings too. I did try a 10 seconds exposure but at 55mm there was quite noticeable start trailing. I think I may have to try multiple short exposures of 5 seconds and attempt stacking, which is something I've not tried before.

Here is my first attempt at capturing a comet with my Canon 600d. I still have a lot to learn to get the best out of this camera and it's lens but I'm pretty pleased with this single exposure. 

This was taken at ISO 400, f/5.6 and 5 seconds shutter speed.

I wish I had access to a better vantage point, the view from my back garden is less than ideal and has recently got worse with the construction of new houses behind.

They are also experimenting with darker coatings on their recent launches to make them less reflective and not as much as a nuisance to astronomers. The full constellation of 20000+ satellites could pose a serious risk to ground based observation for to their sheer number and brightness, so SpaceX is taking measures to mitigate that.

I've got NGC 2440, a planetary nebula.

I managed to catch it tonight with the 200p dob. Kind of tricky from my back garden with the amount of light pollution around but it's definitely there and in better condition than Y4 from the last time I saw that on the 22nd of March.

I see, I'm glad at least that my camera isn't duff and I need to go trough the faff of sourcing a replacement.

I'll keep what you've both said in mind for the future, thanks 😀

Thanks for your reply. I have tried using the manual sensor cleaning mode but it didn't make a difference to the result, the hot pixels are still present just as bad as before.

I have successfully used Photoshop (which I've never, ever used before now) to subtract the pixels using the dark frame from my last post. It produces some artefacts in the shape of small back holes where the hot pixels were, I presume with some more knowhow these could be remedied.  It's not ideal and I would've hoped to be able to shoot up to 30s without a mass of hot pixels invading my image 😕

Hi all,

I've been on this forum ages as a mainly observer with some planetary webcam photography. I have taken a long break from astronomy for various reasons and I've been trying to haul myself back in to the game. Since we've all but been confined to our homes I'd thought I'd try out DSLR photography since I've never owned one. I ended up buying a Canon 600d and standard 18-55mm lens this week from CEX for a a reasonable price. So far I've been pleased with it and have been getting to grips with the various settings and manual zoom and focus options, it's certainly a huge leap from a smartphone and compact digital cameras.

Tonight though I tried out long exposure for the first time using some settings similar to what I used  on my old IXUS 95; around 10-15 seconds exposure, ISO 100-400 and F3.5. The initial shots seem hopeful but the images are pockmarked with hot pixels. The blue, red and white pixels all seem to be in the same place and are present even with shots with the lens cap on. They can be removed with the camera's noise reduction setting but that requires another exposure of equal length to be taken right after the first.

Are these hot/stuck pixels typical of what I should be experiencing or is this abnormal and indicative of a defective sensor/camera?

Cheers 😁

I've just had my refund through from FLO, I hadn't checked the forum beforehand but I suspected that rain might've had something to do with it. Like what's already been said, I'm glad the decision has been made with plenty of notice and I think it's the right call. Hopefully I'll get a chance to attend the next SP in the new year sometime.

I must post an updated pic of my eyepiece case with the new and decidedly heavy UWAN. I now find that the case is a lot weightier on one side now and quite a bit more of a strain to carry

I only have a pair of Celestron 15x70s, I can hand hold them for a short while but they need to be supported by a tripod to get the best out of them.

Was £10 a pricing error?

- that Jessops link comes up with £1.95 for that foam now...

Mine came in at 95p when bought some a couple of weeks ago. There are two to chose from IIRC which are different sizes and a £1 apart in price, and I was sure I ordered the £1.95 one

I finally have had my eyepiece case rearranged with the addition of of a new, yes new eyepiece. It is the same old Maplins case but I have taken the old foam out and replaced it with the Jessops stuff that I bought the other week, it is less firm than the old and was too big so I had to cut it to size to fit the case.

It is still a small collection, I could do with a couple of high power eyepieces that fit between 6 and 9mm and maybe a decent widefield.

Left to right, the case contents are:

*14mm Antares Speers-Waler

*6mm Williams Optics SPL

*32mm Celestron Omni plossl

*9mm Skywatcher 66

*My two eyepiece extensions, rear bike light (cheap red torch), LensPen & cheshire collimator

*Antares 8% moon filter

Just had my first ever imaging session with my dob and the webcam. Results are in the imaging section

Wahay!!! I have managed to flash both cams with the spc900 firmware and get them to run on my vista 64 laptop

Had a problem with the register software as it keep locking up at the "backup and saves as" step, so I ad to miss that bit out and load the firmware straight on. But now it's on and they capture well in wxastrocapture so I think that'll be the be the one I'll use from now on.

And thanks yet again Russ for taking the time to upload your tutorial and do all the necessary research, much appreciated.

I finally received my two from Morgans to complement the one from Dion. And a plus, I also got my nosepiece from Wayne thank you great service and quite nicely made too.

I will have a go at flashing the cams in a minute and then I will get down to praying for clear skies tonight

Also I'd like to know if wxastrocapture is a good capture program to use?

K3CCD free won't run on vista 64 and craterlet won't keep my settings fixed, such as the frame rate for example, keeps changing back to 30fps when I have set to 10fps and saved it

Still waiting for mine to arrive from Morgans. I haven't had any emails notifying me of my order being dispatched, just the order confirmation.

But good news anyway, my nosepiece from wayne and my 28mm extension are on their way

Cheers Russ

Just one question, how do I install the webcam in the first place using the .inf file from the website as you say at the start of your message?

Hi russ thanks for the tutorial, probably should be made a sticky in the primers section or in imaging somewhere.

I luckily have a computer that runs XP that I just remembered about, it is old though and runs a pentium 3 processor and thankfully has usb (1.1) ports but it should do to flash the two webcams that are on their way.

And I have also just ordered a nosepiece from Wayne's site, I was kicking myself last night for not ordering one earlier in the week because it was the clearest it had been all month and I bet jupiter would have been a great object to image.

Hi everyone,

Good service as always from First Light Optics. I ordered a bottle of Baader Optical Wonderfluid and microfibre cloth last Wednesday, I was surprised when it hadn't arrived by the following Wednesday. I sent an e-mail to James and he informed promptly that it was out of stock due a problem with his suppliers.

I asked if it was possible to order an alternative item, a Celestron lenspen. He quickly altered my order, refunded me the difference and sent the item out later the same day.

It arrived today and I am very pleased with it. Excellent and friendly staff and great company to deal with