Demonperformer

Thanks. I've always said we Brits have more to celebrate of July 4th than the Americans!! (grabs tin helmet and dives for cover) Excellent image of a well-themed target.

Very nice result, Adrian. Hoping to have a go at this with the duo filter when the nights get a bit longer, but I'm sure the result will not be as spectacular.

I see what you mean. My first thought was it looks like M57 at an oblique angle, but of course, M57 is actually a sphere and we are seeing the edges because they look denser from here. Something is obviously causing the gas to expand faster in one axis than the other - no idea what - similar reasons to NGC 7009 maybe?

Missed it. But they keep missing me, so fair's fair.

Hi, Andrew, and welcome to SGL from another UKAI member (we are a "facebook" group now). This is a great resource for AP. A simple Y-mask (I believe the technical term is a Lord Mask) is easy to make and quite effective for focussing. Enjoy the journey.

Hi, Rick, and welcome to SGL. Enjoy the journey.

Hi, Mark, and welcome to SGL. If AP is your passion, this book is worth getting. It will save you time and money in the long run. Enjoy the journey.

Hi, David, and welcome to SGL. Enjoy the journey.

Hi, MM617, and welcome to SGL. If AP is your passion, this book will save you time, money and heartache in the long run. Enjoy the journey.

I agree with what you are saying, but my "astro-snapshot" approach is slightly different. My screen is only 1280x7-something. Having an image that is any bigger than that is pointless because, as you say, the computer will automatically shrink it. So I will tend to either crop the image for framing (my images don't support the use of the word "artistic") reasons, or to resize it, so that I end up with a file that will display "at 100%" on my screen. This file tends to be considerably smaller than the one I get out of the camera, so saves me storage space on the disk and (if anyone should be foolhardy enough to want a copy!) bandwidth (mine and theirs). It also saves space on the SGL servers if I choose to upload it here. Anything bigger is just a waste of resources as far as I am concerned.

Hi, Las Vega, and welcome to SGL. I did most of my early imaging using a 102slt (on the altaz mount!) and a DSLR. I like the M57 shot. As for Albireo, I suspect you might get a better result if you dial back the exposure time - the colours have got lost. Experiment a bit, but I suspect you will get good colour results (which is at least half the joy of Albireo shots) in the "couple of second" region. Of course, you won't get as many background stars ... Enjoy the journey.

That is good to know. We look forward to seeing some great images now ...

Hi, Nikki, and welcome to SGL. For 30+ years in this hobby I had nothing bigger than a pair of 7*50 binoculars. I still use them to "cruise the sky" while the scope is imaging. So telescope is not vital (but they are nice to have!). Enjoy the journey.

My contents cover is useless for the astro gear. Well, that's not totally true ... it is all covered as long as it is inside the HOUSE. The moment I take it outside the front door (which I find to be a good first step in actually using it) any item of equipment that costs more than £350 is not covered at all. Costs of policies to cover the equipment in use were stupidly prohibitive. So a few years ago I cut through the entire problem and designated one of my share holdings as "Astro Insurance". If anything gets lost/damaged, that is what I will sell to provide the replacement. In the mean time it is giving me a nice annual dividend, and simple logic would dictate that most insurance is money wasted ... otherwise the companies would quickly go out of business.

Interesting question, to which I cannot provide an answer. But it's got me wondering if there are any papers out there that apply objective math to the question rather than just a subjective "I can see more"?

Very nice result.

Can't answer your question, but be assured. Our policy here is: the only stupid question is the one you don't ask. We have plenty of experienced people on here who will provide an answer for you shortly.

Hi, Nigella, and welcome to SGL ... despite not saying "hello" for so long! Enjoy the journey.

Keep them loaded and use what you need. Although it is not uncommon to use LRGB in rotation (LLLRGB LLLRGB, etc).

The other night, I got a rather weird thing happen using Sharpcap. In live-stacking, the first image arrived and it was full of stars. So, without changing any settings, I did a "platesolve" (which also realigns the scope) to centralise my target. It did its single frame capture and I got a practically blank screen and a message saying it could only detect 3 stars. I tried reducing the "sigma" setting, as advised by the on-screen message, with little effect. What gets me is that the same settings produced a whole mass of stars in each of the subs that were being live-stacked. Never had this happen to me before, and no, of course I didn't do anything intelligent like saving the log file! I can always try to replicate this next time (although I always find trying to replicate something that isn't working to be a weird activity in itself!), but on the off-chance that anyone can see what was happening without the log file, I thought I would ask. Thanks.

That sounds like a very nice scope. Hope you continue to get views that are worthy of it.

Tried to get this the other night, but (as it was just getting dark enough) it was disappearing behind the trees. I agree that your result is not bad at all. Thanks for sharing.

There is a C filter, which is like the L but with (without?) the IR block (can't remember which way round they are). Some people also have a special IR-pass filters for imaging the moon and planets. And some use a set of UBVIR filters for photometry. There are also other less usual filters. I have a CH4 filter for (particularly) Jupiter & Saturn. I also have an NE3 filter for (particularly) planetary nebulae. So that's another nine options ... where can I get a 16-position filter wheel ?

clearoutside is saying zero cloud for me from Wed evening through Saturday night (as far as it goes so far). But they have made promises like that before!

Oh, and Q is the quantum efficiency of the chip