johnfosteruk

Oh, that's a shame. I'm sure the replacement will be just as fun though.

Great news. Stiff upper lip and all that with the breakfast Daz. Looking forward to further updates.

I dusted off my Lunar imaging hat last night after a nice visual session.

This is the best 40 of 150 still frames, process as usual: Pipp>AS!3>IMPPG>Photoshop.

I did put a Barlow in to capture a mosaic but it got cloudy, obviously. I got a few panels which I'll process later though.

Mono

With linear contrast

With strong contrast

Inverted

RGB

Gorgeous. Hope it hangs around until next week. I'm up there for a few days on Tues.

1 hour ago, astroavani said:

I hope colleagues know how to appreciate this detail!

 

This colleague does Avani!! One of the best regions, some of the most interesting craters, and a 'flyover' view as well. Very nicely done.

Lots of nice detail in Maginus too.

Very nice and sharp.

Very nice indeed

Pre-flight stuff is a bit cheesy

But nice to see Commander Hadfield.

8 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

What are either doing to offset the carbon footprints of these projects and flights.

Erm.... Nothing.

The scale completely confounds me, even with graphics, analogies & explanations. I know of a number of greater minds than I who have admitted the same. I can (sort of) comprehend it in terms of orders of magnitude, but beyond a point, what is the... point?

The meaning doesn't trouble me at all, because I don't have any interest in understanding 'why?', only 'how?'. Why is not a useful scientific tool, except for when it is.

As Feynman once said (paraphrasing), when you ask why, you have to be in some framework that you allow something to be true, otherwise you're perpetually asking why....    .....You have to know what you're allowed to understand to be true and what it is that you're not allowed to understand. Why is Aunt Minnie in hospital? Well... don't get Feynman started (or do, because he was brilliant) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GT2zI8lVA, in case you are wondering.

So I allow myself to accept that the universe is unimaginably large and I leave that at that. My emotional response to this is awe. My intellectual response is to try to understand 'how' it got that big (expansion) & what's going on now that it is that size. In other words, within that framework I can still comprehend some of the larger scale process at work, and that's great, it gives me something to do of an evening and keeps me off the street. 

As for life, it would be cool if there was life elsewhere in the universe, unless they want to eat us which, although unlikely, and difficult, would not be cool (actually, that would be just as cool, in a way).  

But isn't it just as amazing, (truly fascinating and tremendously, mind bogglingly awesome) that (probably, possibly) from nothing (or thereabouts), an event gave birth to a 'universe' (possibly more than one event, more than one universe), protons & neutrons were formed, came together under the influence of fundamental forces to form basic elements, this matter started to come together under the influence of gravity (gravity sucks ) and stars ignited, that same force influenced the stars to come together and form galaxies, AND it's influence caused planets to accrete and orbit some of those stars, and on one of those planets, some chemical reactions formed molecules that can SELF REPLICATE (I think that might be more amazing to me than the scale of the universe. Although if I accept that I am allowed to understand it to be true, it is no more or less amazing), then, over (at least) 3,500,000,000 years, occasional errors (really? You're kidding, surely?) in the replication process caused tiny and in most cases, probably imperceptible changes in the design (just kidding), leading ultimately to a collection of molecules that is (a) self aware (b) really good with its hands, and (c) is capable of understanding a good chunk of this chain of events (or at least forming a fairly good theory), AND not only that, is capable of understanding that it is at least possible that there maybe other forms of self aware collections of molecules elsewhere in that universe, even if in fact this is not the case. 

I am completely comfortable with the fact that I will probably never see our kind escape our galaxy, solar system, or maybe even set foot on a neighbouring planet, just the fact we can conceive of such a thing is just wowsers, the fact I can understand the principles is even more so and a real privilege IMO.

As others have said, at a different time, or in a different place, we wouldn't understand the same things we do understand now, here. Imagine if you were born on the planet Krikkit, not going to end well

What makes me more than slightly upset is that with all of this going on, and everything there is to explore, learn, understand, why do so many people concern themselves with petty things. BUT on the other hand, things are better than they were n years ago, aren't they? Those of us who are curious have greater opportunities to do our exploring now than then, more resources at our disposal to aid that learning and understanding.

But anyway, you might say that if I accept the one thing (that there's no need to question why the universe is so big, etc and so on), then for consistency sake, why do I accept the other (that I'm questioning the indifference of some members of my species to all of this). Well who said I have to be consistent? If it weren't for inconsistency (in the replication process) I wouldn't even exist. So I revel and delight in the inconsistency.  

So what's the point of it all then? Don't get me started.. oh, wait.. 

I think I'm done now, and don't actually have a point, but thank you @MKHACHFE, for your thought provoking post.

Fantastic image(s). 

Hi @Mach13, 

If you're going to be using it with the Skymax 127, you're in for a treat I'm sure. Your 127 is going to resolve more detail than my 102, and that's going to give me gear envy 

Settings wise, just a few suggestions. 

• If you're stacking images, don't be afraid of pushing ISO to give decent shutter speeds. I've never needed to go further than 1600 and  I've ended up with decent results on Lunar images. As my 102 has a focal ratio of 12.7, and yours is 11.8, in principle you have an extra stop so should be able to stick to 800 and below I reckon.
• Shoot RAW, obviously, this applies to any DSLR really, more data for the software to work with.
• A word of caution. The AZ GTi payload cap. is 5kg, your 127 weighs 3kg, the D7000 is 780g with battery and memory cards (just under 1kg if gripped). So almost 4kg with your t-adapter, even more if you're adding barlows/powermates etc. I don't know solid the AZ GTi and it's tripod are but you'll want to consider vibration. Put it in mirror lock-up mode to avoid mirror slap (M-up on the release mode dial) and use a wireless release, intervalometer, or the 'interval timer shooting' feature in the main shooting menu. Keep shutter speeds above 1/160s if you can.
• You probably don't need me to tell you that with the AZ GTi being an AZ mount you'll get field rotation, but stacking software can sort that out.
• I've found it beneficial to stack as few as 5 subs from the D7000, but more is better. Gains appear to be reduced to almost negligible above 250.
• Use live view to focus. Zoom the LV to maximum (assuming you don't get too much vibration on that mount)
• Have fun
• Share results

HTH

Looking good Dave, even without the flats..

Very nice image Avani, and a terrific write up.

1 minute ago, ollypenrice said:

Get down to the gym!!!

lly

Aha, the Gym owner is the winner.

Fabulous work. Hopefully there's no 'unplanned dissassembly'

NASA spaceflight reckons T0 in about 12 mins, which is plenty of time to vent your methane.

1 minute ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

So for all we know they could have all just gone home ?

I think based on the previous test flights they're fairly accurate, based on what they're seeing on the ground. But yes, entirely possible  

Status just moved up to Final Checkouts

Yep, status showing pad cleared now.

Looks like delays, possibly going to be scrubbed. The Channel I watch (NASASpaceflight - link below) shows flight/prep status and it's just jumped back 2 steps (from Final Checkouts, to Village Cleared), vehicles approaching the pad, after the roads had been closed. Not looking good for now, but as JemC says, still 4hrs left.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSUu1lih2RifWkKtDOJdsBA

A good innings at 90, but still very sad news. Cancer according to the family. RIP.

This article has a reminder of one of my favourite Apollo 11 quotes - 'The thing I remember most is the view of planet Earth from a great distance. Tiny. Very shiny. Blue and white. Bright. Beautiful. Serene and fragile'

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/28/michael-collins-apollo-11-astronaut-dies-90

Brilliant, can't wait to see what you can do with a bigger scope

Well that was unusual!