Peco4321

I started this post years ago as a bit of fun, I come and go on this forum as I’m sure many others find I use other social media forums for different purposes. Anyway, here’s my current set up, same scope Skywatcher 150p on Heq5 pro / Altair 269c / SV Bony 50mm guide scope / ASI178mc guide cam.  
 

Quick question, I’m looking at buying a 150pds and seen one second hand, the fittings near the focus wheels are gold as is part of the finder, he says it’s 3-4 years old but not seen them before. Is it even older?

Just now, Peco4321 said:

Doggers flashing brake lights as well!!

Some of my Westwood images. 

1 minute ago, TerraC said:

Nice little segment.  Good to see something about the local area and positive.  

Westwood is great, often up there myself     Car headlamps can be a little tricky though eh?  

 

Doggers flashing brake lights as well!!

48 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Well done Peter, great to hear some coverage on your local news. Let's hope you get some more opportunities. 

Yeah they should do a monthly segment, “What’s Up, with Astro Pete”

38 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Hi Peter,

I'm in Look Norths' coverage area (Lincolnshire Wolds) and saw your clip in their short feature on the Wolf Moon last night..

Your shots of the Moon were excellent, and it was just a shame they edited down your speaking on camera to just a few seconds..(typical BBC soundbite journalism, sadly). 

One of the other still photos was from someone in North Cave, where one of my daughters lives😊.

Congratulations, let's hope next time they give you a bit more airtime!👍

Dave

Thanks. They filmed loads and I’m sure I could have filled the full half hour of news!  It was edited really well and it’s great getting people looking up 

Somehow Look North, East Yorkshire edition, got hold of my number and called me yesterday to be part of a short segment about the moon. Here’s the result shown last night. I’m quite chuffed. 

Thought I’d share my best efforts on lunar imaging so far in my astro journey, most of this down to good seeing last night, other contributing factors I suppose are better equipment and refined skills/techniques/processing. 
Anyway, all .ser clips captured through sharpcap stacked in Autostakkert and stretched in Registax Skywatcher 150p on Heq5 pro ASI178mc. 

Recent one while imaging M42  

I was lucky enough to capture an ISS transit of the moon the other night but need some tips on processing please.  I captured .ser, about 5100 frames, only 90 of them are the actual transit.  What I have done so far is using PIPP is extract those 90 frames into tiffs, using an old version of GIMP, I have produced and image to show every frame of the ISS passing though it is not very sharp. For lunar my normal workflow is Autostakkert and Registax to produce a final sharp image, but stacking in AS takes out all the ISS as I guess it is seen as an anomaly, the purpose of stacking!  I can't get as good an image if i try and process the tiff made from the 90 in GIMP, it just does not achieve anything loading it Registax and messing with it, as it is a non stacked image.

Any thoughts what I can do, can I stack and keep the ISS on the final stacked image somehow.  Here is the image produced in GIMP of the transit, and an image from AS and Registax that I would like to have the transit on, saved as Jpgs to upload quicker, but they are tiffs.

Sorry for not replying to your messages, been offline for a while. 
I did buy it and so far not had much chance to really test it much except for a quick bit of lunar recently and a little go at the ring nebula.  This is just 20 sec clip using the ASI capture software, Autostakkert and Registax6.  The moon was low and I was not sure of settings but early signs promising.  Polar alignment took a while but I think I know what I was doing wrong so no panic there yet. 
 

So next set of questions:

1. Is sharpcap or ASI software better

2. I tried deep sky, image on screen was colour of Ring nebula but saved images not colour and stacking took ages and also mono. I’ve read so many things about what settings and I’ve got myself confused. I’d appreciate any guidance on what to take images in, raw 8 raw 16 fits tiff etc. 
3. How do you get colour through DSS. 
 

Knocked up a quick cardboard one. 

37 minutes ago, NiCo10 said:

Honestly mate, a large cardboard box around the eyepiece/camera (laptop if using CCD).  I cut a hole where the focus tube is so the whole box sits around that. I tried using a blanket shroud thing but just ended up overheating

Cheers. I’m just happy to be doing something new again. Mojo is back 😄

Took delivery of a solar filter this week in preparation for the eclipse so fitted it and took my first proper image, 20 sec video through PIPP, Autostakkert and Registax to finish. Steep curve ahead but quite chuffed. 
Skywatcher 150p on Heq5 pro Canon 1100d 

Questions,

how do you see what you’re all doing, so much reflection. 
Asi178mc at the ready as well, any tips?

So I’m very close to purchasing above camera, I have Skywatcher 150p on Heq5 pro, just a couple of questions:

1. Can it be used at prime focus using sharpcap for precise polar alignment plate solving or does it need to be on a guide scope?

2. when at prime focus does the body of the camera sustain scratches from the screws on the focus tube 

Is it like 4 cameras in one? Planetary solar and lunar, polar alignment camera, deep sky, and all sky with the lens?

Any other thoughts welcomed. 
 

TIA  

Always a nicer night with a Bombay Bramble gin. 

So last night I was lucky enough get video clips through my scope of the ISS lunar transit. Rough edit attached. I want to process into a single image but going round in circles. Currently I have run video through PIPP, got avi and TIFFS. How do I create a single image with the ISS going over the image. I use Gimp only. If I stack in Autostakkert it takes out the ISS!!

I fully appreciate I am amongst some amazing solar imagers here, but here goes. Whilst clearing out the shed Saturday 13th March I set up my old 3” frac and did some solar projection and managed to see a sun spot, ignore all the marks on the old plate, it was definitely there. Can anyone confirm. 

Does this count. Set up polar aligned and it started raining. Handy cover though, it did clear up. 
 

Wow it was chilly last night. Still getting to grips with my Heq5, polar alignment seems ok, 3 star alignment a little more tricky with the stars it suggests. But still only getting 2 minutes exposure without trailing, any more and not so good. Also still only using GIMP so processing does let me down but still, I’m quite pleased with these. 21x120 for Rosette, 25x120 for NGC2903, iso 400 plus darks and bias. 
I had to discard about 10 lights each target as I think I need a longer gap between images to let the camera settle from the mirror movement, currently I set at 5 seconds between frames but may need to increase that. 
Skywatcher 150p on Heq5 pro Canon 1100d stacked in DSS stretched in GIMP

Here’s some more including selfies.  It seems ages since I started this thread, 37 pages later it’s great to see everyone’s set up. Included is my first scope with the kids, the reason I got back into astronomy. 

My new Heq5 pro with my 150p.
 

The shower caps are for 2 reasons, mostly to keep creepy crawlies out in the shed, but I’ve also heard they may stop any stray light leaking onto the primary mirror.  Not convinced but worth a go  

uploaded, not sure i have done it right though:

31 Aug 2019a.TIF (dropbox.com)

6 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Some of those images would have masses more to give with better processing. Why not post a Dropbox link to that first Double Cluster as an unprocessed stack and see what help folks can give?  You mention a line on your chip which you are cutting out by black clipping, if I have this right? There are better ways, for sure, to make lines disappear!  I won't comment on how to spend 300 quid but I'd be happy to help with processing and that would cost nothing.

Olly

Thanks olly I’ll try and send it over later. I only use GIMP so yes, processing is also a weak link in my astrophotography. 

23 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

I would save the £300 towards a ASI294MM-Pro. 😁

Good luck however spending your cash.

Cheers,
Steve

I’ll be saving all decade!!