geoflewis

Hi Tutting, welcome to SGL. I live just down the A11 from you not far from Wymondham and am a member at Norwich Astro Society over at Seething observatory, so would love to see you there sometime. As Carole suggests, the Kelling Heath Star Parties around the Spring and Autumn equinoxes each year are well worth attending if you want to experience local dark skies and meet a bunch of astronomers with a huge range of telescopes, many of whom will be pleased to share their observing with you.... Cheers, Geof

Gina, Firstly my apologies for getting a laugh at your expense - my wife is always telling me off about that.... On a more practical note, I made up some temporary walking planks to solve a similar, though I think less serious problem than yours.... They were made from damaged decking stock that I purchased from B&Q for a few quid. You’d need more than 3, but 5 with a couple of feet between each one should improve the walk way and you could lift and store them when the weather is dry. Each section is 1 meter long.

A couple of matchsticks should suffice then..... 😏😜

Where are you located? If in the UK you could try Steve Collingwood at SCTelescopes https://sctelescopes.com/ There is also Buck's Gears from Peterson Engineering in the USA http://store.smartastronomy.com/bucksgears.html. It's been a few years since I used him as I no longer have a Meade scope, but maybe worth calling him.....

I 'lost' all of my 363 images off AB, which together with revisions (which I want to also keep there) it was maybe closer to 500 images to restore. It took me 5 days (maybe 40 hours effort), but I have now restored all but about 12 of my images. I expect to find the remainder eventually, but these were not so much astronomy images per se, as casual images of astronomical targets/events taken with a hand held DSLR and filed in general back up, so I have to look for them in 7-8 years of general archive. I found some already, so am hopeful for the remainder..... Weirdly, it was actually interesting looking back at my astro archive, as largely it had become forgotten, so the AB failure brought back many good memories - what do they say about clouds having silver linings.....?

Also can't find anything on the BAA website and she was a past president....!! Actually the first female and the second youngest person to hold the position

Very sad news indeed. My initial instinct was that she was far too young, but that is showing my own age, as we are from the same generation and I remember her best as a young, charismatic communicator from the 1980s. At 70 she was still far too young, but older than I imagined, but then I'm still only 40 something - RIGHT...🤪

must have been quite some log.....😣

Thanks Rodd - very wise words indeed...!!

Many thanks Goran, I have had multiple tests including an MRI over the past 2 years, but nothing conclusive which is actually good news, but the consultant, to use his words, 'is not reassured', but latest blood tests, so recommended the biopsy. Hopefully if any cancer is found it will be very early stage, since the MRI done 1 year ago did not detect anything, but it certainly has given me a different perspective on what is important.... My wife and I would just like to know one way or another, as the not knowing has been hanging over us for too long now....

As Salvatore states that Amazon advise that all missing images are lost, I have no choice other than to reload all my 360+ images to AB one by one - so far I did not find one that survive the loss. I made a start this afternoon and so far have restored about 50 images in something like 5 hours, so perhaps 10 per hour. Most of those already done were easy as they were still available in working folders on my laptop. I have now started working through archive HDs and for sure my planetary images are the most challenging to identify final version, as they are mostly composite of many Tiff images de-rotated in WinJupos, so checking to be sure that I have the correct final version is taking a lot more time than the DSO images. Sadly I have also found that some images initially appear missing from my primary astro image back up of planetary video, so maybe my periodic back up routine missed some. I have multiple versions of back up on different HDs, so hopefully I will find them somewhere as I work through everything over the coming days Tomorrow I go into hospital for a prostate biopsy under GA, hoping that it does NOT detect any cancer, so right now I definitely have an acute appreciation of what is serious and what is just annoying. The only important result I want right now is no cancer, the loss of images on AB is just noise in comparison....!! I will need to rest for a few days after the procedure, so no doubt I will continue to amuse myself restoring images to AB, but I think I will be fully active post op way before I have restored all 360 missing images......

Hi Donal, The decision to invest some £800+ in the P Mount and new binos was precisely because I like to do some visual, but since I built the observatory my scopes seem to always be in the middle of data capture for an image. That is even true when the sky is not suitable for imaging, as I don't want to remove the camera for an eyepiece. Several folks said I'd be better investing in a portable Dob, which may be true, but then I'd need more storage space plus I like using binoculars so that is what I did. Cheers

Indeed....!!

I've tried some of them, but there are no images, so for me it is not just broken links. I have tried maybe 15-20 thumbnails at random, but so far none have been able to retrieve the associated images. I have uploaded the original and revisions for my latest 2 images from backup (actually they were still on my laptop so easy to find), but older images will require more time and effort.

I cannot even see the sad face when I try to load anything past the 1st page on Astrobin, I just get the egg timer on every thumbnail which never goes away.... Fingers crossed that things will improve..... 🤞

Thanks both, I've tried the methods that you suggest, but they have not worked on any of the images I've tried, so I have to locate the correct image for each revision one by one, add it and then save. This works, but as I discovered I need to be in the corresponding Astrobin version when uploading the image, or I get the wrong images tied to the revision descriptions. I'm sure with care and by taking my time I will be able to recover most images, but I'm going to leave it a few days to see what transpires with Sal's continuing recovery efforts......

I've tried this, but so far no success. Under Edit Basic info I have to search for the image in my backup then save for it to be restored, but it is tricky to find the correct image for each revision as sometimes I have many versions in my back up, but maybe only Original + A + B on Astrobin, so trying to recall which of my revisions is A, B, etc., is not so easy. If I have to reload all of them, then probably I will end up with just final (and maybe original) versions, which will be sufficient for me.....

As I just posted on AB site, all my images are currently missing and so far I have not been able to restore any by the 'flag thumbnails' option, but I have only tried a handful, some recent and other older ones chosen at random. Each time I get the message, 'We are very, very sorry, but it appears that your image suffered a catastrophic data corruption, and it cannot be retrieved.....' I will wait and hope for better news from Sal before trying any more.

Thanks both, it was indeed a very enjoyable evening. I have always enjoyed scanning the Milky way with the handheld 15x70s, but mounting them and now the 22x75s on the P Mount is a vastly improved experience. It is so easy to set them up and unlike using either of my telescopes, the freedom to just slew around the sky somewhat randomly with both eyes glued to the eyepiece was delightful. I kept returning to some targets for another look and was popping in to check out star configurations on my laptop using Stellarium, which of course ruined my dark adaption, but was nevertheless very helpful when trying to locate the Flaming Star and California nebulae. I have imaged both of them, but just use GOTO and plate solve, which doesn't require any knowledge of local stars to find them, so taking time to navigate via star hopping took me back many years (50+) to when I was just a visual observer. @Ships and Stars I will be very interested to get your feedback with using the Hb filter as I don't have one of those in either 2" for my C14 or 1.25" which I could use with the binos. Regarding the Flame, I did wonder if I was just seeing the bright halo around Alnitak, but it did seem that the brightness extended up and to the left (NE) of the star, in the direction where the nebula is located.

I started writing this report last night, but we suffered a power cut, with power not being restored until after I had retired to bed around midnight..... The strong winds from the tail of storm Dennis continued well into Sunday night, but with a couple of hours of clear Moonless skies I had my first long session out with my new 22x85 binoculars on the P Mount earlier in the evening between 7pm-10pm. I came back inside a few times during the session to check Stellarium for star positions, magnitudes, etc. Having experimented with and without wearing my glasses, I opted to go without for most of the session. Even though the astigmatism in my right eye prevented me getting perfect focus with that eye, using both eyes offered wonderful views of many targets. At the suggestion of @Ships and Stars I thought I'd start by observing with filters in the eyepieces - a Baader UHC in the right eyepiece and a Lumicon OIII in the left. First up was the Tadpole Nebula region in Auriga, which was an easy get with a region of general nebulosity seen around the Letter Y cluster NGC1893. The nebulosity seemed better defined through the OIII filtered eyepiece, but was visible with both eyes separately and in bino-vision. I slipped over to the region of the Flaming Star Nebula on the other side of the 'ladder' asterism formed by stars 16-19 & IQ Aur and think I got hints of nebulosity, but couldn't really call it for sure. Next I tried the California Nebula in Perseus, but drew a blank, so I removed both filters and headed back to Auriga to check out the M36-M38 open clusters, spending a reasonable amount of time with each, allowing individual stars to resolve down to high mag 9s and maybe low 10s. General scanning around Auriga brought other smaller clusters into view - NGC1907 very close to M38, NGC1857 and NGC1778. I popped back to the Letter Y cluster again, now more aware of the general nebulosity in that region even without filters, then further east still within Auriga I located the Broken Heart Cluster NGC2281. I next dropped down to the lovely Shoe Buckle Cluster M35 again spending several minutes here to resolve individual stars, before quickly ticking off nearby clusters NGC2158, NGC2157 and NGC2129. Having earlier skipped past The Pleiades Cluster M45 to unsuccessfully try to see the California Nebula, now it was time to drink in this brilliant sight, almost filling the FOV with clear evidence of nebulosity around the brighter stars. Again I spent quite a long time here trying to acquaint myself with different asterisms (pairs, triangles, etc.) within the cluster and checking the magnitudes of fainter stars to try to ascertain the limiting magnitude of these binoculars, though I was somewhat overwhelmed by the plethora of bright stars. Next up was the Double Cluster in Perseus, of which these binoculars offered a breathtaking view. Now I really could set about checking faint star magnitudes, clearing seeing down to mag 10.7 with direct vision and maybe mag 11.0 with averted vision. This is a full 1.0-1.3 magnitudes fainter than I could see with my cheap Revelation Astro 15x70s, so a very pleasing step up in performance. From the Double Cluster it was a short hop over to the Owl/ET/Dragonfly Cluster in Cassiopeia. Getting somewhat clustered out, I decided it was time for some galaxies, starting with Bodes and the Cigar pair (M81/M82), very easily located with their different shapes clearly seen. In fact I was a bit surprised just how clear was the spiral shape of M81, though of course no spiral arms seen at this small scale. Whilst in that region I took a look a Mizar an easy split then tried both M101 and M51, but these were very low altitude and in the murk, so not seen. Over in the west M31 was delightful with it's adjacent satellites M32 and M110 both clearly seen, the first time I've seen these without a telescope, making for a wonderful visual trio. M33 was also easily found, though it was just a hazy blob without any clear structure visible. By now Orion was coming clear of my house, from where I had set up the binoculars, so of course the Orion Nebula M42 and friends had to be seen. The extensive wings of M42 looked superb and I just able to split the 4 trapezium stars. M43 was also clear, with hints of nebulosity around the Running Man region, indeed there hints of nebulosity all around this region, so I put the Baader UHC filter back in to see what if anything that revealed. I got hints of the Flame Nebula near Alnitak, but I was unable to detect IC434 the Horsehead Nebula. The wind was steadily strengthening, clouds were starting to roll in and after some 2+ hours of enjoyable observing I was beginning to get quite cold, so it was time to call it a wrap. Based on last night's session I can definitely say these binoculars have met my expectations, so I'm sure that they will get a lot of sky time over the coming weeks, months and years.

Hi Olly, I'll take my time to digest your above notes and see what I can do. Many thanks,

Olly, I started using Registar about 18 months ago after several recommendations and a quick tuition session by @carastro, but I only use Register and Crop/Pad, so what does calibrate do? I don't think I've even noticed that function previously..... Also I can't find much in the way of tutorials for Registar, so if you know of any please could you share them. Cheers,

Very subtle changes Rodd, but the slightly darker shadows do give the image more depth and I like it. That said, if ever I produced an image as good as your V1 I wouldn't touch it ever again.....

Both are cracking images Gav, but I also do just prefer V2 with the stronger outer halo. I'm going to have to learn/experiment with Olly's equalize method.....

Well Rodd, we can conclude that experiment worked a treat - it is a superb final image, the detail is brilliant.