geoflewis

OMG this is an amazing result - staggeringly brilliant.....

Ron, wow 89 imaged in under one year, I'm in awe...!! I set myself the goal of getting an image of as many of the Messiers as I can and so far have imaged the same number 89/110, but it has taken me over 6 years.....!! I hope to add a few more galaxies in the coming couple of months, but getting close to the 110 will be a few years yet and some I'll probably never be able to image, at least not from my home observatory.

Superb images, which remind me that I really must point my C14 at the Moon again. It's been quite a while since I even looked at the Moon with the C14, let alone captured any lunar images....

That’s exactly what I thought....

Amazing detail, simply stunning

I bought a pair of those 25x100s, but they had a manufacturing fault, so went back. The UK main supplier checked their stock confirmed that it was a bad batch, so couldn't offer an immediate replacement, hence I took a refund and am still looking. If you're seriously looking, then have a read of this site, which has useful reviews of several models of varying sizes. http://binocularsky.com/binoc_reviews.php The author Steve contributes on here under the handle @BinocularSky (no surprises there then) and I found him very helpful.

Hi Ron, yes, definitely a great time. I believe my Revelation Astro 15x70s will be very similar performers to your Celestrons, indeed they may even be a clone. The globular cluster M3 would definitely have just been up, but at a low altitude a bit east of where I wrapped up my session last night, but I didn't think of looking at it. It's something that I've viewed and/or imaged with my C14 many times, but would have been no more than a small snowball in the bins. It's definitely one to try, so thanks for the suggestion. The wild duck cluster M11, was not available last night, it currently being a pre-dawn target, but I have viewed in the binoculars before, though being small it is more impressive in the C14. It's a summer target for me and never very high up from the UK, however, it is in a rich star field so another great suggestion and I look forward to seeing it again with the binoculars properly mounted later in the year.

Hi Mark, I'm pleased that you enjoyed my report and I'm glad that it's got you thinking about getting some bins of your own. I got my 15x70s about 7-8 years ago from Telescope House for the princely sum of £50 and they've proved to be a great investment. The main disadvantage of these larger models is holding them steady for more than a few minutes, plus most camera tripods are only good for maybe 45 degrees, or so above the horizon. Many times I've laid back on a sun lounger in the warmer summer nights drinking in the Milky Way, but I found hand holding them steady in the colder winter months more challenging, so before Christmas I treated myself to a heavy duty parallelogram mount. This has made the entire sky right up to the zenith accessible with no shake, bringing so much more detail into view. The session on the Double Cluster last night was maybe 20-30 minutes long, with just a few nudges as it drifted across the FOV. The view was superb, especially as my dark adaption improved and I could tease out more stars, though unfortunately not the comet. The P mount was an expensive investment, made with larger binoculars in mind, but they've added a lot to even these15x70s. Even without the P mount, I've had many years fun with these inexpensive binoculars, either hand held, or with an equally cheap camera tripod, so you don't have to throw a lot of money at it. Also binoculars are a great tool for teaching how to star hop to fainter targets, so whilst my goto mounted C14 telescope may get me on target quicker and offer deeper views, a pair of binoculars will always be in my stargazing arsenal. Good luck and have fun.

Hi Martin, a good place to start would be to contact your local astronomy society or club. This link might help find one local to you. http://www.astronomyclubs.co.uk The society (Norwich) where I am a member has it’s own observatories and runs monthly public viewing nights during the dark autumn and winter months. Good luck.

I had a cracking sky last night too, windy but great for some visual observing.

As expected it was far too windy here for me to attempt any imaging tonight. Initially I thought it was a shame as the sky was really sparkling, but all was not lost as I set up my new parallelogram mount with my cheap Revelation Astro 15x70 binos and had a lot of fun chasing down some faint fuzzies, various clusters and of course the Orion Nebula. I spent a long time with the double cluster in Perseus, wondering whether I could see comet C/2017 T2 Panstarrs, but drew a blank. However the double cluster itself was beautiful and by spending so long there going back and forth with Stellarium to learn some asterisms for star hopping to the comet, I was able to get a better understanding of how deep I can go with these binoculars. The reality is that they max out at around Mag 9.6 - 9.7, which is a lot less than I expected, but that's probably also something to do with my 65 year old eyes. 'Panstarrs' is currently around Mag 9.4, so I'm disappointed that I didn't get it, even though by reference to live star maps I know that I was looking in the correct location. I guess that the comet is fairly diffuse, so the integrated Mag 9.4 was probably right on, or just above, the limit for me with these bins. The Orion nebula was lovely as always and it's nice to see it wide-field, even though not showing the detail when up close and personal with my C14. The Trapezium was definitely not a single star, I think I made out 3 points, but that might be wishful thinking. M44 Beehive and M45 Pleiades were lovely and also worth lingering a while. The row of clusters M37, M36 & M38 in Auriga were easily seen, but resolving many stars was difficult at just x15. I slipped over to see M35 in Gemini whilst in that part of the sky, then dropped down a bit for M1, just a faint blob, but good to get. Next for some galaxies, starting with Bodes and the Cigar pair M81 & M82, which were quickly found and easy to see their different shapes. I dropped right down to M51, which was found but like M1 just a single blob, however, this was pretty low down in the horizon murk. I tried M101, but no joy first time of asking, but I came back to it later and bagged it - the 1st time I've seen it with binoculars, so very pleased with that. Leo was rising, so I picked of all 3 of the Triplet, with M65 & M66 easy, but the Hamburger NGC3628 more difficult. M65 is listed as Mag 10.25, so why was that comparatively easy when Panstarrs at mag 9.4 was a failure? I tried the other triplet of M95, M96 and M105, but whilst I saw something it wasn't 3 fuzzies, so I'm not sure which one I got. I just managed NGC2903 close to Epsilon Leo, at the end of the Leo sickle. With Coma Berenices and Virgo rising I popped over to take a look at the Coma Star Cluster (Melotte 111), which like the Beehive and Pleiades was fine sight, filling the FOV. Now I dropped down to to the Virgo bowl to see whether I could pick out any galaxies in Markarian's Chain and elsewhere in this galaxy rich region. I definitely saw some galaxies, though mostly I could not pinpoint which ones, but the altitude was low so probably something for later in the season. The couple that I could identify by proximity to brighter stars were M99 and M100, at slightly higher altitudes than Markarian's Chain and again two that are firsts for me with these binos. The P mount is definitely making a big difference. M100 currently has a supernova, but at ~Mag 14 that was never going to be seen. I swung back to the Orion Nebula and The Plaiedes both now setting for another look before calling it a wrap. My intention was and still is to get a pair of larger better quality binoculars, sadly the pair of 25x100s that I did buy weren't up to par and had to be returned, so I'm still looking. Nevertheless, these cheap 15x70's gave me 3-4 hours of fun, so maybe there's not such a rush to upgrade them. Cheers,

You should be Emil, it's a step change in detail, sharpness, colour, just about everything. It's a cracking image.

Thanks for the explanation Avani. C9.25 is a wonderful scope to take on your holidays. Be sure to also take time for relaxation 🌞😎

A very nice image Wim, as are the other images I just checked out on your Adtrobin page.

Superb detail for <5" Avani, especially when I see it was taken with C9.25, so do you prefer it to the C14?

Thanks Martin, Yes, a case of no pain, no gain.... and still considering a few more tweaks.....🙄 Geof

Excellent revision and I love the full frame.

Thanks Michael, it took a few iterations, but I got there in the end.

Thanks, I wouldn't have got there without your advice and guidance

Subtle, but worthwhile improvements there Carole, well done.

Wow, that is a seriously impressive photo with a seriously impressive number of galaxies - did you count how many yet? 🤔

Phew, thanks Dave. This forum is great for constructive critique; it's pretty much the only way I learn how to improve 😀

Many thanks, I've just uploaded another (hopefully final) version, in which I've tried to fix some artefacts I introduced in my previous processing....

Ok, sorry everyone, but one more time please..... I think I've managed to better preserve the colour of the main galaxy and get rid of most of the red artefacts either side of the centre of the starburst region. I'm sure that there is more that I could do, but one has to stop somewhere......

Thanks, yes I also saw those artefacts, which I think came from me trying to boost the colour in the star burst region. Layering the luminance washed out a lot of the colour in the galaxy so I suspect my attempt to rectify that was rather clumsy. I keep going back to it, but so far haven’t found a solution that I prefer.