Moonshed

I have just noticed that on the bottom of the mug there is a printed message, it says ”For best results use other end.” Brilliant, that brought a big smile to my face! As an added bonus I noticed that some of the proceeds from the sale go to group set up to support the unemployed. Made me smile even more! It has rapidly become grampa’s favourite and most used mug.

Thank you for the link, I took a look but don’t feel the need to part with €26 for it, but seeing it on your tripod leg and in more detail on the site has given me an idea, I have a thought of a cunning plan! I will order a car mobile phone holder from Amazon for £6 and remove the windscreen clamp and then I can duct tape it to the leg. I’m sure it will work a treat. Thanks!

Hi Mr Thingy, I have just noticed that you have some sort of clamp fixed to a tripod leg that holds your hand controller. Could you give some details please because it’s a constant source of annoyance to me trying to find ways to put mine somewhere where it’s easy to find and place. Thanks.

These are mine, I will do my level best to stick to them: 1) Ensure camera battery is fully charged. 2) Ensure laptop has already installed all the updates before beginning imaging session 3) Never turn down the opportunity to get the ‘scope out just because I’m warm and comfortable and it’s cold out there. 4) Spend more time at the eyepiece. 5) When processing images learn when to stop tweaking them!

Many thanks to both of you, practice, practice, practice is never a bad idea and neither is a YouTube tutorial! 😄

Hi Peter, I sincerely hope that the year 2021 will see a vast improvement for you regarding your health, I hope you make a full recovery from whatever ails you.

Define “False colour” 😂

How do you get the colour, is it with filters?

Thank you for your interesting and informative reply, I had a feeling there would be more to it, but it in a general sense perhaps I was not quite so crazy after all. The products you mentioned obviously do a good job of colour calibrating the monitor screen, and although the price is not unreasonable it is perhaps more suited to the professional photographer/printer. For the moment I am happy with the information you gave me on how to debayer, it put the colour back into my life. Alright alright, I know it’s corny! 😂

I started capturing DSO’s with my Canon 1100D, taking a number of subs, the duration of which being determined by the accuracy of the tracking, which comes in at around 150 second subs. Since then I have purchased the 224, principally for Mars and the other planets and the Moon, but from what I understand it is capable of capturing some good nebula images and right now is as good a time as any to have a go at capturing the Horsehead. I can’t explain why but even thinking about going for it makes me feel nervous! My question is this. Do I take subs just as I do with the Canon? Or do I need to do things differently with the 224? Thanks in advance.

vlaiv, I love reading all your posts but have to admit that if I were able to understand all of what you were saying, I mean really understand to the point of being able to raise an interesting question, I would consider myself to be very smart and as such would be churning out jaw dropping images of the Horsehead nebula instead of pathetic images of M42. The following will serve as an example of my level of understanding of colours. My wife asked me to go to B&Q online and pick some paint for our bathroom, she wants a shade of grey (no this is not leading into a naughty joke) so I found one I thought suitable. To my surprise she actually liked it but made a valid point that what we see on the screen is only a representation of the real thing and may be far different to the actual paint. I then thought how NASA solved the problem of getting the colours correct from the images returned by a particular Mars rover, although forget which. The solution was surprisingly simple. A printed colour strip was made of a range of colours, one half kept here while the other half was put on the rover. Once on Mars they only had to turn the rover camera onto the colour strip and then adjust the home based computer until the colours they saw on the Mars colour strip matched with the home card standing next to it, easy peasy, the colours as sent from Mars were the actual correct colours. Surly it shouldn’t be too much trouble to have a national or international agreed colour chart that could be purchased for a small fee and used to set your monitor so that it would reveal the true colour of the chart, and hence the colour of the product you are buying. Would it? Hurts my brain all this thinking stuff, time for a dram of Scotland’s finest! Cheers, Happy and healthy 2021 with never ending perfect clear skies!

Sorry LeeHore7, I have only now noticed your reply, I must have somehow missed the usual notification. I must agree this image is much improved compared the first one, well done, it’s a good image.

That documentary reminded me of one I saw a couple of years ago about one of the Mars rovers, I think it was Spirit. It focussed not only on the rover’s discoveries but more so on the dedication of the team at JPL, some of whom had devoted their careers, and personal lives, to the project. The thing that stuck in my mind the most was how emotional the team became when talking about how the mission ended, one guy in particular was close to tears describing how the rover does not have an “Off” switch, to avoid it being accidentally activated, and therefore forever ending the mission because you couldn’t then switch it back on again, therefore Spirit he said, although no longer responding, would forever be waiting for a signal that would never come. It was at this point he almost lost it. I get it though, to put so much of yourself into such an amazing once in a lifetime event, being human you cannot avoid the emotional attachment to both the mission and even more so to the object itself, rather like the captain of a ship in a time of war shedding a tear as he watches his beloved ship sink beneath the waves. Makes you think how much these people put of themselves into their work. They are the unsung heroes to my mind.

Me: “It’s looking pretty good, I think I’ll take a chance and get it out tonight.” Wife: Starts to respond but cracks up and laughing. Me: “What are you laughing at?” Wife: “I just got this picture in my head..” cracks up laughing again.

That huge open wound on my face, it’s called a huge grin.

Watching highly qualified and talented scientists who get paid out of our taxes making such idiots of themselves, for no real reason, just wasting everybody’s time and money to make a stupid video, I find to be so heartwarming and wonderful that it’s a joy to behold. May us Europeans never change.

So you will have noticed that nothing has changed in the intervening years, still gets cloudy at the most inopportune moments. 🥲

I’ve just realised, this is all part of a cunning plan! We have been subjected to a Rorschach Test and our replies will be sent to a psychologist for evaluation. I wish to change my answer, I didn’t see that merciless killer Davy Crockett really, I saw a bunch of geraniums.

That has to be Bowman. “My God, it’s full of stars!” Who could forget that movie? It was so ahead of its time and still my favourite SF movie, very closely followed by “Interstellar”.

OMG that took me back a good few years! I was singing that song again like it was yesterday. I don’t think it would be allowed today with its references to all that killing of the red.... err, Native Americans.

Yes, the technology has improved beyond belief while at the same time the world has gone crazy.

Hands up all those of you that 20 years ago said we would one day be using our telephones for astrophotography? Correct, nobody!

I think it’s Davy Crockett. For those too young to know who he is I have added a pic. Just reverse the way he is looking and there you are. Sorry but couldn’t change the format as just a copy from Wikipedia. DAE42CAF-5A56-43C6-B578-5A42A72AF48A.webp

That is such a helpful and useful thing to do, putting your efforts to good use at the BAA. Better than just storing all those lovely images so they barely see the light of day again.

That I hadn’t thought of! I was concentrating on trying to get a one shot full moon in detail and of course mosaic is the way to go. I will have to look on YouTube at yet another tutorial as I haven’t tried it before.🤓 Tonight turned out pretty good, the sky cleared by around midnight and the temperature was somewhere down in the brass monkey -C level. It was pleasing to also have good seeing for a change, even at the high magnification created by aiming at the moon with the ZWO plugged into my Celestron there was not a great deal of wobble; in fact far less than I ever had imaging Mars which was always jumping about like a hamster on speed. It’s too late, 01:45, to start looking to see what I have captured, it can wait till morning. Mind you I think I may just take a quick peek, let’s see...oh!...”Coming dear!” It will have to wait till morning 😂