Moonshed

Thank you all so much for your replies, which I shall of course be looking into. I have been slow to respond because the forecast looked good so although all I could see was cloud I decided to get my scope out to cool down just in case. As things began to look even better I plugged everything in and did a dry run to make sure all is working as it should. If possible I want to try out my new ZWO ASI 224 mc on the full moon tonight as so far I have only imaged Mars with it. It took me a while to adjust all the settings to get the correct colour balance and brightness etc. Even without the 2.5 x Barlow it’s very much zoomed in which is great in a way but makes it impossible to get all the moon. I need to dig out my Telextender and see if I can fit the ZWO to it. Thanks again, you have come up with good answers, as usual 😄

Hi guys, Can anyone recommend a good guide to DSOs and objects of interest, be it for imaging or observing at the eyepiece, that is presented in a monthly format. I have a good book that lists all the Messier objects in numerical order and gives the months they are observable, it’s “Messier Astrophotography Reference” by Allan Hall, but obviously only lists Messier objects otherwise it would be ideal. I appreciate that with so many different catalogs it may not be practical to lump them all together, but I feel there must be something that meets this need. Thanks.

Hi Isaac, The Pleiades really do look amazing through a ‘scope and I am glad that you have discovered what a great hobby astronomy can be. You have so many new sights to discover and marvel at, never lose that sense of wonder and amazement, you will need it to get you through the frustrating times, such as complete cloud cover, not that we ever get any of that nonsense in the UK. 😂

I do what I find to be relaxing and enjoyable, I do it for myself. I don’t tell you or anyone else what they should be looking at or doing. I am perfectly aware of the capabilities of my ‘scope, I’ve had it almost 30 years. I am also perfectly well aware of what is in the sky and I am capable of reading catalogues. Move on, let it go, I’m really not interested in continuing this debate and thought I had made that clear. Have you nothing better to do? GOODBYE

You posted remarks that I found offensive and I said so. Your reply was to highlight the part of your comments that mentioned asteroids. This is taken well out of context, you were talking about observing “Galaxy clusters, perhaps, or extragalactic globular clusters, or non-Gallilean satellites of Jupiter, or asteroids, or ...” And let’s not forget the topic of this thread is EEVA. Anyway, I have said all I intend to say on the matter, I have no wish to engage in a debate about limited financial resources and the type of telescopes we would all like to have with someone who has homes in both Cambridge and La Palma, we live in different worlds. I think you have lost the ability to appreciate how much of a struggle life can be for so many less fortunate than yourself. I will leave it there.

I was clearly wrong to assume you did not intend to be condescending.

I totally agree with you how it can be both rewarding and interesting to take on new challenges, to test yourself and do something new and different. However, in this instance, for the vast majority of us that would require the upgrading of our kit to something more sophisticated and larger, meaning more expensive, and certainly the night vision equipment shown previously would be beyond my reach and I would suggest beyond the financial reach of a substantial number of SGL members. Because of financial limitations imposed on many of us, while we would dearly love to be able to “seek out the less observed” we are nonetheless unable to fulfil that wish and instead have to satisfy ourselves by taking that “45,000th image of the Orion Nebula”. For you to suggest that this in itself means we are merely part of “the common herd” is, to my mind at least, both truly offensive and thoughtless. We are not all able to afford all the equipment we would wish to have but that alone does not give you the right to adopt your somewhat condescending tone. Perhaps that was unintentional on your part, you may have been trying to make a point but had not thought it through and appreciated how it could be taken. I can only hope that is the case.

1) No 😄 2) If you wish and you have not a friend in the world. 😭 3) That’s pushing it! I may need to rethink 1) above. 😂

Of course you can because that would be the best holiday!

Similar to my wife asking why I don’t do my star stuff in the summer when it’s warmer.

Great image, love how the contrast makes all the features look so sharp, the Horsehead stands out so clearly.

As ever, a brilliant answer!

You can choose one of the following options: 1) The holiday of a lifetime to anywhere in the world, or multiple locations, for up to 2months, for you plus a max of 6 other people, all expenses paid plus spending money. Your job will be secured. or 2) Any astronomical equipment you desire up to a maximum spend of £250,000 (Your partner will not be informed that you had a choice.) What would you choose?

Regarding reaching a balance between getting the colours more or less “correct” and perhaps loosing detail, or getting the max detail without making M42 all more or less one colour, there is a solution. The more experienced imaging guys when processing their images in PhotoShop will create layers, a separate layer for each colour and for bringing out different aspects of the nebula, plus one for the original, and some layers will be only a selected part of the nebula. They will work to get each layer looking the way they want it to and when happy they will then blend all the separate layers into one image thus achieving a realistic combination of all the colours, bringing out the Trapezium stars, and not over blowing the central bright part of the nebula. I must add though that although I have attempted working in PS Layers I didn’t get it right and haven’t yet returned to it, so you may find my description of working in PS Layers will be corrected by the experts.

Hi raf2030, You have raised a good question, one that has crossed my mind on occasion. Every once in a while an image will be posted that looks both amazing and natural, and quite rightly it will receive a lot of good comments. On the other hand we sometimes see images that although are great in their own way are clearly over processed, but they still get a lot of good comments. The point here though is not only what is it we are trying to achieve but who is to say how an object should look? Or who is to say it’s over processed? Let’s face it, without high tech telescopes, filters and software we would not even be able to make out more than a whitish smudge of light for some of these distant galaxies, so asking the question of how should it look is a moot point. When we see Hubble images we are told what the colours represent, hydrogen, oxygen, helium etc, they are processed that way to bring out the scientific detail. Amateur astronomers however are under no such obligation and can stretch or shrink whatever colours happen to bring out the most detail or perhaps just looks the most pleasing, in the eye of the imager. In the final analysis beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To my mind I am just impressed to see the amazing amount of detail that some members are able to bring out in their images and I do think they are free to process their own image as they see fit. I really don’t care too much about the colours, what I don’t like to see is when an image is over sharpened or over worked that creates weird effects. I’m sure there will be a number of different points of view being raised.

Should the human race, by sheer chance and good luck, still be around in generations to come I would imagine they would look back at this period in Earth’s history and say “What on Earth were you thinking?”.

Nah, it’s the drink makes you giddy, trud mi Im an ixpurt!

Cats know absolutely everything, they are the Masters of the Universe, not the white mice.

Metaphor for married life.

Actually doing it is the easy part, I just take the tube and roll it around on the lawn for a few minutes until it stops making funny noises, it’s perfectly aligned then. Works every time.

I also noticed earlier that the sky was clear and stars were on display! Unfortunately however I have had glass or two of Christmas wine and there is no way on earth I am going anywhere near my ‘scope until I can pass the astronomers’ sobriety test. For those of you who have never heard of it, because I have only just made it up, the test is to say out loud three times very quickly “Critically check crucial collimation carefully”. I can’t even say it sober!

That is precisely the sort of thing that gets the attention of the whole class, plus as a bonus it employs the use of magic!

Tiny Clanger, you were exactly the type of teacher that kids love. I love science and always have, even before that interest was enhanced by a good science teacher who loved to carry out experiments. This could be as simple as getting two volunteers to come to the front of the class and each be given a thin metal strip to hold, the other ends of which were heated by the ubiquitous Bunsen burner. One would let go very quickly while the other could keep holding it, a fun way to demonstrate the different heat conductivity of different metals, and it sticks in the mind! One of my favourites was taking an empty five gallon can with a small screw cap on the top, I think it was a paraffin can, and putting a little water in and then boiling the water. After a while steam would come out of the filler hole and after a minute or two, long enough to push most of the air out, the cap was screwed tightly on and the heat turned off. As it cooled It was amazing to watch the air pressure crush that tin like it was made of paper, a brilliant experiment demonstrating the air pressure we live in and a vacuum. As you say, if an experiment goes wrong that should be used an exciting new project to determine why it didn’t work, so much more can be learnt that way.

Well done guys, I knew we could do it! A happy, healthy and prosperous 2021 to all, plus of course endless nights of clear, dark skies and perfect seeing.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: twelve cloud dispersers eleven street lights covers ten clear nights nine heating tapes eight AA batteries seven filters for imaging six eyepieces five counter weights four cleaning wipes three tripod feet two thermal gloves and a lovely dome observatory