Pete Presland

Not a fan myself, but that's only because I like being freezing cold at night and tired the next morning 😀 On a personal level being outside looking up at the stars is a huge part of astronomy for me, probably why a stopped imaging DSO's, I just felt I was looking down more than up! 🤩 Seriously though, do what you enjoy! As DP said as long you are honest about what you are presenting I don't see why anyone would have a problem. Damien peach's planetary images of late are a collaboration with the http://www.chilescope.com/ team. You will find many of his planetary images in their gallery. There is also a "remote (robotic) capture" category in the Insight astrophotographer of the year competition as well.

Noctilucent cloud visible last night from Bedfordshire. Not the most extensive display i have seen, but certainly the earliest by nearly a month. Clearly visible in the northern part of the sky. I struggled to make out any of the usual "rippled" clouds this time from my bed room window, but i would guess if i had stayed later it would have become more prominent.

Looks pretty poor unfortunately, at least we are not missing any long dark winter nights or any decent Solar activity. Feels like this summer isn't going to be anything like last year, early days I guess........

I made one out of an old RDF a couple of months back

It might just about be visible from my current "Planetary spot" down the garden. 12 degrees is very low though!

I saw my 1st ones at around 3am, got up ridiculously early to photograph them before work. I remember feeling very jaded at work later, but still buzzing from the thrill of seeing them!

Beautiful Michael, the highlight of the summer months!

It might be worth mentioning it in one of the Solar imaging/Observing sections as well.

Hi Steve, my B600 is green like the left hand image. The serial number is 2014295. Hope this helps.

Hi welcome to SGL from Peter in Bedfordshire 🙂

Easy to mistake before you seen it for the first time, I went a couple of years before I knowingly saw any. Once I had seen those incredible ghostly ripples in the early hours, I don't think I will ever mistake them again.

Very nice, Michael I remember that one.

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire ?

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire ?

Excellent category, it's putting on a pretty good show so far.

I have very recently made a purchase from https://www.astroshop.eu/ who are based in Germany. I purchased an eyepiece on the 25.09.2018, which has duly arrived today 01.10.2018, well packed and in perfect condition. Very good communication, tracking info, delivery time, especially considering this was over the weekend. They used UPS, who provide updates as to where your parcel currently is, when it is going to be delivered.

WE have been using a couple at work for the last few years, to manufacture smallish test parts for our machines. The surface finish always seems quite rough me, but still impressive how complex the parts are though. Not sure of the makes unfortunately.

I have no idea either, but it does sound a pretty cool thing to try. Good luck Rob, it will be interesting to see how it goes!

Congratulations on making some progress. I was out until 2am this morning the seeing was pretty decent for the UK, but the high cloud and fairly high bush forced me to go and get some sleep.

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire :-)

Ends on 31st July, so it will cover opposition of Mars.

This is going to be a real challenge for UK based images, Venus is pretty high though at the moment.

I don't really think about it that much, you cant un-spend it I have had my eye on an expensive eye piece though for a few weeks, the weather certainly doesn't encourage me to keep spending much more that is for sure.

It has been a very interesting discussion. I have not understood all of it, but it seems pretty clear that My Barlow is not going to be used much with the Asi290. If I get some decent conditions, I will try a few experiments with it and post what I get in comparison to the native focal length.