Mognet

My suspicion would be a tumbling rocket body. Last time I saw one I was able to find it on Stellarium, so mihgt be an option for finding this one?

A rare photo of my setup in action. First time in two months it's been clear enough

I didn't do anything special with the printing. The filament is 3DQF PLA, and I printed it with 4 perimeters and 10% cubic infill. Whether it holds up to our weather or not remains to be seen!

I believe @Chriske has used prints outdoors, and somewhere in the forum threads I think there are a few others, so there should be some opinions on long term outdoor use. As these are under compression they might be ok.

They've managed to get a final photo of Ingenuity from Perseverance and it's definitely lost a blade. The missing one is sitting about 15 metres away.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/final-images-of-ingenuity-reveal-an-entire-blade-broke-off-the-helicopter/

Thanks. The intention is that these would be safe against lawnmowers, but I have no idea if they actually are yet. They're 75mm long, and didn't go into the soggy clay soil here that readily, so might be ok. They're pushed in level with the surface.

After experimenting with some plant pots laid out in a triangle to help with positioning the tripod I've 3D printed some ground spikes that should hopefully be better while also not being trip hazards. The soft ground from the recent rain helped greatly in pushing them in.

This could be one of my saner ideas. Just need a clear night to try it out.

The STL for it is attached.

TripodPeg.stl

Hot chocolate, especially on cold nights at the eyepiece. If I'm indoors keeping an eye on an imaging session then it varies. After 9pm it's usually decaf coffee or peppermint tea.

Seems like Ingenuity was quite impressive given how it was made. Nothing was space hardened, it was all off the shelf parts and made to a weight limit of just 4 pounds!

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/now-that-weve-flown-on-mars-what-comes-next-in-aerial-planetary-exploration/

Taken last night in less than ideal circumstances; full moon, thin cloud, focus slightly soft, and light pollution in that direction. And I still managed to pull something from it.

81 subs of 60 seconds at gain 252, stacked in ASTAP and roughly processed in GIMP

For what was only meant to be a short term experimental aircraft it was quite amazing, especially as it was being flown on another world in preprogrammed flights.

The last planned flight was for a greater distance than the Wright Flyer ever managed

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/nasas-mars-helicopter-has-made-its-last-flight-above-the-red-planet/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer

1 hour ago, Bugdozer said:

Doesn't work. My mum believed this for a while, leaving conkers in the corner of her rooms, until I pointed out a spider had actually built a small web between two of the conkers... 

I guess if you're sitting on the sofa and throwing them at any visible spiders then they're likely to work! 🤣

11 hours ago, JOC said:

Is there not an international body that can control what gets lobbed into space?

For Starlink they've needed the approval of the US Federal Communications Commission (https://www.space.com/spacex-fcc-approval-7500-starlink-satellites) I've not seen anything that covers worldwide approval for launches so maybe there isn't anything in place, although with current geopolitics countries could block each other from launching satellites if there were.

That's great. Never realised there was so much dust in that area too.

My brother bought me a furry hat to wear when I'm out. Haven't actually done so as I have a large head (but no brains) so it barely fits

On 18/01/2024 at 01:16, globular said:

What's the thermometer in the focuser adding?

Mine last night was telling me what I already knew - it was cold!

I assume it's actually there as an indication of acclimatisation

I'm testing an update that handles the new versions of Raspberry OS and the v3 camera, and can hopefully sort out some code that will handle the older cameras with no additional user intervention. In the meantime I'm trying to find the source of an intermittent bug that causes the generation of a new video to fail leading to a 404 error when trying to view the video.

If you can't wait until then, the test code, which uses libcamera-still instead of raspistill, is in the update_for_v3camera branch on GitHub.

From the RHS Glow at Hyde Hall event. Taken Friday 25th November, and has a bonus Jupiter with the moon.

Handheld shot on a Nikon D3400, 18-55mm kit lens at ISO3200. Minimal processing in FastStone Image Viewer.

I'll go for more data next time. I'd rushed things as it was the first clear sky in weeks so I wanted something on both.

Thanks. I'm using a William Optics ZS73 III APO with a flattener, a UV/IR cut filter, and a ZWO ASI585.

First images that I'm happy enough to share now I've worked through all my issues with KStars and Ekos, etc.

Double Cluster is two panels of 60 x 30 second subs stitched in MS ICE. Caroline's Rose Cluster is a single panel of 60 x 30 seconds. Both gain 252, stacked in ASTAP, and processed in GIMP.

I suspect my capture data isn't up to scratch yet as I had to stretch aggressively to get these, and I haven't set the black point equally either. The histogram from a single sub looks like this, so I think I should either take longer subs or raise the gain level. One of the FITS files for NGC7789 is attached too.

Double Cluster (NGCs 869 and 884)

Caroline's Rose Cluster (NGC 7789)

NGC_7789_Light_060.fits

No current hardware plans, just astrophotography. Planning for clusters and galaxies starting with the double cluster (two panels), Caroline's Rose cluster and Pleiades. Then probably the clusters in Auriga.

Still new to imaging, but impressed with the ZWO ASI585 and my first decent image. Might have pushed the data a bit hard as it's a little blue in the bottom right corner.

38 subs of 120 seconds, gain 252, stacked in ASTAP and stretched in GIMP. Then a bit of sharpening and saturation.

After waiting for two months for a clear and dark sky I've finally had chance to try with a UV/IR cut filter. Processing isn't great, and I was having a bit of an issue with star trailing, but the results are defintely improved. Just got to sort the other niggles now.

21 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

Definitely a good start - keep going. Just out of interest, did you use an IR cut filter? The 585 is quite sensitive to IR and your stars look at bit bloated. Maybe high cloud or something else - just a thought.

Thanks. I haven't used a filter. I suspect either my focus was a little off, or I'm stretching the data too hard as the exposures may not be long enough. I've attached one of the subs in FITS format, and the stars look fairly sharply defined in that

M_56_Light_001.fits

I freely admit to not being entirely certain what I'm doing yet, but I'm starting to get passable images with my new setup

11 subs of 120 seconds using a ZWO ASI585 and William Optics ZS73 APO with flattener on an AZ-EQ5, stacked in ASTAP and stretched in GIMP

Only 11 subs as the battery was losing power and the subs ended up with star trails in them after these