Jkulin

2 hours ago, steppenwolf said:

Gotta love your embossed plaque 👍 You've probably started something now! 🙂

Yep you are probably right Steve and I'll bet you will be first 🙂

My wife has for the third time the C 😞 and watching Neowise with her in my arms, meant so much that I thought it so pertinent to celebrate something we have shared together.💕

Its a lovely target Rodd, I did it after seeing @steppenwolf image, here's mine and I know I could produce better now, but at the time was very pleased: -

Thanks John, when I looked on TS I couldn't find that range yet I knew they had some more, so I will pass that link onto my mate, he should be able to sort something out with that.

Thanks Andrew, my mate compared the TS against the original OOUK VX10 and they were very similar and twist very easily, going down the ruler route would require machining that I don't have access to, so it needs to be something that is available off the shelf.

I use Thomas Jacquin's software on my Rpi, full explanation on how to install, communicates wirelessly and really is excellent. https://github.com/thomasjacquin/allsky

Another one is https://www.allskeye.com/ Mike contributes on here, I played with it, but wanted a standalone operation.

The other alternative is sharpcap https://www.sharpcap.co.uk/

HTH

Just now, PeterCPC said:

Maybe check on the WEB? 😁

Peter

Thanks, that was the first place I looked!

My mate is rebuilding my old VX10 into a carbon tubed affair with a quality R&P focuser, essentially just keeping the mirrors as they were 1/10 wave and the primary cell, but I am struggling to find a supplier of quality Spiders,

I'm needing one with a 286mm diameter, the existing one is very flimsy and the ones I have seen on TS are also flimsy, I don't want a double vane one, just a really strong single vane. OOUK wanted over £500 for a one piece hand made one, which was very pricey.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Many Thanks

1 hour ago, carastro said:

Excellent you will love it.

Carole 

Thanks Carole, yep already seeing the benefit, the sign was just something to remind me every time that my wife Deborah happily went along with the Obs and a reminder of the time we shared in the middle of the night looking at Neowise.

I couldn't resist having made a  200mm x 130mm aluminium embossed plaque to secure to the Obsy: -

It meant so much to me to have shared Neowise with my dear wife, who's sheer patience and support she has given to me through this build.

Hi David,

I have always used superbias's and they are definitely smoother when compared to a master bias, I take 100 images for when I do my bias's: -

Master bias

Superbias

So just as a matter of course, I create the sueprbias.

HTH

Nigella, you have produced a wonderful job, you can be really proud of that and your painting skills are far better than mine, truly an exceptional repair and build😎 Chapeau!

Hi Adam,

I had similar thoughts because at the end of the sessions I can't be done with waiting for the dome to rotate back to zero, so I just leave it where it ends up, what I have been doing before commencing the next session if moving the dome manually to the zero position and syncing or telling it to find home which on my setting up is where Steve set the system to look for a peg which tripped a sensor telling it that it was home.

I bought one of these, beautifully engineered, a real pleasure to hold: -

https://www.altairastro.com/altair-70-ed-triplet-apo-refractor-telescope-2418-p.asp

52 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Now that is lookin' very nice indeed

Thanks Steve, yep it's been some work, but well worth it.

20 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Well done, looks amazing now and just in time for Mars and the darker nights. I'm coming up to eight weeks but held up with repairs which put me back about three weeks. 

Yours is coming on exceptionally well Nigella, I have to confess I have never done any planetary as typically the planets have not been high enough, however it is something I want to address for the future.

There's plenty of time to get your sorted before the longer nights and we have all had some mid summer fun with Neowise.😎

Well final coats of paint on today, slightly delayed because every time I wanted to do it, it rained and today just 30 minutes after painting we had a shower, I just hope the paint was dry enough not to be affected, if not then will have to sand and repaint.

I think next year I will probably sand and repaint with solvent resistant sponge rollers.

I've gone through just under 3 x 750ml of the paint, with just a little held back to touch up.

So from buying it to complete has taken 11 weeks with just over 7 of them delayed because of Covid.

Now hopefully I can relax and when I have time work out how to convert the cable driven shutter to chain drive.

6 minutes ago, Scooot said:

That’s a wonderful image. Great to see.  

Thanks, I'm still a little stunned how it has come out!

3 minutes ago, bob-c said:

A cracking image John.

Bob.

Thanks Bob, you are usually the Mistro at Comets, have you managed to grab any of it?

Just now, happy-kat said:

Clouds are good they add to the proximity of comet to earth

I like that, brings it all into reality👍

11 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

A lovely image John. I think that the clouds add to rather than detracting from the image. They frame the comet beautifully, very well captured.

Thanks Geof, indeed I never expected it to come out like that, just lucky.

Following on from my previous night, I was dubious as to whether I would be able to produce another lovely image as there were clouds due in which makes the light pollution worse.

Again this was taken just a mile or so from my home and it was evident when I arrived that the light pollution could work in my favour and when I saw the image on the view finder I was just stunned.

I have truly hardly touched the image, just tweaked the contrast and very slightly the saturation, the difference was hardly noticeable.

The blue tail is even discernable, I am truly gobsmacked, in over 40 years in photography, this ranks in my personal top five.

Sony A7RIII, ISO1600, F2 135mm Samyang 10sec exposure

More details: - https://www.astrobin.com/cuj5cf/

4 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

There is definitely a green tinge to the coma, carbon based molecules on all my image's.

Yep, it has come out in all my images a truly beautiful comet, I looked on my phone and I managed to grab another cracker, I just wish I had set up with my wider lens rather than just capture on my iPhone: -

Thank-you all for those wonderful comments, really touched me.

Had another play this evening where for once the light pollution enhanced the image, here's a taster until I can process it properly: -

ISO800 10s F2 Samyang 135mm, this is just a screen grab, but I am very pleased with this as well.

1 minute ago, Pete Presland said:

Very nice, the image of you and wife is lovely, it will be very special to look at in the future.

Thanks Pete, indeed it is, especially with my wife having bad days with the C, this was a good day 😎

So many people have imaged the Comet Neowise, that I really couldn't resist a bash myself, I took along my photographic assistants my wife Deborah and my son Dan.

The comet was too low to be imaged from my home, so in the afternoon , I found a clear view facing NNW-NNE just a mile or so up the road to me.

At 23:15 we headed with a little excitement, whilst setting up I discovered that my Zeiss lens would not allow me to manually focus, so I bunged on to my Sony A7RIII a new unused Samyang 135mm F2, mounted on my hypertuned Star Adventurer unguided, wow the images at just a few seconds showed I was on the money, so I finally settled on 30secs ISO400 @F2.

I would love to have another go this week, but time is running out as it won't return for another 6800 years. I loved how the colour came through as well as the star colour. I'm really quite pleased with my first image of a comet.

Dan not to be done said, yeah Dad with all that fancy equipment, look what I can do with his iPhone 11Pro+ @ 10secs handheld?

The second image was my sons grab of my wife and I, taken with his iPhone 11pro+, handheld 10s

32 minutes ago, Steve 1962 said:

Wow - looking fantastic John! 

Thanks Steve, she has come out rather nice👍

And thanks again for your patience Steve.