Swoop1

Too busy to take advantage of the daytime moon so set up during the clear early evening. Started to grab some data with a view to doing a mosaic but patchy cloud rolled in and put paid to that idea.

18 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

You can't get a scope on Betelgeuse 24 hours a day. There's this thing the earth does called rotation 

Isn’t the earth a disc?

😉

On 17/02/2024 at 16:32, Mr Spock said:

I'm waiting for a live feed of the end of the world. Should be exciting to watch.

Just book a table at Milliways.

Cracking images Roy.

I think I have just found my new Object Of Desire. Beautiful scope!

Patrick,

Have you used the Field Of View Calculator on Astronomy Tools to get an idea of what your combinations will achieve with varous barlows/ reducers?

It gives a good idea of what results you may get thriugh your set up

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

I have friends in Gibraltar and plan to be viewing from there.

I have revisited this image and am getting even more from it.

Vallis Schroteri snaking its way in towards Aristarchus

The muted ejecta ray from Kepler

Every viewing is a revelation.

Great images Paul!

You are right about the setting- the One Mile Telescope makes a very evocative foreground.

I look forward to your return visits.

Not exiting?

The presence of a myriad of small, dark craters to explore gives plenty to look at.

Wow! Great images Nigella.

Is the 8th image the Ha? Very angry looking Sol.

I've since upgraded to the HEQ5PRO. When I had the EQ3 I started with slo mo controls and then did a motor upgrade so no, I didn't have Synscan. I do have it on the HEQ5PRO though, but I mostly control the mount through my lap top.

On 13/02/2024 at 21:17, Sunshine said:

 If I said the main reason for my liking it so much is the blue accent would go great with the blue on my FS128 would you think I’m being ridiculous? or just another amateur astronomer looking for any excuse for an accessory.

Many people are precious about colour on all sorts of things- "I can't buy a blue bike cos I'm and Arsenal Fane/ red bike cos I'm a Chelsea fan" etc.

Why should you not be an 'astrotart' about this?

Hi @Kilohertz

I always orientate my mount head with the home position set saddle screws on left when standing behind the mount looking towards North. 

This means that when I mount the scope, it is pointing in the general direction of Polaris.

I grabbed an image of the (or similar) manual mount off the internet showing the 'home' orientation before installing a scope.

The Columbia documentary has started off very well I think- exploring the whole thing from very human angles.

I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Hi Andy and welcome.

There is some good kit out there to replicate your previous scope. If looking at astrophotography however, you may soon find yourself wanting a driven equatorial mount to follow the target over a long period.

It may be worthwhile researching your local astronomical society to tie up with some like minded nearby people to help and demonstrate equipment for you.

That is an absolutely stonking image @Nightfly! Thanks for sharing it.

Beautiful sickle moon and banded susnet clouds- still stuck at work

21 hours ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

Comes complete with a bright sporadic. Cool.

I frequently spend 5 minutes watching the feed during a bit of down time and always see at least one meteor. Some of them are quite spectacular.

It is also good to be watching when sessions are in progress- seeing the lasers being activated for atmospheric data collection etc.

I have a gorgeous clear blus sky overhead at the moment- pefect for some solar.

I'm stuck at work

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhh!!! 😠

I don't know Olly- looks like you missed some bits 😉

Chinese satelite or similar burning up

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-68264541

2 hours ago, pipnina said:

Impressive nonetheless

Sort of surprised if you'd shoot so many rolls in one go that you didn't end up with a camera that had one of these bad boy backs on it haha

That would have worked for the evidence gathering as the film cameras were Nikon F3's. Beautiful bits of kit to use and tough as old boots.

Marry that to an old school 400w plus Norman flash kit (big 1-2 kg battery and control pack and 4-5 inch polished parabolic dish reflector, getting good images of distant subjects at night was fun (full power flash made things identifiable at 100m or more)

On 01/07/2023 at 23:17, pipnina said:

I went to a Saturn when I was in Dusseldorf (big tech chain like Currys in the UK) and they had NEW polaroids in their camera section!

Local London Camera Exchange near me stocks polaroid film too.

Normal negative and slides are also having a resurgence, but maybe not quite to the same level.

 

I also agree that digital sensors do allow for much more contortion of a scene, they're more scientific, easier to get results from, you get instant results etc etc.

But big budget films to this day get shot on celluloid, and there has to be a reason for that! medium-format (60mm) Kodak cine film costs thousands of US dollars per 5 minute roll, the hollywood DPs wouldn't push to buy that equipment if they didn't see value in it!

 

To my eye, celluloid film is far better for background gradient. GHoing to the cinema to watch a Sci Fi film, the stepping down from bright to dark on a passing space ship for example is very obvious whereas well managed celluloid has no noticeable gradient.

I used both film and digital cameras professionally on covert surveillance work and public order evidence gathering.

The benefit of instant result checking was a major plus for digital as was only having to shove in another card on a bad day at a protest or football match. Trying to load a fresh film whilst wearing double layer fire retardent gloves, cowering in a shallow doorway or hiding behind a shield whilst looking through a very fogged up visor (anti mist treatments are only so effective) and having bricks, bottles, petrol bombs etc landing all around was certainly an experience and aquired skill- and that was only training. Follow that with hours (or sometimes days) of paperwork once you receive back the product of sometimes 30 to 40 36 exposure film canisters to sort out the correct exhibit handling procedures and collating the product with audio commentary and recordings from radio transmissions etc.

I'd do wet film evidence gathering work again tomorrow though, given the chance. A sadly declining skill as most EGT seems to be video these days.

Sorry- a bit of a diversion from film based astrophotography.

You're welcome @Telescopist 

Thanks @StevieDvd, those links will be copied to my favourites bar!