Tangoringo

One of the perks of the job. Straight out of an iPhone with no editing.

Just wondering if anybody here can answer a question for me. I’m fortunate in that my job takes me to high latitudes and gives me frequent views of the aurora. The night before last we had done spectacular views of the recent storm but we saw something I’d never seen before- a pulsing Aurora. In addition to the ‘regular’ green/ red curtain effect there was a pulsing effect which seemed to be at higher altitude. I’ve got a poor video taken from my iPhone to show what I meant. Anyway, any info as to what causes this and if it’s a rare or relatively common occurrence greatly appreciated. Videos of the pulsing plus a few images attached below. trim_418AAAB8-07F8-4D53-88E2-D3D79B7586EF.mp4

Thanks Gary. Thats good to hear.

For those folks with the SM90 could anybody comment on the quality of the focusser? I have an ageing WO Megrez 90 which I love but am getting increasingly frustrated with tilt in the optical path due to excessive play in the focusser as well as AF issues so the SM90 could come in to the equation if the chancellor plays ball. 🫣

Just noticed the excellent Russell Croman has been at it again and has launched a new processing tool Blur Xterminator. Although I haven’t personally used it yet I’ve found his gradient and noise reducing tools to be very good. I find the Topaz sharpening product good to a point but it can produce some quite fantastic phantom artefacts. Hopefully RCastro does away with this phenomenon to a greater degree. Linky here…. Blur Xterminator The following sentence is intriguing - BlurXTerminator can additionally correct for other aberrations present in an image in limited amounts. Among those currently comprehended for most instruments are: Guiding errors Astigmatism Primary and secondary coma Chromatic aberration (color fringing) Varying star diameter (FWHM) and halos in each color channel

And another just over the Oxon border near Wallingford. Enjoy SGL and what it offers. Theres a lot of very knowledgable and helpful people on here so ask away if you're stuck.

Thanks for the recommendation Mike. Have just found a copy of the two volume edition. Fascinating to see how things have changed in the century since its printing.

I’m just very glad I have a fellow technotwit in SGL ( no offence intended ) as it sounds like just the kind of thing I’d do! Must admit to taking an age with the belt mod, and loads of photo’s, just to prevent this kind of thing. Hope it’s all working well now though and you’re enjoying the rattle free slewing. Cheers, I

Haha, You’ve given me a good old chortle with your post. I share your pain!!

Welcome. I spend a bit of time in Nevada with work but alas mostly in the city but am hugely envious of your bountiful clear skies. Not quite the same as the good old uk!! Enjoy SGL.

Nice images….and welcome btw. You’re in a lovely part of the world but you don’t need me to tell you that!

And another Oxon’ite here down in the SE corner. Welcome to SGL and also the 50 club (2 years of membership here ) This is a great place to hang out, ask questions etc when not cursing your scope, your tracking, your frozen fingers or the weather in general, or any multitude of Astro frustration. There’s a huge wealth of knowledge here so please do make the most of it.

Have just been doing the same over the last few, very pleasant, nights. You’ve captured some nice detail in the trunk. Top stuff.👍🏻

Thanks @Budgie1 for this. You’ve just cured a big bout of head scratching for me!

…. and to follow on, hopefully I’ll have more time to troubleshoot tonight but thankyou again to everybody for the help and suggestions.

Thanks Michael, I think what I may have done in haste is post the guide log from the early part of the session, not the one from the later part as I did download two I remember. The photo was taken after another calibration run but with similar results to the earlier part of the session. Apologies if this caused confusion.

Hi Wim, Thankyou so much for your detailed reply….plenty to look at that’s for sure. Think you may be on to something with the minmo/stiction as I had just accepted the calibration figures blindly as I’d had a certain amount of agro during the setup. The changes I did make were maybe not targeted enough and ended up changing too much too soon…. especially if the seeing wasn’t helping. Between yourself and Tomatobro I’ve lots to explore but hopefully I have some clear skies over the next few nights to have a play. I may just have to accept the Uniguide experiment is just stretching it a bit too far. Either way, Thankyou for all the advice and for taking the time to reply. It is really appreciated Thankyou. ATB, Ian

Thanks Tomatobro ( love that ). Does that look like a snag to you or maybe something needing a bit of lubrication on the innards? Something over/under tightened maybe? Appreciate your thoughts on this. Thankyou. 👍🏻

Hi folks, Just wondering if I may tap in to the wealth of knowledge on this forum. Ive been guiding recently with a ST80 scope and QHY5Lii but after a rush of blood to the head with one of those hard to resist FLO offers I thought I'd try a lighter weight WO 32mm unilock to ease the strain on my poor old belt modded HEQ5 Pro ( it was at the top end of its load capabilities with a WO Megrez 90/Eagle 4 and the ST80.) Its a tad on the small side with a 5.1"/pixel figure compared to my 1.4"/Pixel imaging ratio but its within the 4 advisory 'limit'. Compared to the ST guide graph the WO graph looked great for sawing large lumps of 2 by 4 but the resulting images were still just as good but with the occasional blip ( coincidentally in both RA and Dec which is odd ) and the guide bullseye was pretty well defined apart from a small rogue cluster which you can see in the top L quadrant. Any thoughts as to possible causes? Ive checked for snags and nothing is apparent, I dont think the belt is slipping and it was a calm night for once. Any other ideas? Log file here https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_Ppsb.zip ( Please note in the log file the first two hours or so contained a lot of bu??ering about on my part due to an issue with platesolving and also a lot of tinkering with PHD settings to see if I could reduce the spikes. ) Any help all gratefully received. Many thanks, Ian

A single 3min sub ( don’t ask ) taken by my ZWO533mcpro / WO Megrez 90. Processed in Pixinsight ( with Star xterminator ) and noise removed with TopazLabs de noise.

Welcome Emlyn. I'm not a million miles away just over the border in S Oxon. Not sure where you are in your astro journey but there are a lot of very friendly and knowledgable people on here so dont be afraid to ask or post. Look forward to chatting at some point in the future.

My contribution...not sure if it counts but for your delectation nonetheless. Series of approx 300 1 sec exposures filmed on an iphone Xr using NightCap app from around 37000ft. The lights of Edmonton visible in the foreground at the start of the animation. Aurora.mov

It's cliched but it beats working for a living.

For Big Airways. Have been lucky to have been on the Northern routes so far this month heading W so have caught a few aurora on the way. Makes a change from the dreary muck and cloud laden skies at home.

Hi all, Just thought I'd post the view from my office window last night. Shot on Iphone Xr with NightCap from the Hudson Bay area of Northern Canada at 38000ft. NightCap.MP4