Sunshine

It seems for me here outside of Toronto the best times this coming summer to catch Jupiter and Saturn will be around 2AM due south when they be at their highest. Still fairly low to the horizon but, better than nothing.

13 minutes ago, John said:

I've annotated John Nansen's diagram to show the A, B, C and D stars. This is a 5 inch refractor view at 229x as it says:

Alrighty, thanks, my confusion was scale it seems, the chart above represents distance of A and B but, when comparing to the image you just provided it seems like it represents positions of A and C.

Having said that, there is never a period in its orbit where B is as far out as C is if i'm correct, B will always appear very close, almost stuck to A no matter where it is in its orbit. 

Correct? C was visible to me but, I wasn't sure if it was just B which was far from A in its orbit, this was my mistake. In a nutshell, when i try this target again, i shouldn't be looking for anything but a tight split, there is no confusing any easily seen stars nearby as "B" , no easy split, it will be tight and tough to split.

Thank you!

52 minutes ago, John said:

If you are talking about Theta Aurigae, the position of B does change over time, but slowly. The red numbers are years, the grey spot is "now":

Thanks for the chart, very helpful, just to be sure, the grey spot on the chart represents where Theta Auriga’ companion is, my observation is exactly how my image shows them to be here below. What I saw seems to be correct but, could I have been seeing “C” component? or would “C” Have been elsewhere and unnoticed to me, bottom line is this double confuses me at the moment because I’m not sure if I should be looking for “B” very close to Theta as would appear when observing a tight double like Zeta Her or, is B far from Its parent at the moment that it appears both as is in the chart and, my drawing.

Welcome to SGL!

The link above is very helpful, thanks for posting, I was looking at “C” component wondering if this was the companion which it is not, I should have been searching for “B” which is much closer. My question is now, how does the position of “B” change relative to its primary as time passes? If I were to search tonight, where should I train my gaze relative to the primary? I understand that at the moment the separation is at a maximum? so I have heard.

4 hours ago, CedricTheBrave said:

Arrived the other day but not had chance to use it yet!

Its ******* huge!

It's a behemoth! what mount will that be going on? let us know how the weather looks on Zeta Reticuli when you get it working!.

Call me a chicken but I cringe at the thought of leaving my scope out under a cover, brave souls.

Great shot! this is one nebula named accordingly, it's a lobster claw alright!

52 minutes ago, EntropyTango said:

Well the Hubble maybe dying but the news isn't all bad

 

I have been closely following the development of the LSST telescope for a few years now, it is amazing.  Recently the camera sensor has been assembled making it the largest camera ever made.

This is one sharp looking piece of kit! it seems this would do away with meridian flips.

M-due Fast Reverse Equatorial mount - YouTube

Nice read, an APM 140 you say? I hear they are fantastic performers, make sure you aim that thing at planets just as well, I would love to have a peek through it.  It looks like you have a nice spot to view the sky from, a 12" dob (at least) is in order.

Nice image of M13!

On 11/03/2021 at 16:45, Second Time Around said:

I'd be tempted to say my OVNI-M night vision device as it's totally transformed my stargazing.

However, the accessory that I always use, whatever the telescope, is an adjustable height observing chair.   Not only do I find it more comfortable, but I actually see more, especially on difficult threshold objects.

I have two such chairs, firstly a Skywatcher Anti-Tip /Omegon Astro Observation chair I use with my Dobs. 

Secondly, a Ksera Telescoping Folding Stool for my refractor.   This is exceptionally light and compact and also perfect for travelling.  Costs less than £30.  Go to https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0861HZMKD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

Thanks for posting, I just went on youtube to have a look at these, brilliant! I will order one right away.

38 minutes ago, Dean Hale said:

Indoors in the attic - not as bright as it looks on the photo . It's a school night and it's comfy for a hour or two to catch up my learning with the Asiair or for a quick peek between the clouds. One towards Orion t'other up at Pleiades.

Nice image! getting a Galileo workshop vibe from this image.

I remember being blown away the first time did the same with my old Meade 60mm refractor, nothing embarrassing about sharing. Thanks for posting, this brought back fond memories of my late father and I setting up the projection plate, my heart raced at the site of a few black dots on a bright disc.

6 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I see the sun more than the stars, lol. 

Out of sheer curiosity, what is this bit?

2 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

The OP's blatant 'like' farming. Mods?! 😆

The forum is great, but don't believe all the nicey niceness. There's crackin' gang fights at the SGL star camps. Imagers vs observers, then the faction fights with the beanie wearing big dob lot armed with two inch cheshires and apo owners weilding Berlabach tripod legs. 'orrible! 

Lol, don’t forget the elitist Tak owners running away from the ruck cradling their scopes with their noses in the air. 🤣🤣
 

innocent humor Asside, this is the greatest place for anything astronomy, if I lost it I would feel like I lost a good friend.

9 hours ago, MartinB said:

I would strongly recommend sending an email to FLO regarding flatteners/adapters with your 102.  Your message will reach the eyes of Ian King who will give you all the information you need.

In my early imaging days I used an ancient Vixen super polaris.  The polar scope was extremely good.  The gears were very good with quite a low periodic error.  The main problem I encountered was controlling backlash, it was a fine balance between excessive slop and binding gears.  This didn't present any problem until I started trying to guide.  With a short focal length scope you should easily be able to manage unguided 2 minute subs and could, possibly extend that to 5 minutes especially if using a small 70mm frac.  You might also consider a camera lens for your DSLR.  There are some superb images being produced by SGL members using a 135mm F2 Samyang lens.  This is a fast lens with superb optics (better than the Canon F2 135mmL).  It is fully manual which is perfect for imaging and drops the cost of the lens significantly.

Regarding dedicated cameras, CMOS would certainly be the recommendation over CCD if you are imaging unguided since they have a lower read noise which means you can use shorter exposures.  My advice was always to go for mono cameras but this is no longer so clear cut with the current batch of sensitive one shot colour cameras and the dual pass narrowband filters.  In fact, for simplicities sake OSC with one of these filters is exactly what I would recommend.  The only question then is the size of your chip/ price you are willing to pay.  A smaller chip has the benefit of being easier on the optics rerding being able to achieve a good flat field.  It might be better to stick with your DSLR initially to see what sort of star issues you have in the corners before making a significant camera investment.

Great advice, thank you, my expectations for imaging with a Vixen GP with one axis motor is not stellar, I am just curious to know if it would be possible to capture very short subs in the seconds range on a bright target like M42. In the past I have had good success with accurate polar aligning by way of using an app to find the exact spot Polaris should be placed within the target reticle in the polar finder. This has allowed me to switch the motor on and keep a target centered for minutes at a time with minute manual correction as it tracks. 
 

This sort of got me wondering about maybe trying out a bright DSO, for example, I leveled my tripod and placed Polaris in its correct spot for a particular hour and after I managed to keep M42 dead centre (it seemed to me) within the FOV. It made me think of the possibility of doing very short subs with some kind of camera. Sure, dead centre to my eyes does not mean dead centre when trying to capture stars as points but, I can try with what I have. 

1 hour ago, Newforestgimp said:

Bring on the Night...

For a second I was confused thinking you were waiting for night with your Coronado, then I realized I was looking at a batinov mask and not an etalon.  😂

Lol, I was so mesmerized looking at the beautiful gasious detail in the first image that I hadn’t noticed the stars were removed, at all. 😂

Now you know why I’m not an imager, I’m the guy who’d curse like a trucker trying to figure out why everything is black, then remove the dust cap.

Hello imagers, I won't bombard you with a myriad of questions expecting you to turn me into an expert overnight, having said that, I have two options for getting started in imaging and would like to know which you recommended. My mount is a Vixen GP with one axis motor (no goto) which i have had great success in accurately polar aligning in the pas to keep objects dead centre for minutes at a time, having said that, I wouldn't be engaging in exposure longer than tens of seconds at the most to keep error to a minimum. Although I have never images DSO's, I do understand many of the challenges involved with minimal equipment and, the importance of dark skies, balancing the scope well, etc. Being realistic about my goals I do realize this is a learning curve and, I will surely be investing in better equipment in the future.

1. Using my Tak 102 with a DSLR which may require a whack of horrendously expensive Tak flatteners/adapters (are there adapters and such made other companies which will work as well to avoid buying specifically Tak?)

2. Using my 102 with a dedicated AP camera.

3. Investing in a small 70mm lets say, triplet specifically for SLR or dedicated camera.

Thanks for your advice fellow SGL friends!

That's a wonderful capture for a phone shot, first time I've seen these targets imaged with a phone, good on you!.

Enjoyable read, a target filled session is so rewarding and, I have to say that the beehive is one of my favourites, It looked beautiful a few nights ago for me as seeing was exceptional.

It looks like it can effectively be used as a weapon in case of burglary.

Welcome to SGL!