Sunshine

2 hours ago, cfinn said:

Second clear night in a row after a month of incessant cloud and rain! Monitoring my rig from inside in the warm while it snaps away with a Wyze cam 🙂

Yes but you are unable to enjoy the night sky from inside the house! oh boy.

30 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

variability of filter quality,

This would indicate to me that you use a Quark? I say this because they have been known for inconsistency in their filter quality, but if you happen to score a good one I hear the views are second to none.

Welcome to SGL! 

15 minutes ago, John said:

I have looked through a number of H-Alpha scopes (up to 100mm) and even owned a couple but, somehow, the interest didn't hold with me.

But, those experiences were during the "quiet" part of the solar cycle so perhaps H-Alpha activity was quiet as well.

I do white light observing (herschel wedge) from time to time, mostly at society outreach events.

The Sun is a very interesting target because a) we depend on it, b) it changes all the time, and in real time and c) because it can be a nice, comfortable experience observing it 😁

So, speaking for myself, I would not rule out taking more interest in solar observing and I will be following @Stu's experiences with "The Beast" with interest 🙂

I would agree that looking through H-alpha during solar minimum when the sun looks like an orange ball with a few dark spots can be underwhelming. There are those days (a lot recently) where there are no less than five proms, some are enormous. Those days are amazing, the beauty of an H alpha scope lies in it’s portability and ease of use, a scope small enough to keep right next to a door ready for a quick peek. One quickly finds that an H-alpha scope no matter how small it is, it will become a most used scope and one which will be greatly missed if sold. One more thing about HA scopes which is wonderful is outreach, it is much easier to draw a curious crowd on a walkway, park, or anywhere than night observing where less people are up and about. Curious folks are always blown away by the fact they are looking at the sun, almost everyone expects telescope to be for nighttime use but when passersby see me looking into the sun they cannot resist asking for a look, and the reaction is always the same “omg this is the sun? I see fire coming out!” this is great, I absolutely love solar outreach.

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I am taking her away for the a night in a nice hotel!!😱😂.

What aperture size are you looking at buying? 

3 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

I've got to be honest, solar observing isn't my thing at all (for me, Astronomy takes place in the dark!🤦‍♂️😂),

Interesting, I just have to ask, have you looked through an H-alpha scope? If not, you may change your mind once you do.

Wow what a beast! Sounds like you will be loosing sleep in anticipation of those summer sessions when the sun will be much higher. Imagine the views you’ll have then, considering how it performs at the moment.

5 hours ago, lonestardiver said:

Thanks.

I spent 5 hours on it today. 

I need to figure out which sub forum to post about progress and show photos of the beginning and results so far.

A good spot would be the DIY Astronomer forum. It’s where we all post about telescope repair, restoration, making parts and such.

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/18-diy-astronomer/

Welcome to SGL! and best of luck resurrecting the Ultima 2000, I always liked the esthetics of that model, have never used one, though.

This is beautiful! call me weird but my fav part of DSO images are always the stars, the nebulous clouds are great but I am more drawn to myriads of stars and their individual colors. This is a beautiful example of a rich star field with perfectly rendered stars and their colors are sublime.

12 hours ago, ED Splitter said:

Got 20 mins and a bit more between the clouds. Kept to a 27mm panoptic at the outset as was intending to comet hunt. Clouds put an end to that. Started on Jupiter, 27mm not typically planetary but it gives some detail with 4”frac and it resolves the moons as discs in an overall pleasing FOV. The sky Visibility looked good and clear as could resolve the trapezium in Orion easily at 27mm. Having obtained a degree of confidence following a watch of the sky at night YouTube video for January I then moved over to Sirius and increased mag.

Using a 6mm bco I could detect something in the overwhelming light of Sirius, backed off slightly with a 7mm bgo which confirmed the something in a neater form. I went all in for mag with a 3.2mm starguider and waited for Sirius to rise a little, 20mins later there it was the dog and pup. No comet but will take that. Observed that wonderful sight until the clouds ruined it, all of 2 mins. Then packed up and went in for a celebratory chip butty. 
 

Nice work seeing the pup! not an easy task in a 4”.

2 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Yes, but for planetary imaging one is not using a long exposure camera as in DSO imaging. With planetary imaging the cameras is taking a video clip consisting of hundreds of frames, software then picks out rhe best frames and stacks them. One can even track by hand with a dobsonian and achieve great images as I have seen some here do with hand tracked dobsonians. Lucky imaging is the term used, many hundreds of frames are taken, but only a few of the best, most steady frames are selected by software for stacking. In fact, one can do this without any mechanical or hand tracking at all, it just means that your bideo clip will be much shorter, and less lucky frames to choose from. Below are examples of very short video clips taken with my manual vixen polaris mount, eyeball polaris alignment with one axis tracking.

How did i just quote my own post!?

1 hour ago, Rodd said:

Don’t the planets move differently than the stars?  Even though I get sometimes halfway decent PA, I always see the moon or planets drift so that I need to readjust gif each video I make.  And my mount has a lunar and planetary setting.   

Yes, but for planetary imaging one is not using a long exposure camera as in DSO imaging. With planetary imaging the cameras is taking a video clip consisting of hundreds of frames, software then picks out rhe best frames and stacks them. One can even track by hand with a dobsonian and achieve great images as I have seen some here do with hand tracked dobsonians. Lucky imaging is the term used, many hundreds of frames are taken, but only a few of the best, most steady frames are selected by software for stacking. In fact, one can do this without any mechanical or hand tracking at all, it just means that your bideo clip will be much shorter, and less lucky frames to choose from. With DSO’s where a single long exposure is taken, hyper accurate alignment and guiding is required to maintain a sharp image and pinpoint stars, not so with planetary imaging.

35 minutes ago, Rodd said:

I wish I could polar align that well. I use a RAPA scope that claims it is pretty accurate.  But when phd2 calculates PA, I haven’t been under 5 arcsec but once, at 2.3.  Usually it warns me it could be better. 

Tracking for planetary imaging doesn’t have to be accurate at all, I can literally eyeball polaris through the polar scope on my Vixen polaris mount which is enough to keep a planet pretty much centered in the FOV for up to 5 min. Imaging deep sky is another story, as you know it requires much lore accurate polar alignment and guiding.

5 hours ago, Rodd said:

How do you track without stars?   

Oh, I didn’t mean guiding, i meant tracking on one axis for short periods when polar aligned, switch motor on and off as needed.

5 hours ago, Keaysy said:

Please talk to me like your talking to someone that has never used a telescope lol

What i meant to say is, even while using a much larger telescope I am unable to see Mars as much more than a tiny, orange dot at the moment as it is too far from us. As mentioned above, Jupiter and also the moon will make for more interesting targets which are within the grasp of your scope. There are two books which you will greatly benefit from, either one are considered the beginners bible and pretty much have set us all off on this hobby, “turn left at Orion” or “Nightwatch” by Terrence Dickinson. These are both available on Amazon, you will love either one. Your scope will get you started but it is important you understand it is small and has limited ability to gather light. A telescope gathers light from objects, the larger the scope, the more light they can gather and hence the more detais they show. 

This past summer I have been viewing Mars in my 8 inch dobsonian and even then, Mars was an underwhelming speck, an orange dot. Unfortunately Mars is not close enough in it’s orbit relative to earth for much detail to be seen, especially with 80mm of aperture. 

I’ve done some nice lunar and planetary work, nothing award winning but tracking did help. It just seems easier than stripping and taking videos.

A red dot finder like the tried and tested Telrad has been my method for decades. Lately with the invention of the Starsense phone module my object searches have been a revelation! Starsense module on my starsense explorer has been absolutely amazing. Never have I been able to so accurately find and see so many objects in one night, and it just works night after night without a hitch, amazing experience.

2 hours ago, josefk said:

hi @Sunshine - on different scopes i'm a user of either a baader click lock alone or baader CL and "integrated" camera angle adjuster and use either to achieve the same end of rotating the diagonal to an ergonomic angle (i'm often at the side of my scope rather than behind). I really like that the CAA is a foolproof/accident proof way of doing it as there is no chance to drop the diagonal out (especially a heavily loaded diagonal) when hands are cold and the brain isn't working at full speed. I'm not sure i prefer the CAA so much that i would spring for one as an "upgrade" but like you i definitely appreciate the one i have.

On the weight topic - i could weigh both for you if you want but i'm not sure the simplest assembly of Tak bits to step the CAA down to either 2" or 1.25" is lighter that the Baader CL.

Nice Jupiter obs & sketch BTW.

Thank you! I have a scale and can weigh the individual bits, but as you mentioned it may not be much of a weight save if I change out the baader click lock for whatever Tak bits it will take to bring the CAA down to 1.25. It may be 6 of one or half dozen of another 😁

Hello and welcome!

How would this orthobarlow compare to a TV 2x powermate? or is this basically Tak’s answer to the powermate? 

1 minute ago, Hendog666 said:

Yea sorry to disappoint! Haha

No disappointment lol, a huge welcome to SGL!

1 minute ago, Hendog666 said:

Haha! Sorry mate I’m Newcastle UK, Sunderland is about 20 minutes south from me 

You’re kidding! another Newcastle with a Sunderland not far off?? what sort of cruel joke is that? omg, and I got all wound up.