Sunshine

This looks to be an old thread but, I am a little excited while waiting for my 3.5 XW from a local scope shop where it was selling on consignment. This will be my second XW as I have the 14mm which has proven to be a great eyepiece, no complaints with my frac.

Last night was one of those rare nights of exceptional seeing conditions, stars were undistorted and, beautiful pinpoints with unwavering airy discs. Starting off with the moon, i was amazed at how sharp the views were, there was absolutely no wavering, no distortion, as though the atmosphere had stripped away for one night. A good part of my night was spend exploring the lunar surface and, identifying features with my handy lunar map. Sometime around 2am as the moon started to drop below neighbouring rooftops, i turned my attention to continuing my hunt for doubles. over the next half hour i had a great time skipping from double to double using SkySafari, i was never one to search out doubles, they were just there and i always thought it would be boring to specifically search them out, how exciting could a double be?. This was my opinion, as dense as it may be, only recently after purchasing my first refractor had i developed a liking to searching them out, stars just look different in a good refractor.

At around 2:30 i noticed the constellation Lyra was making its way over my rooftop so i relocated my scope so it would clear the house. My first target was M57 of course, (remember, i had never really cared about doubles) The ring looked exactly like i  had seen it so many times, a fuzzy ring, a pleasant old friend to visit for the thousandth time throughout my amateur years. Just then i decided to lift my phone to Lyra and activate skysafari which i had set to point out doubles, whats this? a double double? i thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.  Maybe i was reading it wrong, the words "double double" for one target i hadn't seen before, many labeled as a "double" yes, no shortage of those around but, this was interesting. Pointing my Eon at this target with my 14mm pentax, i saw what looked like two stars, i tried to make sense of double double. How did i miss this most beautiful of targets? swapping my Pentax for my 9mm Morpheus, i began to see the light. Two barely distinguishable doubles, i say barely because i could tell they were both doubles but, not enough to really make out a clear gap. 

Recently i purchased a 2.5x TeleVue Powermate, a fine tool which is invisible in the optical train, i recommend it to anyone looking for a barlow, in went the powermate with my morpheus. Looking into the eyepiece, making a fine adjustment of the focuser and, WOW, i gasped, i held my hand to my face, i felt stunned, those four stars were so clearly defined as absolute perfect orbs, beautiful black gaps between them with no shimmering, orange in colour. It was a sight to see, how in my years under the stars have i missed this stellar wonder, i feel like i am not worthy of this forum, many of you may be shocked, in a lifetime under the stars i missed this?. There was no pulling my eye from the eyepiece, i have looked at M57 and moved on, a thousand times before, the injustice i have done Lyra. shortly after i was finished kicking myself, i decided i had time for one more, a short skip away was Albireo, which i have seen many times but, no less beautiful. Shortly after, i had a peek at Jupiter and Saturn which required me to relocate my scope to the front yard, by then, i was tired, Jupiter and Saturn looked great for being low on the horizon, refractors are awesome for contrast, Jupiter and Saturn showed banding but, nothing as detailed as i have seen two summers ago. My night was over, the highlight by far was Epsilon Lyrae, what a beautiful and, unexpected treat.

Feel free to recommend any doubles which you think will be a challenge considering my scope, a 115mm frac, i'd love to hear about them.

those people on the landing barge were able to roll out that 200+ ft rocket pretty quick!

2 minutes ago, johnfosteruk said:

Incredible isn't it, I don't think I'd even heard of SpaceX on the day they shut down the Shuttle Program and now just 9 years later they have their amazing testing regime which has produced one of the most efficient and safest lift systems on the planet - incredible.

A monumental feat.

Hello! and a big welcome to our little community here at SGL, i can feel the excitement you must feel at the start of your journey into amateur astronomy. 

Nice moon pic!

5 hours ago, garryblueboy said:

Big boys turn tonight waiting quietly 

That is one certified beautiful dob you have there!

On 26/05/2020 at 15:12, garryblueboy said:

Here we are again set up and waiting 

Oh boy, that is a beautiful scope/tripod/mount combo, look like they were made for each other, stunning, and a Starfire to boot! i'm available for adoption, i don't play musical instruments and, can cook very well.

Thanks! while brainstorming it without actually googling it (i like asking fellow members first) i kept gravitating towards what features on earth are most reflective but, totally overlooked the poles.

Though I am aware of what causes earthshine, last night while observing the moon I couldn't help notice just how bright it was. It (earthshine) appeared to be brighter than I ever did see, I was able to make out details within it that i never thought was possible, why so much brighter some days than others? atmospheric conditions? more ocean area facing moon, reflecting more light than land masses?.

Had a great session Saturday night, lots of double’s hunting was loads of fun.

14 minutes ago, noah4x4 said:

I suggest you also use this tool to check out field of view of each camera.

http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

The common challenge with all three of the budget cameras are that they have small sensors. That is fine for planets and smaller DSOs. However, as you will see from the FOV tool on larger DSOs they offer a narrow field. Think of these a bit like eyepieces. They are perhaps the equivalent of 12mm when for most DSOs you might be choosing 32mm. Using a focal reducer will assist. 

The other issue with a small FOV you need a very good alignment to get your target into FOV. You then need a decent quality mount with good tracking to keep the object in FOV.  I have the ASI224mc, but would use it only for planets. I would turn to my ASI294 or Atik Horizon for DSOs.

Unfortunately, there is no one size camera fits all. The ASI294 or ASI533 are probably the best all round compromises, but do require much more budget. But if you can't spend more, I suspect the ASI385mc would serve you best, albeit it has a 1/2" sensor and 2.12mp resolution. 

 

 

 

Very good advice, I gave that software a go last night and did some FOV comparisons, I realized that larger DSO's simply do not fit into certain camera sensors. It seems that the largest possible sensor would obviously be best, the 385 should be a great planetary/lunar camera and, provide the best possible specs for whatever DSO's which will fit within its sensor. 

Thanks for the awesome advice!

3 minutes ago, SyedT said:

You might find this useful: https://compare.astronomy-imaging-camera.com/

That is a wonderful site, thanks!

Finally I am ready to buy a decent imager upgrade from my Neximage 5, I would like a better planetary imager and, one which can also do some deep space. My mount is a Vixen GP with one motor for RA which I feel will get me some half decent images as I can polar align fairly well. Maybe I won’t win any badges but, some starter deep space shots would light a fire in me. 
 

Regarding camera, I have used the CCD comparability software to figure out which cam would be best suited for my 115mm Orion Eon triplet 805mm, it seems seeing plays a big factor, the technical details which govern comparability are a bit dizzying.

These three cameras are within my price range, I have read the tech details but not all three mention whether they are designed for both planetary and deep space. Maybe some help from imagers is what I need here, thanks, the cameras I’m deciding on are as follows.

ZWO ASI385MC

ZWO ASI290MC

ZWO ASI224MC

When I think about it I can see why the compatibility software asks for a seeing parameter selection, during bad seeing, a particular camera would require a longer exposure to yield a good image and vice versa for good seeing, making for more accurate tracking during bad seeing a must.

Nice story, i recall being mesmerized by Hale-Bopp, watching through binoculars with mom and dad.

That is beautiful!

Nice shot!

I enjoyed reading that, great to hear you had a nice time, enjoy many more sessions like that.

Well then a congratulations is in order! 

Thats a great little grab and go scope, I'd say take it while the boss still feels generous, cause we know how quickly that can turn lol.

Makes for an awesome background image.

6 hours ago, Stu said:

So do you now have Plus?

Yes I downloaded the plus, all good now, thanks.

Hello Tom, big welcome to SGL!

Problem solved, i thought i had the plus but i guess i had the minus version for $4.

Alright, earlier i paid $4 for it, now i took a look in the app store again and noticed there's a Pro and Plus, downloaded the "plus" not sure what i paid $4 for earlier if theres a free version apparently.