Littleguy80

After reading this post earlier, I couldn’t resist pointing my iPhone at the comet. It shows up pretty well for a 10 second hand held exposure!

Returning from a family day out late afternoon, I went straight to the garden to see if I could spot Venus. I found it quickly and dashed inside to grab the 10" dob. Not long after I was enjoying the conjunction of Saturn and Venus. They were close enough to share the FOV at just under 100x mag. I grabbed a few pictures of the event. Clouds rolled in and I expected that to be the end of my observing for the evening. As I finished up the washing up, a little after 9pm, I noticed the stars shining so decided bring the dob back out to play. Hind's Crimson Star was my first target, as it had some discussion on another thread. A short star hop from Rigel brought me to its location. I don't think there's another star to compare for such a brilliant shade of red. I grabbed a quick shot with my DSLR just to capture that amazing colour. Keeping with a low power eyepiece, I enjoyed the green nebulosity of M42 and then spent some time, unsuccessfully, trying to see the reflection nebula in M45. My skies at home aren't quite dark enough for this. I moved into Cassiopeia to find a comet. On my way, I passed the wonderful Owl cluster (NGC 457) and M103. C/2020 V2 (ZTF), the less impressive of the ZTF's, is quite small, like a very small globular cluster. The additional challenge of finding it did add to the fun though. The second comet of the evening was C/2022 A2 (PANSTARRS) and was a new comet to me. Found in Draco, it was much larger and quite diffuse. A more typical comet in appearance. As a bonus it was situated next to the faint open cluster NGC 559. The headliner in the comet trio was, of course, C/2022 E3 (ZTF). Bright and elongated, bringing back memories of NEOWISE, despite falling short of it in terms of brightness. I tried to spot it naked eye but my skies were again not dark enough for that. I closed out the session with some time in Cancer/Gemini. The spectacular Beehive cluster led to Tegmine. The split of Tegmine only coming with the brilliant Vixen HR 3.4mm eyepiece. I was pleased that my manual tracking skills were up to this task. The Vixen staying in the focuser for a view of the Eskimo nebula. A great way to finish the session.

Inspired to go out and observe Hind’s Crimson star this evening. An amazing shade of red. Grabbed a quick single frame with my DSLR just to show the colour.

Aaah rubbish. There were clouds creeping up on me too but I was lucky and they held off long for me to get a look. I was out observing yesterday and was annoyed at myself for not thinking to take a look. Was on the ball tonight at least.

The weather was kind and I managed to catch Saturn and Venus this evening. At a little under 100x mag with both comfortably in the FOV it was a great sight. Grapped a quick picture with the camera.

Great report, Doug. Inspired me to get out and observe Jupiter and Mars with the dob yesterday evening. Lovely to see the GRS again. I’ve been thinking about 102 APO for awhile now. The Starfield 102 that FLO sell has caught my eye. The extra aperture for my solar observing adds an extra appeal.

Yay for StuPODs! That’s an amazing image! The standard has improved dramatically since my last entry.

It’s an interesting one to ponder. I guess the idea of dark adaptation being only rods is an oversimplification. After all, I see a green hue to the Orion Nebula and many planetary nebula have a bit of colour to them too. Some cones must be active for this.

I haven’t observed this recently but, from previous experience, when it’s in the brighter part of the cycle it’s not quite as red. When it’s dimmer the colour is almost traffic light red. When it’s like this, making the initial spot can be tricky but there’s no doubt in your mind once you have seen it. I wonder whether dark adaptation might be disadvantage for this star as it’s the colour you’re looking for.

I still treasure my two StuPODs Thank you. I fell out of the habit of using ProCam so will have to get back to using it. I often look at the PS subscriptions and wonder whether it’s worth splashing out.

Excellent image. Worthy of a StuPOD 😉 Are you processing everything directly on the phone?

I haven’t bought any new eyepieces for more than a year. Quite an accomplishment! I might be cured 😉Tonight I decided to bring my orthos back into the case. There are definitely times when they have an edge. Added back in are the 5mm and 6mm BGO plus the 7mm Meade Research Grade Ortho. Should be good with Mars at the moment.

Thanks Paul. I’m planning on trying to get a picture of it too. I won’t call what I do imaging for fear of ruining the good name of imaging 😂

One thing I have often thought getting is the Lumicon Swan filter for Comets. Anyone had an opportunity to try one?

Thanks Mike. Will definitely give C/2022 A2 a shot

Well worth a go when you can. It was obvious in the Bins and the 9x50 finder even with the bright moon. I'd tried for it a couple of weeks back when it was much lower and failed so it's brightened a lot.

Thanks Alan. I'm normally the same as you with the getting back to sleep but seems like I tired myself out with all that observing

In many ways I did this to myself. I've been following the progress of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and thinking about when I might get the chance to observe it. Before I went to bed, I noted the cloudy skies were due to clear before dawn. I even went to sleep uncharacteristically early. However, with work in the morning, I didn't set an alarm. When I woke unexpectedly around 4am, I couldn't resist a little look out the window. The stars looked back at me and I thought about going out. Then I got back into bed for 5mins before realising I was powerless to resist the urge to observe I started with my 10x50 bins, the Moon was quite bright and high in the sky so I wasn't sure if it was worth getting a scope out. I found the keystone in Hercules, then M13 within it, a few small star hops later I found Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). It was every bit as obvious in the bins as M13. Decision made, I spent a few mins bringing my 10" dob outside. As with the bins, I started at M13. Then using the 9x50 finder, I followed the same path to the comet. Even in the finder, it was an easy spot. Through the eyepiece it was superb. There was a definite tail to it with a nice bright core. A smattering of brighter stars around created a lovely view. It's not in the same league as Neowise but the best Comet since I believe. After playing around with various eyepieces, I decided to try another target. NGC6210 is a great planetary nebula. I think I've seen it referred to as a the green turtle nebula. It's certainly green to my eyes but I wasn't seeing the turtle! Even at low powers it was clearly not stellar. Next I decided to return to another comet that I have recently observed, C/2020 V2 (ZTF). This is currently residing in Cassiopeia and is much dimmer. A little extra magnification helped with the initial sighting. Then I dropped all the way down to a 30mm eyepiece so I could pick up the large open cluster Collinder 463 in the same FOV as the comet. I'm sure this would have made a great image. In the eyepiece they were on opposite sides but still made an enjoyable view. For a final treat before before bed, I had a quick observation of NGC 457, the Owl Cluster. It looked really crisp in the 30mm eyepiece. Always a crowd pleaser. After this, I finally made it back into bed for a couple more hours sleep before work.

Thick cloud when the alarm went off and then the skies cleared about 10 mins before Mars was due to disappear. Loved it! Took a bunch of photos. Quick edit below while I wait for Mats to reappear

Really loved this. Was working from home so was able to run outside at various points to observe and take pics. Astronomy has taken a little bit of a back seat recently but something like this is unmissable when the skies are clear!

Yep, entered that. It was doing nothing with the slew buttons either. Just found the problem though. Connection settings were set to emulator mode! Not sure if this is a default or I managed to switch it on in error. Seems to be working now it’s in network mode 😊

I bought an AZ GTi secondhand recently. Having my first proper play with it this morning and I can’t make it work! I’m trying the Solar tracking and One Star alignment on the Sun using the SynScan Pro app. I go through the process of manual alignment and selecting goto Sun etc but there seems to be no tracking. I even tried selecting goto Venus. The app gives the countdown like it’s moving and then asks for manual centering but the mount/solar scope didn’t move at all. I’m connected to the mount’s WiFi ok. I expect this is just user error but I now have a creeping fear that I’ve bought a dud!

Great video. Haven't watched the whole thing yet but it's answered a lot of questions for me

That's great. Thanks for the info. I'm pretty much a visual guy who likes to dabble with imaging. I think the AZ-GTi is definitely going to cover my immeadiate needs better than the Adventurer. I have the EQ wedge etc with the Adventurer so I have that as an option. Software wise, I use a Mac which I think limits my options a bit more for controlling/aligning from a laptop. Another thing I can look into if I get a bit more serious about imaging.

Does the AZ GTi still need polar alignment? I was assuming it doing some sort of alignment based on brighter stars and the app?