R26 oldtimer

2 hours ago, Marmo720 said:

For the min LP, is that from using a LP filter (which?) or post-processing?  

No, thats just the galaxy moving upward from the horizon from about 45° to 60° before the full moon made it's appearance.

Here are two subs, max and min L.P.

IMG_9179.CR2IMG_9244.CR2

I will post two subs ( one with the max l.p. and one with the min l.p.) when I get to my home p.c. , this evening!

This is my take on M51. I tried different stacking approaches with DSS and sequator that gave different results. I need some feedback on which you prefer, but I will also post a new thread regarding that, where I will try to upload the unprocessed stacks, in order to see what the more experienced folks can make of them!

Equipment: bresser 150/750 newt, AZEQ5 unguided, Canon 600d unmodified.  155-165 x 30sec subs + 30 darks. L.P.: plenty!

On 28/03/2019 at 12:52, Lockie said:

Martin aka Grumpy Martian recently started a thread to help him decide between buying a 6" f/5 Newtonian and a 4" f/7 Refractor. I've often thought either of these could be all the scope you ever need.

On 28/03/2019 at 18:33, John said:

Of the scopes that I have got, I guess the ED120 refractor is a pretty good "all rounder".

That's funny, my scope herd consists of those two "what if you had one scope", ed120 and a 6" f/5 newt, plus an ed80 for travel and grab n go. And they sure cover every aspect of usage, visual, eeva and a.p.

2 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

I am afraid that this was covered two weeks back when it all got a bit ugly in a “please make them go away” posting by a seasoned observer which resulted in  NV users being banned from posting in the general observing forums. 

Found that thread and read most of it. Seems there is a purist attitude from some visual observers towards NV. But when you guys express the same purist attitude towards the rest of the eaa observators, you just make the visual purist's point even more valid.

On the other hand I' ve read some posts on planetary AP, from people like Avani, that are pure observational reports based on the images he gets, and that to my eyes is great observation report.

English not being my native language, perhaps has me confused. I can't understand what the problem is?

Do NV users feel they can't post their observations in the general deep sky observation sub-forum? I don't think there is any rule against it, if they feel like doing so.

Or do NV users feel there should have been an even more specific subforum devoted completely to NV?

15 minutes ago, alanjgreen said:

It appears that we NV users are supposed to join in discussions on "live stacking" and other things that are of no interest to us whatsoever!

Come on now, a refractor owner is not supposed to join in discussions about newtonians, if he has no interest in them, despite all of these are in the "scopes- whole setups" subforum.

To me there is no significant difference in calling it EAA, Videoastronomy, NV astronomy or EEVA. The significant part is the addition of the observation sub forum. It will encourage us to post more observation experiences, which were here before but more in context with the "behaviour" of specific equipment as means of comparison.

I don't think anyone should feel left out, because they're not. Now get out there and get some observations coming in!?

Had a go at m51 this weekend, using my bresser 150/750 Newtonian instead. I will post a picture once stacked and processed the following days. Stayed again at 30s subs, but this time I took 30x darks.?

And this is my go at.... what else, M42.

Again approximately 100x30 sec subs, no calibration frames.

This is by far my favourite "show us...." thread!!

10 hours ago, astrosathya said:

Looks like you've either not taken darks, or you've over stretched the image so much that with the nebula, the noise too has been stretched. Also, take flats and bias frames. They will vastly improve the image.

Yes, the battery went dead by the last sub, so no darks or flats. I will have an extra battery next time so darks and flats will be taken!

9 hours ago, SIDO said:

We loose a lot of good visual observer's this way,

8 hours ago, Paul73 said:

Good luck with your journey to the dark side. We will miss you. 

I wish I had the persistence and patience that AP'ers have, but I don't. For me AP and eaa is still a form of observation, revealing the fainter stuff that my eyes can't. Plus it gives you something to work on those cloudy nights.

I consider myself (hobbies wise) jack of all trades but master of none. I took up over the years numerus hobbies as photography, guitar playing, fishing, old motorcycle restoration and more, only to find out that I am a 20/80% guy. That means that I invest 20% of the time or money required to master something to get 80% of the satisfaction that comes with it.

It's a nice thing not to be overcommitted to hobby, especially if you have to be 100% commited in work and family. On the other hand I do admire those who invest and excell in their hobbies, sometimes to even professional levels.

Ahhh, I already enjoy my aprilia tuono, even for a couple of trackdays per month...?

Try to disable the cellular data. ( I dont know the exact term but before connecting via wi-fi to the mount disable the internet data from you service provider)

After several impulse buys, including an azeq5 mount, and an unmodified canon 600D, last weekend I gave a shot at the rosette nebula. Actually I gave it 110x30 sec shots with my ed80, although I think I should have gone for 60 or 90 sec subs. Here are two versions slight and heavily processed. Any feedback is welcomed.

On 03/03/2019 at 08:12, Tonyjl said:

I meant the DT-06.. Did it work out of the box after configuration? The ebay page says it's even 5V compatible. 

It worked pretty much out of the box. You only have to adjust the settings through the web server, as described in the first post

I have used the free version ( and I still use it) before downloading skysafari plus. If I didn't want to control my telescope through a planetarium app, I would go for the dsoplanner free. I found it better than the free version of skysafari, and had better push-to capabilities, although the limiting factor is the phone's sensors. I really liked the fact that it pairs specific telescopes with certain eyepieces or sensors, so when changing from my visual to my imaging telescope I instantly get the fov that the specific combo gives.

But for telescope control, I just found skysafari's UI more intuitive.

An excellent app non the less, and as I already said, still being used.

No, as I said I never bothered with the esp, maybe because my programming skills go as far as setting the alarm clock...?

It seems that the trend these days is that scopes get smaller, and finderscopes bigger.... Sometimes bigger than the scope itself!

9 hours ago, Tonyjl said:

Is the software for this open source? Can someone find it? I didn't. Or is there another ESP32 compatible Wifi to serial bridge software which supports UDP?

It could be flashed onto an ESP32 and be simply used with a level shifter.

Before coming across the dt-06 board, I had found this, by advice of @john78.

https://github.com/AlphaLima/ESP32-Serial-Bridge/wiki

In fact, I had even orderer an esp32 board, but the dt-06 was much simpler, no programming and even cheaper, so I went with the later.

Since I was still below the £5 budget, I decided to celebrate the completion of the project with a "kinder surprise", aka kinder egg.

And here is the finished and tested wifi adapter alternative.

Looking forward to seeing yours!

Today the postman brought me this

So now, I can use this

and this

and this!

All of these lenses hadn't seen any light since the film era, and as I recall they were pretty nice.

And at the price of the Tak fc60....

6 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Watched the video and it looks like a clever piece of kit. I'm not sure I like the helical focusser, but I guess as it doubles as a TP lens it makes sense.

31 minutes ago, RayD said:

I thought exactly the same thing, and wondered how easy it will be to add a modified auto-focus kit to it.  However, I then thought about the benefit of no focuser draw tube sag and it made a bit of sense as far as imaging goes.

Oops!! That seems to be that scopes Achilles heel, that will kill it for astrophoto. I think no one will fiddle with 3d printed solutions and stepers to focus a £750 50mm scope.

2 hours ago, stash_old said:

Reason  - I bought one from China(like yours) but it neither works (doesn't give DoitXXXXX Wifi AP address) and I cannot connect to the Web Server even if I connect to the AP name (ESP_XXXXX) -

It looks the same as mine and the description matches mine, but from what you say the board doesn't perform as your seller states in his description.

Also at this point I have to say that this board may have many interesting applications, but my original intention was to use it as a straight substitute in place of the skywatcher wifi mount adapter with more or less the same limitations.