michael.h.f.wilkinson

A bright supernova (mag 12.2) has been reported in UGC 6930 in Ursa Major. The forecast is atrocious at the moment, but maybe others will have more luck Details here: http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html#2020rcq

I use either a Benro monopod with pistol grip to support my Helios LightQuest 16x80 (stunning performers) Or for longer sessions, and outreach a p-mount (homebrew) Quite often, I just use them hand-held

I was going to say 35-36 lbs was closer to the OTA weight.

Just spotted this on ABS-UK https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=164975 A 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newton for £300 is a very good deal, but does require a solid mount, and I would want to replace the finder and focuser. If I lived anywhere near the seller I would almost certainly consider this (especially given the fun I have had with my 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton)

Just my usual EQ3-2

Slightly marred by dew problems, but still quite pleased with the outcome of my first serious effort in widefield imaging with my modded Canon EOS 550D and Sigma 50-100 mm F/1.8 Art zoom, at full aperture. A stack of 130 30s subs, processed entirely in APP

Currently shooting a large number of 30 s subs using my modded Canon EOS 550D and Sigma 50-100 mm F/1.8 Art lens at full aperture and ISO 800. Here is the first sub: Rather chuffed with this. Looking forward to stacking 2 hours worth or more of this kind of data, including darks and flats, which aren't included here

Very nice. I think the background might be a bit too dark. That might clip some of the fainter outlying regions of the galaxy

Now this is an interesting forecast for coming Wednesday No moon, and clear skies. Fingers crossed this forecast holds

Had a brief peek on August 12, and could just make it out in my 16x80 bins. My last photograph was from August 7, in which is was a faint shadow of its former self. It is curious to think that given its orbital period, it might have been spotted around 4800 BC in Neolithic times here in Europe

Whilst a second-hand HEQ5 is certainly a good choice, and most astronomers treat their kit well, so I wouldn't worry too much about getting a lemon, you can get results with a lighter mount, at the expense of more hassle, and probably more subs discarded. With modern CMOS cameras, stacking many short exposures has become a viable option, and even with my humble EQ3-2 mount I have got some pretty decent results, even without guiding. However, the scope I use is an apochromat, and has a much shorter focal length (480 mm and most often 384 mm with reducer) than your Astroview 9024 at 910 mm focal length, and that makes tracking and guiding far more difficult in your case. At just over F/10, the scope is rather slow for DSO imaging. The above image was taken at F/4.8 with a total exposure time of a few hours. At F/10 you need to quadruple the exposure time to get the same illumination on the chip. A short telephoto lens might get much better results, even with a lighter mount. The following is a result obtained with a Canon 200mm F/2.8 L lens and Canon EOS 700D on an EQ3-2 mount. Having said all this, the HEQ5 is a great, future proof mount,

I would guess spacers would be needed. I need something quite long to get to focus on my APM 80mm F/6 and ASI183MC

I have only treated the L-eNhance data as regular RGB in APP, but skipped star colour calibration, as it produces weird colours. I quite like the auto stretch in APP, but often save the linear data as FITS, and do curves in Gimp. To results with my ASI183MC and Carl Zeiss Planar 85 mm F/1.4 at F/2, as I recall One with the ASI183MC and APM 80 mm F/6 Might have a look at the narrow-band extraction tool. I would also want to have a go at the latter target with the Meade SN-6 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton

Despite the difficulties, I can still make out the GRS. More, shorter subs would certainly help, and generally darks aren't necessary (I rarely take even flats for planetary). An ASI224MC or similar would certainly get more detail, but I think the EOS 600D has a crop video mode, in which it streams the centre part of the CMOS chip uncompressed to video. That can improve matters dramatically.

HAdn't seen that feature in FireCapture, will certainly give it a spin

I personally have given up on DSS, and use Astro Pixel Processor instead. Not free, but a good deal better than DSS.

On Friday August 7 I made a brief attempt at getting former asteroid, now comet A/2019 U6 (Lemmon). Using the same Sigma 50-100mm F/1.8 zoom, under the same (if not worse) conditions, I got 20 subs of 30 s at full aperture, and got this result (heavily cropped) Lo and behold, just above and to the right of Mufrid (bright star in centre) a little, ever so slightly greenish bit of fuzz can be seen, in the exact spot where the comet should be. That makes my thirtieth comet. I haven't spotted it visually yet, hopefully I will get a chance.

Last Friday, August 7, I made a last attempt at grabbing comet NEOWISE using the same lens as before. The skies were a bit hazy, and a rising moon added lots of extra light and interesting gradients to battle, but at least I got something. The comet is really tiny, compared to earlier shots, but it is still there. To its right, there is a vague blotch that indicates the location of globular cluster NGC 5053, a bit further to the right and a bit down the much brighter globular M53 can be seen. I don't think I will have another go

Getting the XW 7 makes sense. If you want to push more, but not break the bank, the Vixen SLV 5mm is essentially an XW5 with smaller FOV. Really great EP. The 6mm might be more useful, given John's input.

That is very nice indeed. Love the processing, crisp but not pushed too far, and very good grey tones.

At 1500 mm, the XW 5 mm will give 300x magnification, which can certainly be useful in a 12" instrument, although sky quality must be good (under good conditions I frequently use 290x using the XW 7 in my C8 (2030 mm focal length)). The 7mm will give 214x which will probably see more use, and is a gentler step up from 150x with the XW 10. However, ultimately, I would advise getting both (you know you want to ), as they are both very useful EPs..

At night, if the scope is way out of focus, nothing will show up. If you can focus on a distant object during daytime, you have a good starting point for nighttime objects.

I think I still have an old SPC900NC kicking around somehwere, but the ASI120MC I got in its place was so much better Inever used it since SPC900NC ASI120MC

Really nice. I could readily pick out the LMC and SMC, along with M33 and M31 and of course our own galaxy. Lots of other goodies there, of course

Might have a go tomorrow, either imaging or visual