michael.h.f.wilkinson

I have had both the the ASI120MC and the ASI224MC. The USB 3 camera is compatible with a USB 2 port on the PC, you just don't get the same frame rates. The 224MC was certainly a better performer, both in terms of sensitivity and noise, although the 120MC is fine too.

Welcome to SGL, Barry! I have never looked through any of the BSTs, but buying the lot of them doesn't seem like a serious error, by the glowing reports they get. Great value for money, by all accounts

Just had a quick peek at the sun with my Coronado SM-II 60. In single stack mode I could spot a faint filament in the north, and a shorter, darker one in the south, with some indications of plage. In DS mode, I got considerably more contrast in the southern disk, and spotted quite an extensive area of brighter and darker swirls west of the filament. Not the most active AR I have seen, but certainly nice to see more than just granulation. Didn't spot any proms

I think the top screw is a piggy-back mount for a camera with lens (1/4" thread). The black ring acts as a locking ring to keep the camera pointed in the desired direction

Only for festive occasions

Super-intelligent shades of the colour wet?

But maybe you missed the super-intelligent shades of the colour blue that might be around

At this level, small changes in aperture make a big difference. I went from a Lunt LS35 to Coronado SolarMax-II 60mm, and then got a Solar Spectrum filter to use in combination with a Beloptik Tri-Band ERF on my 80mm (stopped down to 75). I made a comparison image, which says a lot about the difference. Click for full size. I am thinking of selling the Coronado (now with BF15 and double-stack unit), because I don't quite like the central obstruction, especially at lower magnification. Note that for imaging, I never got it to work properly with my PowerMate, without weird internal reflections causing trouble, hence the middle image is not quite to the scale possible with the 60 mm

Nice work. No luck here, what with all the clouds

Some kind of white-balance issue, I would say. Different optics can change the colour cast of the images. On the other hand, the image with the Newtonian was probably brighter, which may have influenced the auto-white balance of the camera.

My hardwood tripod rebuild can be found here: Really improved matters

My favourite planetary EPs are my Pentax XWs (5, 7 and 10 mm) and the Tele-Vue Delos series (I have the 6, 8, and 14 mm). Cannot fault these in any way: excellent comfort, contrast, and sharpness over a really nice wide FOV Never noticed that in any of the three SLVs I have in my travel set. I wonder if this was an issue with earlier versions that has been corrected.

Very nice indeed. I might invest in one of these quad-band filters at some point

Strictly speaking, it would be a supernova remnant, not a planetary nebula. I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations based on M1, which is a 1,000 year old SNR, at almost exactly 10 times the distance to Betelguese. It is some 420x290 arcsec. Assuming linear expansion, that means about 0.3 - 0.4" expansion per year, which in the case of Betelguese would translate to 3 - 4" per year. Quite spectacular, and easily resolved in amateur kit.

I have seen one or two variants of the EQ1 and EQ2 with several improvements, and this could be an improved EQ1. Doesn't really matter, I would say. The main thing is that in either case, the scope is under-mounted, so will wobble. I had a similar mount under a Bresser-branded 4.5" F=500 mm Newtonian. That was very wobbly, so I upgraded the tripod legs to hardwood (DIY job) , which helped a lot. Converting the scope to a mini-Dob helped a lot more.

Just added it to Stellarium, and it fits the bill exactly! Thanks. Just made a crop showing the asteroid

I noticed a little streak in the lower half and left of centre in the image of M45 I shot on the evening of December 30. This looks like the kind of streak a main belt asteroid could leave in a 2.5-3 hour time span. It is unlike any satellite trail I have seen, but I can't find which asteroid it could be in Stellarium. Any other ideas?

I Got about 2.5 hours of data on M45 and just 41 minutes of data on M42 (and the latter partly cloud-ridden). First results using APT and the ASI183MC with APM 80mm F/6 with Tele-Vue TRF 2008 0.8x focal reducer. I am quite pleased with the M45 results: M42 was less good, but perhaps that is just due to bad skies and little time: It seems this combination might be worth using more

Just set the kit up for DSO imaging for the first time in ages. Fingers crossed for a few hours of clear sky.

Welcome to SGL from another Dutchie, from up north

Whatever the difficulties, the result is a lovely image!

Very nice result indeed, I would be very pleased with that indeed . I don't know which stacking software you use, but I have found Astro Pixel Processor a huge step up from DSS, and I require far less tweaking afterwards.

Both have essentially the same exit pupil, so should perform similarly in terms of the brightness of the background, and therefore surface brightness of the objects you can spot. The 10x50 will have the edge in terms of numbers of stars resolved in open clusters, and show more stars in general. They are slightly harder to hold steady, of course (although I routinely use my 16x80s hand held)

You could buy a sizeable reflector with similar wide spectral range for a lot less, and have money to spare for a very solid mount, camera, filter set, etc. Great Strehl value in a 6" scope is nice, but bigger aperture at slightly lower Strehl beats that, especially when the effects of seeing are included.

An oldie, from when the sun was much more active