Wiu-Wiu

these two are visible in the evening, around Bootes and Hercules. 
At mag 13 and 10, both are the best targets in the northern hemisphere these days. 
 

i’m starting another run in a minute, hoping to ge5 some better subs with a bit less moon than yesterday. 
 

35 years of looking up, and I'm still screaming like a little child when I see a good sized meteor. 

Last week a full FOV closeup of an airplane had me quite surprised. 

I have never gotten around to actually using it. The asiair pro had developed so I was able to control and monitor it from indoors, so my interest in further tinkering with the astrobar was discontinued. 

I did get as far as installing a remote control (chrome remote, but windows remote is needed as chrome auto logs you off after x weeks), and software like ascom, NINA, and PHD, and thanks to Youtube I found a way to synchronise the subs folder to my home server (or PC), so subs could be transferred in real time and HD space freed. But as stated above, the CPU seemed insufficient to work well with the data transfer over USB 3, so choices need to be made. 

I am now planning to use a NUC, combined with the pegasus powerbox mini (dew control and power distribution), and that could give me a bit more processing power, as I don't think support is continued so an upgrade of RAM and/or HD space is probably not an option.

I wouldn't recommend spending 400 quid on it, tho. Give me a message if you feel like it has a better use in your setup because I am not planning on keeping it myself. 

no worries, and you might also be Southern enough to take a shot at this asteroid  - or if you know anyone who might give it a shot... 

(if you can see jup & sat, you might have a good chance) 

beware, it's quite small... 

Indeed, skysafari. Highly recommended if you ask me! 

A friend of mine reached out to me, looking for some help.
she was looking for some way to make a remembrance gift for her brother and his wife, who lost their child during pregnancy this year. She was going to be the godmother of the girl. 

she came upon ‘naming a star’, as the little baby is now ‘a star in heaven’. 
 

I think we can do a little better than handing over money to those kinds of companies.
 

the baby was named Josephine. There is one main belt asteroid named Josephina. It is currently positioned in CAP, at mag 15.

this is unfortunately too low for me, and I won’t be able to image it anymore. 
 

So I’m reaching out to anyone here who has a better chance to shoot a quick image of the asteroid, and willing to share their picture so I can make a nice collage and make this gift more personal. 
please share, or reach out to your connections, it would mean the world to them. Thank you!

Taken with Esprit 120 and asi 071 mc pro.

annotated image : Here

Still on this comet, today it is close to LDN 1256. Only 60 minutes before clouds rolled in again. The scale of the Esprit 120 shows just how small this comet is. 

crop:

I’ve only managed to see (well, photograph) this comet twice until now. Hoping for a break in the fog and clouds by new moon...

yesterday, 17x180s, Esprit 120. 

Testing the new addition to my gear: ZWO EAF.

Only managed to squeeze in 2 hours of HA-OIII before it clouded over again, but the Asiair did very well I'd say! 

I was running a raspberry pi in my allsky setup, but the software was having too many hickups. Image capture was ok, but in the morning, it stopped making and uploading the keogram, movie, and startrails. I could make them manually but it was too much of a hassle to do this every day, and too time consuming to make them on a  weekly basis. 

So I upgraded the pi to a stick pc, so I could run Allskeye on it. 

But... 

- The stick pc loses connection with my wifi network as soon as I close the box. I'm hoping a USB wifi antennae will help with that. 

- The stick PC (Atom X5-Z8350 board in a Morefine M1S) DOES NOT AUTO START when power is applied. I have tried changing the settings in the bios, but it does not show this option. 

Questions: 

1. Can I change the bios so the stick PC auto boots when power is restored? Or is there another way? I'm not really keen on crawling onto my roof every time to push a button.

2. Which stick PC's are usually used in allsky setups and how do you prevent disconnection to the wifi network? 

If this particular stick pc is useless for this, I'll just run NINA on it and put it on my scope. 

I've been playing around with the Edge in the garden during these last few clear nights during our lockdown. Not the usual dark site (SQM 19,3 here) so I thought I'd pick some brighter targets, and these just might be perfect for that. 

Enjoy!

This software looks amazing, and I'd give it a shot, but what are you guys running your allsky setup on?

The software needs windows to run, so do you have a dedicated laptop running 24/7 or is it just needed to log in and manage settings? 

I can't seem to find the part that describes the hardware. 

thanks!

Took this to test how the rig is doing on the newly installed pier. 61 x 300 s subs, Esprit 120, asi 071 mc pro, Ioptron CEM 60. 

Light pollution filter in place: IDAS D1

I never really noticed the faint cluster on the upper right (Tombaugh 4) before, a great contrast with the bright one in the core (Collinder 26). 

Quick Follow up on this one before the clouds rollled in. Took longer exposures this time, which paid off in finding it while stacking 😅

I'd second that Mak idea. I think the normal SCT's are a bit overkill - as stated above, you will do a lot of transport and you'll need to check collimation often. Not fun when you are just going out for a quick view, you want to spend the time observing, not collimating. 

The mak packs a great punch! They are good for planetary and if you're a fan: the Moon. But the long focal length makes them good on DSO too (you'll miss the aperture though). 

BUT: living in a suburban area myself, I have switched the type of targets I observe: faint DSO are for dark skies on vacation. At home, I keep to double stars, star clusters and planets. And maybe the odd Messier or bright planetary. 

Shot earlier this month, this little comet is slowly making its way through CAS. 

15.5 at time of this image, it should be mag 15 around the time of this post. 

Perihelion in january 2022 (2022!!) so we have over a year to observe this one before it either breaks up or disappears. 

These are just beyond wor(l)ds, really. 

Not just the detail or the way you blend in the details, but also the overall care you put in your sketches, absolutely wonderful! 

I love being able to gaze into the details of some planetary nebulae. A steady seeing and transparant sky are all that's needed (well, and excellent optics, too lol ) 

The Blue Snowball has a lot to see, and I am sure it might show even more when seen from a dark location. 

Who can compare sketches? I'd love to see yours! 

Summer nights are excellent to observe clusters. The milky way offers tons of them, and they aren't bothered by the grey nights as much as other deep sky objects are. 

I love to just sit and observe those loose gatherings of stars, taking the time to sketch them while I'm not freezing my hands off  

Two low Globular clusters in OPH, so quite plagued by lightpollution. 

And this galaxy wasn't new for me, but it showed some new details in this setup, so I loved to give it another try. 

Finally got around to digitalise some sketches. Here's the ones I made of comet NEOWISE this summer. 

Notice the difference in the size and appearance of the coma in the last two... 

Indeed, Victor, the bright star to the left is eta UMa, at 12 degrees from Talitha.

the tail goes even further, but cirrus stopped me from taking more pictures.

I was finally able to get to a remote location. Not the very best of weather, plagued by cirrus, but I managed to make a 3-panel mosaic, showing the ion tail.

I need to learn how to equalise my background, but DNAlinearfit didn't do the trick. 

Stack of the 3 separate panels in APP, mosaic made in PixInsight.