Hughsie

Oooo in your face, give it the full custard pie treatment!

Great pictures (other posts) as always. John

I just plain don’t look visually into an eyepiece when viewing the Sun, there is always a camera connected to my laptop and I feel it’s much safer that way. Appreciate that’s not an option for everyone but this is a good reminder to all of how easy it is to make a mistake. I am glad you are ok and the prom is a great image.

The Sun remains quiet on the Chromosphere despite some interesting prominences (especially Friday 18 June 2019). Attached is a full disk image of the Sun captured using SharpCap Pro. The disk is made up of eight separate images comprised of the same number of AVI files containing 1,000 frames. The best 45% of the frames were used to make each image. Each AVI was stacked using the free software, Autostakkert, then in Photoshop the images were combined using the automated photo merge function with blending. Towards the centre of the Sun is a small plage. Higher gain settings reveal a large fragmented arch type prominence on the North East limb and a smaller 'flame' type one on the South West limb but are not shown in this image. Thanks for checking in. John

I love my ASI174MM, good size fov for both lunar and solar work and quick with it. Great image, thank you for sharing.

Hi Luke, I am intrigued by this project and would love to give it a go. I have some B&W light sensitive paper on order and will start building the camera tomorrow. The rear of my house faces south so I might fix a couple to the drain pipe with cable ties and see how they go for 6 months. One question I have is regarding the post processing. I understand from reading various sites that the paper is removed in a darkened room then scanned on to a computer then run through its paces in Photoshop. Doesn’t the act of scanning the film damage the image? Cheers, John

Just given gas n air to the FedEx delivery man who has dropped off my new EQ6-R Pro. Now doing something I have never done before.... reading the manual!

Hydrogen alpha goggles - Check. And looking further down I see.... Beer goggles - Check

Thank you to everyone who has contributed here. It’s been very helpful reading your comments. With a wealth of mounts out there the EQ6-R works for me scope, use and budget wise. Now have one on order from FLO and thinking about the poor postman who has to deliver this beast!

SkyTools 3 or 4 by Skyhound? https://www.skyhound.com/

Why not submit it to the Solar Challenge? Definitely something different compared to the images already in there.

With the weather as it is I am wondering whether there is a call for an imaging section v 1.1 where we rework previous data. Might be a good idea to share processing tips on images we have revisited during those cloudy evenings - what went wrong (got that t-shirt) and what worked well (that t-shirt will fit me one day)? Food for thought. John

......and it was your article David that help resolve my issue! At least it guided others if not yourself 😂

I was quite happily blind plate solving until I switched scopes and it all went Pete Tong. Whilst I recorded the new a focal length of the scope (710mm) I didn’t take into account the 0.8 reducer attached to it giving me an effective focal length of 568mm. As soon as I changed my set up to 568 in APT it was all systems go.

I originally posted a cropped version of the image as there was a large circular artefact positioned in the bottom left hand corner of the original that my flats did not remove. I can only imagine that whatever was on the lens when I took these exposures disappeared by the time I took my flats the next day as there was no sign of the same artefact in the flats. This morning I created a synthetic flat using PixInsight and applied this using pixelmath - Original x (mean Flat)/Flat - which did a good job removing the artefact.

Hi Kane, I only bought the camera earlier this year so have had no experience using it during warmer nights. So far I have had no issue getting the temperature down to -15c. Technically it can go -35 to -40c below ambient so even on a really warm night -10 to -15 should be possible. I will find out soon enough. On the above points; For best gain/exposure settings you may wish to check out the Sensor Analysis on SharpCap. It's part of the free setup so a Pro licence is not needed. The analysis will review the chip over various gains and exposures and present a bespoke analysis a bit like the charts you see in the ZWO manual. It can be done during the day with the lense cap on and off and a white t-shirt to cut down on the brightness; takes 5-10 minutes. Once done all you do is aim your scope and camera towards your target at night and select the histogram tool. Press the 'brain' icon and SharpCap will report back a recommended gain/exposure given your sky conditions and chip sensitivity. On the second point, I have a 55mm back focus from the rear of the William Optics Flat 6A II flattener to the camera chip. I use a 2 inch Idas D2 LPS filter, however, it screws into the front of the flattener not the rear so does not impact on back focus. If your flattener allows the same then there should be no need to take into account the thickness of the filter. Back focus is a pain, for me the manual states the flattener should be adjusted to 4.6mm. I have had digital callipers on it and still see some elongation towards the edges which I end up cropping out. So it's a bit hit and miss adjusting it inwards or outwards to get the best setting. I have some shims so may start using adjusting shy of 4.6mm and use those to make minor adjustments. Cheers, John

I have just started using the ASI294MC pro cool. I started at unity gain and recently went as high as a gain of 300 (my Iris Nebula picture posted earlier today shows this with an IDAS light pollution filter). You will benefit from taking calibration frames as already pointed out. I generally take 100 light frames using the tool in APT then 100 dark flats ( same gain/exposure as flat but with the lense cap on). The darks can take a while to capture but as you are using the cooled version of the 294 you can create a dark library on cloudy days. I have a library of darks at -15 degrees, unity gain over 1 to 5 minute exposures, say 50 frames at each time. As for DSS, I find stacking in PI is better. Also I tend not to use the batch processing tool having had mixed results in the past. There are some great tutorials on the Light Vortex website. This is the workflow for calibrating your flats, darks and dark flats and then stacking together. It’s a long process but really helps you to understand how the calibration frames help improve your image https://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-pre-processing-calibrating-and-stacking-images-in-pixinsight.html Keep at it, it’s a great camera! John

Thank you Carole. Bortle 4 skies here. I’m going to keep at it as I would really like to bring out the dark regions of dust without blowing out any other detail. Thoughts and ideas welcome! John

For me, NGC 7023 is situated well for imaging featuring high in the North and rising. This is a reflection nebula located within the constellation Cepheus. A magnitude +7 star which itself is part of a small star cluster lights up the gas giving it its blue hue. Dust also surrounds the nebula which obscures the light of some of the background stars. This image is made up of 20 exposures. I would have liked to have captured more data but unfortunately the clouds drifted into view. Taken with the ZWO ASI294MC Pro Cooled camera; 20 x 180s exposures; IDAS D2 LPS filter used. John

Thought the topic title was referring to my first girlfriend!

Just checked the BBC weather website for tonights forecast. It shows it being clear sky from 10pm to 1am.....with a 13% chance of rain. Forgive because I am no meteorologist here but if it rains there must be clouds so it cant be a clear sky. If its a clear sky there are no clouds so I guess no rain? A more apt forecast from the boffins at the BBC should be ; It will be cloudy with clear skies with a chance of fog, rain, snow, hail, frost, bright sunshine, hurricanes....... between 10pm and 1am. PS don't forget the sun tan lotion.

Hi Greg, great to hear the AVX is working out for you. Skies permitting put that baby to work! John

Made me think of the Day of the Triffids

Just thought I would check in and say hello to everyone. Spotted the ECD club last night whilst imaging, or as I would call it 'fighting with my guiding'. Why is it one night it works great and the next night it just goes to pieces? Cheers, Hughsie

Thank you everyone for your replies. That’s cleared it up in my own mind and will save a lot of kneeling down looking through a red dot finder 👍🏻