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michaelmorris

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Everything posted by michaelmorris

  1. michaelmorris
    I'm off to the Kelling Heath Spring Star Party in April. Hopefully someone there will have an Evoguide and I'll be able a look one.
  2. michaelmorris

    Over the last few weeks I've been reviewing the level of security for my observatory.  I identified a couple of potential weak spots.  I spent most of this weekend upgrading the security on the entrance doors, with new 6 lever locks and steel strengthening bars in the doors and and door frame.  I also beefed up the roof tie-down system to make it pretty much impossible to pry off the roll-off roof.

  3. michaelmorris
    I have some more questions about this seeming excellent little scope. 1 - The dew shield at the front appears to have some baffles/threads on the inside. Can anyone confirm whether these are baffles or a thread? If it is a thread, do you know what size thread it is? 2 - Can anyone tell me the external and internal diameters of the dew shield? 3 - One of the proposed uses for the Evoguide is as a superior finderscope. I presently have a Skywatcher straight-through 9 x 50 finderscope with illuminated reticle. https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-straight-illuminated-magnified-finderscopes.html If I get an Evoguide I'll want an illuminated reticle eyepiece that gives me a similar or larger FOV as my present finderscope. Any suggestions? 4 - Could I mount it in a standard Skywatcher finderscope bracket? Thanks
  4. michaelmorris

    There are three possibilities

    1 - There is a God and I've died and gone to heaven, or

    2 - A weird form of climate change/techno withcraft, or

    3 - I'm hallucinating!

    Sorry, "what is this rambling idiot talking about?" I hear you say.  Well, it's the combination of FIVE clear nights in a row, minimal technical hiccups and no Moon.   

    The result = 101 x 10 minute subs.  :icon_biggrin:

  5. michaelmorris

    I don't believe it, a third clear night in a row! :icon_biggrin:

    By the end of the night I will now have a total of 29.5 hours of narrow band data for the Jellyfish nebula.  After tonight, I'll aim to get another 4.5 hours of SII data and another 7 hours of OIII data.  Whether I manage this before the seasons end only the weather gods will know.

    1. carastro

      carastro

      You should be so lucky, London still hasn't cleared and it's now 12.30am 

      Carole 

    2. michaelmorris

      michaelmorris

      Incredible, a fourth night of imaging in a row!!!  That's another 11 x 10 minute OIII subs.  The Jellyfish Nebula has just sunk below the Bay Tree of Doom, so it's flats, then bed.  :icon_biggrin:

       

  6. michaelmorris
    Oh dear, that's another £150 that will be leaving the bank account! Seriously though, if this is half as good as it sounds like it is going be, this could be a really good seller.
  7. michaelmorris

    Forecast looks okay for this evening :icon_biggrin:

  8. michaelmorris

    I swear the gods themselves conspired against me tonight!  First clear night in weeks and we are baby sitting our grandchild.  My daughter is back an hour later than planned, so I don't get home until 11.30.

    I immediately open up the observatory quickly get everything set up to start collecting some more 10 minute subs of the Jellyfish Nebula in OIII.  Half way through guiding calibration then ...

    .. all the electrics go in the road!!!

    10 minutes later it comes back on and it's then another 30 minutes before everything is working and I start the first sub.  :-)

    45 minutes later the Jellyfish Nebula disappears behind next door's ever expanding Bay tree.

    Ah well ......

    1. PhotoGav

      PhotoGav

      Michael, that there is sufficient justification for a fully remote operable observatory! Last night was indeed finally crisp and clear (at least until 2am!), but it was my daughter’s school play (Annie, my daughter was in the orphan chorus, lovely production!). The show started at 7pm, but my observatory was up and running and I monitored it on my iPhone during the interval! We were home at about 10:30pm. Over three hours of Beehive collected and in the pot! I got a further three hours before cloud stopped play. Remote control is the way forwards...

    2. Craney

      Craney

      I share your pain Michael.   School charity event tonight, I am on car park duty under the clearest sky in 3 weeks without MOON !! , wind, showers or work next day. So there I am on a Friday night just looking, whilst my scope sits under a cover at home not imaging anything.  Once all the Luvvies had stopped kissing each other and said goodbye to each other for the umpteen time, I finally got home.... 10 frames of the Heart Neb...... then a peep out of the Synscan... power lost....arghhh... reset, re-align... now the Heart is too close to my chimney pot.... Ok   Jellyfish.... oh is that a cloud ?  Yes, parked right over Gemini and not really moving...arghh!!!....  went to bed.

  9. michaelmorris
    The more I look at this the more I think I might get one. Ideally it could fulfil multiple roles. Guidescope, finderscope, grab and go ultra portable telescope, Ha solar telescope (with Coronado 50mm Ha etalon on front and blocking filter on back) and possibly, at a push, wideish field imaging scope. For me, the key thing will be how much back focus it has. 1 - does it have enough back focus to mount a diagonal + eyepiece on the back (like the Stellarvue 50 Nighthawk/Little Rascal)? 2 - does it have enough back focus to mount a T2 to C mount adaptor on the back with a Lodestar screwed into the C mount adaptor? Also, could I mount it in a standard Sky-Watcher finderscope bracket?
  10. michaelmorris
    Whilst the Earth's rotation will certainly help shorten the the return track, AFAIK it is a not the whole story. From what I understand, the boosters do actually partially retraces their path through space as well as retracing their ground track.
  11. michaelmorris
    The boosters turn using maneuvering thrusters around then re-ignite their main engines to reverse their track. Bare in mind that most of the fuel they used to get up there was used to carry the payload and the fuel itself up out of a gravity field. Therefore surprisingly little fuel is needed for the return trip. They then fire for a third time to slow themselves down just as they start entering the thicker part of the atmosphere. They are then slowed down and steered by a combination of short thruster burns and some neat steering grids on the side of the booster. Just before touchdown they ignite the main engines for a fourth and final time to land.
  12. michaelmorris
    WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW .....
  13. michaelmorris
    NGC 2023.jpg
    Those are a great images. Well framed and sharp. It really is worth doing a even a little bit of image processing, it can really enhance an image. I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of importing one of your pictures into Photoshop and did one quick pass of Gradient Xterminator and a quick curves and levels (total processing time less than 60 seconds) just to show you how a very quick bit of image processing can enhance an image.
  14. michaelmorris
    I have the 8mm, 11mm and 32 mm Televue Plossls in my eyepiece collection, and I'm a big fan of all of them. I use the 8mm and 11mm primarily for double star observing. I find that the colour rendition on the 8mm TV comes a very close second to my gorgeous 7mm University Optics HD orthoscopic. The good news is that nice examples of TV Plossls come onto the secondhand market very regularly and tend to go for around £60 - £65 each for the shorter focal lengths and maybe somewhere between £75-£100 for a 32mm.
  15. michaelmorris
    New set up for widefield imaging
    Nice!
  16. michaelmorris
    I've found that the problem is that there is no one system that suits all situations. A written journal is great, but makes it really difficult to retrieve previous observations of a particular object. Computer-based logs are great, but lack flexibility and suffer from a fundamental problem of forwards compatibility if you want to retrieve your observations 10 or 20 years later.
  17. michaelmorris
    Another important thing to make note of the exact position of the front cell (or corrector plate on its own - which ever you decide to remove) relative tube at the point it comes off. This will help you make sure that you start screwing it back together from the right starting position.
  18. michaelmorris

    Another clear night!  Another night of grabbing 10 minute Ha subs of the Jellyfish Nebula. ?

    My project for the winter/early spring is to try to get about 7 to 10 hours each of data for Ha and OIII and maybe try to get some SII as well. I hopefully then add some RGB data for the stars.

    It's great having the observatory. I've now got it down to 20 minutes from opening the observatory,  to turning everything on, aligning the scope, checking focus, calibrating the guiding, and starting to image. ??

    1. michaelmorris

      michaelmorris

      Another 5 hours of Ha data of the Jellyfish Nebula tonight.  I think on the next clear night I'll start collecting the OIII data. ?

       

  19. michaelmorris
    I'll second a sketching challenge. In fact, why not have a couple of sketching challenges a year? Subjects could include: The Moon The Sun Planets Open clusters Galaxies Double stars
  20. michaelmorris

     

    1. pipnina

      pipnina

      Thanks for the link, we've managed to remove the ballhead from my dad's tripod and it's made the Star Adventurer much more stable!

  21. michaelmorris
    Well I suspect you may have just found them!
  22. michaelmorris
    I would have thought that 15-30 minute exposures is going to be really pushing the limits of DSLR astrophotography and as a result I'm not surprised that you're getting banding. I know it is not ideal, but would have thought that taking more, shorter, exposures might help.
  23. michaelmorris
    My understanding is that banding is likely to get worse the more you stretch an image. If your tracking and /or guiding is spot on, stacking subs will just increase the problem. One way around this is to dither between each sub. Dithering is moving the mount by a small random distance between each sub-exposure (just a few pixels). Therefore whilst the fixed pattern noise stays in the same place on each sub-exposure, the stars are in slightly different places on each image. When you come to stack these sub-exposures the stacking software aligns each image on the stars. When these are stacked the stars are nice and sharp, but the fixed pattern noise tends to get smeared as it is offset between each aligned image. The nett result is that all forms of fixed pattern noise (including dark or hot pixels) tend to disappear more into the background, allowing you to stretch the final image more. http://dslr-astrophotography.com/dithering-optimal-results-dslr-astrophotography/ APT image capture software has some great dithering tools including integration with PHD guiding software and dithering when not autoguiding. https://ideiki.com/astro/Default.aspx I hope this helps
  24. michaelmorris

    Just got 22 x 600 sec subs of the Jellyfish Nebula (IC445) in Ha. :icon_biggrin: The clouds have rolled in, so I've just packed it in for the night.   

  25. michaelmorris
    Great video, thanks for posting.
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