SIDO

Gif only competition anyone? Scale down and animate sounds a bit fun and I've seen some nice animations here on SGL. Open to everyone any target any equipment, all other existing rules apply ? Freddie.

My biggest scope was 16" and that hit it for me, I would say for visual go as big as you are willing to port move lift or house as long as your heart is in it on scale with the apertures you choose. Astronomy Cameras and Night Vision equipment can add many inches to a given aperture so if you have a dual purpose visual/eaa (electronic assisted astronomy) 8" telescope you will see far more than someone using a much larger aperture for visual only (especially with light pollution). For a user like this one a small/medium aperture telescope may completely satisfy the need for further aperture. Travel to a darksite will also help you see more with less, gas is cheap if a darksite is close by. Starting out folks often buy smaller more reasonable scopes that are usually quite forgiving with faster cool down times, easy setup and are quite workable and rewarding to use, going up in aperture it's good to keep one of those small scopes available as the larger apertures will have you reminded of how handy and useable they were/are. Best of Luck and Clear Skies Everyone... Freddie.

The severity of these opti/mechanical fetish episodes will decrease slowly with age and over time, be sure to take all prescribed medications until completely gone and don't tell the wife or girlfriend about this untill you are both very much older... Best of Luck and Clear Skies of course ? Freddie...

Welcome to SGL, Best of Luck with those future photographic plans and Clear Skies of Course... Your pictures are very nice indeed. Freddie...

Alot of the imagery remains public not all of course but some real eye candy is to be had for the price of print and there are videos too, the original large format images are also downloadable although these are not raw. https://images.nasa.gov/ NASA does accept inquires on specific data but the link above is for guys like me ? I admit some of the edits are outrageous but some are also very conservative too. Enjoy... Freddie. I took the liberty of contacting NASA with your questions Seanelly, if and when I hear back I'll post their responses here. Thought this might be fun and informative provided we get answers.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1985MNRAS.213..917B

That wasent the puzzle piece I was looking for nor was it an "answer" regarding the CMB, neither a link not a lead not even logic but comedic and sarcastic...Ideals left aside ? Nice to meet you Paul... Freddie.

Well said, the problem is we can only look back to the beginning of the Universe So time itself is the barrier that shrouds everything beyond or the rest of the Universe, I could blame it on the slow speed of light too I guess...

I got interested in these questions while out doing static eaa with my daughter, we were hitting galaxies in Ursa Major and Canes Venatici and when we got to M63 I decided to do multiple passes on the chip to show her more of the galaxy's details and she said "wow...amazing that a black hole drives all that motion and holds all those stars in place around it" letting the statement go by just saying "yes it is isent it" but it's not that simple really and the black hole is not working alone as the central mass of the galaxy adds to the mass of the black hole thus it's not just the black holes gravity but the combined mass and the matter location densities of galaxies that play a large part in consert with their black holes gravity. So after some thought and a little reading I began thinking like Demonperformer were gravity might play a much larger roll on a universal scale as the central core of the Universe does not need to be a solid object but only a more compacted arrangement of objects and if this is the case then there must be rotation as with out it a Universe like this would collapse in on itself. So might we not see rotation in the CMB just because we are looking at an ultra tiny section of the Universe and to see it might need measurement on larger distance scales which can't be done because we only can measure what can be seen? With nothing relative outside or inside the Universe to gauge motion we might simply never know and with no eventual consequences to this motion or an awareness of it relativity does not exist in this regard either. As usual I have more questions than answers...

Is the Universe rotating? Since we cannot see it's center or objects beyond it how can we say it is not itself rotating as most everything in it that we know of is? So really four questions, is it? and how we might know? And what other means are there to make measure it is not or is if indeed we can determin it is not or is and how those conclusions might be made? I know this question has been asked before so in this post I ask more than just the basic question...

Nice set indeed, cool to see them side by side like this.

Welcome to SGL MrPizza (nice handle buy the way) We have some great imagers from Florida and other locations as well so you are in for more than you bargined for ? Best of Luck and Clear Skies of course... Freddie.

I dident give it the credit of a cross section drawing, like Gina's failed artist description best so far. My obsy consists of a table some chairs several scopes, cameras computers and other bits all on wheels now newly conserved in garage, completely all utilitarian of course but I do understand the need for an in ground pool and a couple Jaguars nearby...I have built in bar and senic over look close by too ? So I guess I'm not so innocent on the luxury side of things, intresting to know what others posting here have nearby their observatories...

You would get a nice wide field with your 224 and a 50mm camera lens you likely have and with no clicking noises, at that f ratio you've got some fast light so the zwo model is not as critical. Could be another experiment for you ? The clicking thing would drive me somewhere too.

This is ment to be some weird sort of "out of scale with itself" cut away drawing so intoxication might have more consequences in the final build than pictured, do take plenty of money I think the drinks may be pricey and so will the valae parking...

Welcome James, Sounds like you have new friends close by...Enjoy the journey ? Freddie...

Also diy anti vibration pads can be purchased as rubber furniture leg coasters or any bits of rubber about 1/4 to 1/2 inches thick to place under the legs, this will help to cancel vibrations and I highly suggest doing this as well hanging a weight as Demonperformer suggested just be sure the weight is not so heavy as to damage the tripod. Dont forget the used market for a better mount when you get about the finances for one and again, Best of Luck and Clear Skies of course... Freddie.

Nice captures, seeing Io and Europa coming round with the shadow transit really takes it up a click, awesome.

Awesome line up, displaying nice in the wide angle frames. Thanks for sharing these...

That's a pretty tiny scope for such a grand observatory, might be better to look for an architect with bigger hands ?

Welcome to SGL, Best of Luck and Clear Skies of course ? Freddie...

Your asi224 using livestacking might be your best bet, using a Dslr really is an ergonomic stretch for live viewing and then the small screen too. With your 224 you can livestack wide fields with a camera lens or all sky too, I am doing it with my imx385 and it's just fancy with my 16 or 17 inch laptop screens. I don't save anything and delete everything Sharpcap saves as for me this is just a sub for visual observations of the deep sky so when I roll my portable digital obsy back in the garage for covering nothing beyond the shorthand in my logs is undertaken. I am using the Zwo asi385mc as it is their recommended camera for eaa, they have advised me well the camera is very sensitive and has an ampglow reduction circuit that really brings it under my Bortle class 4 skies. I am new to eeva myself...and glad to share what little I've learned so far. Best of Luck and Clear Skies of Course ? Freddie...

Demonperformer is spot on, last thing you want is a very capable scope on an undersized mount, shaky, wind sensitive and hard or impossible to focus the likely results. Best of Luck and Clear Skies of course ? Freddie...

Welcome to SGL Miguel, Best of Luck with those location challenges and Clear Skies of course ? Freddie...