PaulM

44 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Lovely session by the sound of it. If you ever have the time, it would be great to see a ‘hybrid’ observing report with both your visual descriptions with the 200P and some Seestar images. Perhaps an SGL first! 🙂

good idea ! best session observing the sky I have ever had, still buzzing now

Seestar S50 for imaging and Skywatcher 200P on an EQ5 for visual

Was a good night, clear cold skies out from 18:00 till 02:00, more imaging with my new seestar s50 and visual observations with my 200P EQ5. images included andromeda, rosetta nebula, M82, pacman nebula, jellyfish nebula, visual was jupiter, neptune, M42, multiple star clusters around Cassiopeia amongst other things

welcome, im not too far from you

consider a seastar s50

M1 \ M42 \ NGC 434 and NGC 2024 (Flame Nebula)

10 second subs, FITs uploaded to Astro cooker, TIFF downloaded with some minor adjustments in GIMP

39 minutes ago, jweaver100 said:

Can i ask a question... I have a perfect spot for a telescope.. its a raised platform (balcony) which gives an almost full view of the sky and live in a fairly rural area, so I have almost no light pollution..

The only problem is that it has a Security light.... Lets assume the S50 is stacking photos for a long period.. What would happen if the security light came on during one of the 'frames? Would the software recognize this and discard it... Or would it try to 'stack' it with the others affecting the quality?

Been using my S50 for about a week now, from what I can see and transferred from the S50 in terms of files and have read you get a single JPEG stacked image form the subs and a FITs file, you do not get individual sub files to stack, apparently the early\beta release provided these and most of the YouTube videos are now out of date due to this, you cannot stack the individual subs, happy to be corrected on this as it would be good to do so

First image, received S50 today and was imaging 10 minutes after unboxing, M42, bortle 5, between heavy cloud cover, 10 minutes imaging with 10 sec subs and fits file uploaded to astrocooker, total game changer for me

Received my S50 today, easy to setup via app, charged it up a bit, plonked it on a patio table no alignment or faffing told it to point at M42 and 10 minutes of imaging land an upload to astrocooker I have this image. To me this is a dream come true, I can visually observe now and image at the same time.

Came across the S50 by chance catching up on threads on here, did some research and ordered one from FLO yesterday, they are now out of stock so seem popular. Cannot wait to receive it and image my first DSO after years of visual observations, i will be able to image and visually observe now.

Crikey some amazing images, just ordered one from FLO hope to be posting images soon and excellent excuse to go to a dark sky location in north wales 

astronomy now

no single person on here or indeed alive on the planet at the moment has the answers, revive the thread in a 100 years time

First light for my Baader Hyperion Mark 4 8-24mm Zoom Eyepiece and 2.25X Barlow

Earlier in the day I collimated the 200p i bought recently on eBay on a EQ5 mount

Had bad cloud coverage but wanted to test the zoom eyepiece function and then barlow so decided to observe the double double in Lyra as that part of the sky being high was my best option

Without the barlow and at 24mm I positioned things so they were in the middle then zoomed through each click to 8mm, had to refocus a bit each time I zoomed in but was a nice experience to easily zoom in and out, couldnt split the double double at 8mm so zoomed out to 24mm again and fitted the 2.25x barlow

It was obvious with the barlow fitted the FOV was smaller, zoomed in refocusing as I did to 8mm again and I could split the doubles clearly, focusing has to be very subtle at this stage

Also loosened the dovetail rings to rotate the tube and reposition the eyepiece into a more comfortable position, not sure if this is how to use this setup

Thats it for this session was too cloudy to bother with other targets, but very happy with the zoom eyepiece and barlow, think it will make my observing easy, enjoyable and productive

Baader Hyperion Mark 4 8-24mm Zoom Eyepiece with 2.25X Barlow

8 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

Typical of me to get the name wrong. Holiday brain!

Thanks, I did plan to get in touch that group with at some point as my new telescope\mount now fits into my car now - my old large dob didn't

54 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

Oh, scary - but good to know you're back on the mend.

Are you familiar with Arwen Reservoir?  It's about 10-15 minutes north west of Corwen - and there's a carpark beside the dam where you can set up to get views over the water.  Very dark skies and a popular site for astro people.

One of the chipshops in Corwen will take telephone orders, so you can stop by, pick them up, and take them up there to eat.  They sometimes close at 8pm though, so don't be too late ordering. 

Thanks for the heads up about Alwen Reservoir, I had found a location close by via google maps at Llyn Brenig but will certainly do some research into Alwen Reservoir

First light for my 200p on EQ5 mount

Not had a telescope for over 12 months now and had 8", 12" and 14" dobs previously

Good to be back under the stars after having a heart attack in January and a few more till I had a triple bypass op in March, followed by recovery and rehab and the thought of getting another telescope helped me through this big time and decided on the 200p and EQ5 mount combo and got a good deal from a seller on eBay

So tonight was about getting familiar with the mount and setting the red dot finder and finder scope up

Once setup quickly located M53 then zoomed in with the barlow, then headed over to view M57 and again  zoomed in with the barlow, ended with viewing M81 and M82, by then i was getting tired and experiencing some pain so stopped there, really enjoyed the viewing and getting used to the mount, was also nice to know I still know my way around the night sky

Definitely heading into north wales once the nights get longer as this setup is much easier to carry and move than my last 14" dob

22 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

There's a lot of hype around AI but considering that it will have been designed and programmed by us humans. It'll have defined logic and methodologies that we have crafted and coded. Now install it in a fast enough box and it may be able to seem to perform as if it had intelligence and with algorithms perhaps even seem intuitive when it 'predicts' and responds to situations, conversation etc.

But the big question, for it to actually be intelligent as opposed to just another app, can it think outside the box?

Would it ever be able to make a leap of understanding or hypothesis as humans have done to reach the level of development we have, or will it always be tied to follow the paths defined to it ad nauseum?

Where it is perceived to have "learned", for example a new language, is it simply mapping inter-related constructs and deriving a suitable output or has it really learned and can thereby hold complex conversation in a natural style?

Couldnt have said it better

AI is a lot of IF statements

If it really worked it would be having a much larger impact on our daily lives

First light tonight with my 200p on an EQ5

Just had my first session with my 200p on a EQ5 mount and worked well, used only dobs in the past

Noticed that the tube and therefore focuser/eyepiece can end up in awkward places to comfortably look down the eyepiece

I'm guessing there is a optimal way to position the tube on the dovetail for mounting if so any recommendations?

they work as expected and they feel good but are they worth the price, probably not as the normal focuser work fine, visual only use for me

11 minutes ago, Spile said:

An excellent combination https://astro.catshill.com/the-zoom-eyepiece/

nice write up thanks