rob_r

Copernicus, Eratosthenes and Montes Apenninus Date of capture and acquisition information as above post.

Plato and Vallis Alpes Date: 13th November 2021 Scope: SkyMax 127 Mount: EQ5 Camera: ASI224MC (via ASICap) Capture size: 1304x976px Capture format: RAW8 Gain: 200 Exposure: 5ms Best 25% stacked of 3000 frames using AS!3. Wavelet sharpening via Registax 6, final level adjustments in Photoshop.

Hi, A selection of captures from last Saturday evening near the terminator around Plato and the Montes Apenninus region. It has seems an age since I last imaged the moon and the session also afforded the opportunity to add a Powermate 2.5x to the imaging train. The seeing seemed OK to me and a number of rilles (Rima Bradley; Hadley; Plato; Hyginus) are subtly visible in the images including Vallis Alpes and dramatic shadows cast over the Plato and Copernicus craters. Scope: SkyMax 127 Mount: EQ5 Camera: ASI224MC (via ASICap) Capture size: 1304x976px Capture format: RAW8 Widefield shots Gain: 200 Exposure: 5ms Close ups Gain: 400 Exposure: 4ms Best 25% stacked of 3000 frames in each widefield image; best 10% stacked of 3000 frames in the close ups using AS!3. Wavelet sharpening via Registax 6, final level adjustments in Photoshop. Thanks for looking.

I noticed CO was forecasting cloud cover recently and it happened to be quite clear. As other have commented, CO has slipped down my preferences for planning sessions. For me, it is now usually MET Office for the daily forecast and Weather&Radar for the cloud radar/forecast in 15 minute blocks. No forecast is 100% accurate, even MET Office changes its forecast by the hour. Perhaps it is the change in season that has thrown CO off a bit and the UK is full of areas with their own micro-climates, thinking of the Lake District being one just up the M6 from here. The apps get coupled with a quick glance through the window these days, just to be sure.

Hi, It is not much to look at but it is first for me capturing Uranus, a day before its opposition. Normally, it would be Jupiter or Saturn but both have marched over roofs of nearby housing now. Captured using SW SkyMax127; EQ5 mount; 2.5x Televue Powermate; ZWO ASI224MC with IR-cut filter via ASICap. Conditions were not favourable, sporadic high cloud and poor seeing under Bortle 6 skies plus the night of the 5th was overcast. The challenge was getting the target on the chip and identifying the planet. Oddly, defocusing on the target revealed Uranus's blue green tint which helped. Perhaps should have reduced the area of interest too with hindsight but I think it is a half decent result for a first time and something to improve upon. Capture Area Size = 1304x976 Capture Limit = 60s Colour Format = RAW8 Exposure = 70.41ms Gain = 500 Stacked via AS!3, best 10% of frames, sharpened in Registax 6. First JPG is a median stack of 15 AVIs processed in Photoshop, the other is just a single stack straight out of Registax 6.. Thanks for looking.

Jupiter (with GRS) imaged on the 6th September just outside the small village of Talley in Carmarthenshire, about 30 miles west from Brecon Beacons National Park. SkyWatcher SkyMax 127; TeleVue Powermate 2.5x; ASI ZWO 224MC and an Baader IR-cut filter on the AZ-GTI mount. No ADC used (it's on the list though). 15 x 60 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 4ms; Gain 450) Stacked best 20% frames in AS!3 Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos Final level and curve adjustments in Photoshop.

A couple more from the following night 7th September, at Talley, Carmarthenshire. Jupiter: 15 x 60 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 8ms; Gain 350) Stacked best 15% frames in AS!3 Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos Final level and curve adjustments, unsharp mask in Photoshop. Saturn: 15 x 120 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 8ms; Gain 500) Stacked best 15% frames Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos Final level and curve adjustments, unsharp mask in Photoshop. Jupiter looks better despite no GRS. Saturn looks a little worse as it was getting fairly breezy during the capture process, I honestly thought the whole rig was going to topple over. Thanks again.

Hi, Here is Jupiter and Saturn imaged on Monday evening, the first captures of the new season, on the 6th September just outside the small village of Talley in Carmarthenshire, about 30 miles west from Brecon Beacons National Park. The skies are remarkable at Talley and a huge change from my home skies near Preston. Talley is estimated at Bortle 3 (according to Clear Outside) plus the faint wisp of the Milky Way is visible without any other visual aids. All imaged with SkyWatcher SkyMax 127; TeleVue Powermate 2.5x; ASI ZWO 224MC and an IR-cut filter on the AZ-GTI mount (due to it's portability over my EQ-5 mount). No ADC used (it's on the list), just manual focus which may be slightly out and I'll have to add the exposure, frame rates and gain settings used. They look a little fuzzy perhaps but have some details coming through. Very impressed with the Powermate though for both imaging and observing. We were lucky with the weather there, 3 clear nights over the past week and I gathered more data on the gas giants on the following night but have yet to process them but I suspect due to it being more breezy then plus having a lighter tripod, the data may not be as good. I may try adding 1.5x drizzle to enlarge them further too. Jupiter: 15 x 60 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 4ms; Gain 450) Stacked best 20% frames in AS!3 Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos Final level and curve adjustments in Photoshop. Saturn: 15 x 120 second videos (RAW8; Exposure 8ms; Gain 500) Stacked best 20% frames Sharpened in Registax 6 and de-rotated in WinJupos Final level and curve adjustments in Photoshop. My best planetary captures yet in any case and thanks for looking.

Arrived this morning, a new Powermate 2.5x. Will be interesting to see how it compares against my Celestron 2x Barlow on the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn over the coming months. Courtesy of @FLO

As another Mak127 (and a ASI224MC) owner, I would be super happy to get this kind of quality in my final images. The comparison with the SW 120ED in your other thread are interesting too. I'm eagerly awaiting Jupiter approaching opposition and for it to drift into a more acceptable time of night 😄. Good work all round with these lovely images.

Saturn moved to the right of Jupiter during the Great Conjunction of December 2020. They appeared within a degree, one tenth of a degree if I recall, of each other around the 21st December. Their positions align once every 20 years.

Has the 'mirror lock up' feature been accidentally enabled? If so, disable it and try it again. The setting is under Custom Functions, 8: Mirror lockup. I could be clutching at straws here though as I would think it would not throw out a battery error. I have the same model and the bulb feature works fine with a remote shutter.

At least the Moon will be well below the horizon by the late evenings into early mornings. Globular clusters and double stars may be your best bet for twilight skies, you'll have Hercules high in the south with M13 Great Globular Cluster. Lyra will be to the left of that with Vega. You might be able to pick out M57 Ring Nebula within Lyra if it is dark enough. By early morning, Jupiter and Saturn will rise in the south east, be it very low for both so a clear horizon will be needed in that direction.

I have the same scope with a 224MC (and a Canon 600D). The 224MC gives very good images for lunar, I posted a few in the Lunar Imaging part of this forum. I've yet to use the 224MC for planetary but that will change once we are into late Summer. I did replace the USB cable on the ZWO camera for a USB-C connection as that is the only port available on my laptop as I found my USB2 to USB-C hub adaptor was losing connection. Really straightforward to start capturing video and images too. I don't think you'll be disappointed with either the 224 or 385 camera.

My humble contribution to this thread. By far one of most distant intended objects I managed to image before the season closed and one of the better efforts in terms of data gathering. Object: The Sombrero Galaxy (Messier 104) Date: 01/05/2021 Bortle 6/5 sky Equipment: Canon 600D unmodded (ISO800), Skywatcher SkyMax 127, Skywatcher EQ5 mount, tracked, no filters Lights: 147 x 18sec Calibration frames: 40 Darks & 40 Bias Software: Siril & Photoshop

These are great efforts, much better than my initial attempts at planetary imaging. Shooting movies will net you a lot more data in a shorter time frame. Siril can extract the frames from the AVI or SER movie and put them into a sequence, from there it stack those for you. Hope to see more once the darker skies return.

I have but found AutoStakkert does a far better job in my opinion, ditto for lunar.

Siril is decent but as @BCN_Sean mentions there is a learning curve to it but you can get some decent results from the default scripts it comes packaged with. Is 'Bootcamp' an option to install a Windows partition?

Another +1 for Siril. Depending on the Mac and it's OS, is 'Bootcamp' an option to install a Windows partition? Just thinking it will open more options up for you.

I'm in a simliar position also. The only chance I really have to stay up late is on the weekends due to work and daddy commitments as you mentioned. I was happy enough to get M104 at the end of April so my focus will be switching to the Moon until Jupiter and Saturn reach favourable positions to the South in the late Summer, around August into September soon after they both pass their respective oppositions. A bit hampered by housing and lighting for other targets out to the west.

To be honest, I thought this when I fitted it to my 127 Mak. I have got the finder in tight but given the weight of it I could potentially see it dropping out of the shoe. Seems you have a couple of ideas there to help reduce that chance, I may well do the same.

Heard lots of good things about it on these forums. It is a solid piece of kit and feels well made. Just need a clear night now.

A new RA erecting finderscope, IR cut filter and ZWO IR 850nm pass filter. Thanks FLO. Got fed up for arching and bending my neck over the RDF. Preparing for the late Summer appearances of Jupiter and Saturn.

Mild (14C) but wall to wall cloud for tonight and next week looks to be more of the same…

Thanks. Once the longer nights return, I'll switch back to DSOs. Under Bortle 6 skies, I feel true darkness has already gone even on the rare opportunities I get to stay up past midnight. M51 is another target but it is already disappearing over the top of my house! Me too. Even at 18s, trailing is evident but some detail is there. With hindsight, I should have upped the ISO to 1600 perhaps. I had problems in DSS attempting to stack it due to lack of stars even at 2% threshold plus median filtering. Siril just battered through the frames and stacked them. M104 will fit in frame on my ASI224MC with the Mak 127 but I'm guessing it would have been hugely challenging to get that on the smaller sensor and keep it there!