Marvin Jenkins

Hello everyone. My first go at M27. 1 hour 30 minutes of subs over two nights with darks flats and dark flats. Stacked in DSS and an attempt at processing in GIMP. I was using the EQ5 mount with the 150 pds and Nikon DSLR unguided so my subs are limited to a maximum of 60 seconds. Any advice welcome whilst I sort my eq6 out and save for a guide package. Marvin

The only annoying thing about just using a piece of dark cloth is if you were using a newt. The close proximity of the focuser to the open end of the OTA means you get some of the cloth in the way of the view. However, taping or velcro the cloth to the OTA above the focuser would solve that problem.

Wouldn’t surprise me if you could buy a specific Astro hood, but a simple dark cloth about the size of a medium towel would do the trick.

I have tried an eye patch as I find myself holding my left eyelid closed with my hand for some reason so I relax my facial muscles and right eye for observing. Someone else on here was saying that they also move the patch over there observing eye when looking at charts or phone screens to protect the observing eye, which seems like a good idea. I find an observing hood to be the best compromise as it only needs to be a dark coloured cloth over your head and eyepiece.

Every year I start by evaluating the last for it's high and low points, things I could do better, things I missed out on and of course how to improve. One of the aims for this year is to try to look at a specific area of sky and take more time, study and allow objects more time to be viewed. A more patient accurate observing style if you will. Well that went out the window last night! How am I supposed to be disciplined to one subject when we have Neowise in the NW, Jupiter and Saturn in the East and the best milkyway of the year right over my head without any light pollution! What is an Astronomer to do? Observe everything of course. In my defence I did try to stay around Cygnus, why not? what an amazing constellation and area of sky in general. I did start with Neowise just after eleven, using the 130 newt. The core looks like a soft ball of coton wool and the coma was evident but I think I still prefer my low power binoculars. After PA and star alignment I give it all a check by asking for M81/82 and then the Sunflower galaxy. I should say now that I have moved onto the 150pds as I plan to test image M27 Dumbell Nebula for the first time. You may have guessed by now that this disciplined narrow focussed session is starting with a comet, moving into Planetary Nebular territory, quick hop to Super Nova Remnants, onto Andromeda galaxy and M32/101, dip into the planets, possible peak at M30 which would take me to 109/110 of the Messier list then cap it off with M27 AP session! And somehow I managed most of it. M57 Ring Nebula- I have observed this before and it did not disappoint. Needed averted vision at times to really discern the ring. NGC6992 Eastern Veil- Now Nebula are my nemesis as at present I do have any special filters for this task so I have always failed at the Veil. Not this time. 25mm ep and I could the cresent off white to grey filaments, that is a big win for me. Same for NGC6960, big smile on my face. NGC7027 Pink Pillow PN. Absolutely nothing, it does happen from time to time, these PN's can be tiny. NGC7000 Never managed this one before either. Can't see it but something odd. It's like I can see a negative of it. I can't see a hydrogen cloud in space but there appears to be a darker area obscuring background stars, which tapers to a point. Can I say I saw it when I didn't see it? NGC6826 Blinking Planetary. I think my third observation of this oddity. I remember having some advice on here about how to observe the blink and I found it more of a dimming then brightening over a few seconds. Five seconds direct then five seconds averted vision seemed to do the trick. NGC7009 Saturn Nebula. I can see it is elongated and looks slightly blue in colour but I think it is at the limit of my kit. Now for a change and I have been missing Andromeda, so M31 here we come. 40mm ep and right away a reminder of just how big that thing really is. M32 and M101 direct vision companions in the fov. I need now to head over to my SE so I spend some time on Jupiter and grab a look at Saturn. Not enough time on Jupiter sadly but enough time to discerne the weather bands and work out the three moons that were visible. I think Europa was hiding behind the giant planet. M30!!!!!!! I have a somewhat compromised southern horizon so I was not confident of seeing this Globular Cluster but luck favours the brave and there it was in the notch between the only trees that give me a problem. 109 of 110 Messier objects with M68 in Hydra left to go. So close yet so far. So we draw to a close with a 17mm ep look at M27 Dumbell. Interesting object and appears quite large for a PN. On goes the camera for a short 30 minutes of subs and darks. The picture below is the end result and before a hail of "this is the observing thread" I am going out again tonight to get another 2 hours data to combine with this one. If anyone is interested I will post on the relevant Imaging thread when I have processed it. Now back to that New years list of resolutions…………. Marvin

Excellent images by the way. As astronomers we love our close ups to look at detail and structure but a good widefield puts it all into perspective, and yours do just that. I was out last night under amazing skies and saw quite a few meteors including a very large bolide to my north with an amazing sparkling orange tail. With so much in the sky at the same time (Comet, meteors, space junk the planets) it really bought it home to me how dynamic a place space really is. I tend to sit back and take in the sky as a tranquil, calm place but it is actually a shooting gallery. Marvin

Yesterday evening attempt at Neowise after my first try Sunday morning. This time a stack of thirteen images in DSS. Nikon D3100 on a tripod with Nikon 80-200 set at 100mm, all 10 second exposures. Marvin

I got a look last night a little after 23:00 my time. I wanted to see the flip side so to speak, after observing it Sunday morning and getting a few pics. Nice to see the difference between sun down and before dawn. It was a fair bit higher in altitude than I thought it would be, but I almost gave up thinking Stellarium must be wrong! I walked back down the lane and gave one last forlorn look and bang there she was. Quick about turn and run back to my spot. That transition from last light to almost darkness is critical. Just those few minutes made all the difference. I took some photos (15 for first attempt at stacking a Comet) and had a good look with my old 10x30s. Quite different from Sunday morning. The tail wasn’t quite so bright, but another hour might have solved that. The core though was so much tighter and defined, like a bright point of light rather than a diffuse ball at the head of the tail. so happy to have had a second stab and managed to top and tail the experience especially as the weather has no idea what it wants to do. Hopefully clear on the weekend and I will attempt to get the 130 newt on it. I will post the picture on Imaging Wide Field and Comments if anyone wants to see another Neowise. Marvin

I just wanted to say to all those people new to astronomy and new to this site, my photo is a tripod mounted Nikon 3100 with kit 55-18 lense. I used a cable operated shutter release. There is no special equipment or processing with the exception that I take my pictures in RAW format then convert to JPEG. The picture you see at the top of this thread is my JPEG copy. In short, if this guy can do a basic shot you can too. Good luck and keep up the hard work. I will be looking out for your input. Marvin

I am using a 1970s pair of 10x30s and the view was incredible. Held against the side of a convenient telephone pole to remove hand shake. Marv

It all got to much, I forgot Mars was even around.👍

I was totally gob smacked that it looked that good. I sent the pic to my brother in Melbourne Australia and he thought I was pulling his leg! And so many people have done way better than me that is for sure. For something like that it is worth the travel and I congratulate you on your commitment to this amazing addiction. Ma v

Thank you very much for your kind comments. I have to say that it was better to the naked eye, I actually swore out loud. I am very fortunate to live in a rural setting but I was hoping a car would come along the road on the right and leave a trail. It was well worth the early alarm call. If any off you are in doubt go and see it, you will not be disappointed. Marv

Thing is I love the picture but how do you get it framed.😁

I want to say thank you for completing the picture. I was looking at Neowise this morning at 4am and took in Jupiter, Saturn, Moon and Venus. Completely missed Mars!!!! How did that happen. Cheers. Marv

I have seen some lovely images on this Comet, far better than I can do but I thought I would throw my penny in the bucket from this morning a little after 4am! Almost painfull to drag myself out of a bed into a warm morning of clear starry skies without a breath of wind, to stand in splendid isolation in a rural environment with Comet Neowise making my jaw brush the floor. No idea it had got that good. After some pictures and a look through the binos I just sat down in the field and realised I had Jupiter and Saturn behind me. The moon on my right shoulder and Venus rising in the east. Neowise is the giant cherry on the most amazing cake I ever took a bite of.

Everyone in this community is far too honest for that kind of nonsense. 🤔

I was thinking along your lines at the beginning when I thought they might be NI/FE meteorites which would be magnetic. Because they are not magnetic I think I am right in saying they cannot be Slag, Heamatite or Ferrusmanganese. My find is a curious one. They all come from one deposit of 20/30 drainage pebble from a gravel pit local to me in France. I ordered several tons too many when installing a septic tank six years ago and the remaining 1 to 2 tons has sat at my place since then. I noticed a few in the pile and gave a handful (in the picture) To a friend who googled them and said dead ringer for Ataxites. After that I sifted the whole pile and have my own collection. They appear to be water worn which concurs with being in a buried bed of beach pebble extracted for aggregate purposes. Is it possible that a large Ataxite has been broken up and polished by wave and pebble action then buried, only to be extracted as drainage pebble? I have been a landscape gardener here for twenty years and this concentration of these objects are a first for me. I have never seen any others in the hundreds of tons of granular objects I work and build with, all of which come from the same gravel pit. I also read that Ataxites are extremely high in nickel with grains of silica distributed within them. My friend with the handful of samples has looked at their structure with a micro scope and there appears to be a metal base structure with different colours of tiny crystal grains throughout the body! No veins of crystals just individual specks from one mm and smaller. I will look at your link and thank you very much for getting in contact. Marvin

Right on, couldn’t agree more.

Hello everyone I need some help identifying what I think maybe a meteorite find. The details of the find is too complex to detail here and may waist too much time if it turns out to be a meteor wrong. The first picture is a handful of the finds. My description is as follows- Brown to black water polished pebbles. Heavy for there size. Blobby and fluid in there appearence. Despite looking metallic they are not magnetic. Now, I have more than the handful, so I selected a small unremarkable sample and ground off a corner using a high speed grinding wheel. It ground just like I was shortening a steel bolt but with no sparks. Within 60 seconds I had to drop it as it was incredibly hot. Upon inspection the ground area looked like metal. Closer inspection with magnifying glass showed what looked like a random metallic structure full of white to brown crystals distributed evenly throughout the ground area. I dropped it in 23% hydrochloric acid and absolutely no reaction was observed. I did the same thing with other pebbles from the find site and violent fizzing occurred. The inevitable Google search, results in one candidate, an Ataxite meteorite. I know a little but not enough to identify my finds, any help would be most greatfully appreciated. Marvin

Your 3200 definitely has video capture off the live view as my 3100 does this. If you have some success, please post, I would be interested to see the results. I am presuming That Sean’s most helpful advice about taking video is to stack the best images using planetary software? Marv

I am not liking Sigma rejection. That is like a green light to fill our skies with really useful junk. How dare you use a bit of software to Instantly solve a terrible problem and massively lessen my chances of putting forward an idea for the next SGL challenge. I want one of those mugs. (No chance) Marvin.

Paul M, I know what you mean, I only started with single test shots just over a year ago and only completed my first two night on the same target a couple months ago. Second thing is I have no idea why I got involved either! But just like you I am. I suggested the sat trails staying in just to show how the bad the problem may become. I personally have not been photo bombed by Elon’s swarm and at present am averaging only 6 out of 100 subs going in the bin. A good deal of that is sure to be that I am limited to 60 second exposures. I think the point of all this is how bad this become in say ten years. I am not so sure about the satellites not being a problem in winter. I am sure I have discarded subs from trails in the dead of winter. Marv

I have been following a thread in imaging about how bad the effect of Star Link has become for imaging. I suggested we highlight the problem instead of getting rid of the trails. Perhaps a challenge to produce the most stunning image utterly ruined by sat trails and aircraft? Marvin

This sure has been an interesting read. If I may make a suggestion with regards to the trails in ap pictures? As with all forms of pollution why not highlight the problem instead of hiding it. Why don’t we produce lovely pictures ruined by star link to show everyone how bad the problem is and how bad it is going to be. This website is currently asking for challenge suggestions, perhaps this could be the next one. I am going to offer this suggestion. At the end of the day the best way to show how bad something has become is to display it graphically like a picture of a natural beach covered in ten thousand plastic flip flops or that bit of footage of the dead whale with it’s intestines full of plastic bags. I am not suggesting that our problem is as big or important as saving sea life but our night skies are still part of our visual environment. From now on I will be going natural, and if there are trails, they are staying in! Marvin