Marvin Jenkins

A bit jealous I have to say. I was on this for an hour and a half last night and all my subs are useless due to a backwards forwards teetering balance issue. Yours is great and you captured the NGC on the right side. Lovely job. Marvin

Thank you John. Gave me the push to try for the ninth time for this comet and last night I was successful. After bagging Atlas two nights ago which was so hard, I cannot believe how easy this was. Skyhound chart bang on the money, thank you. Short star hop and “Oh there it is”. No averted vision this time, direct in the ep. Bigger and brighter than Atlas with some core brightness and what appeared to be a hint of elongation. Two new comets in three days and my fifth overall. 46P Wirtinen, Iwamoto, Africano, Atlas and T2 Panstarrs. Going to keep a track of it if I can and try for my first Comet picture. Happy hunting Marvin

Super nova remnant discovered in 1987!

Hi mods. Feel free to move this observers report to wide field..... I started replying to Rocket Stars and forgot where I was. Apologies. Marvin

I have been waiting for it t brighten enough so I can have a go with my gear, then the full moon turns up! At the same time the Comet disintegrated...... One last night of clear skies before bad weather for a week or more and I got my right eye ball on it, perhaps for the last time in history. Marv

Had success yesterday night and I couldn’t be happier. I was all out of control and posted my report as a reply in Celestial Events Heads Up. Sorry. I posted it as a reply to a member in that forum, and now realise it should probably be here... or in both. I will let others decided. Considering the comet may be no more soon, I am soooo happy. The star hop was the hardest I have ever done. Marv

Great minds.... I was out last night with the express desire to see this Comet. Conditions were not perfect with high wispy clouds around making alignment difficult. I had printed a pdf of the comet from Skyhound (thank you) and attempted a star hop from NGC 2403. 45 minutes of effort with no luck, just kept getting lost. Sometimes the sky looks so different from the charts. Decided on a reverse manoeuvre. IC445 is much closer to the mag 5 and 8 stars shown close together in the charts next to Atlas. Problem is I can’t see IC445 as my OTA does not have that kind of light grab. Decided to trust Goto and see if I can recognise anything in the background star field and sure enough, even though I cannot see the IC galaxy the two 9th mag stars either side are visible. From there it is a direct hop to my target mag 5 and 8 grouping. Small slew south and there is a diffuse blob where no other objects are listed. At this point my dark adaptation is terrible due to looking at charts, so after fifteen minutes without light..... Clearly visible with averted vision. I can see a diffuse blob with direct vision but better averted. Slight hint of a brighter core. Maybe a hint of elongation, but I say maybe, absolutely no tail. My Fourth Comet. I went back for five last looks. Marvin

Now we know why the astronauts that landed on the moon had gold coated vizors. Not far off a welders mask on earth I would imagine. And to think I am not observing tonight due to the overwhelming full moon as it appears to me on Earth!!!

Brilliant. I got my first Leo Triplet on the advice of a friend a month ago. Breathtaking what can be imaged by small aperture scopes, well done x10. I have a question about the colour? The galaxies are very red. As a new comer to imaging why is this so? Not a criticism just a point of reference for newbies like me to learn from. Marv

So what is the possible outcome of the current data? A disintegrating comet to a layman like myself could mean it seems to disappear before I get a chance to see it? could it be the opposite and be more spectacular? Does anyone have more info. I was soooo looking forward to a great comet for smaller scope owners. Marvin

Sorry for getting your name wrong but auto correct did it’s job. It’s going to happen again many times but my apologies. Marvin

Hi lifestyle, not a binocular user myself but plenty of advice coming your way. Enjoy the forum, it’s a great place. Marvin

You have some great structure there. Lovely colour, good framing which I am struggling with. The core is nice too which is so hard to control. Your running man on the right also looks nice. M

Fantastic. As a newbie myself I would be chuffed to bits with that. I actually prefer the uncropped image, you have so much colour and detail I think it looks great against it’s natural backdrop. Marv

You guys are the absolute Kings of understatement. “Impressive haul” are you kidding? I was out night before last and got my first look at M64 M85 M100 M98 M88 M91 M90 M86 M84 M89 M87 M58 M59 M49. Now that is an impressive haul! What Mike posted is nothing short of a symphony. Makes my efforts seem just next door in the grand scale of things. To say “well done Mike” is an understatement. I follow this thread for exactly this kind of wow. Marvin

Ok feel much better. I live a kilometre away from any other person but it is the irrational feeling that is bugging me. Bit like your first night out people worry about animals and wildlife, which in Africa is valid, but not here. M

I have been doing Astro for three years and started dabbling with AP wide field about a year ago. An upgrade to a 150pds means I am now imaging 60 sec subs of DSOs. Mainly due to work commitments I have a two hour window (never clear on a new moon on a Friday or Saturday night) I have to keep my imaging sessions short. As the nights get shorter the rig goes out later and for the first time it is banging away at the Leo Triplet all on its own as I type this. Feels really weird just leaving a grands and half’s worth of kit in the garden! I am supposed to sleep on the sofa now for an hour but I am in a cold sweat about the rig. I know people leave there gear out all night for long sessions but it sure feels odd. The other thing is I can’t image past two hours or I have no battery for darks and bias frames. Anyone else worry about there set up? Marvin

As our friends across the pond say “knocked it out the park” well done. Nice spiral arms in the face on. You have done really well. How did you find gimp? We are at opposites and equals right now. I have four imaging sessions under my belt but will be delving into processing this weekend. You have one session imaging but have already processed your first image, big like from me. 👍👍👍 Marv

OYMD, don’t you dare apologise. You know what you have there? Perhaps five million suns in one frame in two galaxies light years away. Lose sight of the magnitude of what you have captured and detail becomes meaningless. I can see the two arm swirl of M81 and the notch in the centre of M82 which with more high end equipment would show hydrogen. First go, great, something to build on. I to have a friend who helps in processing, nothing to be worried about. We can’t learn astronomy, astrophotography, stacking with darks bias and flats and be a wizz in pixinsight all at the same time, even if we could afford it, which I cannot. Keep up the effort, I want to see more. Marv

Nailed it cubed.👍👌✌️Nice to know what it looks like, I am on my sixth attempt with no joy. M

2hrs 21 mins total at ISO 800. My DSLR is the entry level model and seems to be very red clipped. I tried a test shot at ISO 1600 but it made the night sky very orange. I have a town 20 k away in the SE direction and I suspect a lot of the subs were picking up light pollution, especially in the first hour as the triplet is quite low to my horizon at the beginning. Marvin

I am quite new to all this ap stuff. This is my fourth image, so I have decided to post here instead of beginners, which I am most definitely, when I look at some of the remarkable work here. I am going to say right now that the processing was done by a friend in PI as I have just downloaded GIMP and need to do the tutorials. A little over two hours of data, darks, bias and flats, stacked in DSS. I have done some ep work on the two Messier objects last year without knowing it was such a note worthy group of three. I am super happy with the result and even happier to have the help of Astro friends. You know who you are. A thing of note. I have been having problems with framing the target and noticed a difference between the final image and the image on the view screen on the back of the camera. The final image seems more to the right and lower than the DSLR screen. Anyone else had that. Marvin

From some one outside of EEVA with not a huge amount of Astro experience, wow, wow and wow. I have been following this section and I have to say, in my option this is the cutting edge. I will continue following and hopefully fall in step in the future. Marv

Thanks Annie, as usual the thread veered away from the original post with alarming speed.

Thank you for your imput. I am about to go on a self inflicted processing education program so I can stop using up friends valuable time. I suppose the great thing about data is it can be revisited and reworked as my skills go from zero to something more than zero I hope. I have noticed many posts by Vlaiv. His technological knowledge leaves me baffled sometimes (a compliment) and I have not had the courage to ask him a question in case his avatar photo is a true rendition of the man, scary! I will check out Nebulosity as you suggest. Marv