Marvin Jenkins

22 hours ago, willcastle said:

Okay so first proper light with my new scope. 

I pointed my evostar 80ED at Orion (as you do 😅). 

I only had about 30 minutes spare. And just as I was about to go in I decided to sneak the camera onto the scope for the first time to see how Orion came out. This was the result of a SINGLE 11 second exposure with NO editing whatsoever. 

How on Earth does it look this good?!

this is straight off the camera. I’m blown away. Is this just luck? Or is that what I should expect?

I love the line as it is so fresh to my first experience from three weeks ago. Yeh, does your head in. No luck, you the man. Pointed to the right place, focused just right, hit the button, the prize is all yours and a big round of applause from me.

I know what you mean though. I sent my first M42 to a non Astro friend and he thought I had faked it. First line in my Astro diary... ‘someone just removed the top of my head, played with my grey matter, put the top back on and I have a silly smile on my face’. Keep it up, I’m right there with you.

M

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Very nice indeed @Telescope40

For me, a lovely Zeiss Telementor II arrived from the one and only Roger Vine of scopeviews.co.uk fame.

It is in lovely condition, with the sliding optics focuser which, if anything I prefer over the Telementor I I had before. It has a 1.25" visual back on it so I can just use normal eyepieces with it which is great.

I shall try to hold onto this one!

Stu, you sold a whole load of amazing kit (and nearly put FLO out of business before Christmas) to buy a whole load more amazing kit? Do you think this strange behaviour will continue? Hilarious laughing face emoji, as I can't find emoji options on my laptop.

Marv

Any further capture info? I note your info 90mins at ISO400. how many subs/ darks anything else. I have plans to try for a cluster for the first time next clear skies.

M

Now I know that on face value perhaps I should be posting this Beginners Astrophotography but, I have been given some generous help. I took the first single picture more as a test than anything and I was gobsmacked by the image on the back of the camera. I have not the faintest about processing and assumed a single image could not be improved, needs loads of subs, darks stacking etc then a master class in Ps and PI.

I sent the pic to Bukko who looked over it with a critical eye and then past it on to his son (who I have never met) He used up some of his precious time to get the most out of it and I am humbled as well as elated. I can't believe what has come from a single frame with my basic gear and the magic dust of someone who knows what they are doing. Can't tell you how great it is to have help.

Marvin

Very nice. loving the models also.

M

10 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Some times it all comes together, in the right place at the right time and a little luck you get the magic shot!

Do you have the pic available, that would be great to see Marv

 

Baz

It is stored on my laptop. I will PM you with it as it has already been posted on here sometime back.

M

Perhaps you have a DSLR? I put mine with stock lense on a tripod and captured a burning orange meteorite first shot. Complete accident, but it just goes to show that some nights do not need to be about scopes and eye pieces. A camera set to twenty seconds at ISO 800 or there about’s can be a great tool especially around meteor showers.

Marv

6 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

I will hold you to that Marvin 🙂

I am hoping this year Jupiter will be higher and with a bit more experience at the eye piece i might be able to spot more detail 🙂

 

Baz

It is only a matter of time. I am looking at my Astro diary, only two years old! Can you begin to believe what Mark and John must have seen?

I do not have expert kit (look at my foot note) but rural dark skies. I have seen five planets. Five moons of Jupiter. The GRS and a moon shadow transit.
Saturn, turned my head inside out, saw the Cassini division. Furthermore a weather band or possible ring shadow. Mars, difficault but a view of the dark area of Maria.

M31 M32 M101 and M42 plus other clusters not identified. First comet 46p Wiritanen, all of the above with an Orion 130 on an eq2, before I upgraded to an EQ5 with Goto. Goes to show what you can see with basic kit.

The memories last a lifetime. Marv

22 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Hi all.

When I started this hobby I began by viewing the Moon, This was back in September last year. In my excitement I had been viewing the moon around 8pm over consecutive nights and it was still bright a bright blue summer sky.  After the first few nights I noticed a "star" had been gradually appearing to the left side but I had been to engrossed with the Moon to have noticed it. At this point I though it was time to leave the comfort of the Moon and get out there, So I nudged the scope around 3" to the left 🙂🙂and lined up the "star" what could possibly be shining so brightly against a clear blue sky I thought to myself. I lined up my target in the finder then dived down the eyepiece. To my shock I was looking at what I assumed to be Jupiter, I viewed the planet for a while and confirmed it was in fact Jupiter, I then  stood back from the eye piece and had to reconcile what I had just seen. I was genuinely shocked all the times I had read about Jupiter or seen it on the TV and I have now seen it with my own eyes. (or eye 🙂)  Over the past week or so it had been looking straight back at me all along.

I spent more time at the eye piece viewing Jupiter only to be shocked again, It had now got dark enough for 4 points of light to also be visible. Jupiter's 4 largest Moons have now come to the party.  I was absolutely blown away and couldn't  believe what I was seeing. I dragged the wife out for a look in my excitement and she was also amazed at seeing Jupiter. We have now seen a number of planets and deep sky objects together which have all been amazing but the first viewing of big Jupiter and the genuine shock is my most precious astronomy memory and will take some beating! 

Below is an image I took that day which I keep on my phone and PC at all times. A warning to all imaging folk on here, Please dont get to jealous of my imaging skills 🙂

So my question to the community, What has been your personal favorite astronomy memory and is there any particular reason it stands out to you?  All story's welcome be it visual or imaging or even maybe the joy of showing someone something they didn't know was possible to see. I imagine there is some very interesting story's to be shared!

 

Thanks for reading all.

Baz

 

 

 

And the best bit is, it is only going to get better, I promise.

And I was going to say the most desireable garlic press I had ever seen. Not f 

Thank you for the information. I had not known or heard of the Webb Society. I will have a look. Sorry to say I can not pop in say and hi to local.

M

I feel this may get frustrating. I have had the same kind of problems and the end result was an eqdir cable which didn’t work.

Other members on here maybe able to help you but please provide your mount type NEQ5 HEQ5 and your synscan unit as mine was a V5 not a V3.

Members will also want to know how your hardware from laptop to mount is connected and what connections are use.

Good luck

I have to ask all of you this question in regard to how bad our weather is and if it is just a frustrated figment of our imagination?

Now I know the weather is rubbish for outrageous periods of time. But due to the fact that I only started Astronomy October 2018 I do not feel I can say for sure that things are worse now than say ten years ago.

I will say however, that astronomers of the past would identify an object, say asteroid or meteor and observe its path through the night sky and calculate it’s trajectory and finally it’s orbit.

To get me back to the heading of this thread, thank you Magnus, past astronomers would have needed many back to back clear nights to do this work. A back to back night, to just look at M31 and M42 has not happened for me for well over a year.

Astronomers back then must have had much longer clearer periods.

Marv

Dave, I couldn’t agree more with Olly. I too am using an EQ5 but with dual motors and the SynScan V 5 kit. It seems to be a written rule (many times) that the minimum requirement for DSO Astro is an HEQ5, and let’s face it M31 and M42 are large and bright.

Keep doing what you’re doing and work on those camera settings whilst being accurate in your set up. I will be doing the same as a newbie. Inevitably you and I will find the limits of our kit, it’s about getting what we can out of it and enjoying the process.

Marv

I almost feel ashamed after Stu’s amazing bit of CNC engineering.... Celestron Star Pointer Pro. Can’t really call it a red dot finder as it has two red circles one inside the other. Looks good and is a fare bit bigger than I thought it would be.

I know we are all aiming for more but for first time with just RA motor I think you need to be less hard on your self. I think you have done well.

Just last week I did the same as you for the first time and finished with M42. Your first picture looks to be closer to the right exposure time, but your framing has excluded M101.

The next three are very bright but the framing has got all three in the picture. The plus of these exposures is that you have captured a dust lane in the spiral. Perhaps a middle ground with exposure and framing will give you the detail you need plus all three galaxies without the grey sky.

Your M42 is not that dissimilar to mine, I too use a Nikon. I set it to ISO 800 with an exposure time of 120 seconds which I have been informed is about 90 seconds too long! I not been able to test this yet due to the weather.

Keep up the good work and please post any improvements you have made and how.

Marvin

I know I have made a joke, maybe two on this thread, but I am serious in saying that I am fascinated by the different ideas and observations.

I started my astronomy odyssey October 2018 knowing as close to nothing as you can get. The obvious thing at the beginning is that the stars are fixed ‘unchanging’ points of light. This incredibly dynamic change in one of, if not the most well known star (remember don’t say it three times) in the night sky is an opportunity to see in human time how much is changing.

Great stuff. Marvin

It’s gonna go bang in the next couple of days! If it does can I get credit and become the next astronomer Royal?

That last bit about expelling gasses must surely be the outer shell being ejected. So I must be in the pound seats.

Marv

I know just what you mean. If it is not Astro related I am just not interested. The other day I was watching the news and there was a report about gay rights and a legal challenge of some sort and according to my wife I referred to the subject as LRGB rights.

Shows that my brain is in Astro mode 100% of the time.

Marv

Great start. I am really impressed. Just like you I have recently taken my first M42 image but yours is soooo much better. Clearly you have done your homework and it really shows. 

Very nice. In my favourite spicy tomato flavour too.

m

I asked the very same question a while back and got the answer that more weight closer to the point of rotation is better than less weight farther out. Something about point of inertia and ends in inevitable equations.

I currently have an NEQ5 pro mount. 150pds OTA. The mount comes with two counter weights. One weight at farthest extension is not enough for balance.

Both weights at the closest is too much for ep work but exactly right when the DSLR is added for pictures. I am planning on drilling holes in one of my weights to remove mass to get it just right. The point is I could use one weight at full extension but two, with one modded is better.
Always aim for the best setup you can achieve and if possible don’t shy away from DIY.

Marv

Hello Dean, seems you are well on your way and already at a point that you can help others, which is great. Perhaps you could post your memories of Apollo Skylab and voyager, I would be very interested.

Now we are in an age of YouTube and Wikipedia, it would be nice to hear a first hand account from someone who was around at the time, even if it was listening on the radio.

I am 47 so I grew up with ‘man walked on the moon’ but it is up till now that I have been reading about it and educating myself. I know nothing of skylab. Voyager on the other hand is etched in my school boy memory.

Marvin.

Thank you everyone. I must admit I did dance a little bit around the garden in the dark as I am sure many of you have done. I think it is the un planned nature of this as I was trying to iron out an alignment issue with the intention of star hopping to view T2 Panstarrs. For some reason I just couldn’t find my target and chose M31 as a target to see if the Goto was accurate.

As soon as I saw that monster in the ep I thought ‘chuck on the camera and see what happens’ I did the same with M42 and the colours blew me away but the centre is so burnt out I didn’t post it.

Funny thing is, I have sent both to non Astro friends and not one mentions M31 but days later they are still asking if the M42 is some kind of fake.

Once again thank you to Bukko and his son for there help and the advice about shortening the M42 exposure time.

Olly, I promise I will try to get up to speed on processing. Just got to get this pre computer brain to get in the new world.

Marv

No guide scope, just the mount and a careful polar alignment. I was planning on dropping the exposure time by half and trying to get at least an hours worth of subs and some darks. I am not great with computers but I have DSS on my laptop for stacking but don’t have the first clue about processing.

Thank you everyone for the kind comments. Marvin