carastro

I like them both,  

I am sorry to hear that you are forced to make this decision Steve.  I am getting to a similar situation myself but in my case I already live in Bortle 8 and can ony do narrowband or at a push HaRGB from home.  Like you I paid for next door's tree to be cut down which is right where Orion passes.  Within 18 months it has grown back bigger than before, so even Orion is pretty much out for me unless I keep grabbing small amounts of data between passing the tree and disappearing behind another bank of trees in the small hours.  

I have pretty much done all the doable NB targets from home and like you don't want to keep repeating things.  My only opportunity is to go to Astro camps, but I am finding this too is getting more and more difficult as I get older as I dn't have the energy for all the effort involved.  Luckily I had some help at the recent local camp.   But booking these events in advance doesn't guarantee clear skies.  

So I fully sympathise with your situation.  I have always valued your advice and was glad to have met you at one of the SGL star parties albeit some years ago.

Best of luck with your music hobby and glad to hear you will continue on this forum.

Best wishes  

Carole 

@fwm891

Sorry to hijack your thread Francis, some very nice images you produced

You should see what l use to protect the laptops from the damp.  That would win an award for innovation and tackiness. 

1 hour ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

I think I use a flimsy usb hub instead of your your blue power box? I have it velcroed on top of my scope and I have all those leads gathered and tied at the base near the dovetail plate.

Blue power Box?  That’s a blue dovetail 

The two items on the eyepiece tray are cigarette lighter splitter for cameras and EFW and dew straps   The other item is the dew heater controller.  I am very sophisticated lol.  

Lol.  I tie it back once and the rest hangs out.  Had near disasters in the past trying to do anything more.  I know this doesn’t appeal to tidy people.  

It this better, but you still might need to zoom in. 

5 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Need to run this image through astrosharp  

Sorry, it was a zoom in and screenshot off of a video.  

I sometimes swap out the top scope for my Samyang 135mm set up.  I don’t alter the Positioning so that when l put the ED72 scope back on it is in exactly the same position as before. 
 

No camera attached to the ED80  in this photo but just to show the piggy back arrangement.  

I use a dual rig but l mount them piggy back so no flex.  

I tried a side by side arrangement in the past but there was no way of adjusting the aim of the scopes with only one screw on each end to tighten them on.  Plus l found pier/tripod clash more likely which was why l changed to piggy back.  

I have the Skywatcher guidescope mount to hold the 2nd scope on which adjusts both up and down and side to side.  However l found the best way was to have a larger FOV on one scope than the other so any discrepancy can be cropped out.  

l use the basic Atik software for capture   It should handle 2 iterations for capture which it does, but l found downloading subs to a single laptop problematic as everything would “hang”.  Maybe my imaging laptop is too old or needs more RAM.  So l use a second laptop  for the 2nd camera   

Even when l was in Iceland l only saw the aurora in white.   A second or two on the camera and it was in colour. 
 

it’s to do with Rods and cones and night vision.  Read something on it.  

Yes, she would have to sit the exam at an examination centre. 

Just googled it.  Seems available on line but very expensive. 

I did the Edexel GCSE course about 9 years ago.  It was excellent.  I was pleased to get a Grade A. 
It gave me a good grounding in all aspects of Astrononomy though we only touched on the different types of telescope.  But really worthwhile.  At least two students were going on to study astrophysics at uni  

We did have Homework.  

l did however do it at an evening class at Greenwich Observatory.  
l am not sure if it is available to do on line.  But l think there are a number of centres that do it now.  
 

Carole

Couldn't answer some of the computer stuff as just use a computer I don't analyse it.  

The bias can be re-used as well.  I must confess I am a bit lazy and rarely clean my optics but then the filterwheel and camera are kept together and sealed even when not on the rig.   I do take flats every time though................

Except for - I have a camera and filterwheel attached to a Samyang lens which I don't separate, and I have re-used flats upto 18 months later and they have been fine.   But you are correct in saying nothing should be moved. 

My separate Camera and filter wheel that I do remove from the telescope now and then, I take new flats every time the camera is moved.

HTH

Autofocusser is not necessary, I have never used one.  But some people like to automate everything.  You can certainly do without one until such time as you feel you would like one.  

As a personal choice, I like the features of the Skywatcher telescopes such as the mounting rings and fitted finder which you can convert to a finder guider. 

WO scopes have stunning optics, but you cannot mount other stuff on it if you want to (dual rig for instance) or mount a finderscope without a bit of DIY.  I had a WO scope, and it was supposed to rotate (if you wanted to rotate the FOV), but it only seemed to rotate when there was no camera inserted, which wasn't much help.    Also on my particular WO scope (WOZS71) you had 2 screws to hold the camera in place which inevitably caused a bit of flop and tilt.  There was no way to attach a "screw in" focal reducer, though I think some WO models might be different.   In the end I swapped my WO scope for another Skywatcher (for my dual rig).  Just my experience.

You can image without guiding to start with, but you won't be able to do very long exposures without star trailing and therefore won't pick up much detail.  You will soon see when you need a guide scope by length of your subs and shapes of your stars.  But you can certainly get started without guiding.  

I agree with Olly, a second hand CCD camera might be a good option, though I cry when I think of the prices they sell for now having several CCD cameras myself. 

Carole 

Absolutely, I was thinking of selling one of my 4 CCD cameras as I only need 3.  (dual rig) and (Samyang set up which I don' like taking apart). 

But when I saw what others were having to sell their CCD cameras for, I thought I'd rather keep it as a spare than sell for a pittance.  

So hopefully they will "see me out".  Am already running out of targets I can do from home.  

I’m still using CCD.  I have more than one and they still work well for me so l see no reason to change.  
 

Carole

Great progress Michael

Had to scratch my head at "ET", thought you had captured a UFO with this Iris for a minute,  🤣

Lovely images Adrian.

Fantastic Luke.  

Here are a few of my early "howlers."  I thought I had thrown them away.

Some of yours are much much better.  

and the Piece de restistance is..........

You are permitted to put a laugh emoji against this one in particular.  

I have been using a Bahtoniv Mask for years.  I believe Pav Bahtinov not only did not patent his mask, and got little royatlties from it only from some companies who generously thought he deserved it.  I thought I had heard he had since died, but can't seem to find anything on googling,  

I googled it to check and found this interview with him in Russian with sub titles in 2019