Peter_D

Hi, Here's an image of crater Walther from last evening - the shadow cast by its central peak was very prominent. Meade 8 inch SCT, 2x Barlow, Zwo asi224mc, Baader UV-IR Cut filter Clear skies

Hello, I've been lucky to get good seeing and clear evenings the past few days while the Moon has been at a high elevation. Here is an image of Rima Hyginus. I captured 15,000 images and I was able to use 30%. Meade 8 inch SCT, Zwo asi224mc, 2x Barlow, Baader UV-IR Cut Filter. Final image coverted to grayscale in Gimp. Clear skies Peter

Hello, Here's another image from yesterday - it was my first time imaging Capella and its surrounding area: it's got Vallis Capella and several rimae. Set up was the same. 15,000 images, best 10% used. Clear skies Peter

Hi, Theophilus was on the terminator this evening. 15k images, best 10% used. Meade 8 inch SCT, Zwo asi224mc, 1.5x Barlow, Baader UV-IR cut filter. PIPP, Autostekkert!3, Registax6. Image resized to 60% and saved as Grayscale in Gimp. CS Peter

Hi, Here's an image of Petavius from this evening. I used a Meade 8 inch SCT, 2x Barlow, Zwo asi 224mc and an 685nm IR Pass filter. 4000 images, best 25% used. Clear Skies, Peter

Hi, It's been quite hazy here the last few evenings but it was clearer earlier so I took a few snaps of the nearly 2 day old Moon. 1/13, Iso125. Equipment: SW80ED, Canon EOS 60D, TS Optics 0.8x Reducer. Clear skies Peter

Pixies, I'm afraid I can't help you with a viewing list but I just want to offer you my deepest condolences on your mum's passing.

I had a go at trying to observe and capture Mare Orientale last night. I was able to observe Montes Cordillera and the Outer and Inner Montes Rook - I thought the black area to the extreme top was possibly part of the Mare but it is in fact the crater Kopff. Meade 8 inch SCT, Zwo asi224mc, 685nm IR Pass Filter. Clear skies Peter

Thanks for the feedback. If I bought an OTA for 1000€ from a British retailer, I know I would have to pay German VAT but what typically are the additional import fees specifically for importing telescopes into the EU or the individual member states? I checked out the German customs page but couldn't find a reference to scientific instruments.

Hi, Just wondering if any members of SGL residing in the EU (or beyond) has bought gear from a UK retailer post Brexit. I'd be interested on hearing how your experiences were - especially with regard to duty, shipping expenses, insurance and any import fees you needed to pay. TIA Peter

Hi Conditions were initially pretty good so I wanted to see if I could squeeze anymore detail using a 3x Barlow with my Zwo asi224mc. Unfortunately, it produced quite a bit of flaring in some areas which caused these videos to have strange artifacts. In this image of the Montes Alpes and Vallis Alpes there was luckily no corruption of the image but quite a bit of vignetting I think. You can see the centre rille in the valley and crater pits. Another interesting rille is the meandering one in the Montes Alpes that is featured here: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/714 Equipment: Meade 8 inch SCT, Zwo asi224mc, Omegon 3x Barlow, Zwo UV-IR Cut filter. 10000 images captured, best 20% used. Image resized to 75% of original. Clear skies Peter

Here's another image taken from the 14.03 using an IR Pass filter - this time of Plato. I always like how the 'islands' in Mare Imbrium appear - especially Mons Pico and the Montes Tenerife. Clear skies Peter

Last night, the oddly shaped crater Schiller was prominent near the lunar south west limb. Seeing was initially ok but it got quite misty - I imaged using an IR Pass filter. 8 inch Meade SCT, Zwo asi224mc, SvBony 685nm IR Pass Filter, 2x Barlow. 20k images captured, best 10% used. Final image resized to 60% of processed image. Clear skies Peter

Hi, This has been on my 'To Do' list for a while. I was lucky that an extended clear spell here allowed me to read up on the landing site and what features to look for. Seeing was excellent tonight. It also helped that the Moon was at 50 degrees elevation. I used my Meade 8 inch SCT. Visually, I was able to observe the 3 craters of Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin using a 4mm TS Planetary EP. When I switched to a 5mm Vixen LV, I could only make out Armstrong and Collins even though I knew where Aldrin should be. I created an image of the area in question using a Zwo asi224mc camera: 10,000 images, best 10% used. In the processed image, I was able to make out the feature called the Cat's Paw and then find the landing site based on this (yellow diamond in the zoomed photo). Clear skies! Peter

Here's an image of the large craters east of Rupes Altai - Catharina, Cyrillus and Theophilus. We are currently having very settled, clear weather in this part of Germany. I'm hoping that it is clear tomorrow and I will try to image the Apollo 11 landing site. Meade 8 inch SCT, Zwo asi224mc, Zwo UV-IR Cut filter. 10,000 images, best 10% used. Clear skies! Peter

Hi, Here's a image of Mare Humboldtianum, along with craters de la Rue, Endymion, Atlas and Hercules. Meade 8 inch SCT, Zwo asi224mc, Zwo UV-IR Cut filter. 10,000 frames captures, best 10% used. Final image reduced to 60% and converted to mono. Clear skies Peter

Hi, Here's an image of Uranus from yesterday evening. 15,000 images, best 10 percent used. Meade 8 inch SCT, Zwo asi224mc, 2x Barlow, Zwo UV-IR Cut filter. Clear skies Peter

Hi, yes, I messed up in that I didn't orientate the camera so North was top and the video has Tracking on the whole time so no way to find out now ..😖 I stacked these good images anyway. Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully I'll have another chance soon. Clear skies Peter

Hi, I've been trying to capture Sirius B for the last few sessions using my Celestron 6SE and Zwo asi224mc with a 2x Barlow. This evening, I recorded a video and tried to stack the images as per planetary imaging. There was no sign of Sirius B in my stacked image. However, I did see in AutoStekkert!3 that several individual frames were of good quality.. I scrolled through the individual frames and I have attached the ones that show a distinct separation - they all show this separate entity at just before the 12 o'clock position. Is this Sirius B? Clear skies Peter

Thanks, I'll try again with the processing - I was really struggling to get rid of the red glow from the LP.

Hi, Here's an image of M81, M82 and NGC 3077 taken last night. 1 hour 50 minutes of 1 minute subs at iso800. ST4 guiding. Equipment: SW ED80, Vixen GP Mount with SW EQ5 upgrade, Canon 60D, 0.8 Reducer/Corrector. I can see straight away that I need to work on my framing. No LP filter but maybe something I should invest in for my Bortle 5/6 skies. Any filter recommedations/feedback would be gratefully received. Clear skies Peter

Thanks. It's funny because a lot of the posts I was looking at regarding the SW tended to be 2015/16/17 - it seems a lot of people start off with it before upgrading. I usually do ST-4 guiding but yesterday I was a bit short for time during setup and just went with it unguided as the stars images looked ok. I probably should have set it up in retrospect.

Has anyone that has owned a GP mount used a Sky-watcher extension pillar with it?

Hi, I have a new to me SW ED80 on an upgraded Vixen GP mount.. Here's 50 minutes of unguided 27s subs ( set intervalometer wrongly!) at iso800 using my un-modded Canon 60D. I used no filters but was helped by no Moon in my Bortle 5/6 skies. I obviously cropped it a lot too 🙂 I'm really enjoying the ED80 after my initial attempts at DS AP using SCTs. Clear skies Peter

Thanks! It's actually not great on high magnifications because of its large central obstruction. I tend to just use with low power magnifications - it came with a 25mm Kellner and I use it with this mostly. It also came with a tiny finderscope which is nearly unusable - I found a plastic RDF holder that just about fits on it. The scope's views were really mushy when I first got it - collimating it really improved things.