Martthebass

Lovely image Carole.  No chance for me really with my northerly Latitude and bortle 6.  Remembering my time working in South Africa when this was above my head.....ahhh, to dream. 

I got it too, thought it was a Cosmic ray strike, thanks for the heads up.

If you can see it then it's a win as far as I'm concerned!

M101 is still in the murk a bit, I had a go the other night and got a similar result.

2 hours ago, Adam J said:

Yes from that it looks like a standard 3/8th inch thread. 

Adam

Ooooh, that's a nice option.  I could save a fair bit of weight on my AZEQ5 set up now I've had to add the second counterweight. Request for when in stock made.

Very nice, not seen this one before - sadly there's a row of houses blocking my view of this target so I suspect that unless I can get a demolition order I'll have to give it a miss.

An old adversary of mine is the Iris nebula, never seem to be able to do it justice. I was fighting the moon last night but decided to try and refine the guiding a little after rebalancing the 90edt. I’m impressed with the scope but far less so with my processing skills 😂

Well, finally got more than a couple of hours of clear sky in the first time in ages so I got to have a decent session to try and acquaint myself with my new Stellamira 90EDT. As Sod’s law would dictate the latest update on the AAP was playing hell with my guiding so after a few reboots and getting some half decent guiding numbers I left it running on NGC7822 in Cepheus, a target I haven’t previously looked at. This image is the result of about 3 hours of 2 and 3 minute subs with appropriate flats and darks. As the daughter has purloined my laptop as hers has gone to microchip heaven, this image is limited as it is the stack out of the AAP with a light process in lightroom on the iPad.  

I’ve been more than happy with mine, but I’ve moved from the GT71, not the GT81. Also using with a 533MCP, had to put another weight on the mount but other than that it’s been a pretty painless transition. I got the matching 0.8x FFFR but on the small sensor I suspect it wasn’t necessary - future proofs for a larger sensor later though.

7 minutes ago, Franklin said:

 

Is it just me or is there a connection between musical abilities/aspirations and an interest in astronomy? My mum was a piano teacher and I was brought up playing music, though never took it further. There are many famous astronomers who were/are also musicians. William Herschel, Brian May, Brian Cox and even Sir Patrick Moore played the zylophone. I think the connection is something to do with numbers. Astronomy is a science that is made up essentially of numerical data and musical composition is completely mathematical as well.

As regards learning to play an instrument @John, I've seen a photo of you when holding that huge 6" refractor you had and you're quite a big chap, so it may be due to sausage fingers.🤣

I've often thought so.  I've played in bands (bassist) for more years than I care to remember and a number of musicians I've played with down the line have also been keen astronomers.

Can't remember the last time I got 2 solid hours of clarity.  Even the FLO app has struggled to get it right in my area for the last couple of weeks.

Similar slightly hazy sky at my end, same subject; 30 x 180s subs.  I bought the FF/FR but not sure that it was entirely necessary on the small format ASi 533MCP.  That said it will future proof me for something bigger in the future 😁

I like the carbon fibre coordination there Matty.  I also like the top mounting of the AAP and Guide, I think I'll adopt that as I'm still battling with RA balance with my AZEQ5 based set up - depending where it's pointing.

Welcome, just down t’road from thi in Rovrum. Enjoy the new found interest.

Still precious little clear skies in suburban Yorkshire. The ubiquitous western veil - this is the first image I’ve managed to get on the new Stellamira 90mm triplet. Sadly the skies only gave me 60 minutes, so here’s 20 x 180s lights (with l-Enhance) on the ASI533MCPro with darks and flats, stacked in DSS and processed in LR. I’d have loved another couple of hours....

Well the weather apps seem to be telling me porkies again, supposed to have had 4/5 hours of pretty clear skies tonight....that turned out to be 90 minutes. Still, I managed to give the new Stellmira 90mm a full hour on the western veil. I still need to refine the balance in RA as the guiding figures are a bit off but overall I’m impressed so far and it seems a worthwhile upgrade on my WO GT71. Still sorting the cal frames so this is 20 x 3 min subs stacked on the AAP and lightly processed in LR. l-enhance employed as the moon is on the bright side....

Sadly mine's still sat in it's box awaiting a couple of days with some clear night sky so that I can give it a proper run.  With the short stretches of clarity I had over the weekend I kept the GT71 set up.

Sadly it’s a ‘definitely contains clouds’ but I’ll enjoy building up the rig over the week.

Strehl - 0.989! 

On 08/11/2021 at 15:43, GoldTop57 said:

Indeed I have the Pro and don't see the need to upgrade to the Plus - I have the Vonets Wifi Extender and it works pretty well.

Same here, I was tempted as I find the Vonets a bit hit and miss but to be honest other than the (debatable?) big improvement in wifi range there is nothing the new one does that the old one doesn't.  I'll probably wait for the next iteration.

Order placed....bank account depleted.  Rickenbacker 4003 sold to prevent bank manager shouting at me....

Sadly mine won't be particularly colour coordinated as it will sit on a SW AZEQ5.

Thanks Chris you are a gentleman and a scholar.

One thing I will have to sort is a 40cm dew band that connects to my AAP. It’s getting nippy of a evening in these parts

Thanks Chris, putting my order in imminently.  Hopefully I've got enough spacers to be able to set up the back focus with my ZWO 533 if not I'll have to pop along to RVO and get some bits next week.  Not sure if I'll keep my little GT71, the focus lengths are similar so I may end up letting it go once I've had a chance to set up the Stellamira.   I've love to keep both but I suspect that unless I bought another mount (and the space to put it) one will just gather dust.

Following.  Seriously considering upgrading my current GT71 set up to this.  Am I right to assume that the flattener/reducer threads into the back end in the same way as on the GT71?

2 hours ago, Thorney said:

I have seen a few people do it on the internet, all been DIY jobs though and unsure how the performance was as I couldn’t find any feed back for it. 
 I did come across one of these which I’ll be giving a try. 
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-wifi-extender-for-asiair-pro.html

I picked up one of these a few months back.  It is a slight improvement on the (woeful) wifi performance of the AAP alone.  There does seem to be some element of 'line of sight' in that it depends on its orientation in relation to where my iPad is.  On a good night/orientation it will get through one set of glass patio doors and a distance of c.20ft.  Never managed to get the 5G to work well though so I stick to 2.4G.  I was going to move to the AAP+ but to be honest it works just well enough at the moment for me not to bother.

This was from early in the year, a quick shot when I was trying first light on my GT71 and ASI533MCP combo. I’ll have to revisit this target later in the year and do it more justice.