AstroMuni

On 08/06/2022 at 17:07, alacant said:

Here's the same target before removing the primary mirror clips:

Wow, just the removal of clips and so much more detail.

Great image @alacant
Is that a double star that you have captured here?

On 03/06/2022 at 08:58, Gogleddgazer said:

have been wrestling with AP with very mixed results for about 12 months and so was inordinately excited to make out the shadowy outline of the pillars of creation in the subs on my first attempt at M16 earlier this week.

Impressive looking image 👍

On 02/06/2022 at 17:14, Louis D said:

Can you post a direct link to the review related to these ultra low power binos?  I couldn't find it on that website.

I wasnt trying to say that this very bino has been reviewed on that site. Just wanted to make you aware of it and that the author maybe able to help 🙂

1 hour ago, alecras2345 said:

what about the science in books, do i skip it?

If it goes above your head then yes 🙂 You are reading what interests you, right?

20 hours ago, Jim Smith said:

Corona Borealis. I think I may have made this a bit too colourful. It's pretty though.

Hi Jim,

Great shot. There is a lot more detail in there that could be teased out if you spend more time on the processing!

Here is some basic stretching using the Preview tool on the Mac

Good luck 🙂

On 29/05/2022 at 14:06, Scubayorp said:

I'm an astronomy outreach professional and NOT interested in astrophotography per se, but rather want to use the ASI camera to capture live sky views that I will project onto a cinema screen for an audience who will be listening to me talk about the targets as I remotely move my scope across the sky.

Thats a great idea. I dont know about the weather in your part of the world, but here in the UK, that would be my biggest concern so would need to prepare backup images etc., incase the clouds roll in.

The other thing to watch out for are the technical hitches that can happen when you are far away from the scope, so would be a good idea to get someone to stay around the scope while you are presenting, to fix any glitches.

On 28/05/2022 at 17:48, davekelley said:

Hopefully someone has used both of these or understands about optics and can help me with advice please?

Have you had a look at this http://binocularsky.com/

The author @BinocularSky is on this forum

On 30/05/2022 at 17:54, Manas said:

How to set the Barlow to get sharp focus ?

Hi Manas,

If you are trying to view planets and trying to get the largest image out of your scope then try the suggestion by @Louis D Sometimes the blurriness (even at lower maginifications) is also a result of atmospheric disturbances and can vary depending on your viewing location. City viewing is not always the best 😞

18 minutes ago, alecras2345 said:

 I'm not really interested in the science of space, i just like facts not confusion which is what Brian cox does.

Hi Ash,

It will be a challenge to get material that only covers the facts that you are interested in, so you will need to adapt and learn to skip out sections that detail the science behind these facts 🙂 As mentioned earlier, join a local astro club where you can chat with others without getting too deep into the science.

Have you tried this site from OU that was mentioned by @SpaceWatcher in your other post? https://www.telescope.org/

17 hours ago, Zermelo said:

Another observation: with that combination you will be getting a magnification of x210, which is probably beyond what you should attempt with a 75mm scope. That may also be contributing to your problem. Barlows with x2 power are more usual.

You may have hit the nail on the head I recall that the calculation of max usable magnification is around twice the aperature in mm. That would indicate a maximum magnification of 150x.

17 hours ago, peonic said:

o here's an hours worth of integration on M57.

SW ED80 / ZWO ASI 183MC / HEQ5

70x60s Subs, IR Cut filter, Stacked in AutoStakkert and processed in Photoshop.

Great comeback. 👍 As already mentioned, try using Siril to process the image from original. The stars seem a bit on the fuzzy side in your posted image, but that could just be due to upload here. If original is fuzzy, applying deconvolution should help. It should also help in bringing out the star in the middle of the nebula.

Good luck.

EDIT: I have taken your image, applied Photometric calibration and done a Histogram transform in Siril followed by cropping the image. And I am no expert in photoprocessing, so there is a lot of good detail in your image 🙂

3 minutes ago, M40 said:

So for arguments sake, if I was setting up and then started carrying out an eea session, I could share my screen with another person and they would see the picture unfold at the same time as me?

Yes.

3 minutes ago, M40 said:

That's an interesting idea, can that be carried over zoom for example?

Ofcourse! In my local society we have zoom sessions where we share screens both to view what others are imaging and to help resolve issues being faced by them.

26 minutes ago, alecras2345 said:

I don't really want to get into the science behind astronomy, i just want to look at images of stars planets nebulae. 

A lot of us in this hobby are here to do just that 🙂 So just enjoy the vastness and beauty of our universe! Along the way you will pick up small pieces of new info to build onto your knowledge and thats just part of the fun.

15 hours ago, alecras2345 said:

I was told my a member of the site that i need to understand science to understand astronomy.

Its all about taking this in perspective....how much of science do you need to understand anything that happens in our everyday lives 🙂 As an example do you need to fully know Newton's law and equations to understand that gravity pulls things down?

So enjoy the hobby without worrying too much about understanding the full science behind it. We are all learning, including the research scientists at CERN etc. We are just at slightly different levels of understanding 😉

42 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

I found that I had to disable WiFi on the RPi, then it would connect to the laptop through the ethernet cable

Good point that was missed out. I do the same but forgot to mention Useful info for anyone new trying to establish similar connection.

1 hour ago, LaurenceT said:

When I used the Raspberry Pi both in Stellarmate and Astroberry versions the ZWO 120mm mini behaved well unlike the Sony camera, everyone has different experiences though.

I use the ASI120mm mini on RPI (Astroberry). No issues so far.

On 25/05/2022 at 23:17, Olli said:

I haven’t used my rig yet so I’d thought I would get this purchase out the way any advise or recommendations would be appreciated.

I would recommend geting used to your rig before adding guiding to the mix.

Try out your rig w/o guiding to see the longest duration of images you can get without stars trailing. On the HEQ5 Pro with my scope, I can get anywhere between 30-60s unguided. I have the Astro essentials 30mm + ASI120mm mini btw for guiding and it works well.

EDIT: I am hearing lots of successes using Lucky imaging (short exposures < 1sec) and that maybe something to consider as well. 🙂 https://www.astrobiscuit.com/lucky-imaging-theory

On 18/05/2022 at 15:24, alecras2345 said:

Thanks for your replies.  Let me tell you a little about myself,  my name is Ash, im 44 and live in the united kingdom.   I'm disabled and use a wheelchair.   I like astronomy as i used to go out with a friend at night to look at the stars but that was 20 years ago.   Since then i have watched astronomy documentaries on youtube but in recent years i've not been able to go outside at night to stargaze because the cold weather gets to me and makes my disability worse.    I looked at online telescopes but the prices are stupid.  I looked at slooh.com and that site just confused me, now their prices have gone up since last year so i havent rejoined.   How else can i look at the night sky live online?    I have stellarium but that isn't live.

Hi Ash,

My advice would be to join your local astro group. That will certainly help you understand the art of the possible and you might be able to borrow books, make friends with someone who could let you remotely view through their scope from within the comfort of the home. The opportunities are endless! Good luck!

Read this as well 🙂 https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/5-live-streams-help-you-explore-world-home

On 13/11/2021 at 18:51, Roog said:

but I couldn’t wait any longer for a trolley so I bought a non working mobility scooter to convert. I stripped it down and cut the seat and seat post off leaving a chassis.

Great work. Now you could call yourself a competitor of Astro Tuff-Truk showcased in recent AN magazine 🙂

26 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

Mis-aligned yes, though mount axis does seem to be centred on polaris.  A small text key explaining the colours and the proper & current mount alignment circles would help people new to alignment and avoid confusion.

The graphics may not be perfectly accurate as the circles were just drawn by hand rather than to engineering precision .....I have edited my original post to add the explanation.

12 hours ago, putrigo said:

I wasn't really using anything to process or stack, I just saw it looked like a big star from my Burst Color's view.

Try out the capture software mentioned. They allow you to see the histogram whilst changing exposure and gain. Aim for around 70-75% and you should start seeing the blob clearing. Take a short video and then use the stacking software to pull out the individual images and stack them. The detail will pop out. Here is a helpful link for Firecapture https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/698787-official-firecapture-tutorials/

1 hour ago, StevieDvd said:

Apologies, on a second look I can see that's what was intended.  Though the line marked as the mount axis rotation point is wrong then.

That mount axis line is showing where the mount is pointing at present (in blue). The red circle is what the mount is rotating about and green circle is where it should be rotating about. Our aim should be to get red circle to line up as closely as possible with green.

39 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

1 minor correction to the diagram is that the axis of the mount should point at the NCP (not at polaris). If your mount is polar aligned and you view through your polar scope, polaris itself will go around a circle with the NCP in the middle.  Like the PA software the polarscope reticule is to place polaris on the small circle at the right point for the date/time to place your mount axis on the NCP.

It is shown as pointing to NCP (white line). Polaris is shown as a separate marker.