Mandy D

Two very different views of the Moon.

The night Moon, imaged 2024 01 17 in the evening through the 200P at 1200 mm FL and edited in GIMP to bring out the mineral colours. This Moon is showing 45% waxing phase.
The day Moon, imaged 2024 01 18 at 15:00 through the Vixen A105M at 1000 mm FL, with the Sun still in the sky, edited in GIMP to get a neutral colour balance. The phase has increased to 55% waxing.

23 hours ago, 900SL said:

I generally reply with a question: ' Are you a wealthy masochist?'

Definitely, but I am not wealthy... 🤣

22 minutes ago, John_D said:

Is that a single exposure?

I like the way that the moon looks to be passing between the two trails 😁

Yes, it was just the first frame I shot to test for exposure and focus. I got lucky.

I wondered if anyone would notice that one trail appears to pass behnd the Moon. I should have called it "Schrödinger's Moon". I reckon this photo would have the Flerfers in a tizzy as they like to see trails that appear to pass behind the Moon so they can claim it is local. Let's see them try to puzzle this one out!! 🤣

@Planetary Observer Thank you! Luck must have been on my side as I'd only done a rough focus at this point and it was the first image out of the camera. Even the exposure was close.

6 hours ago, Elp said:

But theres the rub, you ARE an astro person so it doesn't apply.

Bit paradoxical, in' it?

11 hours ago, Elp said:

The first thing I ask is are they patient people, and do they like the cold... Every "non astro" person fails with either or both of these.

I answer "No" and "Hell, no!" to those questions, yet here I am enjoying this hobby ...

That is nice. I got out this afternoon and early evening with a x2 focal extender on a 200P, imagaing with a Nikon D800. I was happy with what I got, but nothing like as good as that, but I was onbly processing a single frame. I'm struggling to get my greys and contrast as good as yours.

I missed the passing jet by a matter of seconds, but it left it's trails across the crescent Moon for us all to enjoy.

19 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Clear here. No cloud at all. A chilly -1.7° at the moment though.

Same here. I've just been on Orion and it is very clear.

@Nikolai De Silva Most small refractors do not have collimation adjustment and no-one complains about that. Why should a small reflector be different? If properly made and aligned at the factory, they should hold collimation well. I've not had to adjust the collimation on my 200P since I did it about 6 months ago. Maybe, I'm not as fanatical about it as some, but it certainly works very well for imaging the Moon.

On 12/01/2024 at 00:33, Gfamily said:

The issue with trying to use a Newtonian scope with a camera (dSLR or Mirrorless) is that in a Newtonian the primary image is usually formed inside the focus tube, and unless a low profile focus tube is fitted it will NOT be possible to get the image falling directly on the sensor, which is where you want it. 

You can get away with it by

• using a Barlow lens to increase the effective focal length - that can work, but reduces your field of view
• replace the standard focuser with a low profile focuser
• relocate the primary mirror a few cm up the OTA - this will reduce the effective aperture (unless you also replace the secondary with a larger one)

 

I know this can be the case with standard visual Newtonians, but my Skywatchers (200P and 250PX) with standard (not low profile) focusers all provide an in-focus image at least 60 mm beyond the end of the focuser drawtube. I image with Nikon DSLRs, which have the sensor 46.5 mm in from the front surface of the lens mounting flange, the T2 adds 10 mm and I get focus with about 5 mm of outward focuser movement.

On 11/01/2024 at 01:20, BlueAstra said:

That might limit the trailing on a single sub, but what about the relative trailing in a stack of subs over an hour or so?

Surely that should not be a problem as each sub can be rotated to take account of the Earth's rotation prior to stacking. That is what I would do and that is what an EQ mount does continuously.

That's a pretty good deal. If I was in the market for another 10 inch, I'd consider biting at that price.

@ObscuredView Thank you!

@Neutrinosoup don't forget to point your scope at the Moon. It is pretty incredible to see through an 8 inch and can stand a lot of magnification on a clear night. Then there is the Sun, too with a suitable aperture filter.

2 minutes ago, AKB said:

Ah yes, but not a lot bigger than the 25.4mm which you originally quoted for the 533. 

A 1 inch sensor, paradoxically, is not 25.4 mm diagonal nor side length. It all goes back to the videcon tubes, where the tube diameter was measured, but the imaging component in the tube was much smaller. There are great articles on Wikipedia that explain this.

The Moon photographed in daylight, just before the clouds rolled in.

Skywatcher 200P, Nikon D800. 1200 mm, f/5.9, 1/200s, ISO-200.

Processed in AS!3 and GIMP.

@Lung Some of the package deals of Skymax, mount and tripod do not use the same OTA as the one that you buy separately. When they are this cheap, it is worth checking whether the telescope has the facility to be collimated, if that is important to you. Don't let it, necessarily, put you off it cannot be re-collimated as they tend to hold collimation very well. But, it is something you should know before pulling the trigger on this. Ask the question.

@daphniesman04 An 8 inch Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount (AKA "Dob") is a very serious piece of kit, with which you will be able to see huge amounts of detail on the Moon, the bands and Gallilean satellites of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, all of the planets in the solar system and a great many deep sky objects, including the awesome M42, Orion Nebula. |Even better news is that you can pick one up, second-hand for £200 or less! Nothing else for the money is going to give you more than an 8" Dob. OK, you will need to get some good eyepieces and that could set you back more than the telescope, but they can be bought one at a time asthe money becomes available. Another awesome aspect of this type and size of telescope is that they are easily transoprtable to dark sky sites, even in a small car and take only two minutes to set up.

How about photographing the Moon and capturing even small craters? Even that is easily done with a bit of practice, as is photographing Jupiter and it's satellites. Here is a link to some photos I took of the Moon with an 8 inch Dob. They are not even close to the best that can be achieved with that telescope:

I think your big mistake is visiting "big stores" and viewing their "junk" They do not, generally, know the first thing about telescopes or astronomy, because that is not their game. For that, you need to talk to specialists and ideally visit a real telescope store. Given that you have not indicated a location or even currency, I have no idea where you are, but if in the UK, Rother Valley Optics have a showroom that you can visit. FLO, the sponsors of this forum are mail-order only, but are very responsive to queries and questions and have a no-quibble returns policy. There are, of course, others that you can find on the web, but most important of all use a specialist, not Amazon, Ebay or your local department store or supermarket! This is not something the "big stores" will ever excel at marketing or demonstrating. It requires highly knowledgeable and experienced in the field staff to do that.

Finally, initially, astronomy can be disappointing as your expectations are likely way too high and you will need to temper them, but with practice and experience an 8 inch Dob will reveal the delights of the night sky to you.

6 hours ago, MalcolmP said:

Dont do any writing of new files to any of those disks until the experts get back to you !
Windows thinks that files are permanently deleted only because it has deleted its index to where they are on the drive. The data may still exist but windows has made the space "available" for future new files. Sophisticated recovery methods are available but my knowledge of them is old,  hence wait for the experts !
 

@LaurenceT Sadly, Onedrive is a remote service offered by Microsoft, which once you empty the recycle bin, permanently deletes the files. They are then not recoverable by any means as you cannot access the physical drive in any way. On any local drive or your own server, you could carry out recovery, as all that an OS does is mark the space available, but the data is still there.

@LaurenceT Permanently? Have you over-written everything? If not, the files should be recoverable.

14 minutes ago, GasGiant said:

I snagged Jupiter last night. 

Im finding that getting the moons in shot over exposes the planet. but if I crank the exposure down the moons disappear. Lots to learn yet ! 

Viewing with a 30mm Eyepiece is very comfortable. When I switch to the 9 ( its all I have a the moment ) the planet whizzes past at a great rate of knots haha. I have a job with the dob keeping up.

 

 

This is just the way it is with imaging Jupiter (and Saturn): correct exposure for the planet is vastly different to correct exposure for the moons. You need to take two sets of images, one for the planet and another for the moons, process them separately and then drop the moons onto the Jupiter image. It's the only way you'll get both.

A 12" is not generally considered portable, so it's unlikely anyone is making a bag for them as standard. I would suggest looking at getting one made, or perhaps go for a flight case which would be a lot safer for such a large OTA.

1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

what's your current guide scope, if it is a 50ED could use that as the widefield for the time being if go for the mount option as a thought

This is a cracking little scope for not a lot of money and at f/4.8 it is reasonably fast and wide, plus there is a dedicated field flattener for it that, again, is very inexpensive. I'll second this suggestion.

1 hour ago, Simon Stewart said:

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some guidance for good observation locations in Stoke on Trent area. Our back garden would actually be decent except for a ludicrously bright street light pointing directly at it. 

Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

Clear skies.

S.

It all depends on where in Stoke you are and how far you are prepared to travel. Personally, from there I would head out towards Leek and into the Peak District, where you can find some pretty dark spots. Up around the Roaches on the way to Buxton can be good, as is anywhere around The Goyt Valley, but it is quite remote in some of those parts, so think about personal safety.