vineyard

Hello, Here are some from 5th Nov. I spent a fair amount of time just enjoying it visually first - the more look the more your eye settles in and you start seeing not just the big proms but the little ones scattered along the disc like far off dust-devils. And you start to appreciate just how vast our comparatively small star still is. The differences in scale within the universe are quite mind-blowing (from tiny electrons through DNA to these vast structures which are still just made of very small things). Anyway enough waffling, after a good 30 mins, I couldn't resist & grabbed some data. (The second image is rotated 90 degrees for aesthetics). Cheers, Vin

Is it possible to agree with everyone on an NV-related thread? It seems so! (Well except for Gav's Christmas card list...). Maybe the topic doesn't need to be schismatic after all Speaking purely as someone who's stumbled across NV while re-entering astronomy after decades away - and is constantly amazed by the advancements since then - I see NV precisely as described above. A technological advance that gives us another way to observe. Its not better, it's different - legitimate & complementary. I agree that price is a big factor. Currently. But I'm a big fan of ingenuity & that darned entrepreneurial spirit. The more that folks see there is unsatisfied demand for this, the more that some innovator out there will figure out a way of doing it cheaper (like David Lunt & solar!). I'm sure there are folks tinkering on home-brew approaches. And technology is moving apace so its only a matter of time before things get cheaper and/or ppl figure out new ways of image intensification. I have no idea when it was written (or who the writer is), but I found this a v interesting article not just for the principles behind NV & the generational history, but also for the mention at the end of some of the new applications of image intensification in non-military uses like healthcare. I reckon it will be just like CMOS chips (not originally invented for astro-cameras right?). Here's hoping 🤞🏾!

Hello, Just a quick report on what could be described as a brief outreach session. It was a clear night & I was visiting family for an extended gathering. So I took along the PVS14 & a 642nm filter. Got folks to look at the sky w their eyes, & then put the PVS14 to their eyes. Without fail, every single person was just blown away by what they saw (the title is a quote). They could not believe their eyes, nor the number of stars. This included rugby-playing engineers (ie, not your normal gushy sorts) as well as people who had seen my various other kit & said "this is the best thing you've got". Etc etc. You often see NV dismissed as cheating (or s/thing akin to that). S/times those are ofc tongue-in-cheek remarks & as banter it's all good. But if there are purists who really believe that, I hope they are consistent and never use an Oiii filter to see the veil (cheating!), or use an etalon to look at the sun in Ha (cheating!!), or use aspirin (cheating - only crushed willow twig infusion allowed!!!). 😂 Is NV the only way to go? Ofc not - other approaches have different pleasures. But does it have serious merits compared to a lot of other approaches? Absolutely. Hopefully over time more folks will have a chance to experience it (until then it must stay occult, & only those w the right secret handshakes can be allowed to be shown it). Cheers, Vin

You'll need to put the spacers between the FF & the camera (bearing mind the 17.5mm already 'within' the camera). ZWO do sell 21mm & 16.5mm spacers which, together with the 17.5mm in the camera body, would come to 55mm. Although you may need to add a bit more if you use filters in front of the FF. Another alternative is to use a Baader varilock spacer? Enjoy - that's a v good camera.

Hello, As mentioned in this report, after last night's first run w Ha+PVS14 on nebulae, I was tinkering to see if I could speed up the TV76+PVS14 NV system. I noticed that there was a short patch of clear skies and fast clouds earlier this evening while Cygnus was still fully up above the roofs. And so I tested it - put it on an old EZTouch manual alt-az, pointed it at Sadr, and hey presto it works as you can see from the two photos below. Comparing it to this constellation guide, I'm fairly certain that's the Butterfly Nebula, Sadr and the patch on the other side (inverted E-W in the images below)? I think that may also be the Crescent peeping in at the bottom? The photo is again just a free handheld. The increase in speed really does make a difference - unfortunately I couldn't do a like-for-like comparison it against the same targets as yesterday b/c the clouds then came in thick tonight. But the nebulae just popped in the PVS14 w this faster system - it was v easy & restful, and this is w a 6nm Ha (I guess 3nm would make it sing even more). The setup was a simple Antares 0.5x reducer, threaded on to a nose that was itself threaded onto a Baader Zeiss T2 prism. The EP side was the same TV40 plossl & PVS14. I was hoping that using the prism would keep the optical length short enough for the reducer to still find focus & indeed that's so (trying a longer path mirror diagonal didn't work). I reckon this takes the speed to c f/2.1. The good thing about this is that hopefully this means a reducing system that can plug & play into a variety of scopes without needing a TV55 or TV67 - let's see. Cheers, Vin (PS - the photos really don't do the actual EP view justice - there's far too much glare in these but I guess that's b/c they're handheld & also the iPhone stock low-light camera seems to take 3s exposures?)

Hello, It was such a clear night last night (even in Bortle 8/9 land) that after setting up the AP rig and setting it going, I thought I would test out a new (to me) & carefully looked after 6nm Ha filter. I set it up on a TV76 w a TV40 plossl, so running at f/4.1, and went for a jaunt around some nebulae. Unfortunately Cygnus had already gone behind neighbouring buildings by the time I was out, so I had to make do w the Heart, California, as well as having a quick go - just for fun - at the Flaming Star & IC410 Tadpoles (one of the targets the AP rig was working on). And at the end Orion had risen enough to have a go at M42 & the Horsehead. Some v clumsy images - literally just holding the phone over the PVS14 & trying to hold it still - are below (not a patch on the amazing images in @GavStar's report). I can safely say that I have never seen any of those nebulae visually from the skies here (well except for M42!). Did some tinkering in the daytime w a 0.5x reducer, and have been able to get it to find focus w a TV40 in daytime long-distance viewing. So hopefully that means the same will happen w the PVS14 added at night, meaning that I think I could get this system potentially as fast as f/2.1. It will be v interesting to see the difference in what that speed shows, especially on the fainter nebulae 🤞🏾 And then to get the reduction sorted on the 180mm Mak Cheers, Vin (PS - these photos are REALLY v crude & clumsy & don't do proper justice - you will probably have to step back from the screen to get a sense 😂 - but am sharing them to show what can be seen even w such a system - oh to have 3nm but maybe a Fonemate should be on the Xmas list! I intend to have a better crack at some pt in the future) Heart (turn your head left) California NAN (turn head left & move back) Horsehead & Flame?

Gorgeous, it's impossible to pick a favourite from those 👏🏾 Such a beautiful night, I took the 6nm Ha + PVS14 for a spin: saw stuff there is no way I could otherwise have seen👍🏾 Will try & share a quick report later in the day!

Thanks - you should report back what you find! Also on closer inspection, I notice that the images are slightly different quality outputs from ImPPG. I used the same settings on each, but maybe I should tailor it to each image & then recombine. Lets see.

Hello, I managed to grab some data on Jupiter last week. I bore in mind @Nik271 advice on an earlier attempt to keep a ratio of 4-5x between the f-ratio and the pixel size. So this time I used the f/10 Mak with an ASI290MM (2.9um pixel size so at 3.4x still not quite in the 4-5x range). And having got my hands on a manual FW from another kind SGLer, tried a bunch of old Meade 4000 filters & then a combination in GIMP. The filters used were ND96, 23A (light red?), 58 (green), 80A (blue) & 12 (yellow). The image from each of the filters is below (its interesting seeing the differences in what data comes through), as is an attempt at combining the RGB images into a colour (w a bit of playing around in GIMP). I suppose its a start although still well away from the calibre of the other images on here! Cheers, Vin Yellow: Blue: Green: Light red: ND96: RGB Combination:

Gorgeous shots - particularly the last two. Quite seasonal for Halloween - sort of looks like a dark head, two legs and two arms raised? Woooooo👻

Hello, A week later have finally got round to processing last Thursday's images. I remember it as a v nice clear day - got some nice planetary time that evening too (still to even look at that). Playing w some different colour temperatures - not sure which "fieriness" level I prefer. There's still a little tilt I think in the whole disc - need to get that right. Cheers & stay well all, Vin

Stunning. That 4th shot in particular is a peach - almost gives you vertigo as if you're orbiting/falling v fast from v high over a distant archipelago in some remote ocean (hmm, maybe I'm channeling residual scenes from a Tarkovsky movie w that analogy!)

That looks amazing👏🏾. Do you store the image files on each Pi (& so run independent [EKOS] instances on each Pi) or have you figured out a way to capture multiple cameras with the same EKOS instance?

Oh no re the pasties - I guess not peak season (we didn't eat them all honest). Yes, Cornwall definitely as beautiful below the water as above (provided its not raining!). If you're still in that part of the world, the Minack theatre in Porthcurno may give some v nice framing too. V much enjoy your astro-landscapes!

That's lovely Paul. The pasties from the shop at the top of that are delicious (as a dive club, whenever we do expedition diving off Cornwall, we try and organise at least one day where we pop in on the RIB into the cove to go and get pasties for lunch. Makes for amusement of holidaymakers to see a bunch of divers arrive just for pasties, and then head off again ).

Just measured the focus screw on my Evo50 - couldn't take it all out but its at least 14mm long. Good luck

I am a newbie imager, so I'm not going make any claims to quality. But being an inveterate tinkerer, recently put a synthetic dual/tri band filter (basically a stacked Astronomik CLSCCD & UHC filter - if you look at the spectra on the Astronomik website you can see the interaction) in front of an old ASI178MM-cool. I liked what emerged - but as I say would make no claims to absolute quality (a proper imager would have done far better) nor on how the same target would have been w a OSC+tri-band! But I do think @vlaiv is right - until I eventually get individual filters (maybe sometime in the next 24 months!) I'm going to try mono+triband a bit more.

Clearly needs more proving.😄

Thanks @Highburymark - yes I've been v impressed & pleased w the NV on clusters & PN. Am drawing up a list of clusters to work through (may even do a compare & contrast from the Bortle 8 skies here). & am looking fwd to having a go at Rosette & Flaming Star & California & Heart & Soul & many more once I get my hands on an Ha!

Does this count as a home-baked AZ75?

Thanks both @badhex & @Mike JW that's exciting re the central star - will look closer the next time (& maybe try a 9DL to see if it pops out clearer with more magnification) - there was a fierce moon and some light cloud last night. Thanks also re the spacing Mike! That makes sense - I was using a mirrored 1.25 diagonal and it was just too far - couldn't take the EP any closer in. Will try a prism next time, although the recess in the reducer is about 24mm, which could make it interesting - let's see. Hope you're well - loving the STF7 (planetary views are brilliant).

Hello, I set up the 7" STF7 f/10 last nigh - mostly for Jupiter & Saturn. Once they had gone behind the trees, I thought I'd do a quick check w the PVS14 & the larger aperture. The STF7 came with a 0.6x reducer, but I couldn't figure the spacing out on the night, so I stuck to f/10, and put in a TV40 and an 18.2mm Delite (making the system still a v-e-r-y slow f/6.5 & f/14 (!) respectively). The photos below are handheld iPhone photos (ie wobbly = no prizes!) of M15 in Pegasus & M57 in Lyra (there are two of the M57xTV40 b/c I tried different gain settings). Is it me or is there a central star in the M57x18Delite image (I don't think its scintillation) - could the PVS14 enhance mag15 central star? Cheers, Vin

@stnagy that trick worked. The teleconverter didn't but putting an EP in did. The image was however upside down which makes it a bit discombobulating. Luckily the CZJ 135mm prime has a T2 style thread, so I could also attach it to a prism diagonal with short light path so that the image became right way up. Have to test it out w stars to see what the FOV and viewing is like (this was just in a dark room). If there's a way or re-inverting the image w/o a diagonal then this could be a handy straight through (a bit like an old nautical pocket telescope). Cheers

That's a great idea @Martin Meredith - many parts of the world with rolling powercuts get that already & civilisation doesn't collapse. Its dangerously addictive b/c now I'm imagining what a headset with binocular NV in a proper dark sky zone would be like!😂

Thanks @stnagy I wouldn't have appreciated the (important) subtlety of parallel vs conical light beams (optics & physics being a long way in the past for me!). Luckily I have a T2-1.25" adapter, so I can thread that in & put a TV40 in - will test that on the next semi-clear night (it seems to work in daytime). Thanks for that link too @GavStar - a very interesting thread w other threads nested within it (finally getting round to understanding afocal speed maths). chemisted in that set of threads seems to have had some success...I'll tinker a bit more w my old prime lenses & report back! Cheers both