vineyard

The colour version is gorgeous - a real sense of 3D-ness & motion caught. Also almost a sense of theatricality (a spotlight on the spot as if it were on a stage).👍🏾

This is almost a week late but it's been a bit hectic on other fronts. The morning was almost entirely cloudy but there were some patches of blue sky through which I managed to grab some data. Trickiest thing for H-a was getting the Solarquest mount to find the sun w so many clouds - but once it locked on, it tracked it pretty well even through a lot of cloudy intervals. The other thing I discovered that to stack the eclipse images in AS!3 it was best to use the "Planetary" option rather than "Surface" and have larger AP sizes. Is that a stacking methodology thing? One of the images is w the proms exposed, the other is without (so that the occultation by the moon is sharper black). I think I'd prefer one with a sharper black disk but with the proms but that probably needs more patience w processing! Cheers.

That's gorgeous - it's like an eye looking straight at you.👍🏾 And ofc that granulation!

@jacko61 its far too solid for me to be able to cut off - I don't think it'll ever leave this garden! 😂 But yes I'm 99.99% going to use a pier extension to get clearance with fences so that means the lip overhang should be much less of an issue (& yes should hopefully make polar alignment easier). @ollypenrice that's a v neat fix, thank you. Hopefully I'll be able to avoid the snagging risk b/c of the pier extension & by having most of the wires connected to an on-scope UPB (or a Pi attached to the pier extension cylinder above the rectangular top) so that only 1 power cable & 1 ethernet cable need to be routed any lower 🤞🏾 - let's see. The concrete is in & curing (or whatever the right term is). Just need to get the pier adapter sorted soon, & then hopefully pier gets bolted in sometime in next fortnight, & then get to discovering what quirks the setup brings (there's always quirks?). Cheers both & stay safe.

That closer FOV is much better suited for the object @Daniel Karl - gives it more immediacy 👍🏾

Congrats - its always nice when a setup comes together (& that's a lovely first image). The WO wedge upgrade is definitely worth it - in another league performance & convenience wise, I hummed & hawed about that but no regrets whatsoever (they do come up 2nd hand every so often). If only iOptron could come out w a version of the Skyguider Pro that had motors on both axes so that go-to became possible...

I have a 294MCPro & I'm v happy with it (use it w DSLR lenses, & 50mm & 102mm aperture scopes). You can also check "CCD Compatibility" on astronomy.tools for pixel size & the focal length of your scope.

That is gorgeous!

I do remember that avatar picture & used to enjoy reading his posts. Condolences to the family.

@The Lazy Astronomeryes I had that same problem w SiriL on lack of intuitiveness - that's why DSS was so good to introduce me to stacking. But I have to say that I'm now on the same page as @Clarkey: having seen the difference b/w DSS & APP on a nebula (here) as well as M13 above, I'm now an APP convert too. It'll be 'fun' (?) learning it w/o a manual, but it's still quicker than PI stacking & I found it reasonably intuitive (more so than SiriL). Will always keep DSS as a fallback on the laptop though

I took a punt on an Antares 0.5x reducer to try & get whole disk solar. (My normal set-up is ASI290MM on a 480mm f/l w 50mm etalon & that doesn't give whole disk). Happy to say it worked! So no need to change cameras to 178MM or 174MM (& heck of a lot cheaper too!). Here's a quick whole disk. The 2nd image is an ROI - strictly I should compare the same ROI w just the ASI290MM native & then w the reducer. Will try that in the future, but it's not a hardship to just put the reducer on for whole disk & then take it off for ROI

Hello, Some images from 3rd June. I've played w a slightly different processing workflow & colour scheme. Not sure if this makes it look more vivid & fiery (which would be good) or more posterised? Separately, have taken the plunge on an Antares 0.5x focal reducer - hopefully that should allow full disk too Cheers.

Hello, Does anyone know what (manual) filter wheels would be compatible with Meade 4000 filters? My initial thought was just a ZWO manual 5-position filter wheel, but I remembered reading somewhere that that doesn't take all filters. A quick Google search led me to this CN post which suggest that they wouldn't work together. It's an old post so perhaps compatibility changed? Or else, would anyone know which wheels might fit? Thank you if so!

Hello, I caught 1h50 of acceptable data on NGC6888 last week (foolishly on one night I didn't notice the EKOS setting for images was 8bit so that was a night's data gone). Anyway, clearly that's not a lot of data at all, but I ran it through both DSS (the first image below, best 90% of lights) & APP (second image, 100% of lights). ABE & HT applied in PI on both & that's it. 60s lights w Evoguide50 as the imaging scope (w flattener), ASI294MCPro, Baader uhc filter, guided & mounted on an HEQ5Pro. The difference between APP & DSS is palpable. I've v much enjoyed using DSS as an entry into AP staying, but I think I'll be switching to APP. (As far as the image itself is concerned, clearly a LOT more data needed (& perhaps w sharper autofocus than just a Bahtinov mask focus locked in!) before even beginning to do more processing - this was just to see the difference b/w the stacking software). Cheers all.

Hello, It had been a while since I did some WL imaging. 1.25" Lunt wedge on a TV76. The last two virtually identical looking ROI images are the same data & the same processing. The only difference is that the first of those is the best 2 images from 2k, the second the best 20 from the same 2k. Was curious to see what the difference would be. I think I actually prefer the best 2 rather than the best 20? Cheers.

Wow😮. If you have a social media a/c you should put that GIF on it. (If there was a way of finding out which airline that was too!)

Lovely images👍🏾. Yes was out for a bit & the amount of activity across different parts of the face is great. Too many clouds passing through here though - did snatch some images but let's see how they come out!

I suspect I may end up doing the same. Want to test APP vs DSS on some Crescent nebula data to see how they compare. The star colours definitely seem better vs DSS in those M13 shots. And DSS has sometimes given me weird stacking artefacts on Evo50 widefield images. Curious to see what the next comparison comes out looking like - will post once done. Cheers.

Hello, Some v quick grabs (SF50 etalon, ASI290MM). I really can't get the gradient merge to combine the top & bottom bits of the disc properly (there's a v clear join) - and unfortunately MS ICE doesn't work either. So it's frustrating wrt whole disk images. I suspect I'll have to put a reducer in - currently have 0.79x but that's not quite enough. Playing around w astronomy.tools suggests somewhere like 0.67x should work - but can reducers be chopped & changed? (My scope is a 76mm f6.3, so w etalon it becomes f9.6 so I would need a reducer that can do 0.67x (or lower) for f9.6 scopes - is there such a thing?). Anyway, stay safe all.

Great shots! 👏🏾

I'll follow this w interest! I have an old SP - perhaps marginally better condition than yours (less rust & less bending, but also in need of a little TLC...I suspect its the original grease still in there). Its a lovely mount - I've already tinkered on some Vixen motors on both RA & DEC axes (had already taken them off an older GP2 when I converted that to go-to). And with those it works a treat for visual & also for lunar/planetary lucky imaging - tracks well, next to no noise, and no need to keep fiddling with the slo-mo knobs. This is why I want just give it some TLC in due course on the re-greasing. (Will post some photos once its stops raining as its kept in a shed). I know what you mean about the tripod. Wooden legs would definitely be an improvement - the difference in dampening is huge vs a wooden tripod I use for an alt-az mount. My biggest frutstration with that tripod head (I suspect you have a similar age one) is that the North pin has a tapered base. So a lot of the current market base conversions don't fit (unless you file the base!). I think a SW pier extension does (from memory, I may be mistaken) but that changes the green livery. If there is such a thing as original colour scheme Vixen pier extension, that would be great. (I typically put either a TM2 or a Vixen 102M on it & have found the legs get in the way for zenith). Pls do post photos as you work on it! (PS - yes if I remember correctly that black knob is for changing it from alt-az configuration to eq & vice versa - you'll also have to undo the central hex thing in there to do that)

That is amazing. Bravo!

Ah ofc, overlooked that. (Am not a good judge of measuring FOV visually so, just in case one ever comes up, the manual says it can do 3 deg w a 55mm Plossl or 41mm Panoptic. 3.3deg possible w a 0.8x reducer for prime focus AP). Good luck w the choice - that LZOS does look v nice but ouch re the price (there was a Baader 95/580 Travel Companion which sold recently here on SGL for c GBP3k)?

This probably won't be v helpful b/c I don't think too many of them were ever made (maybe 100 odd based on a CN post), but fwiw I'm exceedingly happy w my TV102iis. It's the BV friendly version so it can be used for mono (w a solid extension that comes w it), or native for BV. Great for AP too (does need a flattener). If you ever see one for sale, highly recommend snapping it up (no, that's not a precursor to listing mine - not for sale!).

Yes I initially started w SiriL when I began AP, and now I can't remember why I switched to DSS - there was a reason but for the life of me, those grey cells have gone!😂