vineyard

I think that's v v nice - really captures a sense of floating in deep space.👍🏾

Here's 3 photos - the SP in alt-az mode w the 102M (this was before I modded the motors on), and then in EQ mode after the motors were added. The photo of Mars was taken with that setup (lucky imaging so need for long-exposure AP accuracy-of-tracking levels). Having the motors really helped with high-power visual obs too.

I have been v happy w my old Vixen SP mount, which I modded with motors. Holds a 4" frac (long SP102M) with ease, can be used in alt-az or EQ configuration. The motors really make the difference for relaxed viewing (especially high power for moon & planets) - whisper quiet and with no need to touch the setup as it tracks, there's no wobble and you can just concentrate on the viewing. Perfect for visual. Have had lovely sessions on the Moon and Mars in particular, going up to 333x on the 102M w/o any problems. The only limitation is that there is no go-to so that bit of big sky navigation you have to do yourself.

I started with the ASI178MC & it was good to practice (esp for clusters) but cooled cameras really do make a difference (particularly for DSOs). The 178MC has a small chip so you may not get the benefit of the full FOV the Evo50 gives. Are you using a flattener with the Evo50? If not, then there is quite a bit of curvature so a small chip won't actually be a bad thing b/c you'll only get the centre of the FOV. If you are using a flattener, then if its the Starizona flattener, that can handle DSLRs so in that case maybe just use a Canon? Stellarmate's image module is compatible w Canons (I think). In fact if you don't have a flattener, I'd be inclined to go for a Starizona flattener + DSLR combination while saving for a cooled camera. (If you already have a Canon, that route is a lot cheaper b/c the flattener is way less expensive than an 178MC - you may even be able to get a flattener and 2nd hand astro-modded Canon for the price of a new 178MC?) Hope that helps.

The first image is v nice! 👍🏾

That is remarkable from the Agra pollution conditions (both light & particulate matter)!👍🏾

Gorgeous- most interesting (& ofc beautiful) image I can remember seeing of M45. With the bright stars having this tighter core, M45 doesn't dominate the nebulosity as much as it does in normal images: for some reason, I'm reminded of an old schooner making its way through v stormy seas...

Good to see you back. Something v convalescent about being out under the sun while observing it - hopefully a speedy & full recovery follows.

Thanks @MartinB - yes I want to try Starnet but for some reason it doesn't instal on my laptop (its an old machine so it maybe processor related). I'll give StarXterminator a go if that works on my machine (I doubt it will since it seems to need 10.15 or later as the MacOS, and I'm still on 10.13 (my machine can't handle the later OS...can't handle that latest PI versions either, so I guess an upgrade will be needed at some stage)). That's reassuring on the bloat & the gain - cheers!

You're on a v old version of Kstars (unless that's a typo in "3.3.4"?)? Have you tried using bin 2x2? I've noticed a similar thing with the RA on my EKOS guiding v recently too (I'm on 3.5.4). The RMS balloons out & RA is the culprit. I actually switched to guiding via EqMod mount, and slightly bigger box size, w a guiding rate of 0.50 (I believe the higher the number the stronger the impulse so if you're at 0.9 maybe try reducing that). I also found increasing my Exp time helped a bit but I see you're at 7s (I tend to stick to 1,1.5 or 2s so maybe try a little shorter)? Those tweaks have helped me - I lost only 9 out of 202 lights last night to RA going awol, the rest were fine (RMS <1 quite a lot of the time). You could also try posting the log on indilib. Good luck!

Thanks @MartinB - yes I was quite pleased w how well that filter did. An L-enhance would have been tighter but the UHC-S didn't let itself down. Was a bit lucky with the moon in that was able to get a some data before the moon rose high enough to come over neighbouring buildings. I just let ABE & then HT do the background cleaning up work tbh 😂 Before ABE yes there was a wash of background signal. I like your Chroma 5nm narrow image. V nice Bok tendrils and tight stars as well. I'm not sure whether the [brighter] stars in my image are bloated or not. Not enough of a virtuoso on CMOS cameras but part of me is wondering whether a lower gain would have left a larger full-well to play with (even for 60s exposures) - but then introduced higher read noise too. Or maybe that's just the way the brighter stars would always come out?🤷🏾‍♂️

That's v nice - particularly the delicate tendril structure of the big central Bok column.👍🏾

23 Nov, Rupes Altai and the surrounding regions. STF7 (180mm f/10), ASI290MM w an Astronomik 642nm filter. I find this region v rewarding when its near the terminator b/c of the different textures. I like the longer shadow of the middle portion of the Rupes Altai escarpment - I guess that's a slightly taller feature casting a longer shadow? Cheers

It sounds to me like you're trying to do lucky imaging on DSOs, which I think folks have done. I've never tried that so can't help you w details I'm afraid, but this might be a helpful thread to start?

+1 for the TV76. I have one (old, bought 2nd hand) & its my most versatile scope. Genuinely grab & go, great for solar (WL & Ha), BV'ing, AP, NV & ofc normal viewing. Works w 2" & 1.25" EPs. I have the single-speed focuser version & went to DeepSkyDad for a version of their AF3s which can be put on it and which makes it machine-focusable (for AP, works a treat).

Hello, Here's my first go at the Pacman. Evoguide50 (w the flattener) w a UHC-S filter in place. ASI178MM-cool. 7h28 of 60s lights (taken on 21 & 22 Nov, so 97% & 92% moon). Calibrated. APP then PI. Downsampled for posting. Cheers, Vin

I still get that late at night in my garden, forget about miles from civilisation 😱

Enjoy - BV'ing the sun & the moon is awesome. I use Zeiss BVs and for the sun use 2.6x GPC as I'm using a TV76 - 18.2mm Delites effectively become 7mm giving 68x and still allowing full disk if I want to, although normally I'll centre a particular region I want to focus on. Btw if you don't want your TV55 pls let me know - I may well be going down that route for NV! Cheers

Thanks @callisto @Sunshine & @MartinT - it was nice imaging the moon again after so long. Was v funny in that every so often the exhaust of the neighbour's boiler chute would blow water vapour exactly across where the moon was peeping around the corner that night.

Those are really rather nice - you should post more of those in the future pls. In particular, very clean surface texture in 1,2,4 & 5 👍🏾 - I've never thought of using Pixinsight on solar!

Thanks @neil phillips - that means a lot coming from someone with your skills 🙌🏾 And concur, those are the ones I like the most - all the other ones I used a more experimental ImPPG approach (& also colour tone approach in Gimp) but looking at them side-by-side, 3 & 4 are just nicer than the others. Ah well, it's always good to try new approaches even if its only to discover that sometimes when you kiss a frog it stays a frog 😂

Hadn't imaged the moon for far too long & found myself w time and a cooled down Mak 7" f/10 on the night of the 23rd. Did both visual & some captures. Wow visual at that aperture is amazing (next time w BVs!). A long time since processing lunar, so v rusty & trying a few different things.

V nice for 3.5hrs 👍🏾 Between the two, I prefer the OSC - more texture in the inner core. The HOO almost seems too bright. I've got some unprocessed data on Pacman taken with an ASI178MMcool but with a Baader UHC filter as it seems to have a dual-band style transmission curve. Will be curious to see how it compares to the L-enhance (the L-e should be better & tighter band-pass, but by how much should be interesting to see)

Hmm, good Q. I thought I had checked both E & W on the RA axis but maybe not well enough. And it was RA that seemed to go wandering on the guide graph. Thanks - will try & be more careful next time - fingers crossed!

Thanks @PeterCPC - I did that a few times. (EKOS automatically had to recalibrate & restart the guider anyway when it switched to the new target of IC410, but I also forced recalibration of auto guiding a few times manually when I noticed this runaway-RMS, but this kept happening). Perplexing.