Padraic M

Copy on the way!

I can't really say; I've never used them 🙂

Great stuff Colm, you'll enjoy that camera from all I've heard about it. Kerry skies can be spectacular but as I'm sure you know the weather can be a problem!!! I've been here for the last four weeks; one great week, and three completely cloudy ones. So you can be lucky or unlucky if you book a trip - best plan is to be agile and watch the forecasts. Not sure about glamping, but there are plenty of guesthouses around here (Waterville/Portmagee etc) that won't mind you staying up all night. We should get a discount! I'm back to Dublin tomorrow so I'll have more imaging opportunities but badly polluted skies. Ah well!

Hi Colm, that's a fine image! Great detail and lovely star colour, you obviously know your stuff. You must have good skies in your part of Cork.

Hi Mainak, looking forward to seeing your photographic results from 22 North!

Lovely shot! Very interesting constellation... lots to see. Looking forward to your next version!

That's super! I love the Bubble.

As in the previous replies, hard to imagine that a DSLR mirror makes that much noise, but if the neighbours are complaining it doesn't really matter if it's factual or not. +1 for HEQ5 belt mod. +1 for a ZWO astro cam - it's a good excuse to treat yourself anyway! Cooling fans are almost silent - I sometimes have to stick my ear to the camera to make sure the fan has come on. I suspect it's a combination of a few problems; given that they've obviously seen you in the garden at night, they may be putting 1+1 together and assuming it's your noise. My neighbours have both twigged that I have a "large" telescope in the garden at night so I'm very keen to let them know that it can't see into their windows! Bringing them in for a look might work. Luckily I get on very well with both sides and they have an interest in science (left-hand neighbours) and photography (right-hand neighbours). I plan on getting their kids in to see Saturn and Jupiter when Covid allows. btw, they both got lock-down puppies in the last 6 months so they are a little embarrassed themselves.

Good advice, if possibly a little bit harsh on the Celestron kit! 🙂 🙂 Definitely, the eyepieces that come with the 130EQ are almost unusable and an upgrade of some sort is a must. The trade-off consideration is possibly that the 130EQ is a scope of a 'certain' quality level, so buying expensive eyepieces is not warranted unless OP intends to upgrade to a better quality scope in the future. I see that you have pictures of those TMB 'planetary' eyepieces earlier in the post, which seem to have a good reputation at a very good price on ebay. I'd agree with your selection of eyepiece powers. What I think is counter-intuitive for a beginner, is that the 32mm Plossl eyepiece is ESSENTIAL and definitely the one most often used. Two eyepieces, a 2x barlow and a neutral-density filter for looking at the moon, of better quality than the Celestron kit, probably won't cost much less than the kit. Looking at European suppliers, the TS-Optics 32mm Plossl can be had for €30, or the Baader for €61. Of course, you can spend thousands on two eyepieces, barlow and filter but that's a whole other conversation.

All I can say is that my first scope was the 130EQ, and I upgraded to this kit. It really is a massive improvement over the eyepieces that come with the scope and I still use the kit, so it is well worth buying. However, for the price, you could get one or two better quality eyepieces and possibly a barlow to give a good selection of magnifications, and that might be a better way to go. Others may be able to give good advice on what brands and focal lengths would be worth considering.

😲 Thanks for the heads up, somehow managed to lose half the post. There now.

A clear spell on 23/24/25 July gave an opportunity to capture a mosaic of a very rich area of Cassiopeia. This is a 2x1 panel mosaic in HaRGB which includes the following objects: - Messier 52 Salt and Pepper Nebula, an open cluster discovered by Charles Messier on 1774. - Caldwell 11 Bubble Nebula, an emission nebula surrounding a mag 8.7 star, which while it looks like a planetary nebula is actually a bubble blown by the star's stellar winds in the surrounding gas cloud. The bubble is 6 light years in diameter, and is at a distance of approximately 7,000 light years. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1787. - Nova Cassiopeiae 2021, first eruption identified on 18th March and a number of flare-ups observed since. Imaged at mag 6.9 here and has since faded to mag 7.12. - NGC7538 Northern Lagoon Nebula - Sharpless 2-157 Lobster Claw Nebula, emission nebula, which contains: - -- Markarian 50 open star cluster - -- Lynds' Bright Nebula (LBN) 537, from a catalog of bright nebulae compiled by Beverly Turner Lynds, a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, from a study of the red and blue prints of the National Geographic-Palomar Observatory Sky Atlas, and pubished in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 12, p.163, 1965. - -- Planetary Nebula PLN 110-0.1 (also WeSb 6 from the Galactic Planetary Nebulae catalog) - NGC 7510 Dormouse cluster in Cepheus - IC1470 H ii ionized region (emission nebula). "IC 1470 has a nebular spectrum similar to M8 and appears to be an H ii region excited by a single 07 star. It represents an object formed close to the edge of a molecular cloud, and its ionizing radiation is penetrating the intercloud gas, producing a “blister” on its edge." (Lynds, B. T. ; Oneil, E. J., Jr., An optical study of IC 1470, Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 265, p. 803-807 (1983)) The image is processed HaRGB, and comprises two panels. Panel 1: R 10x300, 2x600 G 9x300, 2x600 B 9x300, 2x600 Ha 12x300 Panel 2: R 9x300, 2x600 G 9x300, 2x600 B 9x300, 2x600 Ha 9x300 Total integration 7.6 hours in Bortle 2. Equipment: Imaging: SW Esprit 80; ZWO ASI1600mm Pro @ 20C gain 139 offset 21; Baader RGB and Ha 3.5nm filters. Capture controlled by NINA. Pixel ratio 1.9"/px. Guiding: AA Starwave 50mm; ZWO ASI290mm Mini; PHD2. HEQ5 Pro belt-mod Processed by Astro Pixel Processor, Gimp and Noise Ninja. Full detail on Astrobin Annotated:

A clear spell on 23/24/25 July gave an opportunity to capture a mosaic of a very rich area of Cassiopeia. This is a 2x1 panel mosaic in HaRGB which includes the following objects: - Messier 52 Salt and Pepper Nebula, an open cluster discovered by Charles Messier on 1774. - Caldwell 11 Bubble Nebula, an emission nebula surrounding a mag 8.7 star, which while it looks like a planetary nebula is actually a bubble blown by the star's stellar winds in the surrounding gas cloud. The bubble is 6 light years in diameter, and is at a distance of approximately 7,000 light years. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1787. - Nova Cassiopeiae 2021, first eruption identified on 18th March and a number of flare-ups observed since. Imaged at mag 6.9 here and has since faded to mag 7.12. - NGC7538 Northern Lagoon Nebula - Sharpless 2-157 Lobster Claw Nebula, emission nebula, which contains: - -- Markarian 50 open star cluster - -- Lynds' Bright Nebula (LBN) 537, from a catalog of bright nebulae compiled by Beverly Turner Lynds, a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, from a study of the red and blue prints of the National Geographic-Palomar Observatory Sky Atlas, and pubished in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 12, p.163, 1965. - -- Planetary Nebula PLN 110-0.1 (also WeSb 6 from the Galactic Planetary Nebulae catalog) - NGC 7510 Dormouse cluster in Cepheus - IC1470 H ii ionized region (emission nebula). "IC 1470 has a nebular spectrum similar to M8 and appears to be an H ii region excited by a single 07 star. It represents an object formed close to the edge of a molecular cloud, and its ionizing radiation is penetrating the intercloud gas, producing a “blister” on its edge." (Lynds, B. T. ; Oneil, E. J., Jr., An optical study of IC 1470, Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 265, p. 803-807 (1983)) The image is processed HaRGB, and comprises two panels. Panel 1: Red 9x300, 2x600 Green 9x300, 2x600 Blue 9x300, 2x600 Ha 12x300 Panel 2: Red 9x300 Green 9x300 Blue 9x300 Ha 9x300 Total integration 7hrs 40mins, Bortle 2. Equipment Imaging: SW Esprit 80; ZWO ASI1600mm Pro @ -20c gain 139 offset 21; Baader RGB and 3.5nm Ha filters. Capture controlled by NINA. Guiding: AA Starwave 50mm; ZWO ASI290mm Mini; PHD2 HEQ5 Pro belt mod; Sesto Senso 2 focuser; ZWO EFW Mini. Processed with Astro Pixel Processor, Gimp, Noise Ninja. Full resolution on Astrobin Annotated:

Great work from Bortle 9!

Thanks @vlaiv for that explanation, I actually hadn't understood the differences. Good to know. I get your point about Ha vs other wavelengths compared to any other star but it seems to have a stronger Ha-Red tint in my subs (which could of course be poor processing). However, there does seem to be some evidence that its Ha emissions have remained bright while other visible wavelengths have faded somewhat. AAVSO spectroscopy charts show strong H-alpha and H-beta spikes (below), and measurements by Hugh Allen at BAA show Ha increasing from Mar-April while other visible wavelengths decreased. Thanks! As ever, more data would be good.

One area of space includes Messier 57 Cassiopeia Salt and Pepper Nebula; Caldwell 11 Bubble Nebula; NGC7538 Northern Lagoon Nebula; and by special request also contains the Nova Cassiopeia 2021, back again to magnitude 6.96. Captured on 23rd July 2021 in HaRGB. The nova is the red star in the lower centre. Do novas radiate extra energy in the Hydrogen-alpha band? Image comprises: 9x 300s each of red, green, blue Baader 6x 300s Baader 3.5nm Ha Esprit 80, ASI1600mm Pro, HEQ5 Pro Starwave 50mm guidscope, ASI290mm Mini AstroPixelProcessor, PHD2, Nina, Gimp.

This is NGC7023 aka the Iris Nebula, a bright reflection nebula in Cepheus. NGC7023 refers to the open cluster inside the nebula. The entire is also known as Caldwell 4. Imaging is a total of 3 hours RGB, with a small amount of Luminance added, captured from Bortle 2 Kerry Dark Sky Reserve on 20th July but unfortunately with no astro darkness. Imaging: Esprit 80, ASI160MM Pro @ -20C, gain 139, Baader RGB filters. Guiding: Starwave 50mm, ASI290mm Mini, HEQ5 Pro belt mod. Capture control: NINA, PHD2, SharpCap PA. Processing: APP, Gimp, Noise Ninja.

Great image Carole, lots of detail in there.

Superb, Richard. PIn-sharp details and lovely wispy cloud.

Thanks Peter - the joys of dark skies!!

A very quick capture of M27 to test my C8 SCT /0.63ff with OAG set up, focusing and guiding. Was close to 2am by the time I was ready to image so time was limited. I continued to have focusing, guiding and platesolving issues so time ran out for my LRGB captures. It was practically bright by the time I captured Blue so there's no real point in spending more time on this image, so here it is! This is: 3x150s Red 4x150s Green 3x150s Blue Total of 25 minutes. I also got 12.5 mins of luminance but it completely overwhelms the colour. I haven't used it. No calibration of any sort, not even darks. PHD2 guiding (OAG) drops out every few minutes with 'low star mass'. Advice on the forums suggests increasing the size of the PHD2 search box. More likely I need to collimate the scope as I have nice boomerang stars in the OAG. Celestron C8, ASI1600mm Pro, Baader RGB filters, ASI290mm Mini guide with OVL OAG. HEQ5 Pro belt mod.

Platesolving is magic! You can retrieve an image you took on a previous night, and get APT to recentre on that exact location. No need to star align beforehand.

Martin, it's worth getting to know the start-up process for the HEQ5 as outlined above. Just to emphasise, it took a while for the penny to drop with me that polar alignment and star alignment are separate things with different purposes. If you level, PA and 1/2-star align, you should be good to go. The first star goto being out is fairly standard, but the second goto should be very close. Once you're onboard with APT and platesolving, you can throw star alignment out the window! Also, SharpCap is brilliant for very accurate polar alignment, so no more kneeling down with your neck twisted to the north star!

+1 what Gfamily said - go carefully with a DSLR on that telescope. The sensor in a DSLR is set far back into the camera body, behind the mirror. Many Dobsonians and Newtonians aren't designed to be able to focus an image that far back - remember that eyepieces are slotted INTO the focuser tube, not screwed on to the back of it. See this post on Reddit. The standard workaround is to use a 2x Barlow lens in front of the camera. This will give you focus, but will also double the focal length of your telescope to over 2,000mm and make it extremely difficult to work with - finding targets and getting sharp focus will be difficult, and any tiny movement will ruin your image. You could look instead at one of the small-format specialist astrophotography cameras such as the ZWO ASI120MC or the T7C camera from Aliexpress. These will work, but you will need to have a PC of some sort (laptop, Raspberry Pi, MiniPC, ASIAir etc.) with you at the telescope to use the camera.

Personally, I think you've got a remarkably good result there for the capture time. I don't think new software will necessarily get you better results at your current stage. Nebulas are faint objects and need long exposure times to bring out the detail. 47 minutes doesn't count as a long exposure! I just had a quick search on Astrobin and found this - Canon 1100d modified, 4hrs 40mins in 7-minute exposures. You really need to be getting hours of exposure time to get the noise level down. https://astrob.in/127094/0/ Your star shape is pretty good, the star colour is good. If I'm being picky, you've got some blotching in the background, particularly in the red, which is probably the result of over stretching. Stars are a little bit big too, also from the stretching. Starnet++ can be very good to help with the stars and I believe it can be used on Linux (I haven't personally done it on Linux though). I can't remember if you said how dark your skies are.... if they're not great, then a (good) light pollution filter would help.