Roy Foreman

I've heard this before somewhere - blue light gives better resolution but red light makes it through the turbulence, of which there is no shortage in my location. Twilight seems to give the best seeing here. Thanks for your comments and glad you like the images. Roy

You've hit the nail on the head, Chris, lighting and seeing probably have more influence on the final result than anything else. When I took my images the seeing was poor, so probably not realising the full resolution possibilities. I also have a 180 Mak which performs superbly but at F/15 and with an IR filter the resulting integration times tend to be a lot longer than the 16" at F/4.5. You did well recording those craterlets - I count around 9 which is pretty good going - well done.

A few years ago our local streetlight was upgraded to LED. I had a word with the county street lighting engineer, explaining my astro concerns. Apparently LED street lights can be turned down in brightness, which he duly agreed to do. It is now just sufficiently bright to illuminate the road beneath it but is totally invisible from by back garden observatory. Apparently a big part of this is the design of the lamp housing, which directs light only in a downward direction. Although LED's get a bad astro press, in my case it has turned out to be far superior to the old sodium one it replaced. Thankfully no one in my road has security lights - yet.

Thanks for that info Ian. It seems that the largest craterlet in Plato is 1.7 miles across. In my original image I count 5 craterlets, and I estimate the smallest to be about 1 mile across. I have produced a selective enlargement - heavily processed - to hopefully show these in web format. Roy

Thank you Michael - glad you like them.

Thank you Chris. One of my aims is to one day record as many of these craterlets as I can. Something to aim for.

Ahh my secret is out ! If only I could actually get above earth's atmosphere to avoid all that turbulence ! The real secret is probably a combination of factors. Using a large telescope helps, not so much in raw resolution but more in light grasp to keep integration times shorter. And the Baader FFC, which uses real fluorite elements and is far sharper than any barlow or powermate. Then there is the IR filter. It saps a lot of light, but makes a huge difference to overall sharpness. Finally I shoot in twilight where at my location seeing is usually better. Now I just need to upgrade the muppet at the controls ! No idea what the actual resolution is, but like you I would be interested to know. Someone much cleverer than me could no doubt work it out. Glad you like the images Malcolm, and thanks for your comments. Roy

Thank you Ian. I find it really difficult to judge just how much to sharpen without overdoing it, particularly as images posted on the web loose a lot of detail from the originals. Glad you like them.

Thank you Roy, glad you like them. I was surprised they came out as well as they did. the IR filter certainly helps with sharpness, but saps a lot of light !

Taken with my 16" F/4.5 reflector and Baader FFC, extending the focal length toaround 5400mm F/13.5. Camera was an ASI 183MM 20mpx and Proplanet 807 IR filter. A bit ambitious, so I bumped up the gain to maintain a shorter integration time. Not entirely sure it was the right thing to do. 50% of 2000 frames at 19 fps and 6ms integration time. Thanks for looking.

My AZ EQ6 has been outside under a good quality tarpaulin ( £20 ) for many years now with no ill effects. A couple of years ago I purchased a purpose made scope cover at 10 times the cost of the tarp, but so much condensation collected under it, that I reverted to the tarp which does a much better job ! Telescopes stay indoors in the spare room until needed. I never keep them in their metal cases. I have an ED 80 that got mould in between the lens elements by doing this, so now they sit on top of their cases where they can ventilate ! Fortunately I have space enough to dedicate an entire room to telescope storage. Dusting is a nightmare.

These are selective enlargements from a whole disk image composed of a mosaic of 6 panes. Taken with my 16" F/4.5 reflector and ASI 183MM camera plus Proplanet 807 IR filter. 15% of 2000 frames at 19 fps. Stacked in Autostakkert and processed in Photoshop. Thanks for looking.

Each spring when the moon starts to dominate the evening sky I switch allegiance from deep sky imaging to lunar. Here are some of my first efforts this year, taken on 26th February with my 16" F/4.5 reflector, ASI 183MM and Proplanet 807 IR filter. Whole disk image is a 3 pane mosaic, and the rest are selective enlargements from the main image. 50% of 2000 frames at 19fps. Taken just after sunset while the sky was still light. Processed in Autoskakkert and Photoshop. Thanks for looking.

Love the detail and colours

Great image. I get a similar problem in that my skies are never clear enough for long enough to gather all the data I need. Fortunately for you, images in Ha only still look good.

Nice colours in the horsehead image. The other images are excellent too. Well done.

Sad times indeed. We can only hope the weather is going through a bad phase and that some day it will get better. But by then we might have thousands of satellite trails to deal with in our images ! As you say, it is what it is, and sadly we have to live with it. Here's to clearer skies one day.

Like the colours. Very nice image.

Very nice images. I've just been 6 months without clear skies but now they have arrived it reminds me why I stick with this hobby. Don't give up.

I actually prefer your broadband version to the narrow band ones. Nice image, particularly like the surrounding dust areas. Well done.

This is a great little scope. Not only stunning to look at in its red and black livery, but solid and well built yet quite light. And at F/2.8 it gathers photons like there's no tomorrow. It really does cover a full frame sensor, albeit with some light fall of in the corners which is easily corrected with flats. These are first light images taken under hazy skies, as evidenced by the misty halos around bright stars, so integration times had to be limited and image quality was affected. Also I have some minor spacing and tilt issues to address. I think the NB1 filter is also not suited to F/2.8 as there are some slight chromatic effects in the corners. The Orion image was 42 x 60 sec with an IDAS NB1 tri-band filter. And 21 x 2 sec (yes really, 2 sec) for the core of M42. The Pleiades image was 30 x 60 sec with no filters. It is good to see the faint yellowish nebulosity surrounding the cluster just starting to record. Camera was a ZWO ASI 6200 MC Pro full frame OSC. Processed in Photoshop. Not perfect images, but an encouraging start I think. Thanks for looking.

Nice image. It is good to see the flame looking closer to it's true yellowish colour rather than red as in so many other images.

Nice image. I like the dust in the vicinity of the cluster. I've been waiting 6 months for a night clear enough for imaging so I know how you feel. Maybe 2023 will be a better year for us all.

Once I get clear skies and the chance to do some imaging I will report back. Thank you for your response.

Skywatcher's first center balanced mount with 35Kg load capacity. Not had a chance to use it yet but the attached first impressions review may answer some questions that prospective purchasers might have. I have to say that so far I am very impressed. CQ350 Review.rtfCQ350 Review.rtfCQ350 Review.rtf CQ350 Review.rtf