Simon Pepper

I can’t believe I missed this never thought it would make it to 52 degrees so went to bed and it looks like it did!!! Anyone know if this is going to happen again tonight? Totally gutted is an understatement 

Well done all it was a great thread to participate in and a great final three 👏

14 minutes ago, fifeskies said:

I actually image both native and with the reducer depending on target.

That said f10 imaging will take you a long time to get enough data , especially when you dont get a lot of good clear nights.

Going forward I dont see me imaging at f10 very often except on the moon. I use a 2x Powermate to image bright planets at f20.

 

If your new to SCT , I highly recommend using an OAG not a guidescope. The Celeston OAG has a nice large prism compared to others.

Thanks and point noted thankfully I do use an OAG so hopefully shouldn’t be too difficult to transition. Was lucky enough to get the reducer as well so will keep that on as you say not enough clear nights at f10! Decent comparison image above as well it does look quite a lot larger that the 8! 

Makes sense. I don’t have a permanent setup yet but I am working on that. It will be my first SCT though so lots to learn I am sure after the initial excitement. Do you image with the reducer or use it at native? Thanks 

I have a 9.25 on the way and I am so excited. Will you use bobs knobs or do they hold colimation well? Thanks 

25 minutes ago, Craney said:

Use this....

https://www.sat24.com/en-gb/country/gb

and this

https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar

if you fear for a rig left out in the rain .....

Saved as not used these before and they look really good. Thanks 

@AstralFields thanks for this mine turned up today And better than I expected so will be making a start on this! 

Amazing what an experience I bet! Going to have to travel to see one of these as won’t be around for the next one in the UK 😭

On 03/04/2024 at 13:29, AstralFields said:

Back in August 2022 I got my first telescope and of course started observing my first Messier objects. Soon after that, I got my hands on the entire catalog, printed a nice A3 sheet and started planning and observing them.

Why did it take 21 months if some of you can do it in a single night during the Messier marathon? Let me break down some of the lessons learned to help others on the same journey:

• Time flexibility - With two pre-school kids and a job, I couldn't pick and choose the times/dates of when I could observe. There were limited days/nights when I could go out for hours at a time. Some of these are visible only at certain months of the year, so planning was a must. It also didn't help that half of this time my telescope was at our summer house where we would go only once a month. 
•  
• Location, location, location - Before we even discuss equipment, the location you are in will determine IF you will cover all the Messier objects.. and IF you do, it will also determine HOW FAST you can locate/observe them. There were times with bad transparency in the freezing cold where it would take me half an hour for a single galaxy.. This would take a lot faster if I was at a lower latitude (the galaxy would be higher in the sky there) with less light pollution and warmer climate. Some of these objects are very low at the horizon and are visible only for few hours at specific months of the year. I live in a city of half a million and taking a 15 minute drive to the outskirts, allowed for locations where even the faintest Messier objects are doable.. I'd say Bortle 4-5 is doable.The lower you can get, the better it gets of course. It is recommended to drive south.. but I live in the north of the city so it was much closer to drive North. This however compromised the objects low on the southern horizon. The very last object I did was a star cluster, M19. Magnitude 5.59, easily visible but over the big city at an altitude of 8 degrees with a bit of clouds at the horizon.. it was tough! but I did it an wrapped it up last night.
•  
• Weather, weather, weather - Where I live, it is quite normal this year to have a whole month of cloudy weather. Your average joe may say the weather outside is nice and clear but to hunt down some of these faint galaxies, you need to have really clear skies. Some of these high altitude clouds, visible only on radar and the charts on Meteoblue or Clearoutside can really wreck an entire night of observing and dramatically increase the difficulty of observing some of the faint galaxies.
•  
• The Moon! - Once the top three points align, the Moon must not be in the sky, otherwise again it becomes very difficult observing some of the faint galaxies or nebulas. So having all these four points align has been quite the challenge and I was more then happy when they finally did.
•  
• Telescope - I had an 8" manual DOB and I would say it was the bare minimum that I needed to observe the catalog under my conditions. If you can get under a dark enough/clear enough sky, I am pretty sure it is doable with a 4"-6" as well.
•  
• Eyepieces & Filters - The key to my observing were a 2" 70degree 40mm and 32mm for the initial location of the target and then a nice 68 degree 15mm. For the galaxies, the Zoom eyepiece was really crucial. I could fine tune the magnification where the faint fuzzy was most visible. The UHC filters helped quite a lot on some of the Nebulas which were not easily visible without it.
•  
• Starhopping - I did the whole catalog fully manual. The whole process was simplified by having three key pieces of equipment:
  • Stellarium Plus - I did 90% of the catalog with the regular version before I bought the plus. The Plus is so much better that it can simulate the eyepiece view allowing for quick recognition of where one is.
  • Cheap inclinometer for like 10$ - I would get the altitude of the object from Stellarium, get the telescope to the right altitude and then just sweep left and right in the general vicinity of where the object is in the constellation. 
  • I would quickly point the telescope in the general vicinity with a laser finder.. and if there were aircraft in the vicinity, I could use the RDF. I have a combo finder. The optical finder has been dismounted for over a year from my telescope as it was literally just dead weight.
  •  
• EXPERIENCE - Observing is definitely a skill. Had I begun with the Virgo cluster of galaxies as my first objects I would have surely failed, especially in the freezing cold when they are most visible around here. With experience one is able to know what to roughly look for just by looking at the size and magnitude of the object in stellarium. An inexperienced observer could have the galaxy right in the middle of the eyepiece and would see absolutely nothing. Experience really helped me locate and observe some of the faintest Messier objects, especially under not ideal conditions with a bit of high altitude clouds dimming them even further.

It was really a great experience and some of these objects will stay in my mind forever. Apart from the famous well known ones like M13, M92, M31, M51, Orion etc.. The one that made the most lasting impression on me, and clearly underrated in my view was the Leo Triplet in my 26,32mm 2" eyepiece. I could look at these beautiful three galaxies, fitting in the same view for an hour if it wasn't for the freezing cold. 

This is just my opinion but I really think observing the entire Messier catalog visually is the best the whole of Astronomy has to offer. It is both a trip down the history of Astronomy as it is in visual splendor. It has definitely brought me the most life lasting impressions. I will be taking a bit of break now from tough DSOs and focusing on building my EQ platform and doing some simple imaging of the Moon and Sun from the comfort outside of my apartment under much better weather conditions with an occasional look at the most beautiful DSOs easily visible even from the Bortle 6 where we sit. 

This is awesome! Where did you obtain the print out from? Thanks 

I am in East Sussex I am about an hour from Ashford! 

What and incredible thread of images well done to all! A very late in the day image here that's been sitting in my done pile for a long time an I forgot about it! Image was taken over two nights on the 19/01 and 26/01. Ha captured on the 19th and Oiii on the 26th. 

SW HEQ5 Pro, WO Redcat 51

Ha 51*300

Oiii 69*300

Imaged stacked and process in Pixinsight and drizzled 2*

Thanks Simon 

Welcome back!! 

Here is another image taken in March I have just completed. I imaged M106 over three nights and used 10 hours of the data collected. Images were 180s long. Hopefully this qualifies within the rules as I do see several distant NGC and PGC catalogued galaxies as shown in the annotation. 

I just realised I didn't specify equipment on Markarians Chain above and it was the same here. Explore Scientific 127ed and I used ZWO2600 MC Pro cooled to -10.  I cropped the image, but the annotated image was the uncropped version. 

Image was captured with 94 - 98% illuminated moon from Bortle 4.5 with no filters 

Thanks Simon 

Here is my first entry here and hopefully not the last, but the weather has been absolutely shocking of late I think we can all agree on that (those in the UK that is)!

A deep sky survey wouldn't be a deep sky one if Markarians Chain was not entered! As above this is a mere 4 hours of data at F7.5 shot at 180s.

Image captured on the 20th March in a four hour window of no clouds or rain in the whole of March. I spent a while processing this trying to maximise what small integration time I had to work with. 

I am sure someone will do a bit more justice than mine when we finally get some clear nights. Unbelievably a clear night for me tonight, so its M106, so perhaps there will be another image entered Afterall. 

Thanks 

Just now, Vroobel said:

I nearly forgot what is the 17kg OTA + accessories...

Hunting the James Webb Space Telescope last night 😊

https://www.astrobin.com/gmh64m/

2 minutes ago, Vroobel said:

I nearly forgot what is the 17kg OTA + accessories...

Hunting the James Webb Space Telescope last night 😊

https://www.astrobin.com/gmh64m/

 

 

 

 

 

That’s amazing I never knew the JWST could be imaged at its current point. Not sure my 5” refractor is up to that 😂

Thanks all I will try again when I have the patience. Criminally I did not take flats which has not helped and I have moved the camera orientation now but the master of the stars looks perfectly fine it’s when I come to try and stack the comet the issues occur. The left over from star trails is evident when stretching it’s a mess. As I said three comets in now and I still can’t figure it out. 
 

Where the hell is Russ with CometXterminator !

I am trying to process my third acquisition of comet data and yet again I am unable to do it. Spent hours stacking, aligning, messing about and the outcome with comets is always an utter mess. I have followed countless tutorials and none of them work for me. What am I doing wrong? Can anyone assist here or want to have a crack at my data? If not I will be buying Adam Blocks complete library as I have just about had it with these cold ice monsters!!!! 

I saw this and was very tempted not for a minute did I think it was a scam, and the only reason I didn’t bite was because I had my wife (and myself) telling me I dont need any more mounts stop spending money on Astro stuff talking in my ear!!! In all seriousness though glad our community has better spotters than me it keeps us all a little bit safer. Thanks 

Tipping it down here in Brighton 😭

Welcome back Niels! 

29 minutes ago, aleixandrus said:

I've considered adding a tilter but the good ones (with easy access to adjust) are expensive and after many many struggles with backfocus, I get reasonable stars without adjusting tilt (specially as my ASI183MM has a very small sensor). I have finally decided to live just this way, specially after discovering BlurXTerminator. Maybe in the future I would get a camera with integrated tilter as those PlayerOne. But please, check my previous post where I added more info. I have a very similar setup, so I think you could find it useful.

Very interesting and I had actually read this one before. So far not even tested the Sammy yet so those first shots will be interesting I have it paired with 2600mc so tilt could be very evident but at least no filters to deal with. I’ll start at 44mm and go from there. Was your testing always at f2.8 do you laws leave the aperture there? Thanks 

Thanks here is what I have so far. Waiting for a 5mm spacer to hopefully turn up from FLO today. Point noted on the hard stop. Just out of interest and I was going to start a new thread but on the subject of tilt and getting it dialled in how does one actually go about mitigating it? How can you tell from an image where the adjustments need to be made? Surely it’s a nightmare understanding that after unscrewing and screwing back the camera? Thanks 

2 minutes ago, Elp said:

What adaptors have you got currently? The above just make it easier to mount as you don't need to mess around with backspacing much with or without filters. I setup and breakdown every time and have never had issues other than the typical tilt.

 

I have the usual 16.5mm and 21mm spacers and I have swapped out the back of the lens canon fit with a threaded adapter below but it’s the same size as the samyang one so makes no difference to length.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-samyang-lens-to-m48-adapter.html

thanks 

@Elp I was planning on no filter I am bortle 4 and 2600 already has IR cut so that’s why I aas confused. 

I have another question if I may it’s probably been answered already but this is now a mega thread and a bit of a needle in a haystack! Lens has arrived and I have ordered the Samyang adapter from FLO as well as mounting rings etc etc, however my understanding is I need circa 44mm backspacing but I plan to shoot unfiltered the camera is 2600 and I am unfamiliar with it as in the past I have had the 6.5mm to the sensor this is 17.5 and is female on camera side so I believe I am missing an adapter? Does anyone have some insights on what else I need to order here and how to get to 44mm? Thanks 🙏