GrahamD

Hi Glenn, thanks for putting all these Vids together - A great library ! After my project stalling for about a year, we're all systems go, just need to work out with Planning and Regulations (My Wife!) exactly where it's going - First I need to decide on the pier location, but like you I might start with it on a tripod - Hopefully I'll document the entire build and share on SGL !! Clear skies ! Graham.

Jupiter and Saturn from last night - Taking on some advice from this Forum and my local Astro group, I slightly changed track with my C8 - I attached the reducer that made it @ 1230mm at f6.3 rather than 2000mm @f10 and then added the 2.5 powermate - This gave me 2950mm @f15 so could use faster shutter speeds ! Saturn was 300 sec at 361 gain, 9.6ms, av 103fps Jupiter was 180 sec at 254 gain, 4.6ms, av 73fps Slowly I'm getting there ! - Thank you for all your advice !!

These are great as first light images ! I wish I had something approaching your Southern latitude ! Cheers, Graham

Many thanks for your reply, I’ll work on your suggestions ! Graham

Thanks for your reply, the garden is North facing, but I could move further back, giving me more separation from the roof, or of course find a more remote location. It’s also been quite windy recently, and I haven’t looked in the last couple of days to see where the Jet Stream is ! Graham

Thank you for your thoughts, Ill try that next time we get a clear night. I may also fit the .63 reducer, accepting the smaller image to see what that produces, and to reduce the exposure time. Graham

Thanks Peter, I did get the concentric rings so it would have been collimated, I also checked inside and outside focus and get the same result. I know there is always more you can do to improve though. The star was “on fire” so maybe it was the seeing. Graham

Jupiter and Saturn from Friday night. Still very much a work in progress, both were shot with the Celestron C8 with 2.5x Powermate. ASI 462MC Camera, controlled through Firecapture. I still can't work out why I'm not getting them sharp, I think they are in focus, and I think I've successfully Collimated the scope on a Star (Altair), so it's either "seeing" or, as I'm beginning to suspect the heat coming off the roof? - Any thoughts ? - I'm imaging from my back garden in West Sussex. Also with regards to heat coming off roofs or conservatories, does anyone know how high above the roof does the heat rising cancel itself out with the general atmosphere ? Jupiter 3007 frames captured, stacked the best 50% 10.45ms, Gain 301 Saturn 21985 frames captured, best 50% stacked in AS3, Exposure 29ms, gain 339 Graham

Hi, can I ask, was a Barlow used for these or the ones on the C8 ? thanks, Graham

These are great images, I was also imaging Jupiter from West Sussex last night. I at the start of my planetary journey ! Regards, Graham

Jupiter last night, clear skies but bad "seeing", I was just playing with my C8 to see what I could get - This is the Celestron C8 with the ZWO 462, no Barlow - I tried with a Barlow, just enhanced the bad seeing !!! I need to do some tests to check the back focus of the barlow in the image train, which by using will give me a more workable image size ! Bit by bit I'm starting to get there with photographing Jupiter !! (It's also my first GRS !!!!)

Thanks all, much appreciated ! Graham.

Hi all, I present my first Sunspot image, taken today 27 April 2021. It shows Sunspots AR2018, AR2020 & AR2021. Taken with a Celestron C8 with .63 reducer, with an ASI294mc procamera. I used a Thousand Oaks Solarfilter. Looking forward to developing this side of Astrophotography ! thanks, Graham

Stacked Moon from Thursday 22 April - 12 AVI files taken through pipp, AS3 and Registax, played around in Affinity for my first ever process on that Platform - Converted to Mono as I couldn't get rid of a strange yellow rectangle on the colour image (shown in a post below - any ideas what caused it ? ) Celestron C8 with f6.3 reducer, ASI 294MCPro. thanks, Graham

Thanks all for coming back to me - strangely, when I stacked the lights with the calibration frames the stars were ok ! - I will check collimation next time I'm out (I've got a home made artificial star so will have a go with that as I only collimated without the corrector in ! Thanks, Graham.