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.

Hi all, Although not new to Astro imaging I’m new to imaging with a Celestron C8. I’ve recently also got hold of a Celestron f6.3 flattener/reducer and tonight is the first time using the combination on a DSO. I’m shooting M51 with 420 second subs on a ZWO 294mc pro, Mount is a NEQ6 and Polar alignment is good. Using an ASIAIR pro to control the rig. Guided and guiding is ok. backspacing is as per specification and I focussed on Capella with a Bhatinovmask. ive attached a couple of screenshots of the subs, one overall and a second closing in on the right hand side at around 3 O’clock - I noticed the weird shaped stars, brighter towards the centre - is this a collimation error, a backspacing error or something else ? Thanks, Graham

Thank you, have downloaded and works much better than Lightroom - I couldn’t see the join! Graham

Hi all, I imaged the moon last night, with my Celestron C8 and EOS600d camera. 2 videos converted in pipp to .avi and stacked in Autostakkert, then merged in Lightroom. I’ve noticed lines where the join is and also a white line around the circumference of the moon which I’ve photoshopped out. What mosaic software are you using to merge files, as many people use MS Ice, but I’m a Mac user, but I do have a old Windows 10 laptop, but MS seem to have discontinued Ice ? thanks Graham

Great video, and very inspirational. I’ve got a spare a Keter 6x5 plastic shed that I’m going to use, like you I’ll just be placing it first, with the scope on a tripod until I decide on final location. I’ll then build a pier and a decent base. I’ve removed the roof and will use your copper pipe brace trick to stabilise it. Off to B&Q tomorrow ! thanks, Graham

Hi, thanks, I used Lightroom Merge, as I use an iMac, and it looks as Microsoft ice is no longer available ? ( I have got an old Windows 10 laptop that I occasionally use but it’s a bit slow ) Graham

While waiting for my M101 to be processed, which will take ages !, I played around with a Mosaic of the Moon from Friday 19th March with the Celestron C8 - There is so much to learn here so total respect to the experts on here who have this process nailed - It's a first attempt for me and obviously I need to plan better, and also get a handle on how to handle the contrasting backgrounds. has anyone found a good online or written resource for Mosaics ? One thing I do love from the Video capture, transfer to tiff and merge into a mosaic is the quality you can get - Early steps but I'm having fun playing ! thanks for looking, Graham

Hi, how do you get Auto AP's on the surface selection, I can only get 1 box, in order to get any AP's I have to use planetary ? Thanks, Graham

Thanks all so far, well trying various methods the main issue seems to consist of the program crashing due to lack of memory. I do use a laptop with 4gb of ram so this may be the culprits as the .ser files were 22gb each ( 1000frames at full resolution ). I also had an older version of AS loaded,I’ve now upgraded to the latest version. I don’t use the laptop very often as I’m mainly a Mac and ASIAIR user, but the air doesn’t let you use the full video capability of the 294mc pro, so if you want high res and large video files, I’ve had to start using the laptop. I now need to think of an alternative to a Windows programme to stack with.....

I'll see what I can do when this finishes running ! Thanks, Graham.

Thanks, most of the time and those shown were with the Planet setting rather than Surface, as that gave me the option to place AP's - When I first ran it I got the message that it was out of memory, but I was using 1000 frames and asking it to select the best 25% so I reduced the number of AP's - What I'm trying now is to run auto AP's and let it choose how many it needs, but restricted the stack to 500 with 10% selected. I also saw that the normalise stack option was set at 25%, so I've increased that now ! I'll let you know how it goes ! Graham.