Kon

Near Swindon now. It's amazing!

23 minutes ago, LukeTheNuke said:

Wow, that's fantastic. Manual tracking! Well done! I used to use drift just for low power on the sun with a 60 mm refractor. It's great to see someone using a dob and manually tracking! It makes me wonder about using a manual dob for lunar imaging.

I have done lunar manually but it is not as good with the goto. If you look at the planetary section, I have done loads of good captures manually and I think because I only need the planet rather than an expanded region.

Waiting to get my goto back to action soon.

The full resolution images are breathtaking. I love the inverted ones as it really highlights the details.

Excellent images and details.

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

Oh no Kostas! Something else for me to try 😂. Fantastic images. Was this using Baader solar film?

Thanks Ian. Yes the Baader. My full one had some pinholes so for this capture I only used some film on the offset opening.

I need to work out how to make one for the 12". I think you can buy a roll but I am not sure I need that much.

1 hour ago, Steve Ward said:

Good to see you caught it ... 😀

I always bung my captures through PIPP before letting AS!3 loose on them , it'll stabilise the AVI by tracking a region of your choosing and crop the frames to a size of your choosing , as well as sorting the frames by quality and reordering them to make things a lot quicker i the stacking phase I find.

If I have multiple videos to play with I PIPP one while AS!3 stacks one and so on.

That's what I usually do for planetary, put it through pipp but I always struggle to get it a surface anchor to work at pipp, unless I do something odd😂.

27 minutes ago, LukeTheNuke said:

Lots of detail! A manual dob? Are you moving the scope at all during capture or letting the sun drift over the chip? How many frames are you getting to stack?

Thanks. For planetary imaging I use the drift method but for this particular capture I tried to move the dob or at least keep the sunspot in the middle of the sensor as I couldn't otherwise stabilise it in as!4.  For this image I had an 8,000 frame capture  and stacked the best 5%. The passing clouds were not playing ball to get more captures.

Very nice details on the closeup and it has changed a bit since yesterday.

What a treat with the sunspots yesterday. The enormous sunspots AR3668 and AR3664 from 09/05/24. They were visible with the solar glasses too. Unfortunately, I missed the good seeing due to work. 8" Dob, manual, asi462mc, UV/IR cut filter.

Possibly the best sun spot I have ever seen. I missed the very good seeing due to work but it was still breathtaking. I managed some imaging too. A little preview below.

1 hour ago, JOC said:

FWIW have you tried the scope back to manufacturers configuration, no heavy additional objects, esp. heavy EP's.  I find my goto Dob is esp. prone to not functioning well i.e. slipping if I put anything too heavy at one end of the OTA or the other.

My problem is even without the tube assembly on.. It used to track without problems and it went during an imaging session.  I have ordered a replacement motor which I hope resolves the issue as tightening the clutch and checking it didn't resolve it.

4 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

Nicely captured Kon, Mercury is a tough target and like Venus is better imaged in daylight higher up in the sky. A phase is as good as i have ever managed, but there are some stunning images captured during the day.

It is even harder to find than Venus in daylight unfortunately. 

Thanks. I found it hard locating it at daylight but I will try with the goto next time. Venus is relatively easy for me now to spot at daylight so once I know what to expect it should hopefully be easier.

Scrolling through the images, I also found this nice flaring on the iROSAs. A bit happier with this image so a tighter crop.

International Space Station from this morning (331am) at 89 degrees. It seems that it has got a sun flare and I struggled to get more details out. 12" 300P goto, asi462mc, 2.5x TV powermate, UV/IR cut filter. Manual tracking.

Ptolemaeus/Alphonsus/Arzachel from 17/04/24. Skywatcher 300P Flextube goto,  asi462mm, IR pass 685nm, 2.5x TV powermate.

Sinus Fidei and Montes Alpes from 17/04/24, and Maurolycus from 15/04/24. Skywatcher 300P Flextube goto,  asi462mm, IR pass 685nm, 2.5x TV powermate.

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

Yes Saturn will be interesting due to the rings positioning. I think all our focus will now be on the surface details of the planet which are difficult to begin with. I really hope you manage to get the tracking problem sorted out. I would be pulling my hair out if it was me.

I ordered the motor, let's see .

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

Yes I am feeling well again and eager to get back out under the sky again. I may capture some more lunar images but my passion is for the planets themselves and I'm eagerly awaiting on their return. I am particularly looking forward to Mars this apparition. I'll keep busy meantime doing visual, which I also really enjoy.

I prefer the planets too, but I do enjoy the crater close ups. A few more months and we will be out again. Saturn is looking interesting from down under with the rings edge on.

Nice images Ian. I hope you are over the illness and hopefully start imaging again, if this weather ever improves.

22 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Me, too, buddy. I'm waiting on Mars and the razor-thin rings of Saturn

I have seen some Saturn images from Australia and it's rather intriguing. Looking forward to it.

Very nice Reggie. Looking forward to the planetary season to start again.

20 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Watch the video and disassemble it in stages like he did and check the various sets of securing screws. Good luck.

Done it a couple of times already but I will try again.

6 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Kostas have you checked all the relevant grub screws and Allen screws which position and hold the various plates of the clutch assembly? The video posted earlier in the thread shows these various screws and where they are located. I ask this due to your description that the brass worm gear is turning and it is tensioned against the teeth on the drive plate yet it's not moving the axis. To me it appears that the clutch is slipping and this could be due to the screws mentioned. Tightening the main tensioning nut on top of the assembly will have no effect due to this. I would watch the video and check the screws on yours at each disassembly stage. Good luck 🤞.

Thanks Ian. I will try again tonight with the clutches. I found a replacement motor with encoder etc, new, but I don't want to fork £100 if I am missing something with the clutch etc.