Kon

44 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

I have quite a bit of data archived. Wonder if I should explore some of it again one day  ? Its interesting when I look at some of my really early work. I Think wow how awful was that processing. I wouldn't even dream of processing those images like that today

If you have good quality data, then it will be worth it. Your processing style is top notch so good to keep posting them here for reference.

We all started somewhere , and I do feel embarrassed from several of my old pics too, but it also shows our learning journey.

Beautiful set of images. The Neptune storm is really special.

2 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Nice Kostas. Good to see you still in the saddle

Thanks Neil. I hope you are keeping well, and imaging soon?

6 hours ago, orion25 said:

That's a great composite, Kostas! I may create a similar one. I'm sure you'll get even better 2024 shots on those rare nights of great seeing!

Regards, Reggie

Thanks Reggie. I have missed some excellent seeing while I am away on holidays. I hope to have a go the next few weeks.

I can't comment on the particular model but I have got all my planetary zwo cameras second hand without any issues. Asi120mc, Asi462mc, asi462mm. Quite a bit of saving over a new one.

17 minutes ago, robbie c said:

Absolutely amazing I’m sure you’re making the most of them thanks for sharing hope to see some more before you leave 

Thanks. I am back at my wife's hometown where I can just make the constellations. I plan to revisit next time we are in Japan and take more proper astronomy gear with me.

Beautiful images and nice details.

3 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Very impressive for a phone.

It tells a lot about the skies. I wish I had a proper camera with me.

I had another amazing night at the bortle 1 sky at the Tateyama mountain (2500 meters) last night . The skies were much clearer than the night before and the structure is a lot more impressive. These are 20 minutes stacked and edited on my mobile. 5x4mins pixel 4a. I want to try editing it with my astro software when I am back.

6 hours ago, Elp said:

Could always bring back a souvenir Tak or Borg, just a suggestion...

I am not sure my wife would be happy after the 12" purchase that is part of our sitting room furniture now 🤣

4 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Exchange rate right now is as good as I can remember 

Indeed. It hasn't been this good for a long time.

I am currently on holidays in Japan visiting family and we went for a hike and night stay at Mountain Tateyama. The hotel is located at 2500 meters and the skies are bortle 1. Omg!! The Milky Way was so bright and complex as I have never seen it before in my bortle 3 skies. There was sky glow too . This is a quick 4 min capture with my pixel 4a. I have loads of images to play with when I get back . I wish I had a telescope with me. I don't want to leave the mountain 😭.

Thank you all for excellent suggestions. I will pass them to my friend along pros and cons.

19 hours ago, Elp said:

A different suggestion at a higher price (but still small compared to comparable equipment) would be a ZWO Seestar or Dwarflabs Dwarf (nearly V3 very soon).

Can't do solar system at long FL, but you'll "see" far far more with it, and be able to share the results with others (usually a prerequisite with the younger gen). Simple plonk down and go operation too, no added accessories etc. Can also use for daytime stuff.

I suggested it but not within their budget.

6 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

Excellent standard of images as always, love the winner. It does have a real "fly by" feel to it congratulations @Kon

Thanks Pete. That was also my favourite from the ones that I submitted. I want to capture it again under good seeing.

On a Mak side, which one is a good option in the €150-200ish budget? Mostly for moon and planets.

1 hour ago, Carbon Brush said:

We are of course totally in the dark (yes humour🤔) about the recipient and the places the scope may get used.
Is it strictly back garden? Or taken to other places?
Some think a refractor is a 'proper' scope and a newt is something home made.
A Mak beats a newt for off axis (shiny inside tube if not flocked) stray light.
Either scope can be thrown into a sports bag for use away from home.
Don't forget as magnification goes up, object chasing comes into play.
A Mak on altaz may be considered easier?
No easy answers unfortunately.

On balance, a low cost newt/dob is an excellent introduction.
If the enthusiasm is maintained, the recipient will start to express opinions on the next model up.
If enthusiasm wanes, not much is lost.

The main interest is moon and planets. They will be observing from a city centre back garden so quite a bit of light pollution. I am not sure if they plan to travel to a dark site.

The Mak seems to me that it might be a good Idea.

2 hours ago, Gfamily said:

I think most users of the 130p find they never need to collimate.

And although the stated initial interest is on the Moon and planets, the smaller aperture and much smaller field of view of the Mak will make it much more limiting for other use (open clusters and nebulae).

As for additional eyepieces, I've used the Svbony 7-21mm with the Heritage 130p and it gives a good range of powers. This is a real bargain, lightweight and straightforward to use, though the Twist to Zoom of the EP can compromise the Twist of Focus of the scope. A minor issue though. 

I will pass the information to them.

4 hours ago, Peter_D said:

I think the fundamental question is does 'fairly straightforward setup' mean they are comfortable with collimation. If yes, go with the newt, if no, go with a Mak, especially if they are primarily interested in Moon and planets - a SW 90mm Virtuoso Mak was my first telescope (might be slightly over budget.)

Edit: over budget if new, it's £259 @  FLO.

I like the sound of it and I will pass the recommendation to my friend. I am not sure they will be really hands on and the Mak seems to have the tracking too.

5 hours ago, PhotoGav said:

I would recommend a good pair of binoculars with a tripod and a solid adapter. Very easy to use, will give great views of the Moon and reasonable views of planets, can be used easily in the day too so will outlive any drop in Astro interest!! Combine that with a good book (eg Steve Tonkin’s ‘Discover the Night Sky through Binoculars’) and there will be plenty of interesting observing sessions ahead. 

Thanks Gavin, I suggested it but they really want a telescope as it has more of the astronomy factor.

32 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Heritage 130p is a great little scope, has the basic helical focuser but that can be ok once you get used to it. It was my first scope in 2011 and install have it, it’s the only one that’s stayed with me so far. Optics are surprisingly good and I’ve had it head to head with various scopes like a 127mak, TAL100RS, 102 f11 achro, and I’ve preferred the views through the Heritage 130 to the lot of them. Had to spend a lot more to get better views of Jupiter! 
 

Definitely need to think about eyepieces though, the supplied ones are fine to get started but will need a barlow or shorter eyepiece to do any planetary viewing.  Can be easily picked up though for cheap. 
 

If the budget can be stretched I’d be tempted to jump straight to the 150p f8 Dob, as the supplied 10mm will get you to 120x which is enough for planetary views. More stable platform and sits on the ground, and not having to buy another eyepiece straight away somewhat makes up for the extra outlay to get the scope. Also the focuser is a more normal R&P unit and so they could make use of something like the SVbony 3-8mm zoom in the future, which would be an absolute pain in the heritage focuser. 
 

Id always advocate for buying used instead of new to get more bang for buck, but they might need some help to avoid buying something unsuitable they then couldn’t return. 

Thanks for the info Craig. I was thinking of a small setup that his daughter could setup on her own. They also think that the interest may not last so it's unlikely they want to spend more.

You and @Mr Spockmade similar comment on the eyepieces so I will tell my friend to factor this in.

I am posting this on behalf of a friend. His daughter is interested in astrophysics and he reached out to me about getting her a telescope as a birthday present. He wants her to be able to see the planets and moon. His budget is €150-200. I suggested a local astronomy group to see first hand some telescopes but they are kin on getting her one as a surprise birthday present.

I suggested the Skywatchetr 130P flextube. Are there other options that might be worth considering?

They want a fairly straightforward setup.

Beautiful image and processing.

Excellent image. I am on holidays but my friends who were imaging this morning said that the seeing was exceptional.

4 hours ago, Elp said:

I knew that, but wouldn't there be a limit to how much you can keep doing this and keep the details within "one" rotational orientation (one instance of the view which faces earth at any one point in time), otherwise you'd have to animate the rotation, unless if Saturn's rotation is very very slow. Otherwise you'd have surface details which just look like a motion blurred effect which is difficult to tell with Saturn as the banding seems to be perfectly in line with each other (something easily achieved with directional motion blurring).

1hr on Saturn should be ok considering it takes ~11hrs for a rotation. My understanding is that the latest versions of winjupos handles it very well as it does a selective stacking at the edges and middle avoiding any smearing; I think it works well on Jupiter too (I may have used wrong terminology).