Kon

Thanks. I am really excited to do some visual DSO as I have a fairly dark sky and even my 8" had shown me loads of faint nebulas so it will be interesting. My friend who has a 16" Goto Dob does not star align either just uses the sidereal tracking and it only needs a small push to correct at some point during the night. So it should be fine for planetary imaging.

It is big and there is no way I can lift the whole lot 🤣. I am trying to work out the best way to move it around but on my first session it had to ocme out in two pieces unliek my 8" that I can lift as a whole assembly.

Yes it took a combination of Cheshire and laser to get it right. Somehow I cannot see the clips which made life more difficult. I am curious to see how it holds collimation between extending and retracting it as well as moving it on/off the base. I will message you with a few questions on shrouds, balancing etc.

Thanks Reggie. I am looking forward what it can deliver under good seeing. I will try write up an observing report once I have chance to try some DSO observing.

I felt guilty gutting all the good bits off the 8" this afternoon but the 12" should hopefully give me that extra details. Saying that, I am keeping the 8" as the kids call it their scope now. I will still use it for quick sessions.

I am really excited for galaxy season and nebulas, visually. I haven't done EEA before but it's something to look into. I might try some DSO imaging but my heart is on planets.

This week I acquired a new 12" Goto telescope (Skywatcher 300P Goto). The weather played ball and I managed to get a first light on Jupiter. A nice bous of GRS and a transit shadow. I was kin to do a star test to check the collimation which is 95% there. I am struggling a bit with the secondary but I think it is not far off. I did not try the goto as clouds were coming in and it is probably something to play with the moon or DSOs for visual. I also swapped the dual focuser and RACI from my 8". Awful seeing but the two captures are giving me high hope for things to come once the planets are back in the summer. I am undersampled a bit as I used my x2.5 TV powermate rather than a x3 barlow to bring me to 5x pixel size. 12", 2.5x TV powermate, asi462mc or mm. I am very excited with the new setup; a photo before the changes on the focuser and finderscope.

Thanks Ian. I am very excited for first light. Yes my planetary season is also over but the moon will be a good target to get any teething out of the way.

Not the post man but me doing a 5hr round trip to Essex to collect an almost brand new 12" goto. 8" next to it for comparison.

Thanks. I appreciate the comment especially coming from you and your excellent moon pics.

Look here too for second hand https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/index.php

I wouldn't rush. The night sky will be there in March too 😉. No point buying something that you will regret a month later. You have got some excellent advice from others here.

Have you seen theae here? I am not sure a 150 dob is really portable under your circumstances. I have a 200P and there is no way I would carry it around especially in public transport (from your earlier comment). You haven't said what you plan on observing but a nice portable setup as the linked sites above might give you more pleasure to take around. Take a look on other posts in the discussion section about telescopes.

I am manually tracking but if you have a goto you can use a satellite tracking software from skywatcher that allows the goto to track it. My tracking rate is close to 90% frames with iss in it but the seeing was so bad that only a fraction had usable frames.

@PeterC65and @PeterStudzthanks both. I always track it on my finderscope and not looking at the laptop at all. I align my camera to the cross hair using a star at 640x480 ROI. Aligning using an eyepiece is usually off, unless you use a mobile then it should be ok. I never image passes below 60 degree as the atmospheric disturbance is awful. Last night it was 86 degrees so I a quick flip around is needed. I have done it enough times now to know the trajectory. I prefer to use heavensabove as you get the trajectory so if you know your sky you can work out the path. The time given by this site is spot on: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ For mobile capture see here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/401141-international-space-station-with-smartphone/#comment-4299972 And https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/402474-tiangong-space-station-smartphone-telescope/#comment-4312697

Thanks. I know I can get a lot better than this under good seeing. But I am not complaining.

Thanks Alan. It's a lot faster at the eyepiece than with the finderscope. I am amazed that you can track it visually.

Thanks.

Thanks Paul. I wish seeing was better but a good result in the end.

Thanks Roy. Not my best but always exciting to see it.

It has been a while since I imaged the ISS and this is the first one for 2024. Seeing was poor but still managed to pull a colour image with several modules (Space X Dragon, Soyuz and Progress). 8" Dob (200P), manual tracking, asi462mc, 2.5x TV powermate, UV/IR cut filter. 0.7ms exposure and gain 190. Of the 20000 frames only 10 images per image were usable.

Thanks Mandy. I always seem to overlook the moon in favour of the planets but it has some nice features to go after. In the past I did quite a bit of rilles imaging as they are rather challenging. I quite like the craters in the southern region as they are popping a bit more before they 'disappear' in the full moon.

Thanks Ian. The moon can keep you busy until next planetary season, unless you want to dive into DSO imaging 🤣. I might start re-doing some rilles imaging.

You can collimate on Jupiter's moons but it is a lot trickier as you need to be able to get an airy disc around it; it requires a planetary camera and the program Metaguide. Similar principle to star collimation as you are looking at the airy disc around. As Michael said, you are better off with a star as you can do it with an eyepiece.

I have not done any lunar imaging in a long time and a quick capture from last night. Waxing Gibbous at 99% illumination. Captured with an 8" Dob, Nikon D3200. Hue saturation in Gimp to bring up the mineral colours.