Kon

I tried some imaging this morning but seeing was awful with clouds coming through constantly. The proof is my awful ISS at similar position as Saturn; no wonder that Saturn is hardly giving any details at 25 degrees. Jupiter faired better. I love seeing the GRS there. 8" Dob, asi462mc, uv/ir cut (ISS with IR pass).

Very nice. The GRS is showing some nice details and banding around the disk. My seeing was awful with very strong winds.

Stunning!

Good efforts on all fronts. Your Mars is looking pretty good with nice dark/light areas and a nice polar cap.

Fantastic report Joe. It has been ages since I have done any proper observing due to lack of astronomical darkness here, and you have reminded what the night sky with a telescope looks like.

Thanks for the explanation. Likewise, happy to be out in the morning and keep capturing images, even rubbish ones 🤣, with the hope of some decent seeing. At least we will start getting ISS back again at that early time as well to keep me busy.

Can you elaborate please? I like getting hints on improving captures. This summer it looks really unsettled, so not sure what is going on. Visually they also look really poor with hardly any details.

Great captures despite the conditions. It seems to be the theme these days 😢; the weather for the weekend seems better. It sucks waking up that early and the weather is not playing ball. Your Jupiter is looking pretty good with a lot of details. It seems that it is more forgiving on the conditions even though it is lower in the sky. Your saturn in IR is looking good as well; the overexposed one looks like the space invaders game🤣 but I like the moon.

Fantastic report and you have really brought it to life. I have observed it several times with my 8" Dob and I am so jealous of all the extra features you are pulling. By the way, are these your sketches?

Another imaging session under awful seeing with passing clouds. I managed to shoot Jupiter in colour and IR. The IR faired a lot better. I am not going to post the colour alone, it's quality is rather embarrassing 🤣. The IRrgb looks better. Europa can be seen as a tiny white dot at the bottom left of Jupiter, which was occulted a few minutes later.

Great images and nice details. Very nice comparison with the cameras.

I like the challenge and it gives me time to play with settings/processing. We just need a few nights of excellent seeing which we have not had in a very long time. Fot Jupiter, I used your suggestion in PIPP for the WB and it helped a lot to get a more natural colour (I always seemed to have had a bluish tinge instead of white). Mars is also coming along and looking forward to both observing and imaging it more.

Aliexpress used to be cheap but the last few months they have really increased their prices. As John said, you may want to look at clones but I am like you, I like having a set. Ebay may be an alternative. By the way, do you need both the 18 and 24; they are fairly close to each other? I find that I use my 24 and then go down to 14.

Aliexpress has the 24mm but it may work quite expensive by the time you add tax and duties: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32883164929.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_groupList.8148356.13.20243c90wwh1I5&pdp_npi=2%40dis!GBP!￡283.45!￡283.45!!!!!%402100bdde16563195653866901e2bf6!12000017944268615!sh

Thanks Martyn. I went for your suggestion on gain 300 and I was nearly shooting at nearly 300fps with a small capture window.

I was out at 245 to try see all the 5 planets (and do some imaging in between). The wind did not help with my Dob shaking vigorously but managed to find a sheltered place in my patio. Saturn showed really nicely with the Cassini division in/out between vibrations. Jupiter with its moons showed some nice bands ( the GRS seems to be in the wrong side in these morning sessions 😅). Mars was next and I could see some light and dark shading and possibly the polar ice cap? Finally, Venus....nothing spectacular apart from seeing the phase but the way Venus was hanging below the Waning crescent moon was an amazing sighting. No luck with Mercury since my low NNE view is obscured by trees. I thought I could also bag Neptune and Uranus but with light coming up even at 245 it was hard to star hope and the wind was not helping. I think I need to give my body a few days off from being up at 245 every other day 🤣.

Thanks Nik. I would agree with you about the features. I think it would have been nice to be able to combine with some colour data. Let's hope to some better conditions next time.

Thanks. I am also PC free for the past 20 years 😉; I am running everything on my Mac. I like how the planetary camera has brought a new dimension to my imaging. I am looking to buy a platform since I am rubbish in DIY. I have seen your amazing progress with your Dob.

Manual. I let the planets drift through the fov.

I think I was mad trying to do some imaging with the winds we had this morning and my Dob but nonetheless I tried 🤣. As conditions were suboptimal I opted mostly for IR imaging and it brought out some nice details; unfortunately my battery died when I tried to image Venus. Jupiter was not bad in colour (the others were awful) so I am only presenting this one in colour, IR and IRrgb together; it has brought some really nice details out. 8" Dob, 2x barlow, asi462, PIPP, Autostakkert and Astrosurface.

I think on the fly processing while imaging it's not too bad.

I just had a quick play with it and it is 'nice' having it there for a quick check and under one program; i used a .ser file. Yes a black box of what it is doing and annoying that there is only a jpg. There is a fits output but does not save changes. This is my quick attempt on saturn in IR ; left from asistudio with sharpening, next the fits with wavelets in astrosurface and the last one one from autostakkert and astrosurface with wavelets. I am not an expert in processing but i feel that the fits is not as good in later steps.

Do you find it comparable to Autostakkert quality?

Fantastic description and very vivid. I would love to see some of the nebulas through an 18"! Did you also manage to see any colour at all?

Thanks, the new release of Firecapture is running on my Mac and recognises the camera.