Mr Thingy

4 hours ago, Padraic M said:

It's worth installing Teamviewer so that you can monitor your PC from inside, as the imaging plan progresses. 

I presume TeamViewer is some kind of remote desktop. Great idea! Totally didn't think about doing that.

Immensely helpful. Thanks a bunch.

A scattering of reputation points for your troubles! 😊

Really looking forward to playing around with the gear and learning how to get the best use of it. 

Happy Friday!

I'm just starting out with astrophotography and, whilst painfully waiting for my HEQ5 to arrive, I'm trying to prepare a setup checklist to make my first few sessions as focused as possible and not spend half of my time trying to remember what to do. Clear skies are a precious commodity in the UK so I want to use wisely 😆

The idea is this list will cover all the steps from setting up my equipment to all the individual steps to follow in the software.

Do any of you kind souls have such a checklist to share so I can borrow and compare?

I have N.I.N.A as my image acquisition software. PHD2, Stellarium, (can't remember the plate solver 😊

My gear: SW Evostar 72ed, Evoguide50ed with ASI 120mm, ZWO ASI 183MM Pro GT, (HEQ5 pending)

Thank you!

-Thingy-

I would say that this image (from Google) is closest to what I see. You can just make out granulation if you look hard.

I use a Lunt 1.25" on my 120mm refractor. Even with the built in ND filter it is uncomfortably bright. With a solar continuum filter and a polarising filter the brightness is perfect though. 

As noted above, the continuum filter brings out more surface details, at the expense of seeing the sun in a green tone.

There are some good pictures online of what you can expect to see in white light observation - good for managing expectations!

Hello to all! 

Nice place you have here 😊

I've been a casual observer for a number of years. In my case that means very occasionally dusting off my kit and having a short, unplanned session viewing whatever takes my fancy. 

But I've recently invested in better gear and keen to do some more active (and better planned) sessions, so I thought I'd join here for tips and tricks to make for more productive and rewarding sessions.

I also just took the plunge and bought some astrophotography gear, so please look forward to some silly questions from me! I love observing - and what treats the planets have given us recently - but I can't help wanting to turn that fuzzy blob into something with visible structure.

Sadly my HEQ5 is still on back order, but I plan to test my gear on the milky way with my static tripod and some very short exposures, just to get the swing of things. Fingers crossed for a break in the clouds.

-thingy-