Ian McCallum

I've been looking at the smaller brother of the SW 150 Mak, the 127!🤔

On 29/09/2022 at 15:55, Xgaze said:

Is this the 'Shorty' ?
I'd be interested to know what you think...

Best,
T

Despite heavy rain earlier, I managed to get 5 minutes outside with SW 200P and the new Barlow, plus BST StarGuider 25mm and 12mm eyepieces. 

A quick look at at moon with the 25mm and Barlow gave a similar view to the 12mm eyepiece, but dimmer obviously. There was no obvious sign of chromatic aberration, that I could see.  The moon was partially obscured by hazy cloud. 

I tried the same set up on Jupiter and found similar results. Any aberrations where due to the atmosphere, with Jupiter being low down and poor seeing. 

@Chris I imaged Jupiter on Tuesday night (27th Sept), when conditions were quite favourable, here in SW Scotland.  I was also using the SW Evostar 120 achro, with a ZWO ASI224MC (no Barlow) and a UR/IR  cut filter and Wratten #8 yellow filter.  I can see that you had similar results to me, as in the two cloud bands turn from a brownish colour to a purplish one.

Here's two images from that evening, one the finished image and the other before much processing...

Critique is always welcome.

Jup_214208_Jupiter_lapl4_ap17_Drizzle30 version A.tif Jup_214208_Jupiter_lapl4_ap17_Drizzle30.tif

2 hours ago, sorrimen said:

Not Ian, but have found the shorty to perform very well. No visible degradation at all with Starguiders (compared 12mm to barlowed 25mm). Will try and get a couple comparison images for you if you’d like.

Downside to it is that whilst the barlow element screws off, it’s not threaded for eyepieces and can’t be used as a 1.6x. 

I'm looking forward to testing it, but given the weather we have coming across the Atlantic, it maybe a while...🙄

2 hours ago, Xgaze said:

Is this the 'Shorty' ?
I'd be interested to know what you think...

Best,
T

I believe it is.  I got it for astrophotography, specifically for planets to use with my ZWO ASI224MC.

From Auntie @FLO. 

Using my SW EvoStar 120 achromatic refractor last night, I spend nearly an hour on M31 getting 106 light subs and 16 dark subs.  Exposure time was 30 seconds each, with a 5 second pause between exposures with a gain of 134 (unity gain) - ZWO ASI224MC set to RGB 24 bit.

The result isn't great, in spite of using DSS, etc.  I've left the TIFF file at the bottom of the post, in case anyone fancies giving it a look.  Any suggestions would be most welcome.👍

Light_lapl5_ap19.tif

Jup_214208_lapl5_ap14.tif

I've been imaging Jupiter and I'm now imaging M31.🤞 I saw a bit of Saturn, but couldn't get the framing right.  I also saw Neptune, but again only the live image and no recording...

Here's my rather garbage attempt from the other evening - Jupiter.   Using the SW Evostar 120 Achromatic Refractor on an EQ5 Pro mount, etc.  Check out my signature for rest of the imaging gear.  I tried to process the image, using the method shown in the video below.  I've also included a pre-processed TIFF image, for comparison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlwl85ok2rw

Jup_210636_lapl5_ap15.tif

Some goodies from Auntie @FLO. 

33 minutes ago, 900SL said:

One can only hope that these Aliens can spell.

I'm sure Allens can spell perfectly well, in their own language.😉  I just wanted to point out the poor spelling isn't linked to someone's IQ level.

After a computer crash with Win 10, I put Win 8.1 back into my laptop.  I lost some of my original files, including the previous version of ASCOM Platform.  I've installed v 6.6 SP1, but when I go into the Ascom Camera Chooser and select ZWO, then properties, and after clicking advanced,  The Preset drop down menu no longer has anything other than low, medium and high gain (as well as manual).  I preferred Presets like lowest read noise, highest dynamic range and unity gain.  I know that I could rename the presets, but I preferred the older ASICamera Setup V6.5.22.0.

Any ideas where I can get hold of it, as the ASCOM website doesn't seem to hold older versions?

I eventually manager to get a reliable connection between the laptop and RPi, using a LAN cable.  I bought a cheap Gigabit network switch, but in the end up it wasn't required.  I had to muck about with some of the IP setting on the RPi, but at least the connection is stable now...

Revisiting this topic, as I've found that even setting a static IP address on the RPi LAN and laptop LAN, seems to rather hit and miss.  Years ago, when I had a wired home network, this was easily done through the router, but laptop direct to RPi seems to be a real pain...  Would a network switch help?

I bought a friend a second hand Celestron Firstscope 76mm Dobsonian. It came from eBay and was sent directly to him, so I've not had my hand on it yet. 

My question is does anyone know what the distance between the two bolts that hold on an aftermarket finderscope are? I'm trying to a RDF to fit it and I may have one up here that may do the job. 

On 18/07/2022 at 15:38, PadrePeace said:

Thanks for the compliment but my reason for flagging them is it covers off short exposures for uncooled cameras, although I’m not sure the camera would have got much warmer with longer exposure as the gaps between images at 30s exp was virtually nothing so not a lot of cooling going on!

As for amp glow a good master dark frame will always fix that although one clearly needs to invest time in shooting and stacking long exp darks which not everyone wants to do. 

Can I ask what the pause or resting period do you use between your 30 second exposures, please?

I'm running Astroberry on a RPi 4b, but would like to connect a tablet to the RPi via WiFi - to monitor things.  Any recommendations for an Android tablet?  Minimum screen size or other recommendations , please?

1 minute ago, Stu said:

I still don’t think we are clear about what you want to achieve with the scope. Are you talking mainly visual with some casual Imaging or looking for full on guided long exposure DSO imaging with no planetary?

The answer may well be the same ie ED80, but some more info would certainly help.

There is also the SW Evolux 82ED At £575. These are surly new and I haven’t really seen any results or reviews that I can remember but I’m sure there will be some out there.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/sky-watcher-evolux-82ed-ota.html

I've gone to mostly imaging these days, when clouds permit.  I tend to use Astroberry, K-Stars and EKOS, etc.

4 hours ago, Clarkey said:

I would agree that the ED80 is a good choice for AP and visual. For around £500 you should be able to get one second hand with a field flattener. (One sold yesterday on Astro B&S for £510). The colour correction is good but you will get some CA on brighter objects. I think for £500 you will be pushed to get a triplet or true APO, even second hand. 

Looking at your signature you have 'planetary' cameras, whereas the ED80 is a wider field scope. If you are thinking for planetary imaging you could consider a Mak. Maybe clarify your viewing and imaging priorities and it would help with the guidance.

I originally bought the planetary cameras, as they were cheaper than the more expensive cooled versions.  I've been moving away from planetary imaging and to be honest, have never used the cameras for any planetary bodies, other than the moon.  I've done some DSO imaging with them, but I know they are far from ideal...

1 hour ago, dweller25 said:

@Ian McCallum Just want to point out that your 8”Dob has Apochromatic optics and better resolution than any £500 refractor 👍

True, but I can't mount it to my EQ5 mount and would need a coma corrector, I believe.

I'm thinking of going down the route of getting an Apocromatic refractor, for either visual or astrophotography. 

At the moment, I have a Sky-Watcher Evostar 120 achromatic. I would like another Sky-Watcher, but my budget would be upto £500.

Any suggestions? 🤔

The late Sir Patrick Moore certainly believed in it,  having observed it on several occasions. I'm going from memory here, but he did mention it on the Sky At Night programme.  He also mentioned it in at least one of his books. 

11 hours ago, Alan White said:

Not the post person, but me taking a drive to collect.

A nice original Vixen GP mount, weights, pillar and a bonus Astro Systems 6” f6 scope as well.

All is good for Lunar going forwards as well as planet season.

 

it has an original polar scope as well

Gotta love that classic Hammerite finish.

For reasons best known to itself, my Win 8.1 laptop threw a wobbly yesterday morning and I lost my wifi connection.  After many hours of trying different things including regedit, services, etc, I ended up installing Win 10 over the top of Win 8.1.  Everything looks okay, but then I realised that some of my files dating back over a decade has been corrupted (amateur radio contact logs).  Apart from that, I saved what I needed to and the laptop has been reformatted.

My question is, I still want to use my laptop for astrophotography, but only for controlling my RPi through wifi or network cable and image processing.  I'm reluctant to buy any new version of Windows, but I was wondering if Linux had anything to offer?  My only experience of anything remotely like Linux is Astroberry, etc.  The way I work at the moment is to use my smartphone as a mobile hotspot, the RPi and laptop connecting through that.  My other question would be, what options do I have in a tablet, just incase I don't want to use the laptop anymore?