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Hawksmoor

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Status Updates posted by Hawksmoor

  1. It's odd how every now and then even an absolute Muppet like me has a moment of revelation! I have been merrily separating stars from nebulous stuff, processing each bit and then recombining them using 'screen' blend mode for longer than you can say Professor Ian Morison. Unfortunately, I have always been troubled by the softness of my stars.  Then today it suddenly occurred to me  I should be 'screen' blending the nebula into the stars and not the other way around. Tried it and lo' and behold the stars are much sharper and the nebula more nebulous! Who would have thought it? What a complete numpty!!

  2. Our friend Irene sent me a photo of a Falcon 9 taking off from the Cape as captured by her brother Jeff Payne from the balcony of his flat on Bermuda.1814ED5A-D0EB-492B-8A5F-466BDEAFB4FD.jpeg.a404ac53d4da192351d4c1c8e8070d1f.jpeg

  3. Argh! I believe my Lenovo 'workhorse' laptop just died. 

    George now irritable in Lowestoft.

  4. Just packed up after imaging Jupiter. My first go for this year.  All a bit 'wobbly-wobbly' tonight over Lowestoft. So I'm not expecting the data to be very good. My kit all worked reasonably well so must not grumble.

    George in Lowestoft and now in bed.

  5. Taking a break from looking after the post op Mrs H, I ventured out to take my first blurry video of the ringed planet. Battling with full on moonlight and a sea fret moving in land and across my southern horizon I managed to capture a few blurry clips before the fog won. I am now in bed contemplating tomorrow's editing and video processing fun and games which will have to compete for time with cooking the Sunday lunch, making some scones for tea and 3d printing a cooker for my graddaughter's dolls house. A house- husband's day is long and arduous!

  6. Mrs H safely returned from knee surgery and now is the 'upgraded model' with artificial knee and hip!😍

    I'm am currently happily married to a Cyborg 'off world' kick boxer!

    All a bit 'Blade Runner' in Lowestoft, so this year 'blurry images' of Saturn will have to wait.

  7. Wonderful clear and steady astro observing last night in Lowestoft. First time I've ever managed to see all the elements of the Veil Nebula from our backyard using handheld 8x30 binoculars. Took a few images of NGC7000 using modded and unmodded DSLRs . Will have some fun stacking them and combining them over the next few days.

    If all goes well, Mrs H will be having her knee replaced next week, so housework and nursing may get in the way of Affinity Photo time. 

  8. Hats off to astrophotographers in the Peak District. Clouds, light pollution from Sheffield and planes from Manchester Airport, all a bit much for a country boy from Suffolk. Enjoying the oat cakes though!

    George not in Lowestoft.

    1. Mandy D

      Mandy D

      Yup! Come for the oatcakes, get free light pollution thrown in! It's not all bad though, I know a few dark spots, even if you still get the odd plane or two. But it is so beautiful around here, you never want to leave!

    2. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      Mrs H is from Hillstown near Bolsover so we are quite attached to Derbyshire in many ways.  Did live  in Matlock and Brimington for a time but the work ran out and so we moved south and east. Still enjoy an oat cake, a Bakewell pudding and the hills.

    3. Mandy D

      Mandy D

      I'm 15 minutes from Matlock! Been here 33 years. Love bakewell tart and oatcakes, not keen on bakewell pudding. The hills are to die for, I love sitting on top of Thorpe Cloud. 

  9. This week, saw a Humming Bird Moth in  our backyard! Have only ever seen these in Spain and the South of France before this year. Global warming has many surprises.  Unfortunately it flew off before I could get a photo but Mrs. H also saw it  so I'm not imagining things.

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      A friend of ours lives on the Shetland Isles and she has spotted one in her garden.

    3. Gfamily

      Gfamily

      These aren't particularly uncommon in UK - I saw one in my brother's garden in Liverpool about 20 years ago. 

      Although they can occasionally overwinter in northern Europe, they don't breed this far north, so basically any that you see will have been bred further south and migrated from there. 

    4. Rusted

      Rusted

      Just discovered this thread.

      Humming Bird Moths are annual visitors to our flower garden in mid Denmark. 55N.

  10. In between the fast moving clouds tonight, I tried out my recently acquired Samyang F2 135 mm lens for the first time and in concert with my modded Canon 200d. Nice hefty bit of glass delivering  circular stars right across the APS-C sensor at F2. I am looking forward to using this combo on my Star Adventurer mount once the nights get a bit darker and longer.

    George in Lowestoft next the sea.

    1. orion25

      orion25

      Can't wait to see some images! :) 

  11. Woo-hoo! Got my Lenovo laptop back from the menders with a new screen, runs like a greyhound!

    1. orion25

      orion25

      Great news, George!

    2. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      Hi Reggie hope you are well and star gazing in Georgia. It is good to have my trusty laptop operational again. Mrs H and I are feeling much better. We very much appreciated your kind wishes when we were ill. All the best and hope you get to see the lunar eclipse that is soon to happen. I think it is going to be too close to the horizon for me as I am located at the most easterly point in the United Kingdom with a very poor local south west aspect.

      George

  12. First day I have felt a little better since contracting covid. Mrs H still testing positive but looking a bit more like herself. Both of us have been under the cosh for thirteen days with different sensory symptoms. This is a very surprising and unpleasant virus to contract. In the past I have had flu and pneumonia more than once and my experience with covid has been comparable and not at all like a head cold as some report. Take sensible precautions to avoid it, particularly if you are getting on a bit or have other medical issues.

    Stay safe stargazers.

  13. You know I mentioned it never rains but it pours. Well Mrs H with her 'new hip' has now tested positive for Covid and in a fit of dyspraxic stupidity I sat on my Lenovo laptop and broke the screen. Lenovo's may be robust enough to withstand a trip to the ISS but my 'backside' is obviously a more stringent test of robustness! I am now typing on an old Dell which is 'clunky' to say the least and will have to wait until I'm Covid free before I can have it replaced. Lets hope today goes without further unfortunate incidents in the House of the Hawksmoors!

    1. orion25

      orion25

      You and Mrs. H take good care of yourselves. I wish you both a speedy recovery!

  14. I had a positive Covid flow test today. It never rains but it pours. On the other hand it does explain the dry cough, temperature and head ache!

  15. Not been up to much astronomy for a while as Mrs. H had her hip replaced yesterday. She is in hospital for a couple of days but doing well! I shall be swapping my personal technical challenges from 'Astro Kit' to 'Washing Machine'. Who would have thought Bosch washing machines would have got so 'digital' over the last 48 years? 

    George contemplating a short-medium term period of domestic drudgery in Lowestoft.

  16. The weather tonight in Lowestoft followed the Metcheck forecast to the letter. I managed two hours of fun with my mini rig before the clouds arrived. Have purchased a new toy before my increased monthly payments to Octopus Energy kick in! I seized the opportunity to buy a used Canon 200d astromodded camera in mint condition with only 10,000 shutter actuations for a remarkably good price. Have been trying it out with my Sigma wide lens and my Altair Astro 66mm Doublet refractor. The processing is more demanding than I'm used to with an unmodded camera but so far I am pleased with my purchase. On a different  tack, I was happy to receive a letter from CEFAS informing me that, after careful consideration of my requests for them to address the light pollution coming from their new HQ building, they would in future limit the hours of operation of their external lighting. A good week for stargazing in Lowestoft all round!

    Nighty night stargazers.

    George now in bed.

     

    Stargazers

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. orion25

      orion25

      BTW, close conjunction of Venus & Jupiter before dawn on April 30 for us in the States (about 14 arcminutes apart). I don't think you'll be able to see from your latitude though.

    3. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      Hi Reggie - very nice to hear from you. I look forward to seeing your images of the conjunction. I'm not sure whether it is visible from Lowestoft or whether I could get out of bed before dawn. I do however, have a very fine eastern horizon out over the North Sea.

      I am still getting to grips with my recently acquired modded DSLR and Triband filter.  Its easy enough to produce Ha saturated (very red) images but getting just the right amount of red to make an interesting composition is quite difficult particularly when going widefield.  Hats off to the people on SGL that produce such splendid narrow band images, it is certainly not easy!

      I attach a copy of one of my first images taken with the modded Canon 200d DSLR and a Triband filter and a Sigma EX camera lens at about f=15mm F5.6 (ISO800). 2hrs worth of 5minute lights stacked, cropped and processed using Affinity Photo software. The  lights were taken before the street lights went out so you can see how well the filter deals with LED street Lighting.  I think I could improve the stars by using my unmodded camera and combining images from both.  A project in process.

      Best regards from George1752086230_GreatBearetcselectredwidefieldcrop02.thumb.png.fa8e5ad70c8d417577560fa00c6fb9ff.png

    4. orion25

      orion25

      Brill, George!

  17. Hi Reggie

    May I and Mrs.H  wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New (Stargazing) Year.

    Best regards George

    1. orion25

      orion25

      Big thanks to you and Mrs. H! Same to you both!

      Regards, Reggie

  18. A very Merry Christmas to all my chums on Stargazers Lounge around the world. Over the last couple of years, whilst Mrs. H and I have been prevented from travelling, Stargazers Lounge has provided opportunities for us to see images captured from locations around the UK and the wider world by imagers located in many different places. SGL has enabled a wider perspective for us 'lock down oldies' which we both value.

    Many thanks to FLO for sponsoring this site and for the excellent mail order service. Dave Eagle's guide to Affinity Photo arrived yesterday, so I shall be  producing even more of my blurry  technicolor images in the New Year but from now on using a different workflow! A change is as good as a rest!🧐 (I chose this emoji because I thought it look like Sir Patrick.)

     

    1. Gonariu

      Gonariu

      Merry Christmas to you too and to all subscribers to this forum.

    2. orion25

      orion25

      Merry Christmas, George!

  19. Purchased Affinity Photo and am now bravely facing the learning curve. Lets hope my aged brain is up to it! Thing is, once you stop learning and reinventing yourself, 'you become a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard'.

    The recent Affinity Photo post on SGL looks very helpful and am awaiting the arrival from FLO of Dave Eagle's Guide.

    Nighty night stargazers.

  20. Had my 72nd Birthday today and the excellent Mrs H purchased GradientXTerminator for me!

    1. orion25

      orion25

      Happy Birthday and congratulations!

      Regards, Reggie :) 

  21. Nice crisp transparent moonless night to bring in November. Had my mini-rig up and running taking some images of the Andromeda group of galaxies with my Altair Astro 66mm Doublet and Canon 600d camera. Now in bed thawing out!

    Nighty night Stargazers.

  22. Quite a bright afternoon in Lowestoft today, had a ring doughnut covered in sugar plus a black coffee on the seafront. Nice!

  23. Having read Ken Harrison's excellent book Astronomical 'Spectroscopy for Amateurs' at least twice and innumerable visits to Robin's 'Three Hills' internet site, I have decided to haul myself up on the shoulders of giants and try to make yet another spectrograph this time involving a homemade adjustable slit! After a lot of deliberation I have come up with a modular design based on the 'Watkis Spectrograph'. I am currentlyputting together a heap of parts mostly gleaned from old bits of redundant/broken kit or stuff purchased from the NET in days gone past when I thought 'That's too good an offer to miss' (followed by a long languish in a box in the shed). Each module appears to pass the Transpec V2 spreadsheet test - so fingers crossed. At least I will have a project to keep me going through the winter.

     

  24. After an intensive week of gardening we had Sunday at leisure.  Carried out a partial water change , filter backwash and general clean up of our tropical fish tank. Then I took apart a pair of misaligned zoom binoculars from circa 1980's. An absolute treasure-trove of eight lenses in lens- cells and four prisms plus some bits for a DIY focuser.  This should  come in handy astro-shed- spectrum project wise. Happy but tired old bloke now drinking a lager and anticipating dinner. It is very cloudy in Lowestoft, so not much change there!

  25. The remarkable Mrs H has today cut the hedge on our southern boundary. This is even more remarkable as we are awaiting the results of xray imaging of her knee which is giving her considerable chronic pain. I have never considered it wise to cut any of her plants without very clear authorisation and instructions. On this occasion however, I am ashamed to have left her to it! I may be a cad and a poor excuse for a husband but I now have the opportunity to image Jupiter and Saturn with my pier mounted telescope. In the partner stakes, you cannot improve upon a kind, smart and sturdy northern woman!

    George now in bed dreaming of spots, festoons and rings in Lowestoft

    1. orion25

      orion25

      Cheers and healing for Mrs. H!

      Sincerely, Reggie

    2. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      Mrs H says thanks Reggie. We suspect she requires a new knee joint but still await the Doctor's diagnosis from the hospital. 

      Best regards George

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