lunator

Neil Well done, very good given the limitation of the mount. I started with the 114 powerseeker it was a good scope to start with. Cheers Ian

Managed to get to do a couple of short spells of imaging this week. This is from the 23/03 OMC250 and ZWO120MC-s Cheers Ian

Hi Arabella I have this eyepiece, it is a very good eyepiece. The 60 degree AFOV is good, not the widest but plenty enough for doubles I use it to deliver x188 magnification on my scope and it performs well. With a Barlow the Speed which objects pass through the eyepiece may be an issue but you might find it ok. I hope this helps. Cheers Ian

Theta is a tricky split. On a night of good seeing I have split it my 10" scope at x94. I have never split sirius at home Houses and their heat plumes always ruin the view. I have only ever split it from Lucksall. I am always interested to hear what the lowest mag people can split tricky doubles at. cheers Ian

Just checked the 6th orbit catalogue and themes orbit has it slowly closing again. Only hundredths of an arc second. I hope to try and get a pic of this soon as the last one was10 years ago. Cheers Ian

Good catch of Tegmine it is slowly opening. I caught all 3 at x187 last night. I forgot to try a lower may as it has been a little while since I looked at it and although I know the orbital motion I was surprised how different it looked compared to last time. Regions is one of my fav doubles. Hence my avatar cheers Ian

Hi Jack, how are you finding focusing? I am new to imaging and objects 'disappear' very quickl outside of focus. Try housing on a bright star 1st to get you close. I have a bhatinov mask to help. cheers Ian

The 1st edition of the CDSA is more about the 'nice to look at' pairs. The main issue is some of the data is out of date and I have found a few typos. The second edition has improved data but there is more of a focus on physical pairs and less on the showpiece pairs. Cheers Ian

Craig Good image. Getting images of close doubles is tricky. I used to do afocal imaging and below 3" was a challenge. Cheers Ian

Hi Wibblefish I have had a couple of clearing nights here so I thought I would have a look at Rigel. 23/01/2021 In my new ST80: 80mm/400mm on an alt/Az mount it took x133 to split Rigel. I was then able to just split them at x100 with a 4mm orthoscopic. 25/01/2021 Using my OMC250. 250mm/2250mm on an EQ6. I was able to split Rigel at x70. This is the lowest magnification I can get on this scope. It was close but obvious. It was very clear at x94. With your scope the pair should be split at x110 but I think the seeing will make it quite hard. If you can get your magnification up to x130-150 I think you would split it easily and then be able to split it a lower mags. Cheers Ian

Hi Wibblefish Rigel can be a tricky split. It is quite low from the UK. Bruce MacEvoy has a rule of thumb that implies Rigel would take about x80 Mag to split. In my experience this rule can be slightly optimistic and I would go for a higher Mag say x100+ if you can. Once you have split it you will be able to see it with lower magnification. Cheers Ian

Hi Alan After you have checked the collimation of your scope I recommend looking at theses 2 doubles. Eta Cassiopeiae and Castor (Alph Gem) They should be easily split in your scope. Eta Cass is 3.5/7.5 magnitude pair with a sepaeration of 13.5" Castor is 1.6/3 magnitude pair with a seperation of 5.2" let us know how these go. cheers Ian

Hi Dave Many thanks, might try that next, I have limited myself to 1000 frames so far. Cheers Ian

Hi Dave Good pic do you take the 5000 frames in one go? Cheers Ian

Hi Mark Glad it has helped. Look forward to seeing your pics. Cheers Ian

Hi Keith I have included the log from Sharpcap at the bootom of the post. My process is as follows. I had let the scope cool. I use sharpcap to do the capture as it the software I know. I leave everything on Auto as it does a pretty good job. I check the alignment on the camera so it is in a pretty good N/S is up/down orientation I do a rough focus and then go back and forth a few times with the fine focus to see if I can get the view as sharp as possible. I usually take 2-3 captures before I check focus again. I stack in AS!3. I load the AVI and go through the capture by frame until I see one that appears to have a pretty clear view. I use that as the master. I put alot of alignment points on the image. The more the merrier is my view. After stacking I use the best 30-40% as the basis. I open in registax and mess around withe 1st 3 wavelet sliders. I try to see if it brings out the smaller craters. I sometimes crop in GIMP or other photo software. I hope that helps. Cheers Ian [ZWO ASI120MC-S] Debayer Preview=On Pan=0 Tilt=0 Output Format=AVI files (*.avi) Binning=1 Capture Area=1280x960 Colour Space=RAW8 Temperature=4.2 High Speed Mode=Off Overclock=0 Turbo USB=86(Auto) Flip=None Frame Rate Limit=Maximum Gain=50 Exposure=0.002441 Timestamp Frames=Off White Bal (B)=95 White Bal (R)=52 Brightness=0 Auto Exp Max Gain=50 Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000 Auto Exp Target Brightness=100 Mono Bin=Off Banding Threshold=35 Banding Suppression=0 Apply Flat=None Subtract Dark=None #Black Point Display Black Point=0 #MidTone Point Display MidTone Point=0.5 #White Point Display White Point=1 Notes= TimeStamp=2020-12-24T19:55:42.2085119Z SharpCapVersion=3.2.6442.0

Hi Keith, I will dig out the details. The scope is an Option optics OMC250. I use a very old Dell laptop. I do know it was set up maximum frame rate. 30fps. Cheers Ian

Starting to get a feel for the ZWO 120 mc-s Craters; Clavius, Maginus and Tycho. Cheers Ian

Steve very good pic. cheers Ian

Hi Keith I have firecapture on the laptop. I might have to give it a go. Hoping to process something tomorrow. Cheers Ian

I managed a short time with my ZWO a couple of nights ago. Conditions were pretty rubbish so I am sure the images won't be great but it was useful to practice focussing and have bit a mess around with Sharpcap settings. Cheers Ian

Cheers Moonshed yep I recently got my rocket flying licence I have just got a ZWO camera so I am very keen to give that a go.

Here is the first pic of the moon taken with a webcam flashed to SPC900nc OMC250 processed in AS!3, Registax. Any comments and advice welcome. Cheers Ian

Had another go on the 10th. Played around with gain, exposure time and the focus on the webcam. It might have made a small difference. Cheers Ian

Hi Pete For the money they give good results. I might be slowly slipping into the dark-side I have think of pressing the button on a ZWO120 just to dip my toe in the water so to speak. I took some more video last night. I messed around with the settings a bit. It will be interesting to see if it made any difference. Cheers Ian