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Showing results for tags 'c8'.
Found 31 results
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Here is an image of Jupiter, taken around 6am on 15 Feb with my C8, ASI120MC, +ADC, processed in Registax6 from around 30% of 3000 frames. I am fairly pleased with it considering that the altitude of the planet was only about 12 deg. and the seeing looked bad when I tried to focus on a star. And it shows the Great Red Spot.
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I had another go at imaging the shrinking Mars, this time without and with a x2 Barlow lens. The results are better with the Barlow, which is what one is led to expect. For whatever reason (probably bad seeing and/or low planets) when I tried a Barlow previously it just made the blur bigger. Equipment: C8 SE, ASI120MC, x2 Skywatcher kit Barlow element screwed directly into 1.25" barrel of the ZWO camera. This does seem to give x2 in practice. I did not use an ADC on the grounds that I shouldn't need one with Mars at an altitude of over 40 degrees. 3000 image video captured with Sharpcap. Processed in Registax6. I found that the Sharpcap exposure histogram did not appear to work on such a small image, so had to estimate the exposure. Yes, optical ADC correction would be better, but the dispersion seemed very small. Blowing up the image x2 in Registax showed a small colour fringe, which I took out with a single point of correction. The images show some surface detail though the contrast is low (if you are using a flatscreen try viewing from below: ) Mare Sirenum, with Mare Acidalium just discernible foreshortened at upper right.
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Here is an image of Mars I made on 9 Jan this year, with a C8 SE, and ASI120MC camera. The images are rather small (around 7" dia). Mars is now much higher in the sky than at opposition, so it seemed worth taking a few farewell images as it diminishes in size. Captured with Sharpcap. I did not use the ADC - the images are corrected for AD in the processing in Registax. This is from a run of 3000 images. I have included a x3 Photoshop zoom of the same image to indicate the size of Mars at opposition on the same scale. I was quite pleased to record some surface detail, corresponding with the position of Syrtis Major. If I'd had more time, I could have tried some images using a Barlow lens. I have just discovered that I can unscrew the lens section from a Skywatcher x2 Barlow and screw it onto the 1.25" nosepiece of the ASI120MC, which will give a more modest zoom (I think).
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I have continued to image Mars as it moves away. It is getting smaller, but on the other hand I don't have to get up in the middle of the night, the dust storm has subsided, and it is gaining significantly in altitude. Here is a series of images taken in September and early October, all taken with a C8 SE, ASI120MC, +ADC, processed in Registax 6. The seeing was often poor, but seemed better on Oct 3.
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For once I set up my two catadroptic imaging scopes together to see how they compared, and how well the smaller one cut through the crud. C8 SCT on SE mount, ASI 120MC, ADC, processed in Registax6, 3000 frame video. Celestron 127mm Mak on Nexstar SLT mount, wood tripod, ASI120MC , ADC, processed in Registax6, 3000 frame video. The 127mm images are slightly smaller, placed second. The bigger scope seems to do better. I thought that Saturn did not change much and was just a seeing test target, but the shadow of the planet on the rings is now distinctly asymmetrical. The dark smudges in the C8 Mars images correlate well with real features. Mars altitude about 11 deg. The dust storm seems to be over. The seeing was better than it's been for a while.
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From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
This is a reprocessed image of the Helix Nebula Data I captured and posted previously. This image has been exposed across 4 nights, 2 nights through a HAlpha filter and 2 nights through a OIII filter using my modded 40D. Helix nebula is fainter than I thought it was going to be, I had to image it at ISO800 30 minute HAlpha subs and ISO1250 OIII 30 minute subs, total of 8 hours through each through my 8" SCT at F10. I just wish I captured more clearly the comet shock waves visible in the Hubble images... But overall I'm happy with how it came out... As always there is room for improvement...© Mariusz Goralski
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Whilst carrying out a star test I have noticed with a friends C8 that one side of focus appears to be collimated and the other side of focus its off, is this a common problem? Is his best option to collimate as an average so its slightly off either side?
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In between doing jobs at work I've been trying to find some reviews of the Baader Zoom MK3 being used on a C8 or a 127mak. With no luck I thought I would put it out there on SGL to see if anyone of here can confirm if it is any good on any of these 2 scopes as I'm planning to sell off my collection of BSTs to fund it. I do like the idea of having the one eyepiece which I can just stick in my pocket meaning less to carry around with my my grab and go setup. What do people think then? Is the Baader good on slow scopes? Clear skies.
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Hi all. Sharing my capture of Jupiter from 19 April 2017. The video comprises frames from 1622UT to 1718UT and shows the GRS traversing the planet. Video can be viewed at either the youtube or attachment link below. https://youtu.be/8M7d3m34c5I 2017-04-19-1622_1-RGB_pipp_x264.mp4 Equipment used: Celestron C8, QHY5L-II-C, GSOx2.5barlow -
Found an old (apparently USA model) celestron C8 SCT a while back, its a bit hit n miss with collimation and the optics - (some very strange star test shapes :P) but when it works it works well Here is a couple images from a couple months back. Thanks for looking. This particular night seeing was reasonably good, and collimation wasn't too bad either. Celestron C8 / ASI120MC / 2X barlow - captured in sharpcap2, stacked in autostakkert!2, wavelets in registax6
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From the album: DoctorD's Photos
Comet Catalina 2013 C8 F3.3 using Lodestar-C - 30 second exposure (15-01-16) -
From the album: DoctorD's Photos
Comet Catalina C8 F3.3 taken with Lodestar C and StarlightLive 15-01-16 -
Mars imaged around 1.30 AM BST. Seeing poor, altitude about 12 deg, Mars just above a roof, had to wait for gap in cloud. Using: C8 SE, ASI120MC, ADC, best of 2000 frames, processed in Registax6. Some surface detail and a polar cap can be made out, confirming visual observation.
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First night in back garden for what seems like forever, had an interesting session. Set the C8 on Jupiter while I dabbled with the star adventurer mini / Nikon D5300 / 105 2.8 macro. Tried too many things as failed miserably on focus with the D5300, Jupiter was just clearing neighbours roofs ... Got quite disheartened by 3am so took cameras off and had a peak at M13 before packing up. Absolutely beautiful ! C8 with ES 14 mm. Thought I'd try imaging it but only had the Nikon with William optics flattener attached ... Managed 20 x 15 seconds as hadn't polar aligned for Jupiter. Good luck all with opposition on the 8 th
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I've been thinking about upgrading my SW 127 Mak for a long time now and have been looking into going for a used Celestron C8 recently. My main interest is in imaging DSOs for which I use a SW 150pds with an Atik 314L+ on a HEQ5 mount. However all too often the only clear nights are during full (or nearly full) moons and on these occasions I like to image the moon or the planets. This is why I bought the 127 mak to try and improve on what the 150pds gives me when imaging lunar/planetary. I use my guide camera a ZWO ASI120mm to capture video for this type of imaging. On a few evenings I've compared both my scopes for lunar and planetary and while the mak gives better results on Jupiter there's very little in it when it comes to lunar imaging. On the Mak I can't use a barlow for lunar as it gives a ghost image (like the mysterons circle) but the 150pds performs quite well barlowed when lunar imaging. In essence the difference between the two scopes isn't enough to warrant owning the 127mak. So my question is will there be a significant improvement if I upgrade from a SW 127 mak to a C8 for lunar and planetary imaging? I know I'll gain about 35% in focal length and I'm hoping I'll be able to use a barlow to increase that. I'm also hoping the extra aperture will make a big difference. There's also the added bonus of using the C8 with a reducer to image the smaller DSOs like M57 if I ever get my guiding good enough. I guess I'd just like some confirmation that a C8 is the right scope before I take the plunge.
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Hi. I have a baader zoom ii and 32mm plossl which i use loads with my c8. Just for visual and 1.25. A WO dialectic diagonal just because it was really cheap second hand and a Barlow which I never use because the magnification is high enough with a focal length of 2000mm. Is there anything I'm missing that might be really useful? I'm thinking about the 6.3 reducer and or a 40mm plossl, but I'm not really sure if I'm going to feel the benefit or not. Advice welcome please. It's so easy to own seldom used kit in this hobby. Thanks TimB
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Just took a look at the inside of my SCT and there appears to be a lot of dust and what appears to be manufacturing debris on the inside. Its a Celestron C800 CPC and I've no experience on internal cleaning. I don't think I want to chance it either. Does anyone know of a commercial cleaning service? -
From the album: Deep Sky Imaging
This is a reprocessed image of the Sculptor Galaxy Data I captured and posted previously. During the week when I was imaging the Helix Nebula, I was exposing it when it was east of the meridian. So as it hit 15 degrees past the meridian and the meridian flip happened, there was no guide star in the OAG FOV so I had the option to pack up and continue imaging another day or try for another object and hope for a guide star. As the sculptor galaxy was close to the location I slewed to it (with favour western horizon selected in the CGEM settings) and to my joy when the sculptor galaxy was framed a 1/3rd of the frame to the edge there was a guide star in the OAG... WOO HOO :grin: ... and so a second object imaging continued. After getting 3 nights worth of ISO400 10 minute RGB subs, I found that after processing the image was very amber at best.. almost sepia... and no matter what I done to it it always looked too green or purple at certain parts... just didn't look right. When I eventually got a chance, I was going to image some pure blue subs to add to the image to correct for the amber look, but as luck would happen, forecast was for at least a week of clouds and rain... this week was no better BUT I did see a break in clouds the other day with a 3/4 FULL MOON!!!! :mad: I couldn't afford to let this opportunity go to waste so I imaged NGC253 through a Halpha filter to cut out the moon glow... remembering that when imaging through Halpha in the 40D there is a lot of data in red (of course) and about 30% as bright in the blue channel.... I thought that I could use that added to blue as well as add some halpha to red and perhaps reveal some nebulosity. I only managed 8 x 15 minute subs before clouds started coming and 4 out of those were usable.© Mariusz Goralski
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First time out of back garden since damaging shoulder in December ( thankyou @Blazar ) took this at around 01:30 so really 29th not as in title. Seeing was way better than my back garden but still pretty poor due to low altitude. Roughly 4 minute 8000 frames, Pipped to 80 % then Autostakert best 25 %. Fairly aggressive wavelets in Registax. Thanks for looking.
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Hi, Can anyone tell me whether a C8 will accept a 5xpowermate for planetary imaging? I have seen a number of great images with similar combinations to the above, and recently tried 3x barlow with the C8 and it seemed to be pushing the scope a bit, but ive no idea whether the scope can handle 5x easily or whether its depending on seeing conditions being good. etc. The actual scope is in need of better colimation so that might be a factor affecting the test using 3x barlow. Any ideas hugely welcome
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The postman, well DHL delivery guy, bought a few sizeable packages this morning. After waiting a month for an AYO II from Switzerland, only to find out it was going to be another 4-5 weeks lead time, I had to cancel the order as I am currently mountless and booked in for the SWAG Star Party end of March. Instead, I placed an order for an Altair Sabre V2 with dual vixen saddles from Harrison telescopes which were all in stock. I also took advantage of the Celestron spring sale and thanks to the guys @FLO for splitting out a C8 Evolution OTA for me. I could have had a standard C8 but I lke the silver OTA colour and "Evolution" sounds, well...cool. To go with it I added an Astrozap Flexi-heat dew shield and SCT adapter for my 2" Altair diagonal. The Sabre, saddles, C8 and dew shield all arrived safely together this morning I already have a Celestron CG5 2" tripod waiting at home so hope to be building up a nice manual alt/az, dual scope setup this evening. Initial impressions of the Sabre are good. The clear anodised finish is not quite as nice as I'd hoped, it's rather dull, but the machining is very nice. Both axis are smooth although there's a little stiction, but I'm sure that will vanish with the weight of the scopes. It's quite a lump to handle, more so than I'd imagined. I don't think it will qualify as grab and go with a C8 and ST120 mounted and attached to the CG5 tripod. The Altair vixen saddles are very nice indeed, finished in black with the Altair logo machined in. The clamp knobs are chunky and when turned, the clamp glides smoothly in on a Teflon washer and is sprung out, for removal of OTA without having to slide the dovetail through the clamp. I would apologise for the impending cloudiness, but quite frankly someone else must have made one hell of a purchase a few weeks ago to bring on the current permacloud Watch this space for pics.
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Celestron 8" SCT with StarBright XLT coatings, Hyperstar compatible with vixen style dovetail bar. Including finder, screw-on weights to help balance when imaging, flexible dew shield & bahtinov mask. Due to size and weight collection only (from Bedford) £400 -
Hello all, Due to the rain and clouds I reprocessed the Sculptor and Helix Nebulae. A mate came over and found a astrophotography processing method in photoshop using the "high pass" filter... I gave it a go and it seems like I got a bit more detail out of the Sculptor Galaxy and Helix Nebula data... What do you astronomers think... improvement or too much? Thanks for looking, MG
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Having a bit of a clear out. For sale an ADM mini dovetail system for attachment to a C8 but can be used for other telescopes, after the right mounting blocks are purchased - same as this one here - https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/adm-mini-dovetail-system-guidescope-kit.html Asking £75, new price as its unused - a couple of scratches when fitting to test it but never used in anger - retail is £147. Both sold Revelation Astro 8 inch losmandy plate, with all the required holes for mounting a myriad of rings and scopes - games as these ones here - https://www.telescopehouse.com/revelation-7-9-inch-losmandy-style-d-plate.html Asking £22 for it - again unused and aside a few marks never used - retail is £32. Postage included in all items. Paypal, cheque (items posted when cleared) accepted, bank transfer etc. Please contact me if you have any questions. Clear skies, Neil. -
From the album: Solar System Objects
Saturn captured at f20 on 28th July 2015 using Celestron Skyris 618C.© Mariusz Goralski
