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Hi All, Sharing with you what I hope is a first in a series of a collection of images. This is a close up image of one of the regions in the Small Magellanic Cloud that I planned on imaging after noticing this (and a few other objects) in my wide field image of the SMC which I exposed almost two months ago. This frame contains NGC346, NGC371 and NGC395 which I'm hoping is the first in a set of close up images of objects detected in wide field "survey like" imaging projects... in this case the Small Magellanic Cloud. There are a few more regions of interest in the SMC which I'd like to explore a bit more closely before repeating this idea on the "Large Magellanic Cloud". This image is a bi-color image which was exposed through a Celestron C8 at f6.3, 1280mm (theoretical) focal length, with a QHY268M camera and filtered with a Baader 7nm H-Alpha and OIII filters. Tracked with a hypertuned CGEM mount. Total integration time for this image was 4 hours and 10 minutes. The reason why I want to look deeper into the Magellanic Clouds and what fascinates me about the two satellite galaxies to our Milky Way is that there are a lot of strange shaped nebulae located with in them... if not looking like a chaotic spindly mess, they look like vortices... to me the shapes of the nebulae look quite alien when comparing to the more traditionally imaged and more known nebulae. PS: I said "theoretical" 1280mm focal length, because when plate solving the frame, it was solved to be 1307mm. Clear Skies, MG

Hi All, I completed a little experiment on the Small Magellanic Cloud, NGC292. I chose this object because it's not a popular object among astrophotographers and it's also large enough for this experiment using my Sigma EX 150mm prime lens with and without the Sigma 2X Teleconverter. I used 3 hours and 33 minutes worth of subs for luminance at 150mm and 4 hours and 30 minutes of subs at 300mm, with the teleconverter. RGB color data was exposed at 150mm, aligned and used to colorise both luminance channels. The glass in both the lens and the teleconverter is Japanese made, and they're both "EX" graded, meaning its their highest quality... my guiding was at around 1"/px.. well below the pixel resolution of the setup on the QHY268M at BIN1x1... being 2.5" & 5"/pixel. Unfortunately the 2X teleconverter has distorted the stars into a "epsilon" or "E" shape, even in the middle of the frame... ...where as the stars are round in all subs without the converter... so I don't think that using a teleconverter is a good idea to use for astrophotography... at least not this teleconverter. Thanks for looking... now I'll target Saturn at earliest possibility. Clear Skies, MG

I've had a zoom EP on my radar for a while now, ease of use and more time actually observing is important to me. So when a second hand Pentax came up on SGL no less and at a very affordable price I couldn't resist. Specifications I will use the first light optics link so you can read up on it a bit more here's the link: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/pentax/pentax-xl-8-24mm-zoom.html First impressions What can I say it's certainly a big eyepiece but not as heavy as I thought it would be. It feels solid and just oozes quality, nothing in the design of the EP has been compromised or overlooked. When I first turned the EP so the ER went from the least to full extent it felt so smooth I smiled to myself same for the magnification which felt almost as smooth very reassuring. First session Telescope - Celeston Nexstar 6SE I setup for my session same way I always do no changes what so ever on how I position the tube on my stand. I did use a higher mag then what I usually do around the 17mm mark rather then 25mm and honestly I've never had more accurate alignment. When putting the eyepiece in the diagonal I was very careful to tighten the pins enough and make sure the line which shows what mag it's at was facing up. So onto my targets first up was Saturn, really good detail on the rings I could definitely see different shades of colour and the rings were simply breathtaking. I could make out 2 of the moons fairly easily but my attention was mainly focused on the planet. Conditons allowed me to go up to around 10mm anymore and the degradation was apparent immediately this did improve later on in the night. The Pentax was extremely forgiving on we're I positioned my eye I did use the ER to the max setting. Comfort was immediately apparent, no blackouts or any sort of trouble finding my correct eye position. I did try observing with my glasses on but I've never been comfortable with wearing my glasses during observations. I think you could definitely use this EP with glasses on but not for me. Next on my list was the moon I added my moon filter and started at 24mm. The moon had a very detailed cool look about it, the craters and mountain ranges along the terminator were almost 3D it was stunning. What I also found within the first 20 minutes of observing was the zoom mechanism was very easy to use almost intuitive along with focusing as your increasing mag it all seemed very natural. I also popped in my 2x Barlow just to see if I could, I managed to get up to 12mm which would be around 6mm with the Barlow and the views were still pin sharp, it was like I was on a mission to the moon incredible. For my last observations of the night I chose M13/M52. M13 was stunning as always but what became more apparent was the crisp and detailed view of the stars and surrounding star field. I was able to identify a lot more then a low/med/high intensity of brightness for each star. I tried to portray this in my observational sketch and the actual cluster I've never seen it so prominent or big as it was at 17.5mm. M52 this was my first observation of this stunning open cluster. Immediately apparent again was all the stars were pinpoint and sharp throughout. I kept my mag at 24mm and for the first time felt a bit constricted with the 40 degree field of view but what made up for it was the detail and contrast sharp across the field and a lovely dark background stunning. Conclusion I was going to do a pros/cons section but I soon realised I don't have enough cons. As far as I can tell there's 2 cons price and fov. If I'm honest the price is justified 1 EP which is magically 7 and fov I believe is personal taste to an extent. Fov was only an issue for me at 24mm when observing an open cluster and to be honest I expected this. What was apparent through out was how easy it all was, how clear crisp and detailed everything was. The zoom mechanism adjusting your focus all went hand in hand. The comfort factor was huge not once was I frustrated with eye position or reflecting light artificial or natural/moon. So I'm very happy with my purchase, honestly I can't see why everyone hasn't got a zoom? Here are a few pics of the Pentax for your viewing pleasure. Thank you for reading my review. Clear skies ✨???? Richard

Nebulae and Clusters in the North East quadrant of the Small Magellanic Cloud ( Tucana Constellation ) ( NGC 292, 299, 306, 330, 346, 411, 416, 422 ) by Mike O'Day ( 500px.com/MikeODay ) The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a small spiral galaxy about 7000 light years in diamater and is one of our near neighbours. At 'only' around 200,000 light years distance, it shines brightly in the southern sky and is clearly visible to the naked eye even in moderately ligh polluted skies. Links: 500px.com/MikeODay photo.net/photos/MikeODay Details: This image ~ RA 1h 2m, Dec -72deg 2'. Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian. Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount. Orion Short Tube 80mm guide scope & auto guider - PHD2. Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector & UHC-S 'nebula' filter. Nikon D5300 (unmodified). Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90. 59 x 200 sec ISO 800 over two nights. Pixinsight & Photoshop 9 September 2015 & 11 October 2015 ( processed 11 Oct 2015 )

Nebulae and Clusters in the North East Quadrant of the Small Magellanic Cloud ( Tucana Constellation ) ( Contains: NGC 292, 299, 306, 330, 346, 361, 371, 395, 411, 416, 422 & IC 1611, 1612, 1624, 1641 ). The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a "small" spiral galaxy about 7000 light years in diameter and is one of our near neighbours. At 'only' around 200,000 light years distance, it shines brightly in the southern sky and is clearly visible to the naked eye even in moderately ligh polluted skies. Links: https://500px.com/MikeODay http://photo.net/photos/MikeODay Details: Image centre ~ RA 1h 2m, Dec -72deg 2' Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount Orion Short Tube 80mm guide scope & auto guider PHD2 Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector & UHC-S 'nebula' filter Nikon D5300 (unmodified) Long exposure noise reuduction on Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90 38 x 200 sec ISO 800 over two nights Pixinsight & Photoshop 11 & 12 October 2015 (re-processed 9 Apr 2016 )

Had some fun with my old Takumar lens, it actually comes into focus quite nicely on my Atik manual filter wheel. 2 panels of only just half hour each... I have hardly seen a clear night in months Still this setup is extremely cheap and effective.. and quick!