Show us your set up in action at night.

[Nigella Bryant]

Saturn and Jupiter session this evening. 

[Captain Scarlet]

On 01/12/2023 at 11:59, josefk said:

i forget what my Finnish colleagues call snow - not the snow itself per se but something about its affect on bouncing light around once it arrives in the darkest winter months. Do you have a similar saying/concept in Sweden?

I put this to my cousin, and I’ve screenshotted her reply. I tried to copy/paste her response but the app went haywire. Any of her phrases/words ring a bell? (Bear in mind for pronunciation the letter “y” is pronounced like a short “oo”, it’s sort of a vowel.

[Stu]

Basil out tonight on the EQ Platform, looking at Jupiter. Carefully placed box of Allen keys to add a little more weight to the base as there was a bit of a breeze at times!

[WolfieGlos]

Aimed up at Orion tonight with the Starfield 102, gathering more data on M78 which I started over a month ago 🙄

A lovely clear sky tonight on a night when we were meeting with friends…. Social events and clear nights….just typical. Fortunately it clouded over just as we went out and cleared up just after we got back! 🤣

I’ve got a 200mm lens mounted on the top of the tube rings at the moment thanks to a second hand Altair Astro lens holder (cheers @Stuf1978!), although it’s not in use due to the lens producing unusual, yet rather festive looking, Christmas tree shaped stars! I haven’t had the time to take it off and test it separately yet after some discussion elsewhere on SGL. Hopefully with the Moon phase I’ll get an opportunity to test it properly and hopefully utilise its f2.8 aperture.

[Sunshine]

Moon is in an inconvenient spot but still reachable.

[900SL]

On 08/12/2023 at 14:01, Captain Scarlet said:

I put this to my cousin, and I’ve screenshotted her reply. I tried to copy/paste her response but the app went haywire. Any of her phrases/words ring a bell? (Bear in mind for pronunciation the letter “y” is pronounced like a short “oo”, it’s sort of a vowel.

First clear night in weeks/months here. Great!

Dragged all the gear onto the Rock.

Router played up and had continual disconnects, so scrambled around for a patch cable and got it working. Then the wind picked up to around 30km/hr and the guiding was all over the place. Got 4 hrs subs on the Pacman and they look like Heinz tomato soup with a seaweed garnish. Had a beer.

 

Finnish word is Perkele, said in an explosive manner

 

 

 

[Sunshine]

On 07/12/2023 at 18:11, Nigella Bryant said:

Saturn and Jupiter session this evening. 

Somebody call NASA, ask if they’re missing a telescope! 

[Nigella Bryant]

7 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Somebody call NASA, ask if they’re missing a telescope! 

Shush, keep it quiet, lol 😆 

[Vroobel]

Is it a game-changer?

Askar FMA230, ASI2600MM-Pro, ZWO 7x2" EFW, Optolong 2" HSO & LRGB and Astro-Gadget AstroPC Pro (reviewed by Cuiv The Lazy Geek) with NINA. The Evoguide 50ED was swapped with ZWO 30F4.

Clouds, clouds, clouds... After over a week of learning the NINA, I try at least to run an offset calculator.

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Vroobel

[JeremyS]

Hoping it remains clear for this evening’s GRS transit

[Sunshine]

4 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Hoping it remains clear for this evening’s GRS transit

Love this shot, looks much bigger than a 210 in this image.

[Astronomist]

It's hard to compose photos in the dark. 

Here's my 10" cooling down, ready for my first session in almost 3 weeks. please just imagine the top and bottom parts of the telescope are in the frame. Note also the elegant observing chair and accessory table.

And yes, that is parcel tape holding the rockerbox together.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Astronomist

[SwiMatt]

Another winter look for those who like the snow.

[Icesheet]

Here’s a short timelapse of my rig in action 🔭 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 7 by Icesheet
Uploaded in different format

[Stu]

FS-128 on AZ100 Goto/Planet. Looking at clouds mainly 🤪

[RobertI]

1 hour ago, Icesheet said:

Here’s a short timelapse of my rig in action 🔭 

 

 

 

 

Fantastic time lapse! 👍

[mcrowle]

My 12” Newtonian, out imaging M81 and M82 last night, shortly before the secondary dewed over. I’m adding more data this evening.

Regards, Mike.

[Nigella Bryant]

Had a four hour stint on Jupiter last night.

[Vroobel]

1 hour ago, mcrowle said:

My 12” Newtonian, out imaging M81 and M82 last night, shortly before the secondary dewed over. I’m adding more data this evening.

Regards, Mike.

It's time to think about a dew heater... 🙂

[mcrowle]

46 minutes ago, Vroobel said:

It's time to think about a dew heater... 🙂

Yes, perhaps! I don’t have dew issues here often though. Actually I was imaging the same galaxies tonight with no issues even after several hours. The humidity was certainly lower than last night.

Regards, Mike.

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, mcrowle said:

Yes, perhaps! I don’t have dew issues here often though. Actually I was imaging the same galaxies tonight with no issues even after several hours. The humidity was certainly lower than last night.

Regards, Mike.

I have found that a standard dew shield is adequate for protecting the secondary in a Newtonian. I experience heavy dew from time to time and the shield has worked for me. A heater will cause warm air currents which won't really help with imaging IMO.

Edited January 8 by bosun21

[Vroobel]

5 hours ago, bosun21 said:

I have found that a standard dew shield is adequate for protecting the secondary in a Newtonian. I experience heavy dew from time to time and the shield has worked for me. A heater will cause warm air currents which won't really help with imaging IMO.

I cannot agree. I'm imaging with heaters attached to every my scope and the heat doesn't affect the subs in any visible in the final image way. My 10" F/5 Newtoninan has the heater installed permanently on its secondary mirror. The longer the sub the better (e.g. 300s narrowband and 30s broadband). It affects a visual observation and planetary imaging, but it's different thing. I'm not observer, but I experienced it in a beginning of my hobby. The DSLR says that's not the case. 🙂

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, Vroobel said:

I cannot agree. I'm imaging with heaters attached to every my scope and the heat doesn't affect the subs in any visible in the final image way. My 10" F/5 Newtoninan has the heater installed permanently on its secondary mirror. The longer the sub the better (e.g. 300s narrowband and 30s broadband). It affects a visual observation and planetary imaging, but it's different thing. I'm not observer, but I experienced it in a beginning of my hobby. The DSLR says that's not the case. 🙂

Thanks for that. I knew that it could affect visual observing and presumed that this would be amplified in DSO imaging. I stand corrected.

[Mr Spock]

Dew heaters may be ok for DSO imaging, but not for planetary. I attended a lecture by Damien Peach a while ago and he said he would never use dew heaters as they cause low level tremor in the image blurring detail. He uses a hair dryer. Same for visual - I have a dew heater but it's only on to clear any dew and that is rare. Most of the time it's off.

[Vroobel]

That's it. During the planetary imaging we tend to get as much calm air in front of the scope as possible. I placed below what happens when the secondary mirror heater is turned on. I was imaging Mars, if I'm not wrong, so I had to turn it off and wait a while to let the mirror cool down. In the meantime, it's OK for DSO, because you record its average view. I didn't analyse the same DSO images taken during a dry night vs. a humid one, but the final image is always good as long, as you use a quality stuff. In my location the moisture affects my pics (and my fun) much stronger then any tiny distortion in the image caused by the heat.