Show us your set up in action at night.

[Swoop1]

On 07/01/2024 at 09:23, Stu said:

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

You have fitted the dew shield upside down 🤪

[Stu]

17 minutes ago, Swoop1 said:

You have fitted the dew shield upside down 🤪

Actually now I have the rotatable focuser I’ll be able to fix that! 👍

[CCD-Freak]

18 hours ago, Vroobel said:

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

Looking forward to seeing your image.  I recently picked up one of those 12" F4 OTAs but have not had much clear sky to test it.

 

 

[F15Rules]

"Show us your set up in action at night."

Ok..☺️

Tak FS128 & Vixen 80mm F15..

What?? 

Dave

Edited January 8 by F15Rules

[JeremyS]

5 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

"Show us your set up in action at night."

Ok..☺️

What?? 

Dave

Your storage area seems to be haunted by the Ghost of Handle Past. 👻 

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

Here's mine, it was really dark that night.

 

[mcrowle]

17 hours ago, CCD-Freak said:

Looking forward to seeing your image.  I recently picked up one of those 12" F4 OTAs but have not had much clear sky to test it.

 

 

Thanks. Here's the result, 31 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 1600 taken over 2 nights.

Regards, Mike.

Edited January 9 by mcrowle

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

17 hours ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

Here's mine, it was really dark that night.

I was a bit unsure about sending that, a bit too much mickey take maybe. However the truth is: I wish!

Despite having a super mid moorland dark sky site about a half hour away, if I had actually taken a night time photo almost anytime this past six months it would have been a dismal opaque grey.

[F15Rules]

On 08/01/2024 at 19:32, JeremyS said:

Your storage area seems to be haunted by the Ghost of Handle Past. 👻 

You're correct Jeremy..

..in fact, I often go into that space on cloudy evenings to watch reruns of Spooks!!😱👽

[WolfieGlos]

Trying to make the most of tonight’s clear skies, but the winds are high and it’s very cold out there, although above freezing it feels like -5 according to clear outside. Seeing is not great at all, despite being in focus the star sizes are not great 😐

And that’s why I’ve got two rigs up and running, taking short exposures and hoping for the best. One is a simple SA with a small lens trying to get some wide field. Quite a high scrappage rate so far but hopefully some will be usable.

Things are also a lot better looking this way now after the council kindly put a shield on the streetlight seen across the road 😁

 

[gorann]

Got my dual-RASA 8 rig up and running in the obsy. Temperature is an agreeable -10°C after having been between -22° and -29°C for a week with Pu-in sending Siberian air flowing down over Scandinavia. My fingers really felt the difference.

[Vroobel]

On 25/12/2023 at 21:38, Vroobel said:

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.

 

 

I cannot say a bad word about the sky and air tonight. To be honest, I never experienced so good guiding with the PHD2. Earlier I tried an Astroberry (INDI) and it was very annoying, like a shark's teeth, later I used an ASIAir Plus and the total RMS often was below 0.4", even sometimes 0.3". Now I'm very happy with the NINA - the total RMS reached 0.43" tonight.

 

 

BTW, attempts of processing in the middle of the multi-night imaging prove that it is the game-changer.  

Edited January 9 by Vroobel

[PaulM]

Seestar S50 for imaging and Skywatcher 200P on an EQ5 for visual

Edited January 10 by PaulM

[bosun21]

Out again tonight for my first real session with my new dob. Captured a load of SER files of Jupiter. I then had a good 2 hours visual observing. It sure is cold though.

 

[cfinn]

Second clear night in a row after a month of incessant cloud and rain! Monitoring my rig from inside in the warm while it snaps away with a Wyze cam 🙂

[WolfieGlos]

Back out tonight resuming imaging the same targets.

Winds are a lot lower tonight so I decided to trail mounting a Canon 70-300L lens paired with a 585mc on top of the Starfield 102. At a zoom of 230 it gives a very similar FOV although vastly different resolutions. Controlled with 2 instances of NINA running, one controlling the whole setup and a second just the 585mc. If this works well I’ll be looking at a better, dedicated scope instead of the zoom lens. Maybe an FMA180 or SY135.

Also been outside observing with some Celestron 10x50 binos I’ve had for a number of years sat in a drawer. Tried last night but winds were too high to make it enjoyable, but tonight I had very pleasing views of the Pleiades and Hyades.

Definitely prefer the warmth of indoors, and letting the imaging rig do the work though! 

[pavel_s]

ES MN-152 Comet Hunter, Giro Ercole, Planet, temperature -10°C.

[Vroobel]

7 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Definitely prefer the warmth of indoors, and letting the imaging rig do the work though! 

Me too... 🙂

[WolfieGlos]

1 minute ago, Vroobel said:

Me too... 🙂

Haha, yeah, maximum respect for those outside with their scopes for visual and observing! 

[Sunshine]

2 hours ago, cfinn said:

Second clear night in a row after a month of incessant cloud and rain! Monitoring my rig from inside in the warm while it snaps away with a Wyze cam 🙂

Yes but you are unable to enjoy the night sky from inside the house! oh boy.

[Elp]

You can't enjoy the night sky period if it's always cloudy.

[RimuRidgeRakiura]

Third date with Doborah tonight. Best way to spend a Friday night. Currently waiting for things to cool down. Jupiter is a shimmering blob at the moment.

[Nikolai De Silva]

Clear skies today but a little washed out with the light pollution. Started by observing Jupiter. 6 moons were visible clearly with our 130p!  Next the Orion Nebula, clear and great. And finally Pleiades. Nice sky but windy.But no one take off this🙁😔

[John]

My trusty Takahashi FC100-DL eyeing Jupiter this evening. I seem to be using this setup for the vast majority of my observing lately probably because it's so simple and quick to setup and that it performs so well straight out of the house 🙂

 

[Sunshine]

28 minutes ago, John said:

My trusty Takahashi FC100-DL eyeing Jupiter this evening. I seem to be using this setup for the vast majority of my observing lately probably because it's so simple and quick to setup and that it performs so well straight out of the house 🙂

 

Amazing! I see you have the starlight feathertouch focuser, I am eyeing one of those for my 128 but I would like to know if it will will work as well with the 2.7” focuser.