Show us your set up in action at night.

[John]

Surprise clear night tonight, moonless too, for now. Got the 12 inch dob out and it's cold but pretty clear and dark out there. Scope is close enough to the house for the dining room table to be the accessory tray

Eskimo nebula at 338x with the UHC filter is exquisite

 

[Mr Thingy]

A rare cloudless night; first for a month, so I put it to good use imaging, as well as observing with some binos.

Silly me didn't think about location and my target went behind the house after about 1hr of imaging. But lots of positives to take from only my second outing with this rig: plate solving worked this time, polar alignment routines in NINA worked a treat, and the EAF worked perfectly on it's first outing. 

I must get a nice cushion though as my metal seats weren't the best when -1C. 

 

[Sunshine]

26 minutes ago, Mr Thingy said:

A rare cloudless night; first for a month, so I put it to good use imaging, as well as observing with some binos.

Silly me didn't think about location and my target went behind the house after about 1hr of imaging. But lots of positives to take from only my second outing with this rig: plate solving worked this time, polar alignment routines in NINA worked a treat, and the EAF worked perfectly on it's first outing. 

I must get a nice cushion though as my metal seats weren't the best when -1C.

Nice! great looking setup, your camera looks like it means business, nothing but clouds for me almost six weeks now.

[tooth_dr]

I still often take a photo of my dome at night, the novelty hasn’t worn off yet 🤷‍♂️🙈

Even the Ha filter struggled here.

 

 

[Mr Thingy]

36 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I still often take a photo of my dome at night, the novelty hasn’t worn off yet 🤷‍♂️🙈

Even the Ha filter struggled here.

 

 

Fantastic setup! 

I was also shooting around Orion in Ha. It looked OK in the preview but the truth will be told when I (attempt to) process the images later.

[geordie85]

Last night I was trying to get some narrowband data on the cone nebula. I don't think the moon is gonna make things easy. Scopes are aligned using the skywatcher guide scope mount. It is struggling as I'm getting slight drift with the flt98.

Ha on the esprit, o111 and s11 on the flt98.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Somewhere in the world someone is reading Turn Left at Orion...

... while taking a break from looking through a superb Altair Astro Starwave Ascent 102 f7. 👍

[JeremyS]

23 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Somewhere in the world someone is reading Turn Left at Orion...

... while taking a break from looking through a superb Altair Astro Starwave Ascent 102 f7. 👍

I hope the flash didn’t destroy your night vision 😊

Great to see your new kit in action already 👍🏻

[Nigella Bryant]

I can't see a thing at night through my scope's, lol.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

I hope the flash didn’t destroy your night vision 😊

Great to see your new kit in action already 👍🏻

It's never that dark unfortunately. Just after the flash I spent a while observing the lunar northern limb so no harm done. 👍

[VNA]

On 26/01/2021 at 00:59, Mr Thingy said:

still often take a photo of my dome at night, the novelty hasn’t worn off yet 🤷‍♂️🙈

Even the Ha filter struggled here.

 

Great picture of your dome with a full moon and snow on the ground?

 

It makes me think of old western movies, pretending it is night but filmed during the day with filters!

The shadow of your dome is so well defined.

[Peco4321]

My new Heq5 pro with my 150p.
 

The shower caps are for 2 reasons, mostly to keep creepy crawlies out in the shed, but I’ve also heard they may stop any stray light leaking onto the primary mirror.  Not convinced but worth a go  

[orion25]

On 26/01/2021 at 03:20, tooth_dr said:

I still often take a photo of my dome at night, the novelty hasn’t worn off yet 🤷‍♂️🙈

Even the Ha filter struggled here.

 

 

Absolute winners here! I especially love the last image  

[tooth_dr]

8 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Absolute winners here! I especially love the last image  

Thank you Reggie. 

[John]

Rather  mixed forecast tonight but I can see Mars so I have put a refractor out:

 

 

[Deadlake]

4 minutes ago, John said:

Rather  mixed forecast tonight but I can see Mars so I have put a refractor out:

 

 

Shifted to after midnight for clear skies, well lets hope it shifts back to an earlier time.

[saac]

On 30/01/2021 at 22:53, Nigella Bryant said:

I can't see a thing at night through my scope's, lol.

That is some light pollution you have there  Nigella   Love your setup. 

Jim 

[Nigella Bryant]

8 minutes ago, saac said:

That is some light pollution you have there  Nigella   Love your setup. 

Jim 

Thanks, I know I can see even to read the manuals, lol. 

[John]

30 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

Shifted to after midnight for clear skies, well lets hope it shifts back to an earlier time.

It's nice and clear here just now

Mars showing a crisp gibbous disk with some dark features in the S hemisphere at 400x.

Found the nice triple star Pi Arietis near Mars. Component stars are mags 5.3, 8.0 and 10.00 with separations of 3.2 and 24.1 arc seconds. Well worth a look

https://www.webbdeepsky.com/double-stars/object?object=pi%2BArietis

 

[AdeKing]

My ST102 was put outside to play tonight coupled with my AZGTi on my new to me Berlebach Report 723 tripod.

Had a nice couple of hours scanning around Orion, Cancer and Gemini.

[Telescope40]

Ade. Looks good fella. Delivery and a clear night as well.  👍👍

Trust it’s ok with the 102. Not quite up to it with my 102 frac when fully loaded 😢😢 Enjoy 

John 

[AdeKing]

22 minutes ago, Telescope40 said:

Ade. Looks good fella. Delivery and a clear night as well.  👍👍

Trust it’s ok with the 102. Not quite up to it with my 102 frac when fully loaded 😢😢 Enjoy 

John 

It was fine for me last night John, I was pleasantly surprised.

The ST102 is only an f/5 so relatively short, light and as I only use a 1.25" diagonal and EPs with a lightweight combination of a Rigel Quikfinder and 6x30 finder so nothing too taxing.

First impressions seem to suggest that the Report 723 is as stable as the big and heavy Manfrotto 058 I normally use, though it doesn't have the same payload capacity.

Review to follow if and when the clouds clear again 

[SuburbanMak]

In the immortal words of Depeche Mode:  

I'm waiting for the night to fall, I know that it will save us all, When everything's dark, keeps us from stark, Reality....

Although I don't think this is what they were on about but here's my Skymax 127. 

[CCD-Freak]

I found this selfie of myself imaging with a 8" f3.8 Newt at the Okie-Tex Star Party a few years ago.  I really enjoy the Bortle 1 sky out at the tip of the Oklahoma panhandle.

 

John Love
CCD-Freak
WD5IKX

[Peco4321]

Here’s some more including selfies.  It seems ages since I started this thread, 37 pages later it’s great to see everyone’s set up. Included is my first scope with the kids, the reason I got back into astronomy.