Show us your set up in action at night.

[Mr Thingy]

Miraculously it is a another clear night - second in a row. Imaging rig set up for more Ha imaging on the Rosette nebula, I have a coffee and a chocolate brownie, and some great views of the moon in my other scope. 🥳

Edited February 27, 2021 by Mr Thingy

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Here is the wide-field rig in action 

[markse68]

had a little play with new scope and cameras this evening- getting to grips with the very basics. It was quite hazy but not too cold which was nice.  Good news is Sharpcap polar alignment is pretty great- its easy and seems to work! And the Bahtinov mask is a genius thing! It works too  I synchronised the focus of the main camera with the asi120 on the oag so i can use the little Asi which has a much faster frame  rate to focus them both- seems to work quite well.

Mark

[AstroNebulee]

My dslr set up in my flats communal area earlier this evening before the moon rose. Trying a new settings procedure with my Omegon lx2 mini track & Canon 450d unmodded, took 28 subs at 1600 iso 3.5f 1min before the moon started to wash out the sky and make the subs to bright but achieved a good histogram about 1/4 to the right. So hopefully with the moon rising later moro and hopefully clear skies I'll try more subs again at these settings or 800iso. Took the binos out with me whilst the dslr was clicking away, saw pleiades, beehive cluster, M35 with averted vision and think a hint of M31 with very averted vision. Edit 1.3.21 including tonight's set up inspired by @knobbyimage of his astro set up, I've managed to get about 50 mins of data on Orion tonight with the same set up as last night just more subs this time, before the moon popped up, will process them moro when I'm thinking we are due to have cloud here, plus my online grocery shop is coming. Clear skies

Edited March 2, 2021 by LeeHore7
Additional information

[knobby]

Not been out for quite some time but grabbed this last night .

Looks quite funky but the cream colour of the white mount is from a bit of tungsten lighting indoors, the red and blue bits are from the volt and amp readings on the power bank .

Edited February 28, 2021 by knobby

[Sunshine]

1 hour ago, knobby said:

Not been out for quite some time but grabbed this last night .

Looks quite funky but the cream colour of the white mount is from a bit of tungsten lighting indoors, the red and blue bits are from the volt and amp readings on the power bank .

Love it,  your setup in action image is an astro photo itself! you've killed two birds with one stone.

[knobby]

Must admit, I do like it ... Pixel 4a using astro mode.

Just wish I'd have moved a bit as the mount is hiding Orion .

[Paul M]

Here is the Beast asteroid hunting.

[F15Rules]

On 16/02/2021 at 21:53, JeremyS said:

Mainly in the observatory doing CCD photometry, but couldn’t resist getting the Tak FS 60Q on the ScopeTech + Berlebach Report out for a quick look around. So I grabbed and went 🤣👍🏻

How did you "grab and went" with no handle Jeremy?🤔😊

Dave

[F15Rules]

On 25/02/2021 at 21:01, Stu said:

A few of Florence who is out for a run around tonight. Just a lunar session most likely, maybe a few doubles later. The cloud seems to have cleared, but the seeing is quite variable. Still, nice to see Schröter’s valley again.

I was using my Nag Zooms earlier but then fiddled around with binoviewers for a while until I got them working at high power, much better views, far fewer floaters!

A thing of beauty Stu!👍😊

Dave

[F15Rules]

Had the FS128 out all day on Friday as I was painting the floor of the outbuilding she lives in..saw the almost full moon rising behind one of our trees..also a shot of the refurbished barn outbuilding with new concrete floor now painted and sealed.

(I did stop out for a nice session on Orion, but the moon was literally too painfully bright to view directly!)

Dave

Edited March 16, 2021 by F15Rules

[F15Rules]

One more..this is my avatar pic which I took a couple of years ago..I just like the way the shadow fell on the scope.

Dave

[JeremyS]

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

How did you "grab and went" with no handle Jeremy?🤔😊

Dave

Carefully, Dave 😊

[Dark Vader]

A quick break from "M42ing".

[jock1958]

3 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Had the FS128 out all day on Friday as I was painting the floor of the outbuilding she lives in..saw the almost full moon rising behind one of our trees..also a shot of the refurbished barn outbuilding with new concept floor now painted and sealed.

Nice clutter free man shed Dave and a tidy paint job on the floor! 

[Sunshine]

24 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Nice clutter free man shed Dave and a tidy paint job on the floor! 

I was thinking the same thing, put a television and, a comfy seat in there and I will rent it from you when I visit the U.K, no kidding.

[F15Rules]

11 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

I was thinking the same thing, put a television and, a comfy seat in there and I will rent it from you when I visit the U.K, no kidding.

And you would be very welcome, Eddie😊🇨🇦

[Sunshine]

3 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

And you would be very welcome, Eddie😊🇨🇦

I must add, that FS128 is stunning! I wasn't aware a 128 existed as i thought the TSA-120 has always been the end of the line before the "TOA" series. It is an older scope I guess, is it a fluorite? if so, a 128 fluorite must be

about all an amateur can ask for.

[F15Rules]

3 hours ago, Sunshine said:

I must add, that FS128 is stunning! I wasn't aware a 128 existed as i thought the TSA-120 has always been the end of the line before the "TOA" series. It is an older scope I guess, is it a fluorite? if so, a 128 fluorite must be

about all an amateur can ask for.

Yes, my 128 dates from 1999 and it is mounted on a Tak EM2 equatorial dating from 1998 (think sophisticated version of the great Vixen GPDX)..some more info:

"The FS range of refractors were introduced in the 1990s and included 60mm, 78mm, 102mm, 128mm and 152mm models, all with F8 fluorite doublets. The odd one out was the FS-60 which is an F6 and the only one still in production.

As well as a shared optical design, the F8 models all had a similar tube and focuser and family ‘look’. Most had fixed dew-shields, all were bulky for their aperture. All had a strange but classy cast ‘manhole cover’ dew cap that slid into the dewshield with a perfect fit on a felt shim." Source: Roger Vine, scopereviews.co.uk

The FS description refers to "Front Surface", as the fluorite element is positioned at the front of the doublet: this was considered by Takahashi as the optimum positioning for the fluorite element to maximise performance, however until the FS range, the coating technology at that time wasn't sufficient to properly protect the expensive fluorite lens. That changed with this FS range and the introduction of hard coatings, and  many owners consider that this was one of the best apo doublets ever designed. The manual actually encourages magnifications of up to 500x on the best nights - however, sadly the UK conditions just don't support that. I have however used powers up to c 335x on good nights.

Dave

Edited March 1, 2021 by F15Rules

[dweller25]

Nice scopes these FS128’s......

 

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by dweller25

[Deadlake]

14 minutes ago, dweller25 said:

Nice scopes these FS128’s......

 

 

Nice scope. Tennis ball bumpers or something else? 

[dweller25]

41 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

Nice scope. Tennis ball bumpers or something else? 

Bumpers -  wife had ankle surgery and then caught it on the protruding foot plates 😔

[Sunshine]

36 minutes ago, dweller25 said:

Bumpers -  wife had ankle surgery and then caught it on the protruding foot plates 😔

I figured you lost your scope in the dark yard at night, bright tennis balls are easy to spot. 😂

Is that  GP DX mount? I have a GP and always wondered if i could comfortably mount a scope in the 120 range on it, if i ever run into a TSA-120 do you feel that my Vixen GP would handle it well?. Can the "DX" version 

handle more load than the GP? interesting because I see folks load their GP mounts beyond what I would feel comfortable doing, maybe I am underestimating the GP. 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Sunshine

[A McEwan]

26 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

I figured you lost your scope in the dark yard at night, bright tennis balls are easy to spot. 😂

Is that  GP DX mount? I have a GP and always wondered if i could comfortably mount a scope in the 120 range on it, if i ever run into a TSA-120 do you feel that my Vixen GP would handle it well?. Can the "DX" version 

handle more load than the GP? interesting because I see folks load their GP mounts beyond what I would feel comfortable doing, maybe I am underestimating the GP. 

I've had an Equinox ED120 on mine and that was plenty sturdy enough. Nothing larger/heavier than that though. I mean it didn't even notice a 6" f8 Newtonian, but refractors are heavier so...  I hear tell that FS128s might be more of a challenge though.... (hope to find out one day!)  

Ant

[dweller25]

47 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

I figured you lost your scope in the dark yard at night, bright tennis balls are easy to spot. 😂

Is that  GP DX mount? I have a GP and always wondered if i could comfortably mount a scope in the 120 range on it, if i ever run into a TSA-120 do you feel that my Vixen GP would handle it well?. Can the "DX" version 

handle more load than the GP? interesting because I see folks load their GP mounts beyond what I would feel comfortable doing, maybe I am underestimating the GP. 

It is a GP-DX (10kg rating) and holds the FS128 well.

Personally I would not put a TSA120 on a GP (7kg rating), but the GP-DX would be fine.

Edited March 1, 2021 by dweller25