Show us your set up in action at night.

[Mr Thingy]

3rd clear night this week 😱 (I hope you were sitting for that). 

Managed to get enough Ha and OIII data on IC410 to get a colour image together (my processing skills need refinement but I'm enjoying learning the ropes). I had some dew appear late in the session, so the RGB I shot for the star colour were spoiled, hence some weird star tones. More data also needed, but that will be for next season now, since IC410 is getting too low.

For that reason I changed targets last night to PK 164 (headphone nebula). I wasn't sure how successful it would be, as it's very faint, but the preview showed the nebula clearly with 7.5 min subs in Ha and 10min in OIII. Looking forward to processing that over the weekend but for now I'm shooting a few hours worth of darks so I can negate the vibrant amp glow!

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Mr Thingy

[wimvb]

On 15/04/2021 at 22:21, wimvb said:

Ok, no kidding this time. The setup just before lights out. But still a long time before action, since astro darkness doesn't start until 11 pm up here. Fortunately, the moon is out of the way, still. One more week and imaging season will be over here.

Guiding RMS was <0.5" - 0.6" (with a dip at 0.38" for a minute or so) throughout the night last night, and I let it run until the sun came up. 🤩

[John]

Fat frac with a fat eyepiece

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Just been doing a little lunar viewing. Obviously still very bright but quite enjoyable watching the detail slowly appear.

Can anyone recommend a decent red dot finder for a frac?

[JeremyS]

18 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Just been doing a little lunar viewing. Obviously still very bright but quite enjoyable watching the detail slowly appear.

Can anyone recommend a decent red dot finder for a frac?

Decent is relative. I’ve tried many. Best is Baader SkySurfer V. Buts it’s a bit bulky.

I also use a SkySurfer III which is ok, but very poorly made compared with other Baader stuff. I had to glue mine when the base snapped off.

Of course there are non red dot finders that are popular, like Telrad. but they are also  bulky and too ugly for a beautiful scope like yours 🤣

[Sky-searcher]

44 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Just been doing a little lunar viewing. Obviously still very bright but quite enjoyable watching the detail slowly appear.

Can anyone recommend a decent red dot finder for a frac?

Hi Barry, John @Telescope40 has the ideal RDF for sale now in ads section. Use the same myself. 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

3 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Just been doing a little lunar viewing. Obviously still very bright but quite enjoyable watching the detail slowly appear.

Can anyone recommend a decent red dot finder for a frac?

The metal gunsight type does it for me. Bought used. Adjustable brightness, a choice of reticule and alignment necessitating a screwdriver or allen key, but once done it stays aligned until you get the screwdriver out.

 

@Barry-W-Fenner consider buying this. A good price.

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[gorann]

Up here at 60°N I have two more nights with 2-3 hours of astro darkness, so it is semifinal tonight and I have all my three obsies ready. On the starting line are two RASA 8 and one Meade 14" SCT. I usually never run more than two obsies in a night so I may be looking for trouble.......

[Ags]

Night draws in...

[Saganite]

The Moon is rock steady at 226x which bodes well for tonight so long as the clouds stay away.  Both my refractors lined up almost perfectly without adjustment, which was a nice surprise.

[Telescope40]

Hello.  My visual rig for some serious lunar tonite on AZ100  - for the first time in tandem 

John 

[John]

A simple rig and another with the moon in the eyepiece this evening

The seeing is superb just now.

[Barry-W-Fenner]

All set up for some lunar. The moon is already looking great at dusk through the 4.5mm morph. its rock steady and very clear. A nice sign!

I'm still debating changing the 9x50 finder as it's quite heavy I might go for the  Baader red dot mk3 as recommended by one of the pro's around here  @JeremyS

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by Barry-W-Fenner

[JeremyS]

9 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

All set up for some lunar. The moon is already looking great at dusk through the 4.5mm morph. its rock steady and very clear. A nice sign!

I'm still debating changing the 9x50 finder as it's quite heavy I might go for the  Baader red dot mk3 as recommended by one of the pro's around here  @JeremyS

 

 

Actually, I probably damned it with faint praise, Barry 🤣

I find it to be the best of a bad bunch. I do use one on my Tak FS 60 Q, although I did have to fix it with some UHU when it snapped (the Baader SS III, not the Tak 🤣)

[Stu]

Yep, looking good out there, pretty steady here too, although some high cloud around. Not going to have a long session, just a bit on lunar.

[John]

The old ED120 is out this evening. Very nice lunar views. Thin high clouds here will probably not help deep sky stuff. Maybe some double stars later though ?

Edited April 20, 2021 by John

[JeremyS]

2 minutes ago, John said:

The old ED120 is out this evening. Very nice lunar views. Thin high clouds here will probably not help deep sky stuff. Maybe some double stars later though ?

I know you give each of your scopes equal billing, John, but are they used on a strict rotational basis?

[John]

10 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

I know you give each of your scopes equal billing, John, but are they used on a strict rotational basis?

Not a strict one but they all get used quite often. The 12 inch dob and the Tak 100 are probably the most used though. The Vixen 102 perhaps the least and about "honours even" between the ED120 and the TMB/LZOS 130.

If I ever wanted to reduce the number of scopes I own (and it has crossed my mind a few times) I would find it difficult to make the decision on which to part with. They each have characteristics that I'm very fond of

[Barry-W-Fenner]

34 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Actually, I probably damned it with faint praise, Barry 🤣

I find it to be the best of a bad bunch. I do use one on my Tak FS 60 Q, although I did have to fix it with some UHU when it snapped (the Baader SS III, not the Tak 🤣)

If its good enough to go on one of your Taks and get the Jeremy seal of approval it's good enough for me 😁

👍

[JeremyS]

1 minute ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

If its good enough to go on one of your Taks and get the Jeremy seal of approval it's good enough for me 😁

👍

Just make sure you have a tube of UHU ready 😊

[Barry-W-Fenner]

@Stu & @Johnwhat power are you viewing the moon at? I'm just enjoying it at x66 currently. Very sharp half moon in the full FOV. I will go for a deeper scan at around x120 shortly.

Lots of cloud now. Even Sirius has vanished 😢

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by Barry-W-Fenner

[John]

40 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

@Stu & @Johnwhat power are you viewing the moon at? I'm just enjoying it at x66 currently. Very sharp half moon in the full FOV. I will go for a deeper scan at around x120 shortly.

Lots of cloud now. Even Sirius has vanished 😢

 

The thin cloud is a bit thicker here as well now but the moon is still showing well. Not many stars to be seen though !

I'm mostly using 191x with the ED120 currently. That seems to give a very sharp and contrasty view despite the thin cloud cover.

 

[laudropb]

Just set up for later this evening. Vixen 80 mm f11 achromatic. Quick session on the daylight Moon and hopefully a few doubles after it gets dark.

[Stu]

22 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

@Stu & @Johnwhat power are you viewing the moon at? I'm just enjoying it at x66 currently. Very sharp half moon in the full FOV. I will go for a deeper scan at around x120 shortly.

Lots of cloud now. Even Sirius has vanished 😢

 

I was using x200 and x300 roughly last night in the 8”. It’s hard to work out exactly with binoviewers and barlows/GPCs etc.

I found that there was a slow wobble to the seeing, but that it still allowed plenty of detail to be seen, not the horrid ‘running water’ effect you get with the Jetstream overhead which hides everything.

[paul mc c]

Bit of luna tonight.... looks nice and steady, but as we all know, that could change. And the result...

Edited April 21, 2021 by paul mc c