Show us your set up in action at night.

[Nigella Bryant]

3 hours ago, orion25 said:

Love the dome shots. What size is it?

Hi, it's a 2.7m pulsar dome. 

[orion25]

3 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Hi, it's a 2.7m pulsar dome. 

Brilliant! Looks nice

[Nigella Bryant]

6 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Brilliant! Looks nice

I bought it second hand and restored it. There is a post about the restoration on SGL after I moved location to here. Restoration was just over two years ago but well worth it. 

[mcrowle]

Not many clear nights recently, but here's my 32-year old Celestron C8, piggybacking an astro-modded Canon 600D and Canon 70-300mm lens to image part of Auriga last night.

Regards, Mike.

[WolfieGlos]

Some very nice rigs in here… here’s my basic setup by comparison! Running a Canon 800Da, photographed with my 77d stock back in August. 

[Vroobel]

Hi, 

Sorry for an offtop, could you tell me - all guys who use diagonals during the astrophotography - why you do it? Every additional piece of glass in the path brings unwanted distortion and loss of light. If you need the optical length to focus, I suggest use of proper extension instead. Correct me please, if I'm wrong. 🤔

[mcrowle]

15 minutes ago, Vroobel said:

Hi, 

Sorry for an offtop, could you tell me - all guys who use diagonals during the astrophotography - why you do it? Every additional piece of glass in the path brings unwanted distortion and loss of light. If you need the optical length to focus, I suggest use of proper extension instead. Correct me please, if I'm wrong. 🤔

If you mean me, in the pic I'm imaging with the piggybacked lens and guiding with the C8. Yes, the C8 has a diagonal here, but I've never used one in the imaging train.

Regards, Mike.

[Vroobel]

Wow, the C8 works as the guider! That's biggest guider I ever saw!

Mike, you are not the only one showing pics with the diagonal in the path, so I asked in case if I missed something important. 

[mcrowle]

Yes, true the C8 is a bit over-the-top as a guider 😁.

To be honest I've only started auto-guiding this year, after 4 decades of manual guiding. I suppose I didn't think to remove the unnecessary diagonal as I always used one for comfort while guiding manually.

Regards, Mike.

[orion25]

Here are some new pics of imaging rig (Orion 180mm Mak, ASI224mc and laptop with Firecapture). Right now, I'm "focused" on Mars and took these shots Friday night as I was capturing some data:

Mars is at the top of the picture; Orion is rising on the right:

Can you see Orion??

And, of course, I had to include the fruit of my data collection:

 

Cheers!

Reggie🤩

 

 

[orion25]

16 hours ago, WolfieGlos said:

Some very nice rigs in here… here’s my basic setup by comparison! Running a Canon 800Da, photographed with my 77d stock back in August. 

Nice rig! Great shot!

Reggie

[orion25]

On 15/11/2022 at 16:23, paul mc c said:

Bit of planetary a couple of nights ago with the mak,lot of high cloud about.

Love your rig, Paul!

[wimvb]

10 hours ago, orion25 said:

Can you see Orion??

Cheers!

Reggie🤩

 

 

Quite obvious, actually

Edited November 20, 2022 by wimvb

[orion25]

12 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Quite obvious, actually

(Sorry, this was too good to let it pass. Fish and a barrel come to mind.)

LOL! Good catch, mate!

Edited November 20, 2022 by orion25
edit text

[Guest]

Well it wasnt quite dark when i took this picture and this was the first time i have had half a chance to set up my new to me XX16G.  I won't go as far as to say this is first light more of a test session to make sure i assembled it correctly.  Since it was 15 degrees out this was going to be a fast session and i just went for Jupiter and Saturn.  The difference between 10 inches and 16 inches definitely is a oh wow.  Things that were a little fuzzy with a ten inch are clear, crisp and full of detail.  Saturn gave up her rings and the divisions between them without pushing the magnification.  Once i learn how to use the beast I am going to have fun with this scope. 

[F15Rules]

Got Trinity the Tak FS128 out tonight as skies were unexpectedly clear (6pm)..

I've just cut 100mm off my fixed height hardwood tripod legs, to make seated observing more comfortable with my Nadira observing chair..it's now at an ideal height for most parts of the sky, I simply adjust the height of the chair as needed depending on the elevation of my target object.

Sadly the clear sky didn't last (3rd time in a week!), but I did get a nice 10 minute view of Jupiter with the binoviewers. Seeing wasn't great but 3 belts very prominent and all 4 main moons shown as nice little disks.

Just need a "proper" session now!

Dave

[Sunshine]

17 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Got Trinity the Tak FS128 out tonight as skies were unexpectedly clear (6pm)..

I've just cut 100mm off my fixed height hardwood tripod legs, to make seated observing more comfortable with my Nadira observing chair..it's now at an ideal height for most parts of the sky, I simply adjust the height of the chair as needed depending on the elevation of my target object.

Sadly the clear sky didn't last (3rd time in a week!), but I did get a nice 10 minute view of Jupiter with the binoviewers. Seeing wasn't great but 3 belts very prominent and all 4 main moons shown as nice little disks.

Just need a "proper" session now!

Dave

What a beauty, one day I will run across one of these fabled FS-128’s If it isn’t for sale I’ll have to make an offer they can’t refuse, even if it gets me I’m the dog house for a year. 

[MalcolmM]

12 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Got Trinity the Tak FS128 out tonight as skies were unexpectedly clear (6pm)..

I've just cut 100mm off my fixed height hardwood tripod legs, to make seated observing more comfortable with my Nadira observing chair..it's now at an ideal height for most parts of the sky, I simply adjust the height of the chair as needed depending on the elevation of my target object.

Sadly the clear sky didn't last (3rd time in a week!), but I did get a nice 10 minute view of Jupiter with the binoviewers. Seeing wasn't great but 3 belts very prominent and all 4 main moons shown as nice little disks.

Just need a "proper" session now!

Dave

That's a beautiful setup. That deserves a posting in the 'pretty telescope' thread. I'd vote it number one 🙂

[F15Rules]

1 hour ago, MalcolmM said:

That's a beautiful setup. That deserves a posting in the 'pretty telescope' thread. I'd vote it number one 🙂

Thanks Malcolm, that's very kind.. I must say I love looking at this scope almost as much as looking through her!😊

Here's two more shots I took just after my short session.

Dave

Edited November 24, 2022 by F15Rules

[orion25]

17 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Thanks Malcolm, that's very kind.. I must say I love looking at this scope almost as much as looking through her!😊

Here's two more shots I took just after my short session.

Dave

I heartily agree with Malcolm. That is one gorgeous piece of kit!

Regards,

Reggie

[Froeng]

I finally have all components together to use my “new to me” Avalon Linear mount. After a beautiful blue sky since this morning (!), the sky clouded over after I had built everything up and it was dark enough outside…

[F15Rules]

29 minutes ago, Froeng said:

I finally have all components together to use my “new to me” Avalon Linear mount. After a beautiful blue sky since this morning (!), the sky clouded over after I had built everything up and it was dark enough outside…

That mount and scope looks The Business!👍

Is the scope a Mak or SCT?

We had identical weather all day here in Lincolnshire, beautiful blue skies til dark, then varying levels of cloud moved in this evening.

I still went out and did get a few tantalisingly good glimpses of Mars..with a red filter the northern polar cap was evident at the 1 o'clock position, and large darker land masses across the southern part of the disk..

Dave

[Froeng]

6 hours ago, F15Rules said:

That mount and scope looks The Business!👍

Is the scope a Mak or SCT?

We had identical weather all day here in Lincolnshire, beautiful blue skies til dark, then varying levels of cloud moved in this evening.

I still went out and did get a few tantalisingly good glimpses of Mars..with a red filter the northern polar cap was evident at the 1 o'clock position, and large darker land masses across the southern part of the disk..

Dave

Thanks Dave!

The OTA is my 1980s C8 with original plastic dew shield.

Regards

Frank

[Ian McCallum]

A second hand Prinz Astral 500 refractor (60mm), that I got a few weeks ago. 

I managed to get a view of the moon with some cheap and nasty H20mm and H6mm ebay eyepieces. I also clapped eyes on Jupiter and could just about make out the two equatorial belts with the 6mm H eyepiece! 😮

Using a 0.965" to 1.25" eyepiece adapter and a 25mm MA plus a 9mm MA, certainly improved things. The views were less restrictive... 

I'll be giving this to my friend down in Morecambe, for terrestrial viewing. He overlooks the sea with views out to Morecambe Bay. 😉

[fireballxl5]

A brief session observing big J using my Lyra 80mm f15 scope with 8mm Delos on my newly motorised AZ100.  Great🙂