The inaugural StuPOD, winner announced!

[Helen]

Tonight's effort - Venus through a 10mm Delos in the Tak 100DC on an alt az mount.  I really struggle to get the camera to see the image let alone focus.!!! How do others do it?  With an adapter??

Helen

[Stu]

Nice one Helen! It is recognisable as Venus so that's a win for today to you!

Where you using a smartphone?

[Helen]

Wow! Finally a POD ???

 Yes, a nexus 5 - exercise in frustration really, but no time to get any other equipment out.  Do you handhold Stu?

[Helen]

PS looked lovely visually in the scope ?

[johnfosteruk]

Well caught Helen, welcome to the club

 

[Stu]

9 hours ago, Helen said:

PS looked lovely visually in the scope ?

It did, didn't it? Managed a look with the Vixen while it was still twilight. Lovely crescent showing now.

[Mr Spock]

13 hours ago, Helen said:

 I really struggle to get the camera to see the image let alone focus.!!! How do others do it?  With an adapter??

Sounds like you have the same problem I have. It took ages just to get Venus in the field of view let alone get an image.

[Mognet]

Conditions weren't great last night, and mist and cloud were beginning to appear when I was packing away. But I did manage to capture Jupiter with the major moons just as it rose above the houses

Taken with a SW200P dob, 10mm EP and a Samsung Galaxy S6. Something seems to have eaten one of the moons though. It was there when looking through the eyepiece!

 

[Stu]

14 hours ago, Helen said:

Wow! Finally a POD ???

 Yes, a nexus 5 - exercise in frustration really, but no time to get any other equipment out.  Do you handhold Stu?

I normally do hand hold my phone Helen. I've played around with holder and they do work, but often I just can't be bothered to set them up and they unbalance the scope.

The trick is get the phone on the exit pupil from the eyepiece. Often this means holding it away from the exit lens a little way, you can sort of brace against the eyepiece with you finger to hold the camera in the right place. This cuts stray light out too.

I nearly gave Venus a try last night too, will do it next time to see how I get on.

[Stu]

Here is my winning entry for today, a lovely crescent Venus captured using an OMC140 Mak on a Vixen GP mount, with MT1 tracking motors.

This one was taken with a 9mm BGO, giving x222. Plenty of atmospheric CA to be seen, but the view was quite stable given a relatively short 1/2 hour cool down.

Posted in mono too, a great way to pretend there is no CA  

IMG_9507.TIF

EDIT The first image is showing as a link, can anyone see the image?

[cotterless45]

Is it a square Venus ?

[laudropb]

Can't see either of them Stu.

[sloz1664]

3 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Can't see either of them Stu.

Me neither

[Stu]

Uh oh, how do you know I'm not cheating? Not that it would matter because I'm the only judge  

Let me sort them out if I can.

Stu

[Stu]

Try these, might be lower res but you will get the idea.

[laudropb]

Thanks Stu. Very nice image.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Here's a couple doses of stupodity. First up, crescent Venus hand-held with £10 charity shop lens through double glazing.

(PrinzGalaxy 400mm f6.3 lens at f8, Canon 700D, 1/500th second at ISO 100, heavily cropped.)

And for dessert, Orion the Hunter caught in a sodium holocaust.

(30 second exposure with a fast lens, pointing towards London. There was a point to this, I took a set of identical exposures to compare the skies in SE Hertfordshire and Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.)

[Stub Mandrel]

50 minutes ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

(PrinzGalaxy 400mm f6.3 lens at f8, Canon 700D, 1/500th second at ISO 100, heavily cropped.)

I bought one of those secondhand in the early 1980s. I never used it much as their was a 'bloom' on one of the internal lenses.

Getting into AP I set to with some toothpaste - kill or cure, and lo! It cured it and I've got some half-decent results with it.

[Pondus]

Okay. This wont win any prices, but maybe interesting to see the difference in scale between Our Moon and Saturn, same Scope and eyepiece focal length.

Both Objects : Afocal, Samsung S4, Moon and Saturn through 8" manual dob, Hyperion zoom at 24mm (For visual use it gives 50x). Taken same night.

I Guess it is needless to say the images are totally unprocessed whatsoever.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Pondus
poor English

[Stub Mandrel]

This is all getting far too professional.

Here's my stupod entry, using my Nokia phone with my Bresser 70mm x 700mm frac. It had to be something bright, so I chose Sirius as my target.

[Stu]

On 15/03/2017 at 23:38, Pondus said:

Okay. This wont win any prices, but maybe interesting to see the difference in scale between Our Moon and Saturn, same Scope and eyepiece focal length.

Both Objects : Afocal, Samsung S4, Moon and Saturn through 8" manual dob, Hyperion zoom at 24mm (For visual use it gives 50x). Taken same night.

I Guess it is needless to say the images are totally unprocessed whatsoever.

On the contrary Pondus, you are a Winner!! That Saturn image is well worthy of a StuPOD! Well Done!  

[Stu]

On 15/03/2017 at 23:55, Stub Mandrel said:

This is all getting far too professional.

Here's my stupod entry, using my Nokia phone with my Bresser 70mm x 700mm frac. It had to be something bright, so I chose Sirius as my target.

That one's a bit of a pup Neil

High commended for you today  

[JOC]

Luna and Jupiter taken with a Samsung Galaxy S7 from my bathroom window - no processing, no telescope - does this count for an entry?

[barkis]

6 hours ago, JOC said:

Luna and Jupiter taken with a Samsung Galaxy S7 from my bathroom window - no processing, no telescope - does this count for an entry?

Does it for me, nicely framed  with plenty of decor to enhance the whole Image.      Now, did you turn the Bath Taps off? . 

[JOC]

57 minutes ago, barkis said:

Now, did you turn the Bath Taps off? .

Eeek............that might explain the damp patch on the ceiling - note to self - don't get distracted by Jupiter! LOL