Venus Feb 6th

[neil phillips]

Used a Astro essentials W47 violet filter, ( great price Flo)  stacked with a home built BG39. Phase a bit small to detect any UV. Elusive with this filter combination generally on account of its lower contrast.

But good to see the BG39 doing its job with no IR leak

Stella lyra 8" Classical Cassegrain. ZWO 178mm EQ5 pro mount

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by neil phillips

[johninderby]

Considering Venus was just above the horizon this morning a decent result. 👍🏻 

Edited February 5, 2022 by johninderby

[johninderby]

This will be interesting this June. 🙂

”June nights will host a spectacular alignment of the brighter planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all line up in the early morning sky. ”

[neil phillips]

9 minutes ago, johninderby said:

This will be interesting this June. 🙂

”June nights will host a spectacular alignment of the brighter planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all line up in the early morning sky. ”

That does sound spectacular doesnt it. Cheers for the heads up

[neil phillips]

56 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Considering Venus was just above the horizon this morning a decent result. 👍🏻 

Cheers two films added together. Just experimenting

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by neil phillips

[johninderby]

Edited February 5, 2022 by johninderby

[neil phillips]

1 minute ago, johninderby said:

What a nice time to happen June. Lets hope for clear weather

[johninderby]

4 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

What a nice time to happen June. Lets hope for clear weather

 

[morimarty]

A lovely capture of the inner planet Neil. I am really looking forward to seeing how this very interesting telescope performs on the planets this coming season, I know it's in more than capable hands. Just on a side note can I ask what size secondary mirror you used for the antares mod you did on the big newt. I've looked through the old posts but can not find any info. 50x70mm?

[neil phillips]

49 minutes ago, morimarty said:

A lovely capture of the inner planet Neil. I am really looking forward to seeing how this very interesting telescope performs on the planets this coming season, I know it's in more than capable hands. Just on a side note can I ask what size secondary mirror you used for the antares mod you did on the big newt. I've looked through the old posts but can not find any info. 50x70mm?

Hi Martin. Its been sometime i actually forgot. But finding the Report it is showing 1.83. Are you fitting one to a Newtonian ? 

[morimarty]

Hi Neil. Thanks for finding the report. That looks a very impressive secondary you have 1/30pv wave and a minor axis of 46.5mm. I can now see how you was getting great contrast in all your planetary images with the big newt. I think it is a great mod well worth doing. I actually have a SW250pds I use for deepsky imaging. I also have a after market orion optics uk secondary mirror of 1/8 wave with a minor axis of 50mm. So I am toying with the idea of giving it a go for planetary imaging. I know it will be short on focal length so I'll have a look on 12d string to see what my best options are. Thanks again.

[neil phillips]

33 minutes ago, morimarty said:

Hi Neil. Thanks for finding the report. That looks a very impressive secondary you have 1/30pv wave and a minor axis of 46.5mm. I can now see how you was getting great contrast in all your planetary images with the big newt. I think it is a great mod well worth doing. I actually have a SW250pds I use for deepsky imaging. I also have a after market orion optics uk secondary mirror of 1/8 wave with a minor axis of 50mm. So I am toying with the idea of giving it a go for planetary imaging. I know it will be short on focal length so I'll have a look on 12d string to see what my best options are. Thanks again.

Good luck with the mod. Tbh 1/30th is overkill. But the way i saw it. If i was going to bother ordering from America, i might as well guarantee the best secondary i could get. I didnt regret it.

Best option i guess, is try and get a good secondary with good edge performance. Then get the secondary size down as much as possible without stopping down the primary. Having said that if the primary had a bad edge even being slightly stopped down could help. If theres doubt on the edge quality of the secondary. Might be safer to go slightly larger.

Would love to build a planetary Newtonian. Zambuto optics Antares secondary. 12" F6.5 

[callisto]

On 05/02/2022 at 12:51, neil phillips said:

Used a Astro essentials W47 violet filter, ( great price Flo)  stacked with a home built BG39. Phase a bit small to detect any UV. Elusive with this filter combination generally on account of its lower contrast.

But good to see the BG39 doing its job with no IR leak

Stella lyra 8" Classical Cassegrain. ZWO 178mm EQ5 pro mount

 

Hi Neil, nice captures 👍

How does the EQ 5 handle with the 8" CC on it?

Mark.

[neil phillips]

1 hour ago, callisto said:

Hi Neil, nice captures 👍

How does the EQ 5 handle with the 8" CC on it?

Mark.

Hi Mark dont forget i image with the big long Newtonian. So in comparison the CC being lighter( I removed the losmandy plate) Shorter and lighter works much better. It seems to handle ok. Though of course a bigger mount would be better.

[callisto]

9 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

Hi Mark dont forget i image with the big long Newtonian. So in comparison the CC being lighter( I removed the losmandy plate) Shorter and lighter works much better. It seems to handle ok. Though of course a bigger mount would be better.

Ahh, good 👍

My 8" CC ride's on my ioptron CEM-25 with no problems at all, so was just curious how the EQ 5 performed 🙂

Mark.

[Pete Presland]

Nice Venus capture, that planetary alignment does look very interesting