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Hi there from Banbury, UK

BrownClaw

By BrownClaw
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BrownClaw

BrownClaw

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Hello everyone! :)

Just joined the forum; there are a lot of em out there but this one looks like the friendliest, and most well informed :icon_eek:

I've always been interested in space, but only recently have I been able to pursue astronomy when my wife bought me my first scope a couple of weeks ago. I have a Sky Watcher 130P GOTO and have already been enjoying the planets, moon, and DSO's (M31 being my fave so far).

I'll soon be getting my first imaging camera, nothing fancy at all (the Celestron NexImage CCD), and although I know it's not going to be all that great for DSO stuff, I wondered if anyone had any ideas about results I'll get with planets?

I'm currently using a 10mm EP with 2x Barlow to view Jupiter, and although I can see the moons, I'm not getting any surface features or banding at all...am I expecting too much from the scope? Or do you think that longer exposure time will reveal more detail? Same goes for Mars really, only Mars is much smaller at the moment :eek:

Thanks in advance for reading what I'm sure is a very common question :D All the best

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johnh

johnh

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Hello and welcome BC, an SPC900 is cheaper than a NexImage which is more or less the same webcam. Detail with Jupiter at such a low altitude will be difficult but make sure your 130 is collimated and has cooled down if brought out from indoors. With your scope you should be able to get some banding when seeing allows.

JohnH.

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brantuk

brantuk

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Hi BrownClaw - I had my spc900 moified by "astronomiser" - they also do the neximage as well - the sc1.5 mod will ive you long exposure, more sensitive chip, cooling fan, amp-off, etc... it's a reasonably cheap way into starting dso photography. Jupiters getting a bit low now for snapping. Get stellarium or skyviewcafe to see whats up - both free to d/l and loads of interesting features.

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BrownClaw

BrownClaw

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Hi BrownClaw - I had my spc900 moified by "astronomiser" - they also do the neximage as well - the sc1.5 mod will ive you long exposure, more sensitive chip, cooling fan, amp-off, etc... it's a reasonably cheap way into starting dso photography. Jupiters getting a bit low now for snapping. Get stellarium or skyviewcafe to see whats up - both free to d/l and loads of interesting features.

Hi everyone :)

I've just literally got in from the garden after watching Jupiter for 20 minutes before it went behind the neighbour's house. After taking your advice I spent an hour or so collimating my scope, and I was amazed to see my first surface features; a definite darker grey band just above the equator, with a secondary, fainter band just below the equator! If this is what Jupiter is like at low altitude, I can't wait to see when he's higher up :icon_eek:

I already have Stellarium (I picked this up with the ultimate hope of hooking the 130 up to the laptop - this is proving to be quite a mission though), but at the moment I'm using either Starry Night CSAP or Red Shift 7, depending on what mood I'm in :eek:

Thanks for the advice on the NexImage, also. I'm looking forward to discovering its limits and hopefully pushing them a little too!

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