SGL6 - Chat Thread

[malc-c]

Alex, by Rushes I mean the raw single images before any processing. The term came from the old film industry where it referred to the un-edited takes including the clapperboard etc.

One thing that I have realized from SGL6 is that I need a new camera... this is the best I could get (6 x 1250 ISO images stacked in Deepsky stacker, 2 x darks, and then tweeked in photoshop to bring out the structure) - far to much noise from the Olympus E500's CCD

[Voyager]

Me & my daughter really enjoyed the star party, there was some impressive kit on show, just like to thank the organizers for event & all the friendly stargazers, looking forward to next year.

Wayne

[stardad]

Home after an eventful drive and unpacking the car. Thank you to all at SGL6 that organised and made such a massive difference to a 9 year old that a dad couldn't. Not sure who did the talk on Saturday afternoon (ibbo's?) Its further my daughters delight by a mile.....

I'd also to say a big thank you to the people who were camped around us who shared there knowledge and excitement about the night sky's and allowed us to view some amazing images through their own equipment. So thanks AWR and Old Eyes.

Thanks Helen for the badges, colouring books and pencils. Brilliant. So well thought out and run for stargazers of all ages, making everyone welcome by the team and all I spoke to and met while there.

[red dwalf]

i would also like to give my thanks to everyone involved with the organisation of the event, well thought out, some great talks, some good weather and some nice clear skies although at times it looked iffy, see you at the next meet,

again thanks to all for all you efforts.

Rob

[Astrosurf]

Alex, by Rushes I mean the raw single images before any processing. The term came from the old film industry where it referred to the un-edited takes including the clapperboard etc.

One thing that I have realized from SGL6 is that I need a new camera... this is the best I could get (6 x 1250 ISO images stacked in Deepsky stacker, 2 x darks, and then tweeked in photoshop to bring out the structure) - far to much noise from the Olympus E500's CCD

Thanks Malcolm, I've learnt something.

Even with the noise I'd have loved to have got a pic like that! Hmmmm, keep forgetting about stacking with the RAW images. Better try that!

[drummerp]

Yet another great SGL star party, very well organised and you even brought the clear skys along for the last 3 nights.

Hopefully I've posted below my first ever 2 images of M42 and M13 un guided from the last couple of nights and must personally thank, Deano, Squiddy boy, Gnomey, Mick, Hankey, Ian and anyone else that helped me with setting up the new image rig. Hopefully it wont be long until I'm guiding.

Cheers

Neil

[drummerp]

The images I've posted above look really bad compared to the image I have saved on my PC, how should I save the image to be able to post on here without losing the quality?

Cheers

Neil

[newt]

Another HUGE thank you to all who were involved in the organising of SGL6 and also other members who gave their time to do talks and tutorials Lewys and I enjoyed every moment.

So much that as we drove out of the site yesterday he looked across and said "Please can we come here next year Dad"?

Well done all of you!

[MickD]

Neil,

those images are good considering that they are unguided. Lots of people have problems with the difference between posted images and the originals – me included, not sure how to guarantee the consistency between the two.

As for the guiding – keep the night vision camera for spying on people at Star Parties and get a proper guide Cam

See you at the next one.

Mick

[daz]

Try posting images as PNG's rather than JPG's - the compression in JPG does tend to introduce artifacts...

[shaula]

Thanks to all the organisers for making it happen, another great starparty! Thanks to everyone else for the laughs, hope to meet with u relatively soon (not too soon, my face is still aching from laughing so much). :-)

[G2EWS]

Back and the RV is now unloaded, well almost all of it!!

Found the drains to be blocked on my arrival home so unable to empty the grey and black tanks!

What a great evening last night. Lots of photos, gazing, whisky, beer and wine was had.

The sky was amazingly clear, so we had a really great evening.

Shame for me that about 02:00 the dew just got too much so waiting for Nick to tell me the kit he has so I can buy my dew heater as well as a red dot finder, when I find out the correct one for my 80ED!

Thanks again to all the organisers and everyone who time out to help me. Once again SGL has proven how kind you all are to us newbies!

Best regards

Chris

[AllanJ]

Back home on Monday afternoon after a really enjoyable star party. Despite the weather being changeable I had a variety of sessions sunspotting, planet chasing and general observation. Sunday night was wonderfully clear, although I hadn't brought a snorkel for the dew! Renewed a number of aquaintances, made some new ones and picked up various useful information. Many thanks to the organising team.

Allan

[Luke]

BIG THANKS to everyone involved in making SGL6 happen, I had a great time again that will live long in the memory!

It was great to catch up with some familiar faces, to meet some newer SGLers, to pick up some tips and help, and gosh, we even got some clear skies to top off the fantastic company! :-)

I will never forget seeing spiral arms on a galaxy for the first time!! :-)

Wohoo!!

Many thanks,

Luke

[great_bear]

Someone was selling off their Baader Hyperions at the astro-jumble @ SGL6.

Anyone remember who it was, and if they've got any left?

[Helen]

It was Sarah and Luke (as in post above yours!!), but I don't know if they all went....

Helen

[Adrian Condon]

I really enjoyed the event, well done to the SGL6 organisers and all the members around me who made my stay very enjoyable.

Yesterday morning I had a word with the site owner as he was cutting the Rally Field grass about the light from the red house on the hill especially Friday night's light show. I found out that he owns the house and has it rented out. He has promised that the "Blackpool illuminations" will not be happening next time SGL are there.

I would like to thank Barry and Julia from the Moon Inn for the excellent "take aways" and the BBQ on Saturday evening. They were looking after the pub while the owners are away on a sunshine holiday! The locals there were very friendly and spent a few good hours with them......

Thanks also to Tom for the Guinness (how did you know I like it........) and to James for the lagers , cheers mate!

Nick and myself stayed on Monday night, 100% beautiful cloud cover and the wind at 03:00 am this morning was wonderful. I now know that my tent is now Scotland proof! It was the most powerful wind of the week.

I now have the sad task of unpacking the car.

Cheers

Adrian

[NickH]

Just to say, fantastic organisation, brilliant in fact. Skies were (and wind) iffy on the days I was there, but still, brilliantly done!

[mcrossley]

Neil,

those images are good considering that they are unguided. Lots of people have problems with the difference between posted images and the originals – me included, not sure how to guarantee the consistency between the two.

Do you assign the sRGB image profile to your images before saving them for the web? That is the colour space/gamma that browsers will use when displaying them.

[NickK]

Back home, many thanks to the organisers and attendees!

As a beginner, I learnt alot over the week. Annoyingly I moved the mount on Sunday so I could run the laptop from inside the tent after almost being hyperthermic the previous night. The result was I'd lost my ~5min unguided tracking on the clearest night :/ However I got good results

I have to apologise to someone that wandered up to arrange a look through the SDP, I noticed you'd walked past with a eyepiece case during the night, the imaging was only about 10-20mins of wait.

Adrian's Nagler 7mm returned a 3D holographic Saturn. My new 3.5mm Baader Hyperion returned stunning views of Saturn (192x magnification) and I can't wait to try it on the moon!

The Pentax seemed to attract quite a bit of attention - including three offers!

Here's one of the images I managed, M104 - unguided. What makes this more impressive is this was taken on that really clear but really windy night! (saturday?)

Chris - those bits were: controller and strap. It's possible to make your own heater with vivarium heat mats.

[robbieince]

I would like to add my own heartfelt thanks for all involved in arranging and running thus event - it was truly superb.

It was my first sglx but I will be back.

I stayed till Monday morning and managed to get two all nighters in (sat and sun) so I am still recovering. Sunday was blissfully clear till Dawn. Given I arrived on wednesday I was happy to observe on 4 of the 5 nights and image on 3.

Many thanks again

[G2EWS]

Chris - those bits were: controller and strap. It's possible to make your own heater with vivarium heat mats.

Thanks Nick, will get them on order tomorrow with a Red Dot Finder (when I work out which one to order that is!!)

Best regards

Chris

[Astrosurf]

Back home, many thanks to the organisers and attendees!

As a beginner, I learnt alot over the week. Annoyingly I moved the mount on Sunday so I could run the laptop from inside the tent after almost being hyperthermic the previous night. The result was I'd lost my ~5min unguided tracking on the clearest night :/ However I got good results

I have to apologise to someone that wandered up to arrange a look through the SDP, I noticed you'd walked past with a eyepiece case during the night, the imaging was only about 10-20mins of wait.

Adrian's Nagler 7mm returned a 3D holographic Saturn. My new 3.5mm Baader Hyperion returned stunning views of Saturn (192x magnification) and I can't wait to try it on the moon!

The Pentax seemed to attract quite a bit of attention - including three offers!

Here's one of the images I managed, M104 - unguided. What makes this more impressive is this was taken on that really clear but really windy night! (saturday?)

Chris - those bits were: controller and strap. It's possible to make your own heater with vivarium heat mats.

Wonderful image Nick. A galaxy for me to image next time! What set-up were you using?

[NickK]

Wonderful image Nick. A galaxy for me to image next time! What set-up were you using?

Just the pentax sat on the EQ6 with the Baader UV/IR cut + LP filters stacked in front of the ATIK 16ic doing the imaging. Tracking was just the EQ6.