Planetary Imaging

[polar sequoia]

pretty good ino

imo*

[fading plume]

screenshot over compressed remote desktop

[thorn ledge]

how fast is the iss zipping by? Is there a simulation side?

[fading plume]

it was going pretty fast. the pass was about 5 mins

[ebon sage]

27,400km/h

[fading plume]

quick edit on a single frame

[peak lance]

5900 arcseconds / second roughly,
so divide that by your pixel scale for the non blurred shutter speed 😄

[ebon sage]

didnt expect that answer

[peak lance]

the closer you can track it, the more reasonable the shutter speeds get

[somber stratus]

0.16ms for 5900”/s. I think it’s closer to 4000”/s in reality so I use 0.2 when hand tracking.

[peak lance]

5900 overhead, its lower the shallower its passing. But too tired to work out that math

[fading plume]

how does one edit ISS data? batch stacking short series of frames?

ill have a bit of an experiment with how long. because im hand tracking ive lost a few frames so "stack 40 frames" might not work.

[thorn ledge]

What is the necessary tracking speed to make a pictures like this? Can an Az-gti Mount do it?

[fading plume]

i hand tracked

[fading plume]

Gaming

[somber stratus]

why is the vid in reverse

i swear the dragon-side is forward facing & the russian side is the aft section

[fading plume]

no idea. photoshop ig

[ebon sage]

How u know where they even are ?

[somber stratus]

radiator side (white panels) are on the russian side, rear end

short stubby bit that sticks out on the other side is forward-facing & is where dragon is docked

This is coming towards & up over the camera, dragon on the leading side

hence why LMC's vid looks in reverse

[near quiver]

How do they keep it that way? Is it spinning at the right speed or do they just adjust it every few minutes

[polar sequoia]

prob just reaction wheels doing their job

[fading plume]

it feels strange going in reverse.

[bitter elbow]

They have been known to spin the station around 180 degrees for docking spacecraft. I don’t think it’s the case for this pass, but it has happened. Threw me off when reviewing the data.

[fading plume]

i think PS reverses the frames when making an animation

[bitter elbow]

Personally, I dump the frames from the SER file into TIF images, then examine and filter the data in Lightroom.

[fading plume]

alright

[bitter elbow]

Most of my pass datasets are 10-15K frames, so I needed an efficient way to get through it all.

[somber stratus]

You can sift through them in AS!3

Locate a series of frames you like (say it’s idk, frame 2345-2378 for example), then load the original SER into PIPP & crop it down to only include these frames & generate a new AVI/SER

load this new vid into a new AS!3 tab & stack at 30% or whatever. Done

Animations are a little more painful of course

[bleak oak]

Could this Mirrors of my 16 inch Dob still get me good planetary and Iss images? I've already seen some dso with it but don't know how it handles planets. (i still need to build the rockerbox)

[jaunty flame]

should be okish for visual

[bleak oak]

What das Oksih mean

[barren dune]

@bleak oak maybe but good luck getting the collimated putting a secondary back on and sqauring everything up is a big challange

[ruby tartan]

I will try someday

[bitter elbow]

You could do this within SER player, as well. The nice thing about Lightroom is that I can segment them into chunks, color code, etc. Then I delete the worst frames and keep only the best sequences to stack.

[bleak oak]

I known i spend a hole afternoon (i shoot the images like a month ago)

[main flume]

Nah bro You should wash the mirrors more often

[bleak oak]

I got I for free, and i washed them since then but must of the "dirt" are actually holes in the reflective material

[topaz elk]

how did you get color on the image?

[torpid dust]

Curious how your focus routine works for planets? Moving my EAF several steps either way looking at a planet through Barlow is tough to see any improvement with less than optimal seeing.

Also curious how you come up with the seeing rating in your photos?

[ruby tartan]

I made the RGB with the mono images f635(R)+f546(G)+f437(B) by photoshop

[ruby tartan]

Use the planet's moons as a reference

The smaller the moon gets, the better the focus will be

[ruby tartan]

Yesterday's captures, seeing descent to saturn

some moons

[topaz elk]

had a go with the hope probe data

[ruby tartan]

Nice

[topaz elk]

prolly will be the website often as entire east coast of US is going bad seeing

[ruby tartan]

Bad seeing lol

[fading plume]

"bad seeing lol"

[fossil schooner]

This is me with good seeing 💀

[fading plume]

my ISS stacking isnt going well really. how/what settings do i use?

[barren dune]

@coarse aspen dude stays hatin 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤡🤡🤡

[barren dune]

Found some old blue lake shots with diffrent collimation for each shot ive been read vic menards book and its pretty helpful

[sharp ridge]

14"?

[barren dune]

Dude i cant wait to fix this today im replacing my primary mirror collimation springs and im terrified to take the mirror out of the cell

Yeah i only use my 14

[sharp ridge]

you also have a 16" right?

[barren dune]

My springs on it currently cant hold colli for its lifw

I wish i wanted to get a 16 flextube like toms but im saving for a 18 goto

Maybe a 22in goto im not too sure

[sharp ridge]

tf which brand

[barren dune]

A 22 at base model costs as much as a fully upgraded 18 so its better imo to get a 22

Obsession

The dob gods

[sharp ridge]

damn they have goto?

[barren dune]

Yeah its 3.5k extra

[sharp ridge]

[barren dune]

Lol yeah

Work is good tho now I just need to start selling illegal substan-- im jk

[ebon sage]

Only illegal if u get caught

[barren dune]

This man knows whats up

[fading plume]

Walter White

[ebon sage]

That the long name for lmc

[ruby tartan]

Neptune on the night of the 16th of this month

[normal forge]

uhhh nice!

well done!

[wispy pagoda]

No details on triton's surface? Pfff...

Nah seriously it's amazing

[ruby tartan]

Thanks

[topaz elk]

whats the gray smudge?

triton is that big?

[ruby tartan]

In theory no, but since the telescope isn't big enough, it looks more like a blur.

I reduced it a little

[topaz elk]

@fading plume barlow?

[fading plume]

yes and no, Jupiter had the 3.5x, the moons had no barlow.

[topaz elk]

got it thanks

[fading plume]

moons were upscaled for scaling it right

[topaz elk]

you have an 10”?

[fading plume]

8"

[topaz elk]

oh okay

surprised u got details on moons with no barlow

[fading plume]

tiny pixels

[topaz elk]

what’s this mean?

you upscale the moons separately without upscaling Jupiter?

[fading plume]

well barlow makes the resoloution 3.5x. the moon image was upscaled 350%

then the Jupiter from the barlow image was added

[topaz elk]

ohhhh

[fading plume]

the original moon image was overexposed

[topaz elk]

alright thanks

[near quiver]

wtf am i doing wrong? ~15% of 800-900 frames, iphone x through 8 inch dob

i can improve the background and moons, that was just me being stupid, but i feel like i cant get any detail out of jupiter

also please ignore the very obvious black spot around jupiter where i poorly masked the moons in

[topaz elk]

thats the best detail you can get using an iphone

[near quiver]

oh

well i feel a little better now

[fossil schooner]

.

[fossil schooner]

Do you think that’s some of the best I can get with a fairly cheap dslr

[near quiver]

now the problem is just "cant afford astronomy camera lol"

[ebon sage]

Asi224mc has served me rlly well and it not breaking the bank price

[near quiver]

i was looking at that one

[ebon sage]

It’s also red which means it’s just better off the bat

[near quiver]

absolutely

i dont have a laptop so i would have to get the asi air or set something up with my raspberry pi

[topaz elk]

with a cheap dslr you can get way better images than an iphone x

[ebon sage]

Won’t be a great deal better tho

[fossil schooner]

I replied to an image I posted earlier of my Jupiter

Just click or tap on the message I replied to and look

[topaz elk]

this what i got with dslr

[ebon sage]

Damn u guys get good seeing :v

[fossil schooner]

Take a look at this cunrom

[topaz elk]

that's with dslr?

[fossil schooner]

Yeah

I have a 12 inch dob

[fading plume]

With my phone and eyepiece @near quiver

You just need a good eyepiece

And make sure you use the 2x camera on your phone if you have one. Not a huge improvement but something

[near quiver]

Ok, I think my Barlow is part of it, it’s a cheap generic one to tide me over a few months until my birthday

[fading plume]

Yeah that’s something. I have a decent quality diy one and a Saxon 8mm 68 degree 8 element eyepiece

[near quiver]

Jesus, 8 elements? That’s a very nice eyepiece

I genuinely didn’t know they made them with more than like 2

[swift marten]

2 💀

[near quiver]

I was using the 9mm eyepiece that came with the telescope

[swift marten]

what company?

[fading plume]

Yeah. They break the bank though. Luckily I got it and the 17mm version for free with my dob

[near quiver]

Apetura AD8

[swift marten]

wait that thing is 2 element? i thought it was 4

[fading plume]

Or two eyepieces and a free dob. Whichever way you look at it.

[fossil schooner]

Can relate (plus four inches though)

[near quiver]

I also tried the included moon filter, which is garbage for the moon but the contrast looked better

That probably didn’t help

[swift marten]

yea the 9mm is 4 element

i have the exact same telescope lol

[near quiver]

Ah ok

Here’s the video in case it’s helpful

[swift marten]

neptune?

[near quiver]

No that’s Jupiter with a green-blueish filter that came with the telescope

I thought I’d try but idk if it helped

[swift marten]

oh the moon filter?

[near quiver]

It looked better visual

[swift marten]

i havent tried it yet

[near quiver]

Yep

[swift marten]

yea it did

what bortle?

[near quiver]

Don’t bother with it on the moon it sucks

[near quiver]

6

[swift marten]

ok good to know

[swift marten]

ah im 7

ive only ever seen Jupiter and Saturn

and the Moon ofc

havent been able to find any DSOs

[near quiver]

I can barely see Orion Nebula with my lp, it might be worth trying if you’re up early

[ebon sage]

Y use a filter on Jupiter ?

Only need UV/IR cut

[near quiver]

It looked better through the eyepiece

I thought it would be worth a try

[swift marten]

nah i got school lmao

maybe during a break

[near quiver]

I’m going to bed please don’t blow up my phone with notifications

[swift marten]

does this help with visual as well?

[ebon sage]

Mainly for imaging not 100% sure if used for visual

[swift marten]

alr

i got one for my camera but itd be great if its useful for visual as well

[thorn ledge]

just get an proper camera like an svbony 305 pro or an zwo asi 120mc or asi179...they are around 180-250€

[jovial quiver]

Question. I have a canon 1100D (EOS Rebel T3) and a Skywatcher Startravel 80/400. I currently only use the telescope for visual, but would it be possible / worth it to buy stuff to attach my canon and try to take a video/photo of Jupiter or Saturn?

I have zero experience in Planetary Imaging btw

[fading plume]

400mm is a bit low especially with DSLR sized pixels. You should barely get Saturns rings.

[topaz elk]

Not everyone can spend money freely, so avoid answering with these kind of answers because it’s not really helpful

Only when he specifically asks for a new camera for capturing or how to improve his image then it will be an appropriate answer

[fading plume]

the thing is, a $30 camera will get very nice images. And a $5 webcam will also get very nice pics.

[near quiver]

I don’t plan on buying a camera until I think I’m the best I can be with my phone

[fading plume]

thats fair enough. But you will struggle a whole lot.

[near quiver]

True, but it’s kinda fun to try to get good images with a janky setup

[wary siren]

the skillset for your phone and a planetary camera are different, the skills you develop on your phone dont all transfer over

[near quiver]

Of course, I just think “world class phone astrophotographer” is a funny title

[wary siren]

lmao

[near quiver]

Autostakkert has been stacking this video for 20+ minutes this better be good

Pipp didn’t quite spit it out right but im hoping it comes out ok

It took 40 minutes so I’m not doing it again if I don’t have to

Holy shit it’s actually really good

My pc is having a disc problem so i have to restart before I can post process but here’s a pic of the screen

@fading plume

[fading plume]

oh thats nice

[near quiver]

Even before post processing it’s already the best picture I’ve taken lol

I might go and shoot Jupiter real quick since that turned out so well

Now I’m trying to figure out what I did differently to get that result lol

[near quiver]

@bitter elbow is this any good for iphone camera through dob

[bitter elbow]

Yes, I think it's great!

[near quiver]

Ok thanks

I do now realize that I need to brighten it more

[bitter elbow]

That'snot a bad idea, and perhaps a color balance with Registax if you haven't done already.

[near quiver]

ok, im super new to planetary processing

heres the raw stack if anybody wants to do it better than me

jesus christ i opened registax for the first time, like 10 windows popped up at once then all disappeared, gave me a heart attack i thought i had a virus

[topaz elk]

Is my collimation off on the right limb? 3 min stack

[main flume]

I have some viruses deep in files or something cause I’ve run tests and it won’t see that it’s there but my virus protection thing will randomly have a pop up when I’m not doing anything saying avast one aborted a website WHEN IM NOT DOING ANYTHING!

[near quiver]

its funny, antivirus software tends to be packed full of viruses, so if you have any third party virus software get rid of it

[near quiver]

we were wrong, there was definitely more detail to be gotten with an iphone camera

[main flume]

I’ve got a main brand one Avast One

[topaz elk]

it depends a lot on collimation and seeing also

and your optics

[near quiver]

yeah that makes sense, i collimated it carefully and the seeing was excellent

[near quiver]

i mean i didnt collimate it that carefully i did a 30 second star collimation but it looked pretty good

[near quiver]

i have a contender for best iphone astrophotographer

[main flume]

My pic of Saturn unstacked iPhone 11 and nexstar 130 slt

[near quiver]

ok so im still ahead in planetary

unfortunately i live in bortle 6 so widefield milky way is out of the question for me lol

[main flume]

Don’t count your eggs before they hatch

I haven’t learnt nothin

[near quiver]

the eggs have hatched wdym

[main flume]

Lmfao idk

[near quiver]

you showed your saturn i showed my saturn

[main flume]

U are ahead rn but I haven’t learnt to stack planetary

[near quiver]

it isnt that bad

[main flume]

Thx!

[near quiver]

aside from the fact that it took my computer 2 hours to do it

but i think i was having a disk issue so thats probably a one time thing

[main flume]

Oh Lmao yeah I have no chance against a long stack

[near quiver]

you dont really do long stacks for planets

since they spin so fast, you arent supposed to do more than like 10 min of data on saturn

[main flume]

Oh fr? How long do u do

[near quiver]

mine was 8 minutes

[main flume]

So how do u get your photos

[peak lance]

Shoot frames quickly 🙂

[near quiver]

i put my phone in the adapter and take a video

[near quiver]

i was wondering, why does nobody do multi night on planets

[main flume]

Oh damn I might actually try that tomorrow night

[peak lance]

The lower your focal length the longer you can image a planet before it smears for saturn and jupiter

[main flume]

Spin

[near quiver]

yeah but in theory you could just shoot when its in the same place as it was the other night

[main flume]

True but not for Jupiter

[peak lance]

The planets rotate under 12 hours and the surfaces are dynamic

[near quiver]

oh right clouds change

ok cool

[near quiver]

the annoying part for me is that theyre usually too bright lol

[main flume]

Oof

[near quiver]

ive been thinking about getting an extra lens cap and drilling a 4-5 inch hole in it and just using that for planets but i think i would lose detail

[main flume]

So what software u use

[peak lance]

Jupiter is like 1/400 shutter speed for me. You make them as bright or dark as you want then capture your frames

[near quiver]

i use PIPP, autostakkert, then GIMP but im also super new to planetary so there should probably be a few more steps in the middle

[near quiver]

i shoot on a phone right now so i cant control the exposure length :(

[main flume]

You use 3 stacking softwares?

[peak lance]

Nah thats a solid workfoow. When your compfortable can add in registax wavelets before gimp

[near quiver]

pipp frames the images, autostakkert stacks them, gimp is for post processing

all three are free

[peak lance]

Pipp to convert the video, as3 to stack, registax to pull some detail enhancement tricks, gimp to final edit

[peak lance]

Many phones give some level of exposure control even if its only an EV offset

[near quiver]

yeah i can dim it some but even still jupiter blows it out

[peak lance]

On my android after clicking to focus a slider shows up for adjusting. Clicking on jupiter on spot focus helps it exposure it

[near quiver]

what do you think of the big hole in a lens cap idea

[main flume]

Jupiter like the god damn sun through phone

[peak lance]

Seems like attacking things the wrong way around

[near quiver]

yeah but it would cost like a dollar

im just worried that i would lose detail with the smaller aperature

i mean theres a reason people like twastro use a 16 inch

alternatively i could save my 15 dollars for a real astronomy camera

[fading plume]

much hype. send help

[polar sequoia]

turn that number upside down and- oh wait, thats MY bortle level!

[thorn ledge]

Is this a good result compared to the stack and base pic? Try to work on the editing Skills

the moon always show these small wing like thingys. Should i try to collimate my mirror?

[fading plume]

That’s about what I get too

[ebon sage]

Should get better the thst ??

[fading plume]

wat

[ebon sage]

Nvm

[thorn ledge]

is this jsut to much sharpness in th base picture? i tried to reduce the sharpness, but the i jsut got smooth blobs...

[fading plume]

Did you sharpen with registax?

[thorn ledge]

i took the abse picture in sharpcap

i didnt sharpen in registax. Its barely useable anyway

[fading plume]

do that, it should be a bit nicer

[thorn ledge]

ok

[thorn ledge]

tried allday this doesnt get any better. I need to use a barlow for more details.

[topaz elk]

yeah looks like undersampling

[dense hound]

I find winters in pa nice and yes I’m lurking old msgs 😂

I find being only 2 hours from New York winters are great but every other season has been bad

[thorn ledge]

im trying out a new programm thats makes it way easier to edit than siril and so on. Its called Image Analyzer.

[hasty hull]

[hasty hull]

Mars this morning, possible dust activity on the top right

[jolly ice]

wait i have the same set up

[near quiver]

I’ve fixed my problems

[jolly ice]

what was it

[jolly ice]

I got these with iPhone XR and 8 Dob

[near quiver]

Just bad seeing

[jolly ice]

Ahh lmao

[near quiver]

Tbf XR has much better cameras than X

[jolly ice]

nah not much difference

[near quiver]

I was also shooting without 2x zoom

[jolly ice]

Idk why I get better data with my iPhone XR than my mom’s 13 pro 💀💀

[jolly ice]

Same , I didn’t use Barlow for Jupiter

For Saturn I did

[near quiver]

Yeah I’m going to try no Barlow on Jupiter tonight because tracking is almost impossible

[jolly ice]

can understand your pain 🥲

[jolly ice]

Try 6 mm with no Barlow

[near quiver]

I don’t have a 6mm only 9 and 35

I think my next upgrade is going to be an actual astronomy camera

The problem is that I need a way to use it

[jolly ice]

then 9mm with barlow should be fine

[near quiver]

Yeah

[jolly ice]

do you use default camera

[near quiver]

I also need to figure out my exposure issue because Jupiter and Saturn are blown out rn

[jolly ice]

yes for that

[near quiver]

Yes

[jolly ice]

yes dont do that

[near quiver]

I pretended I fixed it because people were fighting about how I should do it lol

[jolly ice]

@near quiver download this app called fotogear

you can set ur ISO and all through this app

i use this for planetary

you can click RAW images too , but you cant shoot RAW videos

otherwise this app is great

[near quiver]

Ok cool

[jolly ice]

@near quiver just explore the settings once you download it

[near quiver]

Oh yeah that works really well thanks

I might even be able to do solar with this! (JOKE)

[topaz elk]

why not? just buy a filter and tape it onto your phone camera

[coarse aspen]

Wait does the zoom camera on a phone IMPROVE image quality using a phone?

If thats the case my s22 got 3x I'll have to try that

Probably the last thing im doing with my phone astrophotography before i get a camera adapter

[near quiver]

If your phone has different cameras on the back they’re all zoomed in different amounts

So if you zoom in more it will use a different camera so you have the same resolution but more focal length

[bleak sierra]

some phones have different resolutions for the different lenses, e.g. iPhone 14 Pro has one 48MP sensor and two 12MP sensors

[near quiver]

Fair enough I think that’s just how it is for mine

[molten kettle]

I got this with an iPhone 11 and Celestron Firstscope

[thorn ledge]

you can convert a webcam to a Astronoy Camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9e_TYbNmu8

this i9s the cheapest way to get a camera for astronoym. i converted two webcam back in the day in 2006 when there were basicly no companys producing astronomy cameras.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gF6iHrZ4Rw aslo a good tutorial

[thorn ledge]

hd hercules 720p with a empty plastic barlow price 20€ ..if im lucky tonight i cant try it out

[near quiver]

cool, i might try that

[thorn ledge]

you have to find a platics barlow with an screw in lens

the best thing is they com with an ir filter. So you dont need to buy one.

i usualy take them off and use an external filter

[thorn ledge]

found and old one 130/500mm newton with hd720p

this was also taken with the hd 720p

[normal forge]

first night for me without clouds ( maybe 😄 ) -> our weatherforcast from 5 websites incl. from other countries said its clear sky -> why the heck are there clouds?! -_-

ZWO 678MC meets an ADC ( wanna see if that helps my images ).

[topaz elk]

yeah forecasts are sometimes wrong

and when they're wrong they're like almost always wrong together lol

[normal forge]

90% of times for me.

our weather here is really meh

[topaz elk]

i had good collimation and really good seeing but the files got corrupted

[normal forge]

that really sucks

hard drive faulty eh

[topaz elk]

windows decided to just blue screen

[peak lance]

That should have only corrupted the last file saved? If its multiple i would also suspect the storage device

[normal forge]

my god... its happening again. thin hazy cloud layer over out city 😦

but atleast like 5-6x number of stars visible than last time with this result:

should i still go for it?

[coarse aspen]

go for it

last time there was a really thin haze with most stars visible I had perfect seeing

[normal forge]

ok, i will give it like 35 more minutes to reach thermal equilibrium and start then.

[ruby tartan]

New image of Mars taken by Damian Peach

[normal forge]

well horrible seeing for me. couldnt even focus correctly. no chance to use an ADC. no real bands on Jupiter visible on laptop.

[topaz elk]

Yeah, I’m thinking about getting a new SSD

[normal forge]

do it. such a relief if you want to acquire and process data.

lately bought a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro NVME SSD for 189€.

[coarse aspen]

^^

got a 2tb Crucial P3 NVME for $140

[normal forge]

excl. tax etc. 😄

😄

[coarse aspen]

damn thats expensive in europe

[normal forge]

well in the states you have excl. tax prices that will add i guess.

excl tax it would be 157€.

[bitter bough]

Got a b&w Jupiter last night with my Meade LX200 10" and 2.5x Tv and Asi462 camera. Going to use it as part of derotating with winjupos but I just love how sharp this one came out:

[topaz elk]

there is a face in jupiter!!

[sharp ridge]

https://tenor.com/view/hitam-atau-black-laugh-white-teeth-gif-16766958

[bleak sierra]

2" aperture Jupiter, you can even see some stuff 😄

[near quiver]

jupiter with my phone, i might work on the processing a little more but i think its more or less done

ah i know what i forgot

i didnt flip it 🤦‍♂️

better

[barren dune]

Reprocessed some old data

[coarse aspen]

first dslr

my phone images are better in everything but color

[coarse aspen]

My mom let me use her Nikon D750

It was great, im going to stack now

18k frames on Saturn

[fading plume]

That doesn’t support 1:1 though. So you are getting 1/6 ish of the resolution you can if you just take many full images.

[coarse aspen]

yeah you were right

[fading plume]

Buy a webcam

[coarse aspen]

bros not gonna stop til i buy a webcam

[fading plume]

Literally so much better

Dslr vs webcam same scope.

[coarse aspen]

#1019743407037501500

the images i got on my dslr's screen looked so much better than the stacked

idk how

wait a minute, I had zoomed in when looking on the screeen

actually recording i was zoomed out

was there a crop zoom or something

[fading plume]

There isn’t crop recording on the d750. The live view is 1:1 if fully zoomed in though.

[coarse aspen]

I was fully zoomed in

So that's why the quality was SO much better on live view than t
Stacked

Next time I record I guess I have to zoom in

[fading plume]

You can’t though it doesn’t do 1:1

[coarse aspen]

Ohhh you said live view

Ok

I mean I'm gonna lose a lot of frames just spamming the shutter

[fading plume]

webcam

[coarse aspen]

Bros talking about webcam more than miko does onstep

[fading plume]

But it’s 1:1. You decide if you want 6x the resolution ish or less frames.

[coarse aspen]

Fair enough

https://tenor.com/view/explaining-gif-22499839

You explaining why I need a webcam

Is the webcam actually $30 do I need anything to go with it?

IMX290

[fading plume]

It’s about that much yeah. You need to make an adapter somehow to 1.25”

[coarse aspen]

Ah ok

[coarse aspen]

You know where I can get or how to make 1?

[fading plume]

Just hot glue and a bit of sanding and a 10mm eyepiece housing worked for me

AU $59.22 3％ Off | 【HOT】2 Megapixel HD H.264 1920*1080 Camera Module SONY IMX290 0.001Lux Starlight Low illumination USB2.0 Webcam MJPEG YUY2 PCBA
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mNshX4k

[coarse aspen]

So just buy a cheap 10mm?

Sounds good

[fading plume]

Yeah. Just figure out some possibilities before. It needs to have no tilt so cardboard isn’t great lol

It’s a simple thing to make

[coarse aspen]

Yeah it's cheap

I'll either do that webcam or get a ASI 224MC

[sharp ridge]

Just buy 662mc cam...

[fading plume]

224 is nicer

But possibly less resolution. Not sure if the benefits of smaller pixels are worth it

Over raw output

[sharp ridge]

Pixel size doesnt matter much

[coarse aspen]

Don't buy a $50 webcam buy a $270 one
Big brain 🧠

[fading plume]

If you want to buy the webcam pre made in a housing get the SVbony SV105

[coarse aspen]

Mars C 2 is 10 dollars cheaper than asi662

[sharp ridge]

Compared to 224mc..., its far superior

[fading plume]

It’s exactly the same and not expensive

[sharp ridge]

Then get that

[coarse aspen]

Sounds good

[coarse aspen]

SV105 is imx 290?

[sharp ridge]

305 i think

[fading plume]

Yep. It’s MJPG output same as the webcam module. If you want high speed and i believe roi get the sv305. That also works nice for deep space because it’s raw

[coarse aspen]

probably going for Mars C or asi224mc in the long run

[fading plume]

Fair

What scope do you have

[coarse aspen]

5" dob

F/5

[fading plume]

This is 8”

[coarse aspen]

Nice

Eh will consider imx290

Maybe

Other 2 options probably nicer

[fading plume]

Imo it’s superior to the 224. Smaller pixels and lower noise I believe

[coarse aspen]

What about 462?

Or 662

[fading plume]

If you get the sv305 that is. If you get the webcam it’s worse kinda

[coarse aspen]

Sv305 better than 224mc?!

[fading plume]

Not sure off the top of my head

[coarse aspen]

https://tenor.com/view/howmanylies-haveibeen-told-gif-23177052

[fading plume]

Well, smaller pixels. More resolution. Larger sensor (I believe)

Not sure on QE or noise specs

[coarse aspen]

Hmm just throwing this out there

Would a uranus C even do anything on a 5"

Like, be much better than other options

[sharp ridge]

Uranua-c would allow you to do some dso stuff

Also godly for planetary cuz so much easier to find thr planet

Qe noise Specs similar to 662

[coarse aspen]

Hmmmm

Can't I just use my dslr for dso stuff

[fading plume]

FPS is a massive pain.

[coarse aspen]

You record video for DSO's??? 💀

That can't be right

[fading plume]

Picture fps not video fps

And yes video works fine for DSOs

Avi that is. But it’s harder to stack because you have to convert or use as3

[coarse aspen]

Aren't videos darker?

[fading plume]

.ser is nice. I typically do fits images though if I’m using the webcam for DSOs

[coarse aspen]

They cant use as high exposure

[fading plume]

Only if you lower the exposure

[coarse aspen]

You cant use 30 second exposure on a video

[fading plume]

Just use .fits or .ser

[fading plume]

Yes you can.

[coarse aspen]

Tf

What

[fading plume]

Depends on camera drivers too but yeah

[coarse aspen]

How??????

[fading plume]

I can do up to 1s exposure video with my webcam.

[fading plume]

Uhh. Raise exposure

[coarse aspen]

Okay I clearly got something wrong I don't understand video

[fading plume]

Video is just a series of images.

[coarse aspen]

So you're shooting 30fps for example

30 images per second

[fading plume]

You drop fps

[coarse aspen]

Oh

So 1 second exposure = 1fps?

[fading plume]

Yep

[coarse aspen]

Ok NOW it makes sense

Thank you

[fading plume]

Make sure you are doing .ser or .avi though. Not a compressed format.

And be careful of on camera compression and then computer decompression. It’s still lost data

[obtuse yew]

Want to pose a few questions here if anyone could give me some insight on any of these

1. Do you guys stretch the histogram white point in PIPP?

2. Does anyone check the "normalize stack" box in Autostakkert?

3. Does anyone use the field derotation feature in Autostakkert?

I stretch the white point in PIPP to 75% and I also normalize the stack in Autostakkert to 75%. Unsure how necessary this is

[topaz elk]

1. No, 2. I use 65% 3. You will probably need it with no EQ mount

[obtuse yew]

So does normalize stack basically just stretch the histogram to stop at whatever limit you set? I don't exactly understand what normalizing the stack does

[somber stratus]

yes

Also, unrelated. But had some fun with the raw vids from a good night. Some lucky 300-frame sequence, i almost prefer the video over the stack from the night

[somber stratus]

PIPP can do the same thing

either to the stacked image or to the video

the former is much quicker as per processing time though

[obtuse yew]

I need a Uranus-C so bad. That video is insane. Definitely going to replace my ASI385mc before next Jupiter/Saturn opposition

[somber stratus]

meh, it's mostly seeing/scope/collimation related

Cam makes a small difference

[weary jungle]

@somber stratus what is your current favorite or best image of any planet?

[somber stratus]

what taken by myself or best image, period?

[weary jungle]

That you have taken.

Also who do you think is the best solar system imager because personally I think your definition up there.

[somber stratus]

idk actually. I have my favourites, per planet. But idk about overall

[somber stratus]

D Peach

[weary jungle]

Yeah he gets some insane results.

[somber stratus]

I like this one of Mars & Deimos taken this Summer

Jup probs this

Favourite of all time, taken in-part by D. Peach, is this

1.05m Observatory Scope in French Pyrenees

[obtuse yew]

Tom that Jupiter shot is also my favorite of yours

[somber stratus]

best seeing i've had

[obtuse yew]

Where in the world are you? I'm New England USA so the planets never get too high at my latitude

[somber stratus]

I'm in the real England @obtuse yew

South West UK

51°N

[somber stratus]

^ this Saturn was just ~20° altitude

[fossil schooner]

man that live view is better than my stacked and processed images

[weary jungle]

Yeah that’s insane. I hope to get images like you one day.

[obtuse yew]

Just got a 17 minute capture with crystal clear seeing 😁 Big deal for me, I've never taken a video over 5 minutes. I should be able to process something really nice out of this and try derotation for my first time

[coarse aspen]

How long does the Great Conjunction (saturn and Jupiter) typically last?

Few days?

[fading plume]

a few hours

[sharp ridge]

about a day

[heavy mirage]

Lol I saw this in the comments of one of my posts

[ebon sage]

only the most intelligent humans

[heavy mirage]

How big would that mirror have to be

[bleak oak]

I would say 3 meters would be enough, but the more the better.

[obtuse yew]

Sucks that I got my first scope a few months after the great conjunction and for that reason missed it

Hope to be around for the next one in 2080

[bleak oak]

I doesn't make this big of a difference, just a little bit more Aperture and focal length can easily compansate this

[ebon sage]

or u can cheat like it did for the jupiter and venus opposition

just put them together in editing

[heavy mirage]

Don't mean to flex, butttt 💪

[somber stratus]

Well in LEO you can spot a person with a 0.5m mirror under good seeing, it’s the same as looking at the ISS, just the other way around. Also yes seeing does exist, just in reverse

What I got for the conjunction. Titan moves a tiny bit if you look closely, this was done with the 5” & DSLR

[sharp ridge]

my shot

[fading plume]

Rookies

[ebon sage]

i didnt even see it

[sharp ridge]

double star?

[fading plume]

Jupiter and Saturn

My first astro photo basically

First Planetary shot

[sharp ridge]

ye just a little trololing

[fading plume]

:painagonyeven:

[sharp ridge]

nitroless

[heavy mirage]

That is crazy! So would it be possible to get a photo of Earth's disk from Earth with a convex mirror? NASA/spaceX should totally put one up there for us nerds

[ebon sage]

cant cuz earths flat

[sharp ridge]

petition elon

[fading plume]

Hey Elon, wanna launch a mirror to space?

[sharp ridge]

@violet sentinelmusk

oh shit

why does it do that

[ebon sage]

some poor guy just got pinged for a stupid reason lmao

[hasty hull]

[near quiver]

Boys it is confirmed I’m getting an ASI224mc for my birthday

[flat shore]

Is this your actual work or some nasa picture? this is crazy good

[near quiver]

i believe thats a computer render. there isnt any atmosphere and the surface is pixelated.

[coarse aspen]

Thats a Stellarium screenshot

Although there are images that good

[near quiver]

the stack is looking good

[turbid shore]

How

[ebon sage]

jupiter bright asf

looks like a star in the scope and venus even more so

[turbid shore]

I can look at venus in daylight?

[ebon sage]

not rn it way to close to the sun

[turbid shore]

Yes

[ebon sage]

when its at the furtherst away from the sun and conditions are just right u can see venus in day time with no aid to ur eye

[turbid shore]

I actually saw it

In daylight

Its cool that venus reflects that much light with its acidic clouds

[ebon sage]

cant imagine the people on venus waiting for clear skys

[onyx garnet]

Bagged Jupiter, missed the window for Saturn

[near quiver]

@ebon sage I have taken your advice, I should get my ASI224mc later this month :)

[summer field]

some good seeing here rn

[wispy pagoda]

Good choice

[ebon sage]

Moon detail

[near quiver]

Is that a single exposure?

[summer field]

A 60% stack of a 1min video

[near quiver]

Ah 👍

I can’t wait for my pc to spend 6 hours stacking 5 minutes of 300 fps video

[fossil schooner]

how the hell do you get 300 fps

[near quiver]

That’s the max for the ASI224MC

[fossil schooner]

damn

thought it was 100 for planetary cameras for some reason

[near quiver]

I mean the max for full resolution is 150

[near quiver]

is the relative scale here correct? i probably did my math wrong

@lunar hamlet this is a better place to talk about planetary

you take the video with your phone, then load it into pipp, that will make the video usable by as!3 which will stack it

trust me it makes a huge difference

this is my best without stacking

this is my best with it

(full disclosure i did also add a barlow between those but stacking was more important)

[lunar hamlet]

How bout I take a vid tonight and then I send it to you and you could put it through PIPP cuz I don’t have it and don’t wanna mess around with downloading stuff alone

[near quiver]

yeah i can probably do that

[lunar hamlet]

Ill use my 6mm

[lunar hamlet]

Nice, thx I’ll try tonight if I have time

[near quiver]

dont do more than 10 min for saturn, 7 for jupiter (less if/when you switch to an astro camera)

and dont try anything other than one of those for your first go

[lunar hamlet]

Oh so 30 seconds is not anough

I’m untracked

[near quiver]

so am i :)

hand tracking is fine for planetary

[lunar hamlet]

Then how the hell you doing 10 minutes

[near quiver]

you move the telescope

[lunar hamlet]

I use table top dob

[near quiver]

i use big dob

you just wait until its almost out of frame then move it to the other side of the frame

what focal length

the way i like to calculate hand tracking is to divide focal length by eyepiece diameter (in the same units ofc) if its around 100 or less a beginner should be able to hand track pretty easily

once youre better at it you can go much higher but around 100 is good to start with

[lunar hamlet]

113mm by 450mm

[near quiver]

ok so you should have a relatively easy time hand tracking with a 6mm eyepiece

do you have a mount to hold your phone? @lunar hamlet

[obtuse yew]

How rare are double moon shadow transits on Jupiter? Just got 15 mins of data from the Europa/Ganymede double shadow transit tonight

[near quiver]

i think theyre relatively rare but not never, probably a few times a year if i had to guess

unfortunately i missed it bc clouds

[sharp ridge]

5in?

a true gigachad

[fading plume]

I am defeated. My 8” is so far worse lol. Gotta love my seeing.

[sharp ridge]

The power of seeing

sadly it is not on my side

[lunar hamlet]

Ye

[near quiver]

Ok good

[lunar hamlet]

@near quiver here’s a Saturn vid

[near quiver]

Ok it might take me a while to process I’ll get back to you when it’s done

[lunar hamlet]

Thank you so much but now I’m going to bed so just ping me tomorrow if that’s possible😃

[near quiver]

heres the raw stack and my edit of it... somebody can probably process better than me. overall, pretty good for your gear

I would recommend getting practice tracking, you would be surprised at how good you can get. Also only zoom in as much as your phones tightest lens.

Overall more data means less noise and more contrast, so I would also try to shoot longer if you’re able.

[summer field]

yes, I also just tried Mars but the seeing isn't as good as it was on jupiter a few hours ago

[coarse aspen]

You are now known as the 5 inch god

Proving that 5 inches is still plenty enough

To take planetary images

[fading plume]

thats what she said

[coarse aspen]

Honestly I saw that one coming

Every time anyone says inches

[onyx garnet]

Apennine Mountains

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/600361022259200002/1037335531048149153/20221102_193806.jpg

[bleak sierra]

That’s what she said

[coarse aspen]

Make it stop

Why

[molten kettle]

Should still work

When it gets out of frame stop the video and get in frame and start another recording

[onyx garnet]

For planetary?

[molten kettle]

i use a tabletop

its not good but its posible to get some details

[fading plume]

what size dob is that?

[molten kettle]

celestron firstscope size

76mm aperture

[fading plume]

you might be able to get slightly better

[molten kettle]

yeah probably

[near quiver]

@lunar hamlet it’s been 10 hours so here you go

[lunar hamlet]

Wait you actually did it?

[lunar hamlet]

Bro thank you so much, I’ll try getting more data and no digital zoom next time but dude this is awesome, thanks man

[near quiver]

Np

A little more data and you can probably get the Cassini division in there

[lunar hamlet]

Yeah I’ll definitely try that and did you have to chose almost every frame for that cuz some of my frames were kinda weird?

[near quiver]

Part of what Pipp does is remove most of the frames that aren’t good

[lunar hamlet]

And I also did Jupiter last night for fun

[near quiver]

I believe I stacked about 10 percent of them

[lunar hamlet]

I mean it’s still very good

[near quiver]

I don’t remember if I did 10 or 25

[near quiver]

Ooh that data is actually quite good

[lunar hamlet]

I mean that’s still like doing a full 20 second exposure one shot on Saturn

[lunar hamlet]

Yeah I thought I did a bit better on Jupiter then Saturn

[near quiver]

ill stack and try to post process but im not great at jupiter post processing so it will be worth asking someone else to try post processing

[lunar hamlet]

Okay, thx man

[near quiver]

heres the stack

[lunar hamlet]

Wow thx

[near quiver]

this is my best process but again i am somewhat incompetent at post processing jupiter

[lunar hamlet]

THERES NO WAY THATS MY IMAGE, it’s looks crazyyyyy

[near quiver]

it certainly is

[lunar hamlet]

Omggggg

[near quiver]

i told you stacking made a world of difference

[lunar hamlet]

I’ve just had a complete melt down

My brain can’t comprehend that j took that and with some stacking and tuff it can look like that

[near quiver]

@fading plume if you have a minute could you try processing his data

[lunar hamlet]

Wait am I seeing a moons shadow?

[near quiver]

Yes you are 👍

[lunar hamlet]

Nahhh REALLYY

[near quiver]

Either that or you just discovered a shoemaker-levy 9 level impact

[fading plume]

Ya I can. Give me a bit though

[near quiver]

But it’s quite a bit more likely that it’s a moons shadow

[near quiver]

Ok cool

[lunar hamlet]

Wow okay this is officially my new best Jupiter pic thanks to you guys

[near quiver]

No problem, well shot

[topaz elk]

single stack of 20s

only processed in registax

clearest night yet i think

[fading plume]

what

20s

my guy

this is a public server. illegal hacking is not allowed

[topaz elk]

jupiter rn

single frame

10 seconds stack because jupiter too big

[coarse aspen]

wtf

10 seconds

u can get more than that

[topaz elk]

yes but stitching videos together on my laptop takes so long

so i can only use a single video for field processing which is 10 seconds

[coarse aspen]

take more seconds

[topaz elk]

goes out of grams

frame

[coarse aspen]

reframe

[topaz elk]

yeah then that would be a second video

[coarse aspen]

not necessarily

pipp will filter out the ones without it in frame

just make it 1 video

[topaz elk]

using pipp on my laptop is really slow tho

[coarse aspen]

dude its perfect seeing

[topaz elk]

the laptop is like 2013

[coarse aspen]

more frames

[coarse aspen]

overnight it

[topaz elk]

school night

[topaz elk]

no i have a pc

it’s just the laptop is used for recording

[coarse aspen]

Transfer the videos

to the pc

and process them there

[topaz elk]

yeah i’m transferring

[coarse aspen]

oh

okay

but more frames is really good

[topaz elk]

300 gb ish of state

[coarse aspen]

if you have good seeing you're gonna stack so many good frames

[topaz elk]

data

[somber stratus]

@topaz elk what aperture

[topaz elk]

8"

[somber stratus]

Nice seeing bruh

[sharp ridge]

yeah insane seeing

[ebon sage]

some seeing that ill never get :v

[obtuse yew]

Technical question. I'm shooting color video in ASIStudio and the capture notes say the debayer pattern is RGGB, however when processing the video in PIPP, the colors are only correct when I select GBRG. Any idea why the colors would be wrong when I select RGGB? I'm using the Bilinear algorithm btw, should I be using HQ linear or Smooth Hue? Do either of those offer higher quality?

I know I should be using sharpcap

[barren dune]

@topaz elk take as much 10 sec vids as possible drop them into pipp as ugh i forgot i think batch mode whatever one isnt default it will blend the vids together within mins

Join mode I believe

[topaz elk]

Yeah I know this

Like i have explained to zegery it’s because I was outside so I wasn’t on the PC

and my laptop takes ages to use PIPP

[near quiver]

just my pitiful jupiter processing

why does the png not load lol

cant wait for the 224mc, imaging with a phone is getting tiring

Wait I only just compared it to my last image and it’s an order of magnitude better lol

[topaz elk]

seeing, really bad compression cuz i didnt know how to convert to mp4 from avi. had to do it online so it was compressed

[near quiver]

what camera?

[topaz elk]

asi178mc

[indigo oak]

use pipp

[topaz elk]

PIPP does not convert it to MP4

[indigo oak]

you can shove it into a gif too

[topaz elk]

see it doesn't work

[indigo oak]

rip

[topaz elk]

thats the compression algorithm not the file type

[indigo oak]

in that case, avidemux would probably do it for you

[topaz elk]

think ill just install a video editing software

[topaz elk]

this is better

[lunar hamlet]

That’s amazing

[topaz elk]

finally managed to get the C ring on saturn

Faint hue of F ring

[lunar hamlet]

Wow

[near quiver]

Man I was happy when I could see the Cassini division

[topaz elk]

maybe going crazy but I sure think its blue

[near quiver]

Looks a little blue

[ebon sage]

if i got blue colour in it u def did

[near quiver]

I can’t wait until I get my camera, then the only reason I’ll be worse than cunrom is skill

[ebon sage]

and seeing

[near quiver]

Do they live on a mountain or something? I wouldn’t think there would be much long term difference

[topaz elk]

eh

1000 ft in altitude

[ebon sage]

seeing is literally everything for planetary and lunar

[near quiver]

Dang I’m only at 100

[topaz elk]

900 feet isn't that much compared to like what

62 miles of atmosphere

[near quiver]

Ok so it will more or less come down to skill issue

[topaz elk]

seeing is more dependent on weather and not altitude

seeing does a lot of the work

its usually what the limit is

[near quiver]

Yeah I’ve noticed that it makes a big difference

Last night I got less data but it was still my best Jupiter

Mid seeing vs good seeing

Top is good bottom is mid

[ebon sage]

good vs bad seeing

top one is also the opposition

[near quiver]

Much better comparison than my phone images

[ebon sage]

cuz i not usign a phone

[near quiver]

That’s a pretty good reason

If I get a 10x Barlow, and master hand tracking, I can do that without an Astro camera

[topaz elk]

Good vs okayish seeing

[ebon sage]

max barlow would be like x3 dont think they even make 10x and it would be super shit

[topaz elk]

prolly max gain and 20ms exposure time lol

[ebon sage]

not far off what i use for saturn

think i used 26ms

[near quiver]

That sounds like a challenge

[topaz elk]

i use around like 13ms max if best seeing

usually 8-10ms

lower than 8 and grain starts to show

[ebon sage]

saturn is at zenith this time of year so i can get away with longer subs in good seeing

lower then 15ms grain starts to show for me

[topaz elk]

what cam?

[ebon sage]

well even 30ms does

[topaz elk]

ohhh you use a astro cam right

[ebon sage]

224mc

[topaz elk]

weird

what barlow

[ebon sage]

x3

[near quiver]

I am joining you

[topaz elk]

yeah i use 2x so i have space for light

[ebon sage]

u also 8"

[near quiver]

:3

[near quiver]

Yup

[topaz elk]

oh yeah aren't you like 4"

[ebon sage]

6

[topaz elk]

makes sense

[ebon sage]

tis my best saturn with some stupid artefacts istg im the only one who gets these every iamge

think im aperture limited now

[topaz elk]

i get saturn artifacts too

just do a little photoshop and poof

[ebon sage]

i sadly dont have ps ::V

[hasty hull]

No, 6” can be pushed further than you think

[ebon sage]

show

i cant get any more fl without a low profile focuser ::v

[hasty hull]

#older_system_pics message not a saturn post but like

Moon detail with a 5”

@summer field you crazy fr

[ebon sage]

thats if i have absolute perfect seeing ?

[summer field]

I tried removing the lines using Astrosurface Fourier transform

[ebon sage]

my place gets pretty shit seeing all year round

average of 75m/s jet stream

[hasty hull]

Yikes

Where at?

[ebon sage]

aus

lmc and exotic get 300+ kph winds lmao

[summer field]

The seeing I had for that one

[ebon sage]

yep i never getting that

[hasty hull]

That’s very solid

I’ve had that like twice this season

Good 8-9/10

[ebon sage]

my best seeing is probably 5x worse then that :v

last night i couldnt even focus on jupiter

[hasty hull]

Send a vid

[ebon sage]

dont have dat afrom last night

gave up

[hasty hull]

Rip

Understandable

@ebon sage do you have data from #older_system_pics message

[ebon sage]

ill check

[ebon sage]

no i deleted it was like 10gb

[summer field]

did you use an IR-cut filter ?

[ebon sage]

no

[hasty hull]

You should

[ebon sage]

idk where to get them or how they connect :v

[topaz elk]

zwo sells them

[ruby tartan]

Finally!!! After 18 days without clear skies, decent seeing

[topaz elk]

moon and jupiter

[ebon sage]

Flash bang

[topaz elk]

thought it looked cool

it was way brighter unprocessed 💀

[lunar hamlet]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-CRQRT2OvY4hjGmFJkgeYFx-b-sjrJUl

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-H7tFJ563j1UzQWpn3zMVytBxo85Q2e5

[ebon sage]

What’s this ?

[lunar hamlet]

@near quiver got more data for Jupiter and Saturn

[near quiver]

Cool, you should get the software and try this time though, I’m doing something rn

[lunar hamlet]

Okay I’ll need help setting it up so how bout when you’re free tomorrow just ping me and I’ll get my dad to help me with this?

[near quiver]

Ok I guess

[lunar hamlet]

I mean you don’t have to

[near quiver]

No it’s fine

[lunar hamlet]

Wait I’ll see if I can rn

No it’s too late

[frozen root]

Damn cool thread

[coarse aspen]

Your 8" is fantastic

[near quiver]

is there a general rule when talking about telescopes that you cant say thats what she said

[coarse aspen]

This is the 1,000th time someone has made a 'thats what she said' joke

when talking about dobsonians

so ill say this

on the refractor side

[near quiver]

theres actually only 93 if i search it

[coarse aspen]

they get by with 2 inches u dont need anything more than that

..for deep space

[fading plume]

i only have a 2" frac

[topaz elk]

same

[coarse aspen]

that sucks but its okay

refractors dont need to be big to be good

[fading plume]

i also have an 8" so i feel better

paid money for upgrade

[coarse aspen]

you have a 2" and an 8"?

[fading plume]

2" deep space frac 8" dob

i have two, rare condition

[coarse aspen]

I have a 5"

[near quiver]

8" dob on top

[coarse aspen]

Visual-wise it's great, shows a lot more than expected

Ive seen Uranus through it although it was hard to find

It's green

When it comes to telescopes, they can never be too big. I have personally viewed through a 16" and the views are spectacular

[near quiver]

true, but 8 inch is a great size to own because its easy to move and store compared to a 16"

[coarse aspen]

There are ways to transport and store a 16" if you have the methods to do it

[near quiver]

ofc, but its just so much more convenient to have an 8"

[coarse aspen]

I saw someone literally made their 16" into a tank, gave it treads so that it could move easily

And it also stays put

[near quiver]

8 is kind of the biggest you can move by yourself without taking it apart

and it will fit it most cars

[coarse aspen]

Truss tube 16" is solo

[topaz elk]

if u go on vacation somewhere you wouldn't really be able to bring an 16" with other stuff in ur car

[coarse aspen]

You could if truss

[topaz elk]

it also depends on the car size and not a lot of people own a truck

[near quiver]

exactly. i got to go to the outer banks at the end of summer, if my telescope was any bigger we couldnt have brought it

[coarse aspen]

Truss tube extends when needed and collapses when you don't need it

An 8" takes up more space than a 16" collapsed i think

Because the 8" is long

16" is too but don't forget truss

[near quiver]

i mean get whatever you want but i would never recommend getting a 16 inch if youve never owned an 8 inch

unless you intend to get a building for it or something

[coarse aspen]

You can always cut a 16" down into two 8"

[topaz elk]

how

[coarse aspen]

Make binos out of it

[near quiver]

that makes me want to peel my skin off

[coarse aspen]

Why?

[near quiver]

why on gods green earth would you spend 5 times as much then ruin a perfectly good mirror

[coarse aspen]

It's not ruining it

[near quiver]

wait also the mirror isnt flat

[coarse aspen]

It's re purpose

[near quiver]

that absolutely would not work

[near quiver]

thats like taking a car apart and turning it into a go-kart

[coarse aspen]

No it's a spherical not parabolic we are talking about here

Spherical 16"

[near quiver]

still explain how you get two 8 inch mirror which will focus light properly

[coarse aspen]

Same way as two regular 8"

[near quiver]

it would only work if you took it out of the middle

but you cant take two out of the middle

[coarse aspen]

Sure you can

[near quiver]

you take one out of the middle

[coarse aspen]

The mirror is layered lime a sandwich

Have 2 thin mirrors

The new revolution in telescope technology

[near quiver]

now you have an 8 inch newt mirror and a 16 inch cassegrain mirror

although the idea of taking apart a 16 inch dob and turning into an 8 inch does perfectly demonstrate why you should just buy the 8 inch

[coarse aspen]

It's cheaper than buying two 8"

[near quiver]

um no

https://www.highpointscientific.com/hps/16inch-dobsonian-telescope

https://www.highpointscientific.com/apertura-ad8-8-inch-dobsonian-telescope-ad8

[coarse aspen]

well that's a bad 8"

[ebon sage]

y ?

[coarse aspen]

https://www.highpointscientific.com/apertura-ad8-8-inch-dobsonian-telescope-ad8

This one's good

[ebon sage]

the same link

[coarse aspen]

No no it's different

[ebon sage]

hm

tis literally the same thing

[coarse aspen]

look closely..

one is longer than the other

[ebon sage]

cuz lmc screenshot them poorly

[obtuse yew]

Untracked?

[ebon sage]

pretty poggers seeing atm

[topaz elk]

yes