Planetary Imaging

[white prawn]

Should be for a little bit at least. I bought a 4TB external SSD to offload data from my internal HDD while I processed.

[main flume]

What takes so much space in processing?

[white prawn]

For me it didn't help that I was recording to SER files. Regardless of recording in 8 bit vs. 16 bit when you get close to 20K individual frames, each of those frames takes up space ...

This ADC thing is ... ho boy. "Step 1, set ADC levers to zero position. Step 2, set zero position parallel to the horizon, one way makes things worse and the other better, you'll figure it out through experimentation. By the way, Newtonians are more complex to find the horizontal, have fun! Step 3, move the fiddly bits until things look right."

[main flume]

ADC increases focal length. So I won't be using it anytime soon.

[proud mulch]

I gotta delete my space data some day

[astral zenith]

Uranus 2 of it moons

[white prawn]

Not by a noticeable amount for me. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to use it because of that but nope, just fine.

[main flume]

In my case it would be like 4.5x... My barlow is 3x

So without EQ platform... fak it for now.

[white prawn]

Same here. Maybe manual planetary is easier on a dob though?

[main flume]

The guy I chat with said it would be too hard probably.

https://www.youtube.com/@damienk2372/videos

[white prawn]

There's the qualifier, "maybe" 🙂

[main flume]

Oh I forgot you are on EQ.
Not sure which one is easier for tracking at high focal length.

On EQ maybe it's easier if you use the trick with rotating the camera and setting ROI in Firecapture?

No idea we'll see

[white prawn]

Speaking as someone who has an EQ5 that is underpowered for its scope ... if/when you get an EQ make sure you get a good EQ mount, one that can handle the load.

[main flume]

Nah I'm not getting EQ mounts.
I might get EQ platform to put under my dobson one day.

And turn my scope to GO-TO maybe.

[white prawn]

Same point

[main flume]

But it's a distant future. ::D

[main flume]

Are you still looking for a Venus filter?

I've found this but it's a little bit pricey
https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/baader-u-venus-filter-125.html

[white prawn]

Yeah, want to find out what I need so I can put it on my "want" list.

GEEBAZ

Okay, bookmarked

[main flume]

Idk if it's good though. 😄

[white prawn]

And I'm going to move outside so I can start secondary bit of my setup

[white prawn]

At that price it'd better do its job and make me sausage, egg, and toast for breakfast w/ coffee

[main flume]

Well in this hobby you can pay 20$ for a screw so idk if it's that much. 😄

And if it's useless outside venus

[steep apex]

You chat with Damien?

[main flume]

I mean exchange messages on CN.

Guy knows a lot about planetary.

[steep apex]

Yes I see

He does really good work

[white prawn]

Who here uses FireCapture?

Am I reading this right? Max exposure is 5ms??

Oh that's weird

[vestal hatch]

Just change the range at the bottom (0.032 - 5.00 ms)

It auto sets a range it thinks you'll use

Based on the target you select

@white prawn

[coarse aspen]

I have a crucial P3 2tb for my desktop pc

got it for $150 probably cheaper now

been using it for all my astro processing

[white prawn]

Thank you. Took a second look at it, realized what was going on.

[uncut glade]

Something tells me this isn't gonna be accurate

30m/s jetstream, 0.33" seeing??

If that pans out I'll be shocked

[steep apex]

Your C9.25 first light with poor seeing is as equal as my average result with my 4.5” fair to good seeing

[vapid depot]

Seeing is even better rn..

Wtf.

[white prawn]

Geebaz. Lucky you guys. I lost a battle w/ my ADC and packed in

[steep apex]

What!

I missed out on that

Have fun playing with your new data

[vapid depot]

@sharp ridge

[steep apex]

Now this looks like a sphere

[vapid depot]

phew

[cursive inlet]

Wait do yall crop or cutout during capture?

[vapid depot]

yes

[cursive inlet]

[proud mulch]

Cutout with a slightly lower ROI because slow pc

[main flume]

Did you not get ur adc to work?

[livid sierra]

You.. you don’t do that?

[cursive inlet]

Idk ive always just cropped to get max fps and and ever so slightly touched the ota with my pinky to correct for the eq platform drift

[livid sierra]

Ooh I thought you didn’t do either

Just recorded the entire sensor with no cutoit

[cursive inlet]

Lol

[livid sierra]

It’s not so bad then, but you’ll thank yourself if you start using cutout. Way smaller file sizes so more space for more data and also much faster processing

[cursive inlet]

But you record at 60 fps then right?

[livid sierra]

I record at exposure limited fps mostly. Or at the highest fps my cam allows. I could record at 200fps if I wanted to

[cursive inlet]

But you would have to crop then right? As I understand with cut out your fps is the same as if you would be recording the whole sensor.

[livid sierra]

Cutout does nothing to the fps for me

[cursive inlet]

Wait fr?

[livid sierra]

So yes, I crop to reach max fps possible at a certain exposure

[cursive inlet]

You can record at 200+ with cutout?

[livid sierra]

Yeah

I think it might even be easier on your laptop to record with cutout, won’t need to write the entire frame to your drive

Just a small portion

[cursive inlet]

K

[livid sierra]

I see some people with eq mounts crop their roi all the way down to the edges of the planet and tbh I don’t understand that. Just expand the roi a little bit to give the planet some space and use cutout

[cursive inlet]

So you only use cut out or do you also crop the roi?

[livid sierra]

Yeah, both

Crop to small roi to reach max possible fps, then use cutout

They work in tandem

[main flume]

Best settings for Firecapture with 16gb ram?

No other programs running

And do you lose a lot of fps by recording 16bit?

[livid sierra]

What are you going to image that you need 16-bit

[main flume]

Stuff. If I won’t lose much fps than why not 16bit?

[livid sierra]

Just unnecessary, and yeah you sacrifice some fps for it

And won’t make your images more hd than recording in 8-bit

Unless you are trying to image faint stuff, like Uranus’ rings or Mars’ moons for example, you don’t need it

[livid sierra]

Why does that make you feel bad lol

[cursive inlet]

They just want their bits bro

[white prawn]

Nope. I put the ADC on, confirmed it was lined up with the horizon. Pointed scope at Saturn, referred to directions below. Was able to over-expose but could not for love or money find where to set saturation to over-saturate. Tried doing it the old fashioned way. Image only got worse. Then, image lost focus. Could not regain focus. Ended session. Bad time, 0/10.

[main flume]

What's the ADC you use?

And try posting on CN lots of experienced pros in there.

[white prawn]

ZWO ADC.

[main flume]

Aren't u supposed to overexpose, not oversaturate?

oh sry you mentioned it at first

[white prawn]

Oh, forgot the link.

https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/manuals/ADC QuickGuide.pdf

[livid sierra]

There’s an ADC tool in FC that overexposes and oversaturates

With the edge tinge option

[livid sierra]

Lol

[livid sierra]

Yeah they mention it in that guide

Just adjust the ADC so the red/blue is divided equally along the entire limb of the planet

[white prawn]

I could not find that tool.

At all

[livid sierra]

It’s this one

https://skyinspector.co.uk/atm-dispersion-corrector-adc/#ADCPrismEdgeTinge maybe this helps

But it should be pretty straight forward

[main flume]

How do you even do that without tracking. 🤔

[livid sierra]

Same as with tracking, just move the levers

[main flume]

I mean controlling ADC and laptop while the planets moves out of FOV quickly. 😄

[livid sierra]

Lol

I recommend enabling the entire sensor, enable autoalign and just try to keep it in frame best you can

[main flume]

But idk how hard it is never used ADC

[white prawn]

It is a huge, royal, pain in the arse, not gonna lie. Gotta keep the planet in screen, adjust the focus while the planet is moving (quite fast) through the screen, adjust scope, adjust focus, repeat until focus is good. Then do the same with the ADC levers until AD is gone, but even more fun because the ADC levers have to be moved symmetrically and it's blippin' impossible to check lever distance while at the same time keeping an eye on the image and making a judgment and keeping the planet on screen.

[main flume]

Sounds fun

[cursive inlet]

Morning Venus or midnight Jupiter? Can’t do both bcs class

[main flume]

Venus if you have proper filters.

[cursive inlet]

Yeah I got all that shit. Aight

[sharp ridge]

if grs is out then do jupiter, if not do venus

or anything interesting ie moon transits

one night each

[main flume]

Do you have some app for easily checking/notifying you about transits and stuff

[sharp ridge]

just stellarium, or winjupos

[steep apex]

Is there a way you can make Jupiter look bigger in your images?

[white prawn]

Bigger scope w/ longer f/l

[dark cargo]

get it to the right sampling with a barlow and or use drizzle?

[dark cargo]

Actually your images are amazing already, especially considering it's only 4.5" aperture. #older_system_pics message Maybe try 1.5x drizzle?

[white prawn]

Makes me wonder wtf I'm doing wrong

[sharp ridge]

Your images alr crazy good for 4.5"

[lunar hamlet]

Show

[vestal hatch]

Make sure that AutoAlign is turned on. Makes your life 100x easier when untracked (and tracked too)

[white prawn]

Keeps the planet in one spot in the live view but it's still flying off-screen within a few seconds. I can see how it can be convenient though. Need a bigger monitor

[main flume]

Isn’t it better to do the rotated camera trick? With wide resolution

And let the object fly through fov

[dark cargo]

Pretty sure that is basically what is done with autoalign, just it zooms onto the planet and keeps it in the center of the picture as it moves across the sensor. There are auto tracking ROI options as well for planetary capture.

[main flume]

So whats the best option in Firecapture for manual tracking?

[main flume]

For planets

[dark cargo]

https://skyinspector.co.uk/firecapture-features-explainer/#ROI_Position3 Pretty sure it's this, should autocenter the planet within a ROI as long as it's on the sensor ofc.

[cloud copper]

which one is better?

[steep apex]

Siril only lets me drizzle by 2x, I’m thinking that there’s nothing else Improve now

[cloud copper]

the second one has a little more details but it looks like its a bit overcooked.

[steep apex]

Number 1, the top one, it’s less cooked

[dark cargo]

autostakkert allows you to drizzle by 1.5x pretty sure? Might be some way to resample a 3x or 2x drizzle image as well?

[cloud copper]

so its better?

[steep apex]

I’m working with a MacBook so I can’t really do that

[steep apex]

Yes

[main flume]

As3 works fine on Mac

[main flume]

Scammed for 140gb

[summer field]

IIRC it's just that windows uses GiB but shows it as GB for some reason

[vapid depot]

another quick single ahhhh

i love this scope.

[gray orchid]

Dayum!

Grabbed any Saturn yet?

[vapid depot]

I did

It was very bad beginning of night

Worse than average seeing w c6

Cassini can barely be made out no joke

[white prawn]

How in the world do you get those single shots? What kind of scope/equip are you using?

[vapid depot]

C9.25 and the 462mc with the same old Orion shorty 2x Barlow and Svbony uv ir cut

these shots are at like 60 deg altitude

[white prawn]

Aha, so if I had that altitude I'd be getting something similar.

And if my scope had bigger aperture and f/l

[coarse aspen]

this looks wrong

its like distorted

is it just me

[white prawn]

I don't see distortions

[vapid depot]

a 12% single stack for derotation

[vapid depot]

yeah seeing was okay

it was getting better then

[coarse aspen]

that one looks fine

[coarse aspen]

it has like

a fish bowl effect

[vapid depot]

yeah hmm 35% stacked there

[coarse aspen]

the edges yknow

u see it?

[vapid depot]

yeah

something ab it

to me its almost as if everythings shifted up a tad

[coarse aspen]

this one doesnt have it though its good

[vapid depot]

yeah

hmm...

idk if i like the old deroto better

This second one is 8 minutes

First one is 15

idk why color balance is diff tf

[coarse aspen]

The old derotation (this one) doesnt seem to have the weird fish bowl thing

[vapid depot]

I did some visual and I think I kinda screwed myself for a very good consistent derotation

[coarse aspen]

The color balance is much better on the old one

[vapid depot]

the seeing was getting worse from this one and on

Unfortunate

not by a lot, but noticeable

one click curves in astrosurface and a tint adjustment to correct that green crap

maybe i should do everything without that one curve, its a nono

[steep apex]

Wow! Love the detail that you’re pulling, amazing work

But now that I glance at Jupiter a lot more, the GRS has really shrunken a lot in 2 years

Really really small compared to 2021

[vapid depot]

yeah 😦

[steep apex]

Possibly, it could be completely gone by 2030

Also very nice disturbance above the GRS, it’s really prominent

[vapid depot]

stacked 50% of a good single here

didnt put thru ps

[steep apex]

You imaging right now?

[vapid depot]

No

Cloudy

and I’m dead lol

[steep apex]

Eek, was this last nights data?

[vapid depot]

Yea

If you want some I can give

the one i just sent

i think collimation is good 😄

[steep apex]

What does the higher f-ratio do for planetary?

[white prawn]

Lower f-ratio is faster scope, allows shorter exposure time (I think) and I also hear that it becomes a bit of a challenge to collimate.

A while back I mentioned wanting a 3m x 3m scope ... the challenge collimating that boi would be more than my challenge last night w/ the ADC

[steep apex]

I meant higher…oops

[white prawn]

higher means longer exposure required to get same data.

It's why I'm not interested in an 80/1000 Mak. F10 or something, I can't think of any AP use on that one.

[steep apex]

Jupiter 2023 looks a lot like Jupiter 2014…just huge a difference in the GRS

[main flume]

Is there difference in grs visible over the years?

[steep apex]

Still easily visible but the only thing is I think the size has dropped drastically from reviewing last years…

Left is Damian peaches from 2022 and the right is nicks from yesterday

[main flume]

The one on the left has better resolution but yeah… there is some difference.

[main flume]

Yeah it’s shrinking. Sad

Jupiter without grs, saturn without rings

[steep apex]

The crazy part is, there wasn’t a big difference between a 10 year gap (14-23)

Cc: Damian peach

[steep apex]

Ask I updated the images below, these updated too

[main flume]

Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm that the Great Red Spot (GRS) is now approximately 10,250 miles across, the smallest diameter we've ever measured

[steep apex]

Hope you don’t mind using your image as an example nick

[main flume]

Oh but its from 2014

[main flume]

Did you manage to capture iss already?

[steep apex]

Yeah a few days ago, my tracking was bad at the start and the only good glimpse of it was when my tracking was bad so I didn’t get to pull much but I did get some modules

[main flume]

And how do you expose for it

[steep apex]

I have another opportunity on the 17th I believe, 66°

[steep apex]

Are you using FireCapture?

[main flume]

I had seen iss at like 90degree few days ago wish my scope was ready

[main flume]

Yes

And i guess you might need faster exposure time so it’s not blurry or not?

[steep apex]

Exactly, you want 0.250 exposure so even if your tracking is bad, the ISS will still glide across the screen fast but in detail, thanks willaf for info

Gain should be around 300-350

Or dimmer

Make sure to focus well

[main flume]

Well need to focus on star right

Or while manual tracking xd

[steep apex]

Yeah a star is good, maybe Jupiter if it’s out and the seeing is good enough

[main flume]

And 5400mm is enough?

[steep apex]

More then enough! I managed to get good detail with 2700mm, your focal length is the double of mine!

[main flume]

I wonder if playing with rotating the camera makes difference if you use auto align?

I mean it’s a small sensor so I imagine it should

[fading plume]

Yeah ISS is massive. Like 60” across.

1200 mm

I would definitely use less focal length. 0.15ms exposure. Gain for underexposed Jupiter

[main flume]

I only have a 3x barlow :/

[dark cargo]

Does the 3x barlow cell unscrew? Could put it into the nosepiece section of the t-ring to make it more like a 2x. Since you have 5.9um pixels it should be fine.

Your pixels are almost twice as big as lmc's. So 2400mm fl for you is similar to their 1200mm. Honestly I think even without a barlow you'd get something nice, since your scopes fl is 1800mm i think?

[main flume]

Nah it’s 2.9 pixels with 585mc

[main flume]

And without barlow you won’t be able to focus most likely.

[fading plume]

Don’t use any Barlow then.

[vapid depot]

Putting me against Damian peach’s already 😂😂

But yeah so cool to see the grs change and all

[dark cargo]

ah you got a 585 nice, should be able to focus using it without much problems due to the smaller backfocus compared to a DSLR.

[main flume]

That would be good news.

[vapid depot]

https://www.cloudynights.com/classifieds/item/351499-celestron-8inch-sct-ota-black-worange-text-starbright-coatings-qr-dovetail/

$200????

[gray orchid]

Dam

[tidal crow]

what the

[vapid depot]

resolving jupiter moons now 🙂

i think i have a slight miscollimation

shouldnt have collimated when not thermally acclimated. oh well

[gray orchid]

Yooooo

[vapid depot]

ayo does anyone see that black thing fly by diagonally

left side

1hr 20 min of rotation

i was dealing with dust spots so could be that ..

[gray orchid]

Ah yea I was about to ask if you had any dust motes present

[vapid depot]

i was trying to avoid one most of the night

idk how it got there

[gray orchid]

Looks about that size

Weird

[vapid depot]

i did stack 50% of frames but it was more uh

it was more donuty

@quasi oriole

[quasi oriole]

[gray orchid]

I need a 3x Barlow

And a 462

Although I could get away with a 224 using a 3x

[vapid depot]

yeah was just gonna say

[gray orchid]

Yea ion wanna spend money a 462 being hand tracked and all

[vapid depot]

ohh wait ur using a dob right?

not a mak

[gray orchid]

Yii, Orion XT8

[vapid depot]

id want a bigger sensor cam untracked but yeah the $

[gray orchid]

Currently not using anywhere near it's full potential

[vapid depot]

it sucks being part of both imaging niches

[gray orchid]

Indeed

[vapid depot]

a used asi 178 with 2x barlow might be nice

the smaller pixels

[gray orchid]

Yea I've been seeing 178s on CN

[vapid depot]

slightly bigger sensor to play with too . check if carlos has sold his if ur interested

his was qhy though

[gray orchid]

I'm waiting for another sub 100 bucks QHY 224c

Or any 224 tbh

[vapid depot]

ah yeah u have a 120 rn ?

[quasi oriole]

if i do DSO i need something not 533mm

might opt to get a 585

[vapid depot]

yeah that or the neptune 664 from playerone

if u can handle a smaller format sensor

[gray orchid]

Basically

A QHY 5L ii

Got the same aptina sensor

[quasi oriole]

not that much different then 533 in size
i just dont want to mess with mono for planetary

[vapid depot]

Yeahhh forced to use winjupos

Not that u shouldn’t start to use it relatively quickly in the planet imaging scene for better results

I did my second or third planet season

[quasi oriole]

but first i need a scope capable of it

and second mount for that

[gray orchid]

You have a dob?

[quasi oriole]

Rc6 🤮

[gray orchid]

Ahhh

[quasi oriole]

and i got the not sharp one

[gray orchid]

Baffle issue?

[quasi oriole]

did that mod

even painted the baffle mod matt black

[gray orchid]

Mmm

Any idea why it's not sharp

[quasi oriole]

only thing i can think off is the pri and secondary are incorrectly spaced

[gray orchid]

Ahh

[vapid depot]

Oh geez

[gray orchid]

Ive seen people get dope images out of those rc6's

Someone on this server uses one

Apart from you

[quasi oriole]

atm i wanna get rasa sorted and tehn look at rc 6 later

and sort out SGP goto for full frame RC51 action

could test RC6 next moon to test on a few stars

and the moon to compare

[gray orchid]

Goto using the ASI air?

[quasi oriole]

skyguider pro modded into goto mount

[vapid depot]

damn some of these timelapse frames..

[gray orchid]

Ayo?

[quasi oriole]

tracker made into goto 😄

[gray orchid]

Yii I have a SGP, but I'm curious as to what that involves lmao

[quasi oriole]

well i started with me motorizing the DEC and then the RA 😄

[quasi oriole]

👀

[sharp ridge]

It can be much much better, so expect some even more banger stuff when the seeing works out

[vapid depot]

oh yeah

[gray orchid]

https://www.highpointscientific.com/apertura-3x-barlow-lens-with-ed-glass-125-inch-barrel-3xb1

Anyone have any thoughts on this Barlow?

Need a 3x

They claim it uses ED glass

If they're magnification claims are true then should put my 8" newt at 3600mm f18

[vapid depot]

id hope thats good id get something like that on a budget

[cursive inlet]

Yeah basically what Nick said. Its kind of a gamble with these lower end barlows, I'd just buy a good one to have peace of mind that it will definitely work well.

[steep apex]

So an 8” Skywatcher Dob is my best bet to upgrade my planetary images or is there any better telescope that fits the budget of $700?

[steep apex]

If your budget fits, get an X-cel 3x Barlow for $100

[hasty hull]

there is an explore scientific hybrid truss 10” dob for like $650, unsure if it’s any good tho

haven’t seen anyone use it

[steep apex]

I remember they’ve sold it at my local Costco for $600

But it’s a low price for a reason so I didn’t get it

[hasty hull]

yeah probably has things very wrong with it

[steep apex]

The eyepiece holder thingy was on the right

[cursive inlet]

I have an Explore Scientific 3x, its more than twice as expensive than your apertura/gso one you sent, but its really good, same principal as the powermate iirc. If you don't want to spend as much then get the X-cel 3x as as AverageAstro suggested, its been proven to work many times online.

[cursive inlet]

Check the price of the Apertura/GSO (same brand but different names in some regions) dobs on your website/store your planning to buy from.

Where I'm from, they were cheaper to me than the SW flextubes of the same aperture.

But they are better in almost every way I'd say

[steep apex]

It’s roughly the same price

[cursive inlet]

10:1 focuser, diagonal finderscope, primary cooling fan, all included.

[steep apex]

Primary cooling fan, that’s pretty neat

I see that

[cursive inlet]

10:1 focuser is also a game changer

Also much easier to carry because the ota just lifts right out of the rocker box.

[main flume]

From my research best 2 dobs in Europe are StellaLyra and Bresser 8".
They sell under different names in US I believe.

Skywatcher is crap imo.

[steep apex]

What moon is this?

[steep apex]

How so?

[main flume]

Rubbish build quality, 1 step focuser, poor eyepieces, no solar filter, no fan etc

[steep apex]

Yeah I can see some of those problems, but some aren’t really a problem for me anyway

[main flume]

Why would anyone choose Skywatcher over StellaLyra or Bresser is beyond me

70£ price difference between Skywatcher and StellaLyra. And for that 70£ you get way more

[steep apex]

I’ll see what I can do

[livid sierra]

Skywatcher has good build quality and mirrors afaik, don’t know about Bresser or StellaLyra

[vapid depot]

Ken said it was Ganymede

[main flume]

It doesn’t. (Don’t known about mirrors)

[livid sierra]

Oh

Guess mine is just good then

[cursive inlet]

I own both, build quality of both is decent, I actually prefer the rocker box bearings of Skywatcher to GSO/Stellalyra/Apertura. But I'd say everything else about GSO/Stellalyra/Apertura is better.

[gray orchid]

Every manufacturer's version in the same price range will likely have identical mirrors.

[cursive inlet]

As far as mirror quality goes. ALL of these scopes come from China. Both have factory machined borosilicate glass mirrors, both are around 94% reflectivity, wouldn't be surprised if they come from the same supplier.

[main flume]

Yeah I wouldn’t focus on that but focuser/mount quality…
accessories etc

[gray orchid]

Also for people in the US I don't believe stellalyra or bresser is an option, at least without paying import fees.

[cursive inlet]

Apertura

[gray orchid]

But I do like stellalyras 6" imaging newt

Found one used

Got snatched up tho

[gray orchid]

Yii, apertura good.

[cursive inlet]

StellaLyra, Zhumell, Apertura, are all Guan Sheng (GSO) scopes, just sold in different regions of the world. They are identical.

[gray orchid]

Choose your flavor lol

[main flume]

Isn’t Bresser same as Explore Scientific?

Yeah it is https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/660093-explore-scientific-firstlight-10-dob-first-light-at-tsp/

Looks like Bresser

[livid sierra]

Also I think SW and Orion are the only ones who make goto Dobs?

[green pebble]

PLANET-ary nebula

[gray orchid]

No

[vestal hatch]

my image of planets have some deep sky in them

[ruby tartan]

BAN

[steep apex]

This ain’t planetary nebula imaging this is planetary imaging

[ruby tartan]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/968693918248083496/1133134123779764335/Damian.gif

Bruh, I haven't captured anything in 4 months

https://tenor.com/view/dunya-kupasi-gif-12058310

[near quiver]

Please help

[vapid depot]

!!

[vapid depot]

Idk if stuff is clipping there but yeah blue looks pushed a lot

[near quiver]

Ok first question, does the seeing look alright because I have no clue how to judge it

[vapid depot]

How low was Jupiter here?

[near quiver]

Not clipped but yeah it’s even brighter than it looks

[vapid depot]

And what Barlow

2x?

[near quiver]

Relatively low, like 35 degrees probably, 2x

[vapid depot]

Ah yeah ur pretty undersampled

[near quiver]

tbf i did extend it some

[vapid depot]

Uhh maybe average ish?

planetary tracked is a godsend

[near quiver]

i would kill for that with the 224 fov

[vapid depot]

near 5000mm here

[vapid depot]

yeahhh that sucks i feel ur pain though man.

[near quiver]

that looks unbelievably good to me

[vapid depot]

if u got the uranus youd be pulling in alot more detail. the smaller pixels

[near quiver]

ive been considering it but also planetary has been pissing me off and i dont want to get it, not like it, then be stuck with a really expensive guidecam

[vapid depot]

but uh for ur pic idek whats going on w the color

do u have the firecap log file

[near quiver]

nah i didnt put it on the card and i clear that folder all the time because it takes up all the space on my laptop

[vapid depot]

agh

[near quiver]

i really thing thats just an issue with the offset though because ive never experienced that before

[vapid depot]

yeah

ive never messed w it like that so

[vapid depot]

wait for even better seeing and tweaked colli

im ever so slightly out but wasnt worth messing with as the seeing was improving

[near quiver]

but if im undersampled, how tf am i supposed to zoom in more i can barely track as is

[vapid depot]

exact issue i faced.

i got a nexstar se cuz of that

[near quiver]

that is not the solution im going with lol

[vapid depot]

but yeah i rly think i experienced more proper sampling when i got the asi 462 with the 2.9 micron pixels

well nowadays u could get the asi 678mc with 2um pixels

slightly larger sensor too

even a used 178 would bring in lots more detail without making it harder to track (2.4 um pixels)

[near quiver]

well im not buying anything now because i dont have a good source of money

[dark cargo]

isn't the fov and how easy it is to fit the planet in frame just determined by the sensors resolution? At proper sampling every pixel size would see the same area of the sky

[near quiver]

also this was taken with my exact gear so there has to be something i can do

[vapid depot]

wtf.. a 2x barlow?

[near quiver]

extended 3 inches

[vapid depot]

sensor size

sampling determines detail

overall resolution is just the relationship between the sensor size and the pixel size

[near quiver]

idek how he extended it 3 inches and still reached focus. i cant even extend it 1 inch before the focus is too close

[vapid depot]

oh dang

yeah 8 in aperture should be capable of about that if not a little more

[near quiver]

i was thinking of using the 533 and just ditching color since the sensor is so much bigger but i think 20fps would really screw me over

[vapid depot]

it would

and the pixels arent any smaller

[vapid depot]

unfortunate 😦

[near quiver]

if i can just use the pixels i have now effectively, ill be happy

[dark cargo]

If you have a sensor of double it's size and pixel size but same resolution as a smaller one, the field of view will be identical if you use the same sampling. bigger sensor would need to get to double the focal length of the smaller one to get that through. Sensor size would only matter if you aren't changing the sampling with a barlow, eg DSO.

[dark cargo]

How smoothly can you move your mount for hand tracking? You could try making some smooth motion controls for it, or just stick a broom handle to it to act as a lever so you could hand track with a smaller sensor easier. Could probably also make a flipmirror or just have a very well aligned finderscope to get the planet back unto the sensor

[near quiver]

it doesnt move all that smoothly but i like the broom handle idea

the issue is that the altitude bearing is very inconvenient to replace, otherwise i would just make my own mount for it

[vapid depot]

wha? no matter the sampling, the size of the sensor determines how much of the usable image circle is utilized (giving the fov u see)

the other stuff u say does make sense though in regards to needing to double the focal length if u have double the pixel size to sample the same

[near quiver]

hear me out

what if i just bought a c8 and put it on my cem25 for planetary

[vapid depot]

thatd be amazing

[near quiver]

i mean its well within the tolerance

a c11 is actually barely over, the cem25p has a weirdly high weight capacity

[vapid depot]

geez the idea of that

[near quiver]

if i had a c11 i would do it

[vapid depot]

yeah thatd be fun

[near quiver]

i mean its half a pound over, it isnt going to break either of them most likely

[dark cargo]

is the alt movement actually problematic? I've mostly had issues with the azimuth. Your scope can even balance the tube for the alt

[vapid depot]

Hmm what do we think about making Jupiter warmer and slightly more saturated

It looks diff on my phone versus pc lol hmm

[near quiver]

yeah its weird. its kind of like backlash, i can move it up and down a little bit freely then it gets tighter. so to keep it centered on whatever, i have to push it up then let it go back down

[vapid depot]

Oh Wtf

[near quiver]

hang on c8 actually sells kinda cheap

[vapid depot]

yeah zane landers is selling one

[near quiver]

now youve actually got me wanting one noooo

[vapid depot]

he sold me my c9.25

[near quiver]

some guy selling one for $750 with shipping included wow

if i had the money i would jump on that

[vapid depot]

wtf..

[near quiver]

dang

im telling you those scts sell weirdly cheap

probably because people dont do their research and they buy them for dso then they realize that they fcked up

[vapid depot]

no way this hasnt been sold

[near quiver]

probably nobody lives near them and the shipping costs more than the gdp of several developing nations

[vapid depot]

nah it shouldn't

[near quiver]

also a chance that its just an old dude who forgot to change it, ive seen that occasionally

[vapid depot]

yeah lol

[near quiver]

again i would hop on it if i had the cash

I might stay up to try imaging Jupiter tonight

If I do I’m making someone get on a call with me to figure out what stupid mistake I’m making

[vapid depot]

yee prob best idea i can try if im still up

[near quiver]

What’s the earliest I should reasonably image? Max alt is at like 3 but that’s not happening I have an exam tomorrow

Oh fck me

I was looking at the weather in New York that’s why it went clear so suddenly

It is very cloudy

[uncut glade]

I’d bet you could probably push to 6000, looks pretty steady. Hope for a break in the seeing

[vapid depot]

Adc would put me around there right ?

[uncut glade]

Probably yeah

I’ve had seeing like that before and have pulled some solid images from it.

[steep apex]

Not bad for todays morning session

Maybe I should try out saturn in a bit

[main flume]

How do you get such a high zoomed img?

I need a tutorial I swear

Everything I got is a 25mm 20mm eye piece, a dob8" and my phone

[main flume]

What cam?

[steep apex]

Neptune-C II

[main flume]

800$^ cam?

[steep apex]

$300

Sometimes on sale and you can get it for $250

[main flume]

Almost as expensive as my scope 🤯

You got a dob?

[steep apex]

4.5” Newtonian reflector

[main flume]

So that's not an dob? Idk man idk shet 🔥🔥🔥

Explain this please 😭

[dark cargo]

layer of hot air that messes up the seeing. basically makes everything look wobblier. It goes away once the mirror is the same temperature as the air. Should take 30ish minutes to cool down for mediumish size scopes. with my 8" i think the time is closer to an hour

[main flume]

💀

[dark cargo]

You can just leave the scope outside for a bit once the sun is setting and it will be fine. Or you can use a fan to have it cool down faster.

[main flume]

Better idea lol

Should I cool the mirror from the outside or inside?

[dark cargo]

Uh if you want to use a fan, even outside is fine. It shoudn't be a massive problem unless the temperature inside is much higher than the temperature outside(eg freezing).

[main flume]

Like should I put the fan behind the window from the outside or should I put it in the inside to cool the mirror directly

[dark cargo]

just leave it outside for an hour before observing and don't worry about it tbh.

if you want to use a fan, put both of them outside. Just increases the air flow which increases how quickly it cools down

[main flume]

Alr after all the mirror has to be as cold as it can right?

Btw how do I collimate it?

I saw people using some kind of lasers but I don't have one lol

Btw the upper mirror has its bolts not at the same level

[dark cargo]

get or make a collimation cap, just a tiny hole in the middle of the focuser you can look through.

[main flume]

Idk if this is a problem but I never verified it if it's collimated

[dark cargo]

Put the collimation cap in the focuser, look through it, then adjust the secondary mirror screws(tighten the other two screws if you loosen one) until you can see the mirror clips evenly from the edges of your view. Then you adjust the primary mirror screws so the hole you are looking through appears inside the ring in the middle of the primary.

[main flume]

What kind of collimation cap? What's that?

Ye I would need pics on that lol

[dark cargo]

can do it by punching a hole through the exact middle of the dust cap on your scope. or 3D print one. Just need a 2-3mm hole directly in the middle of the focuser.

[dark cargo]

https://astro.catshill.com/collimation-guide/

[main flume]

Thx

This is what I should get right?

[dark cargo]

in the end it should look more like this: but the hole you are looking through should be inside the donut/ring on the primary

[main flume]

Thx

[lunar hamlet]

same scope!

[near quiver]

Yep just rebranded

[lunar hamlet]

can yours focus without a barlow?

cuz astribackyard has the sma ebrand and everythig and hes got his focussed without a barlow?

[proud mulch]

Not mine but found these gems from when space shuttle existed

[near quiver]

yeah

thats usually not an issue with astrocams, just dslrs

@vapid depot want to hop in a call at like 10 to get saturn

[lunar hamlet]

I’m inside alr lol

[proud mulch]

Uranus

I feel like I’m tom

[distant portal]

Hi all. This is my first time stacking a video of jupiter into a photo with a youtube tutorial and it didnt come out as it should of, any advice?

[left spindle]

I bileavr u are using autostakkert in that use manual AP and select one big boundary around jupiter this way the stacking errors reduce

[white prawn]

I'm setting my response in a few paragraphs. That way people who know a little bit more and/or can explain better than me can give input. I feel the answer is accurate in information.

Stacking actually starts with acquisition. If you don't get a good acquisition, you don't get a good stack, them's the rules. Make sure that the planet is in focus and you have good seeing (seeing can change in a manner of minutes as @near quiver demonstrated w/ his very recent photos of Jupiter).

While imaging:
No more than 3 minutes per video, as rotation can become apparent (especially in Jupiter) after that time.
If you're using a DSLR, set the exposure time to as many fps as it will allow; this will either be 30 or 60. Adjust the ISO so that you can see the planet, but not too bright.
If you're using a dedicated astro cam, you should be able to set the exposure time in milliseconds. Typically don't go below 5 and don't go above 30. I've found a sweet spot at about 9ms. Adjust your gain from that point.
If you're using a cell phone, I've got nothing. I tried planetary imaging on a cell phone - two, actually - and no dice.

When extracting, extract to tiff.

When stacking:
I've heard a couple schools of thought for stacking. One is to set the alignment points small and throw on as many as you can. The other is to not have more than 20 alignment points.
Personally, I set a size so that there will be about 15 points covering the entire image. Sometimes I have to change the align point size and try a couple of stacks. Once I'm happy with the set, I analyze.

The graph's entire job is to compare the images to each other and sort them in order of best to worst according to the settings, so don't get too excited if the graph all right at the top and don't get too upset/disappointed if it's all at the bottom, either. You can still mess it up ... or bring something out. Choose an amount to stack, stack.

Check the stacked image. If it looks like scotch tape on your image, the align points went wonky. If it comes out with hash marks all over, the align points went wonky. In those cases, you will need to adjust alignment points. More, less, manual placement, all of above, experiment with one solution or another. This is frustrating because it can become a trial and error process. I imaged a crater on the moon once that when I was trying to set align points none of the stacks came out until I set ONE align point. And the only reason that I set that one align point is because I was at that time quite frustrated "over it" with the process so putting just the one alignment point was a snarky statement more than anything else, and it worked.

The good thing about YouTube tutorials is that when well presented there is some good general information. The weak part is that someone may be using some really strong equipment and get a fantastic image even from the get-go because they've been doing it so long, it can lead to disappointment when someone who's brand new to the hobby and has a tiny budget tries to get some results.

The person with a Celstron 70AZ and a DSLR doing imaging for the first time is NOT going to get the same results as the YouTuber with a Celestron Edge14HD using a dedicated astro cam who has been doing this for years.

[distant portal]

I'll try thank you

[distant portal]

Interesting, I will definetly try this way of approach, thanks.

[coarse aspen]

Tip for alignment points

To avoid artifacts just make sure they don't overlap

Sometimes it's fine if they overlap, in that case if it ain't broke don't fix it

But in my experience, on my images, which is not everyone's experience to be clear.. overlapping APs gives those strange line artifacts

If you get artifacts, manual place the AP and make sure they are close and cover as much as possible without overlap

[white prawn]

I've seen the artifact sometimes on my images ... and you're right it's where there's an overlap of AP's. Everything you said is sound ... and a little shorter than what I was saying.

[dark cargo]

Only complaint I have about that is the changing ISO to change the brightness, usually you change shutter speed for that. I usually put it around the unity ISO that https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/Sensor_Characteristics.htm tells for the camera, as its a balance between readnoise and dynamic range. I think you can go a step higher for planetary or even higher.

https://www.astropix.com/html/equipment/canon_one_to_one_pixel_resolution.html also 1:1 sampling from the sensor is REALLY important for dslr planetary

[white prawn]

Fair enough, and I was trying to reference shutter speed and couldn't think of it. Even w/ my shutter speed set max so I got 30 FPS I'd need to adapt the ISO. That's why I phrased as I did. I wasn't aware of that resource though.

I'm actually debating the merits of imaging w/ my DSLR a couple of times just to compare notes now that the scope is properly collimated.

[dark cargo]

Could be interesting to compare what you can get with the same conditions, only problem is getting the planets to be the same size with both cameras, for a reasonable comparison.

[white prawn]

Most any comparison would do for me, tbh. But 5x Barlow on the DSLR vs. 3x Barlow on the ASI585 ... might be reasonable enough.

[near quiver]

heres a kind of stupid question

which would be more helpful to me, getting a 3x barlow for my 8" dob or getting a c8 because im considering both

probably option 3 which is just buy a damn uranus c already

[white prawn]

I'd go for the 3x. I just spent $100 on a Celestron X-Cel 3x on Agena Astro. Best part is, you can use it on the C8 I'm sure if you get the C8 later.

[dark cargo]

You'd need a barlow for planets anyway even with the C8 unless you have a tiny pixel camera

[near quiver]

fair

i mean when i get a job again eventually ill get all 3 anyway

man 585 + c8 would be amazing actually

plus it would have some limited applications for deep sky with the reducer and 533

[gray orchid]

3x on an 8" dob can do some serious stuff anyway

[vapid depot]

Oh shoot lol

[near quiver]

true

[remote cipher]

im just slightly out of focus i think 🙃

[sharp ridge]

what do you mean not overlapping?

[coarse aspen]

The points

[sharp ridge]

hmm

[coarse aspen]

Usually causes the line artifacts

[sharp ridge]

the line artifacts are caused by half out of frame images

always make sure to overlap aps

[coarse aspen]

not from what ive seen at least

im not doubting you. but sharing my own experience

[white prawn]

What he said actually makes sense

About the cause I mean

[sharp ridge]

AutoStakkert! Tips from Emil Kraaikamp

It is best to stack only the frames with good quality. Don't stack a lot of frames just to have a large stack. A stack with a smaller number of frames will be more noisy however. This gets back to the quality of the seeing. If you don't have decent seeing for at least some moments while recording, you are not going to get very good results, no matter how many or how few frames you stack.

For some objects, you will get better results by manually setting multiple alignments points.

Add a bit of overlap to manually placed alignment points.

Keep alignment points away from the edge of a planet.

Alignment Point Size - Smaller alignment points are generally less stable than big ones. It is easy to lose track on a small part of an image, especially if it is very noisy or a dim feature, and if the seeing is poor. But potentially, smaller alignment points can track finer movements and provide better quality. That is an important trade-off here. It is actually possible to mix multiple alignment point sizes. If for example there is a small moon in front of Jupiter, add a small alignment point around it (and the shadow), and you'll see the stacking improves quite a bit around the moon and shadow.

For large planets like Jupiter and Saturn, with good detail in them and a large image scale, use around 30 alignment points with a size of about 75 to 125. This one is a bit tricky, as the size of the alignment points depends a lot on the imaging scale.

For smaller details, such as the polar cap on Mars, or moon shadows on Jupiter, use extra alignment points with smaller sizes for those features, in addition to the existing alignment points with normal sizes.

When planets are small, such as with Uranus or Neptune, use a single alignment point with a large area around the entire planet.

For the Sun, always use the gradient quality estimator. Solar images that are correctly exposed usually have little noise. If the seeing is good and the detail is fine, use a smaller value of 2 for Noise Robust under the Quality Estimator.

For images that have small fine detail, use smaller alignment points.

For Saturn, use manual alignment point placement. Diagonal lines on the rings are not good places for alignment points. Place the alignment point on the rings to include a perpendicular feature like the edge of the planet, or the black space at the tips of the rings.

Good alignment points can track a feature in two perpendicular directions. This is why alignment points placed near the limb of a planet don't work so well.

For small bright objects like Venus and Mars, the edge quality estimator may work better than the gradient quality estimator.

If you have problems with seams in the stacked image that are caused by poor transparency, use Forced Global Quality under the Quality Estimator panel. If the seams are caused by the alignment points being too small, use larger alignment points and re-stack the image.

[white prawn]

Is there a link to that info so I can bookmark?

[sharp ridge]

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/562976-autostakkert-alignment-points-question/
idk i was just going through cloudy nights

[sharp ridge]

found a good one

[white prawn]

@sharp ridge thank you for both of those items

[sharp ridge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIjXmRh1DE0
and if you really have time you can watch a 2 hour tutorial

[white prawn]

I would like to think that I'm not so lacking that I necessarily need the tutorial 😳

[sharp ridge]

true tbh you should rather watch the three part tutorial series by christopher go

best tips fr

[white prawn]

Yeah, hours-long is a little much. Even when I tried to process a DSO and found Nebulaphotos tutorial I skipped to what I needed to follow along. And the Saturn image that I needed to know how to combine 2 photos so I could get the moons in ... again, skipped to the point. So something that covers things in a brief period of time is good.

[livid sierra]

Thanks Tiktok

[proud mulch]

@somber stratus just wondering, can u send some maps of Jupiter, mainly one in CH4 and one regular one

Preferably during the same night

[somber stratus]

Haven't done any maps of Jupiter, but there are loads on the Alpo Japan website, daily

[proud mulch]

Send link

[hasty hull]

google “alpo japan”

[steep apex]

Currrently I have a 4.5" Newt, would I get 2x the results with an 8" Skywatcher dob?

its 2700mm, skywatcher would have 3600mm

[hasty hull]

“2x” is not really something you can measure in terms of image quality

But yeah it will be much better

Like @ruby tartan used an 8” I think and got some nice stuff

[vestal hatch]

https://x.com/jlucdauvergne/status/1712746114728747023?s=46&t=S2BwfExawdbhtbwCtQyc7A

If anyone is out imaging Saturn right now, you may be able to capture this ring spoke

Judging by the orbital period seen in this image series

And by the orbital period of Saturn's B ring (approx ~10hrs at the outer edge)

[white prawn]

Oh son of a grrrr

Love all the nice stuff I'm missing because of dog seeing

[steep apex]

I got these clouds that look go very fast but the actual cloud train that’s running through my area is just going slow

[white prawn]

Did you see the images I shared earlier? Forecasted seeing was 1/5

[steep apex]

Nope

[white prawn]

I should say, "screenshots" actually. But yea, screenshotted the observatory forecasts. Confirmed w/ eyeballs. I don't think Jupiter should have points when viewed by naked eye. And I'm sure that stars shouldn't have fuzz around them, either.

Not sure what I'm more upset at right now though. Bad seeing keeping me in, my equipment can't get the detail that I want it to get, or the fact that my skills aren't up to par

[white prawn]

No. Bird Jones are the antithesis of telescopes, cannot be focused.

Their use of a spherical mirror prohibits collimation and proper focusing.

[gray orchid]

You can see what with the naked eye?!

[ruby tartan]

https://tenor.com/view/who-pinged-me-ping-discord-up-opening-door-gif-20065356

https://www.astrobin.com/users/Lucca.Viola/

my astrobin

[hasty hull]

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-kelpo-gif-10458867

[ruby tartan]

Today there is an eclipse

https://tenor.com/view/yay-kitty-cat-happy-excited-gif-14649340657186539906

Bruh

[white prawn]

It's a design flaw, you'd have to get a scope that isn't a bird-jones

[gray orchid]

Through the telescope is what I assume you meant?

[hearty fiber]

5" bird jones...

Its a powerseeker isn't it?

They can be focused, but have a great number of... questionable design choices which makes them physically and mentally painful to use

[white prawn]

Easier to say that they can't. 🙂

[summer field]

finally done cooking 🙂

[remote cipher]

Not sure if the best place to put it but

Solar eclipse through the clouds

[proud mulch]

[steep apex]

Is it just me or did the southern cloud band get bigger?

[tidal crow]

i think it did

[eternal solstice]

Holy Shi

[main flume]

Can you explain how to do such animation?

[summer field]

you can generate a map using winjupos and then use that map to generate the animation

[main flume]

Understood 0 but thanks. 🙏

Never used it though.

[summer field]

winjupos has a tool to generate maps like this one

you can then import that map in the ephemerides tool and save the animation

[vapid depot]

Eh

Diff between 9.25 and 6”

somewhere in the middle obviously more like the 9.25” will be possible

[steep apex]

What fl is the 6”

[vapid depot]

3k

2.9um pixels

[steep apex]

I might be able to pull a little bit more than the 6”, probably also with the same size as the 6” since the fl I will be zooming at is 3400mm

But the 6” jup size looks nice compared to my 4.5”

[steep apex]

With the 685nm IR pass filter, you get sharpness at a cost of resolution right?

And what is it mostly used for for planetary?

[vapid depot]

The cost in resolution (in regards to wavelength reasons) is negligible

It’s used for bad seeing

The longer wavelengths literally don’t collide as much w atmospheric molecules to scatter

Kens results rgb vs ir 685 in bad seeing

It’s really for bigger apertures though . I’d benefit from it

[green pebble]

Reprocessed my old data

Also more PLANET-ary nebula images (dont forget, there might be planets inside it so it counts)

[steep apex]

What settings do I use for Uranus

[white prawn]

Oh dear lord I'll never stop the 6th grade instinct to make a joke with that planet.

[steep apex]

I’m capturing Uranus right now

[white prawn]

Otherwise, wish I knew? I know that I upped the gain on my camera to find it, and since I ran out of space I don't have the file telling me what the settings were

[main flume]

Thanks

[steep apex]

I only got 1k frames...the final image isn't that bad

its just the noise

[white prawn]

I'm curious about my Jupiter image and want to have a Jupiter expert check it. Basically "I see a couple of spots, are they interesting?"

[vestal hatch]

Send the pic?

[white prawn]

#1019937457095065731 message

I can highlight what I was looking at

[vapid depot]

this stuff? @white prawn

[white prawn]

That .. and this

[vapid depot]

Ah just some smaller storms scattered about

But idk about the other thing u pointed out tbh

Just some equatorial band disturbance

[white prawn]

How's this? 🙂

[vestal hatch]

You need to fix the background a bit where you masked stuff

So that both backgrounds are the same colour

[white prawn]

Let's be fair. That image is from @fading plume last night and I asked if he would mind if I did a little denoise b/c what he shared had a bit more noise b/c he didn't want to ruin Enke. Enke is still there All I did was denoise

I say all that to give credit to the person who did all the work and all I did was remove a bit of noise.

[vestal hatch]

that's all good lol

I can just see the mask behind so wanted to let (both of) you know

[white prawn]

I usually have a good eye for detail so I'm surprised that I didn't.

[topaz elk]

ina 🤔

[fading plume]

Interesting. Maybe my denoise strength was weird. Nicely done

[fading plume]

That’s weird. On both my calibrated monitors on maximum brightness I can’t see anything other than the slight blue area bottom left.

[white prawn]

Thank you. I took care, didn't want to destroy it.

[fading plume]

I’ll reprocess when I get home

[fading plume]

In a dark room too

[steep apex]

How much frames should I usually get for Uranus and Neptune?

[white prawn]

Same as anything else planetary. "As many as possible in the amount of time that you have in order to not see rotation while still preserving visibility and ability to capture surface information."

[fading plume]

@white prawn gave it a reprocess with more noise reduction and masked out some more stacking artefacts.

Lost a bit of sharpness. Let me try and get that back.

not a huge sucess.

[lean hearth]

Wow very nice job that 14” is really a great fella

[lunar hamlet]

Yes it’s there and it’s rlly good

[vapid depot]

ordered 685nm longpass

lmao

[coarse aspen]

wow one of the smoothest timelapse i seen

[hasty hull]

Don’t think it’s a Timelapse, just the map he made with winjupos projected onto a globe and then simulated rotation

[steep apex]

Should I get the 8” collapsible dobsonian or is there no other difference from the skywatcher classic 8” other then portability? I know that the specs and optics are the same

[white prawn]

The question to ask is how much do you think that you'll lug it around?

[steep apex]

I won’t really travel with it I don’t think…but I know for some reasons I might, but I do have to carry everything down stairs

[white prawn]

Even for running downstairs the collapsible has its advantages.

[gray orchid]

What even

[steep apex]

Do you get more detail when you have a bigger aperture since you're collecting more light or does that depend on the focal length? Or maybe both?

[dark cargo]

The size of the smallest detail you can see is determined by the aperture of the scope, due to diffraction(aka physics: light is kinda a wave that interferes with itself). Relationship is linear so doubling the diameter of the mirror means you could see details twice as small. You do need to have it so the camera is at a certain fl to actually be able to capture that detail through.

[dark cargo]

http://www.rocketmime.com/astronomy/Telescope/ResolvingPower.html This is more talking about splitting double stars, as details on non pointlike objects are a bit more complicated.

[steep apex]

Thanks for the info

[main flume]

In collapsible the trusses are the weak point.

[vapid depot]

this jupiter dataset is available in share your data if anyone wants to give it a go . does need derotating though

[uncut glade]

Just saw Venus flicker with my naked eye!

Forecast said 5/5 seeing

[hasty hull]

What was the altitude lol

[uncut glade]

15 degrees. Jupiter at 60 degrees had the GRS appear in only 5% of frames

[hasty hull]

cursed

[silk sentinel]

Has anyone used a dslr Nikon. I keep getting weird effects on my video and live view. Jupiter will be in perfect focus and then it will just be blown out white. I can’t figure it out

[steep apex]

@vapid depot double eclipse tomorrow if you wanna view it

Maybe like midnight for you 10/20 or something but it’s 10/19 for me

[uncut glade]

Oh, sometimes when you reenter live view it will automatically set the exposure to 1/60, try changing it to like 1/240

By default it does ISO priority, but I think it’s changeable. Poke around in the shooting settings and see if anything shows up for video

[vapid depot]

Damn am clouded tho

[hasty hull]

same

[random pecan]

Duster is awesome

[fading plume]

Gahymede

[ruby tartan]

BRUH

Perfect seeing 🤡

[white prawn]

What size aperture do I need to get an image that size please?

[ruby tartan]

The image is terrible, but I'm using a GSO 12"

That's with a GSO 8" last year

[white prawn]

That pre-processed so far definitely looks better than any of my pre-processed, and better than some of my processed. What's GSO?

[coarse aspen]

GSO is a company

Newtonians

Guan Sheng Optical i believe

[main flume]

yep

you can get it

[somber stratus]

It's not that bad. Pretty average for a 12", no?

I wouldn't expect Encke gap in the single stacks if you were looking for that

[hasty hull]

yeah looks good to me

what

which one

[somber stratus]

Both are decent. Choice is yours as to whether you want a harder time hand-tracking but potentially more resolution with the 12", and vica versa with the GoTo 8

Can't make that decision for you.

[vestal hatch]

Hey Lucca, how do you do your APs for the moons? I'm autoplacing size 56 APs on the planet, then manually dropping one AP on each moon, but they end up being a bit streaky in one direction.

[sharp ridge]

god thats pretty damn bad

[white prawn]

What am I missing? Why is this so bad? Single shot, live view, not processed? Looks better than some of my best processed stuff with GOOD data. WTH.

[livid sierra]

It's not a single frame it's a stack

Maybe derotated even but it's not a single frame

[white prawn]

Has it been processed at all other than stacked?

[livid sierra]

Yeah, sharpened

[white prawn]

That can't be right. My stacks look worse than that.

[livid sierra]

What do you mean

[sharp ridge]

its a stacked 12" dob shot from brazil

it should be much better

[white prawn]

Just stacked?

[livid sierra]

And sharpened

[white prawn]

Just stacked should be better?

[sharp ridge]

nah

[white prawn]

Then my efforts are hopless and I should sell my stuff.

[livid sierra]

It's a sharpened stack, how should just stacked be better

[white prawn]

I must have misunderstood what was being said about the image should be better.

But still looks better than some of my best stuff from the 8"

Which is pretty disappointing for me

[livid sierra]

You keep comparing your 8" to images from way larger scopes

[white prawn]

I figure I should be able to get the same quality, just smaller

Prob lose smaller detail

[livid sierra]

To get exactly the same quality is pretty damn hard. Need perfect seeing for that. And I think you mentioned a few times that you shoot at low altitudes because the planets rise too late for you

You're giving your own scope a pretty unfair disadvantage and a bad time for comparing it to larger scopes all the time lol

[white prawn]

I give her credit for punching above her class sometimes when I'm doing things right

[dark cargo]

southern hemisphere is cheating for saturn right now, they would have it at around 60 degrees alt I assume, compared to yours 30ish. Not that far from double the atmosphere to look through.

[livid sierra]

Also a big part of planetary ap is just waiting for clear skies and good seeing conditions. And that sucks. My last time even shooting at all was almost 3 weeks ago. I had perfect seeing for one week in September. But 80-90% of the time my seeing is mediocre-average..

[sharp ridge]

be patient pls

usually you get only a few good images each year

[somber stratus]

Altitude isn't everything. If you're patient enough, conditions come to you, speaking from experience from 51°N. The hard part is not giving up with it.

[livid sierra]

And it's easy to think everyone's images are perfect because you have your mind completely set on that.

Everyone meaning the people you compare your images to

[somber stratus]

I have too many nights where it's complete mush. I just never post the images

[white prawn]

"hard part is not giving up." Refer to my comment regarding "hopless" and "should sell everything"

In other words, you're right

I just feel like there were times that I got some really good images from my DSLR before the scope was properly collimated because I got a couple of really good nights and all it's been since I got the better camera is struggle bus

[somber stratus]

This was IR Mars at 50°, this time last year. Abysmal conditions.

for example

No point even posting.

[somber stratus]

Yeah, this is valid.

[white prawn]

?

[somber stratus]

Hard to tell with the seeing though. Question is "did you get lucky with the seeing, or was it the equipment?".

Always impossible to answer

without two scopes on the same night

[white prawn]

Decent equip ... and def lucky w/ the seeing

Which isn't to blame the 585, but I'm bumming on the seeing.

I'm already seeing better w/ collimation compared to not really well collimated

[somber stratus]

Thing is we're entering winter so the Jet stream is back in full force.

Doubt you'll get exceptional seeing for months

[white prawn]

The one night I had good seeing I didn't get the settings right because I didn't accommodate for what was going on (bit hazy b/c of calm)

[sharp ridge]

what you dont see vs what gets posted

[white prawn]

And so far all I can manage is this ... on a decent night.

[thick heron]

For an 8 inch scope that is not far off from ideal in terms of detail.

[white prawn]

All I need is learning to use ADC and better seeing then?

[tidal crow]

color callibration in registax 🤓👆

[near quiver]

thats the unprocessed one he knows how to do it lol

[hasty hull]

what is this left shot lmao

[sharp ridge]

some weird low atmospheric turbulence seeing

[ruby tartan]

Jupiter's moon? I use 1 alignment point

[vestal hatch]

Gotcha. Think I need to lower the time of each stack since the moons are streaking a bit

[vapid depot]

https://youtu.be/ZaTWq1EfjGU?si=1TWNJ2fy15McT9GS

[white prawn]

I did that and got no moon.

[tight canyon]

First time I've ever seen Jupiter. It has been coming up so late that I have never seen this beautiful giant before. And to see the moons around it was absolutely surreal. Definetly not the best capture out there but will always remain a personal favourite

[hasty hull]

venus elongation is in 2 days

[ruby tartan]

💀

[deep island]

Do the L

[vapid depot]

geez man

[ruby tartan]

BRUH

[fluid shore]

F

[ruby tartan]

I miss my 200mm

[deep island]

114*

[thick heron]

Have you checked for astigmatism @ruby tartan?

[ruby tartan]

Yes

[thick heron]

I would look into doing a Ronchi or knife’s edge test to see how the primary mirror looks.

[near quiver]

boys the new barlow worked wonders

This is what the old one looked like

[uncut glade]

Oh yeah, way better festoons

[dark cargo]

What barlow did you get and what barlow were you using previously?

[steep apex]

The left storm beside the GRS has faded a lot

There’s not a lot of brightness coming out of it

[near quiver]

I don’t know what the old one was, the new one is an astromania 3x

[dark cargo]

some generic 2x one I assume?

[near quiver]

Yep

Unbranded lol

[white prawn]

@dark cargo it's safe to say that @near quiver's Astromania 3x is more "off the shelf" than Astrobiscuit's C14

[near quiver]

Lol

[dark cargo]

well I'd rather grab a barlow than a C14 from any shelf......

[white prawn]

I mean, I wouldn't mind having the aperture ... or bigger, even; I'm a little upset with what I'm getting out of my 8" b/c I want something that's more similar to (if smaller than) what folks are getting out of a C14 or 16" scope. But to have that aperture, you bet your money that I'll have an observatory setup formally in my backyard because there is NO way I'd lug that thing out to observe like what I do now w/ my 8".

And to clarify, I'm actually happy w/ "Rio" ... I still say that she's capable of punching a little above her class and I just have to learn how to work with her again (since the 585 purchase) And I'm a little frustrated/disappointed with/in myself since I got the 585 in March and am still learning it.

[slate juniper]

thats a video from 2021 I took, look at the seeing XDD

these were the results xd

[onyx garnet]

mickey mouse on top of grs what

[slate juniper]

lol XD

[vapid depot]

https://skyandtelescope.org/get-involved/pro-am-collaboration/how-to-measure-jupiters-deflection-of-starlight/ reminder of this coming up

oh man people have been planning this for some time lol

" amateur astronomers are encouraged to test their equipment, using the same target stars, as early as the summer of 2022."

and a contact email after that

[frozen hound]

guys how can I know when the GRS is visible???

I have skysafari 7 pro and it tells you when the GRS is visible...but from my last experience it's not accurate

actually

it was really off

I didn't see the GRS that night

and I'm sure it was the time skysafari said

is there a similar feature with stellarium ??

that is more accurate??

[vapid depot]

Stellarium but usually sky safari is accurate for me

Sometimes minutes off but that’s it

Check ur coordinates

I used slay safari for some time , but recently started using stellarium for planet info

Use the web app lol

[frozen hound]

ok I'll give a try to slay safari again...

[frozen hound]

yeah the web app is superb

[vapid depot]

Lmao slay safari geez idk how I didn’t see that 😂😂

[hasty hull]

SkyGuide is super accurate for me

[vapid depot]

reprocess. a little softer

[sharp ridge]

Recommend increasing the gamma a bit

Aka less contrast limb

[vapid depot]

im so tired my eyes arent working right hopefully i can get it tmrw

lol

[white prawn]

With ADC. This looks so promising 🙄

[fading plume]

Have you tried only using 5% in the first percentage to stack box? Correct me if I’m wrong but I think your numbers are the wrong way around. I have my last 3 boxes blank.

The way I read it is you have a lot of frames contributing to your stack that are low quality

[white prawn]

That's only after analysis, before any stacking is done. The percentages are leftovers from a previous session.

[white prawn]

Yeah, they were all low quality. Couldn't be helped. 😦

[fading plume]

Nah you can make the rest of the boxes blank and only use the first

[vestal hatch]

This just produces 4 different stacks with different %s

They're all separate

[uncut glade]

I use that method a lot epsilon, very useful to determine the right percentage in fluctuating seeing

[fading plume]

Interesting I never realised that

[frozen hound]

damn...

[frozen hound]

I guess you should turn on double stack reference...it aligned the image better for me so it had smoother edges

idk if it works for you...

I used it for a video of the moon I had taken with my smartphone

before the double stack reference the edges looked really weird

but after that...it was superb

[frozen hound]

it was like some kind of ghosting

or bad alignment

[near quiver]

What source do you guys use to check seeing?

[coarse aspen]

Your eyes. http://www.damianpeach.com/seeingscale.htm

No forecast is accurate for seeing

[near quiver]

by that scale the best ive ever seen is poor lmao

[vapid depot]

oh wow i had excellent

my first light was like fair to good

but started out very poor

since it got lost somewhere else lol

i hope this isnt super rare from now on.. oof

first light i consider this fair after damian peach's web page

[near quiver]

dude i had this girl over and i almost sent her home because i looked at saturn and the seeing looked so good, i almost sent her home like "sorry i have to image"

[vapid depot]

LOL

[uncut glade]

https://tenor.com/view/chad-gif-22190919

“I’m sorry babe, the atmosphere is calm today. Rain check?”

[near quiver]

"sorry babe, i can see the cassini division, hows friday?"

[somber stratus]

haha

too funny

[near quiver]

i kind of regret it because it didnt go well, and i know imaging would have gone great

[somber stratus]

Lesson learned. AP>Girls

[steep apex]

Common sense

[lean hearth]

I IMAGE SUN

[hasty hull]

I showed my gf daytime Venus thru the scope on one of our first dates lmao

[lean hearth]

[near quiver]

indeed

[steep apex]

Anyways so I have a ISS Sun transit tomorrow, what settings do I use…gonna use my DSLR this time

[somber stratus]

Everyone knows Saturn is the more romantic target.

poor form

[near quiver]

everyone knows that the moon is #1 tho

[sharp ridge]

Showed ma gf Venus and the moon she wasn't interested she's gone now

[sharp ridge]

Rule #1 date when saturn is 2-3 months after oppositions

[somber stratus]

Her loss :)

[near quiver]

its bold because it either works really well or not at all

[thick heron]

I’ve never showed my GF a planet because I’ve never had a GF.

[sharp ridge]

[uncut glade]

He’s just like me

[thick heron]

I am a man of the (single) people.

[white prawn]

ADC means no RGB align needed, yes?

[steep apex]

Same

[vapid depot]

wont hurt to run it

[white prawn]

https://tenor.com/view/banging-head-bang-gif-12070477

Huh. That does look a tad better.

[white prawn]

Encke?

[vapid depot]

really not sure can u post full

[white prawn]

Trying to save it but

[vapid depot]

i dont think so from this lol

"only 17" of aperture"

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/blog/the-encke-gap-in-saturns-ring-system-imaged-with-only-17-aperture/

idk if thats full of crap or what id hope not

[white prawn]

😐 😕 ☹️

[vapid depot]

hmm

this guy threw a 3x barlow with a 585 on the c9.25

f/28 lmao..

[white prawn]

?

[high hull]

mm big zoom

[white prawn]

Good detail

[vapid depot]

oversampling

but yeah i kinda like that softer look

[livid sierra]

Venus is the planet of love though

But yeah Saturn might be more romantic

[thick heron]

This reminds me of a talk at Texas Star Party in May where the speaker was talking about visually spotting targets within targets (like bright h-alpha regions in galaxies and whatnot). Some of them needed “only” 25” of aperture under a dark sky to see.

I think it was live-streamed.

[sharp ridge]

B4 I imaged with da C11 @ F/33

[coarse aspen]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1062506596904743012/1134714043807060021/image.png?ex=6545d1ce&is=65335cce&hm=2a9421cd0f12f1084897e8eddf0e6a404c59c316b3d0099cc7e1ff3c511ff9f8&

@near quiver

[near quiver]

LMAO

I’m glad I’ve become known here without even taking good planetary images

[steep apex]