Planetary Imaging

[ruby compass]

and well. you cant shoot ir without an ir filter

[main flume]

Well I don't actually need it right now cuz there's no current planets

[livid sierra]

And get IR and UV in your colour data?

[ruby compass]

its insanley good on moon

[main flume]

Well yeah

[ruby compass]

yeah? i do it all the time

[livid sierra]

Yeah it’s ruining your data man.

[ruby compass]

works fine

[livid sierra]

It’s a terrible idea to shoot colour without a UV/IR Cut.

[livid sierra]

Suit yourself.

[ruby compass]

i mean i would want one yes. but its not my top priority rn

without uv/ir cut btw

[main flume]

Something I never recommend is to use the IR and UV cut filter in deep sky

[livid sierra]

Not sure what could be more important than a UV/IR Cut personally.

[ruby compass]

ir pass

685nm

c:

[main flume]

I rather recommend use IR/UV cut for planetary

[ruby compass]

my seeing is shit

sometimes 4 arc/sec 😭

[main flume]

sad

[ruby compass]

yeah 😦

[main flume]

For some reason gas giants look normal without IR/UV cut

[ruby compass]

ofc

Visible vs IR

[main flume]

When I was a kid I remember that great spot was 2 times Earth size

[ruby compass]

its the size of earth now

[main flume]

yeah

[rugged knoll]

what sensor

[main flume]

Sad for jupiter

[ruby compass]

224

[main flume]

This is my stacked image without image cooling

And this is with

[ruby compass]

cool

so sad that i lost this data. crazy seeing (not ir)

my best color data ever

[main flume]

Where I live there's usually calm winds, both high and low altitudes

So bodies look good and don't blur too much

This is one of my best

Well, I realized it's not totally good

It has strong blur

It's not my best

Lemme see for any I got from the eclipse

This one is from partial phase

This one is from total phase

[ruby compass]

cool

[main flume]

I ran out of storage just after taking that video

And cleaning would take very long

So the best I got after that was with my phone

And not quite good

Still, I got my best of the moon using my phone

[somber stratus]

where are you based?

roughly

[main flume]

This was the one I took using my phone

[main flume]

My home

Now this is my best of moon ever

[main flume]

My home is still good for some of deep sky since I live in bortle 6, so although it's not the best, still good for some

[somber stratus]

I meant state/country

[main flume]

Ohhhhh

Florida

[somber stratus]

Gotcha. Yeah, seeing is quite good there, or so I've heard.

[main flume]

The bad thing is astronomy in Florida summer

Too cloudy

I was lucky yesterday to have a very clear and calm night

But astronomy in Florida during winter is just peak

You have planets

Not too cold, usually 5-15 degree Celsius

Like

[livid sierra]

Using a UV/IR Cut would’ve helped the visible data a whole deal… unfair comparison. And also on the moon it’s a different story, imaging it in IR makes more sense because there’s barely any colour anyway. Unless you’re going for a specific vibe.

[somber stratus]

That's my summer nights. Comfortable.

[main flume]

Where tf u live to have such low temperature in summer

Wait

Maybe you live in south hemisphere

Cuz when summer in north there's winter in south

[somber stratus]

UK.

[main flume]

Hold on...

Lemme see

[somber stratus]

it's usually 75/55f in Summer

day/night

[main flume]

Damn you lucky. 15 to 25 C degree average during summer

Here I have f 33 C (90 F)

[somber stratus]

Yeah, though winter isn't so enjoyable given for planetary you have to stand outside with the scope...

[main flume]

I can handle it

[somber stratus]

Frequently -5c or so here.

[main flume]

Temperatures below 5 C aren't usual

So I can handle it at my place

[ruby compass]

color data for color and ir for detail

[somber stratus]

Yeah, imo 15c/60f is the optimal night temp.

[ruby compass]

tom. do you get night? like during summer?

[main flume]

What color is the moon (SERIOUS DEBATE)

[livid sierra]

Works alright. But still doesn’t make sense not to have a UV/IR cut.

[ruby compass]

Multi colored

[somber stratus]

Nope.

No astrodark if that's what you mean

the Sun does set however.

[ruby compass]

Same:/ no astrodark for 4 months straight here..

[ruby compass]

Yeah

[main flume]

If you wanna call me in a short way just use "Astro21" and I know it's me

[ruby compass]

or just @main flume

[main flume]

Also

21 cuz my bd

[ruby compass]

what month?

[main flume]

September

[somber stratus]

Equinox enjoyer

[ruby compass]

cool

[main flume]

Fun fact: Saturn, my favorite planet, got a birthday gift for me, its opposition for 2025

[ruby compass]

also Tom. is there a good way to image mercury during day with manual dob?

[somber stratus]

Saturn opposition is overrated

[somber stratus]

Manual will be some task. It's hard enough with goto

[ruby compass]

how is it hard with goto?

[somber stratus]

Never 100% accurate goto. You still struggle to find it. Tracking at least means you can keep it for long enough to image it. Manually, you'll only have it in the fov for seconds, then it's gone. Another 30 mins trying to find it lol

[main flume]

I once saw Jupiter in daylight

[ruby compass]

Well im not manual manual. Just not goto. (I have a eq platform)

[somber stratus]

Yeah it's possible. Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter are all doable. Saturn too, but you kinda have to cheat and track it from night time through sunrise.

[main flume]

I woke up early and saw Jupiter, just after sunrise, and I decided to capture it and track using my old tracker (which no longer works) and I was able to take a picture of it when atmospheric scattering was storng enough to be considered daylight

I've been trying to capture ISS since january. Any tips?

[ruby compass]

How bright would i want the backround sky if im trying to find mercury at day?

[low oar]

i got mercury during the day when it was at like 45%

a while back

[ruby compass]

crazy

[cursive inlet]

This is the second day and still no luck, doesn't help I don't have goto 😭

But I just got some decent Venus data I think

[cursive inlet]

Better seeing this morning, some awesome uv detail

I'm curious though, is that line a stacking artifact or some sort of cloud formation?

its still there after trying multiple ap sizes and configurations

[cloud copper]

What is better imx585 or imx715?

[candid flare]

585

[sour cradle]

how is that even a questiom

[somber stratus]

this morn

[teal sandal]

Is that titan?

[somber stratus]

yup

[native plume]

what do you guys use to find transit times for saturn

[somber stratus]

Stellarium, WinJupos, Cartes Du Ciel all work

Ski Safari too

[native plume]

thx

[cursive inlet]

ir/uv

[fathom oak]

what specific filters did you use for this and how did you combine the data?

[cursive inlet]

W47 + Astronomik IR block for UV, ZWO 850nm pass for IR. Since I use an OSC I stacked a mono image with the UV filter using only the blue channel. For the IR I just don't debayer, so I am left with 2 mono images.

Then in gimp I create a 50% blend of UV and IR. Then I compose an RGB image with IR for red, IR/UV 50% blend for green, and UV for blue. Then I balance the colors and I'm basically done.

[fathom oak]

thank you

[fathom oak]

do you think I could do the same thing with a 685nm IR pass?

[cursive inlet]

Totally, IR usually doesn't show much detail, you could even just image in visual.

[fathom oak]

it does pass the higher wavelengths but Tom said it would give me more SNR than an 850

[fathom oak]

so UV is mostly what gives that cloud detail?

[cursive inlet]

Depends on the camera, my asi462 is very good in IR

[cursive inlet]

The orange you see in my image is UV

[fathom oak]

alright thanks for the info. I've always wanted to do some NB planetary and I'm finally getting around to figuring out what I need lol

[cursive inlet]

Sometimes in IR you get some faint cloud wisps, but really it's more useful for the sharpness of the disk itself

In the image I did this morning, I barely got any IR detail, and it still looks good

[fathom oak]

well I'm gonna get an IR filter anyway for other things so I may as well try with that XD

[cursive inlet]

Yeah I also have a 685, it can be used for a lot of things so definitely worth it, much improved seeing usually.

[teal sandal]

im curious, why does it have a darker dot in the center? Is it caused by the scope's central obstruction or something? or is there an edge rind artefact

[cursive inlet]

I think both because of sharpening and that Titan has an atmosphere

[teal sandal]

hm yea probably

[low oar]

I got Titan yesterday morning

Had to get up at 3 in the morning for it

[ruby compass]

Details on titan is mad

[somber stratus]

That's diffraction rings pretty sure.

[sour cradle]

well
Thats tom

[somber stratus]

/edge rind

[ruby compass]

u sure?

[somber stratus]

yup, fairly certain

seen it before. Titan is similar in size angularly to Europa, plus I'm using IR here which has less resolving power.

[ruby compass]

Yeah

Well ir nearly always gives me sharper images however.

[fathom oak]

IR has less resolving power?

[somber stratus]

Yes, if you were in space.

IR experiences better seeing, but it also has intrinsically less resolve. It's a trade-off.

Under excellent seeing, the green or blue channel should be sharpest.

610LP, OSC Mars.

can see it's sharper in VIS due to great seeing.

[fathom oak]

Ah that's good to know thanks

[brisk yacht]

#1385356425072742430 message

[ruby compass]

@somber stratus Great example of what I mean by IR being sharper 99% of the time

[somber stratus]

Oh I know. Was just stating that IR does indeed have less resolving power. Whether or not it's sharper than VIS depends entirely on seeing. I made a better comparison a few days ago #1019937457095065731 message.

[ruby compass]

Yeah ik. But most cases. Ir will be sharper

[low oar]

Hopefully my ina is good tonight

Test shot^

[rugged knoll]

big shadow

[keen ginkgo]

minimum angular resolution = wavelength/diameter of aperture.
This is an approximate equation but pretty handy
If wavelngth is longer, minimum resolution is larger, so u can resolve less finer details

[ruby compass]

crazy

[gaunt kite]

dy you guys know how to make the tiels match in this mosaic?

[fathom oak]

it looks like the upper tiles were captured a bit before astrodark so that might be tough

[gaunt kite]

yeah it was at sunset. I tried color replacing (setting background color to a different one) but nothing changes.

[white prawn]

Don't image during an active sunset?

[gaunt kite]

Ik, it was about to set behind a tree

[white prawn]

I actually did something similar when i first started out. This looks much better for the shifting colors (three gradients) compared to mine which somehow had multiple squares showing different shades.

[woven kite]

this is kinda cool like this

i wanna use an ir pass but my current barlow doesnt have a thread

uggg

[cursive inlet]

reprocessed

[low oar]

You have to adjust their exposures so that match before you merge them

[gaunt kite]

How to do so?

[low oar]

How did you merge them

Just use any photo editing app and adjust the exposure

[livid sierra]

Put it on the cam?

[woven kite]

is it something like this?

i dont have a dedicated planetary camera yet

okay nvm i found the thread

[somber stratus]

most people use the threaded 1.25" filters.

[ruby compass]

is this good for my old horrid barlow?

[somber stratus]

no idea

[ruby compass]

8" btw

[somber stratus]

Seen better, but could easily be seeing, hence the 'no idea'

[ruby compass]

yeah. i could send a clip of the live view. and u tell me

[somber stratus]

Also mono IR doesn't help diagnose barlow issues. With OSC you might be able to see CA if it has any

[ruby compass]

it wasnt ir.

just had to make it mono cuz shit colors

[ruby compass]

it has Alot of CA

[somber stratus]

Then it's a shite barlow :)

[ruby compass]

@somber stratus live view:

[ruby compass]

do you think colimation was off?

[somber stratus]

Hard to tell. Can't be terribly far off. Barlow is bad.

[ruby compass]

true. balrlow is absolute sh-

[ruby compass]

wait. i might have a perfect example of the diffrence between them

Okay.. lets say there is a differnce... (same seeing focal and everything)

crazy..

[livid sierra]

Not using a UV/IR cut is making this worse.

[livid sierra]

What am I even looking at.

[ruby compass]

ina

[ruby compass]

new barlow vs old

[livid sierra]

Right.

[livid sierra]

Anyway it's at least partly causing the ugly colours.

[ruby compass]

real 🙂

[ruby compass]

thats why i made in mono?

[ruby compass]

.

[livid sierra]

... Converting bad colour data to mono isn't gonna improve a thing.

Your picture is still gonna be bad, just in mono.

[ruby compass]

this aint bad tho

[livid sierra]

You need to understand that a UV/IR cut doesn't only improve the colours, it also makes the data sharper... if you're trying to image visible light without blocking UV and IR you won't be able to get good sharpness because UV and IR aren't in focus like the visible light is.

It's ruining your data.

[ruby compass]

yeah ik. just dont got one

[livid sierra]

Okay but you can't keep saying that your seeing is so bad that you can never do visible light imaging, if you're always trying to image visible light without the essential UV/IR cut filter...

[ruby compass]

true

[somber stratus]

True given the barlow used, but usually they are in focus with any reasonably good setup, it's just the wider bandpass leads to worse seeing and dispersion.

[ruby compass]

yeah.

need an uv/ir cut before the end of summer lol

[somber stratus]

Not like they're expensive

few tens of $

[livid sierra]

It’s like the cheapest filter you can get.

[livid sierra]

Fair point.

[ruby compass]

ir pass?

@livid sierra what uv ir pass?

[livid sierra]

Any but not Svbony.

I use ZWO.

[ruby compass]

i have alot of svbony filters. i like em

[thick heron]

Pretty much any brand should be fine for filters, even the cheap ones.

[ruby compass]

yeah

[livid sierra]

I think I’ve heard of Svbony filters using plastic instead of glass.

[thick heron]

Their website says glass substrate.

[livid sierra]

Looks like I’ve been proven wrong then.

But yeah even cheap UV/IR cut filters should be good.

[ruby compass]

kk

btw i have the Sv220 and the Sv183. both work great (sv220 is my most expensive filter)

btw Sv220 = 7nm Duoband

Sv183= 685nm ir-pass

[ruby compass]

how was the "false color" added to your image? https://app.astrobin.com/u/tw__astro?i=hgmh0t#gallery

[rugged knoll]

i use a svbony uvir cut it works great

[somber stratus]

Palette is in the image description

[ruby compass]

oh alr

[ruby compass]

svbony is honestly goated

[rugged knoll]

real

[gaunt kite]

Gimp

[ruby compass]

Hello everyone

[flint siren]

Not very lucky imaging related but solar system still so why not posting this here

[wind basin]

How can I post a picture here ?

This is a picture of crater posidonius made with my good old 6 inch F/8 newton Tal 150p8 :

And this one of the famous trio

And this one of another famous trio

[ruby compass]

Really sharp. But its overshapend

[wind basin]

Its a matter of taste

[ruby compass]

Sure but its a slight problem when there are overexposed parts..

Mine

Kinda bad but yh

[ruby compass]

Crazy

[wind basin]

Wat do you think about this ? Also oversharpened ?

[ruby compass]

Not really

Weird compression tho

[wind basin]

Weird compression ?

[ruby compass]

Yeah

Zoom in

[wind basin]

I have done my best. Today I saw a picture made of this region with a Takahasi mewlon 210. I cannot help it, but my picture showed definitely more details.

[ruby compass]

Yeah thats really sharp for an 6"

What program for stacking?

Looks like autostakkrt

[wind basin]

Autostakkert + Registax6 wavelets + Fitswork4 wavelets Rauschfilter

[teal sandal]

do yall think a mono 462 sensor is good for venus clouds and other stuff

im thinking of buying a good guidecam which will double as a planetary mono cam

[teal sandal]

bro are you flying above the moon or something

the perspective really looks like that lmao

[low oar]

lol

[somber stratus]

I'd say so.

[cursive inlet]

Venus UV/IR this morning

[woven kite]

i got one around the same spot

collimation is off

[somber isle]

How is this for a phone

[low oar]

Copernicus tonight

thoughts or tips?

[sour cradle]

it looks
very oddly blurred
i dont know why so this isnt really advice it just seem a bit off

[thick heron]

Feels like there's a direction to the blur.

The one thing that could cause it on the processing side is a bad alignment anchor in AutoStakkert.

[low oar]

oh ill redo it

[teal sandal]

I think I found one, touptek gpm 462m, it’s just 90$

[teal sandal]

It is good for these goals, right?

[ruby compass]

Motion blur?

[white prawn]

Walking noise ...

[flint siren]

that aint' walking noise, perhaps it's missalignement or simply bad seeing

jet stream seeing can sometimes produce this effect

[white prawn]

Oh I know. I've done walking noise.

I mostly do planetary so I'm being funny about the walking noise.

[low oar]

Seeing was very good

Ima just re do it

[flint siren]

Seeing can be good and directional at the same time

though it rarely does a strong directional bluring like yours

[ruby compass]

What did u stack in?

[main flume]

Hi... again...

How y'all doing

[low oar]

Autostakkert

[ruby compass]

Could explain it.

Try stacking in Astrosurfave

[low oar]

Autostakkert is bad?

I’ve used it forever

[ruby compass]

In my opinion yeah.

Always get stacking issues

[low oar]

Dang

[rugged knoll]

Same

Especially with the moon

[thick heron]

AutoStakkert is great. I've used others like RegiStax and AstroSurface but nothing else has been better in my experience.

[low oar]

yea thats what im saying

[low oar]

is this better or no?

[somber stratus]

not particularly

might be collimation

[low oar]

ill check tonight

this was the moon that night with a 6se

[ruby compass]

not really. slightly but still notiseble

[low oar]

hmmm alright

[ruby compass]

deff colimation

[low oar]

it was perfect the night before

[ruby compass]

could change

perhaps u didnt bring out the telescope hours before shooting?

[low oar]

i did

i setup before sunset

[somber isle]

What could make this better

[shell epoch]

You could use higher magnification then take a mosaic image to increase the resolution

also moon compositions are nice too

like a star background, and dark side of the moon showing

[whole osprey]

take more images and stack them.

[low oar]

or mosaic

like this

[left spindle]

how many frames are u stacking?

[low oar]

if this isnt perfect idk what is

[low oar]

?

[left spindle]

in that slightly blurred pic earlier

[low oar]

3 percent

dude with this collimation i just did i can barley focus

what is happening 💀

[left spindle]

💀

Is it flexing?

[low oar]

huh

[left spindle]

The weight of the cam bending the parts?

Rotate the tube to a different posn (if on an eq mount) and see if the problem has any changes, i didnt have such issues as i use a webcam, it bearly has any weight but when using something like a dslr, it starts to become a real problem

[white prawn]

I would expect that to depend on equipment vs. camera. I doubt that if someone sets a DSLR on a CDK1000 there would be any issue. Do the same on a "Captain Flexy's Scopes 'R Us" made out of plastic and there might be a slight problem.

[low oar]

its a super light player 1 camera on a c11

[thick heron]

Not being able reach focus would be quite a feat on an SCT.

[low oar]

like how perfect does perfect collimation have to be

[thick heron]

Don't think there's a simple answer to that.

It'll be more sensitive to miscollimation and easier to tell when the defocused star appears as small as possible without being in focus.

I defocus just enough to see the bright spot in the center.

[sour cradle]

yeah
even on the most basic optical setups
theres alot of nuance to that

[sour cradle]

i would guess that your collimation is actually way off in some way

[thick heron]

I also think there's a subtle heat plume to the left.

Could've been a factor blurring the Moon image if it was present then.

[teal sandal]

Can I please get an answer to my question. My concern is that even though 462mono has a crazy qe in ir, Venus clouds are mostly UV, so idk how it would perform

I currently have an imx664 color, I understand that a mono sensor will be better for Venus clouds

[cursive inlet]

I mean i've done some pretty decent imaging with my asi462mc color with a w47 filter, so that should work even better in mono.

Should work with deep uv filters too

[dark cargo]

Which 664 cam do you have? ZWO/ASI or playerone or something else?
I think the 664's cams AR glass lets in more UV than usual so might make a smaller impact going mono. Eg zwo chart of 664c vs 462m:

[teal sandal]

I have a player one

[dark cargo]

Playerone 664 has a similar AR window: Unfortunately does not show the QE below 400nm....

[teal sandal]

Dang that’s not good

So, are you saying that going mono in my situation won’t be as beneficial?

[dark cargo]

Could get some cheap diffraction grating and try to measure the sensitivity for your current camera

[teal sandal]

I think a 462 mono graph is a lot better here

In pre 400nm

[dark cargo]

Yup it is, just not sure what UV wavelength range you would want to target?

[teal sandal]

I probably won’t be able to afford a dedicated Venus clouds filter right away

I was thinking of an ir cut + w47 combo

[dark cargo]

Oh WR47 doesn't even get down to 360nm not mention 300nm so that whole thing with the AR window is not relevant:

From here: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/703114-venus-imaging-various-tests-of-uv-violet-blue-filters/

[teal sandal]

Dang it I guess my wallet will be constantly drained for the next few years

Thank you for explaining everything, I’m glad I got an answer

I will probably still get a 462 mono as a guide cam, it’s only 88$

[somber stratus]

Mono is a necessity for UV imaging. Unlike IR, OSC cameras don't have bayer matrix transparency in UV, so you'll be using 1/4 of the pixels (B only) and at low qe.

462 is a good option.

[dark cargo]

I think you are right on the 462mono being the best option currently, and for that price definetly. Toupteks 662 mono seems to have a worse QE at 400nm and it is twice the price. Unless the 664 mono comes out or you remove the AR window of a 662 mono or something?

[somber stratus]

Uranus-M is what i'll be using from now on, but the 462 was my UV workhorse for the last 2 years

[teal sandal]

Dang that’s a good point yea

I’m settling on a 462 mono thank you guys

[teal sandal]

Yes I saw it has proven itself great

I will have a 16” dob by the end of the year that’s the plan

[dark cargo]

Ah yes, it is much clearer with both charts for the same sensor side by side:
Colour filters do ruin the sensitivity by quite a lot.

[livid sierra]

I’m not sure how accurate that 585M graph by QHY is.

[low oar]

How it looks perfect

[teal sandal]

Is SVBONY ADC any different from ZWO ADC

Also does an adc change magnification?

[livid sierra]

Not on its own, only when you place it between a Barlow and cam/eyepiece.

It will change the magnification factor of the Barlow.

[ruby compass]

Quite good

[teal sandal]

It will basically be a spacer right?

Well can you place it between the Barlow and the scope rather than Barlow and the cam

So that it wouldn’t change the magnification

Cuz I feel like calculating perfect sampling will be a pain

[livid sierra]

Likely won’t be able to reach focus that way when using a Newtonian.

[livid sierra]

Simple matter of taking a picture and measuring the pixel scale.

[teal sandal]

What should it be

Oh

Never mind

I remembered how to do it

[teal sandal]

Dang, but if I’m using something like a mak cass? Will it have any negative effect on image quality

[livid sierra]

No experience with Maks but going off of SCTs you’re more likely to reach focus with that than with a Newtonian. (Talking about ADC between Barlow and scope instead of between Barlow and cam.)

[teal sandal]

Hm I see

So no negative effect on image quality?

[sour cradle]

it shouldnt be possible to not be able to reach focus

[teal sandal]

Cuz with my mak I’m already quite over sampled

[sour cradle]

well
maks are slow as hell
expect as much

[livid sierra]

Yeah so just use a 2x Barlow and put the ADC before the Barlow.

I’ve heard of people do it with SCTs.

[teal sandal]

Alright great

Thank you

[heavy mirage]

Saturn on the 6th (IRRGB)

[teal sandal]

Does ADC improve the sharpness of the image aside of removing fringing? There is an RGB align tool in Registax so why invest into an adc?

[somber stratus]

Yes it improves sharpness, even for mono data. There’s still dispersion within each channel, so you’ll have vertical blurring caused by dispersion of (for instance) 400nm and 450nm light not lining up perfectly in the B channel.

Last image answers your second question about RGB align.

[ruby compass]

What is ADC? I forgot

[somber stratus]

https://tenor.com/view/google-gif-25414271

[ruby compass]

So whats the differnce between ADC and Coma Corrector?

I mean coma corrector is for Chromatic Abberations but

Both fix problems with the atmosphere

No?

[livid sierra]

How is coma a problem with the atmosphere.

[ruby compass]

Its caused by the atmosphere?

[livid sierra]

It’s literally called “Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector” and “Coma Corrector”

Look up what a coma corrector is.

[ruby compass]

Thats why there is more coma the lower the space latitude

[ruby compass]

I know what a coma corrector is

But like what does an ADC do? (Yes i did google)

[livid sierra]

Google harder.

[sour cradle]

no you do not

[somber stratus]

Says it in the name. Dispersion corrector

[ruby compass]

It removes chromatic abberations when objects are low in the sky?

[sour cradle]

thats what an adc does
Now what does a coma corrector do?

[ruby compass]

Idk

Removes coma?

[candid flare]

[sour cradle]

Correct, it corrects comatic abberations

[ruby compass]

Thats what I said?

[ruby compass]

.

[sour cradle]

not chromatic
Comatic

[ruby compass]

Ohh

Whats the differnece?

[sour cradle]

what do comets have?

[ruby compass]

Tails?

[sour cradle]

exactly, and the tail of a comet is called its coma

so
When your stars look like comets
And they have tails
Thats what a coma corrector fixes

[somber stratus]

TIL it's named after cometary comas.

[sour cradle]

tbh they might just have the same etymology idk if one is exactly derived from the other

[somber stratus]

ah ok

In any case, happy coincidence that is makes sense that way.

[ruby compass]

@sour cradle but the only planet with a tail is mercury?

[sour cradle]

well
Only planet yeah but some moons have tails too

[white prawn]

I still say that makes it a former comet

[ruby compass]

What? Wouldnt u wanna image that tho?

And why would it make ur planetary images sharper?

[ruby compass]

100% agree

[sour cradle]

You would
But without coma corrector

All planets look like they have a tail

[ruby compass]

No?

Where is the tail?

[sour cradle]

its a part of the general blurring

[ruby compass]

I dont see a tail

[somber stratus]

CCs aren't used in planetary generally since you're only focused on the centre field. Some barlows are coma correcting but it's not a necessity. ADC is almost always useful however.

[sour cradle]

Its there
Though small for most planetary due to the angular size of planets

[somber stratus]

yup

[ruby compass]

Could u show me where it is in the image?

[somber stratus]

When some of Jupiter's moons are at high elongation, coma is noticable.

[ruby compass]

Yeah well I do notise illongated jupiter moons sometimes

[somber stratus]

Could easily be mistaken for collimation error though. Usually need two moons, either side to tell for certain that it's coma.

[ruby compass]

I have a good image on my computer

Thay has like 3 moons

And one of them are illongated

Look at this i made c:

Best date/time to image (planetary) in Örnsköldsvik.
Moon: 10/10 (03.00)
Mercury: 8/28 (05.00)
Venus: 08/29 (04.25)
Mars: 07/28 (17.20)
Jupiter: 12/03 (02.40)
Saturn: 12/13 (17.50)
Uranus: 11/30 (22.50)
Neptune: 12/02 (19.00)
ISS: 09/03 (03.30)

(This Year)

[low oar]

Saturn this morning

Feedback?

[ruby compass]

Great

[low oar]

Why is it when I use a Barlow on Saturn I get a ghost affect on the right side but not the left

[woven tundra]

Why is it upside down?

Isnt it supposed to have the rings pointing up?

[somber stratus]

To an extent it's normal. Diffraction ringing on the sunward limb (edge rind), but blurred due to seeing. Could also be slight collimation error or barlow optical issue but hard to tell

e.g

Only get it on the sharper limbs where there's a big brightness differential. Note also the NPR and ice cap causes a slight intensity increase.

[ruby compass]

all jokes aside. crazy mars photo

[teal sandal]

Interesting, thank you for answering.

I’ll test the adc with my mak on Saturn in September, I’ll just need to fix my pinched optics problem…

I think loosening my primary mirror tightening screws a bit will help, I don’t see any other solution here. Will slightly loosening them affect the collimation?

[teal sandal]

Mars is gonna be even crazier in 2033 being 22 arcseconds in diameter I can’t wait

[ruby compass]

Crazy

mars in 2033 vs now.. (my fov)

slight difference..

2033 vs latest closeup.

december 2025 vs 2033 (same zoom level btw..)

[low oar]

this is this morning

after collimating to the best i could

with a barlow

all my stacks had it

[somber stratus]

2035 is closer

[ruby compass]

it is?

[somber stratus]

25" ish

24.something

[ruby compass]

crazy

[digital steppe]

Can you image Cheshire Cat galaxy cluster, it would come out very nice imo

[low oar]

Hey @somber stratus you see what I’m talking about though in that pic

^^^

And this is no Barlow

[ruby compass]

focal?

[low oar]

C11

I think 2,700

[ruby compass]

makes sence

what barlow do u have?

[low oar]

That’s no Barlow

[ruby compass]

.

[ruby compass]

Me Vs Nasa

[terse night]

Coma is an optical aberration caused by the optics, not by the atmosphere

[elder venture]

WHA

[compact bough]

Coma is due to shape parabolic mirrors so at the edge stars are not pin point but more like comet looking its more noticeable in lower f ratio

[low oar]

I just need sharp images why so hard

😭

[somber isle]

Are the colors whack

[elder venture]

Which framing is the most optimal?

[dark cargo]

maximum barlow power = ~7 times pixel size in um(2.9 for uranus-c) divided by focal ratio of your scope.

[elder venture]

maximum barlow power meaning

the maximum maginification thats viable

?

[dark cargo]

I would guess closer to 2x? do remember that each box is a 4k image, not the tiny thing you see on the monitor

[dark cargo]

basically the x of the barlow that you could use and still get benefit from. Past that in theory you will not be able to get any more detail even if you make the planet bigger in the image.

[elder venture]

I currently only have an achromatic 3x barlow, will that suffice for now or is it vital go near there

[elder venture]

Right, since it stretches the light

[dark cargo]

what scope

[elder venture]

6'' Omegon Classic Cassegrain

1848mm focal length with F/12

[dark cargo]

so 1.7x with the formula. Is there any way to unscrew the barlow lens from it's tube? Could screw it onto the camera directly for less magnification(barlow power increases with more distance you have between it and the camera and vice versa).

basically you want nearly half of the 3x barlow you have. You would also need nice seeing to take advantage of the maximum so you could try not using the barlow or using a 1.5x effective barlow.
I don't think achro vs apo matters too much as long as it's decent.

[elder venture]

Ok yeah scratch that i lost my barlow lol

it was like a cheap 30 usd one

[dark cargo]

just as planned,

[elder venture]

So after 1.7x barlows become redundant?

[dark cargo]

could get a some cheap decent 2x one(omni 2x perhaps?) then unscrew the lens cell to get a ~1.5x barlow.

[elder venture]

so you lose detail rather than gain?

[dark cargo]

In your case yes, you will make the planet bigger but not get any more details.
So in theory same level of details if you down sample it but it will be noiser as you have less light per pixel.

[elder venture]

so cropping the image would work better?

[dark cargo]

No clue how good that is, I would try the omni 2x as I did hear some good things when it was compared. Very cheap on aliexpress.

[dark cargo]

For planetary you basically have to, the planets won't be bigger than ~300x300 pixels at your aperture anyway. You can use ROI(region of intrest) to record from a small crop of your sensor and get ~100+fps.

[elder venture]

m oke

do you have any reference images to what i should expect?

[dark cargo]

Probably best not to look at any to not ruin your initial expectations: will take some time and luck(with seeing) to get the most out of your setup.
This is with pretty bad seeing, and my 8" dob + dslr, but this is roughly the similar size that jupiter will be in your images, maybe a bit bigger.

Could get a lot more details than that with your equipment.

[elder venture]

This is my only jupiter image so thats fine haha

[dark cargo]

Do need to collimate properly, let the scope cool down enough, focus and then get lucky with the seeing. But after that you could get great images.

[dark cargo]

Did get the red spot which is nice, definetly could get way more details once you know what you are doing.

[elder venture]

130PDS with a DSLR

[dark cargo]

Oh nice, with a DSLR? Those are a pain(but can be usable), uranus would be much easier.

[elder venture]

Uranus-C is just for the sensor.

In theory, once I have the cam, it would be an ATR585M

Id also get CH4, IR Pass and UV filters

[dark cargo]

Ah doubling for DSO usage as well? Mono does make processing planets more complicated afaik. If you want RGB that is.

[elder venture]

Aye but as far as I have heard it gives a lot better results

[dark cargo]

Not sure if that is true to that extent for the 585 sensor, eg Tom did get a lot of very good results with the colour 585(alongside a mono462 occasionally).

Would also complicate the barlow power thing if you put the filter wheel between the lens and the sensor. Would give you more magnification.

But if you are using it for DSO as well, probably worth it.

[elder venture]

Didnt tom use a Uranus-M?

[dark cargo]

I think only recently

[elder venture]

Aye

kinda offtopic but do you think the cassegrain would be nice for Galaxies and small DSO?

[dark cargo]

Maybe get a reducer? Would be a bit oversampled so would want really good tracking, and would want to do longer exposures due to slow focal ratio.
Not too experienced at high fl imaging through, so not sure.

[livid sierra]

Only for anything other than visible light.

For RGB he uses a Uranus-C with UV/IR cut filter.

[elder venture]

Someone recommended a field flattner, some do reduce focally as well, would that work?

nvm theyre shitting expensive

[elder venture]

i may or may not lack guiding

i do have a HEQ5 tho

[rain mauve]

I caputred saturn with my phone

[low oar]

Would 10 videos at 2 minutes each be to much to derotate for Saturn

[white prawn]

Why would it be?

I did 20 at 2 min for Jupiter

[somber stratus]

~30 minutes is a good total, so 20 is fine. Anything over that becomes more of a pain to process.

[white prawn]

I'm going to have to speed-learn my ADC and use it properly in conjunction with my UV/IR cut filter and try another Jupiter derotation. First one I did was no filter/no ADC. Came out beautifully though.

[low oar]

Oh dang ok

shot this

this morning

working on processing

trying to find sweet spots

[somber stratus]

I wouldn't use 20m of data for a composite like that

but that's me

also where raw vid 👀

[low oar]

yea i did 8

bruh i had auto center planet on

and when the iss came in frame

it locked on it

captured like 3 frames

then froze my computer

i got so lucky

to even get this image

here is the best raw frame i got

if i didnt have auto center on i would have had like 20 ish frames i could have stacked for a better iss but its ok

[terse night]

@somber stratus I get multiple ISS passes tonight and wanted to try it out. I can make my mount az (if that helps at all) but I unfortunately do not have a finder scope. Focal lenght is also quite high (C8). Do you think I have any chance of getting it in frame? If so, what software should I use for tracking?

[somber stratus]

You don't have enough time to test a sat tracking software ahead of tonight, too many potential problems to solve. You're better to go with hand-guiding. You need a red-dot finder at the very least.

[terse night]

Any suggestions for a decent-but-cheap one? Luckily passes are common so I'm not really missing anything

I'm also curious about this. Is it a capsule docking?

[somber stratus]

Anything will do. Most use a Telrad but they're expensive for a red-dot.

[somber stratus]

Inaccurate orbit data most likely. MS 30 has already docked.

[terse night]

Alright thank you

[rain mauve]

How can i improve my saturn image?

[low oar]

dont use your phone

[woven tundra]

Youre video stacking it right?

[woven tundra]

Wd check my pics with a phone, perfectly good

Ofc discord compressed it hardly

Also i just realised i got to restack it

[low oar]

ISS and Saturn transit this morning on June 9th imaged by me

[woven tundra]

Well thats impressive

Camera?

[low oar]

Uranus C

[woven tundra]

You do any dso with it?

[low oar]

havent yet

i aint like tom

but i want to soon

[woven tundra]

Lol ok

Since i was looking forward to buy the uranus c for planetary purposes but dso too, and everyone was saying to buy the cooled version

[low oar]

yea idk

i just do planetary rn and i dont think it gets hot

[woven tundra]

Oh great

[somber stratus]

It definitely gets well above ambient temp during planetary, but the short exposures mean cooling is ~useless anyway. For long exposure DSO, cooling gives some noise reduction.

Dark current is (i think) proportional to exposure time and exponentially dependent on temperature

Shot noise dominates for bright targets. Couple that with short exposures and cooled cameras become useless for planetary where both are true.
Long exposure DSO where the target is dim, aka low photon flux here is the only case where you'll see much benefit.

[terse night]

My first ever lunar stacking attempt. Seeing was atrocious, 35m/s jet stream according to some websites

[rain mauve]

Yeahhhh

[rain mauve]

._.

Phone is my only current device rn

[low oar]

Use what ya got then it’s all good

Keep practicing and you’ll learn a lot

[white prawn]

And honestly if you can get something out of your phone, so far you've been able to get more from your phone than what I have from mine so win

[left spindle]

if u have a webcam then u can use that, it give much better results

how old is your phone? if your phone is ancient, then u will have a fixed focus camera at the back with which if u remove its lens, it will become astromodded and will perfome great

[rain mauve]

I have like old dslr

What are the recommended settings for it? I use 2x barlow will be enough?

[left spindle]

Great

thats super good

[left spindle]

u will have to attach it to your scope to see if it gets focused

[rain mauve]

Umm recording only 1920 x 1080 25 fps

[left spindle]

its fine (my webcams 1270x 720 at 7.5fps )

[rain mauve]

Damn

[left spindle]

yes, 2x barlow will work as longs as its in your magnification limit

[rain mauve]

900mm/ 80mm

[left spindle]

ok, similar to my scope

its a frac right?

[rain mauve]

Yesss

[left spindle]

thats also very good, 2x barlow should work, scine the magnification will be high, its a bit difficult to reach your target manually so id recommend looking at moon first then move up from there

gtg

[rain mauve]

I see alright thanks

Ill do it tonight if its clear

[somber stratus]

Yummy

[left spindle]

Last thing, do u have all the adapters to attach it to the scope?

It requires smth like t-ring adapter, i am not sure since i dont have a dslr

[rain mauve]

Do you use any tracker to record this?

[rain mauve]

Yesss, i have

T ring yea i have, ive tried it also, idk but the target is too dim, have to crank my shutter speed to 1/25 and iso 1600, will that work?

Oh yeah what another tips for capturing planet? I see alot of people using their device to control the camera in order to crop the images?, how to do it

[left spindle]

U sure in focus?

Try it

[left spindle]

Make sure planet in target isnt dim or else it will cause stacking atrifacts

[rain mauve]

this is my attempt with dslr

[left spindle]

Thats mars?

[rain mauve]

saturn

[left spindle]

Oh, thats definately shutter speed and focus, also try to use iso or gain rather than shutter spees

[rain mauve]

iso 1600 2x barlow and 1/25 shutter

[left spindle]

Oh

[rain mauve]

is it too low?

[left spindle]

Remove the 2x then try

[rain mauve]

should i crank the iso to 6400?

[rain mauve]

too small

cannot capture detail

: (

[left spindle]

Try the shutter speed , if it improves, change the iso

[left spindle]

Aww man

Have u tried moon? Since it dosent have brightness peoblem, its easy to know if we can reach fpcus

[rain mauve]

i have no problem with jupiter, it looks great tbh

[left spindle]

Oh nice

[rain mauve]

yeah i use moon for the focus

[left spindle]

Great

[rain mauve]

and i cross checked also with my camera zoom

[left spindle]

Hmm

[rain mauve]

idk i think its my telescope?

[left spindle]

Can u show the jupe img

[rain mauve]

sending

[left spindle]

it looks fine, what barlow are u using?

[rain mauve]

2x barlow

[left spindle]

which company?

[rain mauve]

celestron

celestron omni

[woven tundra]

Not bad now

[left spindle]

the one given with the scope?

[rain mauve]

no

its 3x

i bought the other 1

[left spindle]

okay

hmmmmmmmmmmm

did u take a video?

[rain mauve]

yeah this is stacked saturn

[rain mauve]

no

i use photo

[left spindle]

in which format?

[rain mauve]

raw format

[left spindle]

how many photos/

avg'

[rain mauve]

60 🤣

i know its way too less

i cannot burst

[left spindle]

take video plz

[sour cradle]

wow
Im sorry but thats awful

[left spindle]

also i need your single frame

[rain mauve]

it is

[left spindle]

thats soo wired heres mine without barlow

[rain mauve]

this is my single frame

[rain mauve]

with native 900mm??

wow

[left spindle]

yeah

[rain mauve]

what camera?

[left spindle]

mainly cause of small size of my sensor

Logitech C270 webcam

have u tried without barlow?

[rain mauve]

yess

[left spindle]

results?

[rain mauve]

way too smoll

wait

[sour cradle]

You know i havent shot saturn in a while, i have been inspired to go shoot saturn today cause i cannot let that be the only saturn image i see today lmao

[left spindle]

wrong channel dude, its not Roast My Image lol

[sour cradle]

it might still be better, the barlow could be doing more harm than good

[sour cradle]

also, have you tried wavelets already on this?

[rain mauve]

i havent like sharpened it

its just the result of the stacked image

[rain mauve]

i cannot found the video

[sour cradle]

try some sharpening, it could get a lot better with a little bit

[rain mauve]

trust me it looks worse

lmao

[left spindle]

the stacked?

[rain mauve]

lots of noise

[left spindle]

i am staring to think its a iso thing

[rain mauve]

and less data i guess?

i only took 60 images

[left spindle]

try to use shutter speed instead of iso

[left spindle]

yeah, a lot

[rain mauve]

you mean higher shutter?

[left spindle]

i on an avg take 5k imgs and choose inly abt 500

[left spindle]

lower

like 640ms

higher

correc

[rain mauve]

damn that means i have to higher my iso

hmmmm

[left spindle]

nono sry, ex 10ms to 100ms

[rain mauve]

alright 1/100 seems good

[left spindle]

i go bit more than that

64ms

[rain mauve]

also what degree do you guys shoot?

[left spindle]

zenith is the best

[rain mauve]

alright

zenith

[left spindle]

can your cam shoot videos in raw format?

[rain mauve]

Mov format

my cam doesnt support raw video

[left spindle]

okay

no prob

[rain mauve]

do you use any 3rd party app to crop the images?

i mean when recording

[left spindle]

i use pipp for all the alignments and cropping and stuff

[left spindle]

nothing as i m untracked

[rain mauve]

hmm

you and i have same setup

but u have better image

damn haha, ill try tonight

[left spindle]

mines a reflector

114mm

[rain mauve]

aaaaaa

ohhh thats why

[left spindle]

nono

[rain mauve]

ok ok

[left spindle]

it def should give good imgs

[rain mauve]

mine 80mm

[left spindle]

but a frac

[rain mauve]

and its refractor

[left spindle]

yeah, no obstruction,

[rain mauve]

ill try tonight

anyway thanks tho for the tips etc

i really appreciate it so much

[left spindle]

np, clear skies

[rain mauve]

clear skies also

[rain mauve]

i did some research just now, webcam is smaller sensor which you can send more data and it has true crop, which it acts like zoom but without affecting the resolution? mine dslr it has very big chunk of empty space(black), and it cannot do like ROI(not every DSLR), astro cam had ROI, it effect my image as well, now i kind of get it why webcam had nice detail, it has smaller sensor, it sent data faster since it has already cropped also?, my dslr cannot do true crop. well the only option is i shoot with raw format, since it has bigger dimension and it captures the detail also, i wouldnt mind if i crank my iso, is dark frame for planetary really work? lemme know

source: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/102203-imaging-saturn-with-a-dslr/

its a 2011 forum, ik its kinda not relevant like now

but hey atleast it answer my question also haha

[sour cradle]

have you not been shooting raw already?

[rain mauve]

i shot raw already

but yeah my ss way too low, my pic is blurry

cannot burst

[dark cargo]

What DSLR do you have? There can be a way to get 1:1 video from some(basically proper crop). Will be compressed but so be it. https://web.archive.org/web/20240518093620/https://www.astropix.com/html/equipment/canon_one_to_one_pixel_resolution.html

[sour cradle]

then technically, cropping on your dslr wouldn’t improve detail
Just acquisition speed

[rain mauve]

because my dslr doesnt have true crop thats why

[rain mauve]

i have canon 1300d

well my cam isnt on that list

[dark cargo]

I think it will still work, try downloading EOS camera movie record and shooting at 5x liveview mode. Then compare planet size in a frame vs a raw image. If they are identical diameter in pixels(or pretty close) it will work.

I used my 600D with a dob like that and did get pretty nice results.

[rain mauve]

yes i already did, it did not work apperantly

when i connected my dslr to my pc via usb, it says error, cam not supported

backyard eos, i havent try it yet, but it has free trial, idk it will work or no

[dark cargo]

Aw that sucks, backyard EOS trial should work, but my FPS with it was pretty low.

[rain mauve]

lemme try, ill inform when it works or no

thanlks!

thanks!

[rain mauve]

it did connect tho haha

but im not used to the ui

how do i capture?

[rain mauve]

wow this thing is op, i can do 5x zoom

niceee

[terse night]

That's just digital zoom

[rain mauve]

yeah ik, atleast it zoomed a bit

i can capture now

haha

[thick heron]

Look who's back!

[brisk yacht]

yooooo

first Jupiter of the season?

i wonder how much it changed

[thick heron]

Not expecting much based on my last image two months ago.

Similar large scale structure.

[low oar]

Ain’t no way bruh

[rain mauve]

I got clear skies, and I use the software for moon right now

[low oar]

Nice

[rain mauve]

alottt of improvement

still noisy cuz this is just a tester

i use 2x barlow

[sour cradle]

u tried rgb align yet?

[rain mauve]

not yet this is stacked and just sharpened a bit

[low oar]

Get registax

And auto rgb align

Takes like 2 seconds

[rain mauve]

Ok

[low oar]

And sharpen it up a bit

Play with wavelets

It will help a lot

[rain mauve]

Thank you

[low oar]

Yea

Make sure to use the raw file

I think

[rain mauve]

Tif files?

[low oar]

Not my best but Saturn yesterday from the ISS shot

[rain mauve]

Damnnnn

[low oar]

However you do it

[rain mauve]

So good

[low oar]

Thx not my best seeing was decent

[rain mauve]

Ok

[low oar]

It was part of this shot

[rain mauve]

So rare to see iss transit

[rain mauve]

That's good ngl

[sour cradle]

Well
The iss transits over every part of the surface generally once a day ish

as long as you are within the latitude of the iss

[rain mauve]

i got satelite passing saturn, but sadly i didnt record it long and i dont realize it also haha

[rain mauve]

can you see it with naked eye?

idk is iss bright enough?

[sour cradle]

Mostly yes
Not during day transits or at midnight ofc

[rain mauve]

i see

[sour cradle]

clear outside and other apps will show you when visible transits happen

[rain mauve]

my best saturn image so far,

ik it lacks of detail, not showing any bands etc

rings are awful

but yeah i kinda glad i made this haha

[woven tundra]

Focus looks a bit off

But looks cool

[elder venture]

Hows this framing?

[woven tundra]

Pretty good

[low oar]

Yea pretty good

[terse night]

This is the fov I'll have, quite tight

Hopefully I can find saturn without a finder scope lol

[somber stratus]

This evening's snap. 30-frame stack w/ the 16".

[low oar]

jeeze

[terse night]

Insane work (as always).

[elder venture]

How would yall rate this?

[heavy mirage]

@livid sierra @somber stratus I am trying to use 2 camera (one for guide scope) and I remember Duif mentioning limiting FPS of the guide cam to like 10 fps to balance USB traffic.

Although I have both camera connected and am able to see through the live view, I am unable to cap the FPS to 10 on my guide cam. The FPS option in firecapture is "disabled". Is there a way to enable this feature?

For reference I am using an ASI178mc as the guide cam.

[somber stratus]

I think Duif originally got that from me iirc. I use sharpcap for the guide cam view which can cap fps, and also for the reticule overlay which you can align on a star before the pass.

e.g last night

Apollo-Max running 65ms (to reduce trailing) and capped at 8fps.

main cam running via FC on the right

[heavy mirage]

Ahhh ok, I'll give it a shot with SC for the guide cam. However, I am still curious about doing the same thing using FC (limiting FPS like in SC), do you know of any way to enable this feature?

[somber stratus]

In action

[somber stratus]

Not sure, I'd have to dig a little. I do know lowering USB traffic works (but don't do this if you're using a USB hub)

[heavy mirage]

Oh man, I'm excited to get this working. Trying to use the finderscope with a reticle is such a pain in the neck

[heavy mirage]

Yeah, I am using a hub since my laptop only has 1 USB port. I did try playing with USB traffic setting but that had a minimal affect

[somber stratus]

under more, you can enable FPS limiter

there ya go

[heavy mirage]

Oh, wait I guess I didn't see the checkmark next to FPS. Maybe that'll do it! I was doing my testing outside during the day and laptop screen was barely visible lol

[livid sierra]

Yeah that’s it. But what I meant before is that the guidecam will be running at ~10FPS regardless of setting a limit because you’ll be running it at around 100ms anyway. I’ve imaged a handful of classified satellites for which you’d need even longer exposures for them to even be visible in the guidecam. I don’t find trailing to be a problem because the satellite should be a nice dot anyway if you’re not manually slewing around. Once you get it in the main cam view you’ll only really need the guidecam in the case that you lose it in the main cam. @heavy mirage

And I use FC for both the main cam as well as the guidecam. You can do that by duplicating the main folder of FC, and opening the new duplicated FC as a secondary instance next to the main FC. I have it on my desktop as “Firecapture - Guidecam”.

[heavy mirage]

Really, 100ms? I feel like that would make the sky super bright with a 40mm guide scope , but I'll try it out.

What is the benefit of having a duplicate FC folder? There is an option in the FC settings to allow multiple FC instances to run simultaneously

[livid sierra]

It works but using a duplicated FC is safer against crashes. What finderscope do you use? I use my 9x50 as the guidecam.

[elder venture]

Found my 3x Barlow @dark cargo

[livid sierra]

100ms works perfectly. As seen in the video I’ve shared before. https://discord.com/channels/794642864218439681/1374846311219855381

[heavy mirage]

Ah I gotcha, then it probably is a safe bet to make a duplicate folder.

I am using the SV165 40mm. I was tired of the adjustment screws on the 9x50 that came with the scope and I felt like 9x50 was a bit too high magnification

[livid sierra]

What’s the focal length on that? The SW 9x50 should be about 180mm, so focal ratio is about f/3.6.

[heavy mirage]

This one is F4

[rugged knoll]

spider

[livid sierra]

Ah should be around the same exposure then. But just test around a little. ISS is very bright so can’t miss it too easily.

[heavy mirage]

Yeah definitely, I'll mess around with it. I guess the other annoying part about the 9x50 was the weight lol

[livid sierra]

I’ll admit the adjustment screws on the SW finderscope are a bit wonky.

But the finder does the job as a guidescope for me so far.

I would love to use it as an e-finder permanently, also for planetary work. May be able to get my hands on an ASI120MM Mini, but still not completely sure if it’s worth it.

[heavy mirage]

Yeah, it is kinda wonky having 2 cables connected lol

[livid sierra]

That, and the money could be invested in other things.

Would love a proper UV filter finally for example.

[heavy mirage]

I ordered these recently, not sure if they're any good: https://www.amazon.com/Astromania-1-25-Inch-Specialized-Planetary-Ultraviolet/dp/B07C3K7J16/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1H0IOGKEZDHGH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.btj6D4qIZILw7H1mn-MwJcyYc9TfcNO4g9UNMlQ5b2bShzsJAZS28PNB6BG4k-LaS0qN1XKdtG0Yz4GTPH-lftE3BHbbfl9j-yB_4LXyvLXdFDITzJDAfNfZql5whr8thhuk0Xe6skcEZuKxMgvhbdbOIrBue9fLNP6UoXCtml2wKImCCuJzq-E1JfhnTKMTtDqotz4eclVQUdyfFNxrVNTSZ1js7L0hgszgtGtJaxY.kbyrVDqcKRd5vdeiAWmVh9pOQtNuQR12HOPuDOWlwxM&dib_tag=se&keywords=astromania+filter+set&qid=1752266606&sprefix=astromania+filter+set%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-4

[livid sierra]

All three filters for $86?

[heavy mirage]

Yeah, does seem kinda cheap lol but the brand seems ok

Anyways, I'm going to head out for now. Thank you for all your help!

[livid sierra]

Much cheaper than most brands yes. Would love to hear your thoughts on them once you have them.

I’m also somewhat interested in a tighter CH4 filter.

Will be heading out now too. You’re welcome btw.

[white prawn]

@heavy mirage for what it's worth I purchased a 3x Barlow from Astromania, it was decent. So if their filters are built the same way/standards for overall quality, they'll be decent. Just won't be the $500 Baader type. 🙂

[left spindle]

its nice

i guess for the moons

[elder venture]

Yes. They’re pretty good for their price, but you get what you paid for.

[sterile marsh]

I know this doesnt count as planetary but look at what my asi 662 captured last night

[elder venture]

Star Trails, pretty cool

[sour cradle]

they look promising
Ive been wanting to buy a set for testing but i havent gotten to it yet

[woven tundra]

Cool clouds

[elder venture]

rate my saturn

[lyric dome]

10/me

[elder venture]

@dark cargo How viable is imaging Saturn in this brightness with my setup?

This is about the minimum height i would require saturn to be

[dark cargo]

Looks like 18 degrees alt which is pretty low, but could get results with good seeing.

For the light you will have worse contrast, what altitude is the sun at that time?

[elder venture]

roughly -10

[dark cargo]

I only ever did visual of the planets when it was still bright: saturn was significantly harder to see than Jupiter due to it's lower brightness

[dark cargo]

Hmm probably fine? Astrodark is -18 so you are approximately only 30 minutes from that.

[elder venture]

What would you guess is the maximum

[dark cargo]

I would be more concerned about the seeing than the brightness, which you do need to get pretty lucky to get something decent at that altitude. But I never really imaged in these conditions, only brighter planets like mercury or venus.

If you want to try now, then do so but I would probably be abit patient for best results. Ideally >25-30 degrees altitude.

[elder venture]

well im certain i can get a result that is better than uh, this

[elder venture]

trying never hurt nobody

[dark cargo]

Oh definetly, give it a go!

[rain mauve]

I give a try on saturn, well kinda happy with the result haha

Prob my sharpest image on saturn

Any feedback to improve?

I got venus also

[elder venture]

@somber stratus
Hi, I don’t wanna be a bother but you are the only guy I know with a 16inch dob

I got an offer for a 16“ Meade Lightbridge dob for 1.2k, but I am very unsure:
How do you use your dob so effectively?
What accessories do you use?
What are the cost of those accessories?
And how worth it is it really?

[thick heron]

Does it have tracking? Will be hard to take full advantage of the aperture without it. Lightbridges did not come with a goto system. Someone would've had to add it on.

[elder venture]

Nope, thats the thingn

[rain mauve]

HDR, Mineral, Buck moon

[low oar]

Clean