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How's that for click bait, lol. Been a while. Been a busy beaver, new to me home, new pier, new neighbors security light 30ft away from my 'second' pier installment. Lots of remodeling has passed, but I think I finally have things under control till spring comes back around (for us northern folk anyway.) I'll probably post several updates in their appropriate locations around the forums, but for now here is todays folly. Mercury transit. Got started about 5:45am with getting out 'the required stuff', I used the ole CG-5 mount as I did for the 2017 eclipse. Canon utilities still had my settings for full Sun, (NOT full btw,) and focus was still almost spot on. AFTER mucking around with the mount for about 30min because apparently some of the jacks had corroded since it's last use (only 2yrs ago, wtf?) Finally I got power and a late start. Long story short, clouds, clouds, clouds, and a few lucky captures. Finally, jeeze! S quick GIF of the session. I'll try and catch up with you fellers, sorry about the walk-about/haciades/absence. Tim.

The old NEQ6 has been sold and moved into her new home. The new owner is absolutely loving it and having a ball learning to drive it, as evidenced by the numerous messages I get on a daily/nightly basis. Like myself, Leon, the new owner, has made a huge leap in equipment coming from a EQ2/3 to a goto mount. I well remember the overwhelming feeling with such a huge jump in technology. Shane

Here's the reprocessed image using up to date calibration files. The two bright red stars over to the left are both Carbon Stars. Greg

Glad you got it sorted out Greg. My own CGE Pro mount is currently only good for manually choosing targets. I guess if I was old school, I would learn to use those R/A and declination guides. Nah, I'm a wuss. A new mount will be in order soon. Should have a lottery for these bloody things as much as they cost Tim.

Some text on the outside. Some other minor tweaks coming. Far cry from where it was. Finally back in there at nights as well. I've almost finished a tarantula (which has taken about twelve months). Ray

Here is the whole of the Transit of Mercury courtesy of NASA's SDO. One image every 15-minutes from 12:45 a.m. until 18:00 Greg

Great to see your images being used mate. We wanna see the gaming mats once they are finished. I think they will look super cool. Ray

These two images were taken with a TRIAD filter from urban site in Pasadena California. Both were ten minute exposures. Used Stellarvue 102sv Refractor with a field flattener, iOpron CEM60 mount.

Very nice mate. I so need a terrestrial digital camera for AP. I still have over 20 rolls of kodak elite chrome 200 and three film bodies, which I will certainly use. when I upgraded my mount from a Losmandy G11 to an AP, the new owner of the G11 also loved it, as I did when I first bought it. AP is a journey of technical, scientific and cosmic knowledge. It is an incredibly rewarding and sophisticated pastime. Ray

Getting New or Used equipment that is in good functional condition is always a joy to experience. I have sold used gear and bought used gear as part of upgrades. One cannot always afford new. I sold my EOS 350D to a friend and she is having great experiences with it. Last week I took delivery of an used Canon EOS 7D Body, with low shutter count. Functions like it just came out of the new box. At $425 it has given me a step up in the photography world. Waiting now for the storms and clouds to disappear to try it on the 10" Skywatcher. Of course my collection of Canon EF mount lens are all compatible for terrestrial photography. Dave

Not sure if I posted this one years ago - but I just came across it again. A 9-microsecond freeze of an air rifle pellet taking out 2 eggs. The air rifle pellet can be seen off to the far left. And the eggs were later eaten by the dog - so no waste. Greg

This is a composite image of Coddington's nebula together with Carbon star SAO 15274 (bottom left hand corner) taken with the Sky 90 array. 5 hours last night and around 12 hours over 2 nights some time ago. Greg

Thanks Shane and Ray Here's 2 more from last night. These two were taken with the 6" f5 Achromat Focal reduced 0.7x Who says fast Achromats are crap? Cheers, Ken

I have been very impressed with absolutely every facet of the Moravian cameras. I would certainly get another if the need arose. Shane

I got 18 x 15-minute subs with the 200mm lenses on this region last night and combined it with some earlier 200mm data. Greg

This is an image taken from suburban Pasadena Ca. under light polluted skies, using OPT Corp's TRIAD filter. Lets ionized H alpha, Beta and Oxygen wavelengths only through so it pretty well cleans up light pollution. This was 10, 15 minute exposures, with a QHY8L camera and Stellarvue 102SV Refractor on an iOptron CEM60 mount.

Tracking with PHD guiding is really superb

No Comment. Just to let y'all know I am still alive Dave VID-20191223-WA0000.mp4

Interesting! One of the issues sorted on the Hyperstar III was a dead video card as well!! Greg

I haven't used the Hyperstar in around a year, so when I checked on it last week - it wasn't working of course. However a week of working on the computer and upgrading the handset (it didn't know what 2020 was before the upgrade) and it is now once again in full working order. Managed a few subs last night between banks of cloud and all looks fine. Looking forward to some deeeep Hyperstar images next clear Moonless night. Greg

Well out of practice with both capture and processing but better than the last few months of nothing. Object:NGC 3201 Object Info: NGC 3201 (also known as Caldwell 79) is a low galactic latitude globular cluster in the southern constellation of Vela. It has a very low central concentration of stars. This cluster was discovered by James Dunlop on May 28, 1826 and listed it in his 1827 catalogue. He described it as "a pretty large pretty bright round nebula, 4′ or 5′ diameter, very gradually condensed towards the centre, easily resolved into stars; the figure is rather irregular, and the stars are considerably scattered on the south". The radial velocity of this cluster is unusually high at 490 km/s, larger than any other cluster known. This corresponds to a peculiar velocity of 240 km/s. While high, this is lower than the escape velocity of the Milky Way galaxy.[10] It is located at a distance of 16,300 light years from the Sun and has an estimated 254,000 times the mass of the Sun. This cluster is about 10.24 billion years old. The stellar population of this cluster is inhomogeneous, varying with distance from the core. The effective temperature of the stars shows an increase with greater distance, with the redder and cooler stars tending to be located closer to the core. As of 2010, is one of only two clusters (including Messier 4) that shows a definite inhomogeneous population. Number of Subs: L 50 , R 50 , G 50 , B 50 Sub Length: 30sec Total Integration Time: 120min Date Captured: 04/02/2020 Imaging Camera: Moravian G2 2000 Imaging Telescope: GSO RC8 CF Reducer: no Focal Length: 1625 Image Scale: 0.94 arcsec/pixel Field of View: 19 x 25 arcmin Mount: Ioptron CEM60 Guide Scope: Orion ST80 Guide Camera: Prostar LP colour (toupcam) Capture Software: Voyager Guide Software: PHD Guiding 2 Processing Software: PixInsight Shane

Well as I always say Greg, you can’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. Shane

About 8pm Monday 11th after the transit. Awoke to a nice balmy 18F degrees Tuesday morning!

Hi fellas - nice & warm in Adelaide atm!

Just a white light filter on the 100ED, (same as for the 2017 eclipse.) I used the DSLR for a camera, just straight up prime focus, Sun fits the FOV nicely. Tim.

looking good buddy Shane

Wow mate, great to hear. Buying a new mount is no easy feat, the learning curve alone can make it daunting, so when it is delivering the right vibes and reciprocating, then that is exactly the right path. I'm really glad it has enriched your AP my friend. Ray

Yeah, saw some of it on TV.. They call it "global warming"?? Had our far share of cold and wet so far this winter has shown around 350 mm of rain and should get more next week. Of course with rain one needs clouds and with clouds one cannot do Astronomy. Night temps over here bouncing just above Zero C. Yesterday was only 13C Max. Weeds and stuff absolutely bursting into life. Even this Yuccu at the front entrance has burst into flower. Also Aloe Vera is blazing forth. (Pics by Canon D7) PS. The Yucca is causing quite an interest in the Street, a number of people stopping wid M/Phones taking pictures. I have several of these plants on my block. Dave.

Meet my latest grand child, Isabelle Rose Crabb. Shane

Geesuz! Nice toy mate. Can't wait for you to get it. Ray

couple of stock pics from Ioptron website.

It would be funny if we were not living through it. Greg

Noted Shane. Yeh, mine would be around that age. It has not not had a lot of use per se, but looking ahead and my age/activities/health does not really warrant any further expenditure in Astro Gear. I have picked up a couple of accessories for the Canon 750D, for which I will put together a note/pictures regarding focal length reducing rings I purchased. I feel my future in photography will probably orientate closer to the terrestrial vistas Such as heading North of Perth in the Wildflower season Could chuck the MAK90 on the back seat Cheers Dave

this is bloody aweful. massive tracking and guiding issues. LRGB around 70-80 minutes I think it was. I think I might be needing a new mount. lots of noise and colour calibration didn't work properly either, also prob a bit over colour saturated. Having whinged about all that at least it is something. Shane

Then again ever considered a squadron of UFOs flying in formation? I note that the latest mounts have done away with gears and now use belts. My old EQ6pro is still chugging along OK. Dave.

Sorry about the delay in replying, I've been away with the kidlets in Mandurah. Can you try another guide program to eliminate the possibility of software? And have you tried both with PEC on and off to ensure it is not using a default PEC file? I would also unbalance it the (only after you have tried the above two). Misbalance it so that the scope is travelling uphill. Test and then try it the opposite way. This also speaks volumes about the gear teeth. And try it with PEC on and then off. Ray

There are a lot of good mounts out there if your are prepared to spend some money. I bought an iOptron CEM25 and was so impressed I traded out my CGEM for its bigger brother iOptrons, CEM60. with which I am equally impressed for guiding consistency. It claims to carry up to 60 pounds, but I have not yet pushed it beyond about 38 and that has been near perfect guiding. Everything depends upon the mount! if that is screwed up, nothing else matters. The minister of finance might be most pleased that its price is modest.

Greg

Awesome effort either way Prof. Ray

Nice Greg, one I've not seen nor heard of before. Shane

3's a magic number Greg. Very cool. Ray

Dragon Man! Where have you been hiding! Good to see you are getting some photons my friend. 19 cameras is a bit steep, my missus would kill me. Welcome back. Ray

Yep clouds here as well. super annoying, still have to polar align and calibrate the guiding before doing a test run. Shane

Alright, procrastination is over. Mount has been removed from pier and ready for a service and check up. There is something not quite right inside and it's time to find out what. Tomorrow I will start the disassembly. Hopefully I find an easy to fix problem that will reinstate decent guiding, and allow me to get back to imaging. I have missed quite a few good nights trying to solve the guiding issue and then procrastinating over stripping the mount and servicing it. I'll report back any findings. Ideally I would like to upgrade the NEQ6 but alas funds (read Minister of Finance and War) wont allow it at this time. Shane

The EC must be phenomenal as it reportedly can take images without guiding, however as you can see on this map of the graph, with minimal guiding the CEM60 is really the best I've ever used by a long shot. I am used to seeing some sawtoothed motions recorded on the lines of both axes on the graph, but this mount seems to be able to track superbly, and for the price its hard to beat. I've used the smaller CEM25P with this same 4" refractor with similar guiding results. That is why I bought its bigger brother for my 9.25" SCT and 80mm guide scope. Its load capacity is listed I think at 60 pounds which is a lot, so i'm using only about half of that on my pier. Erratic guiding messed up some much time and effort in the past, that having this thing just perform so smoothly with no hassles, makes the tediousness of imaging go away. I'm using an OPT TRIAD filter that eliminates a lot of light so exposures here run 12-20 minutes per frame. In each session I've had not bad frames due to tracking errors. Even on its flip at the meridian, the target is dead center in the field of view... have to re-calibrate the guiding for the opposite hand, but it works flawlessly. If I sound enthusiastic about it, its because I've spent 8 years fighting all manner of mount deficiencies! cheers, I think the minister would approve of this purchase and hopefully you'd have similar good fortune using it!

Looking good to me!

That is pretty impressive Greg. Ray

On 19th Feb (Full Super Moon) I set up the 10" SW dob on the EQ6Pro and plugged in the S7 camera. Using Stellarium for guiding the scope and Asicap for the camera. Skies were clear with no cloud, but there was a lot of atmospheric heat aberration. Very common here during the summer months causing rippling of image. Previously I had driven the cam on test around the kitchen using the stand alone lens. On this occasion I used it in prime focus with the 70% aperture ring. As the image shows it has ginormous magnification. Focusing was somewhat difficult as it appears the Dell 1500 laptop was having memory issues and lagging, so focusing was a hit/miss issue. The S7 is quite complex in setting up using the ZWO software, and on the first run I failed to limit the number of frames and it banged off 5G worth of images and files!! Each image is also accompanied by a text file which gives the parameters of the shot. Eventually I got things setup and reasonably stable and set the frame batch rate at 10 frames per run 16bit RAW. The 2 images below are #1 single unprocessed image as taken by the camera. #2 is 10 images, stacked in Registax and touched up in Photo Shop Not the best of my attempts, but does show the potential of the device. I have a spare Dell 790 (SFF) which has a better video card and RAM I will later check it out and dig deeper into the intricacies of the beast. At least I scored a break in the cloud cover that rolls in regularly every night...... Last night (20th) very cloudy by 3am blocking the moon and everything else. I have since cleaned the mirrors of the 10", they were not the best having been in storage for over a year. Dave

Wow, Noel pulled some good stuff out of your data mate. Beautiful shot. I believe you have some seriously cold skies there at the moment. Ray

Cheers Ray - as you can see - it is right in the Milky Way Greg