Society for Popular Astronomy

I just don't have time to use this gear anymore so hopefully someone else can get some pleasure out of it... ATIK 16 IC-S cooled, mono CCD camera, mint condition, boxed, used less than 5 times. £420 including special delivery http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w273/paulc1971/atik.jpg TeleVue Powerma...

Thanks guys...it's good to receive your feedback.

Pete, your image is stunning! Was it taken with a 14" scope?

Hi All, Not used my scopes for over a year and was getting close to listing them on eBay. However, had some time off last week so decided to have another go at imaging. Took a while to remember how to align the scope but it all came flooding back...eventually. This was my first ever view of Jupiter ...

Very nice image George. Is it taken with your modded 350D?

Just stumbled across some free image processing software from Germany. Seems to have lots of advanced features for processing astro images and works with file types created by CCD cameras (FITS) and DSLRs. Here's the website: http://freenet-homepage.de/JDierks/softw_en.htm The noise reduction and LR...

Great picture!

Just out of interest, is there a large difference in the performance of your unmodded Canon 40D and your cooled CCD camera when recording images like this? I'm thinking in terms of noise and ability to record hydrogen alpha.

I'm now convinced that it was a Chinese lantern, especially since that my wife has revealed to me (she saw it before I did) that it was much lower in the sky before I spotted it. Another mystery solved...

Lately in the Lincolnshire, Grimsby area there has been quite a few of those Chinese lanterns in the sky. They are orange in appearance and move very similar to the ISS. Mark Mmmm. Chinese lantern - could be, I suppose. Certainly travelling in the direction of the prevailling wind and 'flickered'. ...

Davej wrote:Hi Paul,
What was your location when you saw the flare ?
ATB.
Dave

Hi Dave,

I was at N54.05 W2.82 (Lancaster)

Just seen something very strange. Completely clear skies - just shown my father-in-law an Iridium flare at 19:02. Then at 19:22 noticed a bright orange single point of light travelling overhead from west to east. The speed was about the same as the ISS (i.e. far too slow for a meteor) and the mag. w...

I broke my Skywatcher tube ring last night whilst tightening the nuts for some astrophotography (i.e. where it attaches to the dovetail bar). Can anyone recommend some good quality replacement rings for my 80ED. I wanted to buy the Williams Optics ones but they are 90mm diameter and my 80ED is 100mm...

I've added a Lulin animation (see first post). It's a gif animation. Does anyone know of a better format to use for display on the forum?

Hi Cliff, Glad you like your HEQ5 Pro. It's a very good mount. The only reason I would like a EQ6 would be to drive a 10 or 12" reflector for imaging the moon and planets. The HEQ5 Pro is excellent for imaging with the 80ED. I've not yet tried it with my 8" reflector and guidescope - that's a projec...

Looks like you've sorted it out George.