1208 replies to this topic

[LukaszLu]

Jupiter taken with 76 mm f/16 RAO:

 

Edited by LukaszLu, 25 November 2022 - 09:57 AM.

[Corcaroli78]

Wonderful thread,

 

I like to see how much can be done with a classic scope and somehow i prefer these pictures over those obtained with much modern equipment and processing techniques.

 

I just have a dumb question: Is it possible today, or is somebody still taking pictures with manual guiding? I wonder if make sense to couple my dslr and try some exposures...

 

Regards

Carlos

[Borodog]

Wonderful thread,

 

I like to see how much can be done with a classic scope and somehow i prefer these pictures over those obtained with much modern equipment and processing techniques.

 

I just have a dumb question: Is it possible today, or is somebody still taking pictures with manual guiding? I wonder if make sense to couple my dslr and try some exposures...

 

Regards

Carlos

Relatively easy with the Moon. Although at least tracking if not actual guiding is always helpful.

[oldmanastro]

Jupiter taken with 76 mm f/16 RAO:

 

JUPITER-2021-07-30 800.jpg

Great image. A lot of detail was clearly captured including the GRS. A tribute to the old RAO scopes.

[Sky King]

When I got my 1990's Celestron C8, it came with a rainbow colored sticker that said Fastar. Basically Celestron provided the option to remove the secondary lens and replace it with a Fastar lens for camera use, placing the camera in the front of the telescope. Celestron quit making these lenses in the early 2000's, but the idea soon developed into Hyperstar and RASA, both popular options. But what of Fastar? With the Fastar's F/1.95 and focal length of 397, it was pretty cool, but didn't work well with modern sensor cameras. Fast forward thirty years, and I'm still using it. 

 

So here is IC443, the Jellyfish, 300s x 48 exposures, four hours, from 11/23/22. 1993 C8 black tube, Fastar, Optolong  L'Extreme filter and ASI533MC Pro, DSS and Siril.

The star η Geminorum, needs shorter exposures or better post processing. I did this in color, but liked it this way too.

 

Edit: Upgraded the file to a little better resolution. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Sky King, 27 November 2022 - 08:08 PM.

[ETXer]

I was finally able to catch Mars on the 28th with seeing 3/5, the best I could get and will see for the foreseeable future.

 

Celestron Celestar 8 Deluxe with a vintage Celestron Ultima 2x SV-Series Barlow, ASI224MC, best 15% of 5662 frames, PIPP. AS!3, Registax 6.

 

 

Here's the observing report.

 

Cheers, Allan

Edited by ETXer, 30 November 2022 - 09:05 PM.

[oldmanastro]

I was finally able to catch Mars on the 28th with seeing 3/5, the best I could get and will see for the foreseeable future.

 

Celestron Celestar 8 Deluxe with a vintage Celestron Ultima 2x SV-Series Barlow, ASI224MC, best 15% of 5662 frames, PIPP. AS!3, Registax 6.

 

 

Here's the observing report.

 

Cheers, Allan

Excellent image! Several regions can be clearly identified. Great processing too. The image looks as if we are looking at it through the telescope under excellent seeing conditions. 

[ETXer]

Excellent image! Several regions can be clearly identified. Great processing too. The image looks as if we are looking at it through the telescope under excellent seeing conditions. 

Thank you Guido! The processing is coming along, I sure have been getting a lot of practice lately. I did take a little time to observe with the Barlow and the 26mm Plössl at 156x before I started imaging, the view was bright and quite steady with the terrain features visibly prominent along with the polar hood. Overall I was quite happy with the entire session!

[jragsdale]

Tonight I had my 1915(ish) 5" f/14 Mogey out for some imaging. First time I mounted it up on rings onto a CGEM so I had some nice goto and tracking abilities with it. Strapped on an ASI533MC camera. Took a 3 minute video of this portion of the moon and stacked it. The lens got quite a bit sharper once it reached thermal equilibrium, I was quite impressed with the views.

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[Bomber Bob]

Ole BB & the Z are back in business:  ZWO fixed the USB-A to USB-3 video capture issues that made my ASI120MC about as useful as a lead weight.  Good on them!  Now I can buy a newer ASI camera with confidence, and they make some more $$$ -- a win-win.

 

I like their ASI Suite approach that puts all the tools you need in one program.  Select the object, and it creates a sub-folder for it under the Scope folder that I already created, as in, D:\FC-76\Moon, and it labels each video, and saves the capture settings to a text file -- I had to do most of that myself with the older cameras & software...  Keep It Simple!

 

I didn't mind sacrificing a viewing night to test the imaging rig -- too cloudy to do any serious high-power at the the eyepiece for an hour at a pop observing.  I set exposure & gain to AUTO, and let the gear deal with the in & out of clouds / crazy conditions.  FOCUS is my main issue.  My Brandon 8mm gets very close, but with my FC-76 that's about like in horseshoes:

 

 

Clouds & Rain for the upcoming week will give me time to run the videos through AutoStakkert, Registax, etc. and re-acquaint myself with all the processing & post-processing options...

[tim53]

I can't get past the naming of some of these cameras.  I hear ZWO being pronounced "zed dubya oh" all the time, but I see "zoo" (pronounced like two).  

 

So I bought a Player One camera.  Easy to pronounce!

[Don-richardo]

hello folks's's. been a while. just set up the C8 classic on the SVP goto mount and shot some with the (new to me) ZWO ASI178mm i have to say i like this way better then the nikon D3200. now to learn how to shoot with it! lol. poor alignment and seeing. but fun and informative. (as always) feedback is always welcome. 

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Edited by Don-richardo, 05 December 2022 - 06:58 PM.

[Bomber Bob]

I can't get past the naming of some of these cameras.  I hear ZWO being pronounced "zed dubya oh" all the time, but I see "zoo" (pronounced like two).  

 

So I bought a Player One camera.  Easy to pronounce!

When my 120 was giving me grief, I called the company Zee-WO (like ZERO)...  and, was sure that ASI was an acronym for... oh, can't type that on a Family Channel...

[tim53]

...and then there's Olympus and Panasonic cameras with their Starry AF.  I know that the AF stands for "auto focus", but I always read it the other way!

[Bomber Bob]

Moon & Mars are in the soup, but after sunset Jupiter was in the clear (sorta).  I'm much happier with my ZWO ASI120MC and my 1983 Kenko SC125L F14.4 SCT:

 

 

RAW, from the same 3000 frame stack (best 40%), stacked by ASI Suite (left), and AutoStakkert! 64-bit (right), in 7/10 seeing.  BIF:  This stack was with the GSO 2.5x APO Barlow...

 

Altogether, I shot about 30 AVIs before the clouds slid in, so lots of processing fun for (yet another) rainy weekend.

Edited by Bomber Bob, 07 December 2022 - 09:27 PM.

[oldmanastro]

Finally, after many cloudy and rainy nights, a complete observing and imaging session. Let me add that, for our standards, it was cool too, about 70 degrees and dry. The seeing was about an 8. Some scattered clouds roamed in the north but did not bother until almost midnight. The old scruffy Celestar 8 in original fork mount and wedge-pod was out in less than 10 minutes with a pretty good polar alignment. Jupiter was the first target. Io was about to enter occultation while the GRS was starting a transit. The first image shows Io touching the planet's limb. The second image shows the GRS on it's way to the meridian transit. Mars was next. It was well positioned and very high in the sky. I ventured into the realm of the 3x Barlow. The first image of Mars was taken with a 3x Barlow, the second with the 2x Ultima Barlow. All images were captured with the ZWOASI224mc. They are the result of approximately 6000 stacked and processed frames. On Jupiter I only used the 2x Ultima Barlow.

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Edited by oldmanastro, 10 December 2022 - 09:37 AM.

[Terra Nova]

Those are wonderful pics Guido!

[jcruse64]

Some really fine work being posted here by several participants. Thank you!!!

[ETXer]

Finally, after many cloudy and rainy nights, a complete observing and imaging session. Let me add that, for our standards, it was cool too, about 70 degrees and dry. The seeing was about an 8. Some scattered clouds roamed in the north but did not bother until almost midnight. The old scruffy Celestar 8 in original fork mount and wedge-pod was out in less than 10 minutes with a pretty good polar alignment. Jupiter was the first target. Io was about to enter occultation while the GRS was starting a transit. The first image shows Io touching the planet's limb. The second image shows the GRS on it's way to the meridian transit. Mars was next. It was well positioned and very high in the sky. I ventured into the realm of the 3x Barlow. The first image of Mars was taken with a 3x Barlow, the second with the 2x Ultima Barlow. All images were captured with the ZWOASI224mc. They are the result of approximately 6000 stacked and processed frames. On Jupiter I only used the 2x Ultima Barlow.

You hit those out of the park Guido! You've already set the high bar with Jupiter, but I was looking forward to what you and the Celestar 8 could do with Mars when your weather was cooperative and it's finally happened. Your 8/10 seeing certainly facilitates that, but your processing brings it through. I was also curious about a higher Barlow; I don't have a 3x, but a 2.5x PowerMate I bought for solar work. Maybe a project for a future attempt. Our weather has been either cloudy or just plain cold, even a wintry mix predicted for today.

 

Again, superb!

[wargrafix]

This by far one of my favorite threads in all of CN. Good optics (coatings not withstanding), are a sign of quality work and care. Many of the images prove that these scopes were made with care and stand up to modern imaging standards.

[Bomber Bob]

I know what you mean... DPAC testing will show how well these old optics were made, but it's great to see those results confirmed in these amazing images.

[tturtle]

This image, with Io hanging just on the very edge of the planet, is really stunning. Nice work Guido.

I’m curious as to why the left side of the planets disk is so much less well defined?

 

Edited by tturtle, 15 December 2022 - 12:21 PM.

[wargrafix]

While my scope is late 2000s, and my camera is the Uranus-c, I use an old 3X teleconverter from vivitar. I declare it a thing of beauty. Its a telecentric barlow that is from the 70s, and planetary imaging is a joy. 

[monolithic]

I'm assuming this fits under 'modern imaging', so here's a phone-to-eyepiece shot of the Vallis Alpes area. It doesn't do the live view justice but astrophonetography is about as far as I'm venturing into the AP realm.

Dec. 2 2022, decent seeing. 10" f/7 reflector, 6mm eyepiece, Galaxy A03s. Best single frame from a short video.

[oldmanastro]

This image, with Io hanging just on the very edge of the planet, is really stunning. Nice work Guido.

I’m curious as to why the left side of the planets disk is so much less well defined?

 

 

I have seen this effect in other images but not as pronounced i images taken just 15 days before opposition. It may be that the planet is already past opposition.