The flats I'm taking show quite a bit of vignetting on the left side and none on the right side of the ASI2600mc when attached to an ES127 f/7.5 refractor.  Is this because the sensor is not centered?       Could this be related to the aberrations I'm seeing with this equipment combination?   ..read more

Plagued with condensation problems on my primary mirror of late I revisited my last futile attempts of several months ago and this time I've come up with a cheap and effective way to tackle the problem.   You will need   1) A calendar, preferably an astronomy one you featured in, like I did last year (September in fact), but still had to pay for  2) Duct tape 3) A scissors (ask an adult to help you if you're afraid you'll hurt yourself, ditto for the knife) 4) A plastic cup 5) A knife   Instructions   A) Roll up a 2 months of calendar into 2 tubes. The tubes should be ..read more

I started star testing my 6" F/8 Dob a few years ago, primarily as a way to check collimation but am interested in learning more about testing mirror quality as well. I am slowly reading my way through Dick Suiter's book, Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes, although it's a tough read for me because it's very technical. Most nights lately where I live in North Carolina have less than average seeing, so star testing has been challenging if not impossible. But, after ample mirror cooldown, and when the sky conditions are decent, I'll point my scope at Polaris using a shorter focal length eyepie ..read more

Hi   I'm still very new to astrophotography and am having an issue with stars in my images appearing to bulge or trail on one side, and was wondering if someone could help me diagnose the cause.   This is affecting every exposure I take and every star in the image, from the centre to all 4 edges and corners.  The size and direction of the bulge/trail is the same across the image too i.e. it's not more pronounced towards the corners, or pointing in towards the centre.   It has occurred 2 nights in a row now, but started suddenly, as images prior to the last 2 nights are fine ..read more

Breaking from my upload trend, its been a great season. I am moving back to deepsky which I stopped over 7 months ago. The weather was beautiful on the 30th and when I began, it was well underway. I hope you all enjoy the animations!   Celestron 9.25 3X teleconverter Uranus-C   First up, the highlight. Jupiter and Europa and Ganymede. There shadows looked striking on the Planet disk     animation     full res https://www.cloudynights.com/gallery/image/200328-2023-12-30-2257-6-u-rgb-jupiter-lapl6-ap801-pipp ..read more

What sort of paint is best to blacken a steel surface?   I am using an older steel 0.965" eyepiece tube to mount a Hastings Triplet lens for planetary observation. I need to blacken the inside of the tube since the tube is a bit shiny.   ..read more

I kinda hanker for a freaky sharp C11 OTA. Not sure what my chances are of finding one. I can forget local as nothing ever pops up close by. A C14 did after over 40 years and the seller never did get back to me as i was ready to jump.  His ad is till up under reflectors on Dec 19th and i had others send a him a mess and they heard nothing as well ..read more

I'm looking to move from Agena SWA 70° series into the Astro-Tech 82° series. The scope is my 6" GSO Classical Cass. Focal length is just over 1800mm, so f/12. Thanks for your insights. Ron ..read more

It's very cold but unseasonably clear so I'm making the most of it. Firecapture, Autostakkert 4, Registax, Astrosurface. Final colour processing on my phone.   ..read more

The seeing was not so good , images are mosaics of 4 panels  Yves   Ha Disc   Ha Disk color inverted     animation         Yves ..read more