Military Camp

Any stargazers?

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  • Younggun

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    Thanks for visiting. Glad you had a good time. That’s my observatory.

    Were you there last night?


    Seriously looking at a membership. My ability to make the scheduled star parties would be iffy due to my on call schedule but my daughter loved it and the sky is a little darker than what we have at the house.


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    Big Green

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    I bought my son a telescope for Christmas this past year and he’s hardly used it. May need to dust it off and give it another shot.

    Really interesting about the observatory, Waco’s not too far.
     

    FireInTheWire

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    Jupiter has been great this month. Had a few really good nights for viewing too.

    Anybody else still watching the skies?
    YES. It's Milky Way time of the year. It's beautiful late in the evening.

    Jupiter was fantastic.

    050234110693-_NexStar_8SE_11069_1_570x380.jpg


    This is the scope I bought the wife about 8yrs ago. It's has served us well. Next time I have some extra money available, I wanna upgrade the base to one of these
    https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Celestron-CGX-Computerized-Equatorial-Mount/rc/2160/p/116651.uts
     

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    oohrah

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    Were you there last night?

    Seriously looking at a membership. My ability to make the scheduled star parties would be iffy due to my on call schedule but my daughter loved it and the sky is a little darker than what we have at the house.


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    No, I was doing the star party in downtown Waco. We do have good dark skies. The website has a calendar of events, and you join online .
     

    Younggun

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    YES. It's Milky Way time of the year. It's beautiful late in the evening.

    Jupiter was fantastic.

    View attachment 178812

    This is the scope I bought the wife about 8yrs ago. It's has served us well. Next time I have some extra money available, I wanna upgrade the base to one of these
    https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Celestron-CGX-Computerized-Equatorial-Mount/rc/2160/p/116651.uts

    I looked at one similar to that, not sure the exact mode pictures so maybe the same one. Think it was around $1k. Decided I enjoy the hunt, lol. I think point and click would take away some of the feeling of exploration. For me anyways. Tracking would be great for astrophotography stuff.

    Spent the money on a bigger objective instead. If tracking doesn’t lie it should be here Wednesday. So prepare for clouds cover for at least the following week, lol.


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    FireInTheWire

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    I looked at one similar to that, not sure the exact mode pictures so maybe the same one. Think it was around $1k. Decided I enjoy the hunt, lol. I think point and click would take away some of the feeling of exploration. For me anyways. Tracking would be great for astrophotography stuff.

    Spent the money on a bigger objective instead. If tracking doesn’t lie it should be here Wednesday. So prepare for clouds cover for at least the following week, lol.


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    Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Last time my wife was taking photography of some clusters and Orion, I grabbed my vortex 10x40's and had a blast looking around. The important part is; your out there doing it and looking. Hell, just getting out of the city and letting your own eyes see the night sky is one of life's simple joys IMHO.
     

    Younggun

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    Sure is a pretty evening for that. How'd it go?

    Jupiter was amazing tonight. Messier 13 and 22 were easy to get lost in. Even found the Lagoon Nebula. Saturn was almost clear enough to make out the Cassini division. Seems like it would show itself for just a second before the atmosphere swept it away. Not bad givin how low it is on the horizon.

    I was supposed to have another box with a better Barlow, 8.8mm wide angle lens, and T Ring and adapter for the camera but it didn’t show up. UPS guy said it must have gotten put on the wrong truck so hopefully it shows tomorrow.


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    Younggun

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    Got the rest of my crap yesterday. Pretty pleased with it.

    Fumbled around with the camera for a while figuring out what kinda works and what absolutely doesn’t. Got a few ok pics of Jupiter.


    Photoshopped to increase saturation and contrast.
    d577fc68fe03ded3ef1e071dc8fa487f.jpg



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    FireInTheWire

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    Got the rest of my crap yesterday. Pretty pleased with it.

    Fumbled around with the camera for a while figuring out what kinda works and what absolutely doesn’t. Got a few ok pics of Jupiter.


    Photoshopped to increase saturation and contrast.
    View attachment 179262


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    Nice man! Got the storm. Is that 2 moons? Or 1 with it's shadow on the planet?
     

    sucker76

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    I've seen pictures where several and sometimes hundreds of pictures are stacked together to produce a better final picture. You might want to look into how to do this to get better results. Photoshop, Lightroom and other free programs can stack images together.
     

    Younggun

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    I've seen pictures where several and sometimes hundreds of pictures are stacked together to produce a better final picture. You might want to look into how to do this to get better results. Photoshop, Lightroom and other free programs can stack images together.

    It’s typically done by shooting a video and using something like Registax to layer all the images and fine tune.

    You can also layer multiple pictures using photoshop but it would be extremely time consuming with more than a handful of pictures.


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    Younggun

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    Nice man! Got the storm. Is that 2 moons? Or 1 with it's shadow on the planet?

    I think it’s just a couple bits of dust that go one up he cameras mirror. 3 of the moons were distinctly visible far from the planet and I don’t think they would have been in an area to cast shadows like that.

    I had the adapter on and off multiple times testing with clean shots through the telescope and using eyepieces to project the image on to the mirror and could have got something dirty.


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    FireInTheWire

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    It’s typically done by shooting a video and using something like Registax to layer all the images and fine tune.

    You can also layer multiple pictures using photoshop but it would be extremely time consuming with more than a handful of pictures.


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    I have one of these. If your interested in it, I'll send it your way. Comes with software. If... you have a laptop to use while star hunting. Wife is the main one taking pics nowadays. I am usually chasing the kids around or trying to put them to bed. She prefers her DSLR.

    https://www.celestron.com/products/neximage-5-solar-system-imager-5mp
     

    Younggun

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    I have one of these. If your interested in it, I'll send it your way. Comes with software. If... you have a laptop to use while star hunting. Wife is the main one taking pics nowadays. I am usually chasing the kids around or trying to put them to bed. She prefers her DSLR.

    https://www.celestron.com/products/neximage-5-solar-system-imager-5mp

    PM sent.


    Yeah, I think the DSLRs are better suited to autotracking and long exposure.

    I could run video on it but without stacking software there wasn’t much use.


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    Younggun

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    Just got in from feeding the mosquitos and finished putting things away.

    Was a perfect night once the clouds moved out. I was able to go to 416X magnification on Saturn with only the occasional distortion. The Cassini division was perfectly clear and even the cloud bands were faintly visible.

    Jupiter put on a great show as well with swirls visible where the layers of clouds met.


    I spent most of my time hunting the pinwheel galaxy. Finally found it just after midnight. Extremely faint from here and no visible details. Just a faintly brighter spot. If it weren’t for the excellent conditions tonight I don’t think I would have found it. Gonna leave that one alone until I’m somewhere darker with good seeing.


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    Younggun

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    How much exposure time did she have in that nebula? Definitely takes a lot of patience to get something out of DSOs.

    Great photos. The last one looks like a face peering down on us.


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