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Ever since I first took up astrophotography (a very long time ago - CCDs hadn't been invented and film was the only option) I've always wanted to image the Horse Head nebula. Despite many attempts with seriously long exposures using an off-axis guider through my late 254mm F6 Newtonian, I got absolutely nothing. Having returned to astrophotography just a year ago using an unmodified DSLR, reading the literature, I had been convinced that the Horse Head was still out of my reach, especially from a light polluted sky. At the end of last nights session, I though I would just point the camera towards Alnitak and took just 4 exposures. Tonight, even though having looked at the JPEGS out of the camera to see only few stars poking out above the white background, I thought I would run them through DSS and IRIS. Now I can't wait to get another clear night to get a decent quantity of subs!

C11 IR807 filter 10% of 20000 frames

So been playing around with Auto scripts in Pixisight. These seem to have corrected the heavy blues I was getting on a lot of stars from my filter. A lot happier with this result.

You get 2 within a couple of minuets.

Well, OK, it wasn't night time, but lovely be out this morning. Headed up Kinder Scout for a circuit of Ringing Roger and Grindsbrook.. Sky was just beautiful at about 9AM. Saw three dippers in Grindsbrook.

This little beauty landed at 07:26 this morning. Shame it wasn't dark so we could have seen it.

Hi, Some Astro show dates for your diary's. European Astrofest 2020 : Friday January 31 + Saturday February 1st Kensington, London. (yes, its early this year !) Links below for full details : https://europeanastrofest.com Practical Astronomy Show 2020 : Saturday 21 March 2020 Kettering Show link and speaker info just released below : https://practicalastroshow.com/speakers/?fbclid=IwAR1ZGlvAG2q_OUcRbKzONo8E9puSIqyN9ABnqfNWEtu3g5FyOp8TJFkDv_M International Astronomy Show 2020 : Dates in November to be confirmed. Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire. Link below to homepage for more info : https://www.ukastroshow.com After 15 consecutive visits to Astrofest, i have decided to give it a miss this year 😓 Reasons include me being disappointed with the show in 2018 & 2019, the travel involved, as well as 2 other shows closer to home. But i will definitely be at the PAS in March and almost certainly at the IAS in November as well. I thought the PAS was excellent last year, and for a first show for them, they hit the ground running and its all for free !! @Derbyshire Dave : you may be interested in the 'APT' talk ? Hopefully i'll see some of you there in Kettering ?? Regards, Rob 😀

Having a few days break over New Year in the southern part of Snowdonia National Park. Hoping for some clear skies I took my All-Sky camera with me and set it up hoping to catch something. I'm not totally happy with the camera settings yet, this camera has a lot of noise, but it's a good starting point. Luckily we got some nice clear skies and early in the evening I caught Elon Musk's Starlink chain passing over ..... lots more of Mr Musk's astro-interference to come ☹️ I also caught a nice bright meteor And in the early hours I got what I think was an Iridium flare. It was split over 2 images but started dim, brightened up and then dimmed again. I put the 2 imges together in an animated gif and this was the result I plan on properly merging the 2 images when I get home but for now the gif is all I could manage. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, but (apart from the noise) I'm happy that the camera and software are working in a 'portable' set up with the Stick PC. Centre/Right is NE - Centre/Left is SW Orion can be seen moving anti-clockwise to the left of the screen Al

Two alternative processes of IC 443 imaged a couple of days or so ago. Image 1 = 5h integration Duoband, Set-point cooled 1100D Image 2 = 5h integration Duoband, Set-point cooled 1100D + 2h RGB E-PL5. Stacked and preprocessed in APP Main processing Startools Post process Gimp & PS HLVG plugin Not sure which version I prefer, tbh. Regards

Hi everyone - 77mins with the Hyperstar. Never get board of this one. Processed in Pixinsight and PSCC 🙂

https://earthsky.org/space/ligo-gravitational-wave-burst-near-betelgeuse thought it was gonna be exciting but seems everything is still there in orion 😉

Hi everyone - This was a lovely sight tonight 🙂 Taken with my Altair 72 ED scope high looking back over Chesterfield

A tee shirt a panel and the sky ---- I think you have just about covered all the bases there Ron 😅

Good prom at 2 o'clock! 👍

Nice shot. It's way beyond what my kit can do.

Usual stuff 300mm focal length ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

Great captures graham, you can just see Pleiades at bottom of first picture 👍

My vote goes to # 1

Such is life David!! I only imaged it to test my new shedatory roof mod!! Cheers Ron

I suppose it is Clive, I've added a wedge to keep it open.. I've thought of a way to remove the bar across the front for imaging and locked in the rest of the time. Another job for tomorrow! Ron

I'm hoping to make up there too

I see a big jellyfish. Nice one Steve

Nice image Steve a lot of detail

Instead of the 'Armpit of the giant' (which i believe is Betelgeuse's literal meaning) how about 'The sore armpit nebula' ? 😉

Only just seen this thread .... I use Anydesk on 3 laptops, 1 mini Stick PC and my phone, I find it quicker, lighter on resources and less troublesome than Teamviewer. The stick PC drop out from time to time but always reconnects if I open it again. The Stick PC only has windows firewall and I've not checked that but having read this it's certainly something I need to check.

I can just make out the AR slightly above centre and what looks to be a couple of filaments and a prom.

Thanks for the image. Really nice shot

Nice handling of the colours, good job Clive

Well the new box of tricks has finally arrived. All set up and seems to be running as it should. As per normal with new kit it is now pouring with rain 😂

Thanks for all the replies.. hopefully clear skies again tonight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Chris have a great day

Been using my new flat panel to get some decent Flats this afternoon.

Yeah, well done Steve! Thoroughly deserved, So flipping difficult!

You've made a good job of that Clive! 🌟

I'll preemptively wish you all a very Happy 2020. May all your dreams and aspirations come true. All the best from Penny and myself.

Ron measure the ID of your tube. I have an old 6 inch Seben tube cover kicking around here somewhere. Here you go Ron. It will fit into a tube about 170mm internal diameter. Amazed I knew where to find it 😅

I like that. You even have the Boogeyman in there as well

On my panel Ron I used a layer of A4 paper sandwiched between panel and 3mm frosted acrylic , then I bought a spare Ota cover cut middle out stuck it to acrylic 👍 just clicks on now

Great shot. 😊 SSD=solid state drive I'm guessing?

Orion was nicely on display last night, I noticed when I put the bins out lol. The tip of the sword is an interesting area to view if you've not seen it before. 🙂

Superb graham 👍

Thats a great image. I sat and admired it for a fair while. It was a much deeper Red down here. Got so lost in staring at it by the time I thought about taking a photo it had passed.

USB3 for planetary. Pity the gas giants are going to be low for a while yet.

Happy Birthday.

Thanks all. Much appreciated. Hope everyone has a nice christmas and new year. Santa bringing Clear skies. 😁🍻

Same to you Dave. I think Santa might just have his work cut out for that to happen. Have a good one

It is a beautiful scope. You would be hard pushed to find anything like it nowadays especially at a sensible price. You have to keep it Phil. Grow old gracefully together. Chances to use it may be far and few but when you do get the odd chance they will be all the better for it.

I'd collectively put film critics into 'Room 101' if i went on that show. I can't be doing with them. Mark Kermode would have a special place in the garbage chute in the original Star Wars (only he wouldn't be rescued)