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A new clip from Babak Tafreshi with music by Ali Raini:
 
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DennisN said:
A new clip from Babak Tafreshi with music by Ali Raini:

:thumbup::smile: That is "MagicalMedia" I loved it. Thanks for the post!
 
Hercules is now coming into view- got this one last night- the whole field of view and a 100% crop (800/5.6, ISO 1250):

13m_zpsgmrfcgbq.jpg


13m.tif%20RGB-2_zpslwmidgtu.jpg


My technique is finally good enough that I needed to program periodic error correction (PEC) on the motors; my first attempt wasn't great but I could still nearly double the exposure time (5 s to 8 s). Presumably, as I keep refining the PEC, the performance will continue to improve.
 
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Up to 28 minutes total exposure time- image quality and colorimetrics significantly improved:

28m.TIF%20RGB_zpsoexr6ysm.jpg
 
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You know, when I came across this image all I could think is, this belongs on the OBU thread. So here are the Spanish peaks in Colorado, along with credit where credit is due. :wink:

Spanish peaks.PNG
http://martinpughastrophotography.id.au/
 
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For the next few days, (from left to right) saturn, mars, and Jupiter are all visible at night:

DSC_0215_zpsagjavvw9.jpg


And a little zoomed in (the red spot is visible):

Montage2_zpscirm27hz.jpg


Tonight, 9pm- midnight, Europa is transiting Jupiter and the shadow may be visible (midnight - 3am, EST)... fingers crossed for good viewing conditions!
 
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Andy Resnick said:
Up to 28 minutes total exposure time- image quality and colorimetrics significantly improved:

28m.TIF%20RGB_zpsoexr6ysm.jpg
the image in the previous post was better, colour wise ... you have gone back to a very green hue in this one :wink: The star sharpness in this one is much betterD
 
You guys sure make me want a nice "Scope" :frown: I'm feeling motivated but I have a lot to learn.
 
1oldman2 said:
You guys sure make me want a nice "Scope" :frown: I'm feeling motivated but I have a lot to learn.
I feel exactly the same :smile:. I've been thinking about a scope for years now, but I've had other things to do, and if I get a scope I want to put it to good use. I have been very tempted by this entry level scope, which have got some pretty good reviews (e.g. it won the comparison with other scopes here: http://telescopes.toptenreviews.com/telescopes-for-beginners-review/celestron-cosmos-review.html )...
And a clip here:
 
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1oldman2 said:
You guys sure make me want a nice "Scope" :frown: I'm feeling motivated but I have a lot to learn.

I can speak from experience- people here are excellent resources for learning this stuff. Go for it!
 
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DennisN said:
I feel exactly the same :smile:. I've been thinking about a scope for years now, but I've had other things to do, and if I get a scope I want to put it to good use. I have been very tempted by this entry level scope, which have got some pretty good reviews (e.g. it won the comparison with other scopes here: http://telescopes.toptenreviews.com/telescopes-for-beginners-review/celestron-cosmos-review.html)...
And a clip here:

Another investment opportunity missed. :frown:
http://www.celestron.com/browse-shop/astronomy/telescopes/cosmos-90gt-wifi-telescope $400.00 US
http://telescopes.toptenreviews.com/telescopes-for-beginners-review/celestron-cosmos-review.html -Discontinued
Amazon $670.47 US

That would be a nice starter. :thumbup:
 
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Now that I have PEC working fairly well, I'm able to acquire many more useful images- here's 40 minutes total integration time, with fairly strict thresholds for image acceptability based on DSS 'score' and 'FWHM':

A small section of the total field, showing NGC 6207:
40mRGB_zpso8jqqzug.jpg


And a 100% crop, cranking up the saturation ('cuz I can...)

40mRGB_2_zpsozaxm3fv.jpg


Thanks to davenn for helpful hints...
 
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Simply s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g...
hs-2015-02-a-hires_jpg.jpg

NASA said:
Hubble’s High-Definition Panoramic View of the Andromeda Galaxy
This sweeping bird's-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor.
Credits: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler
Page source: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-high-definition-panoramic-view-of-the-andromeda-galaxy
Full size image is here (click twice to zoom in order to see the enormous amount of stars as small pixels...:wink:)
 
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Thought I might post this in this thread; a tool for those who are interested in making visualizations...
Cosmographia Mission Visualization Tool (NASA)
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/cosmographia.html
Page said:
NAIF offers for public use a modified version of the open source visualization tool named Cosmographia. Cosmographia is an interactive tool used to produce 3D visualizations of planet ephemerides, sizes and shapes; spacecraft trajectories and orientations; and instrument field-of-views and footprints. Cosmographia has many user controls, allowing one to manage what is displayed, what vantage point is used, and how fast the animation progresses.
 
DennisN said:
Thought I might post this in this thread; a tool for those who are interested in making visualizations...
Cosmographia Mission Visualization Tool (NASA)
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/cosmographia.html
Thanks ! this looks interesting, have you spent much time working with it ?
Just a quick note, while downloading this my Antivirus pulled a (Trojan-Gen-2) from it. This sometimes happens on certain legitimate software downloads so I'm curious to see if a critical piece will be missing when I try and run the program. I'll comment on that after I look into it further. :smile:
 
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First night imaging the Ring Nebula (M57)- seeing was very poor, I was only able to acquire 3 minutes worth of exposure. Full frame:

3m.RGB-1_zpsbdiph2ob.jpg


and 100%

3m.RGB_zpsbqiawt8u.jpg


Not enough exposure time to capture IC1296 (yet), but I can already easily see the central white dwarf.
 
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1oldman2 said:
Thanks ! this looks interesting, have you spent much time working with it ?
No, I just got the link from a friend and thought I might share it here. :smile:
 
DennisN said:
No, I just got the link from a friend and thought I might share it here. :smile:
I'm still playing with the program to see what all I can do with it, looks pretty cool. About the Trojan.Gen.2, I've decided that most likely came from my Granddaughter playing minecraft through her Steam account and my antivirus just happened to catch it while analyzing the site you posted. No worries :cool: