SharpCap Forums

Dave, Back in the 60s we had a bird feeder atop a pole about 8 feet off the ground. I took an Instamatic camera and tethered it to a cross member. I tied a loop around the shutter trigger and ran the string to the bathroom window. I waited for the birds to return. We had two types that would feed: B...

Dave, From the markings they look similar to our "sparrow": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_sparrow Although the ones around here are closer to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_World_sparrow or perhaps this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunting_(bird) Factoid: The very first...

Aristarchus is that small bright crater on the terminator at the 10 o'clock position. There are some interesting formations to the left of it: several rills and pyroclastic deposits. It is difficult to image due to the oblique angle but if you monitor the Virtual Moon Atlas for favorable libration y...

Nice, Dave! I do love that 16-bit A/D on your CCD camera.

Brian

I agree, I think they look great too.

I don't LS but I do use SC for PA. There are some nights where alignment bounces from Excellent to Good every other frame or so. Other nights it is quite stable. I chalk this up to a turbulent atmosphere. There is nothing much you can do about it except not image. I can't tell much from looking at y...

Thanks, Chris, that's very helpful!

Hi, I hate saying this but my ASI120MC died within a year. It doesn't even make a good doorstop. It just sits with my stack of stuff reminding me of the 'bad old days'. I think I pushed it beyond its comfort zone. In other words, I may have killed it taking 120s exposures. either that or ZWO has pro...

Hi Steve, AAVSO's official designation is "M31 V0619". They report that its magnitude fluctuates between 18.5 and 19.8V. That is faint. I've known that my scope/cam can see down to 18th magnitude at my Bortle 5 site but can it see down to 19th magnitude? What makes things worse is that the...

Hi Robin, Yes, I wondered the same. I searched and found an answer: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/star-v1.html There is lots to read but allow me to pull a quote: The astronomer [Hubble] spent several months in 1923 scanning Andromeda with the 100-inch Hooker telescope, the most ...