My manic solar system 24 hours!!!!

[PhilB]

The images look much improved, Carole. When are you going after the other planets to complete the set?

[Carole]

Funny you should say that Phil, but I have just made the decision to try to do just that, though I think Neptune is going to be a bit of a challenge.  

I've made a Mosaic with what I have done so far (except Earth of course) with the aim to try to fill in the missing ones:

Obviously not to scale:

[Carole]

Collimation on ETX125 checked last night (Wednesday) and all is well.

Carole

[Mac]

Collimation on ETX125 checked last night (Wednesday) and all is well.

I diddnt think the ETX 125 could be collimated, as they are Maksutov designs.

http://www.weasner.com/etx/warnings/collimation-warning.html

Mac.

[Carole]

Neither did I Mac which was why I never bothered to check it.  But someone suggested that the collimation might be OUT.  I actually had a look on line and there is some-one who has done it, but you have to open up the plastic casing at the back and then collimate it like a Newtonian, but apparently the screws that you need to turn are sealed and you need to break the seal.

Anyway academic now as it's OK.

Carole

[Carole]

Someone has told me about a plugin called Focus magic.  I downloaded it and this is the result on the Tycho image.  It's sharpened up the focus a bit. 

[Tony G]

I didn't think the ETX 125 could be collimated, as they are Maksutov designs.

Mac.

Mac,

Robert had to collimate my Skywatcher 150 Pro which is a Mak-Cass, a couple of years ago...........................................But me and Chris had stripped it down until it looked like pile of junk, and this was all due to a spider entering the scope through the open eyepiece.

Tony G

[Carole]

It's those Spiders again.

Yes open eye pieces are a danger.  I always try to cover things methodically, but I recently went outside and found I had left my refractor open ended for a few days, I had a fit when I saw it.  Luckily it seems OK.

Carole

[PhilB]

I found a web or two in my AT1010 when I got it - just remove the focuser and shove in a vacuum cleaner, works a treat

[MarkS]

Someone has told me about a plugin called Focus magic.  I downloaded it and this is the result on the Tycho image.  It's sharpened up the focus a bit. 

I'm impressed with the results that Focus Magic gives - especially for such a straightforward user interface.  However you should bear in mind that the blurred image you have is more likely to have resulted from atmospheric turbulence (which cases a Gaussian blur) rather than defocusing (which cases a defocus blur).   These two types of blur are different and my understanding is that Focus Magic is aimed at defocusing blurs and motion blurs rather than Gaussian blurs.

Mark

[Carole]

I actually thought it was a little out of focus.  I had done a Bahtinov focus, but some-one told me the Moon is a slightly different focus to this, are they right?

Is there any way of unblurring a Gaussian blur?

Carole

[MarkS]

I actually thought it was a little out of focus.  I had done a Bahtinov focus, but some-one told me the Moon is a slightly different focus to this, are they right?

Is there any way of unblurring a Gaussian blur?

If your Bahtinov mask has corrrectly focused on a star then the moon will also be exactly in focus.  I've no idea what this person had in mind when they told you that the Moon has a different focus.

Registax wavelets are good for unblurring Gaussian blurs.

Mark

[mickw]

I would have thought that focus on the moon would be more critical than on a star - a star being just a dot and there being recognisable features on the moon.
Being slightly out of focus on a star would show up more on the moon.

As Mark says - in focus is in focus, just needs to be precise.

[Carole]

Yes I thought that was a little strange about the Moon having a different focus that's why I thought I'd double check it.

Carole

[Rick]

I've no idea what this person had in mind when they told you that the Moon has a different focus.

Either the person concerned has access to optics with a stupidly large f-ratio and therefore an incredibly narrow depth of field, or, perhaps, they actually live on the Moon. I suspect the latter is more likely...