Nice Bright Moon and Jupiter.

[bikerflier]

The moon and Jupiter are nice and bright side by side right now, Christmas Night. Lovely and clear.
Jupiter is at it's closest and brightest for a long time. You can see Jupiters moons with a decent pair of binoculars or a small telescope.

Won't see it like this again for a long time.

[cjcj1949]

I've been taking photos of it since August. Much better now its high in the sky. I've been using a point and click camera and I've found out about stack frames together (DSS). I'm amazed at what can be imaged from light polluted skies. I have the Orion nebula in a picture. I've never seen that before. I'm thinking of getting an 80mm Goto telescope mainly for the guiding so I can use longer exposures at the lowest speed. I'm not sure what I'd be able to see through it though. The rings of Saturn would be good enough.

[url]http://astronomycentral.co.uk/upcoming-astronomy-sights/[/url]

[Fast_lad]

Just had a look out. It looks amazing. Really bright and clear.

Cheers

Chris
[url=http://www.fast-lad.co.uk]Fast Lad Performance[/url]

[bikerflier]

By midnight Jupiter will be almost sitting on top of the moon.
Hope it stays clear until then.

[p4ddy]

I've no idea what i'm supposed to see?? It's just cloudy as fork outside & can just see the moon ??? I'll dig out the camera & take a look through the 300mm Tamron

[debrooker]

bugger, moon is over the roof of our house, and can't quite see it from the conservatory. Bit cloudy here also

[3dx]

Was out this morning around 1.30am- got myself a Skywatcher Synscan 127-, Jupiter was about two fingers span from the moon and the whole event simply looked amazing !!- first time we've had clear skies for ages,,,

Hoping to try out tonight my new toy- Orion solar system iv- basically a webcam that attaches to a telescope and then to your pc/laptop- enables remote viewing and taking avi movies/pictures of the skies and planets ..

Out of 5 telescopes I've got,tend to mostly use the Meade ETX90 and the Synscan 127 - both goto scopes and very easy to use, fantastic views!!!

[bikerflier]

Lucky fella, so many telescopes.
I gave mine away a couple of years ago, not using it. After last night and this year I wish I hadn't.
Lots of nice conjunctions and celestial events this year.
Jupiter started left of the moon in the very early evening and as they both rose higher then Jupiter appeared directly above the moon and gradually moved to the right well after midnight.
It is well to the right tonight.
Yes, a very bright and amazing site, not to be seen again for some time.


[QUOTE=3dx;949275]Was out this morning around 1.30am- got myself a Skywatcher Synscan 127-, Jupiter was about two fingers span from the moon and the whole event simply looked amazing !!- first time we've had clear skies for ages,,,

Hoping to try out tonight my new toy- Orion solar system iv- basically a webcam that attaches to a telescope and then to your pc/laptop- enables remote viewing and taking avi movies/pictures of the skies and planets ..

Out of 5 telescopes I've got,tend to mostly use the Meade ETX90 and the Synscan 127 - both goto scopes and very easy to use, fantastic views!!![/QUOTE]

[cjcj1949]

I've seen a 5 inch Goto scope for under £300. The 80mm one seems a bit small. Smaller probably gets used more though.

I'd like to know how to improve on this picture of Orion taken with my Nikon 510 from Bracknell. I intend taking more pictures for stacking.

.[ATTACH=CONFIG]52977[/ATTACH]

[bikerflier]

Not done any Star photography so can't help much to improve other than to say move to the country.....:nonchalance:
Photos like that make me think I might be spending a bit on telescopes again soon.
It's amazing what is there to be seen with just a simple setup and some longish exposures.
We live in a wonderful Universe.

I look at [url]www.spaceweather.com[/url] most days, keeps me upto date with whats happening in the sky and clicking a few links soon has you into a mine field of information.
I also use the satellite tracker, sixth tab along on the red bar 'flybys' to see when Space Station is passing over.
Have a look at the awesome conjunction photo on there today, just brilliant.

[QUOTE=cjcj1949;949558]I've seen a 5 inch Goto scope for under £300. The 80mm one seems a bit small. Smaller probably gets used more though.

I'd like to know how to improve on this picture of Orion taken with my Nikon 510 from Bracknell. I intend taking more pictures for stacking.

.[ATTACH=CONFIG]52977[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

[cjcj1949]

I won't do a Quote. The telescope I'm looking at is this

[url=http://www.scopesnskies.com/magnify/1573.1.html]Explorer-130P SynScan AZ GOTO 130mm (5.1")[/url]

Seems cheap for a 5 inch. I bought my first digital camera about 8 years ago and was very dissappointed with it compared to an SLR. The NiKon is cheaper in real terms and does so much. The new stacking software is amazing. I'd like to get a more detailed view of the nebula, but I think I'll need tracking. I could try lots of short exposures, but I don't think that would work. The lens on my NIkon goes up to 1000mm in 35mm terms. I've just seen some pictures of Jupiter that look amazing, taken with relatively cheap equipment.