Lost My Mojo.
- ApophisAstros
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Lost My Mojo.
Sold 90% of my kit to one person who was looking for a second setup. I feel i have reached the zenith of my processing ability and limited chances of imaging targets different from ones i have done.
Its been a few days and i still feel the same after so right descision. Got a good price , getting on for £3000 which i think is nearly half of what i probably paid.
Roger
******* PROCESSING AN IMAGE IS LIKE OPENING A CHRISTMAS PRESENT YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET BUT USUALLY ARE OVER THE MOON********
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- pakarinen
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
The last two times I've used my best 6x30 finder, I've thought that maybe that's all I'd need. Stars look beautiful even in such a simple piece of kit.
Man... That's some icky-tasting stuff!
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AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
Imaging, observing. When people ask which do I do I say; of course! ☺ both are sacred. Imaging looses a real connection you can only get observing. Observing is difficult to see. A gas pedal is needed to keep getting away. It gets to be too much.
A cathartic remedy is solar observing and imaging. It has been a blessing to my 15 years soon in the hobby. Google local astro groups and get in their email chain. People are people. Everyone at the end of the day still wants what's best for the hobby.
- jrkirkham
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
Telescopes: 50mm refractor, ED80 triplet, 90mm makcass, 10" dob, 8"SCT, 11"SCT
Mounts: Celestron CGX, Orion Sirius + several camera tripods
Cameras: Canon 6D, Canon 80D, ZWO-ASI120MC
Binoculars: 10x50, 12x60, 15x70, 25-125x80
Observatory: SkyShed POD XL3 + 8x12 warm room
AL Projects Completed: Lunar #645, Outreach #0280, Universe Sampler #93-T, Binocular Messier #871, Messier #2521, Messier Honorary #2521, Constellation Hunter Northern Skies #112, Planetary Transit Venus #1, Galileo #26, Outreach Stellar 0280, Meteor Regular #157, Solar System Telescopic #209-I, Observer Award #1
AL Projects Currently in Process: Double Stars, Comet, Lunar Evolution
- Bigzmey Online
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Delos, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.
Solar: HA: Lunt 50mm single stack, W/L: Meade Herschel wedge.
Observing: DSOs: 3122 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2196, S110: 77). Doubles: 2461, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 261
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
I actually quit observing for a couple of years, but always looked up at the sky almost every night. Then I started observing again and I thought I was going to start astrophotography, but so far I'm just trying to observe with some of the scopes I rarely use a little more.
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15.
Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains.
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts.
Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces.
Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
- messier 111
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
The most important thing in all of this is that you are happy and at peace with your decision.
REFRACTOR , TS-Optics Doublet SD-APO 125 mm f/7.8 . Lunt 80mm MT Ha Doublet Refractor .
EYEPIECES, Delos , Delite and 26mm Nagler t5 , 2 zoom Svbony 7-21 , Orion Premium Linear BinoViewer .
FILTER , Nebustar 2 tele vue . Apm solar wedge . contrast booster 2 inches .
Mounts , cg-4 motorized , eq6 pro belt drive .
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
― Isaac Asimov
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
BTW I see you have a Redcat 51 and took some very nice images with it (my compliments on your Astrobin images, they are very nice!). I have one too and feel guilty that I have only imaged once with it. That just illustrates what I mentioned, I tinker too much and image too little. BTW if you get a longer focal length scope, more targets will open up. Just in case you end up getting back in.
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
ES AR127 f/6.5 || ES ED80 f/6 || Apertura 6" f/5 Newtonian
Mounts: ES Twilight-II and Twilight-I
EPs: AT 82° 28mm UWA || TV Ethos 100° 21mm and 13mm || Vixen LVW 65° 22mm ||
ES 82° 18mm || Pentax XW 70° 10mm, 7mm and 5mm || barlows
Filters (2 inch): DGM NPB || Orion Ultra Block, O-III and Sky Glow || Baader HaB
Primary Field Atlases: Uranometria All-Sky Edition and Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas
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"Astronomers, we look into the past to see our future." (me)
"Seeing is in some respect an art, which must be learnt." (William Herschel)
"What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean." (Sir Isaac Newton)
"No good deed goes unpunished." (various)
“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?” (Scarecrow, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
- helicon Online
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
The equatorial mount was a real hassle and the tube tended to swing up and down even with the counterweight. First light, since I got scope for Christmas was the Orion Nebula. Then at 14 I outgrew that scope and built an 8"
For the focuser I used the rack and pinion from the Edmund scope. At the end of the tube I built a mirror cell with birch wood squares (not pine because the pitch in the wood would damage the mirror) cut to form a kind of lip around the edge of the mirror in 4 places. There was another piece of plywood at the end into which I drilled 3 holes and inserted bolts the end of which I had sanded down so that the back of the mirror could float on them, and you could collimate the scope by twisting the bolts either one way or another. First light was the Ring Nebula....
Then when I left for college at 18 I sort of dropped out of the hobby physically while remaining interested in the topic and taking an astronomy course taught by C. Stuart Bowyer a professor at the University of California. He was a cosmologist interested in high energy ultraviolet astronomy and also involved at the Hat Creek radio telescope array on the Eastern side of the Cascade range by the Medicine Hat volcano. When my parents moved to Japan the summer before college started they took the scope with them.
After that I remained inactive until July 2012 when I bought a 10"
However, these days I am starting to feel normal again with more strength and energy so I might consider getting a
I am pretty optimistic I will stay involved in astronomy until I die and hope for good weather and observing conditions in the future.....anyway that's the gist of my experience.
The point is that life throws us curveballs and we can't always practice our hobbies, or we just get too busy for them. I had a pretty demanding career after college and then dealt with family stuff which required a lot of time....now not so much.
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle. You'll shoot your eye out!
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Delos, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.
Solar: HA: Lunt 50mm single stack, W/L: Meade Herschel wedge.
Observing: DSOs: 3122 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2196, S110: 77). Doubles: 2461, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 261
- ApophisAstros
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
Thanks for your kind reply , it will be sea fishiing all the way down now. As in the Fleetwood Mac song i will Never Go Back Again. Observing is a poor second to imaging in my opinion..messier 111 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 4:01 pm I did the same thing a few years ago, to come back better.
The most important thing in all of this is that you are happy and at peace with your decision.
ps: I hope you stay with us anyway.
Thanks again. Still happy after a while after the descision.
Roger
******* PROCESSING AN IMAGE IS LIKE OPENING A CHRISTMAS PRESENT YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET BUT USUALLY ARE OVER THE MOON********
https://www.astrobin.com/users/apophis/collections/
- ApophisAstros
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Re: Lost My Mojo.
i am 58yrs. Never interested in visual.SkyHiker wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 8:32 pm Maybe (a) you are too young for this hobby and will get back to it later, and (b) your gear works too well and that's why you got bored. I spend my time fixing stuff and find that much more interesting than the imaging itself. But, to each their own. Hopefully you will stay on board and will come back to it, or visual, sometime in the future.
BTW I see you have a Redcat 51 and took some very nice images with it (my compliments on your Astrobin images, they are very nice!). I have one too and feel guilty that I have only imaged once with it. That just illustrates what I mentioned, I tinker too much and image too little. BTW if you get a longer focal length scope, more targets will open up. Just in case you end up getting back in.
******* PROCESSING AN IMAGE IS LIKE OPENING A CHRISTMAS PRESENT YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET BUT USUALLY ARE OVER THE MOON********
https://www.astrobin.com/users/apophis/collections/
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