Hi folks, I'm John from London, 58, married, 3 nearly grown boys, working at a CTO in a FinTech. I got hooked on astronomy when my farther showed me Saturn through a 6-inch refractor he'd made himself (he was an scientific engineer). When the choice came up for subjects to study at university the choice was easy as soon as I saw Astronomy. I did a degree in astronomy specialising on the mathematical side. Like all my fellow astronomers I went straight into finance in the City of London and it just because a hobby.
I always dreamt of owning a Celestron, I used to look at them like car fanatics look at Bugatti's and Aston Martins but while I could afford one (the telescope not the car) I assumed I'd need to live near a desert or up a mountain. West London, where I live is Bortle 8.5, my sky magnitude is 17.5 to 17.8, I can just about make out the main constellations but that's about it.
When Covid hit, I was stuck in the house and we had an amazing few months of clear skies in London, probably helped by the lack of planes flying overhead. I started experimenting with my Canon camera and stacking, then I discovered narrowband filters and within days I was taking photos I though were simply not possible from London. Within a week I'd ordered a Celestron EdgeHD 9.25, CGX mount, ASI294MC Pro and was off on my journey of Astrophotography. within months I'd added the 0.7 reducer, the HyperStar, more filters, enough connectors to drive my wife nuts and an ASIAir Pro.
Today I've generally moved to Monochrome (ASI2600MM), I've still got the superb EdgeHD and added an Askar FRA500 with reducer (recently sold my Radian 61) and an AM5 for the refractor. I use 3nm narrowband filters but also just got an ASI2600MC Duo which is impressive.
I'm pretty handy with PixInsight, I know the maths which helps and I'm also writing an iPhone app for pixel-level diffraction and noise simulation.
As I write this I've not posted on AstroBin yet, I've contributed quite a bit on the FB astro forums so anyone on those may have come across me. I enjoy helping others, happy to process other people data too. Still loads to learn, having about one clear night a month in London weather does not help but it leaves me more time to work on theory and processing. My next challenge is planetary phototography, I'm hoping to use a ASI678 on my 9.25 for that.
I always dreamt of owning a Celestron, I used to look at them like car fanatics look at Bugatti's and Aston Martins but while I could afford one (the telescope not the car) I assumed I'd need to live near a desert or up a mountain. West London, where I live is Bortle 8.5, my sky magnitude is 17.5 to 17.8, I can just about make out the main constellations but that's about it.
When Covid hit, I was stuck in the house and we had an amazing few months of clear skies in London, probably helped by the lack of planes flying overhead. I started experimenting with my Canon camera and stacking, then I discovered narrowband filters and within days I was taking photos I though were simply not possible from London. Within a week I'd ordered a Celestron EdgeHD 9.25, CGX mount, ASI294MC Pro and was off on my journey of Astrophotography. within months I'd added the 0.7 reducer, the HyperStar, more filters, enough connectors to drive my wife nuts and an ASIAir Pro.
Today I've generally moved to Monochrome (ASI2600MM), I've still got the superb EdgeHD and added an Askar FRA500 with reducer (recently sold my Radian 61) and an AM5 for the refractor. I use 3nm narrowband filters but also just got an ASI2600MC Duo which is impressive.
I'm pretty handy with PixInsight, I know the maths which helps and I'm also writing an iPhone app for pixel-level diffraction and noise simulation.
As I write this I've not posted on AstroBin yet, I've contributed quite a bit on the FB astro forums so anyone on those may have come across me. I enjoy helping others, happy to process other people data too. Still loads to learn, having about one clear night a month in London weather does not help but it leaves me more time to work on theory and processing. My next challenge is planetary phototography, I'm hoping to use a ASI678 on my 9.25 for that.
