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great video - many thanks

Fascinating thanks :) (catching up with your back catalogue!)

Just popping in to say thanks for the vid, my next challenge is a mosaic at the moment. Your tutorial here has been excellent

You could've stuck a cheap pair of Lidl 10x50s on there, Mark! Nice work though. Greetings from Devizes.

Stunning lunar shots :)

Another great video Mark, well done.

Absolutely fantastic! Once I used binoculars with a parallelogram mount, and easily shared the exact view with others - It completely changed my opinion on using binoculars. It became one of the easiest and more enjoyable ways of using a pair with decent apeture and magnification.

Brilliant!

Ooh, nice one Mark. Might have to build myself one and bring to Kelling.

Great job❤

Canon 15x or 18x IS binos?? Guess you need a mount as they’re hefty? Bino bandit…. Nice!

Starts off with 1 inch aluminium tubing and then “it’s all metric”! Great idea though. Bringing it to Kelling?

"For those in America using medieval measuring systems..." So funny 🤣

nice job.... bits ordered

Deep Sky Dad, Slovenia

What a great video! I hate it when there is so few videos like this! I'm just a beginner and sometimes i get frustrated trying to capture Saturn.. i have much to learn haha. Subscribed to your channel! 🙌🏼🖖🏼. Thank you for this video! Have a clear sky!

Awesome vid. I’m watching this countless times. Have you ever had the align not work? I had it work the first time in photoshop and then fail every time after. Quite frustrating but I’m still trying…

Thanks for the great video!

buying gear comes with cloud cover.. That totally checks out.

Thanks for another great review Mark! I have an AM5 setup with my AP Traveler but added the AM3 a year ago for my RedCat61 WIFD. I use it with the pier extension, filter wheel and ASI2600MM and find it to be totally reliable and robust. I have also added exercise weights in to the fabric basket. I have been amazed at how good the autoguiding has been in conjunction with the ASI220MM and have tested exposures at 5 and 10 minutes giving me pinpoint stars. I have never been so relaxed setting up an evening run of 10 min exposures (currently trying to shoot the Squid Nebula) on the occasional clear evening in the UK :) 100% recommend!

Amazing

Thank you

A decent aperture solar scope is undoubtedly the best but comes at a price. I have just started my solar journey and found that a Hershel wedge in conjunction with a Baader solar continuum filter to be a good introduction.

Another reason why I like Interstellarum Deep sky is that for each object is written what is the best filter to use

How did you securely fit the extension pier onto the Innorel tripod ? I got the same setup, but the bottom plate of the extension pier does not go all the way down on the tripod slot to be securely latched?

Love your garden observatory.

There is a terrible beauty in the way a cosmic body arrives at the end of the line. But by its final breath, it creates an influence on everything around it that will continue to influence and change the 'world' around it for untold ages to come. Something that every human being wishes it could do.

Hi adam sandler, i'm a big fan, and i'm glad you have interests for astronomy too, i have to say that what you captured is fascinating

Hey thanks for this, im getting back into astro and loving my trusty old (modded!) first gen A7s, and seeing this motivated me to try the ASCOM driver for it, yay it work! So thanks again

Excellent 👍 That software is unbelievable

Learn so much from you. Many thanks from Denmark

Thanks for the video Mark. Your work is awesome and you provide great intros for newer folks like me. Do you happen to know what brand your fishing bag is? It looks like a great gear bag for Astro.

Good job, très bon tutorial ,clair et précis, felicitations.

I have been studding up on TH-cam video's on solar imaging and processing, I have a PST40 solar scope, and I have been using my DSLR 1300D and a ZWO120 MC PRO. I noticed in your video right at the start when you load up FireCapture and get the sun on screen I noticed a gradient I have the same thing with my 120 and I cant seem to get rid of it. Any clues? I have tried expos,' gain, moved camera in and out. I have been using AstroSurface for my stacking and processing because you can do everything in one program even enhancement, I reckon it is going to king of the heap in the near future. I have watched other videos of yours but I have not noticed that gradient before. Cheers Robert Aust'

Cheers from Santa Barbara and Glendora, CA!. Thanks so much for sharing your build. My brother and I each made our own parallelogram mount based on your video. Fun to build and such a game changer for astronomical binocular viewing.

Who are you talking to?

Excellent video. Many of these are in my kit. Love the goose neck red clip on light for sketching or journaling. Here in the high desert of Nevada, I haven't needed any dew heaters (yet). I like the idea of the fishing bag to organize (I have similar bags full of guns, ammo, hearing protection...lol its a western USA thing); I may have to repurpose one. My cold weather gear is similar- goose down pants, coat, etc. I do have a heavy hooded North Face fleece jacket that is my official observing coat- many pockets and festooned with astro patches. I am on my 4th spiral ring notebook- Date, location, weather, moon/sun info, equipment used, targets, sketches, notes, etc. Very handy to see what was going on a year or two previously at the same time. It also correlates with my computer astrophotography files that are organized by "equipment configuration" (scope, camera ) and have dates of each target data set. Keep up the great work! Clear skies!

Come now Mark, we all know it's them aliens again 👽👽.

I bought one as a portable set-up for travelling before seeing your review because my SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro lacks stability, payoad capability and GoTo. I am not criticisng the SW SA2i, it's just that I wanted to go beyond standard camera imaging once I realised how much a tracker helps with DSLR / Mirrorless astrphotography. I now have an 80mm f/6.25 refractor with automatic focusing, a colour CMOS camera and a guide scope + camera on top all linked to ZWO's ASiAir Mini , all of which are handled well by the mount. The AM3 was a natural selection to go with the rest of my ZWO ASi set-up. The mount was delivered promptly by FLO but today is the first time I shall be able to test it (as long as the skies clear). I already had a suitably rated portable power supply and relevant cables for the rest of the kit so that wasn't an issue for me. I didn't buy ZWO's carbon fibre tripod or the pier extension (although I may add that in due course) as I have a nice sturdy carbon fibre tripod from 3-Legged-Thing that has a 20Kg payload.

Interesting Mark, nice overview of some necessary equipment. The selection of red lights and star charts are individualistic, if I can say it that way. I have so many different versions. I’ve been using sky safari since its inception being a Mac/apple user. But they are missing a lot of objects and there are many errors. I wish they’d focus on the content clean up rather than changing the interface for a next version. Red lights, I must have a dozen headlamps and hand held lights. Hard to find the right version that has just the right amount of light and is controllable without a PhD. I hope you’re doing well. We’ve (Vermonters, not me) seen flooding now 2 years in a row on the same day! Climate change is hitting us hard.

Also can you link to your patreon in the description?

I would say that an observing chair is probably the most important purchase after the mount and telescope. Its a revelation (and adjustable elevation) Deepsky Atlas has targets identified by aperture too which is nice and also has a companion which has sketches of many of the targets. Sketxhing is delightful, dont worry about being good either. Mine are awful, but they are recognisable. My only contributions is a large thermos mug for tea and a secret stash of chocolate biscuits to help keep warm. I find Aldi's chocolate oaties to have their flavour particularly improved by starlight.

15:01 to 15:08 subtitles: Ah, so that's how that problem is sorted. xD

Excellent video Mark. I love the idea of using glow in the dark tape on eyepiece caps and other locations on your mount etc. How long do they glow for and do they need re-energising through the night?

Angry Canadian’s? Do they even know how to get angry in Canada? Maybe ask Chris and Shane the next time on their podcast. 😂

Realise this is from a few months ago but just came across it. In it you talk about hopping between moon processing software programs (Firecapture, Autostakkert, Registax). If you don't want to have to do that why not try Astrosurface? (which has wavelets too) or if you want an "all in one" then since v4.1 last December Sharpcap now does absolutely everything - it even has Wavelets too (and an even better contrast enhancer too).

Rigel starlite torches, dual colour and very dimmable. I’d invest in some glow in the dark paint to add tiny dots to help find stuff and orientation yourself eg glowtec. Clear plastic sheets (eg cut open document wallets) to keep the dew off the star atlas (unless you’ve got a waterproof one!), clipped on to stop them blowing away. Mini binder clips to hold things together, mark your page in an atlas/sketch book, make led lights etc etc etc. Muck Arctic sport or skeetex boots, makes observing on damp grass bearable. Dim red flashing led marker lights homemade with a coin cell, resistor and a small insulated binder clip to hold it together, in a little clear plastic bags to help mark where things are so you don’t trip over them. Glow tape/paint/ glow in the dark plastic “stones” for fish tanks/ tritium fishing “isotopes” can also work. A coat with deep pockets is good to store things you need and keep them warm, DryRobe does a good job and has a big hood as well. I see you’ve got foam rubber round metal scope tubes, to stop them getting cold to the touch!. A Sky quality meter is useful to give you a way to track “how good a night or location) is, especially if you observe from different location. Found a clear ended ballpoint pen with an orange led light in the tip which can be helpful when making notes.

Lived in Canada and Britain, and managed to be miserable and warm in both countries in winter. 70% of Canadians live in a region that is the Northern United States latitude, so location is a big qualifier when they whine about cold…😅.

👍 Thanks.

Once, whilst searching the internet for chairs to observe on, I searched google for Observing Stools - not the results I was hoping for :-)