Steve Paxton's photos

The off cuts where put to good use more than a few off cuts went into making a beam. there was very little waste on this building site it was mostly all used. some thing I wanted to get a photo of for a very long time and why I took the camera first day.

I had a few night clear skies but long days and getting home late working on the shed I went to bed early. last night we go home a bit earlier so I just picked a simple target set the mount off went to bed. I moved a lot slower after the three days of heavy lifting and ladder climbing. Happy with the result tracking is better stars are rounder due to less weight of wires hanging from the scope. Clouds and rain.... two week forecast. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/47_Tucanae QHY183C -10c 180 shot 2 min MeLE Mini PC Prima Luce Essato Focus Optolong LeNhance filter, Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro SVbony 50MM Guide scope QHY QHY5L-II-M Guide camera Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps.

While I came down with the Flu my brother in law had a big project to take down and rebuild a 8m x 6 m shed. I was not able to help with the demolition but he waited till i was able to help him rebuild. Three days work 12 hours a day then he can finish out on his own at his own pace. With this at your back you could not help but think you are in prison,

While I was not the best I took advantage of doing some testing out only cause I could do it with out going outside in the cold it was all done from the warmth of the computer room. This was a trial with the MeLE Nuc to see if things where right I had three nights to "play" with the whole set up. The Nuc sits under the Skywatcker ED80 so 5 long 3 m cables gone going to the laptop they all stay up on the top of the scope. Night one did not work out at all could not get plate solve to work properly could hardly see the stars. After some two hours I gave up went to bed. Night two I bumped plate solve exposure by more than double the time finally plate solve worked. So I thought I would try some thing to check if the system worked. On taking the very first photo it would not down load and I lost the camera. The usb cable that was supplied with the camera died. My only option was to bundle up my normal 3m cable and connect up to the camera and the Nuc and try a fix the whole lot to the scope. The whole thing looked like it was normally what I was use to seeing. Night three I had to remove the dead cable and wrap the 3m one around the guide scope in the warm daylight ready for the night. I decided to do a real test set up the system to start on it own 6:45Pm. I sat in side the computer room and watched the sequence start flawless totally on its own. This is the result of those two nights some more 1m cables on there way to lessen the weight of cables. Plate solve has gone back to its normal 10 sec exposure time. QHY183C -10c 226 shot 2 min MeLE Mini PC Prima Luce Essato Focus Optolong LeNhance filter, Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro SVbony 50MM Guide scope QHY QHY5L-II-M Guide camera Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps.

One of the Quirky statues in the Fremantle area. Its good its Thursday in a new week and all the last few day behind both my Wife and self. In all this I have only had a very Bad Flu ( even though Vaccinated for Flu) my wife got covid both our tests where so different. I got down to the stage of not wearing glasses due to the weight on my nose /face. Looking a whole lot brighter for both of us.

The view out to the Entrance of Fremantle Harbour. Please note I will be missing in action for the next few days. My wife tested positive to covid today I feel like i saw her yesterday. I feel like i have been hit by a bus you know the saying every time I stand my feet hurt , in this case my whole body hurts. done a lot of sleeping and trying to keep warm. You all take care.

Part of fitting The Nuc under was lift the scope so I had room to move and connect. it sits on a Velcro pad but is more or less held by all the usb wires each side.

Connecting part for the computer to recognise one by one wires every where. in total 5 main components so 5 wires cut down from 3m going up to 1m staying up on the scope. I was very cold out in the outside area rain pelting down and strong winds blowing. Just to right of screen is my Nikon home made Rig far right is the Skywatcher ED80.

windows 11 my samsung phone in its case is same size but much heavier. This shot clearly shows the fins like a heater to disperse the heat that is generated by the small unit. in all the time I had it running it never got hot it was more warm. 128gb of that 62 gb is all the programs that run the mount and scope.

The Lap top has been retired just like me. I have started to use a Nuc which is a computer the size of my Samsung phone but not even a third of the weight. Nucs do not have a screen or a keyboard they are just a computer hard drive. It took me the better part of three days to set it all up( thankfully bucketing down with rain) first in the computer then as you can see getting it to find all the part that it has to operate. The only two night I had to check was FULL MOON which is not really good for photos but great for testing. The drive has only the running parts for the mount, Twitter, Xbox and a whole host of others apps where all deleted from the Nuc. See if you can find the Nuc Top left of key board. The whole Idea is to remove as many of the heavy hard cables that go up to the top as possible. this removed 5 of them heavy hard cable they shrunk from my 3m ones to less than a 1m and all go into the sides of the Nuc usb ports. It took me two night to get the parts working first night was Guide camera and calibration. for some unknown reason the program decided to pick the main scope and camera when that was not the one it was set up with for guiding...... A lot of scratch the head but worked it out. last night was try and take a photo on a far less than ideal night Full moon next to target BUT did all the parts of the program work. Thankfully they all did every one of them. I get into the Nuc by a net work cable that plugs into a switch next to the desk top inside so I operate it from inside the house. the only thing that did not work as I did not try was Rotation, for that I have to walk outside from computer room then back. That will get a test out later. This worked now its try and find clear nights we are back into rain. Not being a computer person and have to get all the many layers to work is a real uphill battle. First night the main camera only produced what looked like a jet back photo. We could not work out why on the hop out in the dark so I went to bed. It turned out lap top could get a photo but not the Nuc. I checked the Nuc had the very latest all in one driver package but not the laptop it was the driver for the camera one camera so it was copy driver and add to Nuc. yes it worked. QHY183C -10c 60 shot 5 min MeLE Mini PC Prima Luce Essato Focus Optolong LeNhance filter, Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps.

With all the rain I have been teaching myself how to make better images. This is about 1 hours editing from the stacked file to the end result. most will know I am not an editor of photos I take the near on correctly so an edit is less than a min,deep space is a whole different ball game. Not sure I want to push it any further out than that. This Uses PixInsight (to stack and edit first up the file), Photo shop and I all way finish out in Light room. The PIP is my first edit Over a year ago so a lot has gone down since then. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prawn_Nebula ZWO ASI071MC Pro @ -10c Manual focus , Optolong LeNhance filter, Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher EQM35Goto Guided PHD2, SGP DSS, Pixinsight, Ps.

Part of the outside exhibit for the maritime museum. My grand son said I was missing all day as they dawdled, I took photos but I always knew where they where and when they moved I moved with them.

The heart of Fremantle.

The Cook In the Kitchen With knives is a reference to Cluedo the board game. Could not resist adding a bit of lighting to the kitchen as it stands and the cooks knife strand..

One of the Traditional ways of cooking meat on the island of Madeira but they did not have the Stainless steel spits they used Bayleaf branches. The meat is cut in cubes and cooked on the spits and bay leaves thrown on the fire to add extra flavour. The salt is cured with Garlic (lots of) and Bay leaves once the meat is starting to cook you knock the salt off but leaving behind the flavours, best served hot straight from the spit As per PIP with home made red wine and bread. This has been a food that every body likes Portuguese or not once tasted. Once you taste this you never go back to cooking meat on a grill. YUM sorry no smelly vision to smell the Garlic and Bay leaves. Certainly no Portuguese Family that I have ever visited does not have an outside kitchen for just this purpose as you cant cook like this inside.

This is a second go at this target but rains are killing any more nights worth of shots. In the very center of the nebula there looks to be a dog sitting on it hind legs begging these are called the "Pillars of Creation" sadly this is a close as I can go. In the shot of the Milky way This is second red dot from the left side. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation QHY183C -10c 87shot 5 min Prima Luce Essato Focus Optolong LeNhance filter, Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps.

The front door of one with the date plaque on it. these are very slowly being restored back to the way the where so they can be rented out. living in the heart of Fremantle.