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Mike's random stuff blog..

Sumerian vamp up.....Part 1...Nexus Push To.

I've had my 16" Sumerian for nearly two years now and a while ago I decided it was time for some upgrades and a bit of a spruce up so this year I've decided to add Nexus Push To from Astro Devices, a new Feather Touch focuser with SIPS and a complete new paint and lacquer job. Part 1 Nexus I've never felt any sense of achievement from star hopping, its always just been something you have to do to find the good stuff. The only thing that has stopped me from using anything with a screen at dark si
Mike73

Mike73

11
Confusion

Atik 16IC nurture

This has been a bit of a post burst, but its a slow day and after this I am now up to date... The society has an Atik 16IC CCD camera. It doesn't look like it has had much use and indeed when I finally managed to get the observatory PC switched on, none of the ASCOM or Atik software worked. Driver not installed correctly was the message when I plugged the camera in and I was subsequently told that there are lots of connector errors and USB problems with it. I took it home for some TLC. First thi
MattJenko

MattJenko

2
Confusion

Beginner Imaging Thoughts

The prospect of imaging those great views of planets, nebulas and far away galaxies in multi colour glory has been brought back down to humble earth rather quickly. This is a good thing in many ways, but means effort is going to have to be applied. Here are a list of things I learnt very fast after my first effort at strapping my Pentax DSLR to the telescope using a x2 barlow and T adaptor combo with my AstroMaster 130. The sky moves remarkably quickly Good focus is an art Stability is rather
MattJenko

MattJenko

0
Confusion

Very confused beginnings

This is a blog describing the path from a total novice to someone who contributes to amateur astronomy here in the UK. It is by its very nature presumptuous in that I am that total novice now and there is certainly no certainty that I will be able to become what I would like to be in this field. This might be due to any number of technical, financial, motivational or even family constraints, but I intend to document each step and progression in order that others can follow, learn and hopefully t
MattJenko

MattJenko

0
crashtestdummy's Blog

Bit of a spring break

Well the time has come for me to move house from west Yorkshire the Hampshire so all grinding activities have been suspended for the time being.We are living with my girlfriends mum for 2.weeks before we move into our house on the 6th June and there isn't room to grind so I will have to nip back to Yorkshire to pick up my mirror and grinding table in a couple of weeks :( I have done just over an hour with 400grit and wow,it's starting to get smoother and more shiny now!!!still a few pits left so
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

2
Geryllax Vu's Blog

A Flash of Light

I introduce a modification to my thought experiment; it will expand the use of the lantern as a light signal by the caboose observer. This modification will pull the platform observer into the midst of the experiment. There is once again a train of length, L, moving at a constant velocity, v, along a level straight section of track on a windless day. Also, there is again an operator in the engine car and an observer in the caboose car. The platform observer will now take on a more significant r
Geryllax Vu

Geryllax Vu

0
Back Yard Observations

Welcome All

By starting this blog at least my previous written observations can be pulled together with my future ones. This makes good sense as I am quite forgetful at using my notepad at the telescope (despite having one packed in with my astro gear). This may be down to not wanting to leave the eyepiece for long or concentrate on more than a few things at once, for whatever reason it seems sensible for a digital record here, where paper pages don't get warped and discoloured by dew and dust in the dar
jabeoo1

jabeoo1

0
Back Yard Observations

A few new Targets Including the Magnificent Saturn

Finally the skies cleared at an opportunistic time for me 17/05/14. Of coarse by dark at this time of year Jupiter was heading downwards already and Mars was climbing for viewing, but the wait was still on for Saturn to peep up above the rooftops. In the meanwhile M13 looked stunning as usual. Jupiter's red spot and banding was impressive, the tricky Mars was even playing ball giving some surface detail. I managed to hunt the ring nebula down in Lyra pretty quickly at x 50 in the lovely 4.5 inch
jabeoo1

jabeoo1

1
Back Yard Observations

Jupiter & Orion's Nebula

Target: Jupiter (20 min before sunset & into darkness). My eye was stuck to the eyepiece with my mouth stuck for words. The planet resolved to a disc that I could naively describe as a very carefully painted marble, it was suspended prominently against the steadily darkening clear blue sky. The surface detail was mesmerizing, and the apparent number of definable colors. Consciously I noted shades of cream, orange, brown, grey and mild looking purples. I forced myself to count the number
jabeoo1

jabeoo1

0
Back Yard Observations

Unsteady seeing on the Gower

I was really happy to get out the City & do some observing on the Gower at the weekend. Between the thin clouds I got some decent viewing in. However the seeing was not exactly pristine ! To clarify further on the points made on observing color in the Orion Nebula. I found no detection of color viewing this object under much darker skies (compared to a previous account in a light polluted area). However contrast was markedly improved and therefore the extent of the structure was more pleasin
jabeoo1

jabeoo1

0
Back Yard Observations

M13 et al

Tested the seeing on Jupiter and noticed a lack of sharp details. Banding and hints of surface detail were there but no moments of stillness allowed me to get my eye in deeper and waiting for the finer details tonight was a no no. Next I turned to Mars, more so that I can mentally note changes as this planet becomes more favourable to view over the coming months. I had only previously glimpsed Mars a few times before with my new setup, and the disk has always presented itself as uniform in col
jabeoo1

jabeoo1

0
Back Yard Observations

Inspired Jupiter session

Yesterday afternoon reading the thread 'To get better views of Mars with a 250px.. New Barlow or Eyepiece?' highlighted the need to concentrate an observation session on one object in order to really see those moments of exceptional seeing. I took advantage of an unexpected clear sky last night where transparency seemed very good for the city. So with NO sky surfing on the agenda I set up and got comfortable for a few hours. The seeing varied in extremes, sometimes swinging suddenly back and for
jabeoo1

jabeoo1

0
nicoleanderson's Blog

Text message marketing: Be proactive

Imagine if you will that someone has stolen your identity. How would you like to learn of it? In the first scenario, your credit card company notices some suspicious behavior with your account and sends you a text asking if you know about the recent charges. The problem is caught early and solved. In the second scenario, you only become aware of the suspicious behavior several days later when you check your balance online. You contact the credit card company and have them cancel your card. Most
nicoleanderson

nicoleanderson

0
cutepetgroomer's Blog

Last night a bust

Last night was a bust for skygazing. Nothing was visible . Tonight I might not stargaze either because I work tomorrow morning early. ( as a zoo volunteer , I love that job though , I wouldn't change it) . Took apar the focuser rigging for for 50 mm and there was gunk build up. This is possibly why I can't focus to well on that one, but I did discover I could potentially upgrade it to take 1.25 format eyepieces.
cutepetgroomer

cutepetgroomer

0
cutepetgroomer's Blog

Semi dissapointed

Got home late, set up late, Saturn was a failure but the moon was a success. Decided to try out the Barlow, it's in need of cleaning. Didn't help I dropped it. Didn't get a chance to see Jupiter or Mars either with my new scope ..
cutepetgroomer

cutepetgroomer

0
crashtestdummy's Blog

moving into the finer grits

After waiting a week for a first class royal mail delivery my new bevelling tool arrived and an hour was spent doing what is likely the last bevel I will need to do on the mirror unless I have to go back to 80 at a later stage.One thing you don't realise before grinding a big mirror is how many bevelling stones you need.Ive been through atleast 6 or 7 by now, a few early ones snapped but my technique is much better now :) cleaning off that 80 grit ready for 220 heard back from john who said
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

2
Blog 19648

Rain drops keep falling on my head

I suppose I could take up fishing. Anyway, I have replaced my ailing and recently failing power tank with a 12 volt 5 amp power supply from 'Modern Astronomy'. It is sitting in my shed awaiting a clear dry night- could be some time then. Apprarently and according to the very nice weather-woman on Anglia TV, the weather is to improve on Wednesday. The hail is currently bouncing off my conservatory roof. I have been playing about with some old data and reworked an image of the Horsehead Nebula et
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

0
Blog 19648

Rain drops keep falling on my head

I suppose I could take up fishing. Anyway, I have replaced my ailing and recently failing power tank with a 12 volt 5 amp power supply from 'Modern Astronomy'. It is sitting in my shed awaiting a clear dry night- could be some time then. Apprarently and according to the very nice weather-woman on Anglia TV, the weather is to improve on Wednesday. The hail is currently bouncing off my conservatory roof. I have been playing about with some old data and reworked an image of the Horsehead Nebula et
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

0
crashtestdummy's Blog

Close to polishing

Well on Saturday I travelled an hour northwards to see grinding maestro mr John Nichol to check how im getting on with my grind.Before I went up I was getting back down to sagittal with the tile tool and making the mirror spherical before polishing and figuring.John confirmed what I originally though, that my mirror was needed edge deeping but he said it would only take a couple of hours to do this and get it to a sphere which was good news.We discussed that I will likely need about 2kg of pitch
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

5
crashtestdummy's Blog

interim update

Well I've just passed 65hours of total time with my blank!!!I've currently done 5h 45 minutes with the tile tool and I'm back down from 12.5mm to about 11mm so realistically I could have just ground to about 11mm before starting with the tile but you live you learn.currently I'm edge deepening with the tile tool to get it back to about 10.5mm before I move onto the next grit.I'm going to have the mirror checked out again this weekend to make sure I'm not ruining it with my ham fists and basicall
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

5
Geryllax Vu's Blog

A Material Object In Space

As a material object makes its flight through the air (molecules / medium), it is a substantially different thing from a sound wave traveling through air. The principle of relativity holds the pair in a tension of physics contrariness. A material object making a straight line flight at constant velocity through space (air / medium), is seen to have two different velocities, when viewed by two different observers, in two different frames. One frame is considered as being at rest, and the other
Geryllax Vu

Geryllax Vu

3
Blog 19648

Starry,starry night!

No moaning from me this time! The night of the 22nd and the early hours of the 23rd of April were absolutely splendid. It rained in the morning, knocking the dust out of the atmosphere, then as darkness fell (clang) the sky cleared, there was no moonlight, Mars shone bright and steady and a lone meteor flashed across the sky. The software driving my planetary camera didn't crash and when I looked at the first clip I could see that Syrtis Major was located almost on the meridian, my cup flowed ov
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

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