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sidewind's Blog

My equipment, and understanding it

Today I updated the handcontrol on my EQ5 & EQ6. Downloading the newest updates and updaters. After reading and rereading the instructions, I made a few dry runs before I jumped headlong into updating. EQ6 was a breese, went very fast. Then I tried to connect the h.c. and mount ...... disaster ...... "No link to mc. Stand alone mode" :eek: Tried several times to turn the mount on and off, same result. Hey Google is my friend here .... what I found was one thriller after another about h.c. o
sidewind

sidewind

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Geryllax Vu's Blog

Song from the Black Hole

http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2003/perseus/ I have recently learned about the concept that sound travels through Space. At Harvard’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory they found that the collapse of a Black Hole causes sound waves that travel through interstellar space. Empty space is not a pure vacuum; it has got stuff in it! There is cosmic dust, high-energy particles and magnetic fields in the so-called vacuum of space; that can be detected as evidence of sound waves across thousands of light years of
Geryllax Vu

Geryllax Vu

0
PaulCH's Blog

remeber to save or publish my entry!!!

well having just laid down my thoughts, i forgot to save them! lesson learned! tried to use my new adapter for my camera tripod and realised that it is too short. thought about a box, but will that not be unsteady? If i find myself a chair. presumably a fixed height one would need several cushions to change height with. Recommendations please! anyhow, monday night was good and so, dispencing with the tripod, went to work on the roof of the car, still to wobbly but better than nothing and the gli
PaulCH

PaulCH

0
PaulCH's Blog

starting off

Well this is my first entry. Been interested in the heavens for years, remember first getting hooked at school by a book called something like "search for planet X" and of course, now Pluto is no longer a planet! living in London I thought that it was a waste of time viewing the skies anyhow. then family, work etc took my time. Watching stargazing live got my interest going, but then looking at star maps full of stars made it a bit overwhelming! So January again, stargazing again, and now i have
PaulCH

PaulCH

0
Koraki's Blog

Orion Nebula - Canon 1100D, Sigma 70-30mm

Hi Guys, After a little while of intermittent viewing due to work commitments I finally managed to get outside for a few hours last weekend and had a decent viewing session. At the tail end of the session I hooked up my Canon DSLR to the HEQ5 mount (provides very nifty steadiness) and fired off 160 subs @ ISO 3200 and 1.3s so a totla exposure time of roughly 3.5mins. The image post processing (i have alot to learn here) came out as: This is compressed of course but that doesn't account for the
Koraki

Koraki

1
dezmo1's Blog

They say Time Travel is not possible?

I'm no scientist. I'm not even an "ist!" But I do have a problem when they say "Time Travel is not possible" They are wrong!!! Of course it is. How do I know? How is it that I can say this? How is it that I can argue with the greatest minds that have ever lived? Easy... Because I've done it! Yep, you heard me right...I've traveled back in time. Now before I tell you how I did it, let me explain something. I ask questions...of everything...I used to have a wish, and that was to be a physicist. Th
dezmo1

dezmo1

3
crashtestdummy's Blog

cracking on and change on the way

First things first,2000 views!!wow!!so glad people like looking at this and keep coming back.i hope it also gets people into some mirror grinding too as its a great way of getting fit!!!!!!! :D well the first bit of news and a big shock to some is this http://stargazerslounge.com/classifieds/item/3114-modified-16-lightbridge-for-sale/ yes,the 16" needs to go to make way for parts and build cost for the 22".i was going to wait a while,keep until after spring but with nearly £1500 of car repairs
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

1
kjh's Blog

meade lx 90

Hi new to this site ...I have a meade lx90 for a while now and wondering if anyone knows of a cover that would be suitable for our weather ?? rain , snow and hopefully some sunshine !! looked at a few but not really convinced if there suitable for all weathers especially the electronics that are built in i.e moisture build up.. any feed back would be grateful...
kjh

kjh

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kjh's Blog

meade lx 90

Hi new to this site ...I have a meade lx90 for a while now and wondering if anyone knows of a cover that would be suitable for our weather ?? rain , snow and hopefully some sunshine !! looked at a few but not really convinced if there suitable for all weathers especially the electronics that are built in i.e moisture build up.. any feed back would be grateful...
kjh

kjh

1
LodestarLive Development

Colour Decoding

After what seemed a struggle colour decoding is now working. Turns out the Lodestar-C sensor is CYGM (rather than RGGB or that ilk). Oh and also it isn't read out by the SX electronics like the Sony datasheet suggests. Got there in the end though. The main app now 'understands' OSC but displays it in properly converted luminance. The next task is to add R, G and B processing to the pipeline and allow the UI to separately tweak levels in R, G and B. When that is complete the Lodestar-C will displ
Paul81

Paul81

0
framos41's Blog

Celestron Nexstar 8 SE and Stellarium

Hello everyone, i´m new in this and i have bought a Celestron Nexstar 8SE telescope, i´m having a counple of problems with the alignment process and make it work with stellarium software, i had made the 3 star alignment and when i finish the process i get that the alignment process was finished sucessfully, but when i try to go to any planet or star with the goto of the nexremote it goes to anywhere but the planet or star i want to point at, this same thing happens when i connect it to stellariu
framos41

framos41

1
crashtestdummy's Blog

making plans for the 22" scope

So,im getting on with the mirror,currently at 25 hours from start to where I am now,between 2 and 3mm sagittal on the front so I thought I would go through some plans. my friend damian is building the shell for the scope with his woodworking and engineering skills and im helping where I can and having him show me how to do some woodworking so when I come to build my next scope(26" f3.5ish) I can build a bit more of it myself.im hoping to add a few personal touches to the design as everyone likes
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

9
My Astrophotography Journey

Au revoir

Hello Journeyman Of the 2000+ people who read my blog on this site, I am sure only a few noticed it had disappeared. But Why? This site is a place of sanctioned advice where people come to learn and discuss, whereas my blog is a personal journey full of blunders. These ideals tend to conflict and taking heed of some advice from forum members I have changed the approach and location of my Blog The link for those that still interested in the ongoing saga of Cassiopeia's Cat Small Print: The author
Christopher Davenport

Christopher Davenport

0
crashtestdummy's Blog

the mirror is coming along

Well ive not posted for a few weeks as ive had lots to do work and personal life wise so not had that much time with the mirror but I finally finished getting the back flat which was my main aim so I could finally move onto the front.As I said in an early blog post,my mirror was nowhere near uniform when I got it so I had to take lots of glass out of the middle to get it flat as it was convex.i wasn't 100% sure I had got it right so I travelled up to see mirror maker supremo John Nichol for a se
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

17
Nick's blog, including AOSX (Astronomy on OSX)

ATIK OSX Drivers 1.07 & Example App (with all new OpenGL) incoming..

Just finishing the final testing on the 10.6.8 build and I'll put together the 10.8+ 64bit build.. The Example App has had an overhaul in the graphics display system. It's far faster and I have a couple more optimisations todo but I thought this would be a good point to release. You'll note that it lacks the ability to adjust the display brightness etc.. but I'll add that later.. however it scrolls, zooms etc and has a reticule...
NickK

NickK

11
darry lwall's Blog

have i done the right thing?

hello everyone, would like some advice please, I have just purchased a sky watcher explorer 130p a z go to telescope and would like to know if this is a good first telescope, this was pretty much at the top of my price range... ( under £300) but have absolutely no Idea what I can expect to see using it. I have read reviews from customers and they seemed pretty positive but would like to know what anybody here thinks! also do anyone meet up for stargazing close to the Portsmouth area? appreciate
darry lwall

darry lwall

10
LodestarLive Development

Master Dark Save / Restore

I had a request to allow the user to save and restore master dark frames, such that if using the same exposure length and roughly the Lodestar ambient temp is the same you do not have to recapture the dark frames between sessions. Well, I had a 24 hr plane journey home from Oz, so added this functionality in. Sadly it didn't distract me from the boredom of long haul flying for very long... Colour decoding for the folks with Lodestar-C is still being worked on.
Paul81

Paul81

0
Johnny4365's Blog

Polar Scope and Motor Drives.

Cloudy again tonight, so put the motor drives on the scope. Got these as I hope to have a go at imaging at some point in the future, and they will be useful for observing in the meantime. All went well using the instructions, only confusion came when fitting the dec motor. This was caused by the fine adjust knob being where the drive should be. Luckily I got 4 rechargable D batteries (good ones 10,000 mAh , not the AAs pretending to be Ds) for my wifes radio which she hasn't used. Ideal for powe
Johnny4365

Johnny4365

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Johnny4365's Blog

Collimating C8N (at last).

Tried out finder scope which is much easier to align now that its properly fitted. Had a go at collimating (at last) using AstroBabys guide. Think I've got it roughly right. Took me 2.5 hours to do it, lots of head scratching going on. Took me awhile to suss out how the primary mirror adjusting screws work. Should of checked to see how far it was out before I started, but I don't think it was ridiculously out, especially considering its not been done since the scope left the factory about 9 year
Johnny4365

Johnny4365

0
Steve's Blog

Moved to a dark sky location

Well, after struggling for a few years in a fairly light polluted area I have moved to the edge of Dalby Forest just outside Scarborough and the sky's are just magical. A shame my neighbour has a security light that is permanently on as soon as a hint of darkness approaches - I offered to buy him a PIR operated one but - it is a touchy subject so best left alone ! Anyway, just laid a concrete plinth and trimmed some top branches. Clear view to Polaris north and an uninterrupted southern view wh
stevebb

stevebb

7
Koraki's Blog

Ipswich/Suffolk based buddy

Hi Guys, Further to my previous post where I came to the admission that I need some real astronomy guru help I am reaching out to anyone suffolk/Ipswich based who would be interested in coming out for a few sessions 1. to have a laugh and 2. to offer some advice to a truly keen but rather perplexed newbie! Get in touch!
Koraki

Koraki

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