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ian_d's Blog

Been a bit quiet on the astro front of late, but...

Well, I've not had much to write about in terms of actual observing for a while - wall-to-wall cloud, snow, ice etc has pretty much put the kaibosh on that. However, never one to be defeated by a little thing like the weather, I've found a few astro-related things to do in the last week or so. I took a bit of a risk the other night and finally gave my SCT a bit of a clean. I've had it since 2008 and not cleaned it once; and a quick look at the corrector plate showed that it was more than just a
ian_d

ian_d

0
Nick's blog, including AOSX (Astronomy on OSX)

ATIK OSX Alpha3 drivers coming shortly.

I've spent the time between the last release focusing on the 4000/11000 - with some fixes that also apply to other series cameras. Many thanks to Olly for allowing me access to his 11000M for testing during my stay there. Before releasing I just want to regression test the existing cameras and I'll package the new drivers along with a small demo application (including a pre-built version for people to try themselves). This will probably be the last alpha release (with it's specific functionality
NickK

NickK

1
papak's Blog

Celestron 4se....

hey guys i've had a Nexstar 4se for a little while now and I have a few questions. ok. so i was an idiot a couple years ago (mind you i'm only 14) and i made some pretty bad purchases. before i knew a telescopes magnification was determined by DIVIDING the telescope focal length by the eyepiece focal length, I thought eyepieces with larger focal lengths would give me more magnification. so, as one can imagine, I convinced my dad to get me a 40mm plossl eyepiece thinking it would offer almost twi
papak

papak

2
Viewing the night sky through a Telescope

Its Arrived.

My Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian has arrived, I was so excited when I saw the boxes! I built the base before I got the telescope out of its box to stop any confusion with the bits and bobs getting mixed up. Everything was in its own little bag (very organised). The base was quite straight forward and easy to assemble with a little help when it came to assembling the round boards at the bottom, it took me roughly an hour to do so taking my time and making sure everything was in the right pla
Universe_Astronomer

Universe_Astronomer

0
Avionna's Blog

A real 365 days astronomy village

Hi and good evening to everyone. I have searched and searched and can't find what I am looking for....... even at the Arizona Sky Village. It is very frustrating to join clubs who meet only once a month and it is not quite the same to "meet" on line. I have just come back to the UK and live in Eastbourne. Is there any mileage in thinking that amateur astronomers could get together and actually form an astronomy village ? mixing astronomy, cosmology, astrophotography, radio astronomy.........
Avionna

Avionna

3
Mike's random stuff blog..

Parry and Guericke sketch

Crater Parry at the top of the sketch has a diameter of 47km and although its heavily damaged and lava flooded, steep cliffs still surround it and cast an ink black shadow which really stood out and was the reason for sketching this area. Below Parry is the walled plain Guericke at 63km its larger but heavily eroded and partly open to Mare Nubium. Telescope / 4" f/11 Lyra EP / 3-6mm Nagler zoom at 5mm x220 Date 20/1/13 Temp / -1˚C Transparency / clear Antoniadi II Colongitude 17.5˚ Phase 69.4˚ L
Mike73

Mike73

4
Beginner Astronomer's Blog

New telescope

I am new to astronomy and i have been looking at telescopes for a while now and need a bit of help. Would prefer to get an 8" reflector telescope by dobsonian. I have around £300-£500 and was thinking about getting the Skyquest xt8 but then found the sky-Watcher 200p possibly with motorised mount and tracking but that is when i need the help. Much appreciated.
Beginner Astronomer

Beginner Astronomer

4
Alf Fraser's Blog

Considering I'm supposed to be an IT proffesional.....

Hi, I'm Al. Chuffed to be able to talk to you all. I used to be into astronomy in the 60s/70s when I was a kid, lapsed, but now my brain's recovered (in some ways) and I've redeveloped my interest in being extraordinarily cold and uncomfortable at night..... As a teenager, my parents provided me with a 70's 60mm refractor and I loved it. I've been doing some research and I've Just ordered a Celestron 8SE. I'm hoping this willl at least match the refractor I used to own. I'm not looking for anyt
Alf Fraser

Alf Fraser

2
DIY Build - 8.5" reflector

Polyester resin woes

I'm becoming less confident in this build... The £1 high strength adhesive is rubbish. I've got 6 lovely looking tubes, but they are fragile. Perhaps the temperature plays a part. I have started to apply polyester resin to one, and it is curing with a heater, but I don't believe the joints will be any stronger for the application which is the crux of the assembly. There will be external rings on all tubes, save perhaps the top end of the top tube, simply for aesthetics. In this way, they will ho
furrysocks

furrysocks

3
ian_d's Blog

Observing with Cotswold AS last night

A very clear (but very cold!) night last night saw a few of us from the Cotswold AS get together for an observing session in north Gloucestershire - a nice dark site, albeit a bit muddy. I took my Celestron C6 SCT along, and there was a good collection of refractors and reflectors present too. Various nice objects on show; I spent some time on M42 as it's hard to see from my garden, and it looked fantastic at x63 - with a decent dark sky it is amazing to see how large it is, and M43 was really c
ian_d

ian_d

0
ian_d's Blog

Cotswold AS meeting last night

Good meeting of the Cotswold Astronomical Society last night, with a very interesting talk about the solar system beyond Neptune. The current theories around how the solar system formed are fascinating. It's thought that Jupiter and Saturn, through their orbital resonance, catapulted Neptune out beyond Uranus and into the Kuiper Belt - causing several million years of chaos as comets and asteroids got deflected all over the place smashing into everything (known as the Late Heavy Bombardment - gr
ian_d

ian_d

0
DIY Build - 8.5" reflector

Making the tubes

Tonight, I crosscut the hardboard to length and assembled the first tube section with adhesive. I will need to cut around 30 more baffles/ribs and mark and cut 10 outer rings. The first upper section, I've put together without yet the outer ring. I laid out two lengths of 2" masking tape sticky-side up and carefully put down 12 of the 12" strips. After turning them over, I fully taped each joint and then turned them back. I applied adhesive in to all the joints and down both sides. With a mate a
furrysocks

furrysocks

3
DIY Build - 8.5" reflector

Maths - weights, etc...

I've started to put together some numbers. With a foot long top tube and a foot long bottom tube (weighing in at roughly 2.2kg and 5kg, respectively) and 1.5kg of aluminium struts, the center of mass of the 5'8" OTA is approximately 2 feet up from the back end. I guess this is "normal" as I know folk weight the back ends of ultralight dobs I did some rough calculations myself first and checked this using Robert Royce's spreadsheet for the 3-section open newt. I came within 1.5 inches of the valu
furrysocks

furrysocks

3
DIY Build - 8.5" reflector

Slight change of plan

The materials I've got... I have 11 lengths of 3mm hardboard, 75mm wide with a 45deg bevel down one side. The nice man at B&Q tried his best with a second sheet and just one came out wonky. From a 9mm laminate/mdf sheet about 2'x2', I have cut 18 ribs, 1/3 of a round each. These provide an internal aperture somewhere between 240 and 245mm. These all have a 45deg bevel on the inside diameter to about 7mm - not quite knife edge, but I needed some meat to run on the router bit bearing. The orig
furrysocks

furrysocks

1
A Newbie Returning To The Game

Getting Ambitious Again

After nights of cloud and rain, boredom and desire to improve on my set-up, I started going through the classifieds, astrobuysell and preloved for a bargain EQ3-2 mount, to compliment my refractor. After seeing that they are £170 brand new for that price, I could get a whole newtonian set-up of decent aperture second hand. And so, I now have my eye on a couple of SkyWatcher 150mm on EQ5 or better ads. Coincidentally, I have noticed a hell of an influx of RAW newbies enquiring about first time
toilandtrouble123

toilandtrouble123

2
Astro Mods and Upgrades

9x50 Finder Dew Shield

Here's something I've been meaning to do for ages but never got off my back side to do... a simple dew shield for my 9x50 Finder, which has a nasty habit of dewing up despite the dew heater tape I treated it to. I used some of that 5mm foam card available from those cheap crafty shops such as The Works, and some self-adhesive Velcro tape. Have not tested it yet in the field, but can't see why it shouldn't help at least.
jonathan

jonathan

6
ian_d's Blog

A Crab and an Eskimo

A less-than-hopeful gaze out the kitchen window at about 7.30pm this evening revealed the unimaginable - an unforeseen clear night! Not to be sniffed at, as you know. So out I went - initially just to take in the naked eye view, which was good fun in itself and something I don't do enough of, actually. Testing myself to see how many constellations I could confidently identify was a decent challenge - and I'm still a bit hazy on some parts of the sky, particularly the obscure bits around the Pole
ian_d

ian_d

2
melsky's Blog

M42 to the Horsehead HA

Here's the HA image from the 1st of Jan, only an hour of data so not the best but considering M42 was less than 10 degrees from a sodium streetlight I'm pleased with it. I must do a couple of wideangle comparision shots with and without a HA filter including the streetlamp. Mel
melsky

melsky

9
foundaplanet's Blog

Not a bad night in the sticks.

Matt turned up around seven as I was setting up the frac on the goto. Conditions had faded a little from my first hour out with the dob but but with exception to the clouds that were troubling our northern horizon and some thin stuff coming up towards the zenith the rest of the sky was in pretty decent shape for most of the evening. By the time we were both set up we had a pleasant little triangle of 3 scopes. This was the first time I had been out to my dark site for a while and a good reminder
foundaplanet

foundaplanet

2
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