Well, got up to Burton Dassett Country Park around 6:30pm last night (after picking dinner up from the chippy on the way), got out the car to set up, and the skies were crystal clear! The band of the Milky Way clearly visible, snaking its way from one horizon, right over our heads, to the other horizon. Absolutely gorgeous. Set up the telescope, and then the camera on the tripod. Took a few quick shots of the Pleides, trying to gauge the right settings, before plugging the cable release and sl
So, this has been the first time that I have logged onto this forum in about 2 years, and have found that the regulars on here have been as courteous, patient and helpful as they were two years ago (thanks guys!) Christmas 2009, I received from my doting grandparents a celestron sky scout 90 refractor and the personal planetarium (not exactly the nexstar 127 slt I asked Santa for). Knowing how upset they would be if I told them that the retailer they had dealt with, had probably shoved onto the
I had been looking forwards to this double transit in the same way I had the last one and the one before that, and the one before that. I have seen a few single transits but have been waiting to get my first double. The weather never seems to want to offer assistance on these occasions. Thinking on, it never seems to offer any assistance on any event occasion. The whole day had been looking bleak, as always I was forever hopeful, fat lady singing and all that. I got home early from my first day
New Year's Eve 2012, was chilly around 2 degrees C. But the skies were improving and Jupiter was shining through the thin cloud cover. I had just picked up a 'Celestron Neximage 5' and was hoping it would clear enough to give it a run. I set up the CGEM and put the C9.25 on board. Jupiter was in and out the clouds as I hooked up the Neximage. Flashback About 2 years ago I was imaging with a pocket digital camera (a Pentax Optio E30). I had surprisingly good results from this non astro camera.
Finally the skies cleared yesterday, and at last a chance to do some observing. It turned out to be a really good session - one of the best I've had for a long time - and I got through a good number of targets in just over 2 hours. I started off with the 4" refractor, hunting galaxies - the Andromeda Galaxy and companions, and M33 in Triangulum. These were really well placed at around 8.30pm, and despite a knackered red dot finder (!) I was able to get a great view of M31 with the 24mm Panopti
Initially I started the session at about 3 o'clock by loading my van with every piece of astro kit I own and headed off to the secured dark site for what I was hoping would be a good night out with the toys. By about 5.15pm it was looking bleak so I called off the observing party (small band of 2 others) and drove back to the Manor. My Manor is a little one with a garden the size of a postage stamp. The garden is nice but its no good for astronomy, at least its no good for deciding what you want
Clear skies were forecast for most of the night so I decided to give the 150P a go at the telescope targets (which I failed to get anywhere with using the ST80, that was mostly due to a bad night though). Found the first target, the Crab Nebula (M1), something I had not seen before. Not brilliant seeing conditions, on a better night may even be able to make out some structure, but tonight it just looked like a grey blob. Other highlights of the night include my first sighting of the Great Red S
Start the year as you mean to go on, here's a white light shot of the sun this morning showing a couple of active regions, taken through my Christmas present to myself, a Herschel wedge. Also as I write this I'm shooting HA images of Orion, I'm going to take more images this year than last (shouldn't be difficult should it) :)
Signs looking moderately positive for some clear skies here tonight, so the plan is to get round some more of the Moore Winter Marathon and to do a bit of compare-and-contrast between my three scopes. Would like to bag M56 and M33 tonight if I can; M44 and M67 in Cancer should be easy enough in the 4", and if I take it round the front of the house to get a better southern horizon then I might get M41 and M50 as well. All of this may, of course, come to nothing under yet more gloomy skies - watc
Weather: Drizzling, foggy and cold. About +3°C. Lots of melting snow and ice outside from the fairly big freeze we've had over the last four weeks (temps consistently −8°C down to −12°C). Due to rain later on tonight, but that won't deter the fireworks and merrymakers outdoors one bit. Looking forward to trip to Edinburgh in three weeks to pick up TAL-100R. Hopefully can get 100RS OTA delivered on time to bring it all back. Who knows - in three weeks from tonight if it is a clear night... Mu
The OTA will be based around a 'coopered' hardboard (masonite) tube, 12 sided. I know that this is not going to be the best material but at <£6 for a sheet, it's going to be cheap. The idea came from Toshimi Taki's ply tube, with an added pinch of thrift. Using the timber cutting service at B&Q, I have 12 full length strips, each 75mm wide. I will run one edge of each over the router table fitted with a 45 degree chamfer bit, using fence, featherboards and a second pair of hands to assist
M 35 and a Mystery
M 35 presents a gorgeous field of stars and must rank as one of the most beautiful open clusters in the heavens. Typically you see gentle curves and woven strands of frosted silver stars terminating with a larger, brighter and more colourful one at the curve’s end.
Sketch of M 35
It comes as little surprise, then, that observers have likened its pattern to an exploding rocket or bursting firework consisting of several hundred stars scattered over an area covered by the fu
Not much chance of any actual observing in the coming days, so instead I've been thinking of targets to look for when the weather finally improves. I was browsing around on SkySafari on the iPad and noticed that there's a globular cluster in Cygnus - M56. I realised I'd never seen it, and I sort of wondered how I'd missed the fact that there's a glob so well-placed at this time of year. So, that's top of the list. I'm also keen to have a go at M33 through my 4" refractor - I've only ever seen it
So I'm 99% on the alpha release.. I still have some daylight photos to take for the manual (demonstrating sub-framing etc) and two 'todo' list entries. I hope to have this done tomorrow.. The 4000/11000 support I've not manage to get a photo yet (I'll worry about that post alpha). I've tried compiling OpenPHD unfortunately the 3rd party package it uses for it's GUI doesn't compile on 10.8.. only 10.6.. so I'll let Craig tackle that headache.
I have been waiting patiently for a good clear night to take my new Skywatcher 150P out to perform final collimation, the star test, having already checked as much as I can indoors. This would also be the first time out with a 5mm eyepiece for me, my 8SE apparently too slow to use one. I mounted the 150P on my Omni CG-4 mount and tripod, the large and small weights were required to balance the scope. The star test seemed to be correct, a perfect circle surrounding a black dot in the centre as
I've been tinkering over the last few weeks and making progress towards constructing suitable hardware for the secondary mount and focuser. With the mirrors, I received a secondary fixture with a round aluminium 45, topped with an elliptical brass plate to which the mirror itself is mounted. I epoxied three large washers together, marked, drilled and tapped three holes for collimation bolts and three further holes for the vanes (will use bike spokes). Pending bike spokes and re-coated secondary.
I've been asking around to see who's going to be interested, so far: * Craig Stark - Nebulosity & PHD * Software Bisque - TheSkyX If you know of more I'd be interested to know so I can approach them.. The plan is to produce an experimental Alpha release around end of Dec. Let people play and report back before pulling together the feedback for the Beta release. Now the good news is that the driver has parallels with AOSX - so in theory it should plug and play..
After eyeing up an expensive refractor, one of the Equinox range, I have had a sudden interest in the Skywatcher 150P OTA, as it should sit nicely on my CG-4 Omni mount and come complete with everything required (except a collimating eyepiece, easily acquired though). I'm quite excited about it actually, as it is far cheaper and will be a good experience for me to own a reflector, should give excellent viewing opportunities, and may even be suitable for a bit of photography.
A mate has today collected my mirrors from the seller in the North East. They were advertised a couple of weeks ago on preloved.co.uk and I have paid £100 for two 8" primaries, one mirror cell and two secondaries. The primaries are approx f/7.5 and full thickness and the secondaries measure approx 43mm and 47mm along the minor axis. I have been told that the secondaries definitely need re-coated and that one of them has been permanently fixed to its mount. The primaries may be usable until such
So I've been ploughing on and I'm finishing some additional architectural changes that affect all cameras. I still want some additional testing around stability - such as performing 12 hours of exposures. The 383L is now setpointing and reporting temps, images with binning, subframe from 0.000001 to minutes are now working nicely. In short - the 383L is very usable (read there's just the beta usage trials on this) :D I've also pinged ATIK about an idea for this camera and I'm hoping that they'll
My eight year-old grandson came to stop with us for the weekend. We picked him up after school in Southend so after a two hour journey to our house we were all tired. The mist cleared by the time we reached Lowestoft and he asked about the bright star in the sky. I said it was the planet Jupiter and he was interested to see it through my scope. Showed him Jupiter, the Pleiades and the Moon through my refractor. He thought it was all great! Astronomy in your backyard doesn't get better than this.
We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.
