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Qualia's Blog

The Eskimo Nebula - A View from the Arid Lands

The Eskimo Nebula - A View from the Arid Lands By Way of Introduction In a manner of speaking, we are born out of the earth, walk on it for a while and finally become part of it when we die and so too with a star. It is born out of the cosmos, wanders it for a while and finally becomes a part of it when it dies. In this way, both a star's existence, like a human life, is a rite of death, a being-towards a something else; a transformation. The physical recycling of life serves as a reminder
Qualia

Qualia

5
Astralstroll's Blog

Daves Blog 11/11/12

I wasnt planning on doing any observing this weekend. The forecast looked a bit on the poor side, and the clouds were present as I headed off to bed. However, the arrival of my neighbour at 4am prompted me to get up and make a coffee. Whilst I was filling the kettle in the darknes, I noticed the sky was totaly clear. Whilst the ketle was boining, I got dressed and relocated the Dob to the back garden. Armed with a coffee I set about aligning the scope to Polaris. The plan was to look for M51 and
Astralstroll

Astralstroll

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Astralstroll's Blog

Daves Blog 5/11/12

Well after the alst of the fireworks had finally fizzed out and the clouds of smoke had dissipated, the night was rather clear and inviting. It had certainly been a while since the scope had been out, so long in fact that the scope had been dismalted and reloacted to its resting place upstairs in the library. Still the beauty of a dob is the speed at which it can be reassembled. About five minutes, then a few minutes to check the collimation. First on the list was M1, closely followed by the tri
Astralstroll

Astralstroll

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Astralstroll's Blog

Daves Blog 18/9/12

Just a brief viewing opportunity tonight. First on thr list was M15, followed by M34. The treat of the evening, however, was M42. WOW is all I can say. At 50x it was really mpressive. Cant wait to get my mebula filter now. The night, albeit brief, was topped off with the appearance of a very bright meteor. Happy gazing indeed!
Astralstroll

Astralstroll

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Qualia's Blog

Messier 15 - A View from the Arid Lands

Messier 15 - A View from the Arid Lands Imagine a world where the sky blazes with the radiance of a hundred thousand suns. That in any direction you ever cared to look you saw more stars crowded together than anywhere else in the Milky Way – anywhere, perhaps, than that of our own galaxy's hidden heart. Imagine a world of midnight brightness, a world without shadow, where the love of warmth would burn everything to ash. This would be the world of Messier 15, a primordial remnant forming from t
Qualia

Qualia

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Qualia's Blog

The Double Cluster - Caldwell 14

The Double Cluster - Caldwell 14 The Double Cluster or Caldwell 14 in Perseus is a visual extravaganza and probably one of the most breath-taking sights to be seen in the night sky. On a good night the soft glow from the combined light of the two individual clusters resolve into an awe-inspiring swarm of literally dozens upon dozens of blue and white stars surrounded by just as many unrelated Milky Way stars. The true brilliance of the Double’s stars are dimmed by swaths of heavy galactic du
Qualia

Qualia

5
cobbyr6's Blog

JKM Holmes and co moonscope

Hi , ive just purchased a jkm holmes moonscope, i know nothing about it and wondered if anyone out there could give me some information on this scope i believe its 1900 to 1940 its in what looks original condition ( very old ) temped to try and restore it but worried about spoiling it,, has anyone any idea how much something like this would be worth, in its original condtition, many thanks Mark
cobbyr6

cobbyr6

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cobbyr6's Blog

JKM Holmes and co moonscope

Hi , ive just purchased a jkm holmes moonscope, i know nothing about it and wondered if anyone out there could give me some information on this scope i believe its 1900 to 1940 its in what looks original condition ( very old ) temped to try and restore it but worried about spoiling it,, has anyone any idea how much something like this would be worth, in its original condtition, many thanks Mark
cobbyr6

cobbyr6

1
Blog 19648

Winter has arrived

Saw the Doc yesterday who said my back was healing well and light exercise was OK. Took this to mean I could catch a few photons. So I went outside into the garden about midnight to see if I could see a meteor or two. Hooray first night without rain for some time. Moon was a bit too bright for meteor watching and was lighting up really heavy clouds to the east. The wind was strong and gusting. Then it started to snow! Then it rained. Astronomy in the UK is not for the faint hearted or for those
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

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Qualia's Blog

Doubles in Perseus - Part II

Double in Perseus - Part II Epsilon Persei (ε Persei) Struve 471 RA / DEC: 03:57:9 / + 40.01 Magnitude A / B: 2.8 / 8.8 Rho: 8.7” Theta: 10º Epsilon Persei is huge. It is young and burning at an extremely high temperature – around 27,000k – giving it that distinctive blue-white hue so common amongst the stars in Perseus. It has a luminosity of about 28,000 Suns, is around 16 times the Sun’s mass and nearly four times bigger. Needless to say, like so many other stars in Perseus, with les
Qualia

Qualia

0
mrstrellis' Blog

USB to RS232 adapter problem

Hello, I am in the process of connecting my EQ6 to my laptop, initally to update the firmware, but eventually to start controlling the mount from my PC. As my laptop does not have an RS232 serial port, I am using a USB to serial port adapter. My first attempt to update the firmware using the SynScan Firmware Loader resulted in a failure to connect. I got a "Cannot connect to Synscan hand control" message. I then tried to connect to my desktop PC, thinking maybe i had a problem with my laptop. I
mrstrellis

mrstrellis

3
Qualia's Blog

Doubles in Perseus - Part I

Some Doubles in Perseus - Part I Eta Persei (η Persei) Struve 307 RA / DEC: 02:50:42 / +55.53 Magnitude A / B: 3.8 / 8.5 Rho: 28.5” Theta: 301º Eta Persei, Struve 307 or Miram, lies at the northern most tip of the constellation of Perseus about 1,331 light years away. Classed as a K3 supergiant, the star is estimated to be about 11 times the mass of the sun with a diameter 105 times greater and radiating with a luminosity of about 35,000 suns. The future of the star is still unknown but i
Qualia

Qualia

1
Lee03's Blog

Spokane Auto Repair

Spokane Auto Repair is one of the foremost automobile repair centers in town. This enterprise boasts of world class repair facilities not mentioning a dedicated professional service team that is fast, reliable, and friendly. Because of this, the company does not need to spend unnecessary time with the client’s vehicle, and we try as much as we can to get the job done in the shortest time possible. Our mechanics have received training from some of the best automotive institutions across the count
Lee03

Lee03

0
jacob02's Blog

Billings catering

We offer full service Billings catering. We will explore every detail during the planning of your wedding lunch or dinner, rehearsal dinner, or corporate event, so we can make your vision a reality. We will help you choose a menu that will please both the eyes and palate of your guests. On the day of your special event, we will take care of the setup, prepare gourmet, artistically presented dishes on site, and attentively serve them to your guests. When your lunch or dinner event has ended, we w
jacob02

jacob02

0
michael001's Blog

Billings Heating

Our Billings heating and air conditioning company has been providing heating and cooling services to the area for many years. Our customers include businesses and individuals who reside and work in the Billings areas. No job is too big or too small for us and we will meet all of your heating and cooling needs. We have an outstanding reputation due to the quality of work that we perform in the community. All of our technicians are trained in the most up to date techniques and we can replace somet
michael001

michael001

0
Blog 19648

Back home but its still raining

Have returned from Hospital after back surgery. Have got a few aches and pains but otherwise I think the good old NHS has fixed my spine!! Whoopee-do I shall be able to use my big bins again!! Am unable to get outside stargazing for a few weeks but hopefully towards the end of November I should be able to use my telescope and relatively new planetary camera to capture Jupiter! I have noticed that its still raining!
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

1
Learner Blog

Astro-fast is over!

I finally got my act together, and so did the weather, and tonight I went outside with my 8SE / NEQ6. The skies were relatively clear, just some threatening cloud to the East over the sea but I don't think it ever made land, then just the occasional patch of cloud which came and went fairly quickly. Having not really done anything other than binoculars and one session with my ST80, I had to go back to Turn Left At Orion as I had little idea of what to aim for. I flicked to the Autumn section a
jonathan

jonathan

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

AOSX V2 is coming along nicely..

If you've not been following - we have been working on a re-architecting (v2) of AOSX which is starting to appear. Just plugged my Titan in and it's recognised it. Early days but it's always a good feeling to see something to reassure you! I'm also taking delivery of ATIK 4000 carcass for testing. Electronically working to allow testing of the 4000/11000 support in the driver.
NickK

NickK

0
Telescope Project

Getting Better.

I've been slightly less than perfectly happy with the guiding, finding it hard to beat 4 arc seconds FWHM in my raw subs. So... I've made a new bracket for the RA motor out of 6mm thick 60mmx60mm aluminium angle.. and finally I've got it guiding tonight with the newly secured setup. On a 5 minute sub working at 1500mm focal length on 5.4u pixels I'm getting a FWHM of 4.01 pixels, that's 3 arc seconds FWHM. The focussing image (1 second long) was giving 3.3 pixels FWHM, so that suggests the g
rfdesigner

rfdesigner

0
Qualia's Blog

NGC 752 - A View from a City

NGC 752 - A View from the City NGC 752 or Caldwell 28 lies well within Andromeda's borders, just a few degrees southwest of the spectacular double star, Gamma Andromeadea. Amidst the splendor and easy attraction of Andromeda’s galaxies, NGC 752 is an often overlooked but beautiful open cluster and will no doubt be a pleasure to contemplate through binoculars or a low-magnification eyepiece. What I saw at 40x in the f/10 overfilled my field of view; four dozen and more sparkling gems scattered
Qualia

Qualia

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