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DrRobin's Blog

DMK41 still waiting

I am still waiting for my DMK41 to turn up, looks like I will need to chase on Monday. I have also bitten the bullet and bought a Lunt 60. My PST is working well after it's tune up, but with a Barlow it takes too many shots to get the whole of the sun in, so after seeing KE400s superb pics decided to have an early Xmas pressie.
DrRobin

DrRobin

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nickdud's Blog

free stuff i forgot i had and expensive stuff i dont really need.

so after upgrading my focuser to a shiny new crayford and finding 10 mins of cloud free sky to test it, my mind and fingers started wandering across the web to find more stuff to spend my hard earned on. as i already own a canon camera it seemed like a good idea to buy a t-mount for it. i dont have a motorised mount but i figure it must be worth a go. i have done some "dark photography" before in the form of taking band pictures for a rock band(well, more for me really) and got quite good at tak
nickdud

nickdud

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Blog 21987

masssive fire ball last night.

Out in garden with scope it was 10.56 pm turned round looked up in east and....saw a massive fire ball coming overhead!! very low in sky, it was green with bits of red coming off it, a huge white tail with bits of blue red spewing off it AWESOME site, i dashed in house for camera but missed it has it disappeared west over the houses.
mr saddo

mr saddo

3
Learner Blog

A beautiful sight

Amazing what can be seen in just 30 minutes with a pair of binoculars. Tonight I just decided to pop outside with my binoculars and the little StarPocket scope I picked up for 30p last weekend, had fun identifying the stars with it, then scanned the stars with the binoculars. Saw part of a shooting star in the binoculars as I was observing one of the large clusters near Cassiopia, picked out Pleiades with the naked eye - saw about six and a half stars, looked beautiful in the binoculars. Also
jonathan

jonathan

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tibbs1972's Blog

Southern sky ignored.

I realsed tonight that I've been ignoring the Southern sky and can't navigate it very well. I think this is beacause my house faces the neighbours houses and there are street lights there. Due to the light pollution, I've always concentrated on the Northern skies. Tonight I just tried checking out the south west. For the first time tonight, I learnt how to spot Hercules and the Corona Borealis constellations with the naked eye. I also managed to spot M13, The Great Globular Cluster with my 10x50
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

1
Astralstroll's Blog

Daves Blog 14/9/12

Possibly the best night so far with the new scope! Left the scope outside to cool down, and then set to viewing about 11pm. First on the tick list were M81 and M82. These were closely followed by M52. Had a bit of an indulgence, and had a look at M13, quite possibly one of my all time favourites DSO's. After a coffee, moved on to M15 and then M34. It certainly felt like I was on a roll!! Then, I turned my sights (sorry for the cheesy but unintended pun) to M33. Try as I might, I couldnt find it.
Astralstroll

Astralstroll

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Astralstroll's Blog

Daves Blog 12/9/12

Only had a very brief viewing session on account of being in town until gone midnight. The clear skies were an added bonus after the torrential rain that had been around for most of the day.An added bonus was the very clear skies. As I had an early morning the day after, only managed to check out M31, M32 and M110. I never tire of this particular trio. Awesome as always.
Astralstroll

Astralstroll

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Qualia's Blog

Measurement of Doubles and a Jovian Moon - Baader Micro Guide

Measurement of Doubles and a Jovian Moon - Baader Micro Guide Introduction The reason for this rather long blog entry is to highlight what has been possible using simple and relatively inexpensive gear to measure the separation and position angle of a number of double stars and the sizes and distances of various objects within the Solar System. The preliminary goal was fivefold: to further skills in star-hopping and to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of star magnitude. to ga
Qualia

Qualia

1
tibbs1972's Blog

Andromeda 13th Sept 2012 @2145

Had a great night viewing tonight, really clear from around 9pm. I've spotted a few satellites, one with a flare. I've also seen a few meteors falling to earth, while looking north east. My main object of concern has been Andromeda tonight. I've managed to get a few shots with my small 130mm Mirror and EOS 1000D camera. I don't think I'll ever get a better picture unless I upgrade to a larger scope, but this is my best attempt at capturing Andromeda so far.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

3
mr saddo's Blog

12-9-202 clear skys!! 13th 4.30 Am has well

Hi, out last night for a few hours quite cool but clear sky's around 9 pm till 10.30 pm, never seen so many stars in Cygnus!! here in the city, i was most impressed!! did try the camera on the dob but failed miserably, even found the Globular cluster in Hercules which has eluded me for some time!! with the help of Andriod sky map held on the eyepiece, and it points telling you where to go!! cheaper than a go to!! LOL was disappointed!! just a gray smudge!! nothing like the pictures i have seen.
mr saddo

mr saddo

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tibbs1972's Blog

Northern Sky, 11th September 2012 @2117

Glad the nights are drawing in for better Photos, I'm looking forward to getting some more images. I Took a few shots of the northern sky tonight. I was concerned that a lot of what I could see was noise on the camera, but when I compared the Photo with Sellarium, I was pleased to see the stars in my Photo matched up with the image on the software, something I haven't done before, it helped to assure me I'm getting something right.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

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Blog 19648

My brain has finally given up!

Wasted a couple of hours this morning obtaining video clips of sunspots in white light through my scope. Finished taking the shots, all appeared well. Just got my kit put away before a rain shower. All accomplished before lunch, I thought. This afternoon, when I came to look for the files on my laptop, nowhere to be found! Must not have registered the files or some dumb trick best known to man and IT savants. I am a complete numpty!!!
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

2
Nick's blog, including AOSX (Astronomy on OSX)

AOSX.. onwards!

AOSX has had a little bit of a backseat recently with ATIK and the wedding.. over the last few days I've been discussing and finalising some ideas with OzDave and I'm progressing nicely with the architectural changes we've been thinking about for a while. The focus of AOSX is the user, so we've been building in some heavy duty crash protection. This means now that each device in service has it's own process - a heavy approach but one that means if the driver "blue screens" or crashes then it wil
NickK

NickK

2
Learner Blog

Stole a bit of solar observing time...

Forecast was for sunny and clear skies yesterday evening and this morning, well they were almost right - the clouds didn't really clear last night but this morning there were just a few fluffy clouds about. I took the opportunity to have a quick look at the sun through my Lunt LS60. What an interesting sun today, there seemed to be filaments and prominences galore. One very large filament in the lower left quadrant seemed to be coming out at me, like something from a 3D film. There was a sola
jonathan

jonathan

1
mr saddo's Blog

well thats the pier made but.......

Well finished the pier mount for EQ5 head and bolted it on the scaff pole which is in a foot square of concreate......looks good .....but the vibration on top end is terrible!!! i even pored postcreat down the scaff pole to numb it out a bit. plan is a 2 - 3 inch pipe over the scaff pole and more concrete in. Right ordered the 150mm flue liner pipe off e-bay £18 for 9 ft!! got it the next day!! very good service. i have chiseled 20 mm or so out for the pipe to slipe over scaff pole and concr
mr saddo

mr saddo

4
Learner Blog

Here come the stars...

Almost September, the dark nights are already here, the dark evenings are fast approaching. Currently busy paying back my student loan, but once that is done I shall be purchasing either an Equinox 80 or Evostar 80ED, I keep swaying to one or the other, but either way it should be an excellent replacement for my ST80 (which I will probably have to sell to make space). This will be used on the CG-4 for visual and, if I am brave, a dabble in wide-field astrophotography, mostly star field views bu
jonathan

jonathan

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Blog 19648

Apollo11

After reading the many tributes to Neil Armstrong, I remembered looking at the Apollo photographs on display at the Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, New York. The next time I look at the Moon through the eyepiece of my scope, and if the phase is favourable, I will be sure to check out the Sea of Tranquility and consider the relative permanence of Neil Armstrong's boot print etched in Moon-dust! A fitting memorial for a remarkable human-being. (Images of the Apollo 11 Tra
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

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Astralstroll's Blog

Daves Blog 19/8/12

Sunday night saw a surprisingly clear sky with very little i the way of cloud cover. Started with M31, as I had unfinished business there. Firstly, worked out a foolproof way to starhop quickly to M31, then set about hunting for M32. My first thought was that tis was the best view of M31 I have had to date with the new Dob. From there, M32 was very small in comparison, but relatively easy to spot. The previous time I was out in this part of the sky, there was no sign of M110. This time, however,
Astralstroll

Astralstroll

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mr saddo's Blog

started off well but......bit of a night mare session

Hi, was out Tues night this week set up early, and waited for dark, was looking at Cassiopeia clusters on the bottom m tail half way down, thought i would put the eos 300d on and have a go at it.!! well what a pain trying to look though the small view finder in the camera and focus, i had to put Barlow in eos T ring for more mag, just could not see much. Took a few shots!! 001 frame dont know what this is suppose to be two clusters?!! i had to keep taking the camera out of tube and putting ep on
mr saddo

mr saddo

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DrRobin's Blog

Lifecam Studio now confined to the spares bin. DMK41 ordered!

It came out sunny this afternoon, so had my tea break and tried first my DMK21, nice lot of surface detail and then the modified MS Lifecam with and without IR filter. There was a difference with the IR filter, slight focus difference, but it didn't really help with bringing out any more detail. I tried fiddling with the gain and exposure settings as well as the colour balance and saturation, all gave no improvement. Ended up coming back in and ordered a DMK41 from FLO. Now to see about removi
DrRobin

DrRobin

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