What a week it's been, from being deluged with rain to wall to wall sun, I took every opportunity to get work done on the obsy and whatever was required in the garden. During the week I realised that after one night out the obsy needed to be sorted to make more room, this was done the next day I now have a much easier time. The nights have been kind and I have spent every clear night out and have relearnt how to use my cameras, plenty of photos taken but few have made it into an album, being fun
I was up at the airport with several club members Saturday night and we lucked out with the best clear skies of the year. I enjoyed views of the crescent moon slowly sinking in the west, while Saturn rose into good position. I shot a few frames with the DSLR and wondered how many moons I could pick up with the camera. I also got a chance to compare my budget minded Celestron UHC Filter 2" with my Neil's 2" Lumicon UHC. The Lumicon sells for $200 while the Celestron is $100 so wondered just ho
Noticed the moon was nice and clear while it was still light so decided to have a go with the DSLR and SLT102 refractor. Started off quickly aligning using just the moon and the setting lunar as the tracking rate. Watched in a cheap 25mm eyepiece for a while and it was tracking nicely (isn't it always the way - no real effort in the alignment and good results, try hard to get an accurate one and it drifts :p ) Replaced the diagonal with a 50mm extension tube and t adapter to connect the camera.
Friday night I took 2 'scopes and a pair of 15x70 binos to a local OAP home so that some of the more able bodied residents could have a look through them. Took just over an hour to set up - luckily I had arrived in plenty of time to get set up before dark. We started off with the moon through the SLT102 refractor with a 10mm eyepiece. They were surprised by the details in the shadow along the terminator. Unfortunately the moon soon dropped too low for the height of the tripod on the SLT (large
Well - I've had a modicum of success tonight! Whilst I'm still somewhat short of a viable Astropic, I'm certainly getting closer.
Tried out my Bhatinov mask first. It's now in the bin - a complete waste of time. Whilst I can see how it might be beneficial on a larger scope, with the tiny aperture of my Zenithstar, there was just nothing visible with the mask in place and the camera viewfinder leeching all the light away.
So instead I tried out the star trail focussing method - and I li
As the title say's I have ordered a PH047 Ultra Afocal Digital Camera Support. I felt it was worth it after my recent success in taking solar images promptly followed by my recent failure trying to capture Saturn. I'm hoping that the camera support will keep my camera steady and in place.
I decided to get The Big One out (8SE, NEQ6) as this may be the best and darkest skies I get before the Autumn. Took the scope out and began setting up about 10pm, didn't wait long for cool-down as it was so (relatively) warm outside anyway, there was no dew so I just used the dewshield - no heaters! Only the second time I have not had heaters on and got away with it. I primarily went out to see Saturn and managed to get some great views of the magnificent giant, among the best I've ever had.
So after an encouraging first night, things got a little frustrating with my second attempt. I decided that M13 would be a good target. It's bright and easy to find, and it's well in the range of my equipment. However, focussing became a real problem. It's my own fault really - I ignored people's warnings of 'you can't focus well through the camera's viewfinder', thinking I knew better. Of course, all I got was blobs! The difficulty stems from the fact that even quite unfocussed images
It feels rather sad that due to the very wet April and very cool and cloudy May I have effectively missed most of the spring night sky. It is now nearing the end of May, this week the clouds suddenly disappeared and the temperature has risen from about 13 to 23 in the space of a few days. Weather forecasts seem to be all over the place - some say it will be cloudy, others not... today was supposed to be cloudy but it was a clear blue sky all day. I managed about 30 minutes of solar gazing this
Well, as expected, didn't get a fat lot to show people out of last night.
Mainly experimented with exposure times, practiced polar alignment etc.
What is clear is that stacking images is going to be essential, because at the moment, it's hard to see anything but stars in the pictures I have taken. In one picture though, with a little processing, you can just about see a little more....
Near the centre, and again halfway across the right of the image, there are two faint littl
Right, so for my first night out, I'm not expecting a fat lot. In fact, I'm not sure if I'm even going to take any exposures. First come the joys of polar alignment, focus practice and seeing if there's any merit to my cobbled together guide scope! I may inadvertently take a photo of one of my cats - they tend to climb up my leg when I'm out there in the dark, and I wouldn;t put it past one of them to ascend my tripod! The sky is clear, night is on the way, so out I go!!
Hi, I'm Badgerchap. I've been doing visual Amateur Astronomy for some time now, but of late, I've been getting a little bored of faint fuzzies and rapidly moving planets that zip straight out of the field of view. Whilst there really is something truly awe inspiring about having photons arrive in your eyes that have taken millions of years to get there, I fancy a bit of colour - and some evidence to prove what I've been doing, outside and alone in the dark all these long nights!
So I've b
[ATTACH]323[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]324[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]325[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]326[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]327[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]328[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]329[/ATTACH] Then it clouded over! just for a change.
made the filter from baddar solar sheet ,a bit of a bodge job, lacking a few materials its a bit rough but works see image of sun. Canon eos 300d on to skywatcher mak 90mm via eos adapter ring, shutter speed 160. [ATTACH][ATTACH]322[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]
My wife found an old disc from 2004 and low and behold the photographs that I took of the last transit were on it and not lost forever as I thought. With better software available in 2012 I have been able to improve them a bit. So was quite pleased bearing in mind the basic kit that I used at the time. Hopefully, if the weather and my back are OK I will have a second chance to get better images on the morning of the sixth.
My wife found an old disc from 2004 and low and behold the photographs that I took of the last transit were on it and not lost forever as I thought. With better software available in 2012 I have been able to improve them a bit. So was quite pleased bearing in mind the basic kit that I used at the time. Hopefully,, if the weather and I my back are OK I will have a second chance to get better images on the morning of the sixth.
I'm hoping to upgrade my telescope from a small but respectable Sky-Watcher SK707AZ2 to a much larger SKYLINER 200P. I'll be waiting a while though because It costs £285 and there's a shortage at the moment! Wouldn't mind a few reviews from people who already own one.
At last, the observatory is almost finished, the only thing to do is reroute all the cables but that will have to wait till clear weather appears again. With the sun out today it was all go and ended with the mount and telescopes back in place, tonight is clear so will be out to see if all works. I was going to get the roof fibreglassed but the weather held this up too much so went and replaced all the wood and waterproofed it, will be interesting to see if all has worked by tomorrow evening whe
During a solar viewing session toady I noticed that I couldn't get my scope to stop moving left or right. :eek: It turns out that a piece of tubing than can be locked by a screw on the side of my AZ2 has become detached from the part that holds my telescope. :mad: It has become detached because the bag I keep it in isn't really the ideal size for my scope. :( This defect isn't the end of the world and I can put up with it until I upgrade to a SKYLINER 200P but I feel that I need a new case.
During a solar viewing session toady I noticed that I couldn't get my scope to stop moving left or right. :eek: It turns out that a piece of tubing than can be locked by a screw on the side of my AZ2 has become detached from the part that holds my telescope. :mad: It has become detached because the bag I keep it in isn't really the ideal size for my scope. :( This defect isn't the end of the world and I can put up with it until I upgrade to a SKYLINER 200P but I feel that I need a new case.
Well the S177 web site is now fully up and running. I can post to the course forum and have done so and I've printed off the course calender and study guide (at work :o). Didn't go on last night as I was too busy playing with my new SPC900NC web cam. :D Need to get down to some serious study now before the course starts, as I am supposed to be dedicating 10 hours a week to the course. Typical as this weekend actually looks like it is going to be dry! :rolleyes:
I recently purchased a sheet of Baader astro solar film to try my hand at some solar viewing and along with a friend have been playing around with different ways to mount it to the scope safely and effectively. Ill use this blog as kind of a "how to" to show you, the reader how we went about making a simple filter attachment for the small 40mm aperture hole on the front of my 150P using some ply wood, glue and a few screws.
To start I cut 3 75mm cicles out of some 6mm ply wood
solar filter 1
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