Blogs

skysensor 2000 on vixen SP ??

Can I fit a skysensor 2000 to my SP mount? I have heard that the SP will not take the Skysesor as there is no central bolt hole to fit, only 4 set screws. Bob

New Zealand - Astro Memories

May 8, 2009

Blog 14473

No wood make neil slightly unhindged...hmm and mad rambling

Ahh a holiday weekend with visions of completing the roll off roof before the end and before the kid is born. Unfortunately the wood didn´t get delivered...well I knew it wouldn´t deep down inside, you don´t order wood in spain 3 days before you want it and expect to get it. Ordering anything in this country is very much a zen experience. You place the order and whilst waiting are able to contemplate the inner workings of the universe and reach an inner harmony very much like yoga. The wood will

ncjunk

May 3, 2009

Blog 16471

Hi from NE England

That's North East England - UK ;)

Jeff at the seaside

May 1, 2009

Blog 13420

Galaxy hunting

Four of us met at Britwell Hill on the 22nd of April, just after sunset. High cloud had mostly dispersed leaving clear but a bit hazy skies, apart from a 15-degree band near the horizon. This was just enough to obscure Mercury, although we were convinced for a while that Aldebaran was it! We set up at the top of the hill, next to some trees to the west: my 12" SkyWatcher Dobsonian, a 10" Orion Newtonian Dobsonian and a 10" Orion Optics Newtonian on a Meade LXD75 Goto GEM. We also had some 10x50

themos

April 23, 2009

Back In The UK

Been back from New Zealand about a month now. Although the weather has been pretty good during the day, with many clear, sunny days, the nights have been a different story. I've been looking forward to getting re-aquainted my astro equipment but only managed 2 nights out with the C8. The first night out mainly involved figuring out how the scope worked after an 8 month break. The night sky at the moment where I live seems to suffer from bad transparency. Only the brighter stars visible. In my s

moondog

April 23, 2009

Vixen 102M primary lens marks?

Can someone tell me if they have ever seen a primary lens with several perfect concentric circles in the centre of the front lens? The circles cover about a 10mm in diameter My Vixen 102m has these markings. They are very faint and look as though they are part of the coating or an integral part of the lens. They are not easy to see and I don`t think they are on the surface. More like in the coating. The scope gives excellent views and as far as I can see, good refraction patterns in and out of f

April 22, 2009

wher to buy 240v ac to 12v dc adapter for dd1 motors

Does anyone now where to buy a decent 240v to 12v. 3amp negative centre pin ac adapter for my dd1 motors. I bought one from Maplins but the plugs are such a poor fit that they just fall out . many thanks, Bob

April 22, 2009

Vixen SP backlash has appeared after fitting DD1 motors??

hi I just fitted two dd1 motors to my Vixen SP mount. There now seems to be backlash in the dec gears. Does anyone now how to fix this? many thanks, Bob

April 22, 2009

......and the moral of the tale is........

.....don't mess about when great opportunities come along. Great skies tonight and what did I try to do? Something different that's what. I thought I'd mount the camera with the stnd 75-300 lens and guide via the ZS66SD. Nowt but so**ing problems. Co-aligning and focusing being the two biggest probs. Which do I align as primary with the mount or does it matter ?-ummm well surely it should when it comes to synching the mount with planetarium s/ware. Anyways, having gone out in bare feet and slipp

April 21, 2009

Blog 14845

High Pass Sharpen??

Someone just told me to do this..... High pass sharpen Duplicate the background layer Set to Soft Light blend Filter -> Other -> High Pass About 10.0 pixels Heres an article on the method: http://deepsky.org.uk/articles/2009-04-highPassFilter.shtml Richie

RichieJarvis

April 20, 2009

Right place right time !!

I was setting up last night for Saturn viewing /imaging. I was going thru a 3x star alignment routine ( don't ask why, just fancied it), just aligned on Regulus and took my eyes away from the Telrad just in time to see a fantastic fireball fly thru from NE-ish Ursa Major across to Castor Pollux region. That was a first !!! Quite spectacular :icon_eek:and surprised to see how bright it was !!By Eck it was fair moving thru the sky, sooooooo fast with a brilliantly bright tail.:glasses1: No it wa

April 20, 2009

Blog 14845

Astronomy, a Gathering

Last night was good fun - Lightbucket brought his 16" ob down, and I saw the best views of M51 I've ever seen :) Daveir came down as well, along with a friend of mine from Eastbourne Astronomical Society, so there were 3 rigs setup in the back garden. I managed to capture 17x10 minute OIII subs of M97 to go with my 30x5 minute Ha subs as well - initial processing last night looks very sharp/clear, so I can't wait to get those done. It was incredibly clear and sharp here last night - that cirrus

RichieJarvis

April 19, 2009

Blog 14473

Intel Atom Motherboard

I had to rebuild the PC controlling the mount so decided to go for the Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF2 with Integrated Intel Atom Processor 1.6g dual core. It was a nightmare to install as I had a dodgy power lead (The black lead that plugs into the mains) and didn´t realise. This meant the motherboard worked but sometimes failed to start properly. I have never come across this problem before. Still, the motherboard is Micro ATX and is tiny! it cost me 95 euros and all I had to add was 1 stick of

ncjunk

April 18, 2009

2.4.2009

Strange had some sort of power surge go through the house last night.... It tripped the main fuse but after turning everything back on I found out it had blown 6 bulbs, and fried the living room dimmer switch. Fixed everthing today. I wonder what caused that!

April 2, 2009

Bonus Time !!!!

Last night proved to be a bit of a bonus after Saturday !! I had planned on capturing some more Avi's of Saturn ( and I did ) but thought I'd stick a few EP's on the scope for a change cos the cond's were so good and the opportunities to observe here in Leeds' LP sadly rare ! ( only 3x miles West of Leeds City centre). Apart from the open clusters in Auriga which I thoroughly enjoyed re visiting, I spent some time with the ringed planet, moons were clearly visible and bright, the sharp definitio

March 30, 2009

29.3.2009

Hip Hip Hoo-Ray for Jensen Button. What a great race for a change. The rule changes really worked and I have a feeling this season will be a great one. Clear skies tonight so scopes outside cooling.

March 29, 2009

It's nights like this.............

The dreaded thick stuff was slow to clear last night, forecasts suggested 2:00 hrs- turned out to be closer to 22:30hrs !! BUT when it did start to clear it became quickly apparent that it was going to be something very special indeed :) First order of the evening was to check the collimation of the scope-again using Capella, the image under high power was very promising, under very high power (600x) I was happy !! I still happened to be plagued by little niggles though, like the newly recognise

March 29, 2009

28.3.2009

Unfortunately I cannot follow the fantastic night of yesterday as it's cloudy and raining. Watched England beat Slovakia 4-0. And watched the shuttle land at Kennedy Space Centre. After 5 million miles and 202 orbits it arrived back safe. Really enjoyed watching this mission.

March 28, 2009

27.3.2009

Best night for ages... Bagged another 7 Messier objects. Read report here.. http://stargazerslounge.com/observing-reports/77528-meade-lightbridge-observing-report-27-3-2009-a.html#post1198201