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Kainushi

November 18, 2016

№ 11 / November 18, 2016 / Home / 1955-2035 JST / Cold & clear / 15x70, 8x42 I went outside before moonrise to find The Golfputter, and I succeeded. I saw a shooting star pass from south to north just below M31. The last 10 minutes were consumed by a conversation with the next door neighbor, who'd stepped outside for a cigarette. CONSTELLATIONS:          And / Ari / Aur / Cas / Cep / Per / Tri DEEP SKY OBJECTS: Kemble 1 (As/Cam)             - M31 (SG/And)           
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Blog 19648

Spectrometer Mark 2

After completing my current oil painting blitz, I spent some time today completing 'Spectrometer Mark2' in the 'clean room' or the kitchen as my wife likes to call it.  The primary reason for the redesign is my desire to use either my QHY5v or QHY5-11 as the imaging camera, without dedicating either camera to capturing spectra.  So a modular approach seemed sensible and the ability to experiment with different diffraction gratings was also an objective.  Mark1 was virtually built for 'nowt',  Ma
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

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Kainushi

November 7, 2016

№ 10 / November 7, 2016 / Home / 1941-2000 JST / Cold and clear / Waxing moon (46%) / 8x42 & 10x50 Another brief sojourn. I was irritated when I began because I've felt as if I've neither learned nor see anything new lately. So, I stared at Alpheratz (α And) for a while to calm myself, and discovered that it's surrounded by several stars; I counted approximately 10. Taken as a whole, it looks like a folded napkin or a newspaper folded into the shape of a boat. I practiced hopping from α
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

November 4, 2016

№ 9 / Nov. 4, 2016 / Home / 1928-1946 JST / Cold breeze; canceled because of clouds / 15x70 A brief session, cut short because of the clouds that came in from the west, and covered everything. I had hoped to locate M56 and M57. I stared at Lyra for 5 minutes, but could not detect anything. Deneb's disappearing behind the clouds was the last thing I saw. CONSTELLATIONS:      Cas / Lyr / Sge DEEP SKY OBJECTS: Cr399 (AS/Vul)               Nice, until the clouds came Kemble
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

November 3, 2016

No 8 / Nov. 3, 2016 / Home / 1830-1940 / Clouds in the North & East, winds calm / 8x42 & 10x50 A cold night, but there are clouds in the East and North. Seen through the 10x, the stars that surround Deneb (α Cyg) appear to form the shape of a heart. With the naked eye, I was able to at last make out Cepheus and portions of Aquarius. Cr399 (As/Sge) - IC 4665 (OC/Oph) Summer Beehive Cluster (in 10x only) IC 4756 (OC/Oph) Graff's Clus
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

November 2, 2016

№ 7 / Nov. 2, 2016 / Home / 2030-2120 / Clear skies and winds calm / 15x70, 8x42 I spent more time using the 8x binoculars, and I was pleased. I heard the whistling sound of two ducks flying overhead. Cr399 (As/Sge) - Attractive in both 8x and 15x Kemble-1 (As/Cam)- The 8x can't do it justice. Mel-20 (OC/Per) - M2 (GC/Aqr) - Detectable in the 8x M13 (GC/Her) - Seen as it was about to drop behind the hills to the north; dim M31 (SG/And) - M33 (SG/Tri) - I w
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Blog 19648

Learning my Lines

Well eventually, I think I managed to get my 'thinking' head around some of the basics of using Visual Spec software for producing and calibrating a line spectrum of the bright star Vega.  About 8 weeks ago, I affixed my homemade spectrometer to the business end of my 127mm refractor and obtained some faint and blurry video of Alpha Lyrae and its first order spectrum.  Anyway time passes and after a lot of fiddling about and numerous software crashes, I managed to plot a wiggly line and ide
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

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Kainushi

October 27, 2016

№ 6 / Oct. 27, 2016 / Home / 1945 – 2150 JST / Clear skies / 15x70, 10x50 This night was an improvement over that of October 26th: the skies were clear and the winder were calm. The ghost of the Milky Way was visible, and I could make out the fuzziness surrounding the Double Cluster in my peripheral vision. An initial impression was that M35, 36, 37, and 38 offer better views through the 10x than the 15x. I saw three shooting stars: from North to South in front of M2, from South to Nor
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

October 26, 2016

№ 5 / Oct. 26, 2016 / Home / 1830-1900 JST / Cloudy skies / 15x70, 10x50   A disappointing outing. The end of a warm and sunny day coincided with the arrival of the next front; the sky was mostly overcast, but there were plenty of cumulous clouds on hand to fill any gaps in the coverage. An additional downer was that I saw nothing new. DEEP SKY OBJECTS: M22 (GC/Sgr)     I'd have passed by it had I not recognized the surrounding stars: there is a trapezoid above and a triangle
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

October 23, 2016 (Part 2)

№ 4b / OCT. 23, 2016 / HOME / 2100-2145 JST / CLEAR SKIES / SEEING & TRANSPARENCY GOOD / 15X70 & 10X50 K1 / AS / CAM / KEMBLE'S CASCADE. STILL THERE, AND STILL BETTER IN 15X. THE BRIGHT STAR ABOUT THE MIDWAY POINT IS HIP 18505 (B9IV). N1502 / OC / CAM / THE POINT OF LIGHT WITH THE SURROUNDING FUZZ THAT IS AT THE BASE OF K1 M36 / OC / AUR / NO CENTRAL BRIGHTNESS; THE VIEW IN 15X WASN'T NOTICABLY BETTER THAN 10X M37 / OC / AUR / NO CENTRAL BRIGHTNESS; THE VIEW IN 15X WA
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

October 23, 2016 (Part 1)

№ 4a / OCT. 23, 2016 / HOME / 1740-1829 JST / CLEAR SKIES / SEEING & TRANSPARENCY GOOD / 15X70 & 10X50   M13 / GC / HER / DISTINCT. IT'S FLANKED BY TWO STAIRS HIP 81848 ABOVE LEFT AND HIP 81673 BELOW LEFT; COMBINED, THE THREE FORM A TRIANGLE THE APEX OF WHICH IS M13 M92 / GC / HER / SEEMED DIM M31 / SG / AND / LOW IN THE SKY; DIDN'T APPEAR AS LARGE MEL20 / OC / PER / PRETTY – I ENJOY IT MORE THAN THE HYADES N869 / OC / PER / LOW IN THE SKY; NOT MUCH NEBULOSI
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

October 21, 2016

№ 3 / OCT. 21, 2016 / HOME / 2001-2133 JST / CLEAR SKIES / 8X42, 10X50, 15X70   N1528 / OC / PER / FIRST SIGHTING. QUITE INDISTINCT. DISCOVERED BY CHANCE ALONG THE LINE δ PER →  48 PER → μ PER → HIP 20156 → HIP 20070 → HIP 19986; ABLE TO ID IN 10X, BUT                   IT WAS THE MEREST HINT OF A SMUDGE K1   / AS / CAM / KEMBLE'S CASCADE. STUMBLED ON IT BY CHANCE! DOWN & LEFT FROM THE ALPHA PERSEI CLUSTER, I BUT COULDN'T SEE THE CLUSTER AT THE TERMINUS. I COUNTED 18 STAR
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

October 20, 2016

№ 2 / OCT. 20, 2016 / HOME / 1930-2015 JST / WINDY & PARTIALLY CLOUDY IN THE WEST / 15X70 M13 / GC / HER / - M92 / GC / HER / DOUBLE CHECKED IN THE 10X; IT CAN BE OVERLOOKED IN THE LOWER MAGNIFICATION. M11 / OC / SCU / THIS WAS THE OBJECT I NOTED AS “UI-1” LAST NIGHT. IT SITS TO THE LEFT OF THE TOP OF THE LINE OF STARS THAT ARE ARRANGED VERTICALLY THROUGH THE                  MIDDLE OF SCUTUM M31 / SG / AND / - M34 / OC / PER / - N869 / OC / PER / - N
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Kainushi

October 19, 2016

№ 1 / OCT. 19, 2016 / HOME / 1800-1830 & 1930-2015 JST / CLEAR / 15X70 (FIRST LIGHT) M13 / GC / HER / - M19 / GC / HER / FIRST SIGHTING. SMALLER & DIMMER THAN M13. HOW DID I MISS THIS IN 10X? M31 / SG / AND / DIFFUSION OF LIGHT FROM THE CORE TO THE EDGES PLAINLY VISIBLE M34 / OC / PER / ABLE TO DETECT SEVERAL POINTS OF LIGHT! N869 / OC / PER / LOOKS LIKE A SMALL PATCH OF THE MILKY WAY! IMPROVEMENT OVER 10X N884 / OC / PER / SEE ABOVE ST-2 / AS / - / CO
Kainushi

Kainushi

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Geryllax Vu's Blog

Not Every Reference Frame is an Enclosed Compartment

It is a premise of the Galilean principle of relativity that every reference frame behaves mechanically like an enclosed compartment at rest.  As a consequence of this premise it is presumed to be mechanically impossible to discern the motion of any reference frame by observing experiments conducted within that reference frame.  Material objects in flight within an enclosed compartment will manifest a particular velocity that arises from momentum transfer through physical contact with the compar
Geryllax Vu

Geryllax Vu

3
Blogstronomy

DSLR Cooler project finally started

DSLR COOLER FINALLY STARTS TO TAKE SHAPE. A couple of months ago a trip to my local tip to drop off some old batteries resulted in me 'liberating' an old mini beer fridge from the clutches of the 'Used Electrical items' skip.  Bringing it home I found out that it worked perfectly, apart from a broken door catch. After a lot of research (links below) I've ripped out the electricals and heat sink and have started constructing a DSLR cooler for my Canon 1100D.  I'll keep you posted on progress
michaelmorris

michaelmorris

20
Geryllax Vu's Blog

THE NON-APPLICABILITY OF ADDITION OF VELOCITIES TO PROPAGATING SOUND WAVES

On a windless day a train of length L  travels along a level straight section of track at the constant velocity v.  An observer in the caboose has a clock and a light source with which she will send a signal to the engineer at the front of the train.  Upon seeing this signal, he will blow the whistle which will send out a sound wave that has the constant velocity c  through the still air/medium.   At this short distance a light signal is effectively instantaneous so upon sending the li
Geryllax Vu

Geryllax Vu

2
Blog 19648

'One of those'

After many a night of stretching pillow cases over the end of my telescope, no offence intended, I have finally got around to making myself a light-box for taking flats.  I can only hope this will improve my images. I gleaned most of the materials from the back of my shed, added a few LEDS and a switch from my best mate Mr Maplin and attached a bungee and batteries from everyone's favourite country 'Poundland'.  It doesn't look pretty but I cant wait to try it. Come on weather make an old m
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

4
Blog 19648

Starthrotch Analyser Mk1

When I was a ten year old kid I used my pocket money to buy job lots of old broken clocks from Maidstone Market.  I would take them home and spend hours in my Mum and Dad’s cellar taking them apart ostensibly to get them working again. They never did but hey I never let failure deter me. Nowadays, being happily retired (and no gloating intended), I have many an hour to while away in my shed.  Nothing that I can get away with, gives me greater pleasure than recycling old bits of metal, plast
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

2
Geryllax Vu's Blog

AN APPLICATION OF SOUND WAVES TO THE SPECIAL RELATIVISTIC DEFINITION OF SIMULTANEITY

Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity defines simultaneity as: if two spatially separated events occur such that the light waves generated by these two events arrive at the midpoint of the line adjoining them, at a same time t, then these two events are considered simultaneous.  However, if these two events occur in open still air -- which is disengaged from the motion of a material object through space -- then any sound waves that might also be generated at the light flash events may not arri
Geryllax Vu

Geryllax Vu

9
Nick's blog, including AOSX (Astronomy on OSX)

Igor it lives ... again...

Igor - it lives.. again. Apple have just replaced the MBP's complete circuit board for the failed GPU under the GPU repair scheme. Free to me.. but if it hadn't been covered it would have been at least £800. However my battery snuffed it during the time under the desk so that was replaced too. The Apple bods noted my hard drive was also on the way out - I'd known this for a while.. so I've fixed a replacement myself. In short the screen, keyboard, and case are about all that remain of the o
NickK

NickK

1
Blog 19648

16 Years old and still going strong

I like a bit of recycling and so, after I realised that I had not used my old ETX90 RA for at least two years, I decided to get it out of its fabric carry-case and give it 'the once over'. I have to say that little scope is a robust little beggar and optically as sound as the day my partner Toot purchased it for my fiftieth birthday. The fork mount is definitely passed its sell by date but the OTA is definitely too good to waste sitting on a shelf in a bedroom. So today I decided to remove
Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor

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