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Blog 19590

A blog by RayGil in General

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Observing report 07/10/2010

Observation Session 07/10/2010 Arrived at the Obs Site at 19:10 and once polar aligned and balanced took approx 30 minutes to complete setup. Tried to 3 star test but handset kept coming up failed alignment? After checking over the scope and synscan unit, no problems were found, this continued for another 30 minutes and frustration was starting to set in, until I noticed the scope position, I turned the scope around and repositioned it with its tube rings, re polar aligned and continued with the
RayGil

RayGil

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Observation Report for 3rd September 2010.

Observation Report for 3rd September 2010. Location Birkrigg Common. I decided to attend the local FAS meeting, Furness Astronomical Society at 19:30, as this was the first meeting for the start of the year (Sept – May), it was a short meeting and it finished at roughly 20:30. I was going to pop into their observatory in Dalton but as the sky was clearing I decided to pack my scope and head off to Birkrigg for my own observing session. I arrived at Birkrigg at roughly 21:45 and started to set up
RayGil

RayGil

1

31st August 2010 - Birkrigg 130mm Skywatcher.

31st August 2010 Conditions were good, forecast was slight cloud then clear night. Location - Brikrigg Common, Cumbria. I decided that I was going to try and do some imaging and needed a telescope that had drives. My new Skywatcher Explorer 200p 8" and EQ5 mount does not have drives fitted yet, so it I was left with the Skywatcher 130m with RA clock drives. Arrived at 21:00 and proceeded to set the EQ2 mount up, polar aligned and balanced scope then allowed it to cool down while I set up the
RayGil

RayGil

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29/08/2010 - Birkrigg DSO Objects.

29/08/2010 Birkrigg Common, Cumbria 21:00 - 00:30 Arrived at Birkrigg at 21:00 and Set up the Skywatcher 200p and EQ5, once polar aligned I let the scope cool down for 30 minutes, while I found my bearings and scanned the sky with binoculars. The Moon was still very Low in the East and Jupiter was just coming above the horizon and still in the dirty part of the sky, and viewing the planet was unsatisfactory. While the Moon was low and not as bright as it had been in the last couple of observing
RayGil

RayGil

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26082010 - Another Clear Night.

26/08/2010 Birkrigg Common (Cumbria) SkyWatcher 200p (8") - EQ5 Mount (Manual) As this was the last opportunity to get out with the scope for a few days, I thought I would have another go at finding M31. Arrived at the observing site at 21:10 and set up the scope, polar aligned and balanced, love the polar scope on the EQ5, makes things so much easier. Moon was already climbing steadily in the Eastern sky, so I took the time to fix a couple of Moon filters double stacked, as the Moon is again v
RayGil

RayGil

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Birkrigg - 24/08/2010 - SkyWatcher 200p - Report

24/08/2010 Birkrigg Common Weather Conditions were very clear, but with a very bright Full Moon. Although it was windy conditions in Barrow in Furness I thought I would try Birkrigg. On arrival at Birkrigg; conditions were ideal, very sheltered and really clear on all horizons. Arrived and set the SkyWatcher 200p and EQ5 by 21:30 and the bright full moon was already well above the Eastern horizon and making the seeing anywhere East/South difficult to view. Took some shots with the DSLR and the C
RayGil

RayGil

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New Scope = More Cloud/Rain

Well the New Skywatcher 200p 8" Scope on a Sturdy EQ5 mount arrived on Saturday and although it's been set up and took out twice, suffered with cloud on both occasions. The EQ5 was chosen for it's build construction and it's ability to hold a large DSLR at the Eyepiece. The 8" scope should give a reasonable size object for the CCD Camera. Couple of photo's are with the DSLR inserted in the eyepiece with Zero magnification, Jupiter was very low in the Eastern dirty horizon and although did look f
RayGil

RayGil

2

Iphone Holder for Scopes

Well I finally got my Iphone holder, 1st one was damaged and then out of stock, but it has finally arrived. My initial tests were on my small refractor, and because it was in daylight the Sun was chosen as the object to find and then track. Holder was fitted and Iphone software GoskyWatch was chosen, and what a brilliant job it did, not only did it locate the Sun but centered it perfectly in the eyepiece, which now begs the question, will it do the same for DSO objects? and planets? My next set
RayGil

RayGil

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Perseid Hunt 15th August 2010

15th August 2010 Last night of the Perseid Meteor Hunt. This was actually my first late shift back after 2 weeks off work, and I finished work at 23:15, drove home and collected my camera equipment, checked with The Francinian sky boy (Ged) to make sure he was still going up to the Dark Sky observation site. Quickly realised I needed petrol and off to the 24hr garage, topped up the tank and got a few supplies, set off for Birkrigg Common and at the traffic lights I saw Ged waiting patientl
RayGil

RayGil

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Perseid Hunting 2010

Location: Birkrigg Common, Cumbria - Located Near Ulverston. Time: 23:00 - 02:15 Ray Gilchrist & Trina Gilchrist Between us we saw 64 Meteors, condition were very clear after the heavy rain, some cloud around but on the whole very good seeing condition. My images unfortunately suffer from Noise, and I did think I had cured this with experimentation. ISO/Exp/F Most were taken ISO 400, 15 Seconds at f/3.2 or f/2.7 Camera was a Canon s31S. Trying to photograph the Perseid shower is very di
RayGil

RayGil

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Sun Spots 12th August 2010

Managed a couple of images today, heard on twitter about the 1 sunspot splitting in 2, Nasa footage here: http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/~lmg/sunspot_split.mov So I checked my data from 09:00 - 10:30 this morning, it was cloudy so I was in & Out. I found this, Enhanced up of course, I cannot compete with NASA :D Shows the sunspot just after the split plus a group of 3 others. Ray
RayGil

RayGil

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Perseid Hunting

Thought I would try and capture a perseid meteor on Camera, but I'm struggling with finding a real Dark sky site in this location. Tried again last night but I am suffering light pollution creeping in. I have found the optimum setting for the Canon s31s camera, due to a lot of experimenting over the last month. 15 second exposures at f/3.2 with a wide 50mm lens gives a nice picture with background stars or in my case clouds :( 2 pictures showing what I mean. 1st is clouds, 2n is Perseid Meteor
RayGil

RayGil

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Observing Session 9th August 2010

9th August 2010 Observing Session at Walney Island (Not the Normal Site). After weeks of cloudy weather I was eager to actually get out and use the Skywatcher 130p scope again. checked the cloud situation and decided that it was clear enough to make the effort and pack the car with all the gear, final sky check 21:00, very light cloud and slight wind. Drove to the site, the decision to go to Walney instead of Birkrigg (which is my normal site) was based on conditions at 21:00 and also the fact
RayGil

RayGil

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Solar Imaging Between Clouds 5th August 2010

Clouds all Morning, but by 13:30 starting to clear up and more gaps were appearing. The scope was quickly set up from the now called "Solar Observing Hut", Laptop and CCD Camera set up. Finding the Sun is now getting a lot easier using the shadow method, and I decided to try the reducer lens for the NexImage camera, this has proved to work great on the Moon and gives a wider angle view. Focusing is still one of the main issues, but I think it's getting there, minute adjustments are difficult wi
RayGil

RayGil

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2nd August 2010: Solar Imaging.

Solar Imaging. 1st Attempt: Set the Scope up about 11:00 and got everything ready, there was cloud cover but it was moving South and leaving clear blue sky. Took about 9 CCD images, focusing was the main problem, one thing about the Sun is, it's so bright! Think I need to get something that will shade the eyepiece better, as the images from a normal eyepiece we really very good, when my wife arrived back from work, even she commented on the clarity of the image, 10mm, 20mm and the 32mm eyepieces
RayGil

RayGil

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