So 2014 is now well upon us and to help motivate myself I have decided to make a public list of the things I plan to try and observe during the coming year. As i progress I will try my best to keep this list updated wth any I have managed to observe and others that I come across that I plan to observe.If any one has any sugestions for a newbie or something they feel may be a challenge then leave a comment for me! I will try to keep at least 5 active on here at any one time and any I manage to ob
Just an example of a typical quick observing session for me, trying to fit it in around 'life'! I have a baby due in a couple of weeks so we are manically preparing the house and nursery for the arrival. I set the TV76 and PST up in the garden early on Sunday morning, and during rests from painting skirting boards had some lovely white light and Ha views. My mini giro rig is working very well now, more compact with the shorter CW bar and L bracket. During breaks from assembling a flat pack IKEA
Well i have just got back from a week away with the girlfriend and a nice package from starlight instruments was at home waiting for me.
Astronomy does seem to bring the child out in me as I usually have to stop myself ripping boxes apart to get to the toys inside!!and boy,what a toy was waiting inside this box.
2" feathertouch focuser unit and SIPS module
fully built up unit
dismantled units
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Well they say start with the mount. - I got a AZ4 which I like and an Altair Astro 150 newt, which I also like. I also got fed up with ATM and not having much luck finding things, so I applied and got a 0% interest card and just bought a AZEQ6. - so spending ratio of scope to mount is almost exactly 1:10. Crazy. - but good. - but not as nice as saving up the cash for one up front (which I most likely would fail to do).
I have always had a keen intrested in all things space for as long as I can remember and although I would read lots of articles online, in magazines and in books I never really thought about getting out there and observing the night sky with my own 2 eyes. Thi was to change when on Chrismas day 2013 I unwrapped a gift from my mum which was a Skywatcher Mecury 707. I was really chuffed and couldn't wait to get out with it into the back garden, Naively I hadn't done much reading up on the observat
Hello Everyone!!! Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog. I intend this blog to run like a diary for all things astronomy in my life and will hopefully be able to keep it updated quite regular. I will start with this post and introduce myself along with some details of my equipment and my location (which is bathed in light polution). So if you didn't get it already my name is Andy and I live in a small town in newtownards thich is about 10 miles South East of Belfast (I'll expand more on
well there I have been sitting at home these last few nights seeing the clouds scudding across the sky, thinking that going out and setting up would be a waste of time and energy as I wont be able to see anything. Then I read DDs entry here and realise that it may not be perfect, but as i am coming from a base where i just look up at the sky with awe and dont really know what i am looking at, does it matter if it isnt exactly perfect? so despite the haze and thin cloud i went out last night, wit
Folks, don't worry - I've not disappeared. I have been DIYing two things: * Spectrometer - giving me chance to dogfood the drivers further, I have some changes and I'm up to R1.15 from the previously released R1.13. * Bathroom - mrs would like the bathroom finished; including new wider towel radiator (think soldering pipe extensions under floorboards), underfloor heating loop and tiling. I managed to shatter the outer toilet so add a new toilet to the mix. This has been taking my 4 days of carry
Not knowing how all this works here is the first entry into my experiences into Astronomy. The Very Beginning For years I've always been interested in the sky, the objects up there and much more like general and natural science to name but a few. I remember a very long long time ago at around the age of 12 I got a Tasco telescope for Christmas. It wasn't nothing special (under today's standards it is very poor), but it was mine. All it really got used for was some daytime viewing which wasn't th
Here is the program I am basing this off of: https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/challenge-modeling-accretion-disks/1180451277?qa_expand_key=ag5zfmtoYW4tYWNhZGVteXI1CxIIVXNlckRhdGEiEnBldGVyLmNvbGxpbmdyaWRnZQwLEghGZWVkYmFjaxiAgICA8a6-Cgw Here is my program with a few changes: https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/more-realistic-galaxy/5885768234958848 In this I include all different kinds of stars and I can look up their solar mass limits. I also made it like a midnight blue instead of like black so that if
Hi to everyone, My first blog, and my chance to thank many of you, for during the past 12 months I have consulted these forums many, many times for guidance in buying equipment. I settled on a Skywatcher Explorer 200p, and a Skywatcher Evostar 120, both sharing an EQ5, with a selection of BST and Meade 4000 eyepieces, plus Celestron Ultima Barlow 2.5x, and Panaview 32mm ( 2" eyepiece). This equipment has allowed me more than a few ' WOW' moments, such as the supernova in M82, and in the last 7da
Hi All - I've just taken up astro again after 30 years away doing physics. I hope I will be able to contribute to the lounge when I've had more experience in future. I'm mainly interested in equipment and astrophotography. Currently I have a Meade 4504 but am using the goto mount with a Canon 500D and various lenses to start. I have a beginner's question: All stars are point objects irrespective of their brightness. I thought the image size of a point object is the Airy Disc size and does no
Falling behind on your mortgage payment is never a good thing. But it's especially stressful when you're already retired and trying to get by on a fixed income. If you're retired and find yourself in a situation where you can no longer afford your mortgage, you may be wondering what your options are. Here is some general advice. Loan modification Before making any drastic decisions, a good first option is to look into a loan modification. If your mortgage payments are simply too high and a lower
well, last night, the sun had shone during the afternoon - after the hailstorm! - so it was with anticipation that the journey home occured. I got home just after dark, read the info about setting up the GO-TO function, had supper and outside i went, well wrapped up, cold wasnt a problem. I carried the scope onto the common and went through the set up procedure. The long and lat were expressed in different ways, but i got round that. Had difficulty reading the script on the hand set. is this bec
The colour display and processing is now completed. You can edit edit each colour channel separately or as one. The histogram display shows each colour channel so should allow the right tweaks to get a nice balanced colour. Results so far with sample Lodestar-C images have been encouraging. Looking forward to seeing some future results when people give it a go under the stars. I still only have the Lodestar-M - I didn't buy a Lodestar-C at Astrofest. Also working on a better zoom mode, the curre
Left the tripod out and switched things around to add the Genesis alongside the 76 for a bit of side by side on Jupiter and a few other favourites. There is no adjustment horizontally so they are not quite lined up, but near enough. Will try another configuration to see if I can sort that. Jupiter was looking very nice, a reasonable amount of detail visible. I could just see the GRS coming round the corner but unfortunately it clouded over before it transited. Some nice detail in the belts, and
Despite being on decorating duty today, I managed to pop the scopes out this afternoon for a quick look at the sun. I have acquired a couple of bits to make my mini giro setup a little more compact, namely a 13cm counterweight bar (Teleskop Service) and smaller L-bracket (365 Astronomy), and was just wanting to try them out. All worked well, the mount is still well balanced and moves smoothly. It's quite easy to align the PST and 76 so that they both point at the sun, avoiding constant movement
I thought I would start this off as a way of logging what is possible with a small refractor under poor, urban skies. By poor, what do I mean? Well I live a few miles south of Heathrow, which basically wipes out most things to the north. I am on the edge of Walton on Thames, and have a relatively decent southern view over fields, but there are houses in the way so the seeing is often mixed. My NELM is normally around 4.2 to 4.5 but can be better or much worse depending on the transparency. Backg
So the sun had shone in the afternoon, the clouds were scudding across the sky and by the time i got home there were these twinkling things in the sky! so it was windy and clouds, but there were breaks in those clouds and i had had enough of waiting! so out came the scope, set up in the front garden as I wanted to quickly move it undercover if started raining, didnt bother with aligning the scope, but pointed it straight at Jupiter, first thing to please me was that the red dot finder was perfec
I had decided long ago that I wanted to go above the mainstream 8x50 finder for my 22" build and had settled on an 80mm finder guider scope.well yesterday it arrived and it's awesome!!! It may look a bit on the big side but at 1.2kg it's quite light.it also comes with a straight through focuser which is good because I prefer a straight through finder. Feathertouch focuser with SIPS coma corrector is on order from the states so hopefully that will be here in a week or two. No grinding updates b
well here we are, set up the scope on saturday, charged the battery, took the scope outside in the little bit of sunny weather we had, aligned the red dot, bit difficult in the sunlight, but with a bit of shading of the object manged it, i hope! so, it is daylight and let me start playing with it in the daylight whilst i can still see, connect the battery and switch on - nothing - fiddle with all the connections - still nothing - stiff upper lip and as it is easier to take the battery back to th
Well everything seems to be moving along quickly now as im around 5mm sagittal on the mirror grind and ive just sold my 16" Lightbridge and my paracorr and my 30mm es 82 is provisionally sold.I have also just placed an order for a starlight feathertouch focuser with the SIPS coma corrector system and an altair 80mm finderscope package.at this moment im technically scopeless,I only have a pair of 15x70 binos to keep me company until my mirror grind and scope build is finished so looks like that i
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