Sunday, February 13th / 2011
The sun was setting, the clouds were nowhere to be seen and the thermometer was friendlier than the week before. I told myself: This is it and invited all those interested to come to my back porch to view the stars. Three teenagers came for a look as well as one tiny astronomer who's small stature was towered by my telescope. The people were all there enthusiastic to see what wonders were hidden in the night sky (not all at the same time though). It was
Hi all, it rained here at 4pm here in UK York, cleared up about 6pm so i grabbed the heritage 130p and set up, quick look at Orions sword, and Pielidies never disappoints me, over to Cassiopia, i am trying to find Andromeda, quick look on the stellarium, and well a bit disappointed just a smudge not the cigar shape i was expecting! using 10mm ep. If it was Andromeda. been pulling my hair out trying to find rose nebula, i lnow its off the shoulder of Orion betelgeuse and a bit down, theres a pink
Hi just got my first scope and need some advise on books to buy to tell me what i'm looking at and what to look at.. Could you also tell me what the bright object is in the south very early in the morning?? Thanks all
GOTO Telescopes. Being someone who has had both types of scopes and mounts I can honestly say I have learned more with the GOTO setup than I have ever learned with the manual set up. Previous to my current setup which is a SkyWatcher 200p (8” Mirror) and a EQ5 with SynScan GOTO added I have either manual mounts or mounts with a RA tracking motor for photography. Both Refractors and Reflectors and I certainly prefer reflectors unless you have a very large wallet. Now unless you use your telescop
Day one : A comedy start , at 3pm i rebuilt the tripod and telescope , this time reading the manual carefully ,(i think i was a bit excited when it first arrived ) 4pm: took telescope in to garden , lined it up with the north leg facing north , I couldn’t go any further with the set up at this point because clearly it was to light to see Polaris ( the north star)The next step is to line up the finder scope and the main scope so that they are pointing at the same object . “ The Moon” I thought “e
HI all and welcome did a few pics afocal cos it was really damp out last night the link below is to the pics a was use in this a/c for my cloud pics but can stick my moon and other astro pics in it as well the weather held for a few hoursand a ussed a iso of about 600 and set to infinity with about a 1/30 sec time with tripod and cam up to the eye piece they not brill but could ya let me no what ya think if ya get the time cheers pat http://s473.photobucket.com/albums/rr93/todd8137/moon/
Hi there all, sorry if i appear a bit thick on this question? But why is there no colour when viewing objects e.g Orions sword, pleidies, only see black and white, i have a heritage 130p reflector 25MM and 10mm ep only, do i need filters? or is it a case of bad light pollution? or other e.p sets? thanks yours paul.
Well I thought I'd blog the AOSX development to keep people aware it's still progressing nicely. My general approach to AOSX has been todo test projects and bring the knowledge into the main AOSX project. This has worked well, although I rethink for the internal communications has seen a rework of the code between the application and the service. It's not a massive change but it's cleaner and certainly more beautiful as an architecture. I've given myself a target for the end of Feb to get a code
A novice imager's diary
Wow! Never thought I'd write a blog, but here I am writing a blog.
There's no such word as Imager. But it's a hell of a lot quicker than typing astro-photographer! That's just an aside.
Why am I writing this? Good question. I've been doing this crazy hobby since September 2010. I'm obsessed with it, which probably isn't healthy. I do it, or something to do with it, when I should be doing other far more important things. While I'm typing this there are probab
hi was just wondering if anybody could give me some advice on this telescope as i have been left it by my dad its in very cood condition with a box of 25 lenes i want to try and sell it but dont know how much for or where any advice would be grateful thanks :)
Hello, Just thought I would mention this. i have had nothing but bad dealings with this company so far, and what is worse you will spend an age trying to get in touch with someone there to talk about your order. I recentley aquired a Skywatcher 130p from Scopes N Skies after waiting two weeks for what was then promised next day delivery I had changed my mind on the type of scope I was after. Now they retail at £174 inc free delivery (or so it states). After returning my scope I was going to repl
HELP!!!! I have a Skywatcher 300P FlexiTube Auto Dob, and have found out that these scopes are now available in GoTo form, but my version cannot be OFFICIALLY upgraded to GoTo. I have also been told by a reputable telescope supplier, who shall remain nameless, that there is a way to upgrade these scopes via the back door so to speak, though it can be a bit hit or miss. Can anyone out there throw any light on this, please? Ted
First Ever Telescope Viewing, and First Ever Blog!! Hi to anyone who's interested, hope you're well!! I ordered a Skywatcher Skyline 8" Dob about a month ago, it arrived a few days ago but until now it's been cloudy over light polluted London (esp. with the recyling plant running all night near me). Wow! What a first few hours!! First off I aimed my scope at the moon, almost half full, when I got worried... it seemed so bright I couldn't see any detail. I started fretting about not buying a pol
Hi all just a quick rant,well a set the scope and web cam up last night spc 900 and 12" and just wanted to give it a quick test.the moon was my test subject but a soon found the thermals and windy conditions were against me. but still a wanted a play with the settings sharpcap kept crashing so a had to use v lounge and a quick play about with the gain ect got it going a had just the cam in the eye piece a took a few vids and they were not bad a better tweak next time,would be better with
February 6th, 2011
5:00 am
The forecast the night before had predicted a cloud-free morning. I was excited by the news since it would give me the opportunity of viewing Venus and Saturn before the sun made it's appearance. There was only one thing on my mind when I awoke,.. to dress and make my way outside! I knew that Saturn's rings were nicely displayed (showing much detail) and I simply couldn't wait till May to see it during normal evening hours.
I quickly dressed and,... the
As a complete novice I was impressed with some of the photos of the moon and the planets I have seen on the web, so decided to look at the possibility of taking my own. Due to limited funds and a bit of research the Philips SPC880 web cam flashed to an SPC900 looked the best option. The webcam and a 1.25 adapter cost me £24. I would also recommend buying an IR/UV filter as the adapter does not have a lens or cover which leaves the ccd unit exposed, something I have now done (all part of the lear
Just taken delivery of my new cpc 800 and don't want to clonk it whilst transporting/storing. Has anyone used a suitcase as opposed to the £££££££jmi case?
After reading loads of reviews and a limited budget i have just bought a Skywatcher Skymax 127 with the intention of spending some quality time with my son watching and photographing the night sky. We are currently trying to learn our stars to be able to get the GOTO aligned and tracking. We have found the Stellarium software useful for this as a) it was free and b) we can take the laptop into the conservatory and line it up with the night sky and start trying to find the corresponding stars. Wh
Hi to one and all, M35 Open star cluster Messier 35 (M35, NGC 2168) is consisted of several hundred stars,to which popped out at me last night under partly cloudy skies and a bit windy ,is fairly easy once you recongize the constellation of Gemini. You’ll find it just a little more than the average field of view north of Eta – the centermost of the three “foot” on the northernmost twin. In the finderscope under low power it was easy to spot.32mm first then a droped down to 2
Following on from reminiscing about my childhood I thought I would tell you what I remember about the space race. Nothing.....! Not strictly true, but being born in 1967 I was a little young to take anything in really. I have vague recollections of the last Apollo missions, 16 an 17 I guess, but even then I was only 4 or 5 so it may be that I remember the "wash up" news items if you will. The final reporting on what had been achieved etc. What a shame for kids like me that the program was cance
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