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Moon Mosaics and best Saturn yet

Last night really was just a play. A slow careful take your time, play. After some very dim footage of saturn and the moon were recorded it went off to bed and have just finished processing. By jove I think I have cracked it! Certainly the advice of underexposing by eye and enhancing after seems to work and with that in mind i present my best saturn yet and a (almost complete (doh)) lunar mosaic! [ATTACH]24[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]25[/ATTACH]
crowlord

crowlord

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Dear blog.....

.....I cant help but feel so totally frustrated at the moment. I'm just not getting any time outside and its doing my blumming head in. I took my time putting my kit together making sure what I have will keep me happy until I have learned how to use it all properly. I've had two very good clear nights with more than reasonable seeing and on both occasions I've either felt ill or my prolapsed disc is playing me up something rotten. Hopefully it wont last too long as I'm arranging my surgery Monda
simon84

simon84

1

Doubt and indecision...have I bought the right scope?

As a sufferer of depression yesterday was a bad day. Feeling frustrated and angry with no good reason at all. I had a nasty moment of doubt over the scope. had I done te right thing, did i buy the best scope, have i wasted my money etc. It occurrs to me that one way to dea with this is analyse it. It helps. My scope cost £240 and is one of these 130P Goto and after a month of ownership small niggles are getting to me... The focusser isnt at all accurate and quite tricky to get perfect, the mou
crowlord

crowlord

2

15/05/10

Scope: C100 EDR 100mm/900mm Lenses: Celestron Plossl 20, TeleVue Plossl 8, 2xBarlow Location: Back Garden Visibility: Good Light Pollution: High First Light with our new scope! While aligning the polar scope we realised that from the only level part of our garden Polaris is behind a tree. However I managed to see Polaris between a couple of leaves and we were ready to go. Looking West we spotted the new crescent moon below Venus and decided a nice big target like the moon would be a good t
gareththegeek

gareththegeek

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Saturn, Kids and Patio Doors

The first chance of a clear night on a day when my offspring could enjoy it obviously had them excited. I was excited for different reasons. I could check my Collimation after moving the primary up the tube. This seemed to work for focusing the toucam without the barlow so result. First off we started to look at saturn...and waited for the clouds to [removed word] off again. I used the time to introduce Jessica to Arcturus, Vega, Pollux and Castor and Ursa Major. Emily got rather bored and after
crowlord

crowlord

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Complete novice

Don't know why but starting to get interested in looking at stars/planets. I have been looking at making a strurdy frame work out of tube and clamps, have found these people www.alvinidustrial.eu who cut tube and provide clamps for a sturdy framework in my back garden. Now I need help on average type equipment with average costs to start my belated stargazing! Any members with assistance on this matter will be greatly appreciated. I have a modest budget, but am eager to proceed further. I have l
KENNYBAIN

KENNYBAIN

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Observing Session 002

13/04/2010 Time Started: 2145 UT Time Finished: 2230 UT Weather: clear and cold, hardly a breeze. Dark Sky Scale: 5, suburban sky. Transparency: 5, good. Seeing: 6, very good, hardly a shimmer. Celestron 15x70 binoculars used. Travelled a short distance from home to a place on the coast which although suffers from similar levels of lp to home has the sea and darkness as a backdrop. Taking advantage of the continuing clear evenings to observe and find my way around the night sky. Tonight i am con
Llamanaut

Llamanaut

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Llama in Space

I decided to get back into astronomy after watching "Wonders of the Solar System" with Prof Brian Cox on BBC2. Last time i looked through a telescope in anger i was 14! My first 'real' telescope was a shiny red tasco 60mm from my mum's catalogue. I remember being transfixed by the moon (to be honest it was probably all i could see with that scope) There wasn't any such thing as the internet then and all I learnt about astronomy came from books in the school library read avidly during lunchbreak.
Llamanaut

Llamanaut

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Hello

Hi there I'm new to all this, decided to join after my trouble with telescope planet I realised it would be wise to talk to experienced amateur astronomers! Can anyone tell me where's the best place to buy anything telescope from?
clellis84

clellis84

4

Who Stole The Stars

Haven't been able to get out with the scope recently due to clouds which only seem to come out at night so I have been thinking about what telescope to upgrade to replace the wobbly Bresser. I started off thinking of getting an Explorer 150PL, good value for money and a decent focal length to look at planets and forgive the use of cheaper lenses. Then I decided it would be better to stretch to the Explorer 200P and get a 'fast' scope, later on getting a slow refractor to compliment it. Then afte
gareththegeek

gareththegeek

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More playing with pics, my first honest to goodness fuzzy...and that damn streetlight

I set out determined to get a good image of Saturn tonight. I was using the Fuji s1000fd point and shoot bridge camera (Not quite a DSLR but not quite a compact) and was mounted afocally on a 25mm lens. The Skywatcher 25mm super cheapy lens seems to give me the best results but i do get some nasty chromatic aberrations, whetehr this is a collimation issue or the lense alignment or something else i dont know. I used the AVI mode to get some films that were hgely dissapointing, afocally the im
crowlord

crowlord

0

04/05/10 (Saturn on Star Wars Day)

I have just been working the most evil hellspawned shift pattern ever created. (5am wake up) and have actually been rather glad of the rubbish weather in the last few days. I managed to pop out a few days ago and just have a play with my newly collimated scope and was satisfied that it was performing better. I also wanted to use Venus (about the only target up there at 9pm for me) to checkif i had improved the stability. By the time the clouds had moved, so had Venus...behind the hedge:/ Packe
crowlord

crowlord

0

From absolute beginner to having half a clue.

Where to begin, at the start I suppose. I've had an interest in all things astro for years, right back from when, as a boy, my Dad would tell me tales of eclipses and meteorites and shooting stars. I loved sitting at the dinner table after the meal was finished and Mum was clearing away, thats when Dad would start telling my brothers and I all the fantastic stories of life on other planets and UFO's. One day he came home with a brown box with some bits and bobs poking out the top and announced t
simon84

simon84

1

I've been thinking...

As a newcomer to the world of amateur astronomy I've been thinking about recording some of my experiences, I am sure there are many who are just as new as I am, or thinking of taking the hobby up, who would like to hear what I have learned on my journey so far. Now that I have found an ideal place to do this I think I will... I have made some mistakes and I'd like to think I have learned some valuable lessons, if you interested, 'stay tuned' while I put fingers to keys and put some of it down in
johneast

johneast

1

help

can anyone tell me what I am doing wrongI cant see through the eye peice of my telescope which I was told to put a filter over the end to look at the sun
susan hunt

susan hunt

1

Clouds, Saturn and damn cheap webcams.

I was determined to get out last night. I sat at my PC checking out my VX1000 cheapo webcam and decided to have a play. I bit of fiddling got the case apart and the lens seen followed. The cam inself fist to the focal tube almost perfectly, just had to wait for night. The clouds moved swiftly in causing me huge alignment headaches. after a while i managed to get clear views of Capella and Acturus so we were go. I wanted the alignment for tracking (which i don't think works if not aligned). I
crowlord

crowlord

3

Telescope Planet Not Sent Telescope

Guy's, New to the hobby, saw the advert for Telescope Planet in Sky at Night magazine. Ordered it on 5th April. Couple books arrived and some cheap free binoculars. No Telescope. No telephone numbers worked over a 3 week period. Many emails ignored. Then finally Simon the so called proprietor replied appolgised and promised to send, plus free gift. Another 5 days went by. Again I had emails ignored, then again, Simon appologised and said it would go to the top of his agenda. To date no Telescope
pwinred

pwinred

0

The WOW Factor

On Wednesday night I had arranged to take the scope over to a friend's house, deep in the beautiful, dark countryside so show her and her dad the night sky. Everything was packed up in boxes and off I went. Only to arrive 20 minutes later without the tripod and mount! Grrr! A swift journey home and back again ensued and while there was still some light int he sky, I managed to set up in the back garden, cerfully positioning the scope so the only streetlamp for miles around was obscured by a thic
franticsmurf

franticsmurf

0

22/04/10

The evening was wonderfully still so I decided to take the oppurtunity to play with some more afocal photography. Miss Moon was highly obliging and I was quite please with my results althougth my cam does get some awful vignetting due to its powerful zoom lens. I then decided to just have a bit of a gaze and was glad of my moon filter. It truly can be dazzling cant it? After some lunar obs and subsequant drooling over the sheer clarity of the view I decided to take another look at my old darli
crowlord

crowlord

0

Ngc6910 the Rocking Horse Cluster

had a go at it last night with 10x50 binoculars, and yes it's there ! thanks Doc ! also think i spotted M29 - CYG. location looks very much alright, maybe need a somewhat brighter night to confirm. kind of looked like a fuzzy blurry spot...
Gill Rockwell

Gill Rockwell

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