eifionglyn

How about a planet like Uranus where the axis of rotation has been tilted ~90 degrees with respect to orbital plane, but where the planet is close enough to it's parent star that it's tidally locked. With the billions of potential exoplanets out there I'd be surprised if this hasn't happened at least once.

Thankyou for the replies, it is nice to know I am not just shouting (typing?) into the void here I didn't know one could record observations on Sky Safari. Thanks for the pointer. I will have to investigate.

Not on the AZ5 unfortunately, the mount comprises of an offset arm, which can be adjusted in a few positions, but is intended for OTA's with the dovetail on the right hand side of the tube. Of course, anything in tube rings doesn't matter as it can be rotated as needed. I carefully removed the finder bracket to find there are no nuts, captive or otherwise inside the tube, but simply threaded holes in the tube to bolt the shoe on so that is OK. Some 3M pads won't work, as the finder bracket doesn't have a substantial flat surface area to stick to, it's a wide upside-down U section. I think a Rigel quick finder is the way to go, was hoping to have something sorted out before payday but will have to wait!

Hi, With the opposition of Mars only a few weeks away, I want to make sure I'm equipped to observe it, so out came the trusty old Skywatcher 102mm Mak. Of the scopes I own, it will give me the best views I think on a small bright target. Here it is, which shows my problem: This particular OTA was sold as a package with an EQ mount, hence the placing of the finder bracket opposite the dovetail rail. I don't have the equatorial mount anymore, and the scope is used with the AZ5, however the placement of the finder bracket is now really awkward. I'd like to move it to the top of the tube, and possibly nearer the front, somewhere around where the skywatcher logo is. If this were a Newtonian, I'd simply unmount the mirrors, drill some new holes in the tube and that would be done, but it's not. It's closed front and back, so drilling new holes will end up with the tube full of debris that's tricky to get out and will damage the optical surfaces. Are there self-adhesive pads that will actually self adhere properly over time? Or another way to attach a new finder? Also regarding moving the original bracket. I take it the bolts go into a captive nut on the inside - can anyone confirm? Or will unscrewing them result in having a nut or two rattling around inside there forever? Any advice gladly received. Thanks, Eifion

Thanks! I have thought about sketching, but the problem with that, for me at least, is you've got to be able to draw, at least to some extent. 🤣

September 24th - A couple of Globs. With the moon now reached first quarter last night would be the last chance for observing without it spoiling the show. In my north facing back garden, the ecliptic is still low enough in the sky that the house hides the moon directly, but is glow was already washing out some contrast. I placed my improvised light shield on the trellis section of the fence, blocking out most of the annoyances from my neighbour's solar powered garden lights, and waited impatiently for the rest of the family to stop doing unreasonable things like turning the bathroom light on to brush their teeth. This evening I am trying the Heritage 130p, but on the AZ5 mount. The Heritage's tabletop dob base is great for its compactness, but I find it actually quite awkward to use, you can either get the eyepiece or the finder in a comfortable spot, not both. Unlike many dobs, the Heritage 130 comes with a dovetail rail, allowing a variety of mounting options, and placing it on the AZ5 is a definite quality of life upgrade. Eventually, acceptable darkness was achieved, and I quickly pointed the scope at Andromeda to see if I could spot a hint of its companions. Nothing was visible so once again they have eluded me. Will the 130 show them? Will it show them from my bortle 4/5 skies? So onward to the evening's targets, attempting pick up as many 'summer constellation' objects as I can before the disappear for the year. We look for M56 in Lyra. It's found without too much trouble, and in the 130 appears as small concentrated globular cluster, but quite distinct from the background. Next is M71, another globular cluster, and easily found. Point your red dot midway between the Gamma and Delta stars in Sagitta and it will lie in a low power field at the eyepiece. Bigger than M56, but not as obviously distinct from the background. Neither globs are much to look at, and in my equipment did not resolve any individual stars. Gamma and Delta Sagitta again prove useful, making an almost right angle triangle with M27, the dumbbell nebula. With the combination of moonlight and LP I did not have much expectations from this, but when it came into view I was quite surprised. It's much bigger than I expected, clearly elongated, with narrowing in the middle. To be able to view an object like this, over 1200 light years distant, its light starting its journey some 2 centuries even before the birth of King Alfred (I'm observing from his birthplace so seems apt to take that as my reference point), and being focused into my eyes is quite something. Even more to be able to so with what is really very inexpensive equipment. I spent a good while enjoying this planetary nebula. By now the Pleiades have risen out of the light pollution in the east and just above the garden fence, so I point the scope at them to and get M45 ticked off my list. I'm not sure why Messier included it in his catalogue, it's quite clearly not a comet, even by the most cursory observation with the naked eye, but I always do like the first evening of the year that I spot it rising. For me it's the harbinger of winter, and hints at the wonders the winter skies have in store for us. Running total 10 found, 100 to go.

September 17th - Back on it. So now we have astronomical dark back, and it's starting to get dark at a time that's compatible with also getting up for work I no longer have to wait for those nights where no moon coincides with clear skies and weekends. By 9:30pm the ST80 was out on the new AZ5 for the first time. Well for the first time for astronomical work anyway, it's spent the summer set up in my home office pointing at my bird feeder with a 45 degree erect image diagonal. Rather than spotting sparrows, tonight we are spotting open clusters. M29 and M39, both in Cygnus. They are well positioned at the moment, high up in the evening. While I'm there I first point the scope at Albireo, the contrasting coloured double that makes the beak of Cygnus' swan. It allowed my to check the finder alignment, and it's always pretty so why not. I'm always surprised just how much 'stuff' is up there, even shown in a very modest scope under my suburban skies. M29 is quite an easy find, just south of bright star Sadr, though open clusters don't always jump out at you from the background in the way globulars do, but remembering that M29 is also knows as the 'clooling tower' it's very easy to spot. The little cluster of stars really does have the outline of a power station cooling tower. Onward to M39. This was a tricky find for me. Few naked eye stars in the region, and with only a red dot finder. Rho and Sigma Cygnus were at the very limit of naked eye visibility, now that my eyes had adapted somewhat. And M39 is about 5 degrees north of Rho. I put the red dot approximately where it should be and moved to the eyepiece. With a little slewing around on the slow motion controls, another region of increased star concentration appeared. Was this it? A quick google image search allowed me to match up the patterns in the cluster I was seeing in the scope with images of the cluster and confirmed I had indeed found M39. Well that's two more done, let's quickly bag a third. By now Andromeda is starting to rise out of the murk in the east, so over we go to find M31. The galaxy is big and easy to spot. However it still low down in the eastern sky, I'm looking through lots of atmosphere and light pollution here and can only see the core, with the faintest hints of it being elongated. While I can tick off M31, there is no sign at all of its companions, M32 and M110 so they will have to wait until Andromeda is better positioned, or I've gone to a darker site, or acquired more aperture. Next time I will fit the extension column to the AZ5 to put the eyepiece at a more comfortable height - or use a shorter chair. My 'observing' chair is in fact a chair meant for ironing for those who can't stand for long, so is quite high, and perfect for an 8 or 10 inch dob. I really like the AZ5 as an easy to use smooth and stable mount, and has been great value as I get use out of it during the day too. The ST80 continues to impress, I'm always surprised at just how much this little scope will show you, rather than being disappointed by what it wont. Sunday evening is currently looking good, so time to pick more targets.

May 20th, 2020 - Galaxy Hunting. With spring rapidly turning into summer, I thought it prudent to bag some Ms in the constellations listed as 'spring' before they disappear off the western horizon, so I turn my attention to Canes Venatici, which contains thre Messier objects to find. M63 the Sunflower Galaxy, M51 the Whilrpool Galaxy, and poor old M94 that doesn't get a name and has to make do with being M94. Canes Venatici is a tricky one, only two naked eye visible stars from my skies, Cor Caroli and Chara, and except for M94 none of them near to the target objects. M94 though makes a nice triangle with the two stars so we'll start there. As I was going after galaxies, I got the biggest aperture scope I have out - the mighty 130mm Heritage Dob. Wow this is tricky to use for targets near overhead. The contortions needed to get your eye in line with the red dot finder can't be sustained for any length of time. Put the scope on a platform so its finder is high enough to be comfortable and the eyepiece is out of reach. Well I see nothing in the eyepiece, and I'm not sure I'm even looking in the right place. What's that to the west though? Ah, Leo. Many stars to act as anchor points, it's a little lower, and more comfortable to view with the table-top dob, and a veritable cornucopia of galaxies to tick off. So I line up on where the Leo Triplet should be. That should get me M65, M66 and NGC3686 as a bonus. Still nothing. Nada, not a hint of a maybe. Either I'm not pointing in the right place - or the 130 doesn't have the light gathering to show galaxies. Then again, didn't Messier himself do most of his work with a 3.5-inch achromat, which we can only imagine even the most modest of amateur instruments manufactured today would outclass. He was, however observing in pre-industrial France, not contending with 21st century suburban light pollution so there is that. Let's assume for a moment though that the Heritage's 130mm mirror is man enough. The problem with attempting to star-hop using a red-dot is, well that you can't. The eyepiece, even at the lowest power available, shows way too many stars, and a much too narrow field of view to have any hope of matching what you see in the eyepiece to a recognisable asterism on the chart. The charts are printed with a modest magnifying finder in mind. That 250 had a 9x50 RACI finder on it. Why did I sell that again... And so dejected I packed up, with my tally of Ms remaining at 3.

May 19th, 2020 first night out. Hercules is well positioned, rising in the east, and oh dear what's this? a security light from down the street pointing straight out, and the house next door has gathered a collection of solar powered decorative garden lights since I last did this. OK, we will adapt. The security light eventually extinguished, and careful positioning blocked the garden lights. I can see where I am in the sky and start to get my bearings again. A very rough polar aligment (ie, pointing it north-ish) and I put the red dot finder over where M13 should be. And sure enough, it's still there. Small, fuzzy, just a hint of granularity in the 102 Mak. Starting to regret selling the big dob, but appreciate keeping the oject in view with only one control. The old faithful Pocket Sky Atlas says there's another cluster in Hercules, M92. So the mount is slewed in that general direction, and with a bit of hunting it also appears. Success! Smaller, but to my eyes brighter and more pleasing than M13, and M13 gets called the 'Great Cluster' By now I see Lyra has appeared, so off we go and pick up M57 at least. The focal length of the Mak helps here, clearly showing the ring shape, but lacking the aperture to pick up the central star. Why did I sell that 250 again? It's getting late now so I pack up, 3 down, 107 to go.

I've had a range of scopes and mounts over the years, buying and selling as interest waxes and wanes, the largest being a 250mm Dob. With my interest in astronomy picking up again recently, the collection now includes a Heritage 130, an ST 80 (which is mostly used with an erecting diagonal as a spotting scope) and the Skymax 102 Mak on an EQ3-2. Rather than just go through the easy to find old favourites, I thought I'd set myself the challenge of observing all of the Messier catalogue, and recording it. So I made a spreadsheet, and set about observing. And then I thought why not add the observing reports here too. Feel free to chime in with a 'well done' or a 'you're doing it all wrong, you idiot' 🙂

So tonight we have the opportunity to shoot the Moon, Venus and the ISS passing relatively close. I plan to shoot this with my Lumix G9 with a 12mm lens, so 24mm in 35mm equivalent. The 500 rule tells me I can expect a 20 second exposure before the stars start trailing. But in 20 seconds, the ISS won't have moved very far across the frame, in fact Stellerium tells me that I'll take about 3 minutes for the ISS to pass through the frame. What I want to achieve is the Moon, Venus and stars acceptably sharp and have the entire 3 minutes of the ISS pass represented as a trail, in one image. I have no tracking, just a regular photo tripod. What's the best way to go about this? My plan is to take multiple 20 second exposures and combine them, but obviously as the earth rotates the stars and moon will trail too. Is there software that can take the individual 20 second exposures and align the stars in each - but then that will make a curve in the ISS trail. How would you go about capturing this and representing it one image?

So now the AZ-GTI has an update that allows it to operate in equatorial mode, I assume it can do the same job as a StarAdventurer mount - i.e. mount a camera to it for wide(ish) field astrophotography. Why would I pick one over the other?

They're not *that* big - have you seen one in the flesh (in the metal?) The base of the 200 (and the 250 if I remember right - I've had both) fits with room to spare on a 600 x 600mm paving slab, and they're about four or five foot tall. Could be squeezed in a corner or behind a sofa somewhere. Certainly less of a storage issue than anything that sits on a tripod (assuming you're not collapsing the tripod every time). As for Home Office approval - it's always better to seek forgiveness than permission! The 250 was about the limit for what could be shifted about the garden by one person. It also comes in a flextube version which is more compact to store - but heavier. The 200 is easy - often didn't bother taking the tube off the rocker box, just carry the entire thing out in one go. I have the heritage and a 102 mak at the moment - just getting back into the hobby. If I find by the winter I'm getting good use of them I'll definitely be adding an 8 or 10 inch dob to the collection. Probably an 8 - they seem to come up for sale more often, but I do remember the 10 showing me stuff the 8 couldn't - from my skies anyway. I have an ebay alert set should one come up for a good price locally. Jupiter is nearing opposition if you want to impress the Home Sec. Bright, but annoyingly low in the sky in the south east after sunset.

Yeah definitely not coming up for me, on an Android phone or iPad. The comparison chart at https://skysafariastronomy.com/skysafari-6-professional-astronomy-telescope-control-software-for-android.html says that Telescope Equipment Settings and Coordinate Grids and Reference Lines are two of the many features on in the plus or pro versions. Seems likely that ability to flip the display would be included in those features. Now to decide if I want the android or iOS version.

Can’t seem to make it work. Maybe it’s only in the premium version.