Gfamily

As is mentioned upthread, the easiest way to switch off the automatic dark frame exposure is to use the autobracket mode BRK C 0.3ev, when using Bulb. The camera then thinks the image you're taking is the first of three and doesn't do the dark frame. Very easy.

I'm on the AstroMailBox mailing list, and the following has come in from Prof Andew Newsam at Liverpool John Moores University This may be of interest to someone here, or alternatively, you may know someone who would find this worth following up. Subject: Job: The Schools' Observatory: Liverpool, 5 year, full-time, Closing Date 29/4/24 Hello. We've got an exciting new role at the Schools' Observatory (https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/). We're on the lookout for someone passionate about astronomy to help us integrate the Faulkes Telescope Project with The Schools' Observatory. Your role? Develop exciting and educational observing experiences for schools using our Go Observing system and the Las Cumbres Observatory network. What we're after: * Knowledgeable in astronomical observation techniques * Ready to expand our catalogue of celestial objects for schools * Can connect telescope data to educational materials Ideal candidate: * Degree or equivalent in astronomy or related field * Hands-on telescope observing experience * Loves school-level education * Team player extraordinaire Sound like you? There is more information here: https://jobs.ljmu.ac.uk/vacancy/observational-data-and-development-officer-fixed-term-for-5-years-554934.html All the best Andy (Schools' Observatory Director)

Actual cloudy nights is probably why this has expanded to almost 60 pages.

HEQ5 with Rowan Belt mod - £1300; Starfield 102 - £900; ASI 585 - £380 vs Seestar 50 - £550

On the Welcome forum, Welcome anyway, but we'd love to hear more about you.

If you go to Google Books, you can use the filters to only look back at books from the 19th Century, and then search for solar observations - this might give you some insight into how solar astronomy was done in the past. Not necessarily good science (after all, it's less than 100 years since anyone knew that the Sun was mostly made of Hydrogen and Helium rather than the heaviw elements found on Earth), but a good record of observations.

Oh well, if you insist... The view from the coffee benches and (as it happens) most of the scopes visible in the image would have been Skywatcher branded. Yes, though it has to be said, there's a lot of new glass, either 'big' or 'interesting' so would catch attention.

An alternative suggestion is to remove the dovetail and pair it with Tube Rings to hold the OTA.

Ah, scratch that - Mercury won't be visible, as it's between us and the Sun, and less than 2% illuminated. A thought though.

In preparing my "What's up in April" sides for yesterday's Club meeting, I mentioned that the only planets visible in the night sky next month are Jupiter and Uranus, as the others are all too close to the Sun I now realise that for anyone living on the track of the Total Solar Eclipse, this gives the chance for a Solar System Family Portrait using a panorama of two or three images. Uranus and Jupiter are about 30 degrees from the Sun, whereas Mars and Saturn are about 36 degrees on the other side. Worth a go, if the opportunity arises - and if you include the horizon, it'll be the full 8 planets.

It did strike us that some of the space near the cafe area could have had a small stage where people could give talks. Would need chairs etc setting out, but I gather that the absence of speakers was a disincentive for some previous patrons of the PAS.

It's the first trade event we've been to since before 2020, so it's hard to compare. It was nice to run into a few familiar faces, some from close to home, and some from further afield that we'd met at things like the much missed Solarsphere. Bought a couple of filters and a second hand book, and admired some of the glass and mounts on display.

Don't worry, none of them are essential, though practicing aligning the RDF is something worth trying before you want to do it in earnest. Streetlights or distant aerials can be good substitutes for stars or the moon.

A few new members of our Astro Group had recently bought telescopes, but weren't sure about how to get the most from them. So we had a session with 2 or 3 'experienced' users to help out 5 'newbies'. The main problem is that our weather is so dreadfully unpredictable, so planning ahead is always going to be very conditional. In the end we said, "hang it; if it's cloudy, at least we can go through the motions" and went ahead last Wednesday. In the end, we had some breaks in the clouds and we could see the Moon, Jupiter and the Pleiades. This was taken fairly early in the evening - showing how to set up being easier when there's a bit of light in the sky. Very likely we'll do something similar next autumn, when it gets dark at a reasonable hour.

If you contact the Dumfries Astro Society, they may be able to help your daughter get the advice she's looking for. They seem to meet on the second Tuesday of the month - https://dumfriesastronomy.wordpress.com/ Otherwise, there are several nightscape tutorials online (though I can't comment on their quality), for example - https://nightscapephotographer.com/category/tutorials/

Plus 1 - for all the same reasons (well, I don't have a Quark, but y-know!) To think I didn't have a 'frac until I borrowed one a couple of years ago, and now it's the one I always start with.

Ding ding ding (alert for Jim) Update - The run has been extended to October. From 19th June it'll be showing Wednesday pm to Saturday until 13th October. I think it's still worth adding to your list https://lightroom.uk/whats-on/the-moonwalkers/ We enjoyed the similar Hockney exhibition that's playing Sunday-Wednesday am from 17th June

FLO have an OVL one for £89 https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/ovl-field-flattener.html

Working downwards in size Meade LS8 8" SCT - hardly ever used now - must get it to a dark sky site Skywatcher 127mm Mak Skywatcher 102mm Mak Skywatcher ST80 - needs fixing Altair Lightwave 72 ED - my 'goto' Az GTI mount, plus a couple of SynScan mounts, with 1 Synscan WiFi module available Plus an old unmounted Meade 114mm Newtonian as I donated the handset to someone who could make use of it

My favourite dwarf galaxy - the age profile of its stellar population indicates that it's about 200 million years old - less than one orbit of the Solar System around the galaxy - and incidentally, means there were already mammals on Earth when it formed. I wonder if it's formed from material disrupted from the interaction between M81 and M82.

I don't know if anyone's looking at doing a Messier Marathon, this year, if so I have versions of Don Machholz's proposed sequence in a couple of formats. Google Sheets - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L2jp_22MnaoI4cD_hnvzZvcM8z2pLOATz35xKsvpAwE/edit?usp=sharing Skysafari skylist Messier Marathon.skylist You may find that downloading from here adds '.txt' to the filename, remove that to allow it to be imported into Skysafari (works on version 6 Plus)

This is a book I was given when my interest was starting - about 50 years ago. However, I've not been able to find where my old copy is, despite looking several times over the last ~15 years. But seeing a copy in a National Trust second hand bookshop... well, that's not to be sniffed at.

I can't say it's this for sure, but as a camera designed for domestic use, your Canon would automatically be presenting the image as inverted relative to how it was detected on the sensor (because that's what we expect with a camera). It's possible that when the raw data is packaged as a FITS format file, the inversion is not applied.

A couple of times, when we wanted to try and catch up with some astronomy after visiting MrsG's mum in WsM General Hospital, we'd drive out to a layby on Webbington Road below Crook Peak - it's not perfect, but it has a good view to the South, and the road it's on isn't too busy. The hills to the north, block out a fair amount of light from the nearby towns. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.2914226,-2.8726762,3a,75y,145.94h,82.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1srV41ZsdzUioJWzWj0TgW3g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

If you don't have a view of things up to a kilometre away, don't worry - if something is about 100 metres away, the difference in focus position is only a bit over 4mm (which is about 2/3 of a turn of the focuser), so it's not critical. If you can get a focus on anything over about 50m away (1.5 turns), then you will be able to get focus on something at infinity. Just to confirm; when extending the telescope, has it gone as far as the 'click'?