Gfamily

It's worth letting people know that because you're in the dark, you can keep both eyes open - which makes it much more comfortable.

There used to be a really useful android app called SynScanInit that used to give the expected format for entering location and datetime details - for some reason it's no longer available on Google Play, but it is available to download as an apk from the link below; however, I cannot guarantee the security of the link itself so at your own risk... https://apkcombo.com/synscaninit-2/com.RapidoDroid.synscaninit2/ Or you can keep a note of the format details for future reference.

No real further information, but a couple of blog entries (not mine - just one I found) that might be of interest. (Obituary of Ronald Irving) http://www.brayebrookobservatory.org/BrayObsWebSite/HOMEPAGE/RNIrving_obit.html An article about another manufacturer who may have used Irving parts http://www.brayebrookobservatory.org/BrayObsWebSite/HOMEPAGE/forum/So Called Telescope Makers.html

I don't expect there will be much of a problem with the power supply. As for the mount - it's not one that I have used myself, but if it has a handset like the one below - the Location details should be entered as 001⁰ 29W - 52⁰ 55N and (as has been said) Time Zone should be 00:00 then Time 21:43:20 DaylightSaving = YES (for the next few months) What alignment method are you using?

Hi - two questions if you don't mind... Which mount do you have ? What power source are you using?

There seems to be a significant collection of material related to HN Irving at the Science Museum in London. https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap20625/h-n-irving-son

And here's the whole thing as far as I can tell - descriptions in German and French https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Allgemeine_Beschreibung_und_Nachweisung/NUlRAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bode&printsec=frontcover Measurements seem to be given in Grads, Minutes, Seconds - I gather Grads were a regular angular measure in German speaking lands, they were defined to have 100 Grads in a right angle. (One feature of the use of Grads, is that with the metric measurement system, 1 Grad on the Earth's surface represented a distance of exactly 100km)

There is a reduced catalogue of double stars based on Bode's 1801 catalogue in a 1822 "Memoir of the Royal Astronomical Society" It's available via Google Books here (catalogue starts on p115) I'll keep looking through Google Books to see if I can find more..,

Buying property isn't difficult, but you can only stay for 90 days out of every 180 - and it's not so easy to buy stuff in UK to take out there on a permanent basis (we took our e-bikes out during the transition period in 2020; since then there's a limit of about 400 euros before you need to declare and maybe pay duty on stuff).

Nice - we have bought next to Astrofarm France in the Charente, not too far north of you. We're out there for most of August, so if you fancy booking a couple of nights for astronomy, I'm sure Sue would love to hear from you.

I've not used computer control from a laptop, but my first thought is to check that Stellarium has your correct location

Yes, that's the one I was thinking of. Not dependent on any relativistic effects/Lorenz contraction or similar - just on Maxwell's finding that photons have momentum. ETA - of course, you can't separate out 'momentum carried by photons' from other aspects of light etc.

The derivation I recall was to consider two plates facing each other. Given the relationship between photon wavelength and momentum, you can show that if a photon of energy E is emitted from one plate and absorbed at the other, this is equivalent to a mass transfer of E/c^2 from one plate to the other.

A friend mounted the guidescope on his counterweight bar. This was when his EQ6 motherboard had burned out and he was forced to use his small refractor on his Star Adventurer. He was able to reduce the overall payload by transferring some of the payload to the counterweight

The area of the Koch snowflake converges to a finite value, but the limit of the perimeter is infinite.

If you scroll down on the data for JWST there seem to be multiple streams listed - so the upstream is 16kb/s, but there are two 28Mb/s and one 40 kb/s downstream signals UP SIGNAL SOURCE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE TYPE DATA DATA RATE 16.00 kb/sec FREQUENCY 2.09 GHz POWER TRANSMITTED 4.88 kW DOWN SIGNAL SOURCE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE TYPE DATA DATA RATE 40.00 kb/sec FREQUENCY 2.27 GHz POWER RECEIVED -122.79 dBm (5.26 x 10-19 kW) DOWN SIGNAL SOURCE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE TYPE DATA DATA RATE 28.00 Mb/sec FREQUENCY 25.90 GHz POWER RECEIVED -91.39 dBm (7.26 x 10-16 kW) DOWN SIGNAL SOURCE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE TYPE DATA DATA RATE 28.00 Mb/sec FREQUENCY 25.90 GHz POWER RECEIVED -95.70 dBm (2.69 x 10-16 kW)

I'm sure many people know about this site, that shows you transits of the ISS and the Moon https://transit-finder.com/

Just a quick note to say the two books I ordered (DDSs-N and DDSOs) arrived today and I'm blown away by how good they are. Far easier to navigate than the PDF versions, and they look very good on the page. MrsG was similarly impressed and we're looking forward to using them when we're next out at Astrofarn France. Many many thanks @Ags, I'll let people see them at the next meeting of our astronomy group in July. EDIT I should point out I ordered from Lulu, which means I have the spiral bound version. I can see this will significantly improve the usefulness in the field. I also see that Amazon don't offer it in a Spiral binding, so it's worth having a think about how you'll use it before deciding where to buy. Personally I avoid Amazon unless there's absolutely no alternative (there usually is an alternative 😊)

I'd say there are two measures in your query - "brightest" and "most recognisable", and although there is a certain amount of overlap, I think that your list is fair as regards brightness, but not so good as regards recognisable. My guide here is the "if you were out under broken clouds, and saw constellation 'X' through a gap, would you know what it was?" Here, there are some smaller constellations that would be higher up the list, doing better than their brightness would suggest - I'm thinking particularly of Lyr and Del as good examples, and I'd say that CrB is another. As for the constellations that are on your list, I would put Cas and Sgr far higher than 13 and 18 respectively.

The Deep Space Network status page is available here

I've got a 102 mm Skywatcher Mak, and although it's adequate for the Moon and planets, it didn't real give me what I want for DSOs. For faint fuzzies like Galaxies and PNs, it didn't really give enough of a contrast gain to take advantage of the magnification, whereas for star clusters, its field of view is relatively small so they don't really show at their best (I like to see them against the background distribution of stars). On the other hand, I've recently bought a 72mm ED refractor that gives wonderful views of clusters and is capable of surprising levels of magnification for planets and the Moon. Yes, there isn't anything much that it can do for galaxies and PNs, but then again, I wouldn't have got much with the Mak either. As for their relative weights - the 102mm Mak weighs about 1.9kg, whereas the refractor weighs 2.5kg. These may be a bit higher than you're hoping for, but you might find the info useful.

As I'm using SS6 for the scope control, I like to use the correct view for the general whole sky view and selecting the next targets. I don't want to be changing settings when I zoom in for the reversed image eyepiece view. As far as I'm aware there's no setting to allow the image alignment to auto switch at a certain zoom level. Mainly this. In addition, I find the Stellarium + slider to set the magnitude limit quicker to reach through the menu system. ETA : It helps that I got both apps when they were on half price, so I feel that I've not overspent. I'm really waiting for the Sky Guide app to come out on Android, as I know Jen Millard who writes the science pages.

Have you tried the free versions of either/both? Those should show you what to expect from each. I used to prefer the original iteration of Stellarium, but the more recent version that they used for the Plus version seems a bit clunkier. Sky Safari has more options, but some of the defaults (graphics, sounds, animations) were just annoying (to me YMMV), so it's taken a while to get used to it. I now use Sky Safari Plus (the intermediary version) for controlling my telescope, and Stellarium + (very much zoomed in - and with the field of view reversed) at the eyepiece to allow me to confirm what I'm seeing

There are a number of issues that can have an impact on the quality of the image at the eyepiece. Some may be environmental, such as; in the summer, the moon can be relatively low in the sky, so turbulence in the thicker depth of atmosphere can affect the view. Similarly, depending on the position of the jetstream, high altitude winds can cause poor viewing. ( see here https://www.netweather.tv/charts-and-data/jetstream ). Also, if your scope hasn't been collimated since it was unpacked, then the mirrors may well be slightly out of alignment, and you're not going to get the best views. And, as had been mentioned, the best views will be along the terminator, so best to observe in the week to ten days after new moon (or before the new moon if you are an early riser).

I have a built in intervalometer on my Pentax K5, but I find an external one much easier to use, particularly when the camera is at an awkward angle* I have a velcro 'loop' pad on the back and two velcro 'hook' pads on the mount, so that I have somewhere to fix it (otherwise it tends to act like a pendulum), but other than that, it's an easy way to remotely fire the shutter and set a sequence running without having to crane my neck. *it's always at an awkward angle!