Gfamily

Mrs G works with a local primary school and one of their years was having a 'residential' week locally. As the forecast seemed reasonable, we'd said we'd take some kit out so they might get some astronomy while they were in a less urban area. With the scopes and a pair of binoculars, we were able to 'wow' the pupils with the Moon, Jupiter and the Orion Nebula . Handy hint: if observing with young people; - put a chair backwards onto the telescope, tell the observer to put their hands on the chair-back, and they won't grab the eyepiece to look through it.

We always welcome non members, the difference being that we ask members to pay £1 subs, whereas guests pay £3.

It's a regret that our club (see my sig) isn't really able to offer chances to observe, and we're limited in the amount of 'hands on' advice we can give to new 'scope users. But with the unpredictable nature of UK weather, we can only really see our meetings as being for sharing our interest generally, so we have talks on the subject and offer a chance to meet with like minded enthusiasts. I think we've only had 1 evening in the last 6 months when it's been clear enough on a club night to consider getting a telescope out. That said, I'm going to try to get a 'ring round' or WhatsApp group for people who want to get started; so that if we have a good evening forecast we can let people know that we'll be meeting somewhere suitable for an impromptu observing session, primarily so that people can have someone take them through setting up, aligning, and finding the target objects.

A mensa member would probably insist on telling you that it should be '4800% bigger membership'. A non member might have said 5000%

This morning brought delivery of a Synscan WiFi dongle, that I can use on either of my old Synscan mounts. I really appreciate the additional alignment options that the app offers over the handset. Furthermore, the Point and Track option is very useful for grab and go use. Part funded with the Tring Astro vouchers won for being on the second placed quiz team at the last Autumn Astrocamp.

If people are looking for a 'step up' book from TLAO, I can suggest the Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders. It only covers constellations visible from the Northern Hemisphere, but it has a wide range of targets, and a lot of useful information. Google Books preview available https://books.google.com/books/about/Illustrated_Guide_to_Astronomical_Wonder.html?id=ymt9nj_uPhwC#v=onepage&q&f=false

Did you watch it?

Is your tracking set to 'sidereal' in the app? Are you finishing your centering by pressing 'up' and 'right'? Also, what happens if you manually centre the target and then hit 'point and track' ?

Have you turned off battery optimization for the SynScan app? This keeps the app running when you switch to Sky Safari. Just a thought

Elp makes a good point, that a long focal length generally gives a narrow field of view, so not so good for browsing the sky. You might consider the SkyMax Go2 127, and swapping the telescope over in the mount depending on whether you want to look at the Moon or browsing the sky generally. I can't remember whether the Travel Scope comes with a dovetail (which will allow it to be clamped to the Go2 mount) but it should be able to fit one if not. It'll be worth making a DIY dew shield for the 127, but it's a good step up scope. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-go2-wifi-maksutov-cassegrain-telescope.html

Unfortunately, we'll miss seeing you, as we're in France again this spring. Hope to see you at the end of September for the Autumn Astrocamp.

Well, that was excellent. A world tour of sites and a historical overview of how the study has developed over the last couple of centuries. The Zoom session was recorded, so hopefully it'll be made available for wider sharing. Anyone else watch it?

The original Star Adventurer manual has the following details of the LEDs You'll be able to confirm whether it was flashing at once every 2 seconds, or 3x per second.

ICE is no longer distributed by Microsoft, but the MSI s are available from Archive.org as per the links here https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/394300-stitching-software/#comment-4240099

Yes, it's the lack of information that's the problem. For the future though it's worth knowing that if you have a contactless bank card you can just tap it on the pad at the gate and again when you get off at the other end and TfL will keep track of all your day's travels and charge you the best price overnight. So if you made just 2 journeys it would be less than a 1 day zone card, but if you made lots of trips it would max out at the £9.60 or whatever. For two people you'll each need your own card, and (obviously) if you have multiple cards, make sure you use the same one each time you tap in and out. It really works, and does so across bus, tube, rail and tram. For buses, you just tap on, and it's a flat rate for the trip - not sure how it works if you have to change route, but I think it counts a second tap within an hour as part of the same trip.

It would be worth trying a set of Alkaline cells just the once, to confirm that it's not the motor before deciding one way or the other. A short test won't drain them much, and at least you'll know.

That seems a lot. Normally we just tap in using a bank card at the start and end of each journey and TfL give us the cheapest total at the end of the day. Yesterday for example, we did a bus to Richmond, tube to Euston in and tube from KingsX to Vauxhall and overground to Kingston on the way out, and it came to less than £12. I'd expect Brent Cross to Kensington and back to be well under £10

Technically, aurora bog-ealis then!

I'd go with what @bosun21 says and suggest that you probably won't see any significant improvement going from 130mm to 150mm, but I add that you may notice the extra bulk and weight. When I got my first Newtonian scope about 25 years ago, the feedback from astro people was that a 2" jump in aperture would give some improvement, but it would take a 4" increase to make someone go "Wow!". Yes, it'll be a bit brighter and more contrasty, but it's going to be relatively rare that the 30% more light alone makes a huge difference, it'll mostly be different atmospherics / light pollution that will make things stand out.

For those that don't know, the images are projected at a hall sized scale on 4 walls and the floor to make an immersive impact. If you have an Art Pass it makes it relatively affordable.

Went to see the current show at Lightroom behind Kings Cross station in London. It's The Moonwalkers with Tom Hanks, and covers the Moon landings of Apollo and the hopes for Artemis' return on the next few years. We'd previously seen a Hockney exhibition at Lightroom, and it was a novel and fairly impressive way of having an exhibition, but this was way better than that. A selection of images attached

We're in London, but won't have time to go to Astrofest. We're down to see The Moonwalkers at Kings Cross Lightroom, it's Andy Saunders' re-processed Apollo images and protected onto 4 walls and the floor of a large room. Narrated by Tom Hanks apparently.

Yup - I'm mostly a Skywatcher user now, and that's my main power pack. I do also have a TalentCell power pack, but the Celestron LT is the one I use by preference.

For 'a few hours' you should be OK using 8x rechargeable AA batteries - I've generally found that Skywatcher are OK with rechargeables (Celestron, err - less so!!) However, I generally use the 6.1 Ah Celestron Powerpack Lithium LT and it does several sessions with no problem. https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/celestron-powertank-lithium-lt-61ah.html

Professor Clive Ruggles is giving a talk on Archaeoastronomy on Monday 12th Feb at 6:30pm (UTC). It's being given over Zoom, and the link (not to be shared) can be obtained by emailing the contact name at the website here https://www.discoveryinthedark.wales/darkskieswalesweek